WEBVTT - James Moore on how Canada views post-Trump America 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.040 I'm very pleased today to be joined by James Moore, 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.840 a former member of the Canadian Parliament, a good friend 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.320 of mine. We're going to talk about the bilateral relationship. 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.840 We're going to talk about Canadian politics, and we're going 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:22.480 to talk about our shared North American history, our culture, 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:27.360 the differences in the country and what binds us together. James, welcome, 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:28.360 gonna be with you. 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:28.639 Steve. 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.600 You live in the great city of Vancouver, which I 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.640 think is the most beautiful city on the on the 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:42.360 North American continent. Uh. You've served as a senior minister 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:46.400 in the in the Canadian government, in government as a 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:54.120 member of Parliament. This is a mostly American audience, but 0:00:54.280 --> 0:01:03.920 not universally. Talk about Canada. What makes Canada unique and 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:10.000 special amongst the English speaking countries. It wasn't supposed to work, 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.120 Probably the fact that it's not an English speaking country 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.160 but is viewed by the other English speaking countries as 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.400 such because of its Commonwealth affiliation. 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.760 Canada is the country is not supposed to work. You 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.480 are the second largest country in size, the thirty seventh 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.960 largest in population. We're born out of divisions Indigenous Canadians 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.759 versus the English versus French. We have linguistic barriers across 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:39.080 the country. So you have this massive continental footprint with 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.960 a thin population, eighty percent of whom live within a 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.520 two hour border with the United States. Our relations with 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:48.960 the United States are enormously economically and culturally important. We've 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.120 had two referendums on Quebec sovereignty and separation. Of course, 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.640 we've gone through world wars, We've gone through all kinds 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.200 of crises and political ones as well, scandals as bad 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.160 as the worst of the America have ever seen. So 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.920 we've had a lot of stresses and stress tests on 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.080 the fact of Canada, and yet we've endured. You know, 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.639 there's a parallel narrative there with the United States as well, 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.320 But in Canada, you know, it is true. We're less jingoistic, 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.079 so we expect more practicality from government. Ideology isn't and 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.959 we don't dump as much of our identity and sense 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.760 of self worth, sense of community into government. Because for 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.000 where I am in Vancouver, Attawa's a very far off place. 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.200 It's not wouldn't be very different from somebody in Bend, 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.400 Oregon looking at Washington, d C. And saying, well, what 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.160 happens there doesn't really matter. But there's a dissociation here, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.200 and a lot of our identity and sense of purpose 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.640 and sense of community and sense of justice is not 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.480 invested in politics as much, it seems to me, as 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:43.680 a degree it is in the United States. We're a 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.080 proud country, you know. We we think that we're more 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:47.880 important in the world than we are. I think part 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:49.640 of that is because we get sort of drawn into 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.680 the narrative in the language and the vocabulary of American 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.600 politics and all that. Being on the right side of 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:57.600 history and some of the big fights Second World War, 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.760 Cold War, the war against terrorism that gives us a 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.440 sense of righteousness that I think has earned it, but 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.960 I think could sometimes be overstated in our posture around 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.320 the world. You see that with Justin Trudeau getting over 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.680 skis a little bit and being a little bit luxury 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.160 is certainly from the left. But we were a country 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.960 that also has our challenges, right, I mean the urbanization 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.200 of Canada. You know, the cost of living in Canada 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:19.840 is is sky high. Vancouver is and one of the 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.799 most expensive cities in the world. We have tensions indigenous 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.240 and non we have you know, you know more, Canada 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.000 is a population of forty million last year alone. We 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.720 drew in Now there was a there was a backlog 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.359 because of COVID, but had a million new Canadians where 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.240 it became Canadian citizens last year. So there's those tensions 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.880 of new Canadians coming in, economic, social, cultural. So we're 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.800 a country that is that is struggling, fighting doing well, 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:45.720 but we have our challenges. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.160 What is the role of the United States with regard 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:59.600 to this issue, given the historic tizes, the closeness of 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.760 the mill Tarry allianced in Canada standing as a Five 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:04.680 Eyes partner in a NATO member. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:07.440 So I was a member of parliament. I remember I 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:09.920 was home on nine to eleven when that happened. And 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.880 there was a spook that happened in Canada, not just 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.280 on the substance of that day and in the policy 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.600 in the long term fallout of that event, but from 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:22.000 that moment forward, all Canadians were became very anxious, particularly 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.240 those of US in government, about any attack on the 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.280 United States that was born in Canada. A sleeper cell 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.560 an errant ne'er do well who crossed the border, who 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.000 demonstrated that in some way that the Canada US border 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.120 was ineffective in protecting Americans from American interests and from 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.880 outside threats. So that threat and any incoherence in competence 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:44.440 in the Canadian side of the border that leads to 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.560 the loss of American life. In a time of economic nationalism, 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.640 nationalism broadly sort of you know, ethnic nationalism, you know 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:54.839 in the blood and soil parts of the Trump movement, 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.760 any opportunity to sort of push away and to block 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.120 the Canada US relationship and to close border would be 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.279 devastating for Canada. About one in five Canadian jobs is 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.440 dependent on trade with the United States. It's the most 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.640 prosperous relationship in the history of the world. We do 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:13.200 about two thirds of a trillion dollars in two way 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:15.680 trade every year. I mean, what's one of the most successful. 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.960 It is the most successful economic partnership in the history 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:20.840 of the world. And if you had any kind of 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.280 attack in Canada that was a consequence of Canadian government 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.160 and competence that led to a death of an American, 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.600 the ability to weaponize that and to use that to 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.599 thicken the border between Canada the United States would be 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.560 economically detrimental to both of US, but particularly for Canada. 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.320 So these incidents on their own are problematic, but in 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.560 terms of what it means for the broader relationship and 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.239 the security that we can feel as partners and neighbors, 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.600 that would have a very long and devastating consequence if 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:49.320 it went, if it went badly. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.480 Is justin Trudeau in his last term. 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.040 Probably whether he knows it or not. You know the 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.719 history of Canadian prime ministers, We've had, you know, lots 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:02.720 of prime ministers in Canadian history, but he is deep 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.719 on the back nine of his time as prime minister. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.640 He was elected with the majority in twenty fifteen, minority 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:12.000 government in two and nineteen, a minority government again in 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.440 twenty twenty one when he thought he would win because 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.560 the Conservative Party was disorganized and not quite prepared for 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.080 that campaign. In politics, you know, as you know, you 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:21.680 start with a lot of friends and you tend to 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.320 lose them over time. The degree to which that slope 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.720 is straight south depends on your behavior and the way 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.359 which you carry yourself. He's lost a lot of friends 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.480 pretty fast. You know, he is deeply unpopular. He's probably 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.800 the most unpopular. I would say his unpopular in Canada 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:41.000 now would probably be comparable to the unpopularity of George W. 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.080 Bush and towards the end of his campaign or the 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.400 end of his time in his second mandate, it's almost 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.560 that hot. There's not unissue like Iraq, there's not an 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:52.280 issue like in like that in Canada. But it's just 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.000 people are just tired of him, tired of being lectured, 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.200 tired of the elitism. They look around and they see, 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.840 you know, divisions with India, divisions with China, tensions with 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.320 the United States, whether it's with President Trump overall, you 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:07.640 know those tensions or even with President Biden over the 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.440 inflation reduction active what that means for Canada. We see 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.840 your tensions with Europe, you see housing prices going up, 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.120 cost of gas going up, like everything just seems to 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.120 be not going right. And in Canada we have a 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.920 parliamentary system, but we have a presidential style of politics. 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.280 So so it is as you phrased it, it's the 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.120 Trudeau government. It'll be the you know, peer pauliev alternative, 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.520 It'll be That's how we phrase our politics. It's not 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.040 quite conservative liberal, even though people sort of identifying camps. 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:35.760 But you know, the candle that burns the brightest, burns 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.120 the fastest, and he's he's a super nova in terms 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.520 of his personality. You take in Justin Trudeau for about 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.800 five minutes and you kind of immediately have an opinion 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:45.760 of the guy. You don't you don't osolet you lock 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:47.480 in with you like what you see, you don't like 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.040 what you see, and the like what you see crowd 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:51.280 is getting smaller over time. 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:52.000 Is they is? 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.400 They're presented with disappointment after disappointment relative to the hype 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.840 and expectation of him becoming prime minister. You know, he was, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:00.840 he was hot stuff, he was a he's a good 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.880 looking guy, well spoken of a new generation. And then 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.120 as we've sort of seen, you know, in your third mandate, 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.200 you get nowt he's more than halfway now through his 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.760 third mandate as prime minister. You kind of look around, 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.800 you go wow. You talk about an over hypestock. And 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:17.040 that's just kind of a natural reflex that a lot 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.320 of swing voters are having about him. 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.000 Talk about Pierre Polyab, who is he? Is it fair 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.720 for him to be labeled as Canadian Trump the way 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:37.120 that Justin Trudeau and the party leadership is doing so. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.320 People that I know who are very close to Justin 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:40.760 Trudeau said that if he was going to run for 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.040 a fourth term and if he's going to be successful 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.480 in that effort to try to hold onto power, three 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.599 things had to happen. Number One, Pierre Paulyev when he 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.240 took over the Conservative Party last year, he would have 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:53.800 to crash and burn on the runway. That hasn't happened. 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.320 When he took over leader the leader of the Conservative Party, 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.960 the Conservatives are about five points down, they're now fifteen 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.199 points up. Second, is they needed to have the economy 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:04.520 have a turnaround and not go into recession. Well, we 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:07.120 had a contraction in the second quarter of this year. 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.599 There's every reason to believe we're in a technical recession 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.440 right now and it's not like they're going to get 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.040 better before years in. So that's the third thing that 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.600 the Liberals need, Justin Trudeau needs for him to want 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.280 to run again, is that Donald Trump has to come back, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.040 and Donald Trump has to come back with gusto and 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.679 with you know, the belligerent, crazy and the worst iterations 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.120 of Donald Trump, which is I can tell you as 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.240 toxic in Canada like it is. You know, he talked 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.800 about his unpopularity in Canada. Donald Trump's popularity is probably 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.280 you know, ninety five to five net negative like it is. 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:39.719 He is as toxic in Canada's as it can be. 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.640 And to try to tie here quolity to Donald Trump 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.800 is the last sort of thing that Justin Shrudeau has 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.600 and that that dog is not gonna haunt. It is 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.280 just not there. Canadian conservatism has always been very different 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.680 from American one. It's just like British Tories, Canadian Conservatives, 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.839 American Republicans. It's very different. Right. We align, I so 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.480 pose on a lot of broad themes about trust in 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.760 the private sector, belief in free markets, the responsibility of 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:07.679 families to take care of each other, the value in 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.840 virtue of community is the backbone of quality of life, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.000 and the importance of protecting what it is that's most 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:15.880 sacred to us, which is our family and our kids 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.160 and our schools in our neighborhoods. Like that, that ethos 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:23.199 is all there, strong national security, strong strong justice policies. 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:26.160 But that's but when it comes down to the technical stuff. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.720 Like Pierre Paul Yev, he is a perfectly bilingual Franco 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.080 file Canadian, which is said he's angle phone, but he's 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.840 French speaking from outside of the province of Quebec. He 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.720 is pro choice, pro game marriage, doesn't care who sleeps with, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:42.600 who believes in lower taxes, smaller government, responsible, responsible use 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.800 of government power in a limited consequence. Now that that 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.600 is not a Donald Trump Republican like he is. Pierre 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.079 is clearly he's out there saying that he will march 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.880 in Pride parades. He has, he has been out there. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.840 The deputy leader, the deputy leader of the Conservative Party 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:00.920 of Canada is a woman named Alyssa Lansman, who is 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.520 a married lesbian from Toronto. That's the deputy leader of 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.199 the party. I don't think he would get that in 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.240 a Marjorie Taylor Green party. I don't think he would 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:10.920 get that, you know, an Iran Paul party. But in 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.880 Canada it's very different. I mean, I was a Conservative 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.760 cabinet minister for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who's seen as 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:20.600 probably the most small seat conservative prime minister in Canadian history. 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.400 And I voted in favor of gay marriage in two 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.760 thousand and five, you know, three years before Barack Obama 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.480 ran for president, saying he would never vote for gay marriage. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.920 So that's the tilt of left right in Canada is 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.280 very different than is the United States. So Donald Trump 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:37.720 is toxic. Liberals will try to make Pierre Pauliev the 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:39.839 alternative prime Minister to Canada. They'll try to make him 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.640 Donald Trump light, but it's just very different. He doesn't 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:45.960 speak like Trump. He's talk like Trumpy. Pierre speaks into 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.679 very aspirational terms about empowering families, growing the economy. It's 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.520 a very positive message. I know, make America Great Again 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.079 was positive for some people who heard it a certain way, 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.080 but it was dog whistle for a lot of other people. 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.880 There's none of that with Pierre. He's a straight shooting 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.600 If you wanted an apples to apples comparison to what 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.040 you've seen in contemporary American politics, I would say he 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.280 would be kind of a Canadian version of sort of 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.199 peak Rand Paul, pre speaker, Rand Paul on the rise, Energetic, 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.360 you know, in shape, you know, reaching out to shake 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:17.559 hands with the voters, sort of jogging in the parade, 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.640 Enthusiastic to talk about public policy. Smart guy. That's that's 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:22.640 what Pier Paulie is. 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.920 When you when you think about this moment, do you 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:34.760 think that Canada has a higher immunity, a higher tolerant 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:40.200 to the type of demagoguery and popularism. We've seen break 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.800 out in the United States that it has a cultural 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:48.680 prophylactic if you if you will, that armors it a 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:49.280 bit more. 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.160 Yes, but it's fragile. It's there to it's there to 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.040 be exploited because the tensions do exist. So the number 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:58.800 one issue in Canada, it's been the case for about 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:00.840 six months now, is the rise and cost of housing. 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:02.839 Like the cost of owning the home in Canada is 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.400 almost completely out of reach for most Canadians. Like it's 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.720 ludicrous and for a whole bunch of reasons, but it 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:10.640 is what it is. So you have a million new 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.160 Canadians on a population bath to day for forty million 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.520 and million new Canadians come into the country in one year. 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.160 So you have this massive demand for housing, and so 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.959 that's right for exploitation. You have more people looking for housing. 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.440 Houses aren't being built, so you have Canadians who have 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.520 been here for generations not being able to buy homes. 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:31.280 The link and for exploitation for hardline populism is right there, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.760 but nobody picks up the bat and swings it. It 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.640 just isn't done. It's not that somebody might not do it, 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.720 but it just isn't done, perhaps because Canada is so 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.400 diverse now that to do that would be sort of 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:48.120 politically suicide because you know other other Canadians, whether you're Chinese, Canadian, Japanese, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.400 South Asian, Filipino, whatever, that you would say, well, if that, 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:53.319 if the majority is going to go after that minority, 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:55.319 we could be next. And there's kind of the solidarity 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.280 of people who are new to Canada against the exploitation 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.600 of other new Canadians. That's kind of a pressure valve 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:03.800 against it, but in some ways it also blocks off 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.439 important conversations about that stress that doesn't exist. You should 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:09.640 know as well that since Stephen Harper was defeated in 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.559 twenty fifteen, there was a Conservative leadership race in twenty 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.240 eighteen or twenty seventeen, there's a second Conservative leadership race 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.320 going into the twenty one campaign, and then there was 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.720 the Conservaive leadership race that resulted in Pierre Paul Up. 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.880 Those three leadership races combined, there were i would say 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:27.880 about thirty or thirty two people ran for the leaders 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.040 of the Conservative Party of Canada. Not one out of 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.000 thirty plus people who ran in those three cycles, not 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.320 one person ran for the leader saying if you like 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.960 Donald Trump, you'll love me, and parroted Donald Trump. Not 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.880 one person did that. Is that does not fly in Canada. 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.680 US against them, banning Muslims, making fun of a disabled reporter, 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.240 ostracizing the other, talking down, you know, belittling stuff that 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.000 does not fly in Canada. There's no interest in that, 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.400 even within a diminished Conservative Party on its back legs 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.240 deep in the wood in opposition against a liberal majority 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.400 government period and justin Trudeau on the March, even when 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:07.680 a party is shrunken and broken and depressed and trying 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.440 to find its soul. Even in that rubric, a guy 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.120 like Donald Trump had no purchase in the Conservative Party. 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.040 Nobody even tried to pairrot him because it was just 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.160 there was no interest in it. So to a lot 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.560 of people who try to make Pierre that guy, it's 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.040 not going to work. People who try to dial up 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:24.920 that politics in Canada, it's not going to work. There's 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.600 a People's Party that still exists that has tried now 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:29.800 for two elections to elect people kind of on us 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.560 soft Trump mandate. It's sort of more of a libertarian 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.560 populism type thing of Maxime Bernier as the leader. You know, 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.400 he has failed now I think four times five times 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.240 in a row to get a seat. There's no interest 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:41.200 in that stuff in Canada. 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:42.680 Why. 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:46.840 I think it's the diversity of Canada's there. I think 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:50.120 there's a temperament in Canada and also in Canada, like 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.440 in the United States. And as you know this very well, right, 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.520 there's you have three co equal branches of government Washington, 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.400 d C. The US Capitol Building sits symbolically in the 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.880 physical center of Washington, d You see as a demonstration 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.640 that the Article one of the Constitution is Congress. Article 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.680 three is the President of the United States. And so 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.480 there's this tension in this push and pull. So because 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:12.440 there's this actually this balance of power and check and 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.920 balance in the United States, that you can go hard 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.720 and you can elect a demagogue like Donald Trump who 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.360 will beat drums and tell the proud boys to stand 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:23.240 ready and stand by and say things that he did 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.160 about immigrants and Muslims and Mexicans and shithole countries. He 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:27.480 can see he can get away with some of that 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.040 stuff because you kind of know instinctively that there's going 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.560 to be a counterbalance, you hope in the Congress and 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:34.400 the counterbalance in the Senate, and then they'll be the 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:36.120 Supreme Court, and then they'll be the States, and then 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:37.880 of course there's the Bill of Rights. So I mean, 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.720 you have these counterbalancing pressures. In Canada, there's counterbalances, but 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.480 it's not as hard as that. In Canada. If you're 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:46.840 elected the Prime Minister of Canada and you have a 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:51.360 majority government, you control everything you control. And so the 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.880 idea of electing somebody into that office who is unhinged, 0:16:56.240 --> 0:17:00.160 or is on an ideological vendor, or is disruptive and 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.800 will divide the country against itself in order to lead 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.680 the bigger mass of people that they can animate. People 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.160 see the inherent risk in that because they know that 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:09.840 if you're on the winning side of that, that that 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:12.040 pendulum will come back the other way, and then eventually 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.480 that pendulum becomes a wrecking ball against the soul of 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.679 the country, and that's not sustainable. And people have an 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:19.600 instinct to just I don't like that. I want my 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:21.840 side to win, but I don't want to. I don't 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:23.200 want to blow up my neighbor. I don't want to 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.120 I don't want to destroy you know. I don't want 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.040 to go to a Pta meeting with my son and 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:29.920 not be able to even make eye contact with somebody 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.880 across the room because they saw my party's laun sign 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.119 on my lawn. People are very instinctive against that because 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.160 the power that's vested in the office the Prime Minister 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.520 of Canada is extraordinary and and and it's it's it's 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.359 it's very very much recognized by most Canadians that you 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:50.280 trust that power with somebody who's who's who's thoughtful with it, 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.080 and whose temperament, whose temperament is appropriately moderate. 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.680 I think for the Americans watching what you said about 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:02.240 the American system, presidency is the Article two branch, the 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.280 Supreme Court Article three, but the Article one branch. The 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:12.120 capital is the center of American life. There is this 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:17.080 moment in American history where George Washington, who could have 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:21.920 been a king, this picture, this painting, hangs in the Capitol. 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.879 The throne chair is unoccupied. He's draped his military cloak 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.000 over it. He won't be a caesar, and he bows 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:35.159 and subordinates himself to Congress as he resigns his commission. 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.640 And one of the facets the differences in the country 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:43.760 culturally that I always think is interesting. On the periphery 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:49.400 and was reminded of in Prince Edward County in Toronto 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.679 last weekend, coming up the Loyalist Parkway, and you're on 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.600 the Loyalist Parkway and it was dedicated by the Queen 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:02.120 in nineteen eighty four, and you and you read the 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.040 history of it, and this was the root that the 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:09.679 Pioneers came into Prince Edward County in the summer of 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:14.920 seventeen eighty four fleeing the new United States. They were 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:22.119 loyal to the king. And all these years later, many 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:27.360 Americans don't appreciate this. But when Charles the Third succeeded 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:31.320 his mother, among his realms is Canada. He is the 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:32.720 King of Canada. 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:38.880 He is he is our king. But you know there's 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.959 the King's representative of to Canada, our governor General. But 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.840 you know that there's another part of that relationship. Now, 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.320 of course, one in four Canadians lives in the province 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.720 of Quebec, and their relationship with Westminster in the Crown 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.160 or not Westminster, with Buckingham Palace and the Crown is 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.280 is very different, of course than the rest of the country. 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.640 So we are a commonwealth country with the I think 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:00.000 the only country in the world that is a member 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.320 the Commonwealth, but we're also a member of the Thankofy. 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.800 So we are a diverse country from our founding through 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.639 until today. And so those tensions and those balances, but 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.120 from our founding of trying to balance French and English, 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:14.200 Protestant and Catholic in the early days as well, which 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:16.080 is also sort of code for French and English, and 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.120 in a lot of parts of the country, as well 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:22.240 as the indigenous dynamic, you know, from the very beginning, 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.280 trying to balance these tensions and helping folks get along 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:29.400 and making accommodations for each other. From you know, from 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.520 the third quarter of the nineteenth century all the way 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.360