LIVE from the Canadian Club in Toronto: A real plan for an affordable & autonomous Canada

0:00 a great Albertan and a wonderful Canadian,

0:02 and if you have any doubt that she's an Albertan,

0:05 her husband is a former rodeo rider.

0:07 And he's right there taking autographs, making autographs afterwards.

0:10 It's an honor to have you here, Rona,

0:12 and it brings back memories of a better time,

0:15 a time when our country was affordable and autonomous,

0:18 and when we were able to stand on our own two feet as an economy.

0:23 In fact, that is really the the theme of my speech today.

0:28 Uh we are here today gathering at a time uh

0:32 a time when we're in need of both optimism and realism.

0:38 In fact, it has been said that optimism without realism is a fantasy.

0:48 Realism without optimism is surrender.

0:53 I ask today that we do both of these things.

0:57 We bring forward optimism for what our country can be,

1:01 and realism about where we are today.

1:04 The good news is that Canada should be the richest,

1:09 most affordable, and autonomous country anywhere on Earth.

1:12 Those are the three We have more resources per

1:30 person than any country in the history of the world.

1:34 It should be laughably cheap to buy a house,

1:38 to heat that house, and to drive a car off its lot.

1:42 Food prices should be so affordable that price is an afterthought when

1:45 you walk down the grocery aisle with all the farmland we have.

1:49 Our mission should therefore to be to be make

1:52 Canada affordable and safe at home and unbreakable abroad.

1:55 That is our potential.

1:58 Now, let's look at our present day reality.

2:04 On electricity, we have the world's third largest supply of uranium,

2:09 the most rivers to power power hydro,

2:11 the cheapest natural gas anywhere on Earth to power stations.

2:16 And yet, this year, for the first time ever,

2:21 Canada is unable to produce enough electricity to supply itself.

2:27 We have the fourth most oil anywhere on Earth,

2:29 and yet we are now importing from Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

2:33 We have the most oil in the G7,

2:34 and we are the only G7 country without an oil reserve.

2:39 We have the most land, but we have 10 times more land per person to live

2:44 on, and yet we have the fewest homes per capita in the G7.

2:50 We have the third most farmland per capita in the world,

2:53 and yet 2.2 million people line up at food banks every month.

2:57 That is a 100% increase over the last 7 years,

3:00 and the bad news, I'm afraid, continues.

3:04 Under Mark Carney, Canada has the highest household debt in the G7,

3:07 the most unaffordable housing in the G7,

3:09 the lowest investment per worker in the G7,

3:11 the worst food price inflation in the G7,

3:14 the second lowest productivity in the G7,

3:17 and the second highest unemployment in the G7.

3:21 An outflow of a half trillion dollars of investment has

3:24 left our country under the Liberals for the United States.

3:27 Twice as much investment has left Canada in the last 10 years than has returned,

3:32 according to an RBC report released just 2 days ago.

3:35 And twice as many Canadians are opening

3:38 businesses in the United States as in Canada.

3:43 Let that sink in.

3:45 Twice as many Canadians are opening businesses

3:49 in the United States than in Canada.

3:51 And we got a solution to this problem at the Liberal convention.

3:55 They want to put a half million dollar

3:56 exit tax on anyone threatening to leave the country.

4:00 Any country that feels it must punish people

4:04 for fleeing is not a place of hope and optimism.

4:07 The Canadian Federation of Independent Business wrote

4:09 this week that after a year of Mark Carney,

4:12 quote, more businesses have been closing than opening in Canada.

4:16 It's time to admit it.

4:17 We're in an We're in an entrepreneurial drought.

4:21 High costs, red tape, labor challenges,

4:23 and never-ending uncertainty discouraging the next

4:25 generation of entrepreneurs stands in the way.

4:28 More businesses in Canada have closed than opened for six consecutive quarters.

4:33 More than half of small business owners say

4:36 they would not recommend starting a business right now.

4:40 In the second quarter of 2025,

4:42 exit rates reached 5.6% while entry rates fell to 4.8% in Q4 2025,

4:50 marking some of the highest closure rates

4:52 and weakest startup activity outside of the pandemic.

4:55 High costs, taxes, payroll pressures, complex rules,

4:59 and ongoing labor challenges again also against a backdrop of persistent

5:03 global uncertainty all make entrepreneurship more difficult and less attractive.

5:08 Canada's economic foundations, and I'm quoting here, are crumbling.

5:12 Governments need to stop papering over the cracks and really

5:15 focus efforts on policies that improve small business environment.

5:20 We cannot afford to regulate ambition out of our country when more than half

5:25 of small business owners are telling us

5:27 that they wouldn't recommend starting a business, it is time to listen.

5:30 End quote.

5:32 Under these numbers are real lives.

5:36 Canada's happiness ranking on the global happiness index has gone

5:42 from fifth in the world 10 years ago to 18th last year,

5:48 and now we have risen to 25th under Mark Carney.

5:53 What's worse is that among youth, we rank 71st.

5:59 There are 70 countries in the world

6:01 where young people are happier than young Canadians.

6:03 And we're not just behind the United States, the United Kingdom,

6:05 and Australia, but we're now behind Kazakhstan, Vietnam, and Moldova.

6:13 Young people in Kazakhstan are happier than young people in Canada.

6:18 Something bad is happening here, and it's only getting worse.

6:20 Now, we can take the comforting tranquilizer

6:25 of blaming global factors for these problems.

6:30 But all the other countries that we're falling behind face those same factors.

6:35 They all face tariffs, they face COVID, wars in Ukraine and Iran.

6:40 Why is it that we're doing so much worse than all those other countries?

6:44 Why is it that our economy is crumbling only here under this Liberal government?

6:50 Now, it's also comforting a comforting illusion to say

6:53 that these are the problems created by the earlier Liberal government,

6:58 but that they've learned and changed.

7:01 That's what Mr.

7:02 Carney promised in the last election.

7:04 He promised that he would backtrack on everything he had said and written

7:09 for 10 years and everything that his party had done in the previous decade.

7:14 So, what has changed?

7:17 Really?

7:18 Strip away the adjustments for style,

7:20 image, ignore the speeches and the promises.

7:23 What has really changed?

7:25 If you asked a neutral and objective AI bot to go

7:30 into all of the policies on the books of the government of Canada,

7:35 what would you find has actually changed in the last year?

7:38 Deficits and spending are both higher, a lot higher.

7:42 Taxes, they're both the same.

7:44 Laws passed by Trudeau to block resource development and free criminals,

7:49 all of them are still on the books.

7:51 Those are the facts.

7:52 Everything else is an illusion.

7:54 Speaking of illusions, let us go through Mr.

7:56 Carney's words and promises one by one.

7:59 He promised to spend less and invest more.

8:03 He since doubled the deficit.

8:05 He's increased federal spending by 7% above levels he inherited from Trudeau.

8:10 Outside of COVID, government spending is a as a share

8:14 of GDP higher than it's been since 1996,

8:18 and the deficit is the biggest in our country's history.

8:21 He has stacked 90 billion dollars of net new

8:26 spending above and beyond the spending Trudeau had already budget.

8:30 This is net of promised savings, most of which are not yet realized.

8:35 And by the way, 2/3 of the new spending is on operations,

8:39 not the famous capital expenditure we were promised.

8:43 There's been no tax reform if other than to change

8:46 the name of the carbon tax to the clean fuel standard.

8:50 Mark Carney promised to cut red tape and remove barriers.

8:52 He has not removed a single Trudeau era anti-development law,

8:57 but he has stacked new laws on top of old ones.

9:00 He's not removed a single government department, agency,

9:03 or Crown corporation, but he's created 12 new ones.

9:07 He solemnly promised that because we are in an existential crisis,

9:11 we would needed to use to move at speeds

9:13 not seen in generations at an unmeasurable scale.

9:16 So, last June, I instructed our parliamentary team to help him

9:21 pass in 5 days unprecedented legal powers to fast-track new projects.

9:27 Get them going immediately.

9:28 There's no time to waste.

9:31 How many projects has he approved since June with those new powers?

9:35 Zero.

9:36 Not one.

9:38 Not one single new major project, not one oil pipeline, not one port, nothing.

9:44 And speaking of pipelines, that great symbol of our national sovereignty,

9:47 after a year of Mark Carney's unprecedented speeds,

9:50 the proposed pipeline to the Pacific has no permit,

9:55 no route, no proponent, no timeline to start or to finish.

10:02 In fact, the only company that could conceivably build it, Enbridge,

10:06 one of our sponsors today, has said that liberal laws and taxes that Mr.

10:11 Carney has kept in place make it impossible

10:14 to produce enough oil to put in that prospective pipeline.

10:17 And Mr.

10:18 Carney says he will never approve the pipeline unless

10:21 Alberta builds a $20 billion carbon capture and storage project,

10:25 a project that has never been done anywhere

10:27 in the world and that, based on the most rosy scenarios,

10:32 will lose money forever after $20 billion of expenditures to build it,

10:37 if it can ever be built at all.

10:40 By the way, there's no proponents to build that, either.

10:42 The only thing this we're seeing here is an illusion.

10:46 And the only thing real is the cost.

10:49 Then there's the famous Davos speech about the need for a middle power alliance.

10:54 While it had many prep cloud proud um cloud uh cloud-pleasing lines in it,

11:00 the rhetoric was short of details.

11:03 What does it amount to in reality?

11:05 Middle powers.

11:06 It's been a year.

11:08 Mr.

11:08 Carney has not negotiated a single new free trade

11:12 agreement anywhere in the world in the last year.

11:16 There have been dozens of unenforceable MOUs that say

11:22 in the text they have no legal weight.

11:25 But there has not been a single new trade agreement of any kind.

11:29 The rhetoric simply doesn't match the results.

11:31 And illusions are not reality.

11:32 Lofty summit speeches, meaningless MOUs,

11:35 symbolic signing ceremonies do not pay your mortgage,

11:38 gas your tank, or fill your grocery cart here at home.

11:41 They do not grow the economy, make us ungre- uh un- uh breakable abroad.

11:47 So, what is really going on here?

11:49 How can Mark Carney talk such a big game abroad while

11:52 doing so little to fix the real problems here at home?

11:55 And why does it feel so much like

11:57 it's all announcements and statements rather than results?

12:03 At the most basic level, Mr.

12:05 Carney is and always has been a big government liberal.

12:11 He believes in the same top-down government-run economy

12:13 that concentrates money and power in the hands

12:15 of a small group of political authorities

12:17 for the benefit of corporate insiders like him.

12:20 The theory they have, it's trickle-down economics,

12:22 is that a group of credentialed central planners can spend your money,

12:25 take from one industry and give to another, and decide who gets what.

12:30 It's the same liberal approach that doubled our debt

12:33 and drove up the cost of living over the last decade.

12:35 Nothing has changed.

12:36 And the problem is that when politicians decide who gets what,

12:42 those with the most power end up getting it all.

12:46 And everyone else gets the bill.

12:49 The well-lobbied for corporate insiders fill their pockets with tens

12:52 of billions of dollars of projects that go over budget,

12:55 over schedule, and often belly up.

12:58 Governments block competitors from taking on political favorites,

13:03 and they redirect resources

13:04 from money-making businesses to money-losing businesses.

13:08 Take the Alto Rail project as the worst example.

13:12 It's a project whose whose proponents say it will

13:16 cost $90 billion to build $8,000 per family in Canada,

13:20 after which it will continue losing a billion dollars a year forever.

13:26 All of this, by the way, not to take cars off roads,

13:29 but to take passengers out of airplanes.

13:32 So, we're going to take people out of a faster,

13:34 money-making mode of transportation to put them

13:38 in a slower and money-losing mode of transportation.

13:43 According to According to McGill University,

13:47 uh that project will never make money and will

13:50 never be able to pay back the original governmental investment.

13:53 Furthermore, if you look at the real result,

13:57 it will be that insiders will get the contracts and the lobbying benefits.

14:02 The project will not even be completed for the next 12 years,

14:05 during which time Canadians will pay taxes

14:08 for consultants and insiders to receive more and more.

14:11 Every time we prop up money money-losing projects like this, Canada gets

14:15 poorer while a small group of insiders get rich off the grease.

14:18 And Canada is plunged into a cycle

14:19 of bad policy to compensate the original bad decision.

14:24 This is how it works.

14:26 To pay the cost of a bad investment,

14:27 the government raises taxes, further slowing economic growth.

14:30 So, it begins printing money.

14:32 And as money outgrows the stuff it buys, prices rise, inflation grows.

14:35 Mark Carney not only supports this agenda, he is its global symbol.

14:40 It's the policy he pursued as a central banker

14:43 and then as Mark as Justin Trudeau's economic advisor.

14:47 And now that he is prime minister, he's doing it all over again.

14:51 And none of this is to despair or disparage Mr.

14:53 Carney, who's a perfectly fine gentleman.

14:56 It's just to point out, and with the greatest respect, that Mr.

15:01 Carney has been wrong about every major economic issue of the last decade.

15:06 When he was the head of the Bank of England, he printed money,

15:09 leaving that that country with the worst inflation in the G7

15:14 and a housing crisis that deprived

15:15 an entire generation of youth of homeownership.

15:18 He wrongly predicted that COVID would cause deflation, that prices would drop.

15:23 And the result was that he advised

15:25 governments to print copious amounts of money,

15:27 giving us the worst inflation in 40 years.

15:32 And all through 2020, while I was warning that inflation would result

15:36 from this spending and printing, what did Mr.

15:38 Carney say?

15:40 In a 20 December 2020 interview,

15:43 well after the realities of COVID were very well known,

15:46 he said, "Do I worry about inflation?

15:48 Look, in the horizon of a normal central banker, two or three years,

15:52 the horizon of for monetary policy,

15:55 it is unlikely to materialize to a serious extent." End quote.

15:59 Two years later, on schedule, we had the worst inflation in 40 years.

16:06 I say this because he's doing the same thing all over again.

16:09 He also wrongly opposed the Enbridge pipeline to the Pacific.

16:14 He wrongly argued that in his book that we

16:15 should keep half of our oil in the ground.

16:17 He founded the Glasgow Financial Alliance of Net Zero,

16:20 a global coalition whose stated purpose was

16:22 to financially starve off the oil and gas sector,

16:24 which employs hundreds of thousands of people in Canada.

16:27 That alliance attracted enormous attention and considerable prestige,

16:30 and then it collapsed.

16:32 Its members fled, and the alliance dissolved.

16:35 And sure enough, he was gone before the bill came.

16:39 He was wrong to enthusiastically support carbon taxes and EV mandates.

16:45 Then he became prime minister, claiming that he had changed his mind

16:47 on those things before bringing them back under different names.

16:49 Now, his defenders will call them

16:52 these decisions and these reversals pragmatism.

16:55 But in reality, it is an illusion.

16:58 As the London Telegraph wrote, "The years Carney spent running the Bank

17:01 of England were characterized by stagnant growth,

17:03 stalled living standards, and declining productivity.

17:06 While there are many explanations for the for that, the rockstar governor

17:11 clearly did not did nothing to improve the performance of the British economy.

17:17 By the time he had left office,

17:19 Carney had created a mess which his successors have struggled to clear up.

17:23 Inflation spiked to 11% in the UK compared to 5% in France and 8% in Italy.

17:31 All because the bank princh printed far too much money.

17:35 The gap between Mr.

17:36 Carney's boasting and his results is perhaps unprecedented.

17:42 As Daniel Boorstin said, "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance,

17:47 it is the illusion of knowledge." And he's

17:50 doing it all over again here in Canada.

17:53 What all Mr.

17:53 Carney's policies have in common is that they drive

17:56 costs up and wages down for the working class people,

17:59 and they drive wealth into the hands

18:01 of a small group of well-connected political elites through subsidies,

18:04 grants, and other payouts.

18:07 And here's the point, my friends.

18:09 After a year of Mark Carney, the economy is poorer,

18:13 weaker, and more expensive than ever before.

18:16 Tout le monde est politique de Mark Carney on shows en commun.

18:19 C'est politique font augmenter le coût de la

18:21 vie et font baisser les salaires de nos travailleurs.

18:24 Tout ça pendant qu'une certaine élite font prof-

18:27 profitent avec le baisse coopérative et les subventions.

18:31 En même temps, après une année libéraux,

18:35 on voit que notre économie était en déclin.

18:37 Le coût de la vie augmente plus rapidement

18:40 et les gens ne peuvent plus payer leurs factures.

18:42 His plan in government has been to repeat the same top-down,

18:45 insider-driven policies of centralizing control.

18:49 Instead of fixing the many boo- boondoggles left behind by Trudeau,

18:52 he has compounded and layered on top of them.

18:55 We in Canada believe that there is a better way.

18:58 But consider the paradox.

19:00 Mr.

19:00 Carney keeps in place laws that block resource development.

19:04 Then he creates new laws to go around the old laws.

19:07 He puts in a heavy carbon tax on the steel sector,

19:11 and then he subsidizes the steel sector.

19:13 He keeps taxing home building,

19:15 and then he subsidizes home building with a brand new agency.

19:18 He keeps high taxes on business and investment,

19:21 and then he subsidizes business and investment.

19:25 It might seem like a contradiction.

19:27 Fact, you might reflect on the words of Ronald Reagan when he said,

19:30 "When a liberal sees something that moves, he taxes it.

19:32 If it keeps moving, he regulates it.

19:35 When it stops moving, he subsidizes it." Why not just get out of the way?

19:40 Ultimately, that would mean no role for the government and the people in power,

19:44 no need to bow before Caesar,

19:47 sign another application form, or get in line for approval.

19:50 What we need is leadership with humility to get out of the way

19:55 of government and get out of the way of economic activity and prosperity.

20:00 [applause] [applause] And that is the conservative approach.

20:08 The answer is clear.

20:09 We want Canada to be a free market economy to unleash the genius and work

20:13 ethic of the common people to build

20:15 affordable abundant lives filled with home ownership, family, nutritious food,

20:19 a nation that stands on its own two feet and bows before no other.

20:23 To be an affordable strong country here at home and unbreakable abroad.

20:28 And at the same time to have both economic autonomy and free enterprise.

20:34 These are not contradictions.

20:36 So often we think the only way to become

20:38 self-reliant is for government to get involved and run things.

20:41 In reality, if we want to become more abundant and self-reliant,

20:45 we need to unleash the free enterprise system,

20:47 which is the greatest system in the history of the world

20:50 to to benefit the material situation of working people.

20:55 Now, the work has to be concrete.

20:57 And our approach and our pillars are fourfold.

21:01 Affordable abundant energy, low inflation and taxes,

21:05 free market competition, national self-reliance.

21:26 The first of these pillars is affordable energy,

21:28 which is the key to defeating poverty and powering our economy.

21:33 Energy is not a luxury.

21:35 It is the flow-through price of every single thing we buy.

21:39 It heats our homes, runs our businesses, powers our farms,

21:42 delivers all of the goods that we bring through

21:45 the veins of our country that we call highways, railways, and power lines.

21:50 When it is abundant, it is a cheap to buy and it is affordable for the people.

21:55 Everything else becomes abundant when energy is abundant.

21:58 And that is why conservatives propose to get rid of all

22:00 taxes on gas at least for the rest of the year so

22:03 that we can make it affordable for people to get to work

22:06 and we can power the transportation of our goods and services.

22:10 We also understand that in order to have abundant energy,

22:14 you ultimately need to have that energy come above the ground.

22:19 We need to be able to to to power the farmer who who who harvests in our fields.

22:24 We need to be able to power the factories

22:26 that deliver the goods where we need them to go.

22:29 And we need in in order for that to happen,

22:32 we need a change in our entire legal system to make it possible.

22:36 And so that moves me to the issue of the second pillar, which is strong money.

22:42 Governments that print money destroys value.

22:45 Governments that control their money supply and ensure

22:48 it only grows at the the rate

22:50 of the output in the country allow it to to retain value.

22:53 Money is simply a technology to move value over space and time.

22:58 And when we keep inflation low,

22:59 we reward earnings and savings and that is the way

23:02 that you protect and grow the purchasing power of your people.

23:06 We know how to do it.

23:07 The Swiss are the model.

23:09 The Swiss have had almost no inflation for 25

23:11 years including during COVID where it it peaked around 3%.

23:15 Why?

23:16 Because they do not print money to spend it.

23:18 They protect the purchasing power of the franc,

23:20 which by the way is the greatest currency on Earth.

23:23 They they they did this by avoiding out

23:25 of control deficits and returning quickly to balanced budgets.

23:28 A future conservative government will do what we did in the Harper era.

23:32 We will balance budgets, we will keep spending low,

23:35 and we will keep our money strong.

23:37 We will [applause] We will cut back the $26 billion spent on consultants.

23:47 On we will cut back foreign aid, corporate welfare, handouts to false refugees.

23:52 We'll get rid of the Alto rail projects

23:54 and similar other projects and bring in a dollar

23:56 for dollar law that requires we find $1

23:58 of savings for every new dollar of spending.

24:01 That brings us to our next pillar, free enterprise.

24:04 Canada was not built by bureaucrats

24:06 and politicians in control rooms pushing buttons,

24:08 turning knobs, pulling strings to quote run the economy.

24:12 It grew because we freed our farmers,

24:15 workers, entrepreneurs, investors to make their own decisions.

24:18 Conservatives will cut corporate welfare,

24:21 the grants, subsidies, and loan guarantees,

24:23 and use the savings to lower taxes on all businesses.

24:27 You will no longer have to fill out an application

24:29 form in order to be a success in life.

24:31 Instead, you will reinvest your money here

24:34 in Canada with no capital gains tax whatsoever.

24:38 Taking [applause] Making it making it capital gains tax free to reinvest will

24:46 be a a form of economic rocket fuel for our country.

24:49 We'll take the sales tax off all homes that are sold for under $1.3

24:53 million anywhere in Canada and we will

24:56 incentivize our municipalities to speed up permits,

24:58 free up land, and cut development charges.

25:00 We will cut taxes on work, investment, home building, and energy.

25:04 And we will also ensure that you as businesses do

25:08 not have to interact with government in order to succeed.

25:11 The question you have to ask is do you want an economy based on carve-outs,

25:14 handouts, and bailouts or hard work and competition?

25:17 Do you want business to make money

25:19 by having the best lobbyist or the best product?

25:22 You want business to profit by having

25:25 a chance to please politicians or by pleasing customers?

25:29 Do you want a political marketplace where corporations

25:33 compete for wealth through power or a free

25:36 marketplace where they compete for customers

25:39 with lower prices and workers with better wages?

25:44 In short, do we want a political aristocracy or do we want economic meritocracy?

25:50 I know which one I want.

25:52 But we also need self-reliance because we cannot rely on the rest

25:54 of the world in this increasingly difficult and unpredictable time.

25:59 And that is why I've bundled our policies in this respect

26:01 into the Canadian Sovereignty Act designed to repatriate production

26:05 to our country and make Canada a magnet of economic

26:08 activity so that we are always able to provide for ourselves.

26:12 To be clear, we want to bring production to our country that makes us richer,

26:16 not money-losing projects that constantly need to be propped up.

26:20 That is the fundamental difference between

26:22 the current liberal approach and ours.

26:24 For example, while I said we don't want the Alto project,

26:27 we do want LNG projects.

26:28 These are money makers.

26:30 We can be selling natural gas for $11 overseas

26:35 that it costs us $3 to produce here in Canada.

26:38 That's why the single biggest infrastructure

26:40 project in Canadian history approved by Mr.

26:42 Harper, the LNG Canada Northern British Columbia project,

26:45 required no government subsidy and yet generated for $40 of investment.

26:51 We are going to get out of the way and let more of these projects happen.

26:53 Conservatives will repeal Bill C-69,

26:56 the anti-development law, remove the ban on shipping,

26:59 get rid of the industrial carbon tax to bring back production of steel,

27:02 aluminum, fertilizer, concrete, cement, gas, and oil.

27:06 Within the first 2 years in government,

27:08 we will reduce the paper burden of the federal state by 25% and pass

27:13 a two-for-one law requiring that every time

27:15 a department brings in one new regulation,

27:17 it will have to get rid of two existing ones,

27:19 all of which will have to be verified by the Auditor General.

27:23 We'll go from having the second slowest building

27:25 permits in in the OECD to the fastest.

27:28 We'll approve mines in 6 months, not 18 years.

27:31 We'll have one project,

27:33 one approval as a rule as we did in the Harper era allowing to us to approve

27:37 with a one-page document 23,500 projects from concept to completion

27:45 in under 2 years without a single environmental problem.

27:50 My friends, it can be done if we allow government

27:53 to get out of the way and allow builders to build.

27:56 We will aim to to approve roughly a dozen wildly profitable

28:00 LNG projects and not just will we will we produce it,

28:05 we will make sure we have strategic control over it.

28:08 I will initiate a plan for a strategic energy and mineral

28:11 reserve where our energy and our minerals that are necessary for warfare

28:17 and security will be stored at key locations across our country

28:22 and kept on reserve for the time when they are most needed.

28:25 Imagine, for example,

28:26 if we had two two 200 million barrels of oil in storage

28:31 when the prices spiked after the closing of the Strait of Hormuz.

28:35 We could profit while reducing global prices

28:38 and increasing our diplomatic leverage around the world.

28:41 We have 10 of the 12 NATO-defined critical minerals,

28:45 some of the most important to wage a war.

28:48 We should be using this, by the way,

28:50 as leverage in the United with the United States of America.

28:53 They understand that they need these minerals

28:56 and many of which they do not have them.

28:57 If we had them on reserve and made an agreement to guarantee their supply

29:02 in the event of a global crisis

29:04 to those countries that give us tariff-free access,

29:07 all of a sudden we would have massive power

29:11 in the forthcoming negotiation renewal and negotiations of Cosma.

29:17 And that is how we're going to get through these negotiations

29:19 properly by building up our leverage and converting it into our objectives,

29:24 which should be clear,

29:24 a tariff-free trade agreement with the United States of America,

29:28 the biggest market anywhere on on Earth.

29:31 We need to end the tariffs.

29:33 Yes, we do.

29:36 [applause] We need to end the tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, and lumber.

29:42 We need a tariff-free tariff-free pact

29:45 with the United States on automobile capabilities

29:49 and supply chains and we need to do it by limiting Chinese vehicles.

29:53 We will make it clear to the Americans that if

29:55 they let our vehicles in, we will keep Chinese vehicles out.

29:59 We need a full exemption to buy America so that we can supply

30:03 the US military and government and and state

30:05 level administrations as well and we

30:07 need to relaunch even if we have to rename the Keystone pipeline

30:12 to move another 800,000 barrels of oil oil down to the US Gulf Coast.

30:17 And we have learned that the Americans they might

30:20 have hit us with these tariffs in the past,

30:24 but they just got a lot worse on April the 2nd.

30:26 In a in a whole spate of new tariffs that very few people even talked about.

30:31 We've seen the American administration now expand aluminum and steel

30:37 tariffs to apply to unrelated products that are in similar components.

30:44 And just today I was on the phone with businesses out of out of Windsor

30:49 who are going to be hit by a billion dollars in that city alone.

30:53 The tariffs from the United States are actually getting much worse.

30:57 There is an urgency for the Prime Minister to finally get moving

31:01 and deliver the deal that he ran on and promised in the last election.

31:05 There's no more time to waste, no more jobs we can afford to lose.

31:10 Finally, we've already seen how Mr.

31:13 Carney was wrong about every major economic issue of the last decade.

31:17 But he's wrong again about something else and perhaps even more dangerous.

31:21 He's wrong to suggest that we can have

31:23 a permanent rupture with our biggest customer and closest

31:28 neighbor in favor of a strategic partnership

31:30 for a new world order with the regime in Beijing.

31:34 A regime the Prime Minister said himself

31:36 a year ago was the biggest threat to Canada.

31:40 Let's get real.

31:41 We sell 20 times more to the United States than we sell to China.

31:47 That ratio might change a little bit.

31:50 It might moderate.

31:51 But at a fundamental level, they will always be our biggest customer.

31:55 We need a tariff-free deal.

31:57 We need to get these obstacles out of the way.

31:59 And removing obstacles is really the theme of the speech,

32:02 unleashing our potential.

32:04 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said that perfection is not achieved when there's

32:08 nothing left to add but when there's nothing left to remove.

32:12 And when we remove the obstacles, burdens,

32:15 and entanglements of the last 11 years of Liberal government,

32:17 we will add so much more to our economy.

32:20 We will liberate the energy and brilliance of our workers,

32:22 entrepreneurs, inventors, and creators.

32:25 When they are free to exchange, build, invest, undertake,

32:29 they will make themselves and all of us richer.

32:32 There is a Canada that lives in the heart of every man and woman

32:35 who has ever arrived at the shores

32:37 with nothing but calloused hands and unbreakable will.

32:40 A Canada that lives in the memory of every family that cleared a field,

32:43 dug a well, or built a business from the ground up.

32:47 Not because someone in Ottawa told them to do it,

32:50 not because the government paid them to do it,

32:52 but because they were free to do it.

32:55 That Canada is not just a memory, it is a promise.

32:59 Imagine, if you will, a Canada like that.

33:02 A Canada that is in our reach.

33:04 A land where young tradesmen and women can afford the homes they built.

33:09 Where a mother can fill her grocery cart without choosing to forego her rent.

33:14 Where a family that has worked and saved can breathe freely,

33:18 not gasping beneath the weight of tax upon tax upon tax.

33:21 Where an entrepreneur can wake up in the morning

33:23 with an idea and by nightfall get it off the ground.

33:26 Where our reserves of oil and gas our forest timber

33:30 and veins of mineral wealth flow not into the coffers of foreign

33:35 governments because we have tied our own hands but into the prosperity

33:40 of Canadians and our people because we have unshackled them.

33:44 There are no limits to our potential, my friends.

33:47 When Canadians are free to achieve their dreams,

33:49 we will be a nation that fulfills our destiny.

33:53 That Canada, affordable, autonomous,

33:57 and bursting with opportunity is the Canada that we must build.

34:01 We must be realistic and optimistic because while a realist counts the odds,

34:11 an optimist changes them.

34:13 Let's do both.

34:14 Thank you.

34:16 [applause] here today, Pierre, um at the Canadian Club.

35:00 Um it's where leaders do come to speak, so we're so welcome to to host you.

35:04 And where they face some of the most thoughtful, curious,

35:07 and frankly well and global tensions that you mentioned that continue to rise.

35:22 So we're going to talk a little

35:22 about policy and removing obstacles that you mentioned,

35:25 a little about politics and some of the personal.

35:28 Um I'm going to start with some of the personal.

35:30 Um over the last year you've stepped outside

35:32 your usual political media circuit and done more long-form interviews,

35:37 podcasts, um international conversations,

35:41 and conversations where we really got to to know you a little bit more.

35:45 What from those conversations allowed you to say

35:47 or learn that traditional media uh didn't?

35:52 Well, listen, um I think that those formats are much more free-flowing.

35:59 They they ask more open-ended questions and leave time for the answer.

36:04 Sure.

36:05 Uh and you know, in some instances, like when I was on the Bartlett show,

36:09 he asked a lot of personal questions that I really didn't anticipate.

36:12 Um we had a brief call with his team beforehand

36:15 and he they were asking all about our policy agenda Yeah.

36:18 what are the major issues in Canada.

36:20 So I was sort of cramming all this economic and military data

36:24 into my brain expecting that and then he asked about, you know,

36:27 my my childhood and family life and So a lot of people say, "Well,

36:31 what was your strategy in talking about all these things?" Well,

36:34 I was asked a question, so I answered it.

36:36 He just caught you.

36:37 He just uh he just asked the questions and I

36:39 think those sorts of formats allow people to get

36:42 to know their leaders better than compressed sound bites

36:45 that are unfortunately uh part of the more traditional media environment.

36:51 For sure.

36:51 I I I heard that interview and as many others did, I'm sure.

36:54 And with Stephen, he really did go beyond the policy into the personal,

36:57 family background, upbringing.

36:59 Yeah.

36:59 What do you think there's something that's still left um when

37:03 you meet people that they assume about you that's not right?

37:08 Well, I think people know that I'm a fighter.

37:10 I don't think they always know what I what why

37:12 what I'm fighting for and why I'm fighting for it.

37:15 And I think it it is related to my upbringing.

37:17 I I was very blessed to live in this country where

37:19 you can get a great opportunity no matter where you start.

37:22 And that fundamentally motivates me in everything I do.

37:25 So sometimes the political pugnacity that you see is a reflection

37:29 of that I'm frustrated that that opportunity's

37:32 been taken away from other people.

37:34 Um so you know, if you have to you have

37:37 to be known for fighting against something but also for something.

37:40 Mhm.

37:40 And what I'm really fighting for is to make it possible

37:43 for anybody to do a version of what I was able to do,

37:47 which is to pursue their dreams and achieve it here in Canada.

37:50 And that's the country that I want to restore.

37:52 So it's about that motivation.

37:54 That's Well, that's why I do it.

37:55 And I think the why is the most important question that you should ask.

37:58 Is not, you know, the the what and the how are are also necessary,

38:03 but you have to ask what is your purpose in all of that and that is my purpose.

38:07 Um moving just on to policy, conscious of time.

38:10 Um thinking about perception and reality and some of the comments that you made.

38:13 As you look at the numbers and statistics on Canada,

38:16 it's actually quite troubling right now.

38:18 Per capita GDP, as we all know, has been declining for a decade.

38:21 There's a big gap now with the United States, our closest neighbor and ally.

38:25 Our productivity is only 75% of the United States and importantly,

38:28 these trends predate uh recent global tensions and certainly US tensions,

38:33 as we know it with Trump.

38:34 It's so troubling, especially as a young family,

38:36 to think about where Canada goes from here.

38:39 So what went wrong and what's what has to change to turn it around?

38:44 Well, we have we have one thing standing in the way and it's the government.

38:47 I know that we we like to complicate things,

38:50 but we can look at all these external factors,

38:53 but why are these factors impact impacting us more than everyone else?

38:58 It it doesn't make sense that we have the most expensive housing

39:01 in the G7 even though we have the most land to build on.

39:03 All those other countries have to contend with tariffs and and foreign wars.

39:07 It doesn't make sense that we have the worst investment levels in the G7.

39:11 All the other G7 countries are contending with the same global factors.

39:14 So it might be a As I said in my speech,

39:17 a comforting tranquilizer to say that there's some

39:20 faraway cause of the problems caused here at home, but that won't fix it.

39:26 And um frankly, in the last year, uh Mr.

39:30 Carney has compounded every single one of these problems.

39:32 The government is bigger, it is spending far more money.

39:36 Uh Mr.

39:37 Mr.

39:37 Carney doesn't look like someone who would spend

39:39 more than Justin Trudeau, yeah, but he is.

39:41 He's spending vastly more than Trudeau.

39:44 His government is much bigger and more intrusive.

39:46 He's got more bureaucracy than he inherited.

39:49 And he continues to block the essential industries of our country.

39:53 So, if we can get the government off the back and out of the way,

39:56 we can unleash the potential of the Canadian people.

39:59 The good news is we know what to do.

40:01 The the blueprint is there.

40:02 We just have to do it.

40:03 Got you.

40:04 Um how aware do you think Canadians are of the of the challenge?

40:07 I mean, you're out meeting with people every day.

40:09 Well, they're living it.

40:10 Right.

40:10 Uh I think that some people have been hit harder than others,

40:14 but no matter where you go, young people can't afford a place to live.

40:17 Uh increasingly seniors are are forced to uh choose

40:22 between heating their homes and paying and paying their rent.

40:26 Uh we see we see now so many people who have to go

40:30 to food banks because they can't afford the their incredible cost of food.

40:35 And folks tell me that every day.

40:37 And the good news is that we can restore affordability to this country.

40:41 That is our That's got to be our single most practical priority.

40:44 Make this a country where people can afford to live and have good lives again.

40:48 Um after Monday, the government now has

40:50 a clear majority and control of its agenda.

40:54 What excuses are gone now,

40:55 and what should Canadians expect to actually see delivered in the next year?

41:01 Well, I would argue they never really had any excuses for the last year.

41:05 You know, I saw I saw a headline Mr.

41:06 Carney said it's time to get serious.

41:08 Yeah.

41:09 I mean, what has he been doing for the last year?

41:11 Right.

41:12 Has he Has he not been serious for the last year?

41:14 I mean, I thought we were in a very serious time all along.

41:18 Parliament has given incredible grace to this government.

41:20 As I said at the outset, we we helped Mr.

41:23 Carney pass a law speeding up projects in 5 days.

41:26 Yeah.

41:27 He had no problem passing his budget, um his crime bills.

41:31 We've been trying to push his albeit

41:34 watered-down insufficient crime bills to move faster.

41:37 So, he's the only thing standing in his own way.

41:40 And now but you know, now that he doesn't even have a rhetorical excuse.

41:45 And it's going to be time for him to to produce.

41:49 You know, Mr.

41:50 Carney's been in power now a year.

41:51 When will groceries be affordable?

41:53 Right.

41:53 When will the pipeline be under construction?

41:56 When will that famous deal with the United States actually happen?

41:59 By the way, I understand there haven't been negotiations in 5 months.

42:03 Mhm.

42:04 What's happening there?

42:05 I think it's going to be time for him to deliver

42:07 on all the very lofty promises he made in the last election.

42:10 And we'll be there to hold them accountable on all of those things.

42:12 It's good to hear.

42:13 The government now is using a lot of language and ideas you've used for years.

42:18 Uh affordability, competitiveness, getting things built.

42:21 I haven't read an article this morning that was previewing

42:23 your speech here today asking who was going to be

42:26 in the room from the Prime Minister's office to lift a few

42:29 of your great ideas so that they can next be introduced.

42:32 So, is that a validation of your agenda, or where does it go from here?

42:35 Because you do uh generate a ton of great ideas.

42:39 It's shaping the national discussion as it was introduced as Rona said,

42:42 but where does it go from here?

42:44 Well, I'd love to say that that imitation is the highest form of flattery,

42:48 uh but unfortunately, it's only imitation in words.

42:51 In reality, he has not implemented any of the ideas that I I ran on.

42:56 Even the things that you might think he has,

42:58 he didn't get rid of the carbon tax.

43:00 He brought in a new newly named tax.

43:03 It's a little lower right now,

43:04 but it will rise to the previous same level, and it it applies more broadly.

43:08 That's the the so-called clean fuel standard.

43:11 Um he hasn't got rid of the anti anti-development laws.

43:13 They introduced some crime laws.

43:15 They haven't passed any of them.

43:16 Right.

43:17 Uh they're sitting in the Senate.

43:18 Uh I said we needed to have balanced budgets and low low spending.

43:22 Spending has gone up quite dramatically.

43:23 So, I agree that Mr.

43:25 Carney is has used a lot of my words, and I thank him for that.

43:29 I think I thanked him in person for it.

43:31 But I would like to actually see them implemented.

43:34 Then I would be very flattered.

43:36 Well, we'll have to see, I guess, a year from now.

43:38 I think he did promise more substance,

43:41 less showboating, I think, was the Prime Minister's language.

43:43 So, this in 12 months we'll invite you back, and you can let us So,

43:45 I guess the the last 12 months has been about showboating, then.

43:48 Yeah, it feels that way, right?

43:49 Um let's finish with a quick light lightning round,

43:52 conscious of time and getting you back to the office.

43:54 Um early morning or late night?

43:57 I'm more of a late night guy.

43:58 Double-double or double espresso?

44:00 Double espresso.

44:01 More stressful question period No, quadruple espresso.

44:05 All right.

44:05 Keeps the energy up.

44:07 Yeah, I've got two kids, so.

44:09 Uh more stressful question period Our son is

44:12 actually making us coffee in the morning now.

44:14 That's great.

44:14 It's like a little butler.

44:15 Incredible kid, yeah.

44:17 Most days I'm his butler, but he's doing that.

44:20 Sorry.

44:20 Need to have more.

44:21 Yeah, that's right.

44:22 Um more stressful question period or Toronto traffic?

44:25 Well, obviously Toronto traffic.

44:28 Question period is fun.

44:29 Uh most overused word in Ottawa right now?

44:33 Oh my goodness.

44:34 You want to give me some hints from the crowd here?

44:37 unprecedented I'll catalyze it.

44:39 I'm unprecedented.

44:39 Who's voting for catalyze?

44:41 Who's voting for unprecedented?

44:43 All right, we'll go with unprecedented.

44:44 One word for Canada's economy today?

44:48 Um Can I have a combined adjective, hyphenated?

44:53 Yeah.

44:53 Below potential.

44:54 Okay.

44:54 And what it should be?

44:57 It should be the most affordable in the world.

45:00 And Leafs next year, yes or no?

45:02 Uh that's an easy one.

45:05 [laughter] I I think you know the answer to All the Leafs fans here.

45:10 So, look, I know we're we're we're tight on time.

45:12 Thank you, Pierre.

45:13 That was great.

45:13 I think we got more direct answers in this 10

45:15 minutes or so than maybe years at question period.

45:18 So, Pierre, thank you for that.

45:19 We can fix that.

45:20 We just need to someone new answering the questions.

45:22 Right.

45:23 Uh so, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in thanking Pierre Poilievre.

45:26 Thank you.

45:27 And um Pierre, Ready to go.

45:30 thank you.

45:31 Thank you.

45:32 Thanks, guys.

45:33 Appreciate it.

45:34 On behalf of the Canadian Club, thank you to TD and to Enbridge.

45:38 Thank you.

45:38 Thank you.

45:39 Thanks, everyone.

45:40 Great.

45:40 Well done.

45:41 Thank you.

45:44 All right.