Mulcair: New U.S. ambassador will be good for Canada

Tom Mulcair is brought to you by guaranteed industries. Replace your old heating or cooling system with a Lennox system from guaranteed industries called 51434 to 3400. Guaranteed industries a Lennox Premier dealer. You could not be more different than Donald Trump. Yep, here you are. I want to say the same thing to you.

You're not Donald Trump, but he's still the guy.

absolutely and we work for the we both work for the american people uh... you know we have uh... i don't do it in congress anymore but i was an ambassador uh... but we recognize the responsibility the american people give them policies that make a positive difference uh... that's what we're going to be focused on that's all that i think that's why i was a lot of time that is uh... tom hokstra the uh... p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-

I'm still looking at your name. I'm looking at your name here, Tom. Pete Hochstra is the new U.S. Ambassador to Canada, just a wealth incoming just minted by Trump. And we've all been drawing straws and Canada.

One, I mean, I guess Trump must have run out of lunatics because Pete Huxer, as you just heard in that clip, is astonishingly normal. Immigrant to the United States, interestingly enough, his family immigrated when he was a kid from the Netherlands. And in his first term, Trump had named him ambassador to the Netherlands. So not only is he an experienced Republican congressman, he's an experienced diplomat. He won't be breaking any furniture as he walks in.

And he's got an understanding of the Canada-U.S. relationship because he's from Michigan, a border state. So I think this is a win-win-win for us. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy dealing with Donald Trump on trade issues. In his announcement of Pete Hochstra, he was saying,

He's going to take care of hard-working American agricultural families. So this is something we've talked about, that they're going to be going after our supply management system. That's on the table. But at least we've got somebody who seems really experienced and capable. And his expertise is, I think, going to be an asset to us. And what are going to be, of course, very, very difficult times.

Yeah, perhaps, yeah. The, okay, the city of Montreal budgets about 7.3, 7.2 million, a billion dollars came out yesterday. Yes. Value plants says she's leaving the city in great shape. In her two terms, the rate of inflation has been about 20%. The taxes have gone up 38% and spending has gone up 32%. Yeah, that's the key. I mean, that's the thing. She's been completely outspending inflation.

and it's got to be real back in. Now it's been an easy thing for her because she's had not paid much attention to the business world in Montreal. All you got to do is drive downtown to know that.

But at the same time, she's got a strong base. And when she says she's leaving the house in order, she's leaving her political house in order first and foremost. Because see what you want about Valerie Plant? She's a good politician. She can change her mind and come up with a completely different policy and try to smile it away as she did on Mount Royal. But overall, what she's done is made sure that her base, which is what?

community groups the unions her strongest backers that they're not going to be going over to any new candidate that pops up because the chamber of commerce is this is your new mayor. So this is going to be a big fight for the heart and soul of Montreal in the next election she has done an abysmal job of managing the purse.

of the city, but she's done a great job leaving the political house in order. So this is the legacy of Valerie Plot, a devastated downtown corp. And again, all we got to do is drive there. I guess the downtown corp is a very, very big place these days because those orange corn cones are everywhere in the southern part of Montreal.

And she's just going to be able to see, you know, whoever takes over from her is going to probably promise to do more of the same. But whether it's the 1,800 managers who all got bonuses or the bloated salaries, you know, that are being paid that make it almost impossible to manage the money, somebody's going to have to come in and clean house. And of course, they're going to be told that they're bringing in austerity, but they might actually be bringing in a little bit of management, which has been sorely lacking.

Okay, so Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, is to announce today part of a multi-billion dollar package designed to provide some relief to families. It would be a two-month vacation for the GST on some things like diapers, children's clothing, some food items, perhaps your phone bill. We're not sure exactly what, but what's his slogan going to be, axe the tax? Is that what he's going to come out and say?

Yeah, sure. That'd be great, actually. I'd love it. Just a little sidebar. You know where acts of tax came from? No, from an NDP campaign in British Columbia when the liberals were bringing in

wait for it a carbon tax and the left wing nd p fought the carbon tax which is still there in bc with the slogan acts the tax i kid you not so welcome to canadian politics a so yes i mean true to this is canadian politics right you know which of a buddy come here and you want some diapers and uh... you know uh... uh... uh... uh...

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So we're talking about like, here's the first thing that occurs to me. I mean, I know this is this is welcome, you know, any kind of relief is welcome, but it's not a great number. And we're already what? Almost a $50 billion deficit.

so what why do we suffer to try to curry favor with with what he's trying to carry favor because this isn't one of the things that somehow you know check me sing is still finding to keep supporting just intruders the government doesn't fall and last week sing was on about wanting reductions in the g s t so when true to announce this right away you know sing was online saying all this is typical of the liberals they're doing what they have to do but they're not doing it for long enough and not on enough products so this is

the left of Canadian politics, the center left liberals in the left leaning NDP, looking at all of this and tut tutting and saying, well, we've got to do more, which is fair enough. But you just mentioned the $50 billion structural deficit. It's called structural because it ain't going away. There's nothing you can do to bring it down right now unless you really start hacking away. And this is what Trudeau doesn't seem to understand. It's about the economy, stupid.

and he can talk until the cows come home about big issues that he thinks should be on people's minds. What's on people's minds is they can't pay their taxes and they can't buy stuff.

uh... speaking of uh... places where the cover despair uh... the uh... kabec government uh... is presenting their economic update today yes so what's an economic update well you know it's not the budget the budget that comes in the spring whether it's in auto are here and we have a very different system from the americans you know governments fall if they're if their budget is defeated that could well be it when trudel gets his comeuppance

But what happens in the fall is that all governments have to show the books. They predicted an $11 billion deficit in the spring budget. Are they on track for that? They will be able to say, Andrew, I will safely predict that they're on track for that. And even doing it, it's better. But they're doing it by sleight of hand, it's smoke and mirrors. So we talked about the fact that the new head of Sante Corbac-Merembi Hall has been handed an order

to reduce spending by well over a billion, close to a billion and a half dollars. So how's she going to do that? Well, she sent out an order saying you've got to stop fixing your hospitals, stop fixing the leaky roof on your CLSC and so forth. And anything that you thought you'd already had is deficit spending. You're going to have to cut to cover that. So this is a real example. In the gas bay, they had already deficit spent 38 million.

They were told that they were going to be able to forget about 28 million of that. They would be absorbed, but they had to find savings to cover the extra 10 million. Now they're being told they've got to find savings between now and the 31st of March for the 38 million. It's one example amongst hundreds across the province. So this is going to be a smoke and mirrors statement by Eric Girard, our finance minister, where he says, I have cut 1.5 billion in healthcare, but it's not true.

Because in gas, they're not going to be able to actually cut that money. So when we get to the 31st of March and they consolidate the books and they look at everything and say, oh, lo and behold, they didn't deliver what they were supposed to do. It's not they go back and we've got an extra billion dollars, but they have to get past this mile post today. They have to show the markets that they're on track. And the reason they have to do that is what's called the credit rating. It's like, if you want to get a mortgage and you've been very good with your money,

The bank might give you a half a percent or a percent less on your mortgage rate. It's the same thing with provinces or countries. You have to go to the markets and say, here are our books. We're doing well, and then they keep you where you are, or maybe they give you a better deal, or if you're not doing well, they'll raise the percentage that you have to pay when you borrow money. For Quebec, that would be an absolute disaster. We already owe a ton of money.

And we keep borrowing, but we would be borrowing at a higher rate, and that would bring in a death spiral for us economically. And it would lead us to the door of insolvency, which is actually where we are right now, and go back. But the makeup effort today is going to be to say, no, no, it's not that bad. Look, we're actually doing better than we were. We're getting faster. We're getting, oh, it might be less than $11 billion. That's the game that's going to be played today.