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You don't want to go! Yeah, I can't believe it, but she still said no! We had a lively discussion in the last hour when Dan Kelly joined us, the president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and we talked about the election budgets won by Kathleen Wynne that was delivered just a couple of days ago for the province of Ontario. The upcoming election budgets will be from Rachel Notley in Alberta, Justin Trudeau, federally in October of next year, and Alberta will be between March 1st and May 31st, and then Mr.
Horgan and British Columbia, whenever the romance, the bromance ends between Horgan and Weaver. There will be another British Columbia election, and, well, I think the Greens are going to do whatever they can, but there will be election promises made, and monies aren't there to pay for all this stuff. They're not. I went through some of the numbers, went through the federal numbers, provincial numbers, and it's not there, and Canadians individually are in huge debt.
Well, I know that this is an issue that really resonates with the beauty, so let me bring immediately into the discussion Catherine Swift, who is the former president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, now working canadians.ca. Ms. Swift, how are you? Great, Roy.
Yourself? Huh? How are you doing? I'm doing good.
I'm doing good. Linda Leatherdale, the former money editor of the Toronto Sun, now vice president of Cambria, Canada, and independent business journalist at LindaLeatherdale.com. Ms. Leatherdale, how are you?
Hello, Roy. I'm doing great. Happy Easter to everybody. Happy Easter.
And from the state of California, soon to be returning to Ontario, Canada, a former Liberal member of Parliament who is a seat made to the Prime Minister of this country, Justin Trudeau, everybody's peachy. Let's begin, and I'll ask your thoughts, if you will, please, on this whole idea of provincial parties that are in government, usually it's the ones that are in government, and particularly when they're having difficulty polling, that they start to unveil these billions of dollars of promises that are aimed at groups they think they can influence to vote for them. It's money that they don't have. It's money we don't have.
It's money subsequent generations, maybe in the multiples, double multiples, are going to have to be paying for it. It's all countries in the whole. What do you say about this? And the fact that it appears that a significant percentage of the population buys this stuff.
Well, I don't think a lot of them might say you could put on public radio, Roy. We got it. Well, listen, it's so outrageous. So outrageous.
I've been, as you know, watching budgets, provincial and federal, for decades now, and dissecting them and everything else for CFIB and now for working Canadians. And it just boggles my mind that anybody buys this stuff. Anybody buys it. What I love is there's a couple of quotes that stood out to me in Ontario with this.
A way just big spending budget by a government that just a few weeks ago was promising they were going to balance the budget this year. Now they're, you know, almost seven billion in the hole. One of them was Wynn, who said, we want to make life more affordable for Ontarians. Ha ha!
They've been doing everything they can to make life less affordable for Ontarians for the whole 15 years they've been in power. And then Charles Sousa, the finance minister, said, this has nothing to do with the election. Ha ha! I'm sorry.
It is comedy, but it's kind of tragic comedy. Now, I want you to hear, I want to play something for all three of you, but before I ask Linda the same question, Kathleen Wynn had this to say about the choices that are available to voters. Doug Ford wants to take a bulldozer to a province that has worked so hard to get to this place. No, this is the other one that I wanted, the one where she compares.
Okay, have you got it? Okay, let's hear that. This election will come down to the clearest, starkest choice in this province's history. We, well, we can go forward with the agenda that I've outlined, or we can go backward with Doug Ford.
It's a choice between care or cuts. Linda? Ha ha ha! Yeah, but we wouldn't give your head a shake.
In the 15 years, well, she's the most unpopular premier, I think. And look at what she's done. She's made it less affordable for Ontario. We are the worst economic province in the Confederation now, and Catherine's right.
Now we're going right back in, and she says it's not election goodies. She also liked taxes. She made some reforms on taxes, so I'll be paying higher taxes, effective July 1. Come on, guys.
You were so right, Roy, when you said we are in hot water, and we've got these socialist governments who believe we can spend, spend, spend, and we can put it off to a rainy day. But today's debt, our tomorrow's taxes, and I worry about our children. So if you have young people listening in, don't be fooled by this. Well, it looks as though, according to some of the polling, that a significant percentage from maybe one quarter of the population of the province of Ontario think this budget is a good idea.
Michelle Simpson, your thoughts on the above, and bring it into context for us as well, please. What happens federally? Is it the same thing should we expect from the federal government next year, if Mr. Trudeau's polling continues in the direction it's been going for some time, that he and Gary Butts and Bill Morneau will come up with a package of goodies that really would put Catherine Wins to shame?
Oh, it's going to be identical, federally. And I'm with Catherine and Linda on this, except that I'm a lot more cynical. This is all about buying votes, and we know it is. And it isn't about delivering, because a lot of what they promise never gets delivered.
So the money doesn't get spent. It lapses, and it sounds good. Not that, you know, I want to see them spend it. But voters have short memories, unfortunately, and a lot of it won't get spent.
Yeah, and they're talking about, I'm looking, I've got the numbers here. I have all of them, among all this paper here. But you're right, there are programs where it quite clearly says, and one of them is the $2.2 billion that is supposed to be there for people who need early childhood care assistance, $2.2 billion for some, for some. And the riders on that are quite considerable.
Look, we don't have the money. It's not there. The province is $312 billion in debt. The country's in debt.
Alberta is in debt. We never thought we would see that. British Columbia is in increasing debt. And Canadians individually are in debt.
And let's not forget, we are actually in a period of economic growth right now. Isn't that a good point? And we should be very wary about claiming credit for that, of course, which of course they will anyway. And frankly, any political party would, so I'm not trying to be at all partisan.
But the whole world is in a growth phase right now. However, things are slowing. Did you notice Canadian GDP dropped slightly in general? I saw the Dow drop 700 the other day.
Yeah, the latest data is down. And in fact, it's been down or flat for a few months now. So when governments are spending, like drunken sailors, with apologies to drunken sailors, when things are growing, this next recession, I'm sorry, it is going to be horrific. And if people don't think that's going to hurt them, they're crazy.
They're going to hurt everybody. And I resent the drunken sailor in mind. That's why I need my apologies. Having been one, on more than one occasion, I had the rank of ordinary seaman standard, which is the lowest rank in the Navy, and I fought very hard to stay there.
Well, I give them a lot more credit than I give our governments right now. Listen, listen, if we couldn't afford it, we'd beg for it. I hope you're spending your own money. Let's take a break.
We'll come back with more from Catherine and Linda and Michelle. I want to talk to them about NAFTA, also the interprovincial sniping, economic sniping that's taking place now. There's Alberta taking warning shots at British Columbia. And now Saskatchewan's Greener Scott Moll has added his voice, saying to B.C., if you continue to try to delay the pipeline extension when we're going to respond, and one of the things we have available to us is to cut our oil deliveries and supply for British Columbia, so that could get nastier.
And the United States wants a NAFTA deal by the 1st of July because the Mexican election takes place, and there's going to be a socialist president, more than likely, in Mexico at that time. And he also, Mr. Trump, wants the NAFTA deal done before the U.S. midterm.
So we'll come back and talk to the beauties about that. He always got straight A's, but his report card said he talks too much. This is The Roy Green Show. Well, the reason I'm in talk radio is that my former boss, Don Lucey, a great guy, former president of our company, said to me when I did a morning show, a music show, one of those music shows, Green, you talk too much.
Play the music. And one day he called me in his office and said, okay, let's go to a talk show. That was a long time ago. I want to mention to you that tomorrow we're going to have a special guest.
We're going to begin the program with an exclusive story. You won't have heard it anywhere before. And it's the story of a man who was an employee of a major Canadian police service and was so drastically bullied and harassed that his spirit was destroyed. This is not a man you would expect to be so affected, but it happened.
And he and his lawyer are going to share his story exclusively tomorrow on this program in the first hour. Now, back to Catherine Swift, Linda Leavittale, and Michelle Simpson. At Michelle Simpson on Twitter. And they're the beauties, I'm the beast, and here's the rest of our conversation now.
What about, Michelle, the grumpiness, bordering on belligerence, bordering on, you know, gloves off, let's go, attitudes that are starting to go public between British Columbia and Alberta, with B.C. having more of a, you know, sort of on the defensive, Alberta on the offensive, and now Saskatchewan's in on it as well. What do you make of that? Well, Roy, you know, it's bad enough that we have to fight globally for, you know, but this infighting is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned, and it has no place.
It's not unlike the 70s, when, you know, the premier of Alberta said, let the eastern bastard freeze, and everybody remembers that. And, you know, no good is going to come of this, as far as I'm concerned. But, Michelle, what was common between the 70s and now? The name, the name, the last name of the prime minister.
Yeah, the last name of the prime minister, exactly. Yeah, exactly, it was Trudeau, and wasn't it Lougheed that was the premier? Yeah, it was. That's right.
Wasn't it Lougheed? No, it was Lougheed, he was mayor of Calgary at the time. That's right, I should know that, I worked there at the time. But if Trudeau is trying, will not take a stand, he wants to please everybody.
He's got the Paul Martin syndrome. Yeah, that was a wonder. We have people in B.C. disobeying the law.
We talked about Elizabeth May, you know, last week. We have the premier, and there's the mayor of Burnaby, who's also trying to use every little law and every little quirk to delay this project. They are all disobeying the law. And the fact we have no leadership at the federal level in Trudeau, he's not a leader, he's, like you say, he's a savage, you know, he just wants everybody to like him, and you better not be in politics if you want everybody to like him, because it's not going to happen.
But, you know, disobey the law. Is it really that hard? We are a country that should be based on law, and we usually are. They are all defying the law.
Legal decisions have been made, made, and made again. And they're all saying, no, no, no, we're going to thwart that however we can. Do you know what happens? When you don't have a leader, you get Lord of the Flies.
Yeah, you do. Yeah, Piggy. Remember Piggy? Well, no, Piggy and Lord of the Flies.
Piggy, Piggy, Piggy. Lost his glasses. That was the end of Piggy. Linda, you're being quiet.
Well, I just don't want to talk over everybody, but Catherine made a point, and I just want to say this. The economy, in January, we actually shrink by 0.1%. That's something you worry about. And you know what it is?
Oil led that down 7% because we bought shutdowns, et cetera. So, Trudeau and everybody fighting, the pipeline better wake up, because when we go back to the net debt, we are paying, what if it is, total governments are spending $63 billion on interest alone to pay for our gluttonous debts across this country. And so, if the economy starts to cool like this, and we can't get it going, I'm sorry, Catherine's right, we're in a huge mess here. You know what a friend of mine said to me earlier today, and I'm not going to say who it is, because I want him to be able to do that.
When he comes to me, I just want to tell you briefly, what he said was, Canadians, he'll say better than I, Canadians, many Canadians have gotten to the point where they now believe so strongly that they have to make a personal statement to assist the environment, that they will accept negative things being done to them if the deliverer of the message says it's for the environment. Do you know what I'm saying? I believe that. You're drinking the Kool-Aid, Roy.
Yeah, yeah. You said it so much better than me. It took me a long time to get there. Okay, so NAFTA.
Donald Trump wants NAFTA done by July the 1st, Mexican election, socialist president, wants it done before the midterm elections. Is this something that Canada can properly take advantage of? Do we have the punching power to make that happen? Anybody?
No. No, we don't. In a word? No.
Okay, then. This is a U.S.-Mexico deal. We, you know, Canada, I don't think, to be fair, I don't think our government has handled the whole NAFTA thing terribly. I think there's been some exceptions to that.
But Trump is a U.S. canon, as we know. He's unpredictable. And one thing, you know, one day it's one thing, and the next day it's a totally other thing.
But I think in this one, I can't see how we can be forced for something positive. So what do we do then? Do we say, all right, fine. So you want, Mr.
Lighthizer, you want it done by July the 1st. That's what the president is telling you. So we're going to do it. We're going to go along with you.
And here's what we would like in return. And we're modest, very modest about our expectation. Does that get us more than if we try to play the calendar? No, I don't believe.
Okay. And Mexico better be careful, because they rely on the U.S. 80% of their exports go to the United States. So this is something they're not going to take a stand.
By the way, that's kind of like our numbers, eh? Yep. Like our numbers are not that different. So what's going to happen?
What do you expect and when do you expect? I mean, let's face it, this is totally random, throw the dice. But I can't imagine this deal is going to get done before the Mexican election. I just can't.
It's been, you know, it's been procrastinated on. It's been put off several times in many, many instances. There's tons of issues yet to be resolved in the whole NAFTA thing. So the fact of it happening that quickly, I just can't believe it will happen.
Okay, beauties. That's it. That's that. See you, sir.
A la prochaine fois. Next Saturday, same place, same time. Catherine Swift, Linda Lillard, Michelle Simpson.