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Axe the Tax.
128 Plays7 months ago
Join hosts Jodie Jenkins and Tony Clement on this week's episode of "And Another Thing" as they dive into a diverse range of topics. First up on the docket is the contentious issue of the carbon tax – from its economic implications to its environmental impact, Jodie and Tony dissect this hot-button issue from all angles.
Of course, no episode would be complete without a discussion about the ever-fascinating Donald Trump. From his latest political maneuvers to his ongoing presence in the public eye, Jodie and Tony offer their insights and analysis on the former president's continued impact on the political landscape.
Tune in to "And Another Thing" for an engaging discussion that covers everything from policy debates to music subcultures to the latest developments in politics. You won't want to miss it!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Growth
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of And Another Thing, the podcast that continues to set the bar in the world of podcasts. My name is Jody Jenkins.
00:00:29
Speaker
And I'm Tony Clement. And I know you've mentioned this many times before Tony and, and I don't know if this is a new one or not, but I saw that there's a couple MPPs in Ontario that have just released. A podcast or it's something I've never seen before, but more and more podcasts every day. Have you seen that one? I think it's called like sunrise or something or, Oh, is that the one in Eastern Ontario with Lisa McCloud? Yeah. Yeah. Has that been around for a while?
00:00:58
Speaker
I think so, but I, I, I confess, even though she's been a guest on our show, I haven't, uh, I haven't listened to it. So, um, it seemed like more Eastern Ontario news and views. Yeah. Well, but it's interesting cause I, I had never heard of it. And then I saw.
00:01:14
Speaker
someone post about it. So I don't know. I just thought I don't know. I do apologize as well. I don't know if it's brand new or if it's been around for a while, but something like that. Sunrise. Well, we should also thank Humble and Fred, the king of podcasts.
Acknowledgments and Sponsorships
00:01:27
Speaker
Cause they asked, last time I was on their podcast, they asked me about our podcast, which is very kind of them so I could plug us. The kings of podcasting. Well, they, they're, they've been doing it for like 12 years now or something. No, I know. But you said the king of podcasts. Isn't there two of them?
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. One of them's a Duke. The Duke. And one of them's the Duchess. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, this show each week is presented by our friends at Municipal Solutions. Of course, John Mutton and the team there doing an amazing job. And Tony, I know that you can expand on their services. Yes, I can, Jody. Of course, they're Ontario's leading MZO firm.
00:02:12
Speaker
And John and the gang are experts at all things municipal, really. Development approvals, permit expediting, development services generally, project management generally.
00:02:24
Speaker
planning services with municipalities, engineering and architectural services, even things like minor variances or land severances. Go to John. John has a site, obviously, a URL, municipalsolutions.ca. They can help you out. And then Jodi, we've got a new sponsor. We want to welcome to the
00:02:44
Speaker
and another thing, podcast family KWM Consulting. They are our newest sponsor and KWM has been in the lobbying and advocacy business for over 23 years. They support all sorts of companies, but particularly small businesses when they have to deal with governments. Their company believes in honest, ethical advice and the value of hard work.
00:03:09
Speaker
You can contact Kelly Mitchell at www.kwnconsulting.com or just phone Kelly. He's always available. 416-728-8287.
00:03:23
Speaker
And yeah, thanks for being our sponsor KWM. And finally, we want to thank our terrestrial sponsor, the gang at hundreds Bay radio, hundreds Bay radio.com. Every Saturday morning, they have a whole slew of podcasts, including an another thing podcast to listen to on the radio waves, 88.7 FM in Muskoka. And speaking of our newest supporter, our newest partner, I want, uh,
00:03:53
Speaker
as many of our listeners as possible to call them tomorrow and say thank you. Say thank you for being a partner with And Another Thing. And Kelly is going to be at the tournament, which is great. Oh, my golf tournament? Yes. Well, that's good. Did I approve that, or? Yes, you did. You were very excited about it. OK.
00:04:12
Speaker
I don't remember that, but okay. That sounds good. Lots going on. I know you traveled around.
Personal Remembrance and Political Events
00:04:19
Speaker
You went and paid your respects to the Mulroney family earlier this week with
00:04:25
Speaker
the honorable Brian Mulroney lying in state. You were telling me that the whole family was there and you were able to talk to them and everything. That's cool. What happened was that there's something called the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians. If you're an ex-MP or an ex-Senator, you can join this group.
00:04:47
Speaker
And it's just an organization to keep you sort of semi-connected, if you'd like, with your former job or your former role. And sometimes things like this happen. Like when King Charles was being coronated, they had a special event for members of the Privy Council, which is cabinet members and parliamentary secretaries.
00:05:12
Speaker
to go to Ottawa to celebrate the ascension of King Charles, which I also attended. It was fine. It was great. It was really good of them to think of us. But with Mr. Mulrooney, they had a period of time
00:05:34
Speaker
uh, which was Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of this week, where he was lying in what they call lying in state. There's a building right across from the part of the building is called the Sir John A. McDonald building. They have, they have a large, uh, area that is used for receptions and dinners and that kind of thing.
00:05:57
Speaker
And so his casket was in the middle of that big hall. And they invited, to start with, they invited current and former parliamentarians to pay their respects. And then after all of that was done, then there was about a day and a half for the general public to also pay their respects. So what surprised me was that
00:06:24
Speaker
basically the entire Mulroney family was there all morning. Uh, and Mila Mulroney then beside her Nicholas Mulroney, uh, no, sorry, Caroline Mulroney, uh, Nicholas, Ben, Mark,
00:06:41
Speaker
and a couple of spouses were there too. Uh, and so there was a big line, like it took me two hours to before it, you know, from when I entered the hall, there was an enter room and a lobby area. And then you went at your way in and, um, you know, you got to talk to people I've known for years, uh, both sides of the aisle. So I was sort of standing with David Lametti, who was the former,
00:07:11
Speaker
uh, justice minister and, uh, Catherine McKenna, you may remember her as the former environment minister. And so we, we just had a great, you know, we were standing in line. Why not have a chitchat as, as you're waiting to gain entrance into the big hall. Once we got into the big hall, people quiet and down. And then I had, I had probably, it felt like five minutes with the more runies all told where we got to trade some stories and I talked about,
00:07:41
Speaker
Brian Mowry's influence in my life, both professionally and personally, and they were really appreciative. And this was after, by this point, it was like four hours in to them just standing there in one place to receive everybody. But that's what they were doing for two days.
00:08:02
Speaker
Then the casket was, or I think at the time of this recording, I think it's on its way to Montreal and the funeral will be on Saturday. Interesting. Yeah. I'm surprised that they would, the whole family would stay there and talk to everybody.
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah. Like, uh, that, that's a, that's an incredible time commitment. I'm sure it must be emotionally draining and physically you're standing in one spot. Like, you know, it's not, I don't think it's an easy thing to do, but, uh, Mila was exceptionally gracious and, uh, Caroline was too and the guys were great. And, you know, so anyway, they, they really made as more Brian Mulroney
00:08:45
Speaker
was able to do as well for many people, make them feel special, right? He really had this, uh, ability to do that. So yeah, it's a, I saw that there was a poll, Jodi, that 83% of Canadians thought positively of Brian Mulroney's time in office, which is a real turnaround for him. When he left office, he was not very well liked. Uh, but I think with the advance of time,
00:09:14
Speaker
and consideration, people thought, you know what? He did a good job and he made some tough decisions. Some of them didn't work out, but he was always trying to do the right thing. And I think that's, you can't ask for a better legacy than that. Yes. And going to the extreme opposite, we could talk about the current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who would be nowhere near those types of approval numbers currently. And in fact, I just read,
00:09:43
Speaker
Again, during the recording of this event, and things may change by the time you listen to it, but Anthony Housefather, liberal MP, was on with a former guest of our show, Vashy Kapelos.
00:09:57
Speaker
He's contemplating crossing the floor because of the recent, again, you would know more about this, but the motion put forward by the NDP and about Palestine as a recognizing them as a state. And there's some support for Hamas in there. I don't know. Like it's, it's kind of a crazy thing, but I, I get the sense that Anthony house father guy, he might, he might take off.
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, which would be a huge... That would be nuts. Earthquake. He's got the safest riding in the country for the liberals. Wow. It's the safest riding, bar none. Mount St. Royal. Anyway, obviously this is creating massive fissures in our society as well as in the liberal caucus.
00:10:49
Speaker
This NDP motion, the liberals, again, tried to have it both ways.
Political Climate and Debates
00:10:56
Speaker
This is what they've been doing on Israel Hamas since October, and so they had this NDP motion which was strongly pro-Palestine, I would say, dash Hamas. Some might disagree on that characterization, but that's how I feel about it.
00:11:12
Speaker
And then the liberals watered it down. So they're thereby pissing off people that were more pro-Palestinian and wanted to see more action by Canada and also pissing off the pro-Israeli group of people because nobody was satisfied with the middle of the road approach. So I don't know. It's a very strange way to handle it. I don't know what else.
00:11:35
Speaker
why Trudeau won't take a principled position, but he's not doing that. He's trying to be all things to all people on this issue. He's straddling the fence, is he not? Yes, he is straddling the fence, Jodi. Look, I have my point of view on this. I support Israel. I feel they were attacked by Hamas and they would be attacked again until Hamas is destroyed. So that's my position and I want the hostages released.
00:12:03
Speaker
And that's my position. And you can't really talk about a two state or any other kind of solution.
00:12:13
Speaker
until those issues are dealt with. Are you going to deal with Hamas? Are you going to negotiate with Hamas? They want the destruction of Israel. So how can you negotiate with them? How can you have peace and security when one side doesn't want peace and security? They want to destroy you. So anyway, I mean, it's the same arguments. We're going around in circles. Many of us are on this, but the liberals have not draped themselves in glory on this one.
00:12:41
Speaker
No, and sticking with the liberals too, I guess the other big story that we continue to march towards in terms of something that affects the entire country and that is the carbon tax, which is sucking up a lot of air in the room these days all over the place. That's the headline, which I guess great for the conservatives because that's what they want to talk about. They want to focus on that affordability issue and this seems to be doing very well for them.
00:13:09
Speaker
And it's been a real turnaround when the carbon tax was first contemplated. It was actually people thought that it was the right thing to do to deal with the environment and climate change and whatnot. But now I think it's two to one, if not 70, 30 against the carbon tax because they keep increasing the tax despite having promised not to do that initially.
00:13:33
Speaker
And to have this 23% increase on April 1st hits at the affordability issue. So the conservative caucus, Pierre Poliev, is making it a motion of nonconfidence in the government. And Pierre has been
00:13:52
Speaker
having rallies across the country. He had 2,500 people out, 2,500 people out in Halifax for his Axe the Tax rally. I saw him in Tobaco a few weeks ago where he started this whole campaign, and there were, again, 2,500 people in Tobaco on three days notice, I think. So he's definitely struck a chord. I'm sure that's the same thing in your neck of the woods, too, Jody.
00:14:19
Speaker
Oh yeah, it's top of mind. I mean, there's not too many places that I don't walk into and it definitely is a topic that comes up and people are not pleased with what's happening or set to happen on April 1st. Of course, there are some individuals within our region that side with the government, but they're few and far between from what I can see. And I talked to a lot of different people on
00:14:46
Speaker
on all sides of the political spectrum. I mean, what, it's pretty bad when you, like, I know of like, died in the wool liberals, long time liberals that are simply done, right? Now, will they go out and vote for Pierre Polyev? I don't know. Will they stay home?
00:15:03
Speaker
possible, right? I don't know. But, but either way, it's a, it is a massive problem for Trudeau and I just don't, I don't see how they, how they recover. I don't know where the article was or what I, what I had read, but, um, might've been John Iveson. I don't remember, but someone said something about the, the, the line was like the, the, the biggest threat to Pierre right now would be Pierre himself. Like it's nothing that the Liberals can do. It's literally,
00:15:30
Speaker
Pierre is the only one that could ruin this for himself. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I don't I just don't see anything that indicates that could happen. I mean, I think there's lots of time. Don't get me wrong. But it's like everything that the liberals are trying is not working. No, no. And they were trying to do for a while that he's he's Donald Trump.
00:15:52
Speaker
Yeah, and it didn't even work. That didn't work. And then it could really, going on that routine could really kibosh Canada-US relations if Trump wins. Yeah. So you can't do that too loudly. And the whole abortion and gun thing, I mean, gosh, how many times are they going to trot that out? Yeah.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah. So I think the, you know, I see that the liberals so far at least are just doubling down on the carbon tax, seeing that as a, they're trying to make that a wedge issue. And I don't think it's really working for them either, Jodi. I don't know.
00:16:30
Speaker
No, maybe the liberals could try calling Pierre Joe Biden Jr. That might have more of an impact than calling Trump Jr. But it's interesting. Hunter Biden. Speaking of the Bidens, are you still maintaining your position in terms of him not following through or being the candidate with all the dust settles?
US Politics and Economic Insights
00:16:50
Speaker
Looks like I'm not. I thought it was going to
00:16:57
Speaker
be possible, but time is running out for my scenario for a switcheroo with the Democratic nomination. So it looks like it's Biden versus Trump. I think the state of the union was a turning point for Biden that he was able to
00:17:11
Speaker
cobbled together a few sentences in a sentient way. I think the pressure's off him a little bit and a lot of the internal criticism that he was facing in the Democratic Party has lessened now. I think they have a sigh of relief that he is able to campaign. That's what they saw with the State of the Union. He spoke for an hour.
00:17:33
Speaker
So, I don't know why he didn't do the Super Bowl interview. I don't know if you heard about that controversy. No, no, I didn't. It's tradition or recent tradition that the President of the United States does a five-minute interview on Super Bowl Sunday. Okay. He's got a massive audience. Audience, yeah. A hundred million people or whatever.
00:17:54
Speaker
And so and it's just puffball questions and Biden refused to do it. Really? And people were saying, you know, come on, it's five minutes. It's not going to be tough questions. Just do the five minute interview. And he refused to do it. And so there was a lot of that created a lot of speculation, but he he can't really campaign. He can't do off the cuff. So then I know it wasn't off the cuff, but he does a one hour speech for the state of the union in front of Congress.
00:18:23
Speaker
with Marjorie Taylor Greene and other people heckling him. And he did okay. So I think the whole talk of replacing him on the ticket has died down to nothing. And yeah, he's going to be the nominee. And Trump, with all of his legal issues and financial issues, he's going to be the nominee. So it's weird politics right now.
00:18:49
Speaker
And I still am sticking to I just see Trump winning again. So I think Trump will be the next president. Yeah. But the funny thing is the economy is doing relatively well in the United States. The jobs are up. Inflation is down. You know, the the stock market is through the roof. Biden should be 20 points ahead. It's no seriously. Yeah, no, I know. But I think it still boils down to that whole
00:19:18
Speaker
classic distrust of government. And again, that's like Donald Trump character aside, whatever, he still represents the individual or what people perceive to be the individual that'll stick it to the man, right? You know what I mean? And I think there's enough people that believe in that, that are going to clear the way for him to be in the White House again.
00:19:46
Speaker
Here's another little factoid for you. I was just reading about this with Ian Bremmer, but just to attribute it to the source, but the number one producer of oil and gas in the world is the United States of America. By far, they are producing 13 million barrels of oil a day.
00:20:08
Speaker
Wow. Which is like, I don't know, four million barrels a day higher than the next than Saudi or Russia or whoever. So this is under Joe Biden. You know, he's been he's been handing out more and more, you know, leases on land to to drill baby drill, including in Alaska.
00:20:33
Speaker
And then they're the number one natural gas producer in the world. They're doing LNG like crazy while Canada did nothing. And yeah, so they're an oil and gas superpower right now, but Biden doesn't want to talk about that because it hurts him with his base, right? They want to do batteries and solar power and wind power and so on, other renewables.
00:21:00
Speaker
So, he should have a talking point saying, look, what we've done has been basically create an independence from Russia and from these other places. He won't talk about that. Jeez. It's crazy. It is. You should become his advisor. I should. Yes. He should hire me. Well, let's call him. Get him on the phone. Get him on the phone, yeah. 202, I think that's the area code for the White House.
00:21:29
Speaker
All right. So moving along from politics, I also noticed that you've, uh, been to a couple of concerts or a concert recently. You went to some industrial show. Yeah.
Tony's Musical Adventures
00:21:39
Speaker
I was, uh, the, the, uh, headliner was ministry. And I've never even heard of them. I don't think really. Yeah. No, they're heavy, heavy, uh, but they're, they're industrial metal and, um,
00:21:53
Speaker
Gary Newman that you might remember from 40 years ago. I do not. Cars. He sang for the cars? No, no, no. He had a song called Cars. This was 1980, 1980, before you were born, Jodi.
00:22:07
Speaker
I thought you were like, oh, the cars. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah. I don't know. Not Raquel Okasek. Anyway. Yeah. Gary Newman, again, very industrial. And then they had another band, Frontline Assembly from the 90s, very industrial. So not usually my cup of tea, but a past guest and my barber, Johnny Awesome, and I decided to go together. And it was pretty, it was pretty intense. The mosh pit was going strong.
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah. I just always try and try and figure out like what goes through your head, like with these types of shows in terms of like you wake up in the morning, you just go, I'm going to go get a ministry tickets or tickets to see. I just, I just don't understand that. I know. I know. But I like different kinds of when I was in Washington.
00:22:53
Speaker
A few days ago, I had a free evening and I, again, I searched the concert listings, found a band that sounded interesting. They were called Thelma and the Sleaze. Yes, I saw you that too. What were they? What kind of music were they? They were sort of pop punk. They're four queer women from Nashville, Tennessee.
00:23:18
Speaker
Okay. Interesting. Pop punk four piece band. Great. They were fantastic. And, uh, I really enjoyed that. And, uh, very, uh, very clever, very clever. So, so yeah, I, I, you know, if I have a spare night, if I'm, if I'm going, I was going to a conference in Washington on critical minerals and national security, but I had a spare night. So why not go to see a band I've never heard of before?
00:23:45
Speaker
What's the worst that can happen, Joey? And you know what, I just can't imagine that most of your contemporaries in terms of like, I'll just say on the political spectrum, like, again, go back to the ministry concert. I just, I have trouble believing that there would be anyone else that would be like, hey Tony, you going to ministry tonight? I'll see you there. Well, the only guy that was interested in me going to ministry was my barber. I know, that's what I mean.
00:24:12
Speaker
It's kind of funny. Speaking of women in bands and just the fact that there's a lot of music that I've never heard of these days. I don't know why that is. Maybe I just don't listen to music like I used to coming from the radio side of things. But anyway, so we have a big rock show here in Belleville called Empire Rock Fest, and they announced it's like three nights of music. There is one night of country. So I won't mention that one because I know you probably don't know a ton about country. But anyway, one of the nights is is
00:24:41
Speaker
a pop-ish kind of night and the, there's a band called Dizzy. Have you ever heard of them? Vaguely. Luscious. Luscious. That rings a bell. And then the front line or the headliner that night is The Beaches.
00:24:55
Speaker
Oh, really? Oh, yes. I love four women as well. Yeah. Three women. Yeah. No, you have heard of them. Oh, yeah. I've seen them probably three or four times. Yeah. Really? Oh, yeah. I love the beaches. They're great. But they're getting a lot of airplay in the United States. I think they had a number one hit a few weeks ago in the US. Yeah. They were on Kimmel recently. Yeah. No, they're they're doing fine. I the first time I saw them was 10 years ago at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, the music festival there.
00:25:24
Speaker
And it's been great for them. They tend to perform in Toronto. Well, they've done Massey Hall. They've done Budweiser. I think they're going to be at Budweiser stage this summer. Yeah, no, they're a good alternative pop band. Yeah, for sure. Have they ever opened for ministry? No.
00:25:50
Speaker
The ministry, it was kind of funny, they had the kind of behind the stage, they had a big screen, right? Yeah. So a lot of their songs were, they were very political songs. Like they were taking aim at white trash and white nationalists. Interesting. Yeah. I think they had a song called white trash.
00:26:12
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So, and the images were, you know, basically anti-Trump, the Trump base, I would say. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So that was, that was, that was something I was not expecting. But enough about ministry. Yeah, but enough about ministry. What do you think? That's great. There's some great summer festivals coming up and I'm looking forward to
00:26:40
Speaker
my summer choices as well. You're looking forward to sponsoring as many as you can.
00:26:45
Speaker
I do sponsor them locally here
Music Festival Scene Post-Pandemic
00:26:48
Speaker
in Muskoka. Yeah, we've got Tegan and Sarah coming up. They're at the Empire Theatre in a couple of weeks too. Yeah, and Big Sugar's playing in Huntsville as well. Okay. Bruce Coburn's coming by. Yeah, we've got some good shows coming up. It's just great. I'm so glad after COVID to see live music back, and I know it's a bit expensive for people.
00:27:13
Speaker
uh, compared to pre COVID. But, uh, uh, I just think it's great that when we can celebrate music and, um, you know, it just makes life a little bit better, doesn't it? Music has made a comeback since COVID, but, or sorry, live music. But one thing that hasn't is, um, documentary festivals. Cause I, apparently I hear hot docs in Toronto is on the verge of, of not existing. Interesting. Interesting. So.
00:27:41
Speaker
And some of the big music festivals in the U.S. like Coachella and Lollapalooza have lost their luster. So they have. Oh, they have. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think it's more like smaller ones that are kind of? I think so. Yeah. It's a little bit better for them. But Coachella usually would sell out in like two hours or something like that. And it took weeks for it to sell out.
00:28:04
Speaker
Really? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Where is it? Is it always in the same place? Yeah, that's always in just out in India, California, just outside of Palm Springs. Are you going? No. Okay. Yes. No, no, I went in 2015. That's fine. Now, if Stephen Harper was going, would you go?
00:28:23
Speaker
I haven't, I haven't seen Stephen Harper recently. Well, you posted a picture of him the other day. I did. Well, I posted a picture because it was 20 years since we ran against each other for leader. And, uh, with Belinda was in that picture too. Belinda Stronik was in that picture too. What's she doing now? I have no idea. Interesting.
00:28:45
Speaker
It's funny. She was the big star 20 years ago. I know. It's amazing how sometimes in the world of politics like that, she just kind of disappeared. But her father is, all of a sudden, we should get him on the show, actually. He's created a foundation, a political foundation. He's talking about how our economy is going to hell in a hand basket under Trudeau and how we've got to fix our economy.
00:29:14
Speaker
Hired Anthony fury to lead his foundation. We need well, let's get him on but we need more liberals to remember Yeah, that's true that's true I was actually getting worried for a minute there because we went almost an entire show without mentioning Steve He's an avid listener when we appreciate we appreciate all our listeners Jody. Yes, but mostly we appreciate Steve the most Sure, yeah, that's right
00:29:42
Speaker
All right, that wraps up another episode. Tony, thanks so much for your efforts today. Going to give a quick shout out to our presenting sponsor, John Martin and the team at Municipal Solutions. You can find them online.
00:29:55
Speaker
at municipalsolutions.ca. Also, our newest partner, the great crew at KWM Consulting. Check them out for all your consulting needs at kwmconsulting.com. And finally, don't forget to listen to us each Saturday morning on radio, real radio, not podcast, but real radio at 88.7 Hunters Bay Radio. Tony, we will do this again in seven days. Enjoy the rest of your week.