Shaun Newman Podcast - #1119 - Sylvain Charlebois

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois—“The Food Professor”—is a food economist at Dalhousie University and director of its Agri-Food Analytics Lab. A leading Canadian voice on grocery prices, supply chains, and food policy, he leads the annual Canada’s Food Price Report and co-hosts The Food Professor podcast. Raised on a Quebec farm, he is a frequent commentator on how food gets from farm to plate—and what it costs.Cornerstone Forum 26’https://shaunnewmanpodcast.substack.com/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

This is Brett Weinstein. This is Tom Longo. This is Bruce Party. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is Dr. Pierre Corey. Hi, this is Frank Peretti. This is Danielle Smith.

This is James Lindsay. This is Vance Crow and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday. How's everybody doing today? We are coming to live. You may be able to hear some kids yelling in the background. We're coming to you live from the campground near Quebec City.

There, is that exact enough for your side? some of the people who are like you're not actually in Quebec City. That's right. For like 30 minutes outside of it. Regardless, I tell you what, this campground has given me a new perspective on Quebec. I was feeling pretty sour about some of the interactions I'd had in Quebec, not on the podcast, just in general. You know, language barrier, all the things. It just kind of felt cold.

And then we walked into Stoneham, and there were kids absolutely everywhere. Like just absolutely everywhere at this campground. And befriended the neighbor. He is in the military. We started talking like right away. Everybody just here was like super nice. I'm like, oh my God. Like Mel was laughing at me because I was just like I was waiting for, you know, like, wait.

Are, is it true? Like Too says, the French are assholes? Is that what's going on here, folks? I don't know. And then we stepped into Stoneham and I would say, too, is you wrong? There's lots of wonderful people here. regardless it took some time because i was sitting waiting for something to change finally it has so that's where we're sitting on a monday um now before we get into today's show you know where i'm

going we're going to precious metals and you know i got some quebec listeners i assume the french the quebecua uh buy some uh precious metals too assume it isn't just an english thing But regardless, when you're buying, selling, or storing precious metals, silver gold bull is who I'm going to direct you to. They obviously ship North America wide, so into Quebec as well. And they can answer all your questions. Down the show notes, Graham is the guy to talk to. You can text or email him and get the details on anything to do with precious metals. Of course, you can just go to silvergoldbill.com and order directly, create account, and then it ships directly to your doorstep.

It also stop into Costco and see what they're doing. They're, you know, they got silver gold bull in there as well. So they're all over the place. And when it comes to precious metals here in North America, no matter if you're sitting in Quebec or back home in Alberta, that's who I'd point you to when it comes to precious metals, right? And Bow Valley Credit Union, they're teaming up with Silver Gold Bowl to bring back the Cornerstone Forum. That is going to be May 2027.

So just be on the lookout here as we get, you know, what is it? Is it back to school today back home? I think it is. That's kind of what the neighbor was telling me yesterday. You know, it's kind of sad. Everybody's going back to school. And we're pushing on while we're in Quebec for at least a couple more days. But regardless, yeah, Bull Valley Credit Union, Silver Gold Bull.

They're teaming up to bring back the Cornerstone Forum. and if you're sitting in Alberta and you're looking for a bank that it's all about lending deposits, real financial advice, you can open bank accounts, talk through lending options and get help with banking all in a space design for conversations, not transactions. If you want smarter bank with gold, silver,

Bitcoin, sell money, and personal freedom, well, think BVCU. For all your banking needs, head to bow valley,cuh.com. And once again, a hat tip, you can't see me, but a hat tip to Silver Gold Bull and BVCU for bringing the cornerstone form. them back to Calgary. When it comes to firearms,

I was, like I say, Jay, if you do end up listening to this, he was, him and his wife were beside us with their two kids, and he was a Van Dew, or is a Van Dew, I should say, so, you know, serves in the military, and, well, I should have asked him his thoughts on some of the firearms things going on in this country. Well, if you want to cut through the noise

and find out what you can and cannot do, go to the experts of Prophet River. They ship across the country, and they are the major retailer of firearms, optics, and accessories, and they serve all you find Canadians. Profitriver.com. That's where you want to have, okay? And deck season, I don't care what anyone says, deck season is still here, all right? The sun's still shining on this side.

And for everything would, I point you to Windsor Plywood back in my hometown, Lloyd Minster, 3605, 51st Avenue. Yeah, stop in and see Carly and the team, whether you're, you know, you're working, on, you know, a few different projects and maybe a mantle, decks, windows, doors, sheds, podcast studios, podcast studio tables, Carlina's team got all that character would that can make you like sharp. All right. Now, if you haven't subscribed to Substack, I don't know what you're doing,

but you should. It's free, for starters. It's free, okay? So you can get all the episodes there. You can get the week in review there. Now, if you've become a paid member, support the podcast, one, but two, you're getting a, bonus questions now on pretty much every guest for the next year as we go across the country.

It's just super easy to do with them. So we've been having lots of fun asking some bonus questions to all the guests. That's for paid members. The episode I did with Mel is only airing for paid members. So that was back in Ontario when we were traveling. We were talking about the road trip. There's also Tanner in Today's Masterclass, The Life of Paul. That is for paid subscribers.

So we're building some things out there that, you know, hopefully trying to build some things that you guys are excited about. And Jack is pushing me. We're going to have some free tickets or a draw coming up for the Cornerstone Forum. So the first tickets that are going to be had for the Cornerstone Forum are going to be hidden in on a draw for the paid members of Substack. Okay? So there.

There's enough reasons to maybe head on over there. Hopefully we'll see you there. I've been rambling on for long enough. We're in a campground just north of... Quebec City. It is beautiful. And once again, the people here at this campground, just tons of kids, beautiful little streams running through it and mountains. They're not the Rockies, but, you know, it's tucked right inside some mountains. It's nice. It's quite beautiful. The language barrier thing is interesting, though. I'll say that. Parle-vous-Engle? I think I'm starting to say that right.

Ben Trudeau wants me to go downtown Quebec City and ask about Alberta independence. What do you think? Shoot me a text if you think that's a good idea. I guess we'll see if we're going to have some fun here this week. All right, that's all I got for you. Let's get on to that tale of the tape. Today's guest is a food economist at Delhousie University and director of its Agra Food Analytics Lab. You know him as the food professor.

I'm talking about Dr. Sylvan Charlebo. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Sylvan Charlebeau. And I probably kill that name every time I say it, but I'm hoping I'm a little closer, a little closer than Helen Gruse.

And I'm saying that one wrong, too. So yes, you can have a laugh at me. But first off, great to, I don't know, finally meet you in person. Yeah, welcome to Montreal. It's not my hometown anymore, but I know the city quite well. And so, and I spend most of my summers, actually, in the great city of Montreal. But I live in Halifax, my family.

We're going to have to your mic etiquette. You got to hold the thing and you've got to put it up to your life. Is that it? Yeah, it is. Okay. Yeah, it is. So I got, yeah, right. I'm not used to this.

I have typically just the mic being. Well, actually, it's funny. That's been one of the most difficult things to be on the road. We started off with on a lapel. And, you know, like, when you do virtual, there's certain things. You talk to somebody who doesn't have a mic, and it kind of comes through. You're like, there's not much I can do about it. The sound is not great.

Yeah. Well, starting on the road. road, what was I saying, 54 days ago, I ran into similar issues. We went back to old school holding the mic because it seemed to give us the best sound for what we got going on. Yeah, absolutely. Now, I sit in Montreal and I appreciate you, you have me in and doing this. I think, you know, probably the number one thing that is being talked about is the trade talks, trade war, trade, discussions, trade, whatever you want to call it. I think, you know, I harken back to our last conversation where I'm like, you know, at some point, we just have to realize we're a giant country, but we're not a giant population.

We're not, you know, we have lots of output, but it goes to roughly one spot and, like, we have to understand the circumstances we put ourselves in. maybe you're going to tell me something completely different today, but let's start with, I don't know, the U.S., Canada trade, and I'm going to let you put it fill in the blank. Dispute. Dispute. I like that. Okay. Misalignment. I guess I, it's been really challenging. I've been out there talking to media for, what, 25 years, and I've had to deal with several issues. Sometimes tens issues like, going back to Mad Cow. You're from Loing Minster, so you probably remember Matt Cow. I think every farmer in the West remembers Mad Cow. Oh, yeah, so I did my research on Mad Cow when I was living in Saskatchewan.

I mean, you met one of my daughters. She was born in Regina. And so we understand how devastating that was. But when I was through my research, when I was trying to inform the public, it wasn't really all that challenging. were receptive, they weren't judgmental, it wasn't political, people were hurting, and people understood that. This time around it's completely different and I find some of the things that are being said are plainly embarrassing from our political

class for example like hearing Premier Ford telling President Trump to kiss my I mean seriously is this is this Canada seeing fellow citizens booing national anthems the World Cup the World Cup when the world is watching and we're hosting the event the most global sporting event in in in the world with the United States and we boo the national anthem in Toronto and so those are the kinds of that just makes me feel quite embarrassed really And that's when I realize this has become a really irrational debate because there is no place for debate. It's either you're either for or against Canada.

And not just we're not talking about parties, a leader. It's just if you criticize anything. It's another thing in a series of events where if you want nuance, you're not going to find it. You're going to find you're either pro-Canada or you're against-eastern. Canada. There's no middle ground where you can actually have a common sense discussion. And we see that on pretty much every issue today. Yeah. I mean, and

I don't know what it's true. We kind of caught up to the Americans on that because in America you have this dual system between the Republicans and Democrats. And I remember George W. Bush played that car pretty well. You're either for us or against us, going to war. You know, against Afghanistan.

And that's kind of the language I'm hearing right now. We're at war. a trade war, which will serve a political purpose. But to me, when you look at the data, when you look at what's going on with the United States, whether you disagree with what's going on or not, it is not a war.

It's a trade dispute, if you will, but it's really a shift in foreign trade policy coming from the White House. And again, I disagree with President Trump's approach, I believe that globalization has actually done well for Canada and for the world. It's made the world more food secure. But President Trump doesn't believe that anymore. He doesn't believe in an institution.

He doesn't believe in global institutions. He's clearly not a globalist, where we in Canada were led by a globalist, which is fine. But with this shift in foreign policy, the Americans, they've been able to sign on 21 countries with trade deals in recent months. And we were supposed to be 22. But the population wants Ottawa to stand up and fight. And whenever I hear population, you're talking about Ontario and go back, correct? Maybe the East?

I'm inclusive by nature. It's funny because I go. So, West, I don't think that's the, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I live under a rock. Well, listen, I lived in all parts of the country with the exception of BC with my family. So I can appreciate how frustrating it is in the prairies to hear that. I mean, I work with colleagues at Guelph. I work with colleagues at McMaster, UFT, and the center of the world for them is not.

Not it's Toronto, southern Ontario. Sure. That's basically it. Yeah, but the world doesn't revolve on them, and their stupidity revolves for all Canadians. Maybe they should remember that. And then they should probably remember some of our greatest resources. Don't come from cottage country.

Like they come from hardworking people that are toiling in the mud and cold and everything else. And, like, they're into the spat. I like dispute. I think that's what we have to remind ourselves. War seems like it's life or death where it's like, Donald Trump is literally playing with all your emotions. That's what he does. And that's what he wants to do.

And he's actually doing a pretty good job at it. And we're letting him do that. And if you look at Claudia Shahnbaum, the president of Mexico, she's been masterful at handling Donald Trump. And everyone is always saying, oh my God we've been badly treated by the White House Canada is the number one victim in the world no pay attention if you actually look at how Trump dealt with Mexico the Gulf of America the wall narco president I mean I could go on and on the insults it's just been unbelievable

and but for Canada it's okay to insult Trump but it's not okay to insult us which is really bizarre, really, because we're a small economy. But now, since then, and these are facts. I mean, now Mexico is the number one trading partner with the U.S. They've surpassed Canada. Nobody's talking about that, but the numbers are pretty clear. Mexico is ahead of the game now, and they love it. The thing about, you know, the Davos speech and Carney's messaging, what I find very interesting, and I was... I was in Ireland in June giving a talk to business folks. And it was the week that Carney was there in Ireland.

Do you remember? He was actually there for a week and he was super popular, made fun of Trump in front of a crowd. And when I arrived, in the airline, oh, your prime minister was here. He's great. He's awesome. His message is strong. He's going against Trump. That's great.

And then I, so I went on stage and I asked, how many politicians have actually endorsed Carney? Dozens. How many countries have actually economically supported Canada in its pursuit to negotiate and deal with Donald Trump? The answer is zero. Lots of talk, no move. Carney is very popular internationally, but Canada's alone. So why is it that Canada's alone here? when we're right or are we I I think that that's the question you don't hear a whole

lot so when you listen to media here in Canada you hear a lot about you know Mark Carney being popular and and being influential around the world I don't see not the media I don't see I don't see influence I don't see any measurable influence in the world I mean influence being what follow the money there's no money well you're messing with the superpower of the world that has Donald Trump at the helm. You can love or hate Donald Trump all you want. Being pragmatic about it goes, if we're going to pick, yeah, Canna, you want to go pick a fight? Give her. Well, yeah, we believe in you. We believe in you. But then

you point out there's nothing behind. I saw, so last week I visited a honey manufacturing plant. I love, I enjoy visiting companies because it keeps, keeps it real, you know. And as an academic, I don't make food. I eat it, but I don't make food. I have tremendous respect for our farmers and processors and anybody in the food business. We owe a lot to them. So that's why I do what I do. I try to protect them because they're voiceless. Do you think they can actually go out in front of a camera or talk to a mic and say, Connie's wrong because he's hurting my business? They can't do that. They can actually hurt their own business because one customer can't can be a liberal.

One customer can say, no, we're doing the right thing. And they see a CEO of a supplier on screen say, oh my God, what is he doing? Or what is she doing? So they can't do that. They're voiceless. I can speak on their behalf. But I have to know what's going on. So when I visit companies, I ask them, so what's your number one priority?

What keeps you up at night? And it's all about trade right now. Lots of uncertainty. Because, I mean, I've often said it in public. And every time I say it, I look at Canadians, and they look at me, what are you talking about? I often say, I don't understand Canada's strategy. I just, with Kazma, I don't understand it.

Maybe you do. I don't. Like, he actually put up a video in April saying, America is our number one liability. Two weeks later, he was in New York saying that Canada will make America great again. Within two weeks. What's the strategy?

You know? And so you want to get close to China? Fine. But why did they slap a 75% tariff on peas to Canada just a few weeks ago? That relationship is not going well either. So what is the strategy? When you go to America, and I was actually in Delaware a few weeks ago,

I mean, for Americans, the dispute with Canada is not really about Canada. It's about China. And I get it. Okay, so if it is about China, for us too, I don't see any results. I mean, we did see some result with Canola, which is great. we're still waiting for lobster, we're still waiting for other seafood products,

we're still waiting for pork as well. So there's still a lot of empty promises so far. But the frustrating part is that canes are still willing to accept that. And I don't think we should. We should expect more. Well, we should expect more.

It shouldn't even be expected. We should demand more. Yeah. But whenever I... But when you have... When you have a population, and sorry to use that word, but that is not properly informed. I mean, you... Yeah, but I mean, I agree with you when they're not properly informed.

But we're just slowly starting to undo that. It takes time. Everybody hates when they say it takes time. But for my entire life, up until five years ago, you would have said, you just tune in the CBC and you'll get all your information. Well, five years ago, we learned, and probably people knew this long before that, But certainly five years ago, you learned that isn't where you go because they are so pro-government. And there's been lots of stories written.

Go to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Chris Sims, there's others that point out how much money is going that way and how much pro-leaning government they are. And you just see the heck is this. But it's not just the CBC. No, it isn't. It's, I mean, did you hear about what happened with my column at La Price? Yes. So I was writing for them with 25 years and pro bono, you know, and was proud to do that every week for 25 years. But one day, and what you're talking about is the problem I saw pretty much at the same time as you did.

But I didn't say anything because I need media to do my work. But this year I said enough is enough. I mean, this is just too darn bad. I mean, every single news outlet have turned into an NPR. You know, they're all crowns now. The CBC, what we may disagree with is that I have always actually accepted CBC's biased.

And once again, maybe I just didn't realize it was biased. Listen to BBC, ABC and Australia. They're all biased. CNN, right? Like, you look at it. No, but private is different. Okay. Private thereafter a market.

When you have a Crown Corporation, the mission is very different. It's public, publicly funded. You know, so you see documentaries produced by the CBC on Tommy Douglas, on Pierre de Trudeau. You'll never see a documentary made by the CBC on Brian Maroney or Stephen Hopper, ever, ever. I'm not holding my breath, and I'm okay with that.

To be honest, I'm okay. The problem we have now is that there's $800 million that are going to other media outlets like CTV, like La Price. Okay. La Price made $9 million last year. Okay. They got $11 million in subsidies. They would lose money without our dollars. And so I wrote a piece on Facebook saying, you know what?

I'm concerned. because what I'm seeing right now is editorial bias everywhere, the globe, the star. Everyone is aligned with the Carney agenda. And to criticize Carney is close to impossible to get any sort of attention. If you write an op-ed saying this is wrong, like last year with Trudeau with the County Terrace, the first round, I don't know if you remember, but with the elbows up, people were saying, what are you talking about? Why are you criticizing counterterrorism important? We have to fight back. Well, that's attacks on ourselves. What are you talking about?

So I actually criticized that, and food inflation went up. Price of food went up as a result, 0.5 to 0.7%. We actually measured it, but nobody cared because it was about fighting back. It made sense blind. So all the media supported that rhetoric, and it made Canadians a not aware of what is really going on. And it's been very frustrating. So that's the big problem we have. So what is really going on then? If I go back to COVID times,

I mean, I literally just came from interviewing Helen Grus. I'll say that wrong 50 more times, sorry folks, for doing her job. Yeah. And you go, well, what is that? Is that they have everybody bought and paid for? Is that ideology? Is it all the above?

When it comes back to media and what you're talking about, Canadians have felt zero pride in themselves for a long time. We had Trudeau lead us. I can't find a single Canadian. I'm sure they're out there, but a single Canadian up to this point across Canada, they'll see a good word about Trudeau, and yet we invoted in the liberals.

Yeah. And I can't make that math work. So like you go, oh, it's a problem that's been going on. Yeah, we have a real problem going on here. that. And I go, oh, we're just going to fix it. Well, our fixing it right now is, is everybody getting, we have a tough leader in. Well, that's because we had 10 years of socks and, I mean, he's off dance with Katie Perry now and everything else, right? We wanted a leader, and we got Mark Carney. And Mark Carney does and says things that some Canadians, and maybe even more than some,

think is the right approach to Donald Trump. But what amazes me with Prime Mr. Carney is that he was, elected to do the complete opposite of what he's doing and if I put aside the trade issue sure because he promised to well he promised a deal he didn't get it he promised to defend the carbon tax he scrapped some of it he's done a lot of things that really a concert would do really and people are still okay with that which is really which is interesting I mean Canada is an elderly liberal the subsidies given into media to all private media will actually make liberals undefeatable.

I don't see how the consumer will actually get back into power anytime soon because of what's going on with media. And I think that the meta deal they botched was on purpose so they can actually control the message with private media in particular. It's quite scary because if you want to support the media, a true democracy, you want to make sure that your population is well-informed. And people are starting to notice that they're not well-informed with mainstream media. And that's why my podcast is becoming more popular. Your podcast is becoming more popular. People are tuning off and they don't believe what they're seeing on their screen,

on their TV screens. Yeah, I can't disagree with that. I mean, and I think what I'm seeing right now is some adjustments. I think the Gordie Hallbridge-Kaffaulffel, something happened, okay? Because, I mean, I knew something was up, the ambassador to the United States. Peter Oshra was on my show in June. It was the last show before our break for the summer. And we spoke for about how.

half an hour and for half of our conversation was about the Gordy Howe deal being questioned by the Americans. And, I mean, in my view, you can say all you want about what happened with the Gordy Howbridge deal. I mean, the Americans actually second-guessed the deal because, you know what? They can. It's America, okay? And they decided that the deal was not good enough.

So it may not be fair, but trades are not about fairness and equality. Those are values that Canadians share and endure. That's really what matters to Canadians, right? But trades is not about equity. It's about leverage. So you remember when I was Sandy before we started? You just used the perfect word that I was trying to describe. If you actually want to get a better deal with the United States,

let's just play this thought out. We really want to go tough on the Americans. We just do. Then you need to get leverage, and right now we have none. I was joking with you before we started. But John, we got potash. We got electricity. Sure.

Sure, like you can play it off like we have all this leverage. But you don't understand. Well, you understand. I think my audience understands. It isn't the leverage you think it is. No. No, no, absolutely not. So there's some delusional arguments being provided.

there and people are buying it and so we do not have leverage so the Gordy howe bridge to me was a bit of a I think it was a ha moment for a lot of people especially in the media because they actually decided to once again listen to Mark Carney about the deal and he lied he misled the public he said things that weren't true for example he said that you know really the levy would be split and and the that the bridge would be paid for by the Americans eventually. It was everything he said was not true. And it took an American outlet, Bloomberg,

to contradict our own prime minister, while the Canadian media was buying into what Mark Honey was saying. They were all embarrassed because they were reporting something that was not true. And you needed an American outlet to say, we got the deal here, we got a copy. of the deal. We actually have the copy of the deal and what Carney said is wrong and then they had to backtracked. But they didn't backtracked. They didn't say anything. And so it

just left the came population wondering, okay, so what really happened? And so when the trade deal broke last week between Donald Trump and Mark Carney, the first knee jerk reaction to a lot of others well can we can we see the failed deal now I mean maybe we should look at the text before we report on anything isn't that logical I mean I would certainly look at the text and that's why I mean right now you've seen Greer saying some things you've heard Carney said a few things about French about some of the issues related to to allowing Canada to negotiate with other countries which is complete Why would America ask Canada not to negotiate with other countries?

It's ridiculous. It is a ridiculous thing to ask from a trading partner. It would never happen. It didn't happen, but Carney said that, and he said arguments about the French language, which, again, was contradicted by Greer on the CBC yesterday. So it's incredibly, I do. wonder why people are so gallable. They just focus on the evidence and not what Carney or Paulyev or

anyone else is saying. I mean, just political class is there to sell something, but the media is there to ask the tough question. So, and they're not. Dominique Leblanc was on Squawk Box this week. I don't if you saw the interview. I did not. I posted the video. Okay. It was painful. Because you could tell that Dominic Leblanc, the Minister of International Affairs, was facing questions you would never face in Canada.

So Squawk Box is Wall Street. Everyone listened. If you're on Wall Street, you listen to Squablai. I listen to Squabbox. It's a great show. Joe Vernon is a well-known, well-respected anchor. And he asked, Damocle Blah, okay,

so there's a report from the OECD. ranking 38 countries, and Canada ranks dead last in terms of economic growth prospects over the next 10 to 20 years. How does that give you leverage? And then, of course, Dominab not said, well, there's one report, but there are the reports showing other things, and blah,

blah, blah, and of course, and he went out for a few minutes, and then he interrupted him, well, listen, your economy's going in our direction. Our economy's growing, and we're the number one in the world, while your country, your economy is moving sideways. How does that give you leverage

against the largest economy in the history of humankind. So his answer was really weak, because he knew that he didn't have like a proper answer. I saw Olivia Chow on CNN. CNN? I think it was CNN. The mayor of Toronto. You didn't see that one? No.

Her asking if she supported, getting asked, if she supported shutting down electricity to the United States and a whole bunch of different? was asked that on CNN? Yeah. Was it CNN? Forgive me, folks. Now I'm drawing a blank. It was an American broadcast, American news outlet. Forgetting it was CNN or not.

Regardless, it was her getting asked and saying repeatedly, well, yeah, probably, and then the lady just grilling. And once again, it's what you just said about LaBlock. You can tell it's not a Canadian news outlet because of the questions they're asking. Oh, yeah. Because they're pretty direct. They're pretty direct. They don't.

Wow, I mean, this is where I sympathize with Canadian media. You ask a direct question to a politician, and they find a way to talk about, you know, if we're talking hockey, they're talking soccer. Heck, they're probably talking cooking. And you're like, why are we talking about that? But it's the follow-ups. It's the follow-ups. And the follow-ups aren't necessarily, like, when you look, I don't know if you've actually looked at some of the pressers with Prime Minister Carney. But he doesn't allow follow follow-ups.

And those are the real questions. And so you'll have clips that are really nice, and they may answer or not answer the question. It doesn't matter, but the follow-ups forces the politician to address specific issues. And follow-ups are hard. On the other hand, I mean, I would say Paulyev has not helped himself distancing himself from media as well.

He has to work with them. It's the necessary evil. You have to. That's the thing about, I think it has hurt the conservatives. If I were the leader of the conservative party, I would absolutely embrace the tax credit program to media, then get elected, and then scrap it.

Sorry, I wanted to make sure I wasn't pulling your leg on this. It's CNN. It's CNN. Here, sorry, folks. I'm just going to play it. As a measure to get the U.S. to the negotiating tape. needs to do. We cannot continue this way because... So it's funny to me because like...

So she's not against it. Correct. Right? Like what would be the answer? No, I'm against doing that. Like, obviously. Just a nice simple answer. But what it's like, what we're showcasing is how inept we are. Like we just, we don't have any... You want to talk about strongly? Like, listen, there's a ton of things Daniel Smith does right. And usually when it comes to these two moments. She stands up and goes, we're not going to do that and this is why. Yeah. Right. And, you know, like, the rest of the political class is just not even got their foot in their mouth. They just don't even know what they're talking about. Yeah.

You know, and these are the leaders that we, I mean, that's, as somebody rightfully pointed out, that's the mayor of the largest city in Canada. The council, it's. And she's running for reelection. It's sad. And I bet you, if you, if you went. to all the major cities in Canada right now, they'd all agree with her. Probably. That's sad. Well, I mean, Premier Scott Moe and Premier Smith,

they both were pretty clear in the last 24 hours about potash and oil. It's a bad idea to surtax, to accruly tariffs on those two commodities going to the U.S. It's just a bad idea because you'll end up hurting Canada. But it takes a while before people understand that. it's easy to, you know, let's hurt Trump. There's so much fascination around Trump that people forget about collateral damage.

And that's why I think the reversal on fish and seafood that happened this week. So on Tuesday they announced they were applying counterterrorism on fish and seafood, only to realize after a few phone calls that they would hurt Canadian harvesters, Canadian processors way more than America. So when they saw it, because I was actually pretty

vocal about this this week. I mean, I'm from Halifax. I mean, you're going to hurt our economy, way more than hurting Maine or California. You're going to be sushi more expensive, okay, but what about the rest of the economy? And so they actually reverse. So we just got ourselves a maple taco. I'm going to ask everybody as I go across Canada, Alberta Independence. Yeah. It's kind of the same, well, I don't know, because we're talking, to a guy who went through two referendums in Quebec. I know. Yeah.

Okay. So then your thoughts on Alberta and a referendum coming? It's funny because when I give, I was actually in Calgary a few weeks ago. And my talk was about AI and automation. I mean, nothing to do. So it was to a bunch of investors and there were farmers in the room. And it was about 400 people in the room. So one guy goes up to the mic and said, Sylvie, you're from Quebec?

So what advice would you give to Albertans? I was not ready for that question, like at all. And so I said, well, first of all, I mean, it's up to Alberta to decide what they want to do. And I'm not from Alberta. So I'll, sure. I would say, second, I would say Canada, without picking camps, Canada, is much stronger, much stronger with Alberta than without. Once again, none.

And I'm from Nova Scotia. We get $2 billion in equalization money. So thank you, Alberta. So I made that clear. I mean, I certainly would embrace Canada with Alberta. But third, and I think that was the most important advice, and Quebec paid a dear price for not doing just that, is that when you make a decision,

and I hope you will have an opportunity to make a decision, move on as quickly as possible. Because once you decide, oh, let's get it, let's go after it next time, and next time, and next time. You affect the economy, you bring uncertainty, people don't invest as much, and people leave. And yes, they would probably leave Alberta. That's what happened here.

I mean, Toronto, Olivia Chow should erect a golden statue of Renélez-Leveik on Youngstreet just because of all the money in the people that left Quebec in the 70s and 80s because they were sick of the separatist movement. And by the way, I would including myself and my family, because we left Quebec because of the kafel around separatism. We were sick of it. We were sick of it. We just didn't want any part of it, and we wanted to basically raise our family in a place

where there's just no rhetoric around separatism, because separatism in Quebec is very different in Alberta. So in Quebec, it's about protecting a culture mainly, without any means. Because Quebec is not a rich province like Alberta, but it's really about identity. and culture. So the separatist movement has always been led by the intellectuals and the cultural

movement. In Alberta, it's fueled by anger towards Ottawa, really. Because when you go to, I mean, Jilde-Sepa actually did a pretty good job as a leader of Block. You went around country and said, listen, we want to separate from Canada, but it has

nothing to do with you. We love, Alberta. We love Saskatchew. one. It's just, you know, we want to protect our own language. That's really what it boils down to. In Alberta, you were clearly, clearly in an abusive relationship for decades, decades without reacting, without doing anything. I'm not surprised about what's going on right now in Alberta. I was actually, I had two coffees with people that are part of the separatist move in Alberta so I can understand. where the movement is coming from. And what I find interesting with Alberta is that you don't necessarily have

intellectuals leading the separatist movement. It's more grassroots. That's my impression anyways. And there is going to be a division. It is going to divide the province. It is dividing the province. I mean, I've had family members separated from the rest of the family

because they were separatists. So you had the Federalists, you had the separatists, That's what's going to happen in Alberta. So they have families, friends who won't talk to each other because they disagree on this one thing. Yeah, well, those people are already separated because of COVID. They're probably already separated because of Kearney or elbows up or whatever. That is more of the trend I see with society is you get an issue. We cannot talk about said issue.

So you pick your side. And then it doesn't matter how right or wrong the other side is. It's like you're on that team. We're not the problem in society right now. Yeah. You know, you go, they're going to separate, they're not going to talk to you because you're a separatist. I go, if that's the case, they probably aren't talking it because of some choice you made in COVID. And if that isn't the case, it's probably how you voted in the last election.

And if that is the case in society right now, it's going to be the case in the days to come, the weeks to come, the months to come, because that's the way we're trending. Yeah. And it's a very interesting. In Quebec, I mean, right now, there's an election. election in Quebec. Yes. And if the election would have been, we had them. Yes. They're in the head and the polling. But a referendum today in Quebec would be very different. And so I mean, you're looking at a guy who actually did some door knocking for the no side in 1995. Okay. With my brother. Well, I was only nine years old at the time. So I was sitting there watching this going, what is going on

over there? I'd be very curious. Oh yeah. I was knocking doors, convincing people, Canada, a great country. I fought for Canada all my youth, you know, and, you know, I was actually waving the Quebec flag, but as soon as you waved the Quebec flag, you're separatists. They stole my flag from me, and if I was 25 years old at the time. That's funny. The elbows up crowd stole my flag from me. So, like, I mean, this is, this is something. So you can relate. Well, when we, when we wrote across Canada flying the Canadian flag, it was a hate symbol. When it goes against Trump, it becomes everybody's, this is the problem.

we see all the time. I know. This is the world we live in. I know. But our fund in Quebec is a little, I think, would be a little bit different. About 30% of Quebecers actually are in favor of separatists, of separation. But because it's cultural, it's pushed by culture and language, I would argue that kids today, because of the Internet, because of social media, I mean, there's a lot of, I mean, most kids are exposed to

English so it's not as foreign and as a as a young Quebecer I learned English I when I was 18 I was intimidated by Ontario I was intimidated by English because my God I mean this that's an America going to the United States I was because I was a French Canadian you know we're not we weren't rich I mean it's just we just saw this rock rest of Canada being this magical powerful thing and so I was intimidated and but kids today I don't see the same thing. They're not as, because they're more exposed to all of that through their phones and laptops. And so I don't think that separatism will ever win in Quebec because of that.

But in Alberta, that's not what we're talking about. In Alberta, it boils down to welfare, wealth, and prosperity. And so do you prosper? Canada or outside of Canada and you can argue pretty solidly on both sides right now. So I personally think that the Alberta dilemma is way more complicated than the dilemma that Quebecers face right here. Interesting. Well, I mean, as a guy who doorknocked to stay in the country, you look at Alberta's case

compared to Quebec's case back in the 90s and go, there's a stronger case for Alberta go then? Oh, there's no doubt on my mind. I don't mean that they should go. But I've never been a separatist, so a separatist probably would disagree with you. But when you look at the business case, the economic case for both, Alberta is slam dunk. I mean, the biggest problem Alberta has is that it's not close to any water. That's really the biggest problem. But that can be easily solved with treaties. deals and things like that. By business.

Yeah. And transmounted, I mean, if the Keystone Project happens, yikes, that's going to solidify your case even more because you can actually trade with the U.S. easily. Well, you think if you became your own country, you could trade with the U.S. very easily, in theory. Yeah. And so what I find funny and going back to the media thing, I mean, I was raised in Quebec. I knew for a fact that the PQ, the separatist party,

continuously had discussions with France. So France would recognize the sovereign authority of Quebec as a nation once you have that boat. And Albertans did the same thing with the US, but they were heavily criticized in the media for doing so, which I thought was interesting. I never actually once saw anybody criticize separatists going to France to get some sort of endorsement. You know, Jacques Parisou did it.

He was open about it. Bernard Andri, another premier, he did it the same. Is it possible when you're a minority, even though a large minority in French, that being a minority, they went, well, we can't criticize it because it will only fuel it more. whereas the English side of the world of Canada, if you're white, you speak English, you come from, you know, blue-collar roots of coming over here and making a life,

as soon as you speak a certain way, it's easy to criticize. I mean, that's been my life for the last, like, 10 years. Yeah. You speak a certain way, you're racist, you're misogynist, what other is can we toss on there? You're, you know, in the middle of COVID, you're an anti-vax, you're all these things, you're like, what the heck are you talking about?

Yeah. So I don't want my daughter to have to compete against males. What does that got to do with anything other than just be in common sense? We want to have a friend out of the United States who is the largest superpower on the planet, not an enemy. Jeez, that just sounds like common sense. And instead, if you are roughly white, English speaking, from a certain part of the country, you get demonized for that. Yeah. And so when I hear that they demonize the guys going out of the States, they go, yeah, that makes complete sense.

It actually tracks with everything to this point. And it actually might help fuel it a bit more, but everybody's so scared of their shadow and what media is going to say about them. I'm like, who cares what media is going to say about you? They're going to hate you anyways. Yeah. No, yeah. I think you have a point. You have a really good point.

It's unjustified, unfortunate, but that's how it is. I've actually been to Alberta many, many. times in my career and I find Alberta to be incredibly tolerant and open-minded. No, it's a wonderful place. They painted as this. When you talk about Alberta here in Quebec, by the way, and I don't

want to piss you off, but... No, no, I'm gibber. I mean, I hear terms like, oh, rednecks. Yeah, and I love it. You know what I love, Sylvand? You go, it's grassroots. It's a simplification of what Alberta is. But on the flip side, I don't want to piss you off. We think of you as elite douchebacks. And I go,

Who cares? This is what the two provinces, you know, stare at each other and then we don't talk. And at the end of the day, it's just fun river. I don't really care. Yeah. Right? So we go out and people think we're redneck.

And I go, that's fine. I live through COVID with a bunch of rednecks that were awesome. And, you know, we didn't get it right. You know, we certainly, you know, the further I move east, it's funny to watch what's happening in Alberta. Because at times it looks like chaos. or like the independence crowd, Daniel Smith, Nenshi, all these different things. It's just so much infighting.

It's chaos. And I go, I love the chaos. It's freedom. And freedom is messy. And the closer you get to the east, it may seem like everybody's in unison, but everybody I talk to is unhappy with the government, sees no way out, feels like they're isolated or they're just one person. What can I do? And I'm like, what a sad existence. I know.

Come out west. It's messy, but man, we sure love to argue. And as their family's not talking to each other? Yes. Is there lots of places that don't get along? Yes. But you're free to do so, in my opinion, and that's okay. And the further I get away from it, the more I miss it, because I just see how crazy it is. Except I get the craziness back home. Here, it's weird. I just hope that once, I hope that Alberta will have an opportunity to make a decision.

If they don't have. an opportunity. Let's just play this out. They shut it down because I've seen that rhetoric coming out too. It shut down the referendum because of a trade war or whatever. That won't die it down. That's going to make it bubble even more. I mean, when the judiciary sat there and went, we need to consult First Nations on whether, you know, the whole thing went on with counting signatures. I'm like, oh my goodness, you want to see people lose their minds. You're giving them the circumstances to do it. Give them the chance. it's the worst thing it happens.

They don't, you know, they get it. Well, it's not even a full referendum. If I'm sitting here talking to Canadians, Eastern Canadians, let Alberta have it. They get 60% so then. Then you have at least another year to convince them to stay. Make the deal even, and probably you lose a good chunk of the Canadians or the Burtons

because they're like, actually, I don't, that's what we want it anyways. You shut it down. That sentiment is only going to grow. Yeah. In my humble opinion, I could be wrong. No, no, no, I, well, it depends of the results, I will. And it also depends on the interpretation of the results. If you're looking at like a 70-40 split, 70-no, we don't want to, you know, have a referendum,

then it's pretty clear cut. Oh, yeah, it's pretty clear cut. So I don't know what the polls are saying right now for October, but I just, I do think I think Albertans deserve to decide. Just simply, I think, because I've seen, I've lived out west with my kids, and yeah, I mean, it's frustrating to be in the prairies. When I was there, you went to Central Canada,

you didn't even exist. And Alberta has paid a dear financial price as a result. politically and economically. So I think you guys, I think Albertans deserve a chance to decide. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you talking about it. Any final thoughts for the audience

before I let you out of here? I mean, I'm a foodie. I look at food all the time. And I know that food has been a big topic in the last few years. I think, I mean, the bottom line is that I think at some point we have to figure out a way to really focus on, you know, making food supply chains much more resilient and stronger.

And, of course, I think we've been good at supporting our farmers, and a lot of policies have actually done that. But I would say that right now, and it's certainly relevant to Alberta, is that we're starting to recognize that the big anchor piece that needs to be nurtured is processing. and we're seeing it right now. I mean, what's funny about the trade dispute going on between the United States and Canada, and this is something that I think your listeners need to know.

We all know that Trump wants to apply terrorists to increase the onshoreing process or the near-shoring. He wants more manufacturing jobs. So we actually did look at food processing on both sides of the border. Do you know what's been happening in the last 16 months? It's incredible. Trump's approach is not working in terms of jobs, okay, but it is working on one front, productivity. Okay? So in the last 15 months, if you look at GDP per hour worked in food processing in the United States,

the percentage has gone up about 2%. So in other words, they're making more food with fewer people, okay? In Canada, it's a lot. It's the opposite. Okay? We actually have seen our GDP per hour work in food processing decline by 5.8%. So the tariff thing is working for a different reason. It's actually forcing manufacturers in the U.S. Because when you think about it, it makes sense.

Trump is making input costs more expensive. If you're a manager of manufacturing in the U.S., what do you do? You automate. You bring more rules. robotics. Use AI. You hire a few people because the stuff you actually have to buy to make your pies and muffins cost you more. So what Trump is doing is actually making his economy more productive. And what crisis are we facing as a nation right now in processing and manufacturing? Productivity. So he got me thinking, you know, wow, this is really interesting.

If there is something we need to do as a nation is to make processing more productive, and if there is one province that is starting to recognize that, it's Alberta. Because Alberta is more processing happening, and I hope it doesn't stop. So the one message I could give to your listeners is that food is important, the entire food supply chain is important, but what's critical of the next five to 10 years is to invest in processing and making it more efficient and productive. If you had a crystal ball or something just looking at the next decade, that's where you see the biggest changes coming in then.

Oh, absolutely. It brings resiliency. If you have a stronger food processing sector, everything gets easier. It's easier to support your farmers. They have a customer, a domestic customer. You're not at the mercy of currencies or geopolitics and tariffs. and all that stuff. And on the other side, you can actually innovate for the marketplace, whether it's here or around the world. You know, we can actually recreate a Red Bull. I mean, Red Bull, I lived in Austria for a year

and had the pleasure to visit the headquarters of Red Bull. To me, that company is fascinating because they never felt they were selling a product. They were selling a lifestyle. So Red Bull, so Red Bull, when it started many years ago, it employed 10 people in this small little town in Austria. And one day they said, you know what?

We're going to sell in a lifestyle. We're going to come up with products like energy drinks and stuff like that. They've ended up transforming. Energy drinks in Canada is a $4 billion business now. Largars the other than Red Bull, just in Canada. And they now employ 23,000 employees. Why can't we do that in Canada? We can.

We got the maple leaves and the canes. That's great, potatoes. It's always Farmgate, and then we'll figure out a way to get the market. Red Bull looked at the market and built an infrastructure like backwards. Demand chain management. Not supply chain management, demand chain management. And that's what they did. And we could do the same.

So you're hopeful that if we're under the right leadership, Canada could go to great places. Oh, yeah, absolutely, without a doubt. But you have to look at, it's like Wayne Gretzky, for example, where the buck is going. And we've... I don't feel like we have a leader like that right now. We don't, but we don't have the mindset either. I'm just putting aside politics. Yeah, no, no, the popular...

And frankly, if you talk to ranchers, if you talk to, they don't care about politics. They just want to make money. They want to build their business. And I got to tell you, I mean, I have a lot of respect for people in business because they put aside politics and they're focusing on their business. And they're pretty resilient. It's just a, I'm just talking about a paradigm shift here. Instead of just growing stuff and figure out of the market, we need to shift things around. And you can't do it without processing.

And so I'm just using the Red Bull example. I can give you another few examples. in Canada we just don't give me give me one more example you got the Red Bull give me one more ooh that's that you've come across that you're like that is that's interesting because you know one of the things one of the things that I admire about you know washing you on X and every and usually X and then getting to sit across from you is you talk to a ton of people in that industry get to see and and I have I think access to a lot of interesting people and curious because then I go, okay, Red Bill comes to mind.

Is there anything else that comes to mind where you're like, you should pay attention to what this company did? Because Red Bull, I mean, I think most of us can stare at it and go, yeah, they are a global company. They're pretty crazy what they've done and become. Is there another company that you go, you should maybe look at what these folks have done as well? Good question.

I can't really think of another example, but I'm just drawing a blank. But I've seen some innovative stuff in Canada, like in Nova Scotia, of all places. So I visited a place called Apple. You probably don't even, never heard of the company, Apple Valley Farms. They make pies, blueberry and apple pies. Do you know how many pies they make a day? $200,000.

Yeah. And they decided to. everything that... It's weird. I love pie and I'm like, I'm pretty sure I've eaten one of these pies, but I'll pay attention to what I'm eating next time. That week I was visiting a poultry slaughtering plant and then that apple pie plant, the smells were different.

I can imagine. But, I mean, everything, what I really admire about that company, that pie company, is that everything that came out of that company they sold. whether it's peels for apples or blueberries or everything they sold. And it's pretty successful. Half of their business goes, actually 75% of their business goes to the U.S. So the Walmart, all the private labeled pies in the U.S., most of them, it comes from there. But they're exposed.

They're exposed to counter-terrorists and terrorists and things like that. But when I met with the president and the executive in the boardroom after my visit, I don't think I actually heard the word Trump once. They're just focusing. They're focusing on their business as much as possible, and they're adapting. Companies are adaptable to any environment. It's just right now, I would say that there's too much attention given to geopolitics. And frankly, as you are, I'm a little bit nervous in terms of how,

And that makes certainly a lot of companies nervous. By the end of the day, I actually do feel that companies are able to do wonderful things. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you sitting down with me. And, you know, it's fun. Like I was saying to your wife before we started, you know, like after you've done a thousand plus interviews, to go across the country and running a whole bunch of you has been, well, it continues to be a ton of fun for me. Yeah.

Virtually is always fun. But what you're doing with you? your family is just incredible they will remember that for the right because I did that myself and they'll remember for the rest of our lives and so this is this is how you make people your your offspring rich like spiritually yeah intellectually they'll experience a bunch of things and it may not mean much now but they'll remember well I was a much younger man was 20 years ago when when we biked across Canada. And no matter how many times I'm told to hate the East,

some of the nicest people we met on that trip were in the East, and I'm like, I just can't do it. And now we're told to hate the Americans and I'm like, I'm married to an American. I go there all the time. You can't convince me of that. That's the dumbest thing ever. Yeah.

But recognizing emotion and how they try and use it has been something, it's been interesting to watch. You know, those things. And what catches on? and what doesn't. Either way, I appreciate you doing this. For the audience, we're going to switch over to substack. We always do the bonus questions, or we've been doing the bonus questions on the in-person tour here. So hold on with me a sec, folks, and if you haven't hopped on to substack before, make sure you head there. It's down on the show notes, and we're going to have a couple

bonus questions with the food professor.