Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Charlie Angus: Toronto Mike'd #1614

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

In this 1614th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Charlie Angus, MP for Timmins—James Bay, about Canada's sovereignty in the face of Donald Trump's threats to annex our nation. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

In June of 1813, Laura Secord overheard the secret plans of the American soldiers in occupation. If you raise your sword against Fitzgibbon, Upper Canada will be broken. How many men can we muster? 500 infantry, battery of artillery, my dragoons. Fitzgibbon can't manage more than 50 men, small bandit natives. Not a serious resistance if you're equal to the Enterprise. Pursue the advance two days hence. Take me to Fitzgibbon. Laura Secord delivered her message to the Canadian troops.

The Kahnawagi Mohawks forced the surrender of 500 Yankee soldiers and the American invasion was stopped. Welcome to episode 1614 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca Committing to our planet's future means properly

recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto Skyline A podcast and book from Nick Aynes and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto Mic'd, it's the Member of Parliament for Timmons, James Bay. It's Charlie Angus. Welcome back, Charlie. Hey, thanks so much for having me back on your great show. And it won't be the last time because you promised me there'll be an episode that is absolutely devoted to your latest book,

Dangerous Memory, Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed. Yes, the book's doing very well and it's a story of Toronto. It's a story of who we are and end up in a world that is as precarious and frightening and dystopian as it is. How did all that happen? Well, we go back to the 1980s. We look at the 1980s in Toronto and around the world and the decisions that were made then that continue to haunt this young generation but also going back to that time to the incredible stories of resistance and culture movements that were happening

that I think would inspire us today to get up off the couch and say yeah let's fight back. Well you've got my attention here Charlie so I'm hoping I'm gonna look in the eye so this came together very quickly because quite frankly I put out a call. I said Charlie, I need you. You saw a bat symbol in the sky. Man, that Gotham thing you've got because we've got a Gotham criminal south of the border but you got a positive Gotham symbol and I came driving into Toronto just to be here. Quite literally. So quite, this is no joke like late yesterday yesterday afternoon I'm like I need Charlie Angus and I need him in the basement and I need to talk to him This is how I'm feeling born and raised here in in Canada

And I'm like if I need Charlie others might need Charlie too. So I like put out a call like Charlie I know you're the MP for you know, Timmons James Bay But can you be in my South Etobicoke basement Monday morning, but here you're the MP for, you know, Timmons James Bay, but can you be in my South Etobicoke basement Monday morning? But here you are. Here I am. Okay, that's amazing. But these are, these are, these are different times, my friend.

People need voices, they need resistance. We're dealing with a time that 2025 is going to be a year of upheaval. So Charlie Angus could do whatever he's got to do to like roll up your sleeves, roll up the sleeves and fight back. Okay well that's what you're here for and we're gonna get right into it. So I do want you to promise to me that you'll return at some point just to talk about dangerous memory coming of age in the decade of greed. Today we have a bigger topic to discuss but I want you to focus on that

next time you visit. Will you return and talk to me about this book? I will return to talk to you about this book because I think it's a really important story and I think there's so much your listeners are going to say, wow, yeah, okay, yeah, that happened, right? I just didn't put all that, all the pieces together. See, I think this particular podcast, we're already collecting a lot of these parts. We really do need you got the template there with the blueprint where it all how it all fits together, what it all means in 2025. So we're going to do that episode. I just want to remind the listeners that you have been in this basement before. It was June 7 2024. That's less than a year ago. It was our episode 1503. I wrote a description at the time. Mike chats with

punk rock MP Charlie Angus about why he's not running in the next federal election. I'll ask you about that again in a moment. Forming Letrange with Andrew Cash and his past and present with Grievous Angels. We talked for an hour. We won't talk that long this time, but I'm glad you're here. I personally have been insulted by the suggestion that Canada would even entertain this idea of joining the United States of America. I'm going to open this up by playing a very brief clip from the incoming president of the United States of America, Donald Trump. I guess we're talking on the 13th, so one week from today is Inauguration Day, but here's what Donald Trump said just the other day. Are you also considering military force to annex and acquire?

No, economic force. Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. But why are we supporting a country, 200 billion plus a year, our military is at their disposal, all of these other things, they should be a state. That's why I told Trudeau. The mic is yours, Charlie. I'm going to sit back and listen. I need your reassurance here. I need you to stand up for the country I love. Talk to me as a sitting MP in the government of Canada. Talk to me. Well, let's just break down what Donald Trump did on January 6th. And what is it about January 6th? I mean, he tried to destroy American democracy in the final last January 6th he was in charge of. What he said on January 6th was that he was going to invade Denmark and Greenland and Denmark, which are under the

European Union. Now of course the French and the Germans pushed back pretty quickly and said just try it, but they're also under NATO. And NATO right now is being threatened by Putin and so if you threaten a NATO ally, it's called Article 5, it brings a military response. So, Trump is undermining the world order. He does that on January 6th. But then he says about Canada that he doesn't have to take us over, that he's going to interrupt $900 billion of two-way trade that benefits benefits both countries and then we will go on our knees and beg this gangster from Mar-Lago to kiss his ring

and become a vassal, whatever, a vassal state of his great realm? Not a chance. Not in one freaking million years is that going to happen and I think what Donald was doing in undermining, treating us like we are some you know joke nation is a Canadians are royally pissed you know we go along with a lot we are pretty reasonable people but that to me is so far over the line and so Canadians are saying well time to stand up what are we we going to do? How are we going to resist? But we will never, ever kiss that gangster's ring, ever, ever, ever, ever. Well, that's music to my ears.

I know you're a great musician, but that's music to my ears right there, Charlie. And what kind of irked me, I'll be quite frank, because, you know, Steve Hagan's been over here a hundred times. We love that guy on the agenda, on TVO. But it feels like there's some sanewashing going on where there's like legitimate journalistic institutions are having conversations about what this would mean for Canada if Canada joins the United States of America, where I'm sitting here in South Etobicoke, non-starter, what are you talking about? United States would have to

invade with military force if they want a Canada to join with them I'm really concerned about the The willingness if Donald Trump says something crazy to reflect on and well, what does he really mean? Is he really gonna break economic Canada economically? Is he going to invade to me? That's all undermining our nation at this point I'm sorry Pundits like get your act together. I'm sorry national leaders get your act together I'm sorry provincial leaders stop gaslighting and trying to cut each other off. Let's put Canada first right now That's what we have to do because here's the thing

There is not a single thing Donald Trump can do to us that frightens me. The only thing that frightens me is that we would be sold out or undermined by our own people who have forgotten to stand up for the values and the decency and the fairness of which Canada has been based on since we were formed as a nation. I know ordinary Canadians get that, but I, that's the only thing that keeps me up at night, is Donald Trump is threatening us, are we going to stand up and present that vision clearly across party lines, across provincial lines and say we're not going to sell each other out, we're not going to undermine each other and cut deals with this gangster, we're going to cut a fair deal for our nation.

That's the question the Canadians need to be thinking of. Well, yeah, it's a very unstable time with regards to federal leadership right now. As you're well aware, they're going to have a new liberal leader, so a new prime minister. And then it's inevitable. And what time is it, Charlie? I've got to check. But inevitably, there'll be a federal election. You have told the world, you've told me you're

not running in this next election is that you haven't changed your mind I made the decision last year we they changed all our electoral boundaries and in northern Ontario where my riding just for people in Toronto to know my region is bigger than the United Kingdom I have many communities without roads I long ago got over fly my fear of flying in small bush planes i've traveled by freighter canoes i've traveled by helicopter uh... to get to isolated communities for the next election they decided that i was somehow are my region was over represented so they've added an extra twenty thousand

square kilometers hundreds of kilometers of new highways about a dozen communities I've never been in before. And after 20 years, I just wasn't up for having to do... For me, politics is local. It's about sitting at a coffee table. It's about sitting at a legion. Throwing all that extra in to me wasn't what I was going to do. But I want to say this. Just because I'm not going to be sitting in parliament doesn't mean I'm giving up as being a voice and an activist for Canada. I felt that if I stayed and took on all that extra mileage and driving and all that organizing and all the communities, I wouldn't have the energy and the time to be able to bring forward perspectives that I think we need now. So I don't know how much my point of view matters or doesn't matter, but I'm really committed to be in there in a new way and I'm going to figure what that is. Stay tuned folks, but I feel we need voices in Canada at this time.

Okay, I'll be tuned in as you know, but there is something to that title, Member of Parliament, that I feel like, and again, you you're not I can't vote for you you know here I am in South Atopal a long way from Timmons James Bay but I feel like we need your voice now more than ever I've been paying very close attention to what people have been saying since started as like a bit of a I think I never found it funny but some people said oh you know that Trump is just joking around he's kind of calling Justin Trudeau the governor of the great state of Canada the 51st state and it's this I didn't never felt comfortable with it because I

don't trust the guy as far as I can throw him but this joke was kind of okay he'll move on to other things he'll get distracted by a shiny thing over there and he'll forget about Canada you probably can barely find us on a map and it didn't go away and it kept coming back and it kept coming back and now I would say that it's sounds it feels dangerous, dare I say, like something dangerous is brewing, like this is real, this is this matters. And voices like yours, you're one of the few voices that has been really, you know, I was listening to Jean-Cretzsche on the other day, and he wrote a piece for the Globe and Mail and I was thinking maybe Jean Chrétien at 91 years old should run for leadership of the Liberal Party and take another stab at that because you, him,

Elizabeth May, there's a few other voices that have been allowed and proud. We need you now more than ever, Charlie. Well, I appreciate that. I have been speaking with a number of people across party lines outside inside politics about where Canada needs to be and how to position ourselves. I will say November 5th I went home to bed when I started seeing the returns come in because I didn't want to I didn't want to see how that story ended. I knew I woke up the next morning feeling like I had the worst hangover of my life. I didn't want to get out of bed and I'm gonna tell you this story. I haven't told anyone

Okay, my wife called me and she said have you issued a statement yet? And I said statement about what she said, you know, I said, what am I gonna say? I mean they elected a gangster. He's bringing in a pack of grifters and thugs, American democracy has sold itself down the river. She said, you need to be a voice. You need to stop whining about how bad the world is. You got to start doing stuff. So I started then trying to articulate a vision of what it means to resist in the age of Trump, what it means to stand up for Canada. I've been doing that consistently, which is perhaps why I've gotten attention because I've been one of the consistent voices. I will continue to be that voice, whether or not I'm driving endless amounts of highways in all kinds of small towns all through Northern Ontario,

or whether I'm going to find a new way, but I feel that those voices, and I'm not the only one, but we've got to start coalescing the voices to stand up and put Canada first, and not having people sell us out with these side deals that they're trying To cook up in Marlago right now. So I have some very pointed specific questions for you, Charlie You know that Great Lakes beer isn't free. You got to earn it here. Okay, so Do you find it easier to stand up to Donald Trump when you know, you're leaving in 2025? There will there will be a federal election in 2025 and your name won't be on the ballot.

I haven't really thought about it either way. I just felt this is a moment in history and I am a student of history. I do a lot of reading and I realized what we've got ain't going to cut it. So if I was in parliament or not, speaking up is what has to get done. I think I've ruffled a few feathers doing that. But yeah, we've got to ruffle feathers. Canadians in the punditry class and the political class need to recognize that, you know, our sort of high school dramas that we love to play out on our national media and in our political scenes and who's backing who and who's on the ins and who's on the outs like nobody cares anymore dudes like we're our nation our sovereignty is

being threatened that's job one reassuring Canadian reassuring Canadians reaching out to Canadians I'm getting an incredible response across party lines across age groups from people are saying yeah I'm a proud Canadian I'll do what I got to do what do we do so that what do we do next? To me, that's the question now, but it's about putting our values first. Well, I'm gonna ask in a moment what we do next, but a couple of quick, like I said, very specific questions. So, there are some very famous Canadian Trumpers out there. I'm thinking of a couple of hockey heroes. One guy, I slept on a bed with sheets with this guy all over the sheets as a kid. I had Wayne Gretzky sheets and I loved Wayne Gretzky.

Yes, you know, I'm so heartbroken by this guy. But Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, I miss Bobby Orr's whole career, but I respect what that man did to that, that's unbelievable. But Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky are admitted Trumpers, if you will, they're out of the closet. Do you wish they would speak out? They've been noticeably silent since Donald Trump has been talking about, you know, they're out of the closet. Do you wish they would speak out? They've been noticeably silent since Donald Trump has been talking about, you know, essentially using force to to make Canada part of the United States of America. Well I think back in the day I probably watched every one of Wayne Gretzky's games. I hated the Boston Bruins but boy I cried when Bobby Orr

couldn't play anymore you know but when donald trump announced that he wanted to run wayne gretzky as this puppet candidate yet to put in does putin get creates these puppet candidates that he's running this isn't what you do in a democracy in wing rest he should be ashamed of

himself absolutely ashamed of himself. Absolutely ashamed of himself Don't bother coming back to Canada if you're even willing to consider being a puppet candidate You should do the decent thing and say in no way would I ever undermine my country Wayne you failed us I wrote a piece on Toronto Mike calm the other day a piece and sounds so big when it's a piece right like you write Pieces I I wrote a quick little article big when it's a piece, right? Like you write pieces. I wrote a quick little article. Where are you Wayne? Like the silence from Wayne is like I want to retroactively go back and maybe I should have been, I don't know, let me think, Rick Vibe sheets or something, you

know what I mean? Let me go back and rip up those Wayne Gretzky sheets I slept on. Cement Head Semenko would have never sold us out. Bobby Clark would never have sold us out. Wayne Gretzky, I'm sorry. When you're being touted as a puppet candidate for a gangster from our logo, you need to do better. Stand up for this country. Stand up. You know, you're supposed to be a proud Canadian. Quick fun fact you already know, but when Bobby Orr was hurt during the 72 Summit series, they were working him out in Toronto. I think it was at Maple Leaf Gardens, but I could be varsity arena. But they needed a goaltender because they were just trying them out on the ice

during the 72 Summit Series. And there was a goalie there who was playing for the Toronto Marlboros. Do you know who that goalie was who ended up helping Bobby Orr see if he could play for the 72 Summit Series? No. Who was that? Ready for this? Yes. Greg Keeler. No. No, no, really? Greg Keeler was a

goaltender of the Toronto Marlborough's, happened to be on the ice and they needed a goalie just to give Bobby Orr a chance to work out through this injury, see how he was, and Greg Keeler was the man who was tapped on the shoulder for that responsibility. Well, fun fact, I am not the worst hockey player that was ever born in Timmons and Timmons has put out some great hockey players, but I would say if you pick the top ten, I would make the cut for worst in Timmons. But Bobby Orr's aunt lived down the street, and we used to go stand outside her home believing that one day Bobby Orr would visit, and he never did.

Oh, come on. That's a great story. All right. Now, a few more pointed questions again. I know we talked about 30. It might leak into 40 minutes, but here we're going to cover a bit of ground here because I honestly needed this conversation. I'm really glad we did it on such short notice. And here you are in the flesh. I didn't want to zoom it either. I'm like, get them in the basement. Okay. Okay. If and when, and that's a weird way to phrase it, but let's, let's assume that Pierre Poliev becomes prime minister

in 2025. Pierre Poliev becomes Prime Minister of Canada. Do you trust that Pierre Poliev will protect our sovereignty in this nation? I'm gonna say something bluntly that I've never said about any other political leader. I don't believe Pierre Poliev is fit to lead our nation. I've known this man for 20 years. I believe he's a political arsonist. I believe that his entire political career has been on rage and blame. He has offered nothing but slogans. I am very concerned about Canada under him. I've, you know, I've dealt with conservatives my whole life. I had lunch with Aaron O'Toole the other day and Aaron said to me, gee Charlie, you're

actually saying nice things about me these days I hear in Parliament. I well you know there now that you're gone but erin erin was helping veterans he met he asked me to come to a lunch of supporting veterans and i said yeah i'll come out and that's the kind of man erin is uh... mister pauliev my real concern is that built uh... a caucus around people swinging for the rage algorithms. And I think that's a real dangerous thing in politics now.

Feeding people rage, feeding people distrust of each other, feeding people constant blame is what's undermining Canada. And blurring the fundamental differences between a Canada that we always known and the United States that is dysfunctional. So I'm very concerned with Mr. Poliev getting a majority, a super majority if it looks like. I think if it goes any longer it's going to start to crack for him because once people see what Trump are up to they're going to know what mega-Maple is, they're going to know that Elon Musk's support. I think it's going to start to damage Mr. Poliev but pretty blunt, I don't think this man should be anywhere near the reins of power at this time. Some real talk right there. It's a bit of a perfect storm, right? Like, and this is,

what this happened provincially here in this province where the Liberal Party was fractured and the votes moved to the Progressive Conservative Party and then you have a couple of, probably two going on, three majorities for Doug Ford. So we may have a perfect storm here where and I'm curious what your thoughts are having a provincial and federal conservative government with majorities. Well nothing is nothing happens until election night that's it that's how things are decided. What concerns me about Doug Ford playing Mr. Man of the People is that I feel like there's just been this endless grift. I mean we've got no medical emergency

wards in so many of our small towns but you can get Coors Light at the corner store and that's supposed to be a benefit. I'll admit Mr. Trump or Mr. Ford is down there and he's waving the flag for Canada and I'm not going to attack him for that. Daniel Smith is down in Mar-a-Lago. I'm very concerned about that because I think Daniel Smith would sell out the country in a second to cut a side deal for Suncor and the Imperial oil. But what we don't need, I think, at this time is this kind of one-off trying to cut side deals, help us screw the rest. That's not a Canadian approach and the problem right now is we have a vacuum at the federal level and so we are facing a perfect storm and I think this is why Canadians, ordinary Canadians voices are needed to tell our leaders, to tell

people across you know all the various business sectors and that we need a vision for Canada and we want you, we need a vision for Canada and we want you to commit to that vision for Canada. Don't sell us out with these deals with a gangster because we will always end up losing no matter what those side deals are. Yeah, the only way you cannot lose is if you don't play. But we have a situation on our hands here, Charlie, as you know, this real situation where I don't think there is a person out there who would put up their hand and say I'll run for leadership of

the federal Liberal Party that would reverse this course that we seem to be on like I don't think this person exists so Mike Mike I don't know do you have a preference of I mean do you even do you care who ends up leader of the Canadian the federal liberal party? Well, I think the problem was is it I mean, you know, Christopher Eland blew up the ship On the Prime Minister on the chances him getting his mini budget the New Democrats I mean how did New Democrats turn around say well will support a Prime Minister who his own caucus won't support They're all in fighting. We are moving to to an election so certainly the democrats are going to be

uh... pushing to get is is strong a position as we can my concern right now is that we are in the perfect storm we are in the we're in the absolute center of the political tornado and everyone's arguing will give us you know give us till March and we'll figure out who's gonna be captain of the ship then that I'm that's what worries me well I'm also worried that's what you're here for Charlie so here's some more pointed questions on the way out because it's not every day I get Charlie

Angus in the basement here the only way Canada and I said this earlier and this is I guess more my opinion than anything but the only way Canada joins the USA is if the USA invades and conquers us with military force so I'm curious because you're a sitting MP if if that happens are we fucked like what is this because there even a plan in place for what we do in our closest ally attacks I don't see that happening. Right now we are still with NATO and Article 5 of NATO means Germany, the EU, the Brits, Denmark, everybody else has to come to our aid. I don't see that happening. But you know Canada has a long proud tradition of resistance. We are second to none when it comes to the blood that has been spilled around the world defending democracy. I think what we need now is that sense of Canadian unity, that sense of Canadian resistance, Canadian purpose, to send that message that no, we're not going to be your pushover. And the idea that you're going to economically break us, okay, these tariffs are going to be hugely

impactive, but they're also going to be hugely impactive on the United States. But when you're telling us that we will give up our nation because we've lost jobs, that ain't going to happen. So maybe we are going to be in for a rough ride. I think we are. Let's not sugarcoat it. But America is going in for a super rough ride right now. And how long is Donald and Elon and the rest of those grifters

can be able to keep playing these hot-button games if Americans start seeing the trade across the Canadian border shutting down, shutting down their industries. So I say let's just be strong, let's not panic, but let's make sure that none of our leaders are down there kissing the ring of that gangster now. Yeah, those images of the premier of Alberta at Mar-a-Lago partying with another guy who I'm going to ask about in a minute because I'm going to ask if there's any way we can strip him of his Canadian citizenship.

Those images are disturbing. Even when Doug Ford threatened to cut off the energy supply to the United States, I think Daniel Smith was very quick to say, we're not in on that deal. We're not threatening any such thing. Well, Daniel Smith has run on disinformation and conspiracy she's gaslit uh... the country uh... to to play to of small fringe in alberta which really

disturbs me i i'm gonna say of all the places i've ever played as a musician across the country i'd love alberta the best i love albertans my wife's in alberta i spent a lot of time time on alberta working with energy workers and unions out there who are also super smart and progressive but she has this base that she plays to but she's also working i think fundamentally as a front for canada's oil giants who are not good corporate citizens who are not stepping up in the time of climate crisis and i, when I see her down there with guys like Kevin O'Leary, when I see Ted Cruz down there, when I see, well now Rick Hillier, I mean Hill

Billy Bandit trying to get in on this, I'm thinking come on Canada, are these the people who are gonna sell us out? Do better. Oh my goodness, yeah and you mentioned Kevin O'Leary's name there, he's the guy, can we strip him of his Canadian citizenship? This feels like treason to me. Oh my goodness. Yeah, and you mentioned Kevin O'Leary's name there. He's the guy. Can we strip him of his Canadian citizenship? This feels like treason to me. Oh, it is treason. It's absolute treason. This punter has no mandate to speak for anybody.

He's a grifter. And, I mean, grifters love grifters, and grifters are going to grift. But I'm sorry, you are undermining our nation at this point, and I think if the premier was down there at that time, she should have socked him in the face if she was a true Canadian. I agree. Where is your wife from in Alberta? My wife's from just outside of Edmonton. My in-laws all worked in the oil patch but you know decent hard-working people. Okay so I'm just my wife's from Edmonton as well. Redmonton. Yeah she went to University of Alberta.

So did my wife. Okay. My wife moved here in her early 20s, but- So did my wife. Yeah, her parents still live there. So a lot of Alberta going on here. My goodness gracious. Okay.

So we're almost done here. Charlie, amazing to have this conversation. I already feel better. I feel like rejuvenated here. But this 25% tariff, Trump talks about this fentanyl coming over the border I need you as a sitting MP to give me some facts here doesn't pass my sniff test what are the facts here well if you listen to peer poly of the reason all our fentanyl is going over the borders because Justin

Trudeau created an opioid crisis I mean that's what they say that's what these people are saying you know we are thousands of people who are dying from the opioid crisis and we know that the opioid crisis comes from what happened with Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin that was legally set up in the United States and came over and destroyed our communities. But I don't hear Donald talking about fentanyl right now. He's moved on to something to something else what worries me is what i've had seen conservatives getting up in the house and repeating donald trump's lies about that our border is somehow some kind of international fentanyl ring for the united the innocent united states

come on uh... as as someone said canada is like you know slithering upstairs in an upstairs apartment above a meth lab right right? Like, all that crazy that's out to the border, it spills over with their illegal guns, with their illegal drugs, and for us to be blamed for it is ridiculous. To have any of our politicians repeat those lies is super ridiculous. So I don't think Donald gives a damn about the poorest border. I don't care how many people Doug Ford says he's going to put on it.

These are all, he's gaslighting us to create a fight with us so let's just not let's not roll over for this dude well this brings up a bigger discussion for another time about this age of misinformation we live in where it with social media in it this I mentioned the sniff test every time I read even sources I trust I always give it a sniff test like does this compute with me you know do I need to dig in collaborate with a different source or whatever but when people are just reading something they don't know where it's coming from but it was on their Facebook it was on there you name it on the Twitter with and

they take it at face value worry we have a crisis of misinformation Charlie are this election is gonna be something we've never seen before whether democracy can actually even survive it i don't know we saw elon musk is out there for pure poly of we saw how elon musk is talking his algorithms of rage and hate my my facebook feed is full of really grow task hate generated a i now that z Zuckerberg is going all in on misinformation. And Pauliup says he's going to shut down CBC on day one. I mean, whether or not you like the shows on CBC or not, once we lose those sort of national voices, then you're going to be fed this hate slop.

And democracy needs accountability. Democracy needs a second voice, it needs fact checking and disinformation is about destroying democratic accountability and it's the billionaires like Zuckerberg and Musk who are our definite enemies of democracy right now. I hope the CBC threat has worried me since the moment I first heard it uttered I think it's a very important institution this country. I don't think they're kidding. I mean I see them in the house they laugh they talk about taking down CBC. You know my region isolated communities

that are held together by that radio band of the morning show telling what's happening from community to community to community from all the way up in high Cree country and in Upper James Bay all the way through all our isolated towns our francophone communities like Canada is held together by those voices of reason and decency and that's why the rage mob hated. We used the term earlier perfect storm this is part of it too like they dismantled these mainstream media or reputable journalistic institutions. Well it is the perfect storm and the reason I don't want to sound like I'm negative Nelly

crying folks that your farms gonna get wiped out here what I want to say to people is don't go along with the same splaining and the pundits who are saying oh well you know it's just it's just Donald being Donald and it's Pierre being Pierre there are real serious consequences that are gonna face this in 2025 and Canada can stand up and Canadians can stand up to it I think we need to just be sure of ourselves and not go along that this is somehow normal, this is not normal, so we're gonna need to see people standing up and doing better and speaking up. People should speak up continually. Don't be afraid to speak up and hold your public officials

accountable. We got to hold and we have to hold on to each other. Well this is a great way to wrap up because you're already answering it. But my big question is, what do people, there's people like myself listening right now, proud Canadians who are kind of grossed out by this rhetoric we're hearing and feeling uneasy. I have feel this, I don't want to sing an eagle song to you here, buddy, but this is like this uneasy feeling I've got just feeling this instability. And I know what's happening on Monday with the inauguration And I know Pierre Poliev will be our prime minister in 2025

and I really do worry about the sovereignty of this nation and I Guess I'm looking for some parting words from you as we prepare to fight Well, we're gonna need to do a number of steps number one folks I think you gotta you gotta get off to doom-scrolling We have to rewire our brains Elon Musk got into our brains because we doom-scroll. We got to stop that. We got a number two, we have to do, and I know these sounds ridiculous in the face of all the big threats, people need to start getting out and volunteering. Building, we're gonna have to rebuild community from the

ground up because we let that slip and that's how the rage got in. We have to, nobody's coming to save us. So we have to rewire our brains, get off the doom-scrolling, do anything, I don't care, read a book, work in your garden, get out there, volunteer, meet people across different backgrounds, different party lines, and then the resistance starts to happen when we start to see opportunities to work with each other. They're gonna happen. I want to reassure people that I think there's many people out there who are thinking about this. We're gonna start to see moments. Those moments are gonna come and we're gonna need to step up at those moments. So I know I'm I know

I wish I could offer the magic solution. I'm gonna go to the UN on Monday and we're gonna get a magic statement and the UN is gonna support us. It ain't gonna happen. We're gonna have to build our we're gonna have to build our resistance from the grassroots up but I know Canadians this is who we are. You know building that resistance from the grassroots up it starts with what we're doing right now man people like you know you and I have in this kind of a conversation and creating awareness and yeah my fellow Canucks we're gonna have to stand up.

Canada is not a piece of real estate that Donald Trump can acquire in some kind of business transaction. What is the Canadian? We are a spirit. We're a spirit. A spirit is not for sale. A good spirit, yeah. It's a good spirit. I'm proud of this spirit and it's not for sale.

Damn right. Damn right. Charlie, thank you so much for this. I'm gonna let the listeners of the podcast know that after this closing theme, I'm appending a speech you made in the house recently. The whole thing is I'm going to drop it at the end of this. Oh, great. Okay.

I hope I was... I loved it, so I want to make sure more ears get on that thing. And again, you'll be back maybe sooner rather than later. You'll be back to talk about your new book, which is entitled Dangerous Memory, Coming of Age and the Decade of Greed. I look forward to it. And that brings us to the end of our 1,614th show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. I'm on blue sky. I'm enjoying blue sky

Not currently owned by Elon Musk nor Mark Zuckerberg and I'm at Toronto Mike comm on blue sky I'm also very happy that Charlie Angus is Posting quite regularly on blue sky. What's your blue sky address? Charlie? I think it's Charlie Angus 104. Anyways Getting off ex best thing I ever did in my life. Best thing. I gotta say, I still pop in to see DMs. People are using it like email and I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Like this is where the rage farmers are. And even if I'm on there for a minute, somebody tries to pick a fight or says something gross or obscene. And it's like, I just run back to blue sky where there's some at least some you know sanity still so thank you for being on blue sky thank you and blue sky definitely nothing but blue skies from now on much love to all who made this possible that's Great Lakes brewery that beers for you Charlie you're gonna buy me with a beer that's okay fresh craft beer from Great Lakes.

Palmapasta, they're in Mississauga and Oakville. Recyclemyelectronics.ca Building Toronto's Skyline I'm gonna have Nick Ienis on the show soon to talk more about that. And Ridley Funeral Home I've got another episode with a different Chuck.

So this is Chuck the MP. My next episode is Chuck the security guard from the all night show on CFMT. Chaz Lothar. It's going to be amazing. See you all then. So So So I'm going to amplify the distortions that are coming out of Mar-a-Lago and Donald Trump, primarily his falsehood that Canada is this fentanyl trafficking system causing deaths in the United States and that what he's put on the table is the threat of a 25% tariff that would cause economic havoc to families and workers and businesses across Canada.

There was a time when parliamentarians would have stood up for Canada and responded to these falsehoods. But that's not how Canada's parliament operates under the member who lives in the 19-room mansion at Stornoway. It's to burn the house to the ground at all costs. And that's a dangerous position for democracy to be in. I'd like to start just by, you know, we have the world's longest undefended border and other than 1812 when they attacked us and tried to take us over, we've maintained that border and we've maintained good-natured relations. But we haven't gone along with

the Americans when they've tried to bully us. We haven't embraced their wide-open and dangerous death cult gun culture. Even though many, many, many Canadians are registered gun owners, we accept the principle of having responsible gun ownership as opposed to the reckless guns that are killing people across the United States. We have not supported their belief that healthcare should belong to those who have money. We took a different tact, even when we were being undermined as being communists and socialists at the time. When the United States insisted that Canadians, young men, go and die in

the rice paddies of Vietnam, we said no, we're not gonna send our young men to die in Vietnam. It's a wrong war and it was a wrong war. And we opened our borders to many great young Americans who were not going to go die needlessly in Vietnam. When they tried to pressure us to go into the false attack on Iraq, we said no, and we were under enormous pressure then.

And in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was launching horrific violence in Latin America and El Salvador and Guatemala And then they were deporting thousands of people out of the United States who were who were trying to escape The genocide that was happening in the hills of Guatemala They put enormous pressure on us to close our border because people who could not go back to the death squads in El Salvador In Guatemala were trying to cross the border at Buffalo to get into Canada to be safe and at that time Brian Mulroney said oh we have to have the same border principles as the United States and Canadians stood up and said no those are not our values and we pushed that back because we could not send people back to

the death squads. So yes they are our neighbors but we have stood up to them. We're in a different situation with Donald Trump, a convicted predator, who's seriously undermining the democratic process in the United States and he thinks he can just push us around. He insults us, you know.o's seem to like it because he's insulting our Prime Minister, but he's not really insulting the Prime Minister, he's insulting Canadians calling us the 51st state. That's right. Exactly.

You know, once there was a Canada that had a flag that didn't need to be waved, a flag that represented who we are, we didn't boast about about it it wasn't until our flag was appropriated by conspiracy haters and stuck on pickup trucks promoting all kinds of disinformation our flag was something that just said it's about values and it's something that we all understood we didn't have to brag about we didn't have to brag about that when we were a country of 11 million people and the Americans were saying well we don't want to brag about we didn't have to brag about that when we were a country of 11 million people and the Americans were saying Well, we don't want to go to war on the very first day Hitler invaded Poland 11 million Canadians stood up and created the fourth largest Air Force in the world the fourth largest Navy in the world

We sent our young people all across the world to defend the notion of freedom and parliamentary democracy And we paid an enormous price and we came back and we didn't wave the flag then we just came back and did what we did because we were Canadians but here we are with this falsehood being perpetrated by the member who lives in Stornoway that whatever Donald Trump says he will use to burn the house down to the Prime Minister so he's using this falsehood on fentanyl, which is an absolute falsehood. I have the the Drug Enforcement Agency on classified reports on fentanyl. Fentanyl, they write about China, they write about India, they write about Mexico. There's just one very tiny thing about a

small amount coming from Canada. That's not the issue. Fentanyl is not the issue. But the Conservatives will use that falsehood, threatening a 25% tariff. You can bet that these dumbed down speeches claiming that Canada's broken border and a fentanyl trafficking area is going to be used on every right-wing blog blogcast and on Fox News to further undermine our country. They would do that. They would burn our house to the ground because they don't care about truth. They wouldn't know what truth was if truth came down, Lady Truth came down

naked, painted purple and danced all over, storming away for weeks. The member wouldn't notice. But I say that jokingly but it's not a joke because what Trump's really after is our water. He's made it clear. He said there's a giant faucet in Canada and you just turn it on. There was a time when we would have defended those resources but you can bet if Donald Trump says I want Canada's water, the conservatives will use this House of Commons to promote his attack on our resources. To take what they can take because they don't take us seriously.

They think they can push us around. And they can only push us around if we have fifth columnists, you know, fifth columnists was what they called Franco's people who undermined the defense of democracy in Spain. People who would undermine their own country to score a point. Another term was Quislings. We need to stand up to Donald Trump, not to be boasting like he boasts and not to be threatening like he threatens, but to stand for Canadian values. That no, we will counter falsehood with truth. That we will be a good neighbour, that we will protect our border, but that we will

not be pushed around. Not the way the member who lives in Stornoway will amplify falsehoods and misuse the House of Commons knowing that it is putting Canadian jobs and families directly at risk because they don't care. They don't care because it's about burning the House to the ground to get to the Prime Minister. So I'm not even going to go down into the gutter with them where they make these falsehoods

about how the prime minister, who I don't agree with on hardly anything, that he somehow created a fentanyl crisis that caused thousands of deaths. That's an ugly falsehood. It's just a straight up lie. But they use that all the time. But to have them come into the House of Commons and talk about defending the border, when under Stephen Harper, they trashed border security. That's right.

Remember when Tony Clement took 50 million dollars out of border security and spent it on bogus projects in his riding like the gazebos and the sunken boats and the fake lakes. Fake lakes. They took money that would have protected our borders and used that so shamelessly when they fired 1,100 jobs from the Canada Border Services and they were told the threats that that would be. And they got rid of the dog sniffer team. Maybe Stephen Harper doesn't know what a dog sniffer team is. A dog sniffer team is what you use to sniff out drugs.

It was the Harper government who got rid of that. They got rid of their intelligence agency at the border. They got rid of their teams who went undercover to take on the smuggling gangs. That's the record of Stephen Harper. So when they come in this house and pretend they stand for Canada, we know they don't stand for Canada. When they come in this house and say they'll stand up on the world stage, we know that they supported Putin in undermining the votes for Ukraine.

And when they say they'll defend the border, they're only defending the interests of Donald Trump and they would shell us down the river, but not on my watch, not on our watch, not ever. We will stand up for Canada. Hear, hear.