Joe Oliver, a former Canadian Minister of Finance and Natural Resources, discusses the geopolitical challenges facing Canada, particularly those related to the U.S.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Let's talk to Joe Oliver, a Canadian politician who served as Minister of Finance and Minister
00:05of Natural Resources.
00:07Joe, welcome, good to see you.
00:09Mark Carney, well known of course in the UK.
00:12These are very difficult times in geopolitics.
00:15Is he the man to lead Canada at this moment?
00:18Does he have what it takes?
00:19It's going to take a lot, isn't it?
00:21It certainly is, because this is an unprecedented challenge from our close friend and enemy
00:29and friend, I should say, who's become sort of an erstwhile enemy now because of the threats
00:36not only to our economy, but actually to our sovereignty.
00:40Whether he's serious about that, I don't know, but he keeps repeating it.
00:45So there's been a resurgence of patriotism, and of course, Carney is trying to ride that
00:52wave.
00:53It's been a black swan where the President of the United States has actually extended
01:01to him a lifeline, because the Liberals were far behind and now they're ahead.
01:06The critical issue is whether he can move from being a technocrat to being a politician.
01:14He's considered a little bit dull, but maybe being dull is what's needed in these turbulent
01:20times.
01:22Joe, politics is a funny old game.
01:24Just a few months ago, it seemed pretty certain that the Conservatives would win the next
01:30election.
01:31Bluntly, what happened?
01:32Well, two things happened.
01:35One, the Prime Minister resigned.
01:37He was reviled, and had he stayed on, the Conservatives were roaring ahead to a massive
01:45majority.
01:47So when he left, some of the people who were part of the Liberal base had moved to the
01:55Conservatives and now moved back.
01:57Also, there was some strategic voting from the third party socialists.
02:03But the second big event, of course, was Donald Trump and the threatened tariffs.
02:10And so during a crisis which is foreign-induced, people often move to the leader of the government
02:21for reassurance and for leadership.
02:25And the leader of the opposition is a bit sidelined because he can't make decisions.
02:32So those were the two factors.
02:34But the Conservatives are still ahead by between eight or ten points, according to
02:40the latest poll.
02:44Enough to get most of the seats, but 50-50 whether they'll get a majority.
02:51OK, well, look, you were the Minister of Finance.
02:53You were the money man.
02:54I mean, Canada entering this period of significant economic uncertainty due to President Trump's
02:59policies.
03:00I mean, how well is Canada really positioned to deal with this, to weather the storm?
03:07Unfortunately, we're not positioned well at all.
03:12We've had a declining standard of living, really for quite a number of years, as measured
03:20by GDP per capita.
03:22We've declined over 20 percent in relation to the United States in terms of our standard
03:30of living.
03:31And in fact, every single province's average income is lower than every single American
03:40state.
03:41This is really lamentable, unacceptable, and a sign of weakness.
03:45We have burgeoning debt.
03:49We have huge deficits and insipid productivity, and we can't seem to get most of our oil and
03:58gas to tidewater because there's been an objection to building pipelines.
04:04And so we basically have one market for fossil fuels, and that is the United States.
04:11And we're selling to the U.S. our precious resources at a discount to international prices.
04:19So we're not in great shape.
04:21And politically, of course, we have a very weak government.
04:24It's in minority.
04:27The parliament has been paroled, and it really doesn't have a strong mandate from the people
04:33at this point.
04:34Joe, I'm sure we'll talk again in the coming weeks and months.
04:37Thanks for that.
04:38Joe Oliver, former Minister of Finance and Minister of Natural Resources in Canada.