Kelly: I want to start off the show today talking a little bit about the new NDP leader, Avi Lewis, and some of his comments — and also trade negotiations with the U.S., because that seems to be an ongoing situation too.
To start off the show tonight I want to bring up a comment from Sharon Stevens, one of our paid members and always a great contributor. Sharon writes:
I was excited about Avi Lewis, but now how in the hell does he think our military does not need to be funded? This is literally nuts. First speech I heard, I loved. I always voted NDP until this last election and I was excited to maybe be able to go back to voting for them. But saying we shouldn’t fund our military turned me right off. Our country is on the radar of every crazy people in Trump’s regime and buddies overseas. I found this a very blind and ignorant comment. And instead of fighting Carney, work with them. I am disappointed, but I seem to be the only one. LOL.
Sharon, you’re not the only one. I made the comment when he first won the leadership. The biggest concern that not just the NDP, but Canadians have to be concerned about — Avi Lewis has always struck me as an ideologue, not as somebody who is pragmatic. And I’ve told you, ideological approaches to politics, especially in days like this, can be problematic.
Avi, I understand your background. Your grandfather was a great man. Your dad was a great man. Didn’t always agree politically, but I understand that. You strike me sometimes as a guy who still wants to be in Stanley Park throwing flowers in the air, like it’s 1967 again. This is 2026, and the world is a different place. And if you can’t respond to it — if you can’t react to what’s the reality of happening these days — then you’ve got a problem. Canadians are tuned into what’s happening. And if you’re not, you’re not going to make any inroads at all with Canadian voters.
On Lewis declining to run in Vancouver
John Wilkinson, who was a member of course of the Trudeau cabinet for many years, was not included in the Carney cabinet. It was announced today that he’s going to be resigning his seat in the Vancouver area. He’s going to be running over to represent Canada at the European Union, which means there’s going to be another by-election, this time in the Vancouver area. And interestingly enough, because we were just talking about Avi Lewis — he’s already announced today that he is not going to try to seek that seat. Don’t know why, but he just said no. You’re a very ineffective leader of any political party when you’re not sitting in the House of Commons, but that’s something he’s going to have to come to grips with.
On Pierre Poilievre
All these stories — you know, after he went down to the States with his love tour with Joe Rogan, they talked about all sorts of crazy stuff. He’s going to be a kinder, gentler guy. He’s going to work with the government. Bull. He’s back to being the same old Poilievre, throwing misinformation at us. You can’t change your spots. He’s not a leader. He has no way of building consensus. He’s just going to be talking points and misinformation. And I think Canadians just have to accept that this guy is not going to change.
Remember the quote from Mark Carney? Avi Lewis apparently has not heard it: we can’t govern judging by the way we wish the world would be — we have to judge by the way the world is. Yes, you can advocate and you can have aspirational ideas trying to change it. But you have to deal with the reality now. And if you have politicians that don’t accept that reality, then they’re not leaders.
Violet: So is Jamil going back to Washington again and is PP going with him?
Yes, he’s already there, Violet. Jamil Jivani and a couple of other members of the Conservative caucus — I think Michael Chong is one of them — are in Washington right now for trade talks. To my knowledge, Poilievre is not there. I don’t know why in God’s name Jivani is even there. He seems to put himself out as a broker here. He knows nothing that we don’t already know. They asked the Prime Minister about that today and he said, look, they’re free to go. It’s a free country. But they’re not learning anything that we don’t already know. And they have no authority to be able to negotiate anything. So why are they there? They’re spectators. They’re just doing it to grandstand.
On the Alberta voter-data scandal and the referendum
AKD: Bill, can we please talk about the suspicious illegal access to the AB voter database by David Parker, separatist company Centurion Project? What will Danielle do?
Nothing. That’s the short answer. Because I think it suits her agenda. There’s a lot of political hanky-panky going on in Alberta right now with voters lists and information about voters. It’s voter interference. That’s really what it’s coming down to. But Danielle Smith loves that. She just loves the idea that there’s going to be anarchy in this whole situation. When people are confused, it’s a lot easier to try to control their message.
She’s got a majority government. She changed the rules so that this referendum could go through. I don’t know if they would have got enough signatures to move it through anyway. But she made sure it moved through because she lowered the standards. And now she’s doing everything in her possible, including 10 or 12 questions she wants to put on this referendum. She wants a mandate. She wants to say, see, we don’t want to be here. We’re getting a raw deal. She’s going to go to Prime Minister Carney and says, these are our list of demands. And if you don’t give us what we want, then we’re going to look about going out. But it’s a silly idea.
I would demand for all of you that are in Alberta — and I know we’ve got a lot of viewers in Alberta and especially in a couple of the key centres there in Edmonton and Calgary — demand that your MLAs out there say do something about this. It’s clear right now that there is election interference or referendum interference. And some of it, by the way, is coming from Washington. We’ve already talked about that. We know that there’s money being funneled into that from the MAGA people into Alberta. They want to see the separatists win this because that would really throw a wedge into the Canadian political scene.
It looks like this thing is going to go through in October. Vote. Don’t ever throw up your hands and say, well, why bother? That’s how anarchy happens. That’s how guys like Trump get elected. That’s how people like Danielle Smith get elected.
On Wab Kinew
Nona: The Wab Kinew interview on CTV was epic.
I got a lot of time for this guy. I don’t know that I’m going to agree with everything he says. People say, well, he’s an NDPer. Yeah, but he’s a guy who is not stuck in ideology. He’s a pragmatist. He’s working with the Carney government. It was Kinew that pushed the Churchill port idea. And it looks like that’s going to get some money. He’s working with the feds to try to make things better for Manitoba. And if all the premiers took that sort of an attitude, this country would be a lot better off.
One of the highlights of the interview on CTV — Manitoba is one of the provinces that have taken American alcohol off the shelves. And he said, my message to the President is, we’ll put it back on the shelves when you relieve the tariffs on steel, aluminum, and softwood lumber. And, applying the way, he says, release the Epstein files too, won’t you? A little dig there. He’s saying what a lot of people are thinking.
The Americans don’t think that we can stand up for ourselves. They don’t think that we’re going to stand up to the bully. The Prime Minister is doing that. We need a unified voice from all the premiers. Wab Kinew is one example. Yes, Doug Ford — although he’s a little too bombastic for my liking. Even Scott Moe, despite the political differences he might have with the Prime Minister, understands that the federal government is working with Saskatchewan. The deal with the Chinese about getting the relief from the canola tariffs — big, big deal. Scott Moe accompanied the Prime Minister in that trip to India and that was a huge economic benefit to the province of Saskatchewan. So Moe figures, hey, I’ve got a willing partner here. This is working.
Mitch: I just plain like WK2.
This is a guy — we were just talking about Avi Lewis as the federal leader. Is this the right guy for the times for any political party? I don’t think so, myself. But I’m not going to say, hey, NDPers are just out to lunch. You look at guys like Kinew and others that seem to have a pragmatic side to them and understand that you’ve got to be flexible in situations like this. I don’t care what your political ideology is, whether you’re on the left, the right, whatever the case might be. Put Canada first and be able to understand and be able to pivot as circumstances dictate.
On Carney’s sovereign wealth fund
Chris: What are your thoughts on the sovereign wealth fund?
I like it. My initial reaction is, I think it’s a good idea. I read John Iverson’s piece on that, and I respect John a lot. He’s saying, you know, we don’t have a whole lot of money right now, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. And that means that this is an opportunity for Canadians to take part in this. In my younger days, I mean, I bought Canada Savings Bonds. I did it as an investment in Canada. There was a return on the investment — minimal — but there’s a return. But it’s us taking part in this too. And what you need is seed money to be able to do these sorts of things.
There will be no foreign investment until those people from wherever it’s going to be in the world see that there is stability here and that there are Canadians buying in to our economy. And that’s one of the reasons for this fund. It’s going to pay off. It’s a great idea and it’s got to start someplace. I’m going to be a supporter of it. And if it means I’ve got to kick in a few bucks, I’ll do it.
There are people in the world right now that are looking at Canada as the place for investment. If you’re a huge fund — whether it’s a retirement fund, teachers’ union, whatever the case may be — these people have billions and billions of dollars that they want to invest. Would you invest it in America right now? Would you invest it in any company that Donald Trump’s got his hands on? That’d be insane. They’re looking to Canada. Europeans, Asian markets, they’re looking to Canada. This is the time for us to move on this. The Prime Minister gets it. I don’t think Poilievre will ever get it.
I kind of like the fact that he’s moving outside of government to get the people to manage this fund, as he’s doing with the procurement fund for military aircraft. Politicians and bureaucrats have a tendency to screw things up. If you want to do business, you have to have people that have a business sense of how to do things. When you’ve got people like David Dodge, the former governor of the Bank of Canada — he actually predates Mark Carney in that job — coming out and saying, yeah, this is a good idea. It’s not, oh wow, this is going to be great, it’s going to pay off by the end of the year. No, it’s not. But it is going to pay off. These are the seeds that you plant.
On airport privatization
Angie: There was a mention of selling airports. Can they be integrated into the sovereign?
I’ve heard that. I think things are on the table right now. Some of this stuff gets leaked and people say, oh my God, they’re going to sell Pearson, they’re going to sell Vancouver. I don’t know what they’re going to do. There’s some discussion. You look at the pros and cons. Is it really worthwhile? Private sector sometimes can do a much better job. There are some things that are best laid in the fortunes of the government because not everything is going to be run like a business. Sometimes you have to understand, especially when it comes to transportation, that there has to be accessibility, there has to be affordability.
Violet: We better not. It’s semi-private like B.C. Ferries where they can’t actually sell off or be profit only. And they have a tie service to remote areas at a loss.
That is part of the problem. Because when you’re in a for-profit situation, oftentimes you’ll make decisions based on what’s going to be good for the shareholders. Transportation is a key element. At the lowest level — even public transit, things like buses and trains — they have to be run, and oftentimes are run, at a loss. Because the priority there should be moving people, not for profit necessarily. So I wouldn’t want the government to say, no, no, we’re never going to do that. Explore it by all means. But let’s not make a rash decision.
Hamilton Airport, where I’m from — for the longest time, government ran that airport. John C. Munro International Airport. A private sector company took it over some years ago and turned it around. Great investment. The infrastructure has improved considerably. It’s still the number one cargo airport in Canada. But it’s still owned by the city, by the way. That’s what we call partnerships — private-public partnership, three Ps. Maybe the federal government’s going to look at that. We’ll see what happens.
Closing reflection on the NDP and Ontario
I think the NDP have got a track record in this province, and they’re never going to be the leader. They’re never going to form a government in this country, not in our lifetimes anyway. Ontarians just don’t trust the NDP as money managers and as people that can move the economy going. And that’s a party that’s going to have to get their head around the fact that the world has changed.
Wab Kinew is an NDPer. He gets it. He got elected in Manitoba. He’s a guy who, as an NDPer, also has a business sense and understands that there has to be economic development to be able to do the other things that you want to do and need to do. There are politicians that are like that. You can’t have a politician or a leader — a president, a prime minister, a premier, whatever the case might be — who simply says it’s got to be this way or that way. You can’t have both. You can’t have economic development and social programs. Yeah, you can. As a matter of fact, if you’re really good at economic development, you can afford the social programs. They complement each other. They don’t contrast.