What do Liberals, including Doug Ford, really think about Iran?

Summary

---

Rebel News Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: What do Liberals, including Doug Ford, really think about Iran?
Date: March 13, 2026
Host: Ezra Levant
Guests: Garnet Genuis, Conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Employment

---

Episode Overview

This episode of The Ezra Levant Show, part of the Rebel News Podcast, confronts the response of Canadian Liberals—including Ontario Premier Doug Ford—to recent Iranian aggression and broader questions of immigration, national security, and Canada’s economic climate. Levant examines the disconnect between the attitudes of political leaders towards the Iranian regime versus the lived experiences of Iranian-Canadians and critiques how incidents involving Iran are used (or ignored) in domestic policy debates. Later, he interviews Conservative MP Garnet Genuis about the new jobs report, immigration, and the youth labor market. The episode is laced with Levant’s characteristic urgency, skepticism, and pointed criticism of both Liberals and so-called conservative politicians.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Understanding Iran: The People vs. The Regime

• [02:05] Ezra Levant draws a clear distinction:
  • The Iranian people, especially many who emigrated to Canada, are generally secular, liberal, and resentful of the theocratic regime.
  • The current Iranian government is framed as a millennialist, apocalyptic cult, bent on anti-American and anti-Israel action, seeking global theocracy via force (Hezbollah, Hamas, support for terrorism, and pursuit of nuclear arms).
  • Sharp contrast is drawn between these “irrational” theocrats and other global adversaries governed by self-preservation (“mutually assured destruction” logic doesn’t apply).
• Quote:

  "If you ask me what I think about Iran, I guess I have two completely different answers." – Ezra Levant [02:05]

2. Iran’s Recent Actions and Canada’s Response

• Levant accuses Canadian authorities of silence and inaction after an Iranian drone attack targeted a Canadian base ("Camp Canada") abroad, claiming the government concealed the event for two weeks.
• [08:16] Mark Carney’s Statement (paraphrased)
  • Carney (channeling current government messaging) emphasizes no Canadians were hurt and stresses Canada is not involved in offensive military actions like Israel/US.
  • Levant rebukes what he frames as government passivity, secrecy, and unwillingness to even verbally condemn Iran, calling this response “outrageous.”
• Quote:

  "There was a deliberate targeting of Canada by Iran and thankfully no Canadians were hurt. But he kept that a secret." – Ezra Levant [08:47]

3. Domestic Policy: Liberals’ Narratives on Iran and Economic Issues

• Levant mocks Liberal MPs (Gregor Robertson, Evan Solomon), highlighting their use of the “war in the Middle East” as a scapegoat for unrelated challenges (e.g., housing prices, cost of living).
• [11:07] Gregor Robertson attempts to link the housing crisis to instability caused by the war in Iran.
• Garnet Genuis and Levant point out the absurdity and evasiveness of such deflections.
• Quote:

  "Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism... And this is what Mark Carney’s Cabinet Minister for Housing has to say. It’s just absolutely crazy." – Ezra Levant [12:04]

4. Doug Ford and the Al Quds Day Controversy

• Ford’s recent moves to ban the annual Al Quds Day rally (protested as promoting hate/anti-Semitism) are derided as opportunistic and “completely unserious,” given years of inaction ([15:25] Doug Ford statement).
• Levant is also critical of Ontario police and Toronto’s mayor, seeing broader elite complicity or indifference to Iranian regime proxies and hate speech in Canada.
• Quote:

  "Every single one of our leaders is completely unserious. The police... the government of Ontario is unserious. The federal government is unserious." – Ezra Levant [16:36]

5. Canada’s Immigration and Job Market Crisis

• Levant contends that mass immigration is artificially masking a recession, causing per capita decline even as overall GDP rises.
  • [19:51] Garnet Genuis confirms: over 100,000 full-time jobs lost last month, with youth unemployment over 14%. Youth are missing vital rungs on the employment ladder.
• Discussion of temporary foreign worker and international student programs:
  • Levant questions the logic of importing foreign workers for entry-level jobs while youth unemployment spikes.
  • Genuis faults poorly tuned Liberal immigration policy for exacerbating competition for entry-level jobs, alongside delayed credential recognition for skilled immigrants.
  • Both argue for curtailing programs filling low-skill jobs with migrants and reforming the system to better match actual economic needs.
• Quotes:

  "We're seeing the unemployment amongst those entry level youth jobs and we're still bringing in countless temporary foreign workers." – Ezra Levant [20:53]
  "The way in which the immigration system has been structured under the Liberals has really exacerbated competition for those entry level positions." – Garnet Genuis [22:03]

6. Political Demographics, Floor Crossing, and Alberta Discontent

• Levant and Genuis note that boomers are more likely to support Liberals, while Conservatives now appeal more to younger Canadians—a reversal from past generations.
• Genuis criticizes recent MP defections to the Liberals, characterizing them as products of “shady backroom deals” that undermine democracy, not strategic brilliance as portrayed by the media ([32:15]).
• Alberta independence is discussed, with Levant expressing sympathy for Western alienation.
  • Genuis reaffirms his Canadian nationalist stance and desire to restore national pride, while acknowledging frustrations with federal leadership.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ezra Levant on Liberal Deflection:

  "The war in Iran is the cause of our housing crisis..." [11:57] (sarcastic summary of Liberal MP comment)

• Garnet Genuis on Youth Employment:

  "Those first jobs are critical. They're not just about income. They're about getting your start on the ladder of learning and experience." [19:51]

• Ezra Levant Frustration with Leaders:

  "We have extremely unserious leaders in an extremely serious time." [17:24]

• Garnet Genuis on Floor Crossing:

  "Mark Carney did not secure a majority in the election. Canadian voters did not have the confidence in him... Now Liberals are trying to through, through shady backroom deals get to a point where they were not given by the voters. And I don't think that's right." [32:15]

---

Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:05 | Levant’s dual perspective on Iran: people vs. regime | | 08:16 | Mark Carney’s evasive stance after Iranian drone attack | | 11:07 | Housing policy debate: Iran blamed for Canadian housing crisis | | 12:58 | Liberals frame Iran war as cause for price increases | | 15:25 | Doug Ford’s last-minute action against Al Quds Day rally | | 16:36 | Levant: leaders “unserious” in the face of hate and threat | | 19:29 | Start of Garnet Genuis interview on jobs/unemployment | | 22:03 | Analysis of immigration’s impact on youth labor market | | 24:41 | Discussion on international students taking entry jobs | | 32:15 | Floor crossing and “shady” Liberal majority tactics | | 36:45 | Alberta independence question and Canadian nationalism reply | | 38:32 | Conclusion of interview with Garnet Genuis |

---

Tone and Language

• The tone, led by Ezra Levant, is combative, critical, and urgent—marked by sarcasm, blunt assessments, and a sense of exasperation with political elites.
• Levant is passionate, uses colorful analogies (“Handmaid’s Tale come to life”), and frames his critiques as a defense of common sense, democracy, and Western values.
• Garnet Genuis is measured yet firm, focusing on concrete data and advocating for rebalancing immigration and employment policy while rebuking the erosion of democratic norms.

---

For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This episode provides a pointed critique of how Liberal and some Conservative politicians handle threats from Iran and explain away domestic problems. Ezra Levant navigates the tangled web of foreign policy, immigration, and economic woe, underscoring leadership failures and calling for a more assertive, principled government. The episode will resonate with those skeptical of government transparency regarding national security, concerned about the impacts of mass immigration, or frustrated by the perceived disconnect between political talking points and lived reality.

---

Transcript

[Ezra Levant]

Hello, my friends. I got a lot to talk about today. We're going to have a good interview with Garnet Genuis, the Conservative Party mp, about the new jobs report and is immigration affecting the job unemployment of Canadians? And also I want to talk to you about Iran and the bizarre statement by the Prime Minister that it's not his job to tell you that Canadians were attacked by an Iranian drone. He kept it a secret for two weeks. I'll show you the video, but first let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. I really want you to see these video clips I'm going to show you. Got a bunch of them. To see them, you need to subscribe to Rebel News plus, go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. I know that's not a lot to you, but boy, it adds up for us. It sure does. That's how we pay our bills. Please consider it. And one more thing.

[Tamara]

Hey, before we dive in, a quick thank you to our listeners who support our work through the Rebel Store. Every purchase helps fund the journalism that you won't find anywhere else, whether it's field reporting, investigations or holding the powerful to account. If you want to wear your values and support independent media at the same time, check out the Rebel Store at rebelnews store. Com. The link is always in the description and you can also use code TAMARA10. That's TAMARA10 to save 10% off of your total purchase and at checkout. Now let's get into it.

[Ezra Levant]

What do liberals, including Doug Ford, really think about Iran? It's March 13th and this is the Ezra Levant show.

[Various MPs and officials (e.g., Evan Solomon, Gregor Robertson)]

Shame on you, you censorious bu.

[Ezra Levant]

If you ask me what I think about Iran, I guess I have two completely different answers. One of them is Iranian people, or most of them are Persian by ethnicity. There's a lot of Persians in Toronto and a lot in Vancouver, and many of them fled Iran when the ayatollahs came in in the late 70s and brought in a strict fascist theocracy. You might recall that that's the basis for Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale, which was about a misogynist regime where women are in bags and are basically sex slaves. It was. If you ask Margaret Atwood, she will tell you the idea came about watching the revolution in Iran. She, however, lacked the courage to make Islam the context. She set it up as a Christian theocracy. We don't have Christian theocracies in the world. In fact, Christianity has been a force for equality and protection of women, not their subjugation. So many of the Persians who live in the west were those who cared for freedom and were repelled or escaped the regime. Iran is a very educated country, not at all comparable, say, to Afghanistan. It was fairly modern. It was a Western ally under the Shah. In fact, it was a friend of Israel. Iran even flew American F14 fighter jets. It still has a few of those left over from the 70s. That's where Iran was. But it's been through 47 years of tyranny. And so I know Persians because I see them in Canada. And most of them pine for their country, wanted to be free again, and they dream of a renewed. I don't know if democracy necessarily, but a liberalism. And most Persians, most Iranians I know, are secular. They probably were to begin with, but they're even more turned off by 47 years of the Handmaid's Tale. So that's half my answer. If you ask me about Iran, talking about Iranian people, But if you would ask me about Iran, the country, I would talk about its government, like I said, the theocracy. I would talk about how it's sort of a millennialist cult where they believe. And I don't want to get too deeply in the theology, lest I misstate it, but what I do know is they believe in a kind of apocalypse that they want to hasten. If you ask the ayatollahs to concentrate or distill their ideology, it's anti Americanism and anti Israelism because they want to snuff out any voices of democracy and liberalism that they think are contrary to the law of Sharia, Allah's law. They want to end the rule of man and bring in theocracy around the world. And obviously America is the great bulwark against that. Them. So they have military proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas, and they engage in terrorism. And of course they want a nuclear weapon. But unlike, say, Russia or China, they're not governed by secular rationale like mutually assured destruction. The reason we didn't have war, thermonuclear war with the Soviets during the Cold War is precisely because they were rational enough to know that if they were to shoot missiles at America, America would shoot back and both sides would be obliterated. That is not a concern for kind of people who believe in suicide bombing and people who believe in a cataclysm to bring about their religious outcome that they desire. So Iran is a very different kind of foe than a rational opponent, even, say, Kim Jong Un in North Korea. And I tell you that because Iran is very much on everyone's mind, given the Israeli US War against Iran, to degrade its ballistic missiles, its nukes, its navy, things like that. But there have been a series of asymmetrical responses by Iran, not just in the region, lobbing drones at civilian targets in Bahrain and Oman and Qatar and uae, like they're literally sending drones into hotels in these countries. That's how Iran fights. Israel would accidentally hit a civilian site in Gaza, and it would be a week worth of news in the West. Iran deliberately sends drones to at civilian targets. And the UN shrugs. And the pundits in the west say, well, Iran is right. When are we stopping this war? But I think here in Canada and just very recently in the United States, we've seen that this asymmetrical strategy is not limited just to the Middle East. In the past few days, you've seen attacks on Jewish synagogues in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam in particular, and there was a number of others. There's too many for me to list. I think one of them was in Norway. All places we saw an attack on a Jewish school in Michigan. I think there was several attacks. And of course, in our own country, three different synagogues attacked by gunfire in five days. And then the attack on the U.S. consulate. I think there's reason to assume that those are part of the asymmetrical warfare, the terrorism that Iran favors. And we know that there's 700 Iranian agents in Canada working unmolested. We have their names. The government obviously knows who they are. They simply won't deport them, which I find bizarre. So that's what my answer would be if you said, ezra, why don't you talk for a minute about Iran? I split it between the people who I think are quite liberal and Western and they love America. Actually, when they have massive Iranian protests in Toronto and Vancouver, they're not just flying the lion and the sun flag, they're flying the Canadian flag and the US Flag there and the Israeli flag. Whereas the regime is the handmaid's tale come to life. But that's just me. I want to show you how Mark Carney thinks about Iran and about Islamism in general. Let me play you a clip from yesterday. You'll probably recognize this because it's been making the rounds on social media. Here's Mark Carney talking about a very strange thing that happened almost exactly two weeks ago that he has kept secret until now. Take a listen. If you can confirm in English, if

[Garnet Genuis]

the if there was this, if this

[Tamara]

attack happened and why did you, you

[Ezra Levant]

didn't inform Canadian before?

[Garnet Genuis]

Well, I mean, I'm not the only spokesperson for the government, but I just confirm that Canadian forces are. The members of the Canadian forces are all safe and sound. I reinforce, as I said in French, what you know, which is that we are not engaged in these actions of the US And Israel. We're not engaged in offensive actions and we will not be engaged in those actions.

[Ezra Levant]

There's a lot in there. First of all, he sure says a lot. He reminds me of Justin Trudeau when he didn't have a teleprompter. I think it's absolutely outrageous that Canadians were attacked by Iran. Camp Canada, I didn't know we had that was attacked by Iran. And he kept it secret. There was a deliberate targeting of Canada by Iran and thankfully no Canadians were hurt. But he kept that a secret. And when he's asked about it, he says he's not going to engage in offensive actions like what Israel and the United States are doing. Offensive. Canada was just attacked. Our Canadian base, I didn't know we had one there, was attacked. It's not offensive to retaliate in any way. He literally has done nothing. Not even used a hard word, not even a stern letter of apology to the Iranians. He's literally done nothing. Actually, that's not quite true. He has done them the favor of keeping that a secret. And then when he's asked about it, he says, well, yeah, I'm not the only spokesman in Ottawa. Why are you looking at me? Well, because we're not looking for a spokesman. We're looking for the leader of our country, the person who makes these decisions on war and peace. The guy who unilaterally declared his support Palestinian sovereignty. That guy. Maybe he has something to say about the fact that we're being attacked by a proxy. In this case, it wasn't even a proxy Palestine. Hamas was a proxy of Iran. This is Iran itself. He's got nothing to say and he's a little bit miffed that you dare expect him to say something about it. And bye bye, he's about to head off on a foreign vacation. Just outrageous. But if you think that's outrageous, look at this insanity from Gregor Robertson, the mayor of Vancouver, who's presided over the worst housing price increase in Canadian history. It's even worse in Toronto. Actually. Actually, it's been going on for 10 years and it's primarily driven by mass immigration. I mean, it's supply and demand. If you dump in 1 million migrants a year, even if they're staying 6 to an apartment or 10 to a house, you're gonna have a shortage. And supply and demand tells you the price is gonna go up. But look at Gregor Robertson. This is how he uses Iran. This is what he thinks the main story is with Iran. Take a look.

[Various MPs and officials (e.g., Evan Solomon, Gregor Robertson)]

Well, it's no surprise that Canadians are challenged with buying homes right now. When there's a war in the Middle east, there's no. No surprise. Mr. Speaker. The member may Continue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the first hundred days of Build Canada Homes, we've secured agreements with nova Scotia, with B.C. with none of it, or deliver. Delivering thousands. We're up to 9,000 homes that are being delivered through Build Canada Homes for Canadians. And we're just getting started. Mr. Speaker, if we pass the Build Canada Homes act in this house in the days ahead, we can supercharge the construction of affordable housing. And that's what Canadians need. The honorable member for York, Durham.

[Garnet Genuis]

Well, Mr. Speaker, an excuse for every problem, but this is a new one. The war in Iran is the cause of our housing crisis.

[Ezra Levant]

Wow. I mean, I don't know how you

[Garnet Genuis]

figure that Square, that circle, Mr. Speaker.

[Ezra Levant]

Imagine looking at Iran and thinking, I'm not going to condemn their terrorism. I'm not going to condemn their attack on Canadians. I'm not going to talk about their instability in the world. I'm going to use them as an excuse for housing prices. How does that even work? Even if you say, okay, the price of energy is a little bit higher briefly, what's that got to do with an existing house? It doesn't make any sense other than it trivializes what Iran is. Iran is the world's leading sponsor of terrorism. Iran causes terrorism abroad. And here, even in Canada, Iran just attacked our troops. And this is what Mark Carney's Cabinet Minister for Housing has to say. It's just absolutely crazy. And, oh, here's Evan Solomon, another Liberal mp. Take a listen to him for a second Speaker.

[Various MPs and officials (e.g., Evan Solomon, Gregor Robertson)]

As the honorable opposition knows, there's a war raging that's affecting prices everywhere. In this chaos, Canada's in a strong position. Why? Because we prepare. We invested in jobs and industries like auto, steel and aluminum. We made sure to keep life affordable for all Canadians with our food, groceries and essentials benefit for 12 million Canadians. We're cutting taxes. You know why, Mr. Speaker? We have a plan. Preparing before a crisis is our way. Complaining after a crisis is theirs.

[Ezra Levant]

Get on board. What on earth is he even saying? So he's. He's somehow blaming Iran. By the way, the Iran war is what, two weeks old? It wouldn't even be measured in the latest job statistics that were about February. The Liberals have decided that all they have to say about Iran is not to condemn them or their terrorism or their terror in this country, but to use them as a talking point. It's just so gross. But I gotta tell you, Doug Ford, the allegedly conservative premier of Ontario is no better. Here's a tweet that he published back in 2018 saying he would not abide a fake Iranian Ayatollah created holiday called Al Quds Day, which is basically the holiday where they swear they're gonna destroy Israel. So this is where all the Iranian agents in Canada have a hate march for one day in Toronto. And it's typically right there on the lawn of the provincial legislature. The kind of place to where they would kick off a trucker. But they have abided these Iranian agents every. It's not a real holiday. It's called Al Qudstate. It's basically Hate the Jews Day. It was invented by the Ayatollah. It's not a Muslim holiday, it's a terror hol. And eight years ago, Doug Ford said he wouldn't allow it. Well, for the last eight years he's allowed it. And then finally today, like just a few hours ago, he said, oh, I'm going to send my attorney General to court to get an injunction against it. It's tomorrow, Al Quds Day. The hate day is tomorrow. I mean, I suppose it's theoretically possible that a judge could be mustered in time, but a judge would say, well, where's the other side? In Canada we typically don't do things ex parte with only one side of the story there. Maybe it's possible to have like a 10am hearing tomorrow. But this is a guy who has known about the annual Al Quds days for eight years and 20 hours. Before it starts, he puts up a video. Here, take a look.

[Doug Ford]

I don't recognize our country, the Canada we know and love. A Canada embraces differences. A Canada that celebrates diversity. That Canada is slipping away. If we don't stand up against the open hatred we see in our country today, more violence and hate will follow against every race, every religion and every community with deadly consequences. That brings me to tomorrow's Al Quds Day demonstration in Toronto. This demonstration is nothing more than a breeding ground for hate and anti Semitism. It glorifies violence. It celebrates terrorism. It has no place in Ontario. It has no place in Canada. That's why today I've instructed my Attorney General, Doug Downey, to pursue an injunction that would stop this hateful demonstration. If we don't act now, if we don't act decisively, the hatred won't stop yet.

[Ezra Levant]

Completely unserious. Every single one of our leaders is completely unserious. The police who said they will permit this Al Quds march to move from the legislature right outside the consulate that was shot up most likely by Iranian agents just a week ago. The police are unserious. The government of Ontario is unserious. The federal government is unserious. And Olivia Chao, the mayor, is probably going to be cheering it on. She literally has Iranian sympathizers, like regime sympathizers, on her campaign team. I'm worried that Canada's in a deep trouble over this. And I just saw this last clip. This is an Iranian regime cleric who is flying into Canada. He will surely claim asylum. He is part of the regime. How many terrorists are fleeing Iran now thinking that the US is going to finish flattening the country? Want to get out there and know that if you are a supporter of the Ayatollahs, you are welcome in Canada. Take a look at this video filmed at Pearson Airport. Yeah, I think we're in an extremely unserious. We have extremely unserious leaders in an extremely serious time. I'm very worried about it. Hey, stay with us. An interview with Garnet Genuis. The Conservative MP is next. I think Canada has been in a de facto recession for years. Recession is typically defined as two economic quarters to the three month periods in a row of net economic decline. But Canada has been engaging in a kind of trick to hide that by massive in migration. My point is if you bring in a half a million or a million people a year, just their activity, rent and food and getting a cell phone and just the basics of everyday life, that will juice the gross GDP number so that the total GDP of the country is not declining. That will hide a recession on a per capita basis. In other words, we're each getting poorer. But the fact that there's a million more of us every year hides that fact. Well, today's a statistic coming from Statistics Canada that is sort of impossible to hide. It's not just a loss on a proportionate basis. Canada as a whole in terms of absolute numbers had a loss of 84,000 jobs. Unemployment has ticked up to 6.7%, double that. More than double that for youth. Joining us now to talk about this is Garnagenewis, the Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party from Sherwood Park, Fort, Saskatchewan, and the Shadow Minister for Employment, Garnet. Great to see you again.

[Garnet Genuis]

Thanks for having me on. Ezra, good to see you.

[Ezra Levant]

Thank you. We meet to talk about bad news. I mean, to have an 84,000 job loss in, in February, that's troubling. And it really is across every sector, isn't it? Mainly the private sector hitting young men in particular. What do you have to say about that?

[Garnet Genuis]

Yeah, so the, the jobs that I think are most important to highlight here, the numbers within that are over 100,000, 108,000 in particular full time jobs lost. So the number you quoted is slightly lower. That's total number of jobs lost. But if you kind of sink out the full time and part time, over 100,000 full time jobs lost and then approaching 50,000 youth jobs lost, that's between 15 and 24. So that's a lot of job losses. In particular for young people, those first jobs are critical. They're not just about income. They're about getting your start on the ladder of learning and experience. And youth who miss those initial milestones have a lot of problems. So we're highlighting the overall challenges for the economy, job losses overall, and in particular the pronounced problem of very high youth unemployment. The youth unemployment rate is over 14% for this country, which is out of.

[Ezra Levant]

You know, it drives me crazy that we're bringing in temporary foreign workers. Not for the traditional reason. I remember when temporary foreign workers was an idea 15 years ago, 10, 15 years ago. And it was exactly what it sounded like. For example, I knew a man in south of Calgary who had a Saskatoon berry farm and there was a short period of time where they needed to pick a gazillion Saskatoon berries. And so he would bring in the same crew from Mexico every year for like a two month period. They would do that work that he couldn't get help with for that one specific project and then they go back home. And I thought, well, okay, I mean, I guess it might be hard to get people to pick Saskatoon berries for a month. That I can understand. Even if someone might say, you know, there are locals who would do it. But having temporary foreign workers who do entry level jobs in a Tim Hortons drive through or a 7 11, that I can't understand because those jobs are supposed to be the first rung on the ladder type jobs. So we're seeing the unemployment amongst those entry level youth jobs and we're still bringing in countless temporary foreign workers. What do you have to say about that?

[Garnet Genuis]

So we did a study at the Human Resources Committee on youth unemployment in the fall and had a lot of really good analysis of the situation in terms of youth jobs. And we brought in witnesses to speak about these dynamics around immigration. I think they're really important. Immigration policy has to be finely tuned to meet the needs of the country in terms of overall numbers, but also identification of and recognition of skills. And my view is that under the Liberals, it's been way out of whack and confirmed by the economists we heard from at this committee that the way in which the immigration system has been structured under the Liberals has really exacerbated competition for those entry level positions. So as you know, Conservatives have proposed getting rid of the temporary foreign worker program. But I think there are a number of other issues in terms of how the program has been structured. I mean, credential recognition is an important part of it too. If you have people coming who aren't having their credentials recognized, then they're more likely to be competing for entry level positions. We should be assisting youth here in Canada accessing those entry level positions. And we should be looking at how specific skill gaps as an interim measure can, can be filled in other ways. But, but yeah, even for higher skilled positions, the goal should be to provide training to Canadians to be able to fill those jobs where they exist.

[Ezra Levant]

You know, I have a friend who's a Tim Hortons franchisee and he always debates me and challenges my points. One of the things he said that I accept is that a lot of the people working in those entry level jobs are not temporary foreign workers. They're foreign students, they're international students. And often they get into Canada with some sketchy career college that's actually just an immigration laundromat where they, where the tuition is really a payment to get them into the country as students and then they work. What's your opinion about the ability of 1 million international students? I think that's the number. There's about a million international students. So they're not even here as foreign workers, they're here to learn. But my, my friend who's the Tim Hortons franchisee and others, the CFIB admit they're the bulk of these workers that we see in, in fast food drive throughs. Do you think that international students should have the right to just go get a job when they're here as students?

[Garnet Genuis]

Well, I think that there's issues of policy and also issues of enforcement around some of that. There are supposed to be limitations, but I think there has been a lot of Abuse as well. There have been a lot of instances of students who are taken advantage of. I recall a case that I did some advocacy around where basically students were given fake college acceptances letters and the immigration department didn't even check with the institution. It would have been the most simple scam to verify or to disprove. All you would have had to do is check with the institution they're supposed to be studying at. And the immigration department didn't even do that. So I think there are a lot of problems in our immigration system. And obviously I think you've spoken recently to our shadow minister who, who's leading on the particulars of that. But are there effects on the job market? Yes, I think there are. And I think there are a lot of different failures when it comes to immigration. The abuses in the international student program, we have very high level of asylum claimants and it takes far, far too long for those claims to be assessed and adjudicated. And we also have people who come here with specific skills that they could be putting to work at a kind of higher level and maybe catalyzing job growth for the economy. And yet they're not recognized in those skills. So they're competing for entry level positions. Our youth jobs plan that we put out in the fall highlighted four areas. Unleashing the economy, fixing immigration, fixing job training, and then also building homes where the jobs are. So immigration isn't the whole picture, but it's certainly part of the picture.

[Ezra Levant]

You know, I keep looking at that demographic of young men and those are people who want to move out of their parents house, get their own house. They want to get that first job and then get that second job. They want to work hard, they're ready to work hard and they're having the toughest go. Even according to these latest numbers. And I see that in the polls, they are the least likely demographic to vote for or to support Marconi's Liberals. And then add in if you want a geography to it, like a single young man in Saskatchewan. I don't know, there's like maybe a 10 chance he's going to vote liberal. And it's not necessarily a cultural thing. It's that every single thing Mark Carney supports hurts that guy with his chances. Immigration exacerbates it all from the house, you know, housing prices going up to wages, going down to all these things. And my theory is the reason why Mark Carney does so well amongst boomers is that they don't actually experience any of the pain that a young man looking for Work does. Their house is paid off. In fact, it's their nest egg. Now. They're going to make millions in capital gains. Their pension is fine or good enough. They're probably in a safe neighborhood. They don't have to worry about crime all the time. Crime will find them. Like, I just think that a boomer who watches Mark Carney look very prime ministerial, looks like a banker. He's flitting around the world announcing, you know, ethereal job promises. The boomers love him because he sounds good. But young men have literally had no help at all. And I think they realize that Mark Carney's a fibber or he's just a man with holly empty suit.

[Garnet Genuis]

I think one other way of maybe saying something similar to what you just said, Ezra, is that voters are going to think about what they're seeing on their television and they're going to think about what they're seeing in the refrigerator. These two appliances in everyone's home, the television and the refrigerator. And on the television, you might be hearing these messages about Mark Carney and the image he's trying to create for himself and so forth. But then if you look at the refrigerator, how you're doing economically, how much food and other basic essentials are costing you, that's going to tell a different story. So I think if people are thinking about the concrete impact on their life, how they're actually doing and how liberal policies are impacting them, that will, that will point them to see the significant problems. Now, are there different demographics in terms of, well, one young, how younger people are consuming news or not? And also maybe different, different people's economic positions and how those play out. I mean, I do want to say, I think there are a lot of older folks that are struggling right now as well, and it depends a lot on, on. On other aspects of their circumstances. What the job numbers show is that there is a dropping presence in the, in the labor market for young people as well as for people in, in core age, that middle age group. I think a lot of older, longer, because of the cost of living crisis, that as they see food and other expenses go up, they feel the need to work more, work longer than they had expected to. So there's challenges across the board. And I think what, what, what's important for us to do is, is point people to what are the practical realities? What are the real impacts of government policy on your life and who is putting forward a real plan that's going to make your life better?

[Ezra Levant]

Yeah, I mean, of course, not all boomers are Liberals. I've just. If you look at the age breakdown, the older in Canada, the more liberal. And by the way, it never used to be that way. I remember 30 years ago when the Reform Party had a real trouble getting young people. Now the Conservative parties have the youth. It's the, it's the Liberal parties that do well with the. The seniors. One more question for you. I. I know we gotta let you go. I am troubled by Mark Carney's secret deals, luring MPs to cross the floor. Just yesterday or the day before, we had a New Democrat from the far north that defected and we've had a couple of Conservatives. And I'll tell you, the media frame these defections, as, you know, amazing for Mark Carney. He's so strategic and clever and look what he's done. Like they've turned a secret, smoky backroom deal that we don't know about. Whether it's a bribe or a pressure, we have no idea. All we know is that they've undermined the democratic will of their district. Not. This is. We're not in the dying era of this Parliament. The election was just a year ago. So there's no legitimate grievance. There's no genuine difference now than a year ago. The only difference is whatever coercion or bribe is being offered to them. And the media delights in this because of course, they want Mark Carney to have a majority. And their implication is Pierre Poliev is not a leader. I keep hearing that from the regime media because Mark Carney is able to pick off the morally weakest MPs with some bribe or another. I find it atrocious. Can you speak for a minute about these defections? And can you talk for a minute about this media narrative that this somehow reflects poorly on pure polyv rather than poorly on Mark Carney?

[Garnet Genuis]

Yeah, sure, happy to. Happy to comment on that. So floor crossing has in the past generally been a kind of individual phenomenon. And people would look at the arguments the individual would make and they'd look at the individual circumstances. But it was, but it was. It was about an individual, individual circumstance. Often what we're seeing now is something quite different, which is, is the Carney government trying to get from a minority to a majority, a majority that they were not given by the voters, and to do it through whatever backroom conversations. I mean, I don't. I don't want to be too definitive. There's lots of things we don't know, of course, about the conversations that. That took place. I think I think there are obviously some things that are being looked at in terms of, of one of the MPs, I think being being a contractor to the government at the same time as, as being a member of Parliament, which is unusual to say the least. But I think the, the big story here is that Mark Carney did not secure a majority in the election. Canadian voters did not have the confidence in him to give him that majority. And now Liberals are trying to through, through shady backroom deals get to a point where they were not given by the voters. And I don't think that's right. I don't think that's appropriate. And I think it's correct to say as well that the narrative being pushed around this really doesn't reflect a kind of principled democratic concern for what the will of the voters is. Just to make one other point though, look, I think in the last few weeks we've seen that this Mark Carney super genius narrative is on the way out. And we're seeing the chaos and the inconsistency that really is evident in his premiership. I mean most evident on the Iran file. I think a different position for every day of the week. And then Mark Carney hiding from a debate that his party had asked for. I think, think as, as the, as the, the, the realities fall so far behind the promises. We're going to start seeing the, the decline of this, this Mark Carney super genius narrative to be replaced with, with a sobering assessment of the realities.

[Ezra Levant]

I hope so. You know, Edmonton, they had Matt Jenner across the floor and there's an MP there's a lot of questions about anyways. But I gotta say that, I mean I, I'm very sympathetic to Alberta independence and I gotta imagine that if an Albertan thinks, well look, we elected a conservative MP fair and square just a year ago and that's the rules of the game. You win an election, you win the seat. But through some sneaky process we know nothing about, even when we win, we lose. The system is rigged, always has been, always will be. This so called MOU to get pipelines built, hasn't got any pipelines built. And we see the rest of the world oil coming on stream from Venezuela and who knows, maybe even Iran. And I feel like Mark Carney's bad behavior on everything from immigration to foreign policy to this undemocratic majority he's seeking would make an Alberta independence movement say, you see, what they're offering by alternative isn't even the status quo. It's getting worse. And even when we Play by the rules and win. We still lose. And I know that you are part of a Federalist party, the Conservative Party of Canada, and your leader has made that clear. And I'm sure you're sitting in the Canadian Parliament as a Federalist, but what would you say to Alberta Independent supporters who would say, look, everything we've been talking about here for the last 15 minutes points to the fact that Canada is not serving the interests of Alberta or Saskatchewan for that matter. And how could Alberta be worse on its own? What would you say to a good faith Alberta Conservative who is fed up with this, who wanted Pierre Poliev to win and surprise another Liberal term? What would you say to such a person? Maybe even me.

[Garnet Genuis]

Yeah, so I guess a few thoughts on that. First of all, I would characterize my position as that of a Canadian nationalist. I love this country and I want to restore this country. I think in the last few years we've seen how Liberals and their fellow travelers on the left have attacked this country, attacked its history, tried to undermine its sense of pride in itself. I think there are certainly things about how federalism has worked under the Liberals that are not fair or not just, that are not right. And I want to restore my country, the country I love, a country that embodies so much virtue and goodness. And I think Alberta can and should be a part of that. Look, I believe in respectful, polite, civil conversation with, with people who disagree on, on the side of separatism. But I'm very much a Canadian nationalist because I don't want to allow the far left or people on the separatist side to take away the country that I love. I think there are things we, we can do to restore it. And, and that's the work that we, we try to do every day. It's not easy, but, but we had 10 years of very good government under Stephen. Previous, previous governments of all stripes were, generally speaking, not nearly as bad or as radical as the last 10 years of liberals have been. And it's that historic greatness of this country that I want to restore.

[Ezra Levant]

Well, thanks for asking that question. And it's a whole other conversation that we don't have time for today. But I appreciate your answer. Thanks for coming on the show and talking about the economy. I know you are the Shadow Minister for Employment, so that was great to have you on the show. Appreciate your time.

[Garnet Genuis]

Thank you for having me.

[Ezra Levant]

Our pleasure. There you have it. Garnet, Genuis, stay with us. Your letters to me next.

[Doug Ford]

Oh, hi.

[Ezra Levant]

Welcome back. Here's a couple of Letters from you, my viewers on Musqueam and the concept of Aboriginal title. Trudy Edgecomb says, could this be the way the World Economic Forum Agenda 2030 accomplishes their goal? You will own nothing and be happy. Give the natives all the land rights from the majority, and then it's much easier to take it from the minority. You know, land is the essential asset, isn't it? Real estate, as they say. They're not making any more of it. And so many things, if you look at them through that prism, make a lot more sense. I remember back to when the Amish in Ontario had a lien put on their farms by the government of Ontario because they didn't pay their Covid fines. Well, imagine seizing their farm, seizing their property over a Covid dispute. So, yeah, it's a fair question to ask to destabilize the west by casting doubt on your property rights. You know, I don't know if it's connected to the World Economic Forum, but it would certainly suit their agenda. Tracy Ralph says this is a UN mandate. The UN is evil. The indigenous are making deals with China to sell the land to them. I'm tired of these grifters. You know what? I believe in honoring the treaties. And if you watch my show regularly, you would have seen me go through Treaty 6, and it's a document of surrender. But there were certain things that the Crown promised to give Indians in return. Farm equipment, seeds, school, medicine, things like that. And I think we should honor those treaties like any contract. But they in no way contemplated this massive land grab on a racial basis. Just no way at all. And I think that Aboriginal people risk starting a new era of resentment by doing. By overreaching. It's sort of like when gay marriage became adopted. Okay, do the victory lap, but no, instead going on to transgenderism, adding the T to lgbt. You're going too far. You're going to lose the support of ordinary people. I think there was a lot of tolerance for gay people, but if you add that T to it and say, men and women's changing, you've lost people. I think there's a lot of tolerance for helping Indigenous people. I think we all see in our urban centers Indigenous people who are having a tough time, maybe are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and they genuinely need help. And I don't know a single Canadian who doesn't feel a sympathy. But if. If you're going to move from that to, we're going to seize the land under your house, I fear that they will overplay their hand and engender a new era of enmity towards. I sure hope that doesn't happen. Well, that's our show for the day. I will be in Toronto at the Al Quds rally tomorrow. Whether or not it's banned by this Ontario government, I doubt it will be. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, for you at home, good night. And keep fighting for freedom. Sa.