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Bronx and his dad, Ryan, real United Airlines customers.
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This is not a drill. Canada is preparing for a possible war against the United States and Russia. They are building up a civilian army of 300,000 strong. They are observing what the United States is doing to Venezuela right now and how Trump is using the same language as Putin used against Ukraine as Trump is using with Venezuela, as Trump has used with Canada. Right. Putin saying, this is our historical territorial land. And Putin's pretext with Ukraine was to make up. I'm here to do denazification, which everyone's like, what the hell is he talking about? But that's how authoritarians think. Donald Trump is now saying with respect to Venezuela that they stole our land, they stole our oil. He's saying that their shipping fentanyl and killing Americans when there's no fentanyl coming out of Venezuela. This is the same language that Donald Trump has used against Canada. 51st state is a threat. We're going to take you over. And just like the language Donald Trump is using with Venezuela when it comes to Canada, Donald Trump saying, people of Canada are killing the people in the United States by sending over the fentanyl. And that this, if you look at this border, these are our lands and this border is just arbitrary and we should be able to take it over. That's the language of war. And I think people in Canada, their military forces, leaders, are seeing what Sergei Lavrov is saying. And they know Sergey Lavrov, who's Vladimir Putin's, you know, top foreign minister, is out there saying right now, we are already in World War Three. That's the language that Russians are using. We're in World War Three right now. And the question is, is where's the United States in this World War Three dynamic? At least, you know, we know where Europe stands and Canada stands and Australia stands, and the US Seems to be taking the side of Putin. So let me just show you. I think this is how the people of Canada see it. The leader of Midas, Canada, Charlie Angus, and he covered this in detail. And I want to share with what he just told me. Charlie Angus talks about how Sergei Lavrov in Russia says, we're in a World War Three posture right now. Play this.
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Sergei Lavrov, Putin's hard man and the guy who was invited into Trump's White House as a good friend it seems, is declaring that the Third World War has already begun. It's a new form of war. It's a war of pressure. And part of that war in Canada is an economic war to break us. This is what Donald Trump has stated his determination, and we aren't breaking.
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And then Charlie Angus, the leader of Midas Canada, talks to us about preparedness and military preparedness and how Canada is building this civilian army, how Canada's top general says that Canada is ready for war, how Canada is looking very skeptically right now at purchasing F35s from the United States, because for all you know, Donald Trump in the US can try to manipulate the F35s. And so they're looking more towards Sweden's gripens, which may not be as good of a plane as the F35s, but at least Sweden says they're going to work with Canada to help build this together. And Canada can have some ownership over building the weapons for the future, a Future without the U.S. here's Charlie Angus talking about the preparedness of the Canadian military right now. Let's play it.
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Let's talk about preparedness. General Marie Carignan, head of Canadian Forces, gave some end of year interviews, and she says Canada is ready, ready to go if needed. Now, this woman is a serious badass, okay? She was born in a mining town. She's apparently an incredible dancer. She served in the peacekeeping mission. She was in Golan Heights. She was in Bosnia. She commanded Task Force Kandahar. She's got a whack of medals, including some from the United States. And General Carigno was talking about how much things have changed in terms of the threat. She says, you know, we divested air defense systems in 2000 because Canada was fighting a counterinsurgency war and we didn't need it. But she says now the situation has changed. The air is contested, and we have to get back into the business of air defense. So is that defending our airspace from Putin, or are we also talking about the threat south of the border? She says that Canada's regular force right now is 65,677 soldiers, and the target is to get to 71,000. So far, recruiting for the last two years has not gone badly. Last year's target was 6,400 new members. They finished at 6,600. And this year's target is 7,600. She was asked about the whole question of DEI. We see how in the United States, the Pentagon is flushing pages of famous Americans, the code talkers, you know, Jackie Robinson, Getting rid of a black head of their armed forces. But General Carignan, she says, listen, in Canada we value the differences of men, women and their backgrounds. And in the military, conformity as part of team dynamics can be absolutely deadly. She says that what she's looking for is to build a larger network of expertise to support the military, and that includes civil service, the emergency management and building community resilience. I think that that's her way of talking about this citizens army and how they can work together with the Canadian military. We're going to get to that in a second in terms of preparedness, she says, we're ready. Who knows? I'm no expert, but Canada does have an enormous amount of experience. We were the front lines in Kandahar, which was the heart of the Taliban, and nobody gave us anything there. It was full at war from the get go. And we have a lot of people who had experience there. We've been on the front lines in of the Russian threat with training in Latvia and Ukraine. So you can be rest assured the Canadian trainers are coming back, having also been trained in what 21st century hybrid warfare looks like. And we also have an enormous amount of expertise in places of conflict like Yugoslavia. So we, we bring a lot to the table in terms of that. You know, I, I don't want to be talking about this really, but this is the state of the world that we're in. Is, is starting to assess where Canada is going to be in times of increasing threat.
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More from Charlie Angus talking about this civilian army, this 300,000 strong civilian army, and how the ingenuity of Canada needs to really be tapped into. Here, here, play this clip.
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What we need to be doing is looking at local teams who bring a lot of expertise with them. You know, first aid, it, radio dispatch, training, people in search and rescue, evacuation, traffic, you know, in case of an emergency, to have people trained at the ground level to help do that. That will make things move a lot faster in terms of reaching out to the civil service. We have people with enormous amount of expertise because if this is run by the, by the hr, the Canadian military, it's going to move as slow as molasses in January and it's not going to happen. Think of what happened during COVID when they were initially going to use the existing programs like EI to get money to people who'd been forced off work. Certainly my party, the New Democratic Party were saying this will take forever. It's way too cumbersome, it's too high bound with the bureaucracy and over the Easter weekend, Canada's civil Service created the CERB program that got $2,000 to every person who wasn't able to work and got it out the door quickly. That's what happens when you think outside the box. So that's what we need to be doing here, is thinking outside the box of thinking of this as not simply, you know, boots on the ground and uniforms and marching, but thinking of creativity and using the strengths of Canadians.
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All right, let's talk some facts here. Four companies control over 80% of the US meat industry. Not good. And China now controls the largest portion of US Pork. Not good. These companies are using really awful tactics, in my opinion, to crush American family farms. And with the additives they're putting into our food, Americans are stuck with sketchy meat. Not made in America, truly. So what can we do about this? Let me tell you about a company that's coming up swinging on behalf of American family farms and your family's food security. They're called Moink. You know, we love Moink here at the Midas Touch Network. The business is simple. Moink's meat comes from animals raised outdoors, where a pig is free to be a pig. Their farmers are given an honest day's pay for an honest day's work, and they deliver meat straight to your doorstep at prices you can actually afford. Born, raised, and harvested right here in the United States of America, Moink is helping save rural America, which you all know we need more than ever right now. I love Moink, especially their bacon, and I know you will, too. Join the Moink movement today. Support American family farms and join the Moink movement today@moinkbox.com Midas Touch right now. And get free bacon for a year. That's one year of the best bacon you'll ever taste. But for a limited time, it's spelled M O I n k box.com Midas Touch that's Moinkbox.com Midas Touch Join the movement. And then an important part of what Charlie was telling, telling all of us, and he was talking about how, you know, Ukraine at first and lots of the world didn't think that Russia would actually invade Ukraine the way they did. The same way everyone would be like, it's preposterous. The United States not going to seek to invade Canada. The US Isn't going to be doing this, of course. Come on, what happens after Venezuela? What happens after Colombia?
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Right?
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I mean, after Trump's bloodlust, you don't think it's a possibility that he'd be the language that he's using, 51st State, is, as Canadians recognize it, war language. And that's what infuriates Canadians more than infuriates. So this is an important point that Angus talks about. And he said, look at what happened in Sumy. Look at what happened in Sumy in Ukraine. Here, listen to what he says here. Play this clip.
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I want to read to you a section from this new book by Tom Mooch, the Dogs of Mauri Paul, about the opening days of the Ukraine war. It's one of the reasons I've been so obsessing about the need for us to be thinking of preparedness is because the Ukrainians didn't quite believe that in the 21st century their next door neighbor would just come across the border with tanks. And so when it happened, they weren't quite prepared. And it was the ordinary citizens of Ukraine who basically put themselves in the path of the Russian advance that slowed it down and stopped it before it got to Kiev. And the Battle of Sumy is something that's really an important but overlooked moment. He writes. The Battle of Sumy comes the closest to the image of a desperate, bedraggled civilian guerrilla army fight overwhelming odds. When the Russians marched in, even the Ukrainians expected to be overwhelmed here. Many of the city administration fled, but the ordinary people of Sumy did not. When the Russians attempted to encircle and then bypass Sumy with a massive armored column, they were met by small teams of defenders who sallied forth and knocked out their logistics. There were only about 50 professional soldiers and Sumy with very little in the way of heavy weapons. So light were the forces that the Russians did not even bother to bring air defenses to support their troops here. Yeah, and then they ran into the drones. But in Sumy the effort was almost entirely led and self directed by the citizens themselves becoming a true People's Defense Force. There were only a few thousand civilians with rifles, a few dozen anti tank weapons and no armored vehicles or heavy weaponry. But by mid March, the Russians were scared to enter the city. Here's the thing. Canadians understand the mission. Canadians will do what is necessary. And I am hoping against hope that Lavrov is wrong, that this new global conflict hasn't begun. I'm hoping against hope that Donald Trump will be defeated in the midterms and we will somehow go back to whatever, but I don't expect that. And when I see the situation in Venezuela where Trump is now threatening the people of Venezuela and he's not, you know, America has a long history of Interfering in Latin America with CIA coups and Guatemala and Chile and other places. But what the language about Venezuela is this total shakedown that he basically says the Venezuelans stole our money and we're here to get it back. This is the kind of language of gangster gunboat diplomacy. And we see from the Trump Doctrine he believes he can apply that to Canada. And we've already seen multiple threats of what we owe America and what we are doing to threaten America. So am I saying that what's happening in Venezuela will happen to Canada? No. But we can't take anything for granted. So I believe that there's a huge opportunity by building resilience because it sends a message. It sends a message. Don't you think about it now. Don't you think about it ever. We have managed to throw MAGA back this year again and again because they continually underestimate us and we continually stand up and show up. You know, I will end with what Winston Churchill said to Adolf Hitler. You, sir, you do your worst. We will always do our best.
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Now, in this past week, also, we heard from Prime Minister Mark Carney, who talks about the relationship that they're building in Canada with the rest of the world other than the United States. Play this clip. When I go, or the Minister of International Trade or Minister of Finance goes.
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And meets with any country in the world, with one exception, any country in.
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The world, they want to do more business with Canada. They are desperate to do more business with Canada.
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And we.
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Because we have. Because we have much of what they want. And they respect us. They respect us because we respect the.
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Rule of law, we have the right values, we're good partners, and it's just an enormous amount of opportunity. So I am hugely optimistic.
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And I'm optimistic because these opportunities are.
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Being created by people like the people in this room and across this great country.
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A recent press conference was just held with Prime Minister Carney and the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford. And here's how Doug Ford refers to the position of Ontario relative to Donald Trump, whining about the ad. Like they're still whining about the ad. Trump and Pete Hoekstra, who's the United States Ambassador to Canada. Watch what Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, says here. Play this clip.
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By not backing down, are you putting your own interests ahead of people in the sector?
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In what sector? I believe you just can't roll. You can't. I'm in a different position. I'm not speaking for the Prime Minister. I'm speaking for the people of Ontario. We're getting hit the most out of any single province in this entire country. He's attacking our steel industry, attacking our automotive sector, attacking our manufacturing, our pharmaceutical, our life sciences. I'm not going to sit back and.
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Roll over.
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You know, not fight back. To protect the people and their jobs of Ontario. It's as simple as that. That's my job to protect the people of Ontario. I'm going to continue fighting to make sure we get a fair deal with the US I can tell you one thing I talked to. I'm going down to sign a deal with the governor of New York tomorrow. I can tell you I talk to governors almost every week. Almost every single day, a senator or congressperson, Republican or Democrat, even Republicans say they don't agree with the deal, but they're too scared. Except four of them that cross the floor to vote with the Democrats about three or four weeks ago. So I'm going to fight like I've never fought before to protect and protect the communities in Ontario, protect their jobs and protect the people.
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And then you had the US Ambassador, Pete Hoekstra recently whining about the ad. He's still complaining and, like, cry. This guy's like a crybaby still crying about the ad. Dude, grow up. I mean, just. Just the amateurist. The immaturity, the hatred of Canada by the U.S. ambassador to Canada. People in Canada despise this guy. Despise this guy. Here, play this clip. Why does the. I don't know if it's the White House, Donald Trump or Americans in general took such offense to that ad.
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It's never happened before. Foreign governments do not come into the United States of America and run political ads during our election campaign season if they want to do that. They are, as we've said, they are setting precedent. No one has ever tried this before. And who it's not, people have said, pete, why are you upset? It's kind of like, think about it, okay? The president mentions an election in Canada, and I think there have been reports that says Canadians weren't happy about that. Okay? This is taking a comment by a political person, whether it's the president or the prime minister, but then the government making a conscious decision to take taxpayer money, significant $75 million, and say, we're going to run on the World Series. We're going to run on Fox News. We're going to run it on NFL Sunday football. And the intent is to influence and divide the Republican Party a specific political objective.
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There is also the distinction, though. That was a provincial ad that was sponsored by the government of Ontario, not the government of Canada. The level at which the United States is engaging in these discussions.
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Yeah, it was. We know that.
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Okay.
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But no distinction.
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When I was in Congress. And you'd like to think that everybody that is in your congressional district knows you in America. It is in my congressional district. And it's this way for every congressional district. About 50% of our constituents could not name who their congressperson was. They don't live and breathe politics each and every day like those of us who are involved in that business. The Americans saw an ad that at the bottom of it says, paid for by maybe the province of Ontario or whatever. But it's very clear this is an ad run by coming from a government institution in Canada.
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And then also later in that interview and in more recent interviews as well, Hoekstra saying, well, Canada, if they don't want to buy our F35s, good luck. Look, the bottom line is that there's a, there's a trust factor here. And I think, you know, one of the things that Canada is learning from Ukraine as well is how to build this drone, this drone army up. And we've, we've reported on this before, but focusing on the having drones ready to go at the border in case there is a US Invasion, no one knows. I mean, Trump's behavior right now is dangerous. It is that of an authoritarian. It's that of Putin, and so Trump's. And let me ask it to you this way. Do you think, absent a forceful international pushback, do you what do you think Donald Trump would do to Canada? You have any doubt that he would invade Canada? He said that. He said as much. So I think Canada's beginning to take this very much, much more seriously. You tell me what you think. And hat tip to Charlie Angus for reporting. You know, it's not hyperbolic. I think that this is a strong possibility. I think people need to take this seriously. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million. Thanks for watching. Hey, Midas Mighty. It's Ben Bretton Jordi, and we just want to thank you for being the backbone of this movement. This year tested us more than ever. But together, we proved that pro democracy voices don't just us compete, we win. We took on the entire MAGA machine, won a Webby for Podcast of the.
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Year, the Midas Touch podcast, and you.
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Were with us every step of the way. And trust us, what we're working on next is bigger, bolder, and built for 2026. Let's keep this momentum going. Spread the word. We are just getting started. Shout out to the Midas. Mighty Hey, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. You know, one of the perks about having four kids that you know about is is actually getting a direct line to the big man up north. And this year he wants you to know the best gift that you can give someone is the gift of Mint Mobile's Unlimited Wireless for $15 a month. Now you don't even need to wrap it. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
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Of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only.
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Speed slow after 35 gigabytes if network's busy, taxes and fees extra.
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See mintmobile.com.
Date: December 22, 2025
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
Notable Guests/Voices: Charlie Angus (Leader of Meidas Canada), Prime Minister Mark Carney, Premier Doug Ford, US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra
This episode tackles the rising tensions between Canada and the United States in response to Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric. The discussion focuses on Canada’s military readiness, the formation of a substantial civilian army, and concerns over Trump’s threats mirroring those used by Putin in Ukraine. The Meiselas brothers, with guest insights from politicians and defense leaders, mix their signature banter with deep dives into geopolitics, democracy, and the urgent need for resilience against authoritarianism.
[02:28] – [04:54]
[05:19] – [11:00]
Charlie Angus (Leader of Meidas Canada) outlines Canada’s ramped-up military and civil defense response:
General Marie Carignan cited as leading preparedness:
Angus stresses the value of creative, decentralized approaches to readiness, reflecting on COVID-19 response as a positive example.
[13:09] – [17:11]
Charlie Angus draws historical lessons from Ukraine’s defense against Russia, especially the Battle of Sumy:
Implicit warning to Canadians: Don’t underestimate the possibility or necessity of civilian mobilization in modern conflict.
[17:11] – [19:57]
[18:39] – [19:57]
Premier Doug Ford (Ontario):
Addresses the Ontario government’s provocative ad campaign in the US, which drew the ire of US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra.
[20:32] – [23:06]
Hoekstra criticizes Ontario’s move to run political ads in the US, calling it “unprecedented.”
Tensions over military sales: US expressing irritation at Canada’s hesitance to buy F-35s.
Canadian focus shifts to autonomous drone defense and domestic innovation as trust in the US erodes.
Ben closes by reiterating the seriousness of Trump’s threats and the necessity for international vigilance.
[03:00, Ben, on Trump’s war language]:
“The 51st state is a threat. We're going to take you over... That's the language of war... the US seems to be taking the side of Putin.”
[06:35, Charlie Angus, on Canadian military culture]:
“In Canada we value the differences of men, women and their backgrounds... in the military, conformity as part of team dynamics can be absolutely deadly.”
[09:47, Charlie Angus, on resilience]:
“Not simply boots on the ground and uniforms and marching, but thinking of creativity and using the strengths of Canadians.”
[13:35, Charlie Angus, on Ukraine’s civilians]:
“The Battle of Sumy comes the closest to the image of a desperate, bedraggled civilian guerrilla army fighting overwhelming odds... the effort was almost entirely led and self-directed by the citizens themselves.”
[17:36, PM Carney, on global respect]:
“They respect us because we respect the rule of law, we have the right values, we're good partners... just an enormous amount of opportunity.”
[19:08, Doug Ford, on fighting for Ontario]:
“I'm going to fight like I've never fought before to protect... the people of Ontario.”
The Meiselas brothers combine urgency with wry humor, issuing serious warnings about creeping authoritarianism while maintaining their signature brotherly banter. Guest speakers are direct and candid, especially Charlie Angus, who espouses practical patriotism and resilience over jingoism. Despite the alarming subject matter, the underlying tone is one of proactive optimism and grounded realism.