Defence deal with Sweden tells the U.S. ‘keep your stuff, we’ve been through enough,' Mulcair says

Good morning to you.Good morning, Marcia.Where to begin?Let's start with this announcement from the PM that we will be entering formal negotiations with Saab as the preferred supplier of Canada's future, enabled by Saab's Global Eye.This is a surveillance system.Saab has not signed a contract yet.

They're going to work with Canadian authorities.But as has been pointed out, we're not looking towards Boeing.We're talking to Saab.Let's begin there.Your thoughts on this from the Prime Minister this morning.

Well, there are several signals involved in that announcement.One is that we are telling the Americans, keep your stuff.We've been through enough.We're finding other partners around the world for trade generally, and it's going to include the U .S.billions upon billions that we're going to be spending on defence, we're going to be looking for other partners.

There's something advantageous for Canada here, of course, because the platform is a model of the Bombardier business jet, the long -range one, the 6500, and it's win -win.I mean, it creates jobs here in Canada, it builds up our partnership with SAAB.On that last point, there was a question right at the end, and Mr. Carney demurred.He just said, well, I'm not going to talk about that procurement issue right now.But it really does leave open the question whether or not Canada is going to be making a decision to acquire a big chunk of Saab fighter jets instead of going through with the rest of the American jets, the F -35s that we've been talking about, the very expensive jets.high performance, no question about that.

But we've been through so much with the Americans, do we really think that that's the best way to spend our money right now?That's not directly stated by Mr. Carney, but it's implicit in everything that we just heard.So good news for Canada and for Canadians, because it sells a product that we make and helps it become better known around the world.And at the same time, it sends a strong signal to our American colleagues that they can't have it both ways.They can't keep dumping on us and making our lives miserable intentionally, economically, and expect us to just go along with business as usual.and deal with them mostly for the procurement of defense assets.

I do want to get to the other stuff in just a second, but a quick sidebar to then your point, is that going to tick off the Americans?We're just weeks away from Kuzma.Now we've got this announcement today that we're moving away.

Well, Mr. Carney is going to be in New York this week.I'm sure he's going to have more to say about that.But at some point, you've got to stand up for your own interests.I think that Mr. Carney has shown a great deal of forbearance in dealing with the Americans.His tone is always subdued.you know, scolded mildly Doug Ford when he chose the World Series to put out a strong ad against Trump's policy, saying that that wasn't helpful.

So we've bent over backwards to try to be good Canadians, gentlemanly about this, and womanly.You know, the old joke is that Canadians are so polite we apologize to ATMs if we make a mistake.That is our reputation, and we've tried to play the game that way with the Americans, but it doesn't work.The mind boggles.Over the weekend, Pete Hegseth, of course, talking the same sort of thing that we've been getting from them since the beginning.I think at some point Canadians just have to say enough is enough.

We're going to start taking care of our own interests and that means moving away from the Americans in some of these spheres.

Speaking of moving away from the Americans, LNG, big deal with Germany.Tell us more about that, what it means for BC and the potential pushback to it.

Well, the first thing that Mr. Carney mentions is the fact that when he calls it top decile, he's talking a little bit like an economist.But what he's reminding people is that amongst the cleanest natural gas in the world in terms of greenhouse gas production is the gas that will be put into those LNG tankers and sent through the Panama Canal over to Germany from Canada.It helps energy security in Europe, which has been hard hit since Russia's illegal war against Ukraine.The Europeans are looking for stability.They're looking for other sources.and Canada can play a key role there.

That's win -win.I mean, you know, David Eby was complaining about Alberta and pipelines, but guess what?Lots of pipelines across B .C.to get that natural gas to market off the B .C.

coast.

So I think this is a great result if Mr. Carney follows through on his promise to have a plan, credible plan, to actually control the rest of the greenhouse gases and put Canada on track to respect its international obligations, especially under the Paris Accord to deal with climate change.others who might follow suit.

Well, Stephen Gilbo was brought in by Justin Trudeau, and they were very like -minded.They were two people who very much liked to make the announcement.But if you look at the reports, the successive reports of Canada's commissioners of sustainable development who were there for the nine years of Trudeau, including the many years in that where Gilbo was in charge of the environment, they say they weren't getting it done.And so it's very difficult to understand why Mr. Gilbo was able to hop on board with Mr. Trudeau, even as he was building the largest oil pipeline, the Trans Mountain pipeline that's there now, from Alberta to the West Coast, but then it became a huge problem to even discuss it with the current Alberta government.How it was possible for Mr. Gilboa to sit at the cabinet table and approve the largest offshore, or certainly one of the largest offshore oil projects in Canadian history, the Baie du Nord project off Newfoundland.So, if you look at the tendency of both Trudeau and Gilboa to announce and to take positions that was very forward -looking.

But it was Trudeau who started backing away from the consumer facing carbon tax.It was Trudeau who started the ball rolling.I'm not sure that the result would have been any different if somehow Justin Trudeau was still here today because there's a simple reality.We have a blessing of massive natural resources and we've got to learn how to develop them more and develop them responsibly.Going back to our first point, Marcia, how can we deal with the Americans who are intentionally trying to undermine our economy if we don't develop the resources that we have?So I think at some point, Mr. Trudeau used to always talk about, oh, you know, the economy and the environment, they're not opposite forces.

Well, look at the track record of Carney so far.$3 .8 billion for a nature policy that's being put in place, and it's real money and it's really being put in place, to protect land and water across country, to get to 30 % of protected areas by 2030.Sorry, by 2030.2030 is a bit far off.By 2030.They're going to get it done.

And so you have to look at the whole picture on environment, sustainable development, and climate change to realize that Gilbo perhaps has a very fond memory of what he did with Trudeau in making announcements.But in terms of the actual results, I think that the jury's still out with regard to Carney's final balance sheet.

Tom Mulcair, always appreciate talking with you.We covered a lot of ground.I really appreciate you being with us this morning.

All the best, Marcia.Take care.

We'll see you next week.