Reporter Accuses Liberal Of "Gaslighting" Live On Air, Guilbeault Warns "There Are Others"

I can tell you that I'm not the only one who's uncomfortable with what's happening.

I have to start off on the big news of the day, and that's the decision from Steven Guilbeau to quit.And I have to say, and this isn't a specific reference to you, but I've listened to liberals respond to even the prime minister.It feels a bit sort of like gaslighting.Like, this isn't a big deal.It's not dramatic.It was sort of expected.

There's no dissent in caucus.Is that really true?

Stephen Gilboa sat down with Vashti Kapelos last night and explained exactly why he's leaving politics and his seat in parliament.He also made it clear that he is not the only liberal uncomfortable with the direction that Mark Carney is taking.But the kicker came when Vashti Kapelos pressed Gary Anandasangiri on it and accused him and Mark Carney of gaslighting Canadians live on air.Let's take a look.

Good to see you.As always, I appreciate you making the time.

My pleasure, Vashti.

I know it's a busy day, so it's good to see you here in studio.What was the breaking point for you?

I think my decision to leave politics started when I decided to leave cabinet, really.At the time, I decided to stay hoping that I would be able to influence some of the upcoming decisions that the government had to make.certainly on nature which ended up lending very well and it's an area where Canada is maintaining its international leadership.There's something in the spring economic statement about our climate finance commitment under the Paris Agreement.Rich countries contribute to helping countries in the south tackle climate change.We've increased slightly our commitment, whereas some of our peers, Britain, France, have reduced theirs, and in fact the United States have completely abolished their support.

So these are good things, but obviously the one element that was going to be a determining factor was the resultof the negotiations between the federal government and Alberta through this MOU process.

So, is it fair to say that the MOU as it landed a few weeks ago is what determined your decision?Yes.And if that MOU was not signed, would you still be in?

So, I published a letter to the editors some weeks ago in the Toronto Star, in La Presse, saying basically I wasn't opposed to the idea of signing a memorandum of understanding with Alberta, but we shouldn't do so at the expense of our plan to fight climate change.As a cabinet member and as a member of the Liberal Caucus, I have supported what we're doing in terms of investments in defence.It's very important.The world is becoming a more dangerous place.But last time I checked, tens of thousands of Canadians haven't been displaced because of threats from China, Iran or Russia.Tens of thousands of Canadians have been displaced because of the impacts of climate change year after year.

Forest fires, floodings, atmospheric rivers, heat waves.to largely abandon the fight against climate change as part of this agreement with Alberta.We're not stopping everything.There are some measures that are staying.Investments, tax credits, some regulatory measures.But we're, to use a very bad analogy, we're putting our foot off the gas when it comes to fighting climate change.

And I think Canadians are going to pay the price.

Now this is funny.It's funny because, again, we're just over a year after the election was completed.we seem to have a case of people that don't seem to know what's going on.You have some new liberals that havechanged but not changed their positions since the election.And you now have Stephen Guilbeau and a bunch of other people that are saying, wait a minute, I thought we were fighting for one thing, but now we're fighting for another.

So let me just remind everybody of what happened just over a year ago when Stephen Guilbeau was one of the first people to come out in support of Mark Carney.This is what he said.

We have an important decision to make as part of the leadership race of the Liberal Party of Canada by March 9th, and I'm here to tell you today that I will be offering my support to Mark Carney.I've known Mark for many years.We've worked together on issues of green energy, transition, fighting climate change, and the role of the financial sector in fighting climate change.Mark has worked to mobilize actors all around the world.He's a special advisor to the UN Secretary General on the issue of climate change and green financing.He has the experience, he has the background, he's navigated crisis when he was at the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, and I know he's the right person to help bring us into the next phase of our work to support Canadians.

to build a strong economy and to fight climate change.

And isn't it funny because that Luke Skywalker quote comes to mind from The Last Jedi where he says, you know what's amazing about what you just said?Everything was wrong.So everything that Stephen Guilbeau just said about what he said about Mark Carney was actually wrong.And it led Stephen Guilbeau to actually leave cabinet and leave his seat and leave his party.Now, that's not going to happen until Later later this this summer according to mr. YiboMy guess is it's to help preserve the Liberal majority, but it doesn't change the fact that he's leaving.

And it doesn't change the fact that what he is essentially saying is Mark Carney duped him.So Canadians need to ask the question, if Mark Carney is flat out lying to his ministers and lying to his own caucus, lying to his own supporters that are in the room with him, why would you trust him in talking to you?when he doesn't have to worry about you.He doesn't talk to you.He doesn't need your support right now.That's the question.

Did they try to get you to stay?

There were some conversations with the prime minister.

I should be more specific.

There was some conversation with his office where they said they were interested in keeping me on board, but at the same time I don't think they were particularly pleased with the fact that I was being publicly vocal in my disagreement with the government on some of those issues.I respect the Prime Minister, I respect the team and cabinet and my colleagues.It's just time for me, I came into politics, and people come into politics for different reasons.That's why I came into politics.And if I can't work on that and help move those issues inside politics, then I'm just going to go and do it somewhere else.

Do you think the possibility exists for others to follow suit?What does your gut tell you?

Good question.As you know, in our parliamentary system, it's very rare to see a cabinet ministera cabinet of their own.Usually you're asked to leave or there's an election, there's a cabinet shuffle.I can tell you that I'm not the only one who's uncomfortable with what's happening.Other than that, I'm not sure what people will do.

So, doesn't sound like they tried to convince him to stay.What are you going to offer him, right?What are you going to offer a climate fanatic?who's already resigned from a cabinet position where he was making over $100 ,000 more than he's making right now.Say what you want about Guibo, but he gave up that money because he is a fanatic about the environment.Now, he doesn't get a pass because he still voted for the Emergencies Act and he was still around for all of the corruption through the Trudeau era.

Let's not forget all of that, folks, and put this in perspective.But he has his own principles that apparently he's standing by.And isn't it funny that he says, well, they weren't happy that I went public with this.No, I imagine Mr. Carney was not.And I imagine if you believe Mr. Gebo, he has said, you know, I've I've had many conversations with the prime minister.I've tried to influence.

I've tried to do this and I've tried to do that.And Mark Carney won't listen.Mark Carney refused to listen.This is consistent with what some of these articles that are coming out from the CBC and the Globe and Mail and these juicy political tabloid type of articles, even from the mainstream media, where they say Mark Carney doesn't listen to folks outside of his inner circle, which evidently Mr. Guibo wasn't part of.And maybe that's one of the other reasons.But the other thing about this that's interesting is then

Bashi goes on to directly ask him, will they bring others?And he's like, listen, there's other people that feel the exact same way as I do.How many other people?Well, it's a good thing we have that number, isn't it?Because story broke earlier, where there was 14 people who signed this letter.Guibo would have been one, for sure.

Wilkinson, another staunch environmentalist that was shuffled to the dumpster seats, as we've been told they're called, is another one.So that's at least two, which means there's 12 others.I don't know if Nathan Erskine -Smith is a part of that.Who knows?But there's 12 others.12!

It's almost 10 % of your caucus.That's no small chunk.And now that they've seen Guibo get up and leave, as we've postulated, are we gonna see any move to independent?Are we going to see them move to the bloc?Don't know.Again, just to reinforce, we're against floor crossing from any party because that betrays the voters that voted for them.

But it'd be interesting to see what the Liberals' reaction is if that started happening and if they lost the majority.It's going to be interesting to see when exactly Guilbault resigns and when Nate Erskine -Smith steps down and when Wilkinson is gone because if all those three of them left today, Mark Carney's majority is gone.because that moves him from 174 to 171 seats and you need 172 for a majority but that's with the speaker voting.So this is fascinating how this actually may end up working out.Guibo may stay beyond the by -elections just to keep at a majority but why would he?It's interesting.

So he wants to leave, probably burning some bridges on the way out, but he's doing so in a way that doesn't hurt the party.Why would you trust a guy who told you how he was going to run the party only to then turn around and not do it the way he told you he was gonna run the party?Sounds like he told you what you wanted to hear in order to get your support back in the liberal leadership race.And once he didn't need you anymore, he said, good, I don't need Guibo anymore.Why would you trust him?This is interesting.

But what's more interesting is what happened right after that, when Vassie Capellos sat down with Gary Nandis -Angery to talk about this, and his response, Mark Carney's response, and the Liberal cabinet response to Guilbault leaving.

Hi Minister, welcome back to studio.I appreciate you making the time.I have to start off on the big news of the day, and that's the decision from Steven Guilbeau to quit.And I have to say, and this isn't a specific reference to you, but I've listened to Liberals respond to even the Prime Minister.It feels a bit sort of like gaslighting, like this isn't a big deal, it's not dramatic, it was sort of expected, there's no dissent in caucus.Is that really true?

I mean, this is a very prominent member of your caucus and formerly of the government's cabinet, a star candidate in 2019.Isn't this a big deal that he's going and doesn't it say something about your government?

I will say it's a very personal issue for me.Like, Stephen's a good friend.I worked with him very closely on two major projects, Pickering Lands in Pickering, the airport lands, and then Haida, recognition of Haida title in Haida Gwaii, and we spent some time together.I have the utmost respect and admiration for Stephen.He is, first and foremost, an incredible human being.He's certainly a loss to our caucus, but I will say that over the years, the last year.

a number of things have been happening both in Canada and around the world, where I think we realize that yes, we have a very strong team, but our focus also needs to be laser -sharp on the economy and making sure that Canada can withstand some of the challenges we've been facing with the tariffs.So while I think Stephen has played a crucial role in our environmental policy and he will continue to do that both at the national and I would say the international level because he is that highly respected, we as a government and as a party, you know, thank him and we will continue to do the work that we know is important for Canadians.

On the latter part, are you so sure?Mr. Guilbault told me tonight in an interview just a few moments ago that there are other people as uncomfortable with him about the direction that your government is taking.If the Prime Minister can't convince those individuals, and in particular in this case Mr. Guilbault, to stick on board in the middle of this crisis as you describe it, how can you expect to convince other Canadians?

Good on Vashti.The only thing that I wish she would have went a little bit further on is, what does this say about Mark Carney's leadership?Didn't get there.But you know, I'll take it where I can get it because this is what I was hoping at least more of the media would be asking.But the fact that she accuses Mark Carney and Gary Nanasangri and the rest of these liberals of gaslighting Canadians with their response, oh, this is no big deal.Good on her, man.

Honest journalism is what we need in this country.It's one of the reasons why Northern Perspective exists, because we don't get much of it in this country.And we have our opinions, but we don't make up facts.We don't distort facts to suit a narrative.We give you facts as we have them and then we give you our opinion after that.So this is really nice to see and it's actually interesting if you listen to Gary's answer because he says, well, you know, We don't really need Guibo anymore.

That's low -key what he's essentially saying.We're focused on the economy so, you know, we're not so focused on the environment anymore.That's kind of what he's trying to say because that's the answer that they want to try to please Canadians with because they know that they're not really winning in the affordability side of things in terms of public opinion.They're winning against the Donald Trump in the U .S.side because, well, we know why.

But This is fascinating the way he's coming at this this answer but almost a low -key insult to Stephen Guilbeau like oh yeah we don't we don't need him anymore.I don't know if that's actually very smart because when Vachie follows that up with well are you sure there's a bunch of other people that are just as unhappy as him most likely all those people that signed that letter and they're going to be listening to this as well and they're going to be listening to Gary's response and they're probably not going to be too happy with that because in in low -key insulting Stephen Guilbault in that answer, he's also insulting all the people that feel just like him.So what are they supposed to think looking at this?And what are they supposed to think hearing this answer from Gary here?

Look, I think what we've been able to do in the last year, what we've done today, there's two major announcements today, one from British Columbia with the Germans and the Anishinaabemowin Nation.The announcement by Saab today, I think, speaks to the results that we're seeing.The work around the environment is crucial for us.It is about our future.It is about, you know, our collective needs as a people to ensure that we sustain our environment.That's why we're protecting both the land and waters 30 % by 2030.

There's a number of very important initiatives, including the new electricity guidelines that Minister de Bruyne, Julie de Bruyne, put forward last week.And we're continuing to work to advance issues around the environment.We could do both.What I will say is that we have not been able to meet some of the targets that we had previously set.

And right now, we've Right now, the analysis is you won't meet any of them, even the ones in the future.

What I will say is that we are pivoting to a point where they're much more realistic to meet and our expectation is to work towards them.

I'll just quickly challenge that you talk about the announcement today as results.You announced today an agreement that you hope incentivizes investment into a project and basically a negotiation for what appears to be something like a sole source contract.None of those are done deals.Just to put that in the mirror.

Even the media now is recognizing these announcements as a bunch of malarkey.Unmitigated horsepucky, according to Mr. Dan McTeague.You're announcing something.You're announcing a possibility.Wow, that sounds awesome.But possibilities don't put dollars in Canadians' pockets.

Announcements don't put dollars in Canadians' pockets.And he didn't address, really, environment at all.All he did was essentially say, well, you know, we're making some announcements and not showing results.And, you know, we're trying to do both.and then Vasya's like you haven't hit any of your targets.Well you know we're hitting targets that are more realistic.

Ladies and gentlemen, if we've learned anything about the government, and CBC follows the same mantra to the T, is that when a government can't hit its own performance metrics, what do they do?They change the performance metrics so that they actually don't have to change the behavior.And voila!You've hit your targets.That's like saying, I'm going to run the 100 meter and the world record is 9 .79 seconds.And halfway through, I realize I'm really not going to break that record.

So I'm going to change the world record to 25 seconds.Well, now I break that world record because I've changed what the metric is.Wow.Isn't that amazing?Everyone pat me on the back.Vote for me in the next election.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what the Liberal government is all about.And if this is how the Liberal government is treating, A, their own cabinet ministers, B, the people who put their neck on the line to actually support Mark Carney in the Liberal leadership race, and C, the Liberal MPs in this caucus, how do you think they're going to approach treating you?