WE have been #ShortChanged Fmr. Liberal MP General Andrew Leslie on Justin Trudeau's RESIGNATION

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11,576 views Premiered 4 hours ago

General Andrew Leslie, a former Liberal MP from 2015 to 2019 and the Chief government whip of the Liberal caucus, joins Harrison Faulkner to discuss the political implications of Justin Trudeau’s resignation as prime minister and leader of the Liberal party. Leslie also served as one of Trudeau’s foreign policy advisors before he became prime minister and offers a unique insight into what Trudeau’s foreign policy actually was. General Leslie was the Commander of the Canadian Army and also discusses the state of the Canadian Armed Forces on the latest episode of The Faulkner Show.
TRANSCRIPT

all right joining us now on the fauler

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show is General The Honorable Andrew

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Leslie the former Chief whip of the

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government of Justin Trudeau from 2015

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to 2019 and the former liberal MP for

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the writing of oron before entering

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politics General Leslie was a decorated

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veteran and commander of the Canadian

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Army from 2006 to 2010 General thank you

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so much for joining us the big news

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today of course is Justin Trudeau's

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resignation announcement you know Justin

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Trudeau you worked with him personally

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what do you think is going through his

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mind today as he made that

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announcement well um we're certainly not

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close now I left him for some very good

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reasons in

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2019 I will point out no matter what's

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going through his mind right now I

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really wish that at the top of his mind

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would be

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Canada and the

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looming impact of negotiations with

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President designate Trump on tariffs

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trade water security defense and

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security so here we have a prime

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minister whose popularity is amongst

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historical

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lows who's decided to essentially stop

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the Machinery of parliament from working

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for three

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months but he's going to maintain his

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position as

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leadership and he'll be initiating the

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negotiations with then president Trump

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starting in about 15 or 16 days

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meanwhile his Juniors his cabinet

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ministers will all be off vying to

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compete to replace

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them so who's the strong capable

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knowledgeable team that represents

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Canada's interests that arguably the

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single most

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important and economically fragile time

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we've had with the United States States

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in a living

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memory and if that was not his first

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consideration then shame on

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him let's go through this upcoming

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negotiation with Donald Trump just how

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important this will be for the future of

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the country do you feel as though Donald

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Trump looks at the announcement today as

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a personal Victory and as a victory for

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his incoming Administration essentially

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being able to take out a prime minister

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who they see as someone standing perhaps

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in their way when it comes to uh the US

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the incoming administration's foreign

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policy I don't think uh Mr Trudeau had

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that much attention from President elect

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Trump's

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team uh and I don't think they see it as

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victory per se because he's still around

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but Donald Trump's team are

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transactional in nature a lot of them

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are very senior Business Leaders or very

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experienced politicians

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And when they see weakness or nations

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that project weakness or fragility or

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instability or chaos they'll probably

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try and get a better deal out of it so

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in my opinion what uh the current prime

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minister of Canada has just done has not

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helped us in the

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slightest before entering government you

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were assisting the liberal party and

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Trudeau and and and being an adviser on

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foreign policy you so you are closely uh

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you're closely aware of what Justin

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Trudeau's foreign policy was entering

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government what how would you define

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Justin Trudeau's outlook on the world

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and his and his foreign

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policy I think his his foreign policy

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will be remembered essentially as

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naive I think he had great Ambitions to

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operate on the international stage but a

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variety of

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interlocutors from his own team and of

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course his efforts um ended up more

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often than not in

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embarrassment in terms of losing

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credibility for our nation so I think

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overall his tenure as 10 years on the

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international stage will be seen not as

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a great success and if anything a

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significant amount of failures do you

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think he sees it that way or do or do

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you think perhaps that he he feels

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satisfied uh with his job as prime

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minister now that it's all coming to an

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end

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people change this power changes people

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especially quickly and in his case he's

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been in power for 10 years I think ever

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increasingly he's been in a bubble an

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echo chamber of those who tell him all

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that he might wish he hope to hear all

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the time and the results I think speak

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for themselves a leader who is largely

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out of touch who is certainly misread

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the United States our greatest friend

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and largest trading partner who has

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misplayed his hand on several very very

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important International venues be it

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dealing with leaders of large

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governments or leaders of coalitions or

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responding to the concerns of NATO

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members who criticized and are

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criticizing Canada for their lack of

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defense spending failing to take the

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hint of the current government of the

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United States President Biden and his

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vice president about border security the

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United States concerns over drugs coming

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from Canada down to the United States

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about security risks appearing on their

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northern border to which they've

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allocated no new fresh resources now

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they've made promises over the recent

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weeks but nothing's actually happened so

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his legacy will probably be in his own

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mind as good as he might make it but to

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the rest of us I think his standing in

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the National poll short of point to what

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the rest of cidate thinks and so with

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that with the idea that there will be a

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new liberal leader and that process will

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commence shortly who do you think uh

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will lead the party and and who do you

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want to lead the party perhaps th those

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are two different answers but maybe

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we'll start with who you would like to

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see become the next leader of the

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Liberal

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Party well after 10 years of producing

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the results that the Prime Minister has

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produced for Canada and of course

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depending on your point of view some

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people probably think he did a great job

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I happen to think he

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hasn't there are many millions of

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Canadians who think the same way that I

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do so I would argue deep down in the

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interim it probably doesn't matter who

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leads the liberal party just so long as

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it's thought prime minister Justin

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Trudeau and I'll explain why it's

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because it's time for a change after 10

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years and the vast majority of Canadians

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are telling all of us you myself Mr

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Trudeau that the change is now so really

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deep down it doesn't matter which is why

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it's so painful to see that prime

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minister chudo chose this pro pro

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pration issue he selected that he

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recommended to the governor general has

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been approved and now at a time when we

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need a functioning government

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most there's no tools to draw on

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especially when all the senior leaders

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will be off trying to replace him

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they're chasing his job so all the

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experience of the public service of the

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sitting Parliament will not be

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available so it's essentially going to

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be a one-man show with Mr Trudeau in

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Washington how's that going to go

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over well it's certainly going to be

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very interesting to watch you were you

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were involved in the government in the

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early days of the the majority

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government mandate I want to ask you um

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in that time what were some of the

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accomplishments that that the government

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can look back on and say that was

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something we can remember as a positive

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because so much of the coverage today

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and over the next few weeks will be

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negative and not for not for bad reasons

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there's plenty of negativity and plenty

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of negative angles to cover this story

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but I want to ask you what were some of

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those accomplishments that Canadians can

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look back on with this

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government I would think they had a um

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they had Ambitions about the environment

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which they started unfortunately

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Canada's emissions have grown over the

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last 10

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years uh carbon emissions but they

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started a process they went too far in

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many cases and made it too expensive too

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quickly and they didn't do a good job of

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explaining why they were doing it in

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terms of the

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infac I also note that there's a variety

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of municipal or or provincial programs

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in which they dipped down and started to

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metal in those Waters specifically

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pharmacare assistance to Medicare Dental

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Care which as you know in the divisional

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responsibilities in Charter documents

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that's the province's

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responsibility nonetheless it's where

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they like to play and in that context

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they probably did some good there in

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terms of Social Development to pensions

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for the Aged um but I think their Gallup

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to the left was very very precipitous

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don't forget they ran originally in 2014

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2015 as a Centrist liberals right after

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they were elected they went to the left

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of the end

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DP and I think we're seeing some of the

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results of that in terms of Canada

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status in the world or trade

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deficits um well the list goes on and on

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so I won't bore you all with the detail

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you know

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already let's look ahead now to what

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some of these major foreign policy

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challenges are going to be for uh a new

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Canadian government of course we

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understand that there are situations all

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over the world but when it comes to

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Canada's role in those situations in

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Ukraine in the Middle East and perhaps

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in in other areas what do you think

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Canada should do now to put itself back

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um in what I consider to be put its put

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the country back in its rightful place

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of the hierarchy of Nations well I'd

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agree with you there I think the first

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thing that has to happen in we have to

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rebuild ourselves we have to rebuild

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ourselves not only in terms of a nation

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that takes pride in its accomplishments

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pride in its past pride in those

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activities that the men and women in

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uniform and do do and do on our behalf

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not only in National Defense but in the

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policing forces and border security then

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we have to pay much closer attention to

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what's going on with their biggest

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friend and trading partner they've made

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it pretty clear that they want our

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borders a lot tighter than they've ever

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been in the past because unpleasant

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people are coming in from their North

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Canada into their country staying and

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causing Mischief as well narcotics are

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flowing in from Canada to the United

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States there's some trade issues that

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are looming large there's the potential

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of tariffs of which president elect

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Trump has spoken many

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times after a while you tend to believe

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that he's actually going to do it and I

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think he will which means we're going to

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have to have robust teams ready to

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respond to the

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detail because it's in the detail where

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we're where we sort of Drew to a draw in

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the last NAFTA discussion with the

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United States of which I was a member I

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had to speak to I know I was speaking to

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33 State Governors visiting a whole

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bunch of states with information on how

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many Canadian businesses who they were

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how much money flew or flowed into

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United States from Canada that helped

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sell and close the deal and of course

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defense and security the United States

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is increasingly serious and angry at us

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for failing they call us laggards and

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defense betting and by the way you'll

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hear a lot of nonsensical numbers from

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existing liberal cab ministers about how

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much we've increased defense planning

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here are some

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facts between 2015 to

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2024 if you look at the defense budget

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it has gone up but it has not kept pace

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with

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inflation so that means that every

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dollar D and D spends in the equivalency

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is less than that which they had in

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2015 our equipment really hasn't been

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touched at all in terms of replacement

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there's a whole bunch of vague Promises

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of future stuff arriving but we don't

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have it and the need is now meanwhile

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internationally we have predators on the

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pral Russia China Iran North Korea I

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could go on so Canada has to do more in

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terms of international commitments and

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at what

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cost meanwhile the public service has

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grown by

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42% which far out strips to the

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increased in the number of Canadians

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who've come of course rely on the public

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service to provide them with social

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assistance so there's some there's some

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tough work

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ahead I haven't really touched yet the

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enormous debt that Minister Freeland uh

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cheerfully

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grew to unprecedented levels wherein

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during her tenure more debt was added to

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Canada's or taken away from Canada's

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biggie

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Bank uh than in the entirety of our

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cumulative history and that's going to

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take many years to pay down and pay off

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while tough decisions are being made on

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reinvestment so the next government has

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has a lot of work to do a lot of a lot

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of really important work to do and all

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Canadians are going to have to pull

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together on that General I have to ask

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you about the state of the Canadian

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Armed Forces we know that there is an

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attrition crisis a morale crisis and a

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and a really a real difficulty at

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recruiting uh young members to join the

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forces you've played sign ific

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leadership roles in the military I want

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to ask you what you think it'll take to

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get the military back to a position

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where it is a capable fighting force and

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it is again feared by the

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enemy um I would argue that though there

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are problems across the Canadian Arm

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Forces almost none of them are the

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making of the actual Canadian

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Forces the way that the government

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supports their Armed Forces is through

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money and if there's not enough money to

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hire troops that's how you end up being

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16,000 short an interesting fact is that

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last year in 2023 70,000 Canadians

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applied to join but only 5,000 made it

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through the recruiting process because

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it took tooo long to do the Medicals it

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took too long to get them physically fit

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it took them long to get the boots the

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uniforms the capacity to train all that

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boils down to money and Leadership and

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so the three things that the government

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of Canada has not provided to the Arm

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Forces is leadership in terms of

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political and and public service

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leadership to actually solve problems

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the second thing they haven't provided

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is enough money to replace old equipment

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to allow them to train to have Li

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adequate quarters they can live in to

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get new vehicles new

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ships a new aircraft and the last thing

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is tender loving care you can track a

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prime minister's interest by where he

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spends his or her time how many times

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did this prime minister visit an army

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base in his 10

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years how many times did he visit an Air

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Force Base now if you go to Halifax or

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you go to the West Coast it's pretty

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easy to visit a naval base but just to

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add up how many specific times they

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actually went to visit large Armed

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Forces bases

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I compare that with the public records

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available on the British the French or

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the American I think you'll find it to

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be interesting

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reading interesting indeed well uh

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General thank you so much for joining us

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and giving us your Insight as someone

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who worked alongside Justin Trudeau at

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one point who uh who who was there at

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the decision- making table for some very

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important moments um in recent history

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we really appreciate the time thank you

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once again general for joining

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us thank you harison great work

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