The MeidasTouch Podcast

Former Canada PM HITS Trump Where IT HURTS THE MOST

January 13, 2025 20m
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas shares the powerful 91st birthday message from former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien where he addresses Trump’s threats and calls for Canadian and international unity to stand up to Trump. Levels is offering my listeners an additional 2 free months of the Levels annual Membership when you use my link, https://levels.link/meidas Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Full Transcript

On his 91st birthday, former Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chrétien, wrote an op-ed directed at Donald Trump. He says, To Donald Trump, from one old guy to another, give your head a shake.
What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world. And make no mistake, that is what we are, to join the United States.
Now, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was the Prime Minister of Canada, member of the Liberal Party from 1993 to 2003. He first became a member of the House of Commons, get this, in 1963.
So he's coming with a very strong historical political perspective right here. And he penned this op-ed to the Globe and Mail in Canada on his 91st birthday.
Now, you know, we here in the Midas Touch Network are expanding to Canada. You'll hear more about that over the coming weeks and months, but you know, we've been featuring a lot of Canadian politicians here on our show because the pro-democracy movement is international in scope in order to combat the anti-democracy pro-authoritarianism movement, which is international in scope, where you see Elon Musk and MAGA also having their tentacles in Canada with their right-wing Pierre Poliev, with Germany and the AFD in the UK with the Reform Party, whether it's in Austria, in France with Le Pen.
I can go on and on here, but an international effort is what's called for right now. Let me read for you first Jean Chrétien's incredible op-ed.
You're going to love this. And then I want to share with you connecting Gretchen to Prime Minister Trudeau had actually a pretty powerful appearance on some of the weekend shows.
You're going to love that. And then I'm going to show you some of the Canadian voices we had recently on the Midas Touch Network.
So here's the op-ed by Jean Chrétien. Canadians will never give up the best country in the world to join the U.S.

Today is my 91st birthday.

It's an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends, to look back on the life I've had the privilege to lead, and to reflect on how much this country we all love so much has grown and changed over the course of the nine decades I've been on this earth. This year, I've also decided to give myself a birthday present.
I'm going to do something in this article that I don't do very often anymore and sound off on a big issue affecting the state of the nation and profoundly bothering me and so many other Canadians. The totally unacceptable insults and unprecedented threats to our very sovereignty from U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump. I have two very clear and simple messages to Donald Trump.
From one old guy to another, give your head a shake. What can make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world? Make no mistake, that is what we are to join the United States.
I can tell you Canadians prize our independence. We love our country.
We have built something here that is the envy of the world when it comes to compassion, understanding, tolerance, and finding a way for people of different backgrounds and faiths to live together in harmony.

We've also built a strong social safety net, especially with public health care that we are very proud of. It's not perfect, but it's based on the principle that the most vulnerable among us should be protected.
This may not be the American way or the Trump way, but it is the reality I have witnessed and live my whole long life. If you think that threatening and insulting us is going to win us over, you really don't know a thing about us.
You don't know that when it came to fighting in two world wars for freedom, we signed up both times, years before your country did. We fought and we sacrificed well beyond our numbers.
We also had the guts to say no to your country when it tried to drag us into a completely unjustified and destabilizing war in Iraq. We built a nation across the most rugged, challenging geography imaginable, and we did it against the odds.
We may look easygoing, mild-mannered, but make no mistake, we have spine and toughness. And that leads me to my second message.
To all our leaders, federal and provincial, as well as those who are aspiring to lead our country. Start showing that spine and toughness.
That's what Canadians want to see, what they need to see. It's called leadership.
You need to lead. Canadians are ready to follow.
I know the spirit is there. Ever since Mr.
Trump's attacks, every political party is speaking out in favor of Canada. In fact, it is to my great satisfaction that even the Bloc Quebec is defending Canada.
But you don't win a hockey game by only playing defense. We all know that even when we satisfy one demand, Mr.
Trump will come back with another bigger demand. That's not diplomacy.
It's blackmail. We need another approach, one that will break this cycle.
Mr. Trump has accomplished one thing.
He has unified Canadians more than we have ever been before. All leaders across our country have united and resolved to defend Canadian interests.
When I came into office as Prime Minister, Canada faced a national unity crisis. The threat of Quebec separation was very real.
We took action to deal with this existential threat in a manner that made Canadians, including Quebecers, stronger, more united, and even prouder of Canadian values. Now there is another existential threat and we once again need to reduce our vulnerability.
That is the challenge for this generation of political leaders. And you won't accomplish it by using these same old approaches.
Just like we did 30 years ago, we need a plan B for 2025. Yes, telling the Americans we are their best friends and closest trading partners is good.
So is lobbying hard in Washington and the state capitals, pointing out that tariffs will hurt the American economy too. So are retaliatory tariffs.
When you are attacked, you have to defend yourself. So I recently found out that only 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy.
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But we also have to play offense. Let's tell Mr.
Trump that we too have border issues with the United States. Canada has tough gun control legislation, but illegal guns are pouring in from the US.
We need to tell them that we expect the United States to act to reduce the number of gun crossings into Canada. We also want to protect the Arctic, but the United States refuses to recognize the Northwest Passage, insisting that it is an international waterway, even though it flows through the Canadian Arctic as Canadian waters.
We need the United States to recognize the Northwest Passage as being Canadian waters. We also need to reduce Canada's vulnerability in the first place.
We need to be stronger. There are more trade barriers between provinces than between Canada and the United States.
Let's launch a national project to get rid of those barriers. And let's strengthen the ties that bind this vast nation together through projects such as a real national energy grid.
We also have to understand that Mr. Trump isn't just threatening us.
He is also targeting a growing list of other countries as well as the European Union itself. And he is just getting started.
Canada should quickly convene a meeting of leaders of Denmark, Panama, Mexico, as well as the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to formulate a plan for fighting these threats. Every time that Mr.
Trump opens his mouth, he creates new allies for all of us. So let's get organized.
To fight back against a big, powerful bully, you need strength in numbers. The whole point is not to wait in dread for Donald Trump's next blow.
It's to build a country and an international community that can withstand those blows. Canadians know me.
They know I'm an optimist, that I am practical, and that I always speak my mind. I made my share of mistakes over a long career, but I never for a moment doubted the decency of my fellow Canadians or of my political opponents.
The current and future generations of political leaders should remember they are not each other's enemies. They are opponents.
Nobody ever loved the cut and thrust of politics more than me, but I always understood that each of us was trying to make a positive contribution to make our community or country a better place. That spirit is more important now than ever as we address this new challenge.
Our leaders should keep that in mind. I am 91 today and blessed with good health.
I am ready at the ramparts to help defend the independence of our country as I have done all my life. Viva la Canada.
So let me show you this right now. First, let me show you Prime Minister Trudeau over the weekend during one of his appearances.
Let's play it. I'm assuming he didn't bring up his intention to publicly say he was going to annex through economic means your country.
It actually sort of came up at one point and then we started musing back and forth about this. And when I started to suggest, well, maybe there could be a trade for Vermont or California for certain parts, he immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore, and we moved on to a different conversation.
So this isn't out of the blue that he's doing this, But my focus has to be not on something that he's talking about that will not ever happen, but more on something that might well happen, that if he does choose to go forward with tariffs that raise the cost of just about everything for American citizens, that on top of that, we're going to have to have a robust response to that.

I want to ask you.

Okay, next, let me show you, again, Liberal Party, Prime Minister Trudeau,

let me show you new Democratic Party leader from Ontario, Merritt Stiles, here on the Midas Touch Network. Let's show you.
And so like this kind of threat that's coming at us at first, I think people thought it was sort of funny or interesting or he's just he's just being he's just trying to get us get our backs up. But we're taking it real seriously right now.
We see this as an existential threat. And let's be clear, it's not just, you know, a threat to our leadership, right? This is a threat to working people in our country who rely on trade, who rely on those relationships.
And what I have to say to Donald Trump is, you're going to come after us. We're going to fight you like hell.
And now let me show you Doug Ford, the provincial leader and the current provincial leader in Ontario, conservative party member, what he has to say about Trump. Play this clip.
Trump once again talked about the idea of now a merger between Canada and the United States. You would dismiss that as a joke.
At what point do you say that that's no longer a laughing matter and something that should be taken with quite a bit of seriousness? Well I know under my watch for Ontario, I'd never be for that at all. We have the greatest country in the world.
We have the greatest province anywhere. Any sub-sovereign nation is Ontario and the rest of the provinces as well.
You know something to the president, I'll make him a counteroffer. How about if we buy Alaska and we'll throw in Minnesota and Minneapolis at the same time? So, you know, it's not realistic.
I know he likes making these comments and he likes joking around. I take that seriously.
He may be joking, but under my watch, that will never, ever happen. And folks, I could show you, I did a video on one of the Green Party members as well, but we're running out of time in this video and you get the point.
Whether you're the Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party, the Conservative Party there, they're all basically saying the same thing. And you connect it with that historical precedent and perspective that I just read for you.
Canada is pissed. As I said many months ago, United, we are expanding.
The Midas Touch Network is expanding into Canada. We have a lot more Canadian coverage.
And I think it's important that they know that they have allies here also in the United States. We're not all MAGA.
Less than 50% of voters voted for Donald Trump. I think that's an important fact.
There are lots of Americans who regret voting for Donald Trump now that he's talking about invading Canada or annexing Canada and invading Panama and Greenland or whatever. They thought they were voting for lower prices, I guess.
I'm not sure why they would think that, because Trump lies about everything, essentially. But whatever.
So it's important that we form alliances here that can withstand generations.

That's what we're going to build for the future. That's one of the things we're building this

platform to do. Thanks to your help.
I thought it was worth reading again, that incredible op-ed

on Prime Minister Critchin's 91st birthday. There you go.
Thanks for watching and hit subscribe.

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