With the 2025 Federal Budget vote looming, Ashwin from the International Solidarity Podcast joins Blueprints host Jessa McLean to breakdown some of the $141 Billion in new spending and the cuts that will pay for it all.

The biggest ticket item, $89 million for the Canadian Armed Forces, generates a discussion on global politics, the so-called 'elbows up movement' and the appetite for military spending the electorate seems to have.

Together they compare the budget to campaign promises, the Throne Speech and the demands of the political 'opposition'. Jessa and Ashwin also discuss the likelihood of the budget passing, and what that will mean for Canadian politics.

Related Episodes:

• Carney's First 100(ish) Days in Office (July 2025) covers the priorities and first pieces of Carney's legislation with the International Solidarity Pod.
• Draw the Line (Sept 2025) a discussion with organizers behind the movement to connect movements.

More Resources:

• The Breach: A Budget for Tanks, Banks and Oil Barons
• The 2025 Budget - IN FULL
• CBC: Carney's First Federal Budget

All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support our work through monthly contributions: Patreon

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Greetings, friends. My name is Jess McLean, and I'm here to provide you with some blueprints

of disruption. This weekly podcast is dedicated to amplifying the work of activists, examining

power structures, and sharing the success stories from the grassroots. Through these discussions,

we hope to provide folks with the tools and the inspiration they need to start to dismantle

capitalism, decolonize our spaces, and bring about the political revolution that we know

we need. All right, well, Ashwin. is back in the studio. That must mean we're talking about

we're shit talking about Kearney again. I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure he's got lots to contribute.

But for some reason, I thought with this budget on the table about to be passed or not passed,

we have yet to unpack it. And who better to do it with me than the same person we unpacked

Kearney's first 100 days. Welcome back to the studio. Do you want to say hello to the audience

before we start going through the numbers? Sure. Thanks for having me again, Jessa. It's a pleasure

to do this. uh Yeah, we did some serious work some time ago to really parse through Carney's

policies some time ago. um And I guess now we're sort of doing an appraisal of that. um And

yeah, I guess just for the audience, hi, I'm Ashwin. uh host of the International Solidarity

Podcast, which you can find on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts. We'll link all of that as well

in the show notes, depending on where you're listening from. Yes, I'm excited to do this

with you. I actually this morning was going through the actual budget. It's this big, long

PDF, uh lots of glossy photos, tables. And, you know, I was surprised at what they were

willing to put in print. I think people would also be surprised some of the language that

they use. I mean, it's not that far off from the throne speech nonsense and some of the

other speeches we've heard Carney give and the promises that he's made, but just to appear

in a budget document. You'll see what I mean as we kind of go through the knot section by

section. I could go line by line. I told you that this morning. was like, it is enraging,

to be honest, when you go through the details. if you went line by line, there is a discussion

to be had about all of these choices that they've decided to make. So, mean, like broad sweeps,

you're looking at $141 billion in new spending, and the Conservatives will definitely be pointing

out, and are, that that means a $78 billion deficit. So this is the only sticking point

Conservatives have. because everything else is just yummy yummy yummy. ah It is everything

they ever dreamed of. is military spending. It is stronger borders. It is fewer spending

on the public realm, right? They talk about public sector jobs as being some sort of disease

almost, like they've spread and inflated over the years and we've got to stop that and...

uh you know, it's a very, very, very right-leaning budget. So, ah I think people need to know

the details though because a lot of the feedback we're getting from the talking heads, like

the leaders, even the progressive leaders, is rhetoric, right? They're right. It is a

billionaire's budget and it does almost nothing for the working class except give us austerity,

but the devil is in the details, as they say, yeah? Yeah, well, I mean, Definitely concerning.

lot of similar things that we did talk about uh in our last episode. A major focus on,

okay, three things, I guess. A major focus on military spending or so-called defense.

That's one of the biggest things there. I think what will also concern a lot of people

is the cutting back on green spending in different domains. There's a lot to say about that.

I've been thinking about the question of ecological transition, climate change a lot more these

days. And we're really seeing sort of a divergence. Not to get too much into this right now, but

you can sort of see, or at least I would see, and I think a lot would agree with me, 2019

as sort of a high watermark of the climate movement. that's when this was really taken up in the

mainstream. Greta Thunberg movement and all this kind of stuff and where the liberal elite

would sort of score points off of recognizing climate change at a minimum as opposed to their

conservative opponents. These days, in the post-COVID, post-2020 era, there's been a lot,

let's just say there's been a lot more convergence between the liberal center and the right

on the climate issue. In the global south, it's a different story, Like maybe we can get into

this later, but China is really sort of leading the role on the question of green transition.

You know, those are the two things so far, military and green spending. And then the third thing,

which is related to sort of this, this cutting back on the green agenda is, uh you know, it

started with Carney's bill C5, but you know, the, there's a continued push to expand. uh

energy and infrastructure projects. And obviously, you know, this is relying on Canada's existing

strengths, which are in fossil fuels. So uh whatever uncertainty came up with uh the US

tariffs, they're looking to make up for it and try to, guess, de-risk from that or de-risk

those sectors of the economy by boosting spending and boosting, uh you know, fast tracking infrastructure

and energy projects, trying to get, you know, energy products to new market, that kind of

thing. So those three things are sort of, you know, top of mind for me. There's a lot of

other stuff. mean, you know, immigration uh is a big issue and, you know, we can get to

that. uh Healthcare spending, public service spending. I'm starting to get into these, but

uh yeah. So maybe I'll leave it at that and pass it back to you, Jessa. One of the things

I'm gonna, sorry, I would be remiss if didn't correct you on your post-COVID comment, because

we are yet to be post-COVID, but. Yes. Yeah. I find, I think when it comes to Carney and

when people started lapping up Carney at the beginning, we're very excited, right? We were

lamenting on that even a hundred days in. going, why, why are you still excited about a banker

winning? But one of the things was his apparent commitment to climate change, right? If they

had read the book, they had drank the Kool-Aid and they thought at least he would be a leader

here, right? And that's sometimes what sets the liberals apart from the conservatives if

they will tell us that they are climate champions, at least, rather than denying it. But the

spending here is uh anything but. ah I also wanted to, know, folks, I read it so you didn't

have to, but unfortunately I'm going to reread some of it back to you because it's like red

flags. The entire budget opens with the kind of language, the whole budget is peppered with

this language of fear. So the priority has shifted from being this green energy leader to just

being an energy leader and a weapons manufacturer leader and in all the worst sectors possible,

a resource extraction, like trying to find new resources that we've not yet dug up yet,

you know, to be competitive with. it's just, it's quite horrifying. Nothing kind of says

it more than the opening line, Sarah, where it says, world is changing profoundly and in

real time. We are no longer living in an era of calm, but of significant change. The nexus

between energy security, economic security, and national security is clearer than ever.

And I mean, the writing isn't bad. uh And it really does sum up the entire budget where

they will try to defend almost everything they do and tie it back to national security. You

know, even in the comments where we're tightening our belts, every department is going to have

to find savings, there is a giant disclaimer, except of course, for those that are protecting

our sovereignty and our borders, right? And so, Yeah, they keep doing this. They'll do

it throughout when they're talking about the border, when they're talking about military

spending, even when they're talking about being competitive in taxation. And they make specific

reference to Russian aggression when they open up the section on military spending and ensuring

Ukrainian sovereignty. That is in the very first paragraph of where they go on to explain why

they're going to spend 89 billion dollars on our military. It is that paradigm shift.

Now we have the dollars and cents to prove it. They are putting the money behind all of that

nationalist military talk. I guess that goes hand in hand, Jessa, with Ukraine becoming

the uh 14th province of Canada. don't know if you've seen in, obviously this is in jest,

but I have been spared, obviously. in many city halls, you know, now alongside all the

provincial flags, at least is the case in Ottawa, they fly the Ukraine flag. oh hence Ukraine,

the 14th province. But yes, you know, national security around Russia and things fear-mongering

about that. Just wanted to chime in there. Go ahead. Sorry. No, that's exactly it. seems

to be this, it's become this, it's apolitical. Like it's mentioned in the budget as though

it is like our own sovereignty. Like it is, it goes hand in hand with that introduction

on military spending and being accountable to our allies, right? And increasing our GDP

spending. So let's talk about the military spending a little bit. They say $89 million.

What does it all mean? It's spread up all over the place, but he was quick to meet his promise

on NATO spending, right? He got us to 2 % faster than he said he would. There's a few other

promises he made on the campaign trail that you can nitpick on. Really just like he didn't

invest as much as he said, otherwise he's kept all his promises, but NATO, he's trying to

impress them over there. That military spending is also very important to Trump. And so there's

a lot of concessions in this budget that you'll see that are clear concessions to Trump, including

the money spent at the border. you know, yeah, so the $81 billion has earmarked to the military.

He's already spent $10 billion. I mean, he just started this. He hit the ground running.

Some folks will, I have in my comments going, well, the military's working class. He's spending

$20 billion raising their salaries and improving their healthcare. that is a stretch. don't

know if you want to hit on that at all Ashwin, but yeah, it will be well-trained. we say that

there was $141 billion in total of new spending in this budget? Is that right? That's correct.

Okay. So in that case, you know, if we're spending 81.8, let's say $82 billion in new spending

over the next ah five years, and that's what's earmarked in this budget, that's more than

50 % of the new spending in this budget. That's, you know, by rough calculation, almost 60 %

of the new spending in this budget. So that's really concerning. And then at the same time,

guess, you know, we can and we should continue to focus on military spending. and the implications

of that, there's a lot to say about that. I also think it's, we can't see that in isolation,

this new spending on military from, in isolation from, you know, the cuts in other parts of

the budget, right? So there are, you know, uh most public service departments are seeing

a 15 % budget cut, okay? And that's obviously, you know, with the exception of the Department

of National Defense, the RCMP, the CBSA, okay, nightmare blunt rotation. ah And then, you

know, in addition, uh you know, the Department of Women and Gender Equality, if I'm not wrong,

and Indigenous Services and Crown Indigenous Affairs have also been spared of these 15 %

cuts. But that's explicitly following, and this was reported by the breach, explicitly following,

um you know, uh protests and discontent and resistance posed by those uh groups and social

movements over the summer. So So, mean, yeah, so the military spending comes directly at

the expense of public services and, you know, workers in the public service. There's more

to say on that about how that sort of, what impact that's going to have on the labor movement.

That, you know, that is certainly an interesting question. Jess, I don't want to go on too long.

I wanted to see if you had anything to say at this point. Oh, no, that's why I invited you

here. But, you know, when we're talking about the military spending as well, I think it's

important to include the fact that, you know, he's bolstering up the border and he's just

kind of generating a whole lot of, like a different mentality. I think I thought I would get a

lot more support when I pointed out online the level of military spending. And I was astonished

at the amount of people, even leftists, who would argue, you know, we're going to have

to be able to defend ourselves. This is part of arming the working class. There wasn't as

much pushback. Did someone actually say that? It's part of arming the working class. Oh,

Jesus Christ. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, like that these who do you think is in the military?

Like those are working class people. And it's like, We don't control the military. We're

nowhere near anything like that. This is not what it'll be used for. We're an imperialist

nation and it'll be used for those ends and they're almost as clear as much when they're

telling you in this budget where they're looking to be ready to deploy. Like they're talking

about the Middle East and they're talking about fighting Russia. At no point are they actually

even talking about like really protecting Canadians. You know, they don't they It's such a fucking

stretch, the arguments for it, but the point is like, yeah, this first budget is supposed

to be also a litmus test of like how much we're going to push back on it. And my fear is

the same thing that we pointed out when the election was on that none of the parties really

objected to increased military spending when they were campaigning. They all had it in.

their campaigns, just varying levels of increased military spending. And it's like the be all

end all. One thing to point out as well is Carney's not just, you know, buying new submarines and

jets and, you know, preparing us for battle or defense, sorry, Department of Defense.

But he is creating a military industrial complex. He, you know, we're talking about just like

billions of dollars is going into so at least we can make these fighter jets at home. And

again, you'll get pushback from folks like, well, these will be unionized jobs. And they

use that language in the budget. You know, this is how many jobs it'll create every time we

do this, that, and the other thing. And it's like, well, that's true. They will get well-paying

jobs. Some of the money there is earmarked to increase the salaries of folks in the military,

workers. So it's, I'm afraid that they've been able to write this budget in a way that

it's appealing just enough to people that they're not as shocked perhaps as you and I are of

how detrimental this is going to be, right? Like, and what this sets the tone for. So.

They want to build a military industrial complex. There is a department that they're going to

create specifically to make sure that these companies don't have any red tape, that the

procurement process is streamlined, that they are more integrated with the armed forces,

right? These private military or weapons manufacturers are more integrated with our own military.

First thing I thought when I read that uh was about the, I thought to the arms embargo.

And it helped explain the such resistance the liberals have been to actually realizing a

real arms embargo, you know, with no loopholes. And now you know why, because their whole budget

is really framed around growing that industry, right? Where we would have liked to seen a

uh green new deal, A shift to green energy, be leaders in some clean industries. ah But

instead, the whole theme is, manufacturers are going to make bank. Some infrastructure

companies for sure will, there's a lot of investments going into infrastructure, building ports and

whatnot. And there will be construction jobs to be had, but I'm worried people won't see

the danger in all of it. Maybe you can help highlight some of the detriments here. Yeah,

I maybe want to start by coming back to the idea that the Canadian military is working

class. And you know, it might be, right? Like there are a lot of incentives for folks to

join um the armed forces in one way or another, right? You certainly get um benefits that

aren't, you know, provided as public goods such as education, etc. and health care to the vast

majority of Canadians. That's how they sort of recruit people. you pointed out like the

working class is not in charge of the Canadian military. Canada is probably not even in charge

of the Canadian military. mean, I've heard from and you know, I say that with a bit of exaggeration

because you know, I've heard from at least one person who, you know, has been in the military

and has worked sort of joint operations with the US military, is not uncommon. uh Canada

and the US collaborate in NORAD and of course in NATO and all this kind of stuff. And uh

that person talks about what that working relationship is like with the US military and it's complete

subordination. It's complete subordination on the Canadian side. so there needs to be further

sort of clarification on this. uh Canadians, I think, have you know, less of an idea of

what role the Canadian military plays in the broader world, right? There are themes of peacekeeping

and all this kind of stuff, but that sort of obscures uh the little brother role that uh

Canada plays alongside the US in maintaining empire and maintaining, uh you know, US led

imperialism on a world scale. Canada is really, you know, a supporting character in that. It's

a subordinate supporting character in that. Um, you know, almost entirely serving us

interests, right? I mean, you can't even compare, uh, you know, a country like Canada of one

10th, population, um, of the U S and so the U S really sees Canada as strategic because

it's it's Northern buffer, right? The people, the population, you know, can be hand waved

away, but, um, Canadian military presence, you know, north of, uh, the continental us

and of course, alongside Alaska. That's of strategic importance to the US and increasingly

so um with the melting of um glaciers in the Arctic, uh opening up new shipping routes

that are posed to primarily advantage uh commerce in China and in Russia. The Arctic uh sea

route opens up new trade routes between China and Europe in particular. That's a particular

concern. to the US, the US uh and the West more broadly, but the US wants to keep Europe within

its orbit and resist as much as it can Eurasian integration. That's also part of what the

Ukraine-Russia war is about. I'm sort of going in all sorts of directions here, but two more

things, I guess. When it comes to uh defense spending and things like that, like the thing,

and I'm very concerned that people supposedly on the left are, you know, are can be neutral

to this or even cheer this on. But defense spending in Canada, most of that is going to U.S. weapons

companies, right? And Trump, you know, around the world has been has been trying to get people

to to to, you know, uh to buy more U.S. weaponry because he's he's also a spokesperson for that

industry. Right. And a lot of manufacture weapons manufacturing in Canada as well. A good percentage

of it is uh our branch plans of US weapons companies. uh you know, that's not to say

that we should have our own sovereign imperialist, you know, weapons manufacturing at all. uh

a lot of this defense spending, even when we think of the the 82 billion dollars in new

spending in this budget, a lot of that is going straight to, you know, American companies when,

you know, at a time when supposedly Mark Carney was elected to go against the US and there's

a lot of popular sentiment against the US. And I think rightfully so. you know, Carney's acting

uh in sort of direct opposition to the popular sentiment and to what, you know, people want.

And the last thing I'll say on, you know, supporting the so-called Canadian military is that, uh

you know, it's not about Canadian defense. It's not about working class interests, okay?

If the Canadian military is primarily an appendage to and, you know, in supportive of US led

imperialism around the world, that is no friend of the working class in Canada. Because,

and this is, this is a really important point. And those of us on the left or otherwise need

to sort of wrap our heads around this. There is no, we cannot afford division between the

working classes in the West and the vast masses of the oppressed people in the global South.

that division is, you know, it's a fatal one. It only uh benefits the ruling class, the

transnational Western capitalist elite. And here's the reason why the Western working class,

the, you know, sorry, the Western ruling class, okay, whether that's in the US or in Europe

or in Canada. And, you know, obviously, uh you know, they've been increasingly interlinked

since the neoliberal period. They draw their strength from uh continuing to suppress wages

uh in the global south and to wage war and destruction in the global south. That cheapens the labor

in the global south. That cheapens the raw materials, the inputs, you know, for their production

in the global south, you know. And so the destruction of the rest of the world by war making is really

where our ruling classes draw their strength from. And so that's the connection. If the

working class sees its class enemies as the Canadian ruling class and political elites,

the American, the Western ruling class, where do you think it draws their strength from?

It draws their strength from suppressing popular discontent and popular revolt in the global

South. the prime example of this is in West Asia. We cannot divorce. the genocide in Palestine,

uh you know, from working class struggles in the imperial core in the West because, you

know, the destruction of people is there and the destruction of uh societies in West Asia

from being able to rebuild themselves, to build sovereign capacity, that directly, uh you know,

benefits and continues the reproduction of the Western ruling class. And that's why...

nationalist sentiment and the elbows up movements, you know, is such a problem, right? Because,

and it's happened in the labor union over and over again, where, you know, Canadian workers

are needing to be, you know, distinguished beyond American workers. And it helps build a real

nationalist insular uh mentality where Canada first. And so That's how they will pave the

way for a lot of these policies. You know, the defense spending seems obvious, right? Defend

our nation and our sovereignty. But even in the pipelines and all of these national interest

projects, right? They're framing them as though they are something that the working class

absolutely needs, the Canadian working class, and will benefit from. And the reality is not

just that, obviously, the rich will just get richer because none of these things are passed

down to us. ah But also that most of these pipelines are owned by American companies as

well. So even though you're saying you're fast tracking these in order to make us more independent

financially, as well as militarily, which you've just debunked, it's completely bogus. It's

all bogus, right? None of it is aimed at protecting Canadians. just because we brought up the

pipelines, it's worth kind of maybe talking a little bit more about the climate spending

or lack of. It should have been in my big ticket items. I've kind of separated my notes into

big ticket items and cuts. And this definitely falls under fucking cuts. Their departments

were gutted for the most part and will probably continue to be, but it's the amount of money

and infrastructure spending that is earmarked for ports. It's all basically for LNG. extraction

and shipping and exporting, right? As well as resource extraction. I mean like two billion

dollars just to, you know, again like I said start finding new gems, new resources to

mine. And one of the things I think that it's a thing I don't think much many people

will pay attention to because it's kind of you have to read the line items and kind of go

into the little details. But It seems to be a turning point where Carney is less interested

in stopping climate catastrophe as to maybe uh preparing for it. And that's the language

that they use in the budget. It's like they talk about being prepared for natural disasters.

They don't actually really link it to the fact that those will increase due to climate change,

but that we need to be more prepared for them. But then if you look in the line by line items,

the only thing that they have or will spend in the next four years is $258 million on

leasing four planes for four years that will help fight forest fires. And then they will,

they haven't earmarked any money for it, but tell their departments to start working with

insurance companies to better prepare them and find out what they need so that they won't

go insolvent during these years of heightened natural disasters. And So that's a quarter

of a billion dollars spent on preparing the whole entire country to face what we know

is going to be more heat domes, more flooding, more impacts from hurricanes. I mean, I'm

missing some, I'm sure, you know, the impacts that we're going to feel, the forest fires

and whatnot. But they put no money behind it at all. And on top of that, you know, they've

cut environmental services and this red tape, whenever you see red tape throughout that budget,

means environmental testing, means labor laws, it means all these codes that people have

worked to mitigate the impacts of capital on the land. Or, you know, things that slow down

a project are usually things that are done for safety or environmental purposes and like

the realities that you face. m you know, it's uh at all cost kind of mentality. Absolutely.

And um this is increasingly like how our governments respond to crisis, I think really tell us a

lot. saw how it was with COVID, you know, that was a disaster. It continues to be a disaster.

There's no, you know, tracing mechanism. They stopped collecting the data for God's sake

on that, which is ridiculous. I mean, other parts in the world, more sane parts in the

world, right? In ah Asia, I know, in East Asia and Southeast Asia, this continues to be the

case where at least you track it, at least there are still numbers that you can find on

it anyway. But it's the same thing with the climate crisis, right? And increasingly, I

think, for those of us that consider ourselves socialists, this is something we need to keep

front of mind where we see the forces of capital ah versus the forces of progress being increasingly

bifurcated on the climate question, right? Climate and our response to ecological crisis is really

what's going to define the battle between moving towards socialism or staying in a kind of dead

zombie walking capitalism. Yeah, I could say more, but Jess, go ahead. Well, I think one

of the things that kind of points to that is like, the obvious gifts he's giving to big

oil and gas in the budget where it's just like it's a clear signal to them. For example, folks

worked for years to it for a greenwashing legislation. It was to limit the kind of advertisements

that big oil and gas and other industries could put out that really misled people as to how

green those energies really were. LNG, you know, is still fighting that fight, but it's

not even a budget item. It didn't cost them. It didn't save them. They didn't save any money

by undoing it. And they just gave that to the industry. So they're open to just start bombarding

us again with all of these ads like we're seeing from Ford. Everyone's so worried about Ford's

ad about tariffs, but what about the one he has about the Ring of Fire? Where he's basically

saying the only way to save Ontario is to completely strip the Ring of Fire, know, parts of Northern

Ontario, Indigenous land of natural resources, right? And uh he's going to get a hand here

in the budget too from Kearney. He's promised to help with that. Of all of the campaign

promises I think that he made, he followed through on, this is one where a lot of people

will feel misled. And if there is going to be any pushback on the budget, I would think it

would be around these green items, unfortunately. Like I would love the anti-war movement to

be like, what the fuck, you know, like, and rise up and really push back on this imperialist

agenda. But the Climate crisis uh folks, uh climate justice folks, are the ones who kind

of probably held the sway of balance in the last election that held hope that Carney would

have done something. Unfortunately, the Greens, with only one MP, they're not going to hold

sway on this budget too much and May has waffled back and forth. You know, she originally came

out and said, absolutely not. Like, this is nothing. They've pushed the emissions commitments

back to 2050. 2050. know, complete undoing of all the promises like even liberals have

ever made. And uh so I don't know where she's standing now because a lot of the parties

seem to think that they could spend this one week or two weeks from seeing the budget to

the vote to try to wheel and deal. Like I imagine they were trying to wheel and deal the entire

time, but this is what he came out with. And I think it's a farce that they're kind of coming

to us and pretending that they could somehow negotiate with the liberals and make amendments

that would somehow change the entire theme of this budget, right? Which is basically cut

from every fucking department, cut from the environment and spend it on war. And I know

some people are pointing out bright spots. Like I have some of them, I gave them some credit

where credit was due, but then I look back at them. Like the housing, the whole build Canada

homes that people are really excited about. We need fucking homes, we need affordable homes.

He wants, you know, they're like these prefabricated, made in Canada homes that you can critique

or not. It's not the point. They've earmarked $13 billion for that. Well, that sounds like

a lot. Only when you compare it to the fact that they're spending $19 billion just on training

the military and better ammunition facilities, like better ammunition training facilities,

19 billion versus 13 billion for fucking homes, homes. And then they're taking 300 million

from the health transfers to the province when none of us can get an appointment. It's

two years for any specialist appointment. And they thought now would be a good time to cut

from health care so that we could spend $20 billion on making sure that army cadets are

better paid and incentivized to join the armed forces. Like there's some such glaring deliberate

choices. And I'm wondering what the masses will react like, because we've had a week and

I've not seen a whole lot of pushback. The pushback to this budget might come from the climate

folks and not as much from, you know, the anti-military folks or the anti-imperialist kind of movement.

And I think, you know, that sort of speaks to, you know, needing to increasingly connect

those two, you know, in our movements on the ground and to take, you know, to, I guess not

seed. the ground on, I guess, environmental consciousness, climate change, and the need

for ecological transition to the center, to the liberals, uh small-l liberals, right?

We sort of have to take that up as well on our side, uh more than usual. But do we think military

spending and war-making is green? What do we think the impact of greater military spending,

greater war-making, even think about these planes, okay, there's... a lot to say about

the Gaza genocide, okay, massive destruction. uh Imagine all the cement and concrete of

the buildings destroyed, what that does in terms of leaching into the ground. Also, we

can't think of the environment as outside and humans as uh separate from that. The whole

point, the whole understanding of ecology is sort of a relational uh aspect between, we

are, environment. We are nature, okay? Like, you know, we are part of the ecosystem. And

so when we talk about ecocide in Gaza, for example, like, obviously, that includes the people as

well. Like, that is a climate change, or I guess that's not climate change, but that is

an ecological concern. So, you know, I guess what I'm trying to do here is draw, you know,

connections between, you know, being anti-war and being anti-imperialist in specific and,

you know, the environmental or ecological justice uh side of things. uh And so what I was going

to say even before that is even think about one of these F-35s or one these planes that

has to fly over Gaza, you know, or the drones that continue to buzz. uh You know, how much

in the case of the planes, how much fuel does that take? You know, and then they did that

constantly every single day for two years. I mean, you know, yeah, and obviously, so

that's why I prefaced it in that way. That's not to, you know, diminish the human lives

lost, but even if you think about the most remote and isolated example of a military plane flying,

as if the fuel doesn't come from somewhere and is not being burnt and contributing Maybe

it's LNG fuel, so it's cleaner. Yeah, there you And it's Canadian, Ridiculous. And so

there really needs to be a greater connection on this. And I think the one thing I'll say

on this is because also it's top of mind in the news. I'll try to be brief on this, guess,

so we can move on. those of us on the left, I think, need to critically rethink uh our

understanding of other parts of the world, get to know the global South better, but in particular,

China. we cannot accept at face value what we've been told by our own media, the same

media that has lied to us for more than two years about the Gaza genocide. We can't expect

to believe all the same things that they tell us about China. I'll keep my, I guess, remarks

uh restricted to ecological transition as it relates to China, right? And I said this is

top of mind in the news because of the EV tariffs, okay? Like China, in addition to being a leader

in the renewables, renewable energy sector, battery manufacturing, in other sort of green

sectors, it's now the world leader of uh electric vehicles. And sure, we know that electric vehicles

are not the solution to everything in Canada. We'll have to reorient our urban and suburban

spaces around public transit for it to be sustainable. There's arguments around degrowth. All of

that aside for a moment. China has really developed its EV production capacity. mean, we've always

been familiar with the US uh auto companies, the German auto companies, the Japanese and

the Korean auto companies. Now, the biggest auto manufacturer in the world uh is China.

a uh good portion of that is EVs and an increasing portion of that is EVs now. And why is it

that out of US national security concerns, they've blocked Chinese EVs from entering the US market.

So we have to do that as well. We can't have Canadians According to Carnian, course, according

to Big Boss, the US, Canadians shouldn't have cheap electric vehicles that we hopefully

no longer have to pump gas into. We'll lessen the cost of living. Think about how many cars

people cycle through over a certain year span, right? And all of them being gas guzzling.

um If you can have a high tech, sustainable and cheaper car that's EV, but it just so happens

to be Chinese, apparently we can't have that. You know, that's sort of the ongoing issue

uh being discussed between Canada and China. China's retaliated to Canada's tariffs on

China's EVs by China placing tariffs on a lot of canola products coming from Western Canada.

So there is a chance that, know, Carney might back down and back off of those tariffs on

Chinese EVs. That would be a good move. That would also be a move in Defiance of the US,

know, the US would likely not be be happy about that But you know, let's have that as a starting

point, right if we're so if we're so, you know Carney wants, you know Canada to be a leader

in clean energy or green energy that kind of why don't we start with that and and you know

coming back to what I said on on you know about the Western left, know the the left in the

West and the left in Canada needs to reorient around China like a lot of us are not even

familiar around like the pace of change in China is so fast that a lot of us haven't been able

to grapple with the fact that there are real strides being made in green transition in

terms of technology, in terms of manufacturing, that if we're serious, if we're serious about

green transition in Canada, and we know that the capitalists are not, right, because their

source of strength is oil and gas. That's one of the major sectors in Canada. But if we're

serious as working people, as the popular forces in Canada about green transition, There should

be some talk about greater cooperation with China. Otherwise, what are we going to manufacture

from start? Our own green technology, our own green energy, our own, you know, Canadian

made and Canadian branded EVs. Are we going to do that? Doesn't seem like it in the next,

you know, couple of years. So, you know, this budget, not with this budget. And so there's

a there's a major need to sort of rethink the our understanding and relationship with

China, particularly on the green question. Carney's budget does talk a little bit about exporting

food and, you know, taking our energy out to market, but it's really, I think, a lost opportunity

considering what he thinks his mandate is, right? But all in all, he always, he ran as and

is now ruling as really a conservative. And so, you know. China, China, China, they have

to play a certain villain role. Russia is playing that very role in order to facilitate this

type of spending. Before we kind of get into, you know, we'll speculate on where we think

this budget is going to drop in terms of the vote and a little bit of the reactions that

we've been getting, I'm gonna skim through another, just a couple of the line items.

$1.7 billion to hire more RCMP officers. This was always promised. It's not a surprise. Another

$90 million just to make sure their cadets are paid more as well. Now this is earmarked under

the border security hoopla in the budget, but you can bet your bottom dollar will be used

to make sure that those national uh interest projects are safe from protesters and indigenous

land offenders. ah That is notoriously what they're used for. And since we know that those

are ramping up, you know, with $51 billion in infrastructure, ah they're not clear on the

details of that infrastructure spending, although it does include ports, roads, transit. There's

uh a high speed rail, Quebec to Toronto, that they're going to speed up in terms of building.

But you can bet again, a lot of that infrastructure spending is going to go towards facilitating

those projects. Right? That the ports are not for travelers. Those ports are for goods for

the most part. And, um, I have a feeling even the investments to the meteor, meteorological,

meteor. I knew this would give me trouble. No, that's it. Meteorological. Thank you.

Uh, agency in Canada. They are getting like one point something billion dollars and I have

feeling that's just like better radar and satellite. That we'll know the big storms are coming

em and any possible Russian jets. other terms of big line items that benefit us, there's

almost none. again, unless you count those housing dollars, but that's a pittance compared to

what the cities need, what the provinces need in order to build these houses. You know, we're

talking about, this is a federal budget that's supposed to go right across the country. and

then one big thing we did an episode about, they're spending a billion dollars on an AI

fund. So this is something Carney's very passionate about. He's willing to, it's not as much money

as he promised he would spend on it. but he's saying he's gonna get a lot of private investors.

So we know he's just absolutely intertwined with this industry and he's going to use it

to facilitate more layoffs in the federal, in the public sector. I'll link to the episode

and all the reasons why that's not a great idea. We don't have time to unpack that right now.

um But tax cuts also, you know, this is a line item that it counts under spending, it's lost

revenue. Ashwin, he's not even going to tax luxury yacht sales. Like, tell me you are...

That was not necessary. No, it's like the greenwashing legislation. You could do other things under

the table that would benefit the Westons of the world that we would never even really know

about. That would mean serious digging and number crunching and like tax rebates and like they

can get their money. But this is openly telling Canadians to start worshipping billionaires

again or that he is of that class and like we will not tax them. They will not have to pay

for this. We are going to entice people to come, you know, be tax competitive as though

billionaires will flock here and that's a good thing. um But yeah, so middle class tax cuts,

people might start to get really excited about that. You know, we're running a giant deficit.

But we're also offering tax cuts at the same time. I know, you know, it's expensive living.

We can't afford shit. But you know, the people who can't afford shit are going to save like

$20 a year on those tax cuts. The people who make like $300k a year, they're going to save

a lot more. So again, even the things that seem to look like tiny little green flags, they're

really not. And like, I hate being that person, but all of that eventually comes out of the

services. we used to rely on. I don't know if anybody relies on them anymore. And there's

absolutely no money earmarked for the disability benefit to increase over the next four years.

we've got money for the CBC and Eurovision. I'm not a hater of CBC, but they are getting

a big influx of funding. And they're just greenwashing a genocide as well. uh Eurovision

is being considered, but not another dollar for disabled folks and less money for healthcare.

So I don't know how the conservatives are talking about not voting for this. That's what you

guys love deficits. Don't lie. I was just going to quickly say Eurovision. That thing is, is

actually insane. Like, are we part of Europe? Like, do we want to, you know, and again, why

can't we exactly. that's what I was coming to. Like this is just a, a plain old racist kind

of thing, right? Like the Israelis are European, the Canadians are European, you know, like,

I mean, you know. Western vision. Yeah, there you go. And if, you know, I guess, you know,

don't hide it. That's OK. You know, better for us to to to see the truth. Why would Canada?

Anyway, that was a passing comment. They are. They're saying the quiet parts out loud now.

They don't care. Yeah. Yeah. They just don't care. Other kind of cuts just other cuts that

people should know about, you when we say public sector layoffs, we're talking 40,000 jobs,

mostly unionized, well paying benefit jobs, that we're talking like that's more than 10

% of the workforce. uh That's huge. One story that you know, will link the podcast for the

breach or the the transcript, whatever folks will consume there. But Martin Lukacs relayed

an interesting story that I'm just going to quickly recap for folks because I think it

spoke volumes that, you there's already been lot of layoffs at Public Health Agency of

Canada and they're facing more the same kind of cutoffs, the 15 % across the board. They're

going to be heavily hit, which is crazy in a time like these. However, they showed up

to work the other day to see a job fair in the lobby of their building where they worked,

a single employer job fair. And I asked my partner, I go and know, I've been ranting about

the budget and I go, who do you think the employer was that was enticing them to leave their job

or, go elsewhere? And he just looks at me, the military. Nice, you got it right. call

it the Department of Defense here. We don't call it Department of War just yet, but yes,

yes. So like, if nothing screams paradigm shift, then, hey, nurses, pick up a gun. know, who

needs healthcare workers, who needs doctors, we're going to start training our bureaucrats

so they can fire straighter and we're going to give them better bullets. And somehow that's

going to help your daily lives because the Russians are coming. And I can't make this up. Like

you, you could go and read it 400 pages yourself, but quite literally that's what it says.

I mean, I'm paraphrasing obviously, but it's, it's, it's just, um, it's quite something.

It's quite something. And it seems like none of the parties really like it, but still the

vibe seems to be that it's good. They're all gonna, it's gonna pass. Do you want to speculate

or do you? What will happen likely Monday? We were, we were talking about this like before

hitting record. And honestly, I'm not so sure. mean, there are things sort of seem to be in

place in terms of, you know, how, you know, In addition to the Liberals, there are two

other votes that are needed, but if all the other parties are already in place, unless

something sort of changes, then I don't know, I'm not sure. I know. So, yeah, May, it doesn't

matter what she does, not really, unless there's another floater somewhere. This is a confidence

vote for folks who just took at the lay of the land. That means if this budget doesn't pass,

we go to an election. All right. And, the NDP, you know, they're arguing publicly and whether

or not this is true, but they're $23 million in debt. They do not want to go to an election.

They probably won't even be eligible for certain loans because they're not official party status.

They're counting on rebates coming back from the last election. But as far as I know, they

did not hit the threshold in most of the writings and they sure as hell didn't hit it nationally.

So don't know how many rebates they're actually going to get. And those rebates should actually

go back to the locals who spent the money and need to spend it again if they do call for

an election or vote no. Saying what I've said, it's hard to imagine that the Workers' Party

or the most progressive choice would vote for this or even abstain, but... Don Davies, he's

the interim leader for the NDP right now. And like he went online on his social media feed

and already started bragging about some local spending that was in the budget for his writing

of Filipino Community Center. And he did an entire video like announcing it, like celebrating

it and taking credit for it. So he had been in discussion in regards to the budget and

seemed to got what he was asking for, right? Then they had a chance to vote down the budget

in that back and forth that they do in the House with amendments. Conservatives asked for an

amendment after Polio fucked up and he didn't even get to do his amendment first, but who

cares about that. But either way, they finally did make an amendment. If it passed, it would

mean that the budget did not, um and they voted it that down. So the media started reporting,

it looks like the NDP. are gonna support the liberal budget after all and Don Davies came

out and said, no, we haven't decided that yet. They're gonna be in a caucus retreat, I guess

like as we speak over the weekend here and it's gonna be something we're all holding

our breath for. The conservatives say they will not support it. They absolutely won't support

it. So it is like these two votes, although, you know, the reason they only need two votes

is because an MP immediately saw this. this budget and cross the floor. He loved it so

much. um, whether that happens again, whether they fail to whip the conservative vote, who

knows? Who knows if the conservatives would want to go to an election with Pierre Poulié

at this point, the way he's being received, uh, he's, you know, just fucking up all over

the place. He's not very, doesn't seem very popular, struggled to even get his writing

in the first place. And it's Nobody seems election ready at this point. And if everything they

say is true, all this fear mongering and we're, ready for a Russian invasion and the Americans

are just wreaking havoc with our economy and there's fentanyl streaming over the border

that needs to be stopped right now, then like, is that the environment to send it to an election?

Can you go back to your base and explain why we're going to go back to the polls again?

That would be a bit of a tough sell. So I mean, if I were to hedge my bets today and perhaps

look like a fool next week when folks are listening to this, I would say it does pass for the

reasons that, you know, almost everyone campaigned on a lot of this to begin with. It's not that

far of a stretch from the shift we started to see during the election. You know, maybe we

just wanted to come back to the stuff in the budget regarding immigration and refugees

and That's that, you there are provisions in this budget to cut the number of refugees

coming in. That's, know, it's interesting as a side note that, you know, I'm seeing a lot

more anti refugee, you know, I mean, I guess anti migrant more broadly, but anti refugee

and specific rhetoric, you know, you hear here and there that, you know, the refugees, they're

getting so many benefits from the government. What do I get that kind of thing? um You know,

I would say to those folks, you're looking in the wrong place. Look at your boss. Look

at, you know, the companies that employ you. Look at, you know, uh how much you have to

pay at the grocery store and those people who have monopolies, right? The Westons of this

world that are ripping you off anyway. So they're cutting, uh you know, the number of refugee,

the refugee intake. They're also cutting in half international students coming to Canada.

And I think they are uh cutting in half as well. the number of permanent residents that

are admitted. And these are some things that I maybe briefly want to talk about with international

students. It's interesting. The international student economy, which I've written about to

some extent, has really been an exploitative scheme that is essentially a wealth transfer

from the global south and India in particular to Canada. At one point, I think in 2023, uh,

something like two thirds or 60 something percent of, um, uh, post-secondary, uh, post-secondary

institutions operating income in Ontario was coming not from international students more

broadly, but specifically Indian international students. I mean, that is ridiculous. of course

that know, that's right. That's right. And, you know, you know, they, they essentially

collect rents off of, you know, super high unregulated international tuition rates. with those super

high international tuition rates, what they do is reinvest that into marketing schemes

in places like India and other global south countries to attract people. And, you know,

a lot of these students are ripped off by uh by these recruitment agents as well, not to

mention when they get here. uh But the thing about the international student economy is

that it created like sort of a hyper precaritized because of everything that I'm saying about

the cost of tuition, about the cost of travel, about the cost of living here, it created

a hyper-precaritized underclass of workers that we would see everywhere in the essential sectors

of the economy. So what's going to happen now that the international uh student tap is being

halved? There are two things. One, who's going to do... uh It's interesting to see where

uh labor is going to come from. In these most fundamental sectors of the economy, you can

obviously think of Tim Hortons, can think of others, restaurant and services, uh logistics,

trucking, this kind of stuff. uh But you can also think of what's gonna happen to the universities

and post-secondary education because for the past at least a decade, and certainly more

than that, as post-secondary institutions uh across the country have been receiving less

and less provincial funding. what they've been doing instead is ramping up how much they

charge international students, their international tuition rates. So international tuition rates

have been, or international tuition has uh been increasingly making up a greater share of the

revenues that post-secondary institutions uh generate. And so essentially when you cut the

number of international students in half, uh that directly impacts the operating budgets

of post-secondary institutions. Are the provincial governments going to come in and fill in that

gap? Obviously not. So what's going to happen to uh post-secondary education? So this is

another terrain on which uh struggles can be waged. Why is it that we rely on people from

the global south to fund our uh public services? Quite literally, there's a term for that. It's

called social imperialism, where you get social services by doing the imperialism. The other

thing is with PR cuts, Permanent residencies are, you know, is being cut in half. I'd maybe

just like to quickly read a bit of the statement from the Migrant Rights Network. You know,

this is their, uh you know, their response to uh Carney's budget. So I'm just gonna read

here, quote, by not increasing permanent residency targets, Budget 2025 continues to deny rights

and protections to the people who sustain our communities and who are already living and

working here." Unquote. I want to read another line, but that's an important point. With international

students, you're cutting the tap or you're halving the tap. so, you know, the number of people

coming in is half. But with permanent residency, these people are already here. In a lot of

cases, they've met their requirements and they've just been waiting. I know people personally

over the past years They've been in this pool waiting, they've met the requirements, they're

contributing to the economy. Unlike what a lot of people say, they're paying their taxes.

If you spend money on a Tim Hortons coffee, you're paying taxes in this country, okay?

So, they're here, they're contributing to the economy and yet the number of PR spots is continuing

to shrink, which means a lot of these people are going to have to return back to wherever

they had come from. And I know several people who are- already been in this case, people

that were that are in my community that were close to me that they never ended up getting

PR and their current visa, you know, is essential was going to expire or had expired already.

And that that gives people two choices. Either you have to go back and restart your life elsewhere

as you know, as is the case with some people that I know, or you go underground and you

become undocumented, which is uh even worse. So just reading another section of the statement,

uh quote, while permanent residency targets remain at 380,000. This represents only a fraction

of the 3 million people currently residing in Canada on temporary permits. The vast majority

are excluded from equal rights and protections because they do not have PR, permanent residency,

creating a two tier system that facilitates labor exploitation. Rent inflation went up

4.5 % year over year, despite a massive reduction in study permits in 2023 and 2024. but the

federal government continues to cut study permit spots further. So three million people in,

know, having temporary permits in a pool chasing less than half a million permanent residency

targets. that's, ah you know, that's a crime, that's atrocious. And it leaves the people

remaining open to higher levels of exploitation. So they try to frame this as international

students were also getting not a fair deal in terms of the educations they were getting

and the money that they were spending. And they'll frame it often as they're trying to

prevent this exploitation when in fact they're just making it easier. I can't remember if

you mentioned it or not, but it was also a 10,000 cut in the amount of refugees coming here.

That should enrage folks as well, not for the reason that there's so many more instances

around the globe where refugees are being created. usually through complicity or direct action

from Canada in terms of, you know, our resource extraction projects and our participation

in what's going on in Palestine and whatnot. But they are the United States. So the United

States has almost completely cut off the ability to apply as a refugee there. They're taking

almost only white South Africans, I kid you not, and they are openly hostile to all. migrants

in their borders with what's going on with ICE. And at this point, rather than opening

our doors and saying, you know, come here and contribute to our communities, uh we are closing

our doors as well. And Europe is doing the same thing. You can only imagine what this

is going to mean for folks that are trying to flee economic, climate and military disasters

at home. So There's a lot of red lines in this budget that should be enough for a party

like the NDP. I can't speak for the other one's pieces. You know, like I don't expect the

conservatives to do anything noble, but the NDP, there's seven of them. There's not much

to lose at this point, right? Yes, another election would probably bankroll them, but like there's

zero principles existing here within. within the party, within the whole legislature at

this point. So like who will stand up for refugees and migrants? Apparently nobody, because nobody

has flagged that as a major concern. Who's gonna stand against the imperialist machine

that Carney's creating and the industrial complex? Like nobody seems all that bothered by that

either. You know, they are focusing on important things like the fact that oil and gas will

still be subsidized or, you know, have subsidies. And there's projects that are gonna go through

unceded territory that will be a detriment to our entire environment. But none of these

seem to be red lines. don't see any party, one party holding on to anything or really

highlighting anything that's critical. Like the Bloc is talking about Quebec's not in

the budget. um It's a big disappointment, I think, watching folks wrangle around. the

budget and the possible votes, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. um I want to read

a statement. Migrant Rights Network are always on top of it. And uh you read some great quotes.

The Wilderness Committee did a great breakdown of the climate policies and the impacts versus

the promises that had been made. But one of their quotes, I think, sums up the budget really

well. It says it reads like a war plan against people and the planet. And I don't think there's

any other better way to describe what that is. And I would have thought a lot more people

would have just rejected it outright. You know, even I guess just I think this is a moment

this should signal to us, you know, the need to get to higher stages of organizing to, you

know, ramp up our uh resistance to to measures like this to show opposition. mean, obviously

it works right when. You know, the capitalists, they're very organized, right? Like the oil

and gas sector and all this kind of stuff. And of course, you know, it's a different story

with them. have institutional access, they have resources, all this kind of stuff. So that's

sort of what we're up against. But this really does show the greater need for organizing

around these key elements, right? There are so many cuts to public goods, right? uh We

didn't even talk about how even the fact that there's no, you know, barely any spending

on new social goods, that means already a kind of effective cut because of inflation, right?

The prices of things have gone up. So obviously if there's not more money in the budget to

account for that inflation, then if the effective social services being provided is actually

being clawed back. and following up on the immigration thing, in a lot of Western countries,

including Canada, much of the economy, much of the fundamental sectors of the economy are

run by immigrant labor. And so what is the move here on the part of Carney? you know, so essentially

you have a right-wing backlash against immigration. uh The economy is bad. Housing is bad. you

know, quote unquote Canadians uh turn, turn against uh immigrants and scapegoat immigrants.

Carney then responds by reducing immigration, which is you know, our pool of cheap labor

in Canada, which then, you know, continues to pose a danger to the Canadian economy by shrinking

it, right? That makes the economy worse, which then, you know, feeds the cycle again, you

know, that sort of just just feeds the cycle of scapegoating immigrants or whomever else

wants more, it strengthens the right. The other thing I want to say is that the cutting of

public, you know, public servants and public sector jobs, that's Very important too, because

that's sort of the bulk of the labor movement in Canada is in the public sector. So if you

cut those jobs, you're essentially undercutting and undermining as well by proxy the labor

movement in Canada. And then the last thing I want to say is at the beginning, you talked

about how this is really a right. And throughout, this is really a right wing agenda. Supposedly,

the conservatives should actually be happy with a budget like this. um And that is the liberals

trying to undercut the conservatives and try to stake out their ground. That's going to

force the conservatives to move further to the right. And of course, this is still a neoliberal

budget, i.e. that these are still massive handouts to the capitalist class and to the elite while

uh drying up and clawing back uh from regular people, making life less affordable to live

for regular people. uh what's that gonna do? That's going to create a lot more disaffection.

That's going to strengthen the right. When you've had a liberal government now for, since 2015,

up till the present 10 years, um that's going to induce, so we're in for an even bigger

kind of rightward shift. So the rightward shift alongside the undermining of the labor movement

via cuts to the public sector via, or in addition to, you know, the cuts in immigration that

then shrinks our economy. These are in addition to the cuts to healthcare, uh other cuts here

and there. This is really sort of uh bringing us to close to a breaking point. we, uh as

the left and as the multiracial kind of working class, we need to have a sense of what the

road ahead is for us. the exact kinds of things that we should be responding to and what is

the organizational infrastructure thus needed to respond to that? For me, it's hard to imagine

that it lay in electoral politics, you know, seeing what we're seeing with the amount of

energy that we need to expend in order to get anywhere. I mean, even talking about those

departments that were able to stave off the 15 % budget. by like massively organizing and

backroom dealing, whatever happened there. Like they're still facing cuts like exactly

like you explained. And it's thinking of the conservatives having to go further right.

Particularly, I start to imagine if we went to an election, right, if this budget is voted

down. And then we had to watch the liberals and the conservatives then out campaign each

other again to the right, right? And it just starts to get worse and worse. And then I

start finding myself, do I start cheering for this budget? Could it be worse than this budget?

And I obviously could always be worse. mean, the breach again made a great point there

that we'll steal from them. But quite often the first budget isn't the most shocking budget.

Anyone in Ontario knows this to be true. uh Doug Ford's budgets have gotten worse and worse

every year. So, you know, the amount of pushback that they face right now, not just online

items, right? Like, not just like, oh, well, can you include a little bit of spending on

this and then I can consider supporting it? No, like go back to that wilderness committee

quote, like this says something and it's the wrong something. It's so far from the type

of messaging and narrative and focus even on the economy that we actually need that any

politician worth their salt should be doing everything to shut it down. But also this just

adds another thing for the movements to have to tackle. And I can understand why maybe

folks aren't spending a whole lot of energy specifically on the budget. because it's just

kind of like part of a larger problem that, you know, we're facing from all levels of politicians,

uh increased austerity and kind of a technocratic rule. it is the trend across Canadian politics,

global politics, as much as we like to separate ourselves from the South. although I don't

look forward, I definitely don't want to cover another election. Please, please, no. Um,

I mean, even covering the NDP leadership race a little bit has, has been just shaking my

head. But the one thing I did want to say. And folks are always assuming I'm with Eve's

campaign. He came on the show. I defend his right to, you know, play shenanigans with NDP

brass. Like the more they fuck with them, the happier I am. Honestly, I care not if you follow

the rules, like at all, obviously, like the podcast, but the fact that. When he came on

the show, he was adamant to me. mean, the messaging has shifted a little bit, but he's like, look,

I don't think I'm going to win. I don't even think they'll let me in the race. I want to

make sure we are challenging imperialism. I don't think anybody out there is going to make

a big enough deal about what Carney's about to do about this shift in military spending

and aggression that Canada is going to be contributing to. and I want to be at least that one voice.

Like if there's any way to bring this issue to the federal level, like on a national level,

or people are paying attention, then I'm going to use this opportunity. And the fact that

anybody now looking back at what this budget is doing, like stealing from folks to pay for

the military, and you can't give any credit to that campaign for trying to do that, while

watching all the other ones just talk the same lines over and over again about how they're

just going to center working class people and yet that means nothing. Some of them are coming

out with policies and whatnot but not one of them has even attempted to beat into this massive

paradigm shift that's clearly happening in front of us, right? You think little piecemeal things

and nationalized grocers. Well that's fucking great but with what money and under what circumstances

was this rise of fascism and this massive increase in militarism? You know what I mean? Like that

is an issue that you just can't pretend is not going away. And I think because they don't

know where a lot of Canadians sit, we're not seeing enough people challenge that, right?

They're typical politicians weighing cost benefit analysis. And where Eve is just like, I don't

give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. Like you don't like me, obviously I've lost you anyway. This

is what I'm going to talk about over and over and over again until you all pay attention.

And um I wish that his campaign had been taken a little bit more seriously, or maybe he had

gotten in the race like officially earlier. I'm not like coming down on their strategy

at all, but just that is missing from the conversation. And if there was ever really value for, you

know, the NDP now, it would be to be at least that lone voice against this shift, right?

A clear voice, even if it meant losing first. Because I think like not that I want many

people flocking to you, but it would help build the base back up, right? Like to stand out

with some sense of principle, something different. The same way the conservatives will try to

be like, no, we are far more right-wing than that. I mean, they're going to be fucking stretched

to find another dollar to spend on things that they would rather, right? Like what they would

make greater cuts to the health transfers. um Good luck with that. So yeah, it's um... It's

a telling time for Canadian politics. And I think it would be a good time to have somebody

really stand a front to this rather than let it just, I think it'll be kind of a non-event.

It's going to pass next week and that will be our new reality of spending for four years.

And we're fucked. Like that's, I'm sitting at the kitchen table reading through this line,

especially the climate. And I'm like, we're fucked. We're fucked. They're not even going

to prepare anybody for floods or fight like nothing. They're like, We will have soldiers.

We'll have more soldiers. We're fucked in one way, but I always I never want to because I

feel like in the West we're we're already so like blackpilled and we're already so, you

know, pessimistic about stuff. And I don't I also don't want that to drive us into complacency

because, you know, there is a role that we can play and we don't have a choice. We have

to organize against this. And there are wins, right? I mean, even just the small wins that

we mentioned about the you know, the mobilization against 15 % budget cuts at the Department

of, you know, the Department for Women and Gender Equality and, you know, Indigenous

services, that shows that, you know, there is a certain level of agency that can exercise,

that can be exercised by us, by the masses, uh and we should use that. And the way we use

that is by better organizing and, you know, uh being more effective in our organizing.

And so that's really the task uh ahead, you know, and this is you know, we have to, you

know, in our organizations and our, you know, understanding of things, we have to uh resist

the capitalist timeline, which is, oh, what's gonna happen tomorrow? And what's gonna happen

the day after and the next quarter, but we have to, you know, look ahead a couple of years,

right? The healthcare cuts are starting 2028, or, you know, they really take their impact,

you know, by the end of the decade 2030. So we should have some sense of what, you know,

what life for regular working people will look like by then and construct our horizons for

organizing around that. And of course there are challenges with that, there are immediate

challenges, but um yeah, we need to get to work, I guess. Absolutely. The only thing we

can do is use the conditions that we have uh to our benefit. This should be a time where

the movements could coalesce with each other. They've all been screwed in this budget. And

on top of that, you have you know, his promises to crack down on hate speech. And we know what

that really means. If you've listened to the show, it means dissent. And he's promised,

you know, a clear way for these projects to go through, which means cracking down on the

environmental movements, the climate justice movements, seeing them as a threat to the national

interest and framing them as such. And so, yeah, if there was ever a time to just morph all

of the movements into one the way that folks attempted to do withdraw the line or are attempting

to do withdraw the line where you know our enemies are common the issues are varied and the legislation

we need and the changes we need are kind of all over the place it's a laundry list but

the one thing the shortest list of all is like our list of enemies right it is capital it

is industry it is imperialism I know I just said three things, but it's really all the

same thing, right? And so getting people to stop punching down is, you know, a start in

terms of organizing, right? Finding a way for people to punch up tenant organizing is a great

example of that where there is a clear enemy for folks to mobilize around. Sometimes it's

not always so clear cut. So, but carny, we could just put a face on it for now. It could just

be carny. And his banker buddies, Peter Thiel, uh is starting to get demonized uh deservingly.

So we'll have a few more faces to add to the Weston wall of shame of oligarchs and technocrats

that gotta go along with their ideas. That is a wrap on another episode of Blueprints

of Disruption. Thank you for joining us. Also, a very big thank you to the producer of our

show, Santiago Jaluc Quintero. Blueprints of Disruption is an independent production operated

cooperatively. You can follow us on Twitter at BPEofDisruption. If you'd like to help us

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