Migrants at the border Canada's problem too

0:00 Speaker 1 Woo Us today is former Prime Minister of the country of Canada, Stephen Joseph Harper, and he is Prime minister from two thousand and six to twenty and fifteen, and he did a fine job and a great job in Canada.

0:19 Prime Minister tell us the world is in a big mess. And right now you’re how do you view what the heck is going on?

0:34 Speaker 2 Well, look at it is an enormous mess, John, And first of all, thanks for having me. You and I have spoken many times in the past, but I’m delighted to be on your show for the first occasion. Look three things very quickly. Geopolitics. We spent generation or more trying to pretend that Russia, China ran and others were

0:56 our friends finding out if that wasn’t true, and they’ve been, you know, obviously planning to overturn the global democratic order. We have spent ourselves, borrowed and spent and printed money into oblivion and now we have essentially saculation coming on in many countries as a consequence of that. And of course our politics have been disrupted by you know what

1:21 I call the division between elites and populous people talk about the rise of populism, I think it’s largely about elites that have been out of touch and done a lot of things that have damaged the interests that we’d marry people. So between all of these things, the world, the democratic world in particular, is in a terrible turmoil.

1:43 Speaker 1 Ever since Prime Minister, ever since we changed governments here and in the United States a few years ago. And the pipeline will shut off on the oil pipeline, the new one that was kind of Keystone pipeline. Right, there’s been world there’s been a world turmoil in oil prices.

2:06 And you are one of the world’s experts on energy, tell us what the heck is going on? Because the American people don’t understand it.

2:19 Speaker 2 Sure, Look, I’ll try and put it really simply. There are three blocks of oil producers in the world. There’s the traditional Opact led by the Saudis. There’s what’s now called the OPEC plus group led by Russia. And there are you know, the market oriented, free market oriented producers led by the United States, which Canada is a significant part.

2:45 And you know what has happened is that the Saudis have determined that they want to keep oil prices in a seventy to ninety dollars band and they’ve got the full cooperation of the Russian Block to do that, partly because the Russians can’t afford to make enemies of the Saudist Right now, the Russians have made enough enemies as

3:07 we all know, and with you know, the current administration and the government in Canada taking Canada and the United States out of the game of being major energy producers, are doing their best to do that. They have allowed that other block to effectively control prices, and they’re going to keep them reasonably high. They’re going to try, you know, John,

3:31 They’re going to try and prevent them. They’re not going to keep them really high. They’re going to try and prevent them from going over ninety or certainly one hundred. But you know, given the restrictions on oil development in our countries and in some other parts of the world for other reasons, they’re going to be able to keep

3:50 them high.

3:52 Speaker 1 So they don’t want to put the world out of business. But they certainly want us closer to the ninety dollars less than the sixty five or seventy dollars level that North America would like it at.

4:07 Speaker 2 Yeah, they won’t they won’t let it go below seventy for any extended period of time, and they’ll be keeping it closer to ninety. You’re absolutely right. And given supply and demand, and as I say, given the determination of some Western governments to restrict oil production, and given problems in some oil producers like Venezuela, they’re not going to

4:28 have a hard time keeping those prices high even as the global economy slows.

4:35 Speaker 1 Understood. So, and what I’ve said publicly was that Russia is using a lot of their new found gold, being the profits on oil, in their I guess, their war on Ukraine. And the question is is I ran using it against Israel because I ran as now doing three in battles a day and there was down to one.

5:04 Speaker 2 Yeah. Well, first of all, you know, it isn’t just against Ukraine. I mean, Russia has been using the revival of oil prices ever since Putent came into power to rebuild their military and become a competitor around the world.

5:18 This is this is not new. It took the full scale invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty two for most people to catch on to that. But that’s what’s been happening Iran. You know, Iran still faces restricted markets, but they are selling their oil and of course they they have used it to fund terrorism and full met revolution

5:43 around the world, including Habbas And you know, look Schohn, it’s not a secret. I know the use US administration wants to deny it, and the Israelis, for their own part, don’t want to admit it either. But the reality is, you know, your government just gave six billion dollars to Iran and a big chunk of that went into exactly

6:03 what we’re seeing now in Gava.

6:09 Speaker 1 It’s certainly a major problem, it is. What So we’re going to be either we’re going to be at seventy dollars or ninety dollars no matter what.

6:25 Speaker 2 Yeah, we’re going to be between seventy and ninety. But I think we’re going to be at the high end of that because, as I say, look, John, for the very simple reason is this in spite of what environmentalists say.

6:38 You know, we could debate they’re certainly desirable that the world emit less carbon carbon dioxide, but the reality is that the demand for oil continues to rise. It is, and it is going to rise, based on the data we have today, going to rise every year for the for the foreseeable future. I know some dispute that, but

7:02 there is no basis when they make those statements. The oil demand continues to rise. So as we restrict supply, and we restrict supply in market oriented countries like the United States, like Canada and elsewhere, all we do is push the price higher and hand control of global oil markets to non market producers to those who want to

7:23 keep the prices as absolutely high as possible.

7:29 Speaker 1 Understood, and since we’ve been restricting them, walking to North America, the prices is going to be in a higher end. But the other problem that’s happening as a prime minister is the only thing to control inflation is interest rates, and the United States is having a serious problem with the interest rates and what they’re doing to the rest of

7:55 the country in the real estate industry and as well as the banking industry.

8:02 Speaker 2 Yeah, you and I have discussed this, John, and we maybe have a little bit of a different take. First of all, the Federal Reserve, the Central Bank could do more than just restrict or raise interest rates to reduce inflation.

8:18 They’re also reducing the size of their balance sheet, and both canon Bank of canaon and the Federal Reserve are doing that. So there are various ways to reduce inflation, but the best and most effective way is to raise interest rates. And you know my own judgment, and you know, we can argue that maybe they’ve raised them too high,

8:39 but the reality is that you know, they have to get inflation down. If they don’t get inflation down, and interest rates will go up anyway. And you are seeing rates rise even on longer term government securities for this exact reason. So I think they’ve got to get inflation down. Look, I think the unfortunate reality is that the central banks

9:02 completely goofed during the during the pandemic, There’s no doubt they had to provide additional liquidity to market, But what you saw in our countries was at a time when economic activity was being restricted by government rules and regulation, so you couldn’t stimulate the economy. It’s activity was restricted.

9:25 Central banks poured trillions of dollars of money into the economy, and frankly, I think the inflation is a lot higher than than official figures admit. It shouldn’t have happened, but it has, and getting ourselves out of this out of this difficulty is not going to be easy, and it’s made doublely hard by the fact that as the Central

9:51 Bank is raising rates to try and restrict money supply, you have governments both in Cana, the United States and elsewhere running a enormous deficits that in and of themselves create inflationary pressures. So you know, until I tell John, I tell people, you can’t fix all of this to just playing with interest rates and money supply and deficits.

10:13 The only way we’ve got to get our economies back on track is what we did in the eighties, and that’s to do supply oriented, market oriented, business led economic growth. As long as we do the policies of the nineteen seventies, high deficits, you know, lots of money, we’re going to get the results of the nineteen seventies. And that’s where

10:35 we’re at.

10:37 Speaker 1 Understood, Prime Minister, We have a few minutes left. What else would you like to tell the people of the world. I mean, you’re in the world market, and I know you’re very close to the Jewish community in New York.

10:51 Give us where does this go? Where does this end?

10:56 Speaker 2 Yeah, I think I’ve pretty well known that I’m you know, I’m not only a big supporter of Israel, big supporter of Ukraine. John, When I was in office, a lot of people would often raise their eyebrows at how strongly my foreign policy was focused on supporting Israel and Ukraine.

11:16 And you know this is ten fifteen years ago, and people wondered why I spent so much time on these two countries. And the reason was simple. These are two democratic allies that are under existential threat, and we have now learned how real those threats are. Obviously I can all I could do is urge the United States and

11:38 all of our allies to continue to support these countries. It is devastatingly important that we support our allies in Ukraine and fight our enemies in Russia. These are enemies of the United States and Canada, and the people were supporting are on our side. I don’t know how much simpler it can get Hamas and the forces it represents.

12:00 It’s our enemies of the United States, they are enemies of Canada. Israel is a friend and ally of this country and of your country. So it is just so important we support them, and it’s so important we understand. John.

12:12 If I can say that, you know this is we’re fighting something akin the Israelis are fighting something akin to Nazism. We saw this on the the you know, on the weekend from US and these groups like they’re not. This is not a territorial dispute. This is not a dispute over Israeli government policy. These are people who hate Jews

12:36 on such a level that they want to destroy Israel simply because it’s a Jewish state, and they want to kill Jews simply because they are Jews. And the only way for Israel to deal with this is to eradicate this movement. And look, it’s going to be bloody. It’s going to involve civilian as well as military casualties. But

12:57 when we were denacifying Europe, we had to do the same thing. And unless and until Israel is doing this, this will continue. So I just call on everybody to support our friends and allies as they fight these forces that, if they had a chance, would destroy our countries as well.

13:14 We destroy the United States and destroy Canada. It is important we stand up against these kinds of these kinds of evil groups and regimes in the world.

13:27 Speaker 1 Prime Minister, I agree with you one hundred and ten percent. And the world’s in a pickle Russia. Are they going to cooperate somewhere along the line. I could not understand President Biden when he told the Ukraine you could fight the war in the Ukraine, but don’t step over the line in Russia.

13:52 Speaker 2 Yeah. Look, we’re never going to get cooperation from Russia. Look. I spent many years in the company at international meetings with George W. Bush and then with Barack Obama. I watched those American presidents and their predecessors try and make an ally out of Russia. You cannot make an ally or a partner out of Russia. Vladimir Putin is determined

14:17 to be our enemy at all costs, and he will never be cooperative. And if he is cooperative, he can’t trust him. So you know, we just handed to say we should be supporting the Ukrainians as strong as we support the Israelis, and we should be opposing Pudin’s regime as strongly as we oppose him.

14:34 Speaker 1 Lost a great prime minister. Anything else you want to tell North America or the world.

14:43 Speaker 2 No, Look, it’s a delight to be on I should just mention John that I appreciated your introduction. Decides, being a former prime minister, I do hold a current political role. I actually chair the Global Federation of Conservative Parties, which includes not just my Conservative Party of Canada, but you’re a Republican Party and Conservative Party in Britain, the Christian

15:06 Democrats in Germany. So you know I’m I’m an advocate for conservatism around the world, and certainly an advocate for you know, all that benefits the Western Alliance, and a great supporter and admirer of all the values and interest that Canada and the United States share. So it’s been a delight to be on your program.

15:30 Speaker 1 Well, Prime Minister Stephen Joseph Popper, thank you so much for being on the show and I look forward to having more discussions in the future.

15:39 Speaker 2 Thank you. John