The Exchanges

Q Under your leadership, there is tremendous growth in small businesses, in innovation centers. You guys did a lot with Vancouver, Waterloo became these kind of roaring powerhouses, right? I've hired hundreds of people out of those schools, and actually we've, we've built, started building businesses there as well in Canada. Uh, is, is, Like what does Canada need to do to continue this and to continue becoming strong in innovation?

A So look, we'll get a second into the kind of micro things we did, but, uh, you know, I think the macro things are really important. Just creating a good environment for business with low and stable tax rates and, um, you know, and the culture that encourages visit business and views. Profit is a good thing under normal circumstances. Yep. That all helps. A special advantage we had in Canada through all that period was our, uh, immigration policies, especially our, our far easier ability in the United States to bring in skilled technical, uh, people. And that's, I think, still a bit of an advantage for Canada, but that was an advantage to them and, and did encourage some business to come to Canada. We'd also taken another, uh, Um, number of measures as a government in the venture capital space to try and encourage that ecosystem, which was very weak in Canada when we took office. So, look, these are the things you need, um, that you need to continue. Um, um, you know, I, I'd also say that Canada, even in some of our, our bigger schools, even in some of our more successful schools in terms of IT people, there's a lot more we could be doing. We could be trying to scale up those programs a lot more.

AI assessment note: “these are the things you need, um, that you need to continue.”

Q billion dollars at eight VC building biomanufacturing in the U S in Canada recently, just because, you know, we're worried about where we can get things from. Otherwise it's a valuable expertise to have here. Like is, I mean, I guess more bluntly, is it globalization over? Are we still, are we still gonna be working with the whole rest of the world? How do we think about these challenges?

A Well, I don't think global globalization is over. You know, Joe, I wrote a book on this right here, right now. And, and the book was essentially talking about the problems of globalization and Some aspects of post-Cold War market policy and how we had to adjust them, and I wasn't suggesting it was over, I was just suggesting it had to be a lot smarter. You know, for example, and this is the obvious one when we're talking about medical supply chains, um, surely it always made sense, even in the era of globalization, even in the coming era, to make sure that critical Security already ended supply chains are not in the hands of, of countries that are not necessarily friendly to your national security.

AI assessment note: “Well, I don't think global globalization is over.”

Q And, and, and you, you were part of the G seven for over a decade. What should the G seven be doing With regard to this, with regard to make China behave better, like how could they work together to actually give us an optimistic solution?

A Well, that's, the key is to work together. The key is to work together. We, we have to, you know, I, I, um, we're discussing this, as you know, I, a chair of a group called the IDU, you spoke at the Global Federation of Conservative Parties, and we're discussing, you know, what kind of, of common approaches could we take to China To incent better behavior and to better protect our own Uh, interest. I think we all believe that, you know, unlike the Soviet Union of the Cold War, there are, China is not, not everything about China is bad, and there are opportunities in China. So how can we kind of exploit the, the better side of the, of the Chinese system while minimizing the risks of the, of the, the negative side? And, but look, it requires a common approach. Let me give a practical example of that. When You know, the Chinese decide to punish Australia, cut out it, cut its exports, put on tariffs, et cetera, when, you know, they ask reasonable questions about the virus. Um, what we should be doing as other Western countries is having a shared rebuttal to that, not us all trying to figure out how we get Australia exports taken to us instead.

AI assessment note: “what we should be doing as other Western countries is having a shared rebuttal to that”

Q view on this is that, you know, Sun Tzu said, never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake, and I feel like China would be interrupting North American regimes that are quite broken right now, and therefore they, they, they, and it would actually make the regimes look quite bad in North America, and so therefore they're gonna wait to do this. What, what do you think of that?

A Um, I, I, I'm, look, I'm not betting on it happening in the next two years, but, ah, whereas 10 years ago I would have said the chances of that happening were zero. I no longer think that's the case. But, you know, it wasn't very long ago I would have told you that it was not in the interest of the People's Republic of China to end, to completely end Hong Kong's autonomy and unique, the unique nature of the Hong Kong system. And so, and by the way, that wasn't quite the same thing as a seizure because it technically was part of China, but under international treaty and law, China had an obligation to, To treat Hong Kong as an autonomous region with a completely different system of government, and they've flagrantly violated that commitment.

AI assessment note: “I'm not betting on it happening in the next two years”

Q And you use that to rein in a lot of government spending and be very responsible. Is that something we could do here too though, or with the polarization it's too hard, you think?

A Yeah, I, I think the pro, I think, so I think on the kind of the mismanage, especially the mismanage of your fiscal policy, and I really, you know, I know, quote, America's a reserve currency, but I, like, I will assure you that Not only can great powers go bankrupt, they have in history, and it's often a reason they cease to be great powers. You look at France in the 18th century, that's essentially what happened. Um, this is not strictly a problem of a presidency or a political party. Both political parties in the United States at the national level have been on a trajectory to simply not care about the overall fiscal policy for some time.

AI assessment note: “Both political parties in the United States at the national level have been on a trajectory”

Q even believe America was great to begin with. Ah, they're very skeptical of a lot of the values. Ah, you know, what are the ideas and principles behind America's founding mean to you? Obviously you didn't run America, you ran Canada, but what, what, what, what do they mean to you? And what are they meant to the world? Like, like, like, is, are these principles important for the world?

A Well, first of all, when I, when I think about, you know, as, as a prime minister of Canada, I don't think of them in terms of America's principle. I think of them kind of as the common Western and particularly Anglo-American heritage that Canada is a part of. Um, but first of all, let's, let's be clear what the problem is. Um, you know, the, there are those who have an assessment that, you know, as you say, better days are behind us, that the future is not as optimistic, and that's, you know, that's an assessment that one can reasonably or not reasonably have, but you said another one that America never, those who America never was very good to begin with. That's the real problem, Joe. The real problem in the West, and let me talk about the West more than America, although, you know, this is the flagship country. The real problem in the West is not, um, that our prospects are not good. It's elements in our own countries and our own societies that do not want us to succeed. They do not want us to succeed.

AI assessment note: “let me talk about the West more than America, although, you know, this is”