Transcript
Zain
0:02
This is a strategist episode 1854. My name is Zain Velji. With me as always, Corey Hogan. Stephen Carter's not here, Corey, because this is an emergency episode. There's no time to waste.
Corey
0:14
We're not waiting for that guy to get out of whatever all-day $5 buffet he's at to come talk to us about the issues of the day. There was no time. Now,
Zain
0:23
now this actually opens up something. Is there, is there still any $5 buffets left in Justin Trudeau's world?
Corey
0:30
Zane, there's, there's no time. There's no time.
Corey
0:33
We got to talk about Pierre Paulieff. Fine,
Zain
0:34
Fine, fine. You've, you've, you've made us come to this emergency episode, Corey, for what I would classify in an unprecedented election, especially with the shift in the polls that we have seen, an unprecedented policy shift by Pierre Poliev. He knew he was losing. He
Zain
0:53
He knew he couldn't necessarily continue on the same track. We've talked about build the homes. We've talked about ax the tax. We've talked about scrap the whatever, right? We've talked about bring it home. Well, Corey, he's now added two more to the mix that I think on
Zain
1:11
on the surface make you scratch your head. But when you dig deeper, which is the core core of
Zain
1:18
this podcast it's what we're all about oh my god does it ever become a game changer cory
Corey
1:27
can't argue i mean i i think we've still got to go over whether it makes any sense whatsoever it is on the surface quite a zag on the surface it's
Corey
1:35
it's quite as underneath
Corey
1:37
oh it's just a lot to love about it is a boldness
Zain
1:40
boldness yeah okay do you want do you want to describe to people what we're talking about because pierre pauliev from a political perspective knew he needed to do something this morning he woke up to the news that there was organized support by india and his 2022 leadership race and the team decided control p let's go to the printer let's go with uh break glass if needed they broke glass yeah they broke yeah
Corey
2:03
yeah i think it was one of those situations where they said to themselves we've got this in our back pocket for when we really really need to mix things up because
Corey
2:10
because nobody would expect this coming to be clear mix
Zain
2:12
mix things up and guarantee victory now well
Corey
2:19
we should unpack that I think because there are some like is it just too sophisticated for the Canadian electorate is it one of these things that they're not going to be able to process the brilliance of in 35 days I think that's underneath the surface yeah like
Zain
2:31
like they're gonna ask because like most Canadians are surface level right
Corey
2:34
right um yeah they're gonna gonna wake up like three months from now for sure and get it but will they two weeks from now do you want me to
Zain
2:42
it or do you
Zain
2:43
you want to do you want to explain it yourself because i feel like i feel like this is something that that we could tag team on but i want to give you the first right of refusal we haven't even waited for steven so it's just you and i that's
Corey
2:52
that's a great point um and let's be clear this
Corey
2:55
this is the first of many podcasts on this right like so it's an emergency It's an emergency because we
Zain
3:01
we have thoughts, feelings, insight to add to the mix. But it's going to take us months and years to unpack it, not just Canadians.
Zain
3:11
from now, we will be talking about this. We
Corey
3:14
We will revisit this. Yeah, we'll go around the horn. We'll also check in on the Dairy Queen. Listen, it was bold. He was under the gun. He decided he had to go out there. He decided he needed to shake things up. He's come up with two new slogans. He's put on his lectern. He's going for it, man. axe the sales tax on homes so we've got a guy who for a long time has been saying we've got to build new homes axe
Zain
3:38
axe the tax and build new homes axe the tax build the
Corey
3:40
the homes build the homes it's
Corey
3:42
it's changing it up so now we're not selling homes anymore we're axing that and we're not just that because that's like hey you're not going to get any new homes like we're axing the sales there's no way to get into the market if you axe the sales like we all get that see
Zain
3:55
see i have to interrupt you there because I don't even think you've understood what he's talking about here, right?
Zain
4:00
He's talking about axing all sales. These are two non-connected things. You think, oh, right? All sales. All sales
Zain
4:09
right? So remember when Mark Carney used to cut the interest rates? This guy's going to ax
Zain
4:15
ax sales, right? See, Carney never got that far. Carney, with his little pretend job of governor of the Bank of Canada, was cutting interest rates, which, by the way, any any person adept with the just basic economic and financial lingo and knowledge would know that interest rates are one thing but sales are bigger than interest rates they're another thing
Corey
4:38
well there's prices can't go up if you can't buy anything there's
Zain
4:41
there's the economy then there's finance
Zain
4:43
then there's sales then there's interest rates that's the modern that's That's the modern sort of four
Zain
4:50
system, as we call it.
Corey
4:52
Yeah, well understood in economic circles, the four-tier system, right? But I think that you've still got to appreciate what this means for homes, because actually in the sales also does include homes, right? It does, but I just
Zain
5:05
just want people to know. It's
Zain
5:06
It's bigger. It's way bigger. Like the implications of which we haven't even fully appreciated, like the technology we're talking about, the clothes that we are wearing, no
Corey
5:21
somebody sold them to
Corey
5:22
us a strict facebook
Zain
5:23
facebook marketplace barter system going forward no more
Corey
5:29
the sales but i'll let you
Zain
5:30
you get back to the homes well
Corey
5:32
well it gets rid of some of the currency challenges that pr polyev has identified right but
Corey
5:36
but let's get back to the homes so ax the sales means you're not you're not buying a new home somebody needs to sell you a home to buy a home we all understand that right but what if you already have for those For those who
Corey
5:51
Access to sales means you don't get to buy a home because somebody needs to sell it to you. Correct. It is worth underlining, right? Yeah, absolutely.
Corey
5:59
But there are, you know, there are other considerations, right? Like maybe you would build your own home. Maybe you already have a home. Yeah.
Corey
6:04
What about those homes?
Corey
6:06
Well, this is where the second part of a slogan comes in. Tax on homes. So can't get a new home.
Corey
6:13
We're going to tax your existing home. meaning we're going to drive you out i think it's actually brilliantly post-modern because what he's really saying is you
Corey
6:21
know the housing crisis has become so big we talk about the crisis part all the time but the root of it is housing you can't have a housing crisis without housing
Corey
6:30
the man is like
Corey
6:32
like next level it's like five-dimensional chess well it's
Zain
6:35
right like if you tax housing people will need less of it right it's like it's like a carrot and stick right so when you got
Corey
6:40
got the four models
Zain
6:40
models carrot and stick is the other thing that we talk talk about classic
Corey
6:44
classic supply and demand curves right right
Zain
6:45
right so so if you if you axe housing people will need less housing which means you get out of the crisis that's the tax on homes but then this is
Zain
6:54
where i think the brilliance comes and you have to go back to the first part you stop all sales
Corey
7:03
like it's great well it's
Zain
7:04
it's a great point
Corey
7:04
point you know what i hadn't even
Zain
7:06
put this together yeah
Corey
7:08
don't so you're being taxed on your home yes you
Corey
7:10
you don't want that that home anymore yes how are you gonna get rid of that home can't
Corey
7:14
can't sell the home because he's axed the sales it's
Zain
7:16
it's it's not just brilliantly post-modern it's it's a bit of right wing it's a bit of left wing uh it's it's a bit of up wing and down wing as we call about it um Corey we regularly talk about up and down wing yeah it's true Corey
Zain
7:31
was initially skeptical I have to say so so I know I should have asked you this first but when you first saw it were you as as skeptical as me because like right now like listen we're no fans of pierre poliev right but this i think this will work for him like if i'm being honest like carney's left so much room on the center left by moving to the right fully acknowledging that he's in the center he's left
Zain
7:53
this room the ndp have not been able to seize this opportunity but i mean if you're if you're a new democrat sitting in fucking davenport right now what about the following three words do not appeal to you tax on homes i'm sorry yeah you're losing it's his race now you live in a pure polyev world because there's now a tax on homes let's just say you're a new democrat out on you know vancouver island somewhere right you're living your life right you're you're you're you're living with the earth what gets this acts of sales you're never into consumerism this speaks to you on that level to i
Zain
8:30
strong point i don't know i don't say it's like he's moving to the left entirely but there
Zain
8:35
there is movement here and there's a brilliance to this that actually might allow him to keep his coalition on the right those people who show up to the rallies and the ppc vote that's coming down and going to pierre and then he and he just takes the far left as jugmeet looks weak i mean from a political strategy i know if carter were here he would he would be speechless um yeah mainly because we'd mute his mic maybe
Corey
8:56
maybe he is here
Zain
8:56
here maybe he is speechless Absolutely.
Zain
8:58
People will not know.
Zain
9:00
Were you as skeptical as I was? And are you a bigger fan as I am right now?
Corey
9:05
Well, I guess I'm just floored. When's the last time we see even a left-wing government go so far as to say ax the sales? I kind of felt that had fallen out of vogue. But we're talking about the end of capitalism being brought to you by Pierre Polyev,
Corey
9:19
tied up into the very notion of housing. He's looked at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and he said we don't we don't need maslow's hierarchy you know he's really changed the game with this one here well he's he's
Zain
9:29
he's never been a fan of it because he's like we've got the finance economics sales
Zain
9:33
sales and interest right he's he's he's understood he's got
Corey
9:37
got a different frame
Zain
9:37
frame right he's got that great point
Zain
9:39
point no i mean i've made several of them i feel like i'm the only one making great points on this on this podcast i feel like i'm the only one who's fully absorbed well both the financial i gotta say an economic impact so what's happening here cory i
Corey
9:50
i think you're being a little bit uh braggadocious even suggesting you could fully absorb it at this point because this is going to have a lot of knock-on effects like it's easy to say x the sales sure we can all get behind that but
Corey
10:00
consider groceries how are we going to get groceries if there's no sales you know what doesn't matter they don't exist anymore so like if you start getting into those next layers and you start understanding exactly what this could do to that just inflation environment that we've all been so concerned about yeah
Corey
10:16
i mean there's a lot here like i I just would say, just when you think you've got it, there's probably the next level to consider as well. Yeah, it's like, to
Zain
10:24
to me, it's like when you're hearing, like, you're in a conversation with a buddy, right? And he's talking
Zain
10:29
about it, and you're, like, thinking about it, and you're, like, listening to his points, and you're like, okay, like, I think my points are better about it. And then you're like, well, his points aren't bad. It's like, that's exactly what it is. There's so much here, right? There's so much here.
Zain
10:42
Everyone is right. Everyone comes out a winner. this is arguing for something that even chomsky i think would say is is a bit daring yeah
Corey
10:50
yeah like you're bringing together the the chomskys and the uh victor orbans of the world right like you've got it all in one package here because if
Corey
10:59
if you look at the if the human wall that was behind him as he was making this announcement too
Corey
11:03
you got somebody in like a yellow reflective vest you've got a bunch of people who look concerned
Corey
11:08
concerned probably because they're in sales i'm assuming right it's
Corey
11:13
it's it's just strong it's going in front of somebody who clearly builds homes and it's going in front of a bunch of people who clearly have homes and it's saying game's over right that's the kind of strength i think you need to convey if you're going to change the game with mark carney where he is in the polls and where pr polyev is in you
Zain
11:29
you know what's interesting is that just yesterday when we recorded our our uh best episode ever um i
Zain
11:35
i asked you guys this
Zain
11:37
this question of of do the conservatives want to pivot or
Corey
11:41
do they just want
Zain
11:41
want to win on their own terms i
Zain
11:43
i apologize i just want to i just i thought they wanted to win the carbon tax election i'm wrong i'm
Corey
11:52
they actually want to win
Corey
11:56
tear it down build something
Zain
12:00
i i think they're redefining what conservative means like i think i'm a poly of conservative now
Corey
12:08
it's amazing because you own a home right so
Corey
12:11
so the tax on homes you you kind of get you kind of accept it i'm
Zain
12:15
i'm okay with it it's kind of what i've been arguing for from the beginning which is
Zain
12:21
too much consumerism i wouldn't have said ax the sales like i would have probably found something different like we've
Zain
12:28
about in the past like we don't necessarily love love like conservative copywriting right yeah
Corey
12:33
yeah like the three word like ping ping ping it's a little it's a little played out i
Zain
12:37
i mean not even that like i could have i could have used different three words right like to like you know stop the capitalism but i i like axe the sales because it's like very like sales is like an active word right and axe is like a throwback so you know there is an element to like this is who we are um yeah
Zain
12:56
i i do like that you know but
Zain
13:00
i i can buy like if the sentiment is exactly what they've presented here yeah
Zain
13:05
which is we're stopping stopping late stage capitalism in its fucking tracks and conservative doesn't mean what you think it does anymore yeah right lincoln was a republican sort of shit then
Corey
13:20
yeah well it look like apple got from the usual corners people saying think different was a bad campaign because the grammatical correct way to say that would be think different think okay
Corey
13:31
yeah yeah different think and
Corey
13:34
and similarly i think they said we're going for the ethos we're going for the vibe we're going for the colloquialism i got to tell you you say stop the capitalism and i get what you're saying yeah
Corey
13:43
i also get that capitalism is a five syllable word that's more than true acts the the sales entirely like that sales is a good fucking
Zain
13:50
fucking one syllable to talk about i know
Corey
13:52
know it's amazing right it's like i don't even i don't know that they've clearly been sitting on that for a while so so i i know
Zain
13:59
know this is an emergency episode we don't want to we don't want to go too
Corey
14:01
too far yeah um
Corey
14:02
um we got to process this what does carney need to
Zain
14:04
to do here actually i i mean carney's the one moving to the right so he probably takes pierre's territory who's now moving to the far left um off off the political spectrum i guess with this um tax the homes acts on sales yeah
Corey
14:16
yeah like i just fundamentally disagree that he's moving to the left like he's looked at the spectrum and he said
Corey
14:22
i'm stepping off that like this is this is old tired ways to think about issues but
Zain
14:27
but also like in another way like similar to that and associated like it's all a loop and it all just starts where it ends right
Zain
14:40
guess i'm like most trouble for jagmeet here he's
Zain
14:43
he's already down and out i mean who who
Zain
14:46
who right yeah like where does
Corey
14:48
does this i don't know why he was
Zain
14:50
mean this this makes rent control look like child's
Corey
14:56
yeah it also makes the greens uh de-industrialization look like like
Corey
15:00
like a clown show like oh yeah you want you want to invest a little more in the environment how about i destroy capitalism and get rid of housing we all live on the land again right like he's
Corey
15:10
he's just just eaten everybody's lunch has he not and
Zain
15:12
and in that way like the reconciliation elements of it i know not explicit both in terms of what we've seen but like there is something about going back to the tradition right like if you if you if you axe the sails right you do that part um
Zain
15:26
um you know you tax the homes you
Zain
15:29
you would think that and of course i'm not good with these slogans and they are like give back the land is probably the third one right like that's probably where they're headed in here which i think is like such a brilliant closer well which is like of the country like it just it's like let's just let's just end it all um now i guess the question i have is is is mark carney how fucked is he i
Corey
15:52
i mean very he's gonna have to take a beat i probably would pretend to have a cold for a couple of days regroup try
Corey
15:58
try to understand what it means to be fighting a post capitalist in an election in 2025 like the other thing i'll say like really brilliant about this yeah where do we buy stuff from yeah
Corey
16:10
like alluding to earlier like oh
Corey
16:13
yeah like this like what is a bigger defense of the country than say like it's we're not you know holy shit
Corey
16:19
shit people are talking about boycott america but
Corey
16:22
but everything bleeds through like you end up with like we're right now recording i'm sorry are
Zain
16:26
are we just picking up on this at the 17 minute mark that this is the greatest tariff immunization strategy
Corey
16:31
strategy we have ever seen in our lifetime this is what i'm saying about about the layers like you think you get it and then you go a layer deeper and you're like jesus this is amazing like what does it mean to be tariffed when we're not buying anything when we're not selling anything axe the sales man axe
Corey
16:46
axe the sales oh
Corey
16:52
like he has just changed the game like who you're donald trump what are you going to do now what are you going to threaten us with now like
Zain
16:59
did you did you think your life would be turned upside down at like like around 1230 on a Tuesday? Yeah,
Corey
17:05
Yeah, I always did, in fact. Okay.