From Canada with Love: Charlie Angus, MP, Takes on the MAGA Madness!

David B. Wheeler: 00:00:08

Welcome to MUCK YOU!, the podcast that digs into the dirt and dishes it straight. Don't miss an episode. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Give us a shout out on Blue sky and American Muckrakers.

And head to americanmuckrakers.com to learn more or toss a few bucks our way to keep the muck flowing. I'm your host, David Wheeler here in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, and I'm currently knee deep in writing a book about Lauren Boebert.

The working title Beatle, Browse and Bad Decisions, A Muckraker's Guide to Boebert's Blunders. Got a better title? Hit me up.

Joining me is my co host, the sharp and fearless Colonel Mo Davis, retired Air Force colonel, former Guantanamo prosecutor, and now a candidate for Congress in North Carolina's 11th district. Let's get muck and Mo.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:00:57

All right, so welcome back, everybody, and thanks for joining us again.

And continuing our tradition of interesting guests today, we've got Charlie Angus, who until recently was a member of the Canadian Parliament, served for almost 21 years there, and just left office a couple of months back.

In addition to that, he's a written a number of books, he's a, a musician, and someone that I think is a little upset about relations between the U.S. and Canada. So, Charlie, thank you so much for, for doing this today.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:01:32

Well, thank you so much for having me on the program, folks. We've got to keep these conversations going in this time of rampant disinformation.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:01:42

We do. And, you know, for my whole life, I always thought that, you know, Canada was our friend and Russia was our enemy.

And until Trump came along, I didn't realize I had it asked backwards. So why do you guys hate us?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:01:55

Well, you. No. Donald Trump talked about the nastiest country he's ever dealt with. He didn't talk about Putin's Russia and horrific war crimes there.

He didn't talk about North Korea. It's U.S. canada. And so, you know, there's this tendency people are always, well, Trump's being Trump.

But over Christmas break, the, the insults and the attacks became stronger and clear and more menacing. And he hasn't really backed down. Some of the media pretend he has, but he hasn't.

And overnight, we've seen an unprecedented transformation of Canada and our sense of self and our willingness to fight for what we've just taken for granted for so long. So if Trump has done one thing, he's really brought us together.

He's woken us up on the need to know what's what's worth fighting for, know what's valuable and, and not be afraid.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:02:52

Yeah, I saw, I guess it was yesterday that Prime Minister Carney met with Frederick Merce at a, I think in Italy at a meeting.

And it's interesting that, you know, in Canada, you know, I would guess a year ago this time, the betting odds on Mark Carney winning were pretty slim. And then in Germany, Frederick Merce and more recently in Romania with Niku Sordan.

So Trump has had some, somewhat of a positive effect, at least outside the US in bringing people to their senses.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:03:26

Well, certainly, I mean, I, I, there's two interesting elements there. First, of course, is the fact that the Liberals government were, they were a, they were the walking dead.

Until Trump's attacks, all of their key people were retiring to spend time with family because they didn't want to get slaughtered at the polls. Canada's MAGA maple leader, Pierre Pov, was running the MAGA playbook to a te.

And once Trump started threatening us, Pierre POV's lead disintegrated, a 25 point lead overnight almost.

And Mark Carney, who nobody would have thought could have done it, came in and, and the reason he came in, I think, is that Canadians were looking for a wartime style prime minister and Carney was able to capture that moment.

And, you know, seeing him over in Europe and seeing him now talking with France and the UK about taking on Netanyahu and demanding action over the starvation in Gaza, this is now international relations being conducted. Without the United States, that never would have happened before.

We would have always gone first to Washington to talk, seeing that this was our closest ally then talking with Europe. Now we see the Prime Minister is over in Europe working with European leaders on what we need to do in an age of gangster regimes.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:04:44

Yeah, it's amazing. I, you know, if you go back 10, 15, 20 years, the, the notion of, you know, turning our back on our friends and our allies and embracing our enemies.

I mean, I, I served with members of the Canadian armed forces over the years and spent a lot of time training with a view towards our adversary being Russia. And all of a sudden Putin's our best friend and you guys hate us. And it's just hard to imagine that we ended up in the place where we are.

But it is what it is. I mean, you guys are a diverse country like we are, and I guess there's no general consensus.

But what, what's kind of the mood there with what's happened?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:05:26

Well, I think it's a really interesting point. Yeah. Canada, you know, we have right, we have left, we have north, we got south. We love squabbling. I mean, we love squabbling with each other.

It's our favorite pastime. And we never really thought much about who we are. We are a nation of likable slackers, you know, and I.

I say that because, like, in the Second World War, we were a nation of 11 million people, and we had the fourth largest air force in the world, fourth largest navy. Our young people went and fought and died everywhere. Every.

Anybody who's born in Canada, their uncle or grandfather either served or is lying in a grave someplace else. And suddenly to be attacked like this has brought out a feeling that eight months ago would have been unpressed. It just wouldn't.

People couldn't have imagined it.

So, say, for example, like, you talked about serving alongside Canadians, when JD Vance said that he was tired of hearing sob stories from Canada about being an ally, the rage I heard in the coffee shops was, I mean, J.D. vance is dead to us. There's nothing he could ever do or say to come back because we lost a lot of young people in Kandahar. That was a hellhole.

And we went, why did we go? We went because the United States asked us to go. And then to say, these are sob stories.

So, you know, we don't wave the flag a lot in Canada, but when someone insults us like that, well, okay, now that, as we say in hockey, the gloves are dropped. So that's. That's the mood right now. There's a real militancy to defend and. And to push back. I think our.

Some of our leaders are trying to tiptoe around, trying to, you know, keep the orange felon, hoping that he won't notice us. But ordinary people, you talk to them, they're ready to go to the wall.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:07:20

Yeah, I wasn't familiar with the. You know, I'm not a huge hockey fan, I have to admit, but I wasn't familiar with the phrase elbows up. But I guess that's become some.

Something of a rallying cry as well.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:07:31

Well, how it happened is. Is really extraordinary. So Mike Myers, you know, a lot of all our best comics go to the States.

And so there was the night on Saturday Night Live, just when this was beginning, and we were suddenly realizing that the kind of threats he was making against us was. It suddenly felt like Ukraine prior to Putin's attack. And we were very disoriented, and there was a lot of fear of what was going to happen.

And Mike Myers appeared on Saturday Night Live, and he had the Canada's not for Sale T shirt. And, and people just, you know, loved it. It was like Mike Myers reminding us that he was a hometown boy.

But at the end of it, he, he was standing on stage, you know, when they all come out on snl. And I didn't watch it, but my brother called me. He said, did you see what Mike did? Did you see what he did? And I said, yeah, he had the T shirt.

He said, no, no, no. He mouthing the words elbows up. And I was like, oh, my God, that's the secret code. We're all hockey nuts here. So that was Bobby or that was Gordy.

How Mr. Elbows, when you went into the corners with Gordie, how you got the elbow in the face. And so when, when they called him Mr.

Elbows, that was, that was someone who was going to make you pay. And overnight that became this rallying slogan. And it was sort of such a Canadian thing. And it was Mike Myers saying that.

And the next thing you know, the Prime Minister is using it in his, in his election ads. And, and it hasn't been cheapened yet. People here, I mean, there's Elbows up songs, Elbows Up T shirts.

I got Elbows up chocolates from this Syrian family that came here after the war. And they, they're making great guns, selling Elbows up chocolate, Elbows up everywhere right now.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:09:11

All right, well, listen, your, your party in the most recent election didn't fare particularly well. And it seems like you're part of the National Democratic Party, and certainly here in the U.S.

our Democratic Party kind of got shellacked back in November. How do we, how do we rebuild? I mean, I know we're trying to figure that out here, and I imagine you are up there. How do we. How do we.

It seems like we've lost the trust of the working class people.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:09:41

That's a really important conversation. And I think that I'm hoping that in the new Democratic Party we're going to have honest conversations.

But we gave up the working class, we gave up rural people. I always said it around our caucus table. It seemed that we didn't. We would prefer to have a better base than ours.

We wanted a cooler, hipper, you know, more diverse, but we weren't speaking to ordinary people.

But I think what ended up happening, why we got wiped out so badly, is that when Trump came in, the leadership in my party didn't shift gears and thought that this was going to be just like another election. I was. Felt like Cassandra at the last caucus meeting. I said to them, just before the election was called. I said, what year do you guys live in?

I'm living in: 2025

So I know a lot of people who voted for Mark Carney, knowing that we were losing, who are hardcore New Democrats, but said to me, I was terrified of Trump. I felt we had to do what we had to do. So I'm hoping that those numbers will not be replicated.

But clearly the Democrats have, have a, have to do their job. I mean, I don't know, it's sort of become a butt of a joke up in Canada where, like, are the Democrats there?

Are they going to do something like this? We're talking about the suspension of the rule of law. Like, where is the opposition?

And if people don't see that, if they don't see a coherent voice, they're either going to disengage or they're going to go to the other side. And, and I think we've, we failed them.

David B. Wheeler: 00:11:35

I think, I think you're right, Charlie. And as a lifelong Democrat, I'm asking the same question, you know, where the hell are the table pounders?

Where the, where are the people that are going to risk some politics or some political capital here in the, in this country? You have, you're doing it in Canada. You're, you're on a, you've been on a tour lately.

You're out there rallying folks to rebel against this in the United States. And I'm wondering if, if you could potentially relocate and run for the Congress down here. We'll get you citizenship.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:12:12

Well, well, listen, I'm getting, the amount of calls I'm getting from across the US Right now is amazing. When Trump got elected, I woke up the next morning and I knew we were in completely uncharted waters.

I knew that we'd crossed the Rubicon and that the threat ahead of us was the threat to democracy. I didn't know how bad it was going to get, and I don't know how bad it will get, but I knew I had to do something.

So I started to use what time I had left in Parliament. I'd made the decision after 21 years to leave, and I sort of became a rally in focus because I realized that people needed to hear a clear vision.

They needed to hear that opposition, but not just opposition, but hope and determination. So I've been on this tour. People are asking me to travel everywhere.

We get 500 people in Edmonton, 350 in a small town on a Monday night in southern Ontario, 400 here. And there's a real determination right now to, to defend. And I'm trying to build this sense of that we can, can resist.

And I'm getting a lot of really great commentary and, and connections in the US but crossing the border right now, I don't think so.

I don't want to end up in an El Salvadorian prison camp as, I mean, if, if, if, if he's going to pick a fight with the boss, he's surely not going to give me any, any, any fair, fair view if I try and cross that border.

David B. Wheeler: 00:13:39

Yeah, well, I, I think the same would go for Mo and myself on the way.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:13:43

Yeah.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:13:43

Stay where you are.

David B. Wheeler: 00:13:44

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, and it, honestly, it's a, it's a genuine concern. Where are we going? Where are we going from here? You know?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:13:52

Well, you know, I.

David B. Wheeler: 00:13:53

Go ahead.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:13:53

I just wanted to say, you know, I was at a protest at the American Consulate last month that I'd heard. I didn't, I wasn't planned. I was just in the city and I.

In Toronto and I went there and it was a whole bunch of really ordinary people, not political types. And a woman came up to me and she was wearing a Covid mask and she said, I'm a dual citizen. What should I do?

And she was looking up at the consulate windows. Now, I don't want to be paranoid enough to think that they were photographing and documenting, but I don't know.

And I said to her, I think you should go home. I don't think you should be here. I don't think you should put yourself on the line if you have to go back and see family in New York next month.

And what kind of world are we living in where someone wears a mask to stand outside the American Embassy? I mean, this is the kind of thing that people from, you know, dissidents from North Korea would do.

This isn't something that you would see in a city like Toronto from an, a dual citizen who is afraid to even come out and be seen. And, and me giving her advice to, that it would be safer to go home. Like, we can't allow that to happen. We can't allow that to become the norm.

David B. Wheeler: 00:15:03

That's absolutely right. And, and I think, you know, for some context, I was in Washington in March with my son.

I was attending a conference and he decided to come along with me, he's 12, and I promised him.

After the conference was over, we actually were working with Mark Cuban on a project there, and Mark got on his plane and went home, and, And I said, well, Nico, let's go do some poke stops, because he's a big Pokeman guy.

e Webster ashburton treaty of: 1842

And, you know, we're not really taught that in our schools here. Except for 183 years, we've had a treaty with Canada. You've been our partner for 183 years. I think it's one of the longest treaties we've ever had.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:16:06

Yeah, yeah.

David B. Wheeler: 00:16:06

And Americans don't understand that. A lot of Canadians probably don't either. But how the. Did that all go down the tubes in a matter of months?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:16:18

Well, it's. It.

It is a staggering thing to consider, particularly given the rise of Putin and these gangster regimes, that we would become public enemy number one. And in terms of the impacts, Canadians have now undertaken a full boycott.

This wasn't launched from the top, but you go into a grocery store anywhere, you're not going to see American produce. Like nothing. We're getting our produce from Mexico, from Peru.

This has completely transformed the whole supply chain of, of, you know, of greens and, and fresh vegetables and fruits that we don't normally get in winter. It's all now coming out of Mexico, as opposed to what we used to always get. We got California, our, Our. Our wine and liquor stores.

I mean, the boycott is. They pulled everything off the shelves. The Ontario Liquor Control Board, the lcbo, is the largest purchaser of spirits in the world.

And on day one, when the threat happened with the tariffs, it was all pulled right from the shelves. Nothing. So this is. This is extraordinary. I think our air Travel is down 70, 75%.

And when you, when stories keep coming out of people being pulled out of air, out of, you know, the airline passport control place and being put into detention, now they're talking about a $12.5 billion loss on, on tourism in the United States. That's not just Canada, but that's Europe as well.

I mean, this guy's turned the United States from favorite destination into pariah state in just over 100 days. And it's costing thousands, hundreds of thousands of jobs.

This is, this has got to there's got to be a breaking point that we reach here or things are going to get much worse.

David B. Wheeler: 00:18:14

I agree again, you're right on, Charlie.

You know, the other thing that irritates the absolute fuck out of me is the fact that, you know, we talked about this a little bit earlier, the fact that we have really no opposition here. You know, you turned me, I saw you give a speech.

It must have been back in, maybe it was March, maybe late February, where you talked about the gangster regime. You use words that normal people can understand, I can't think of. And I love Hakeem Jeffries. You know, I think Chuck Schumer's a good guy.

Do you see any Americans that are connecting with folks or, or part of the resistance that you think we need?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:19:08

I'm watching for it. I mean, I, I see Bernie Sanders and AOC are doing their thing. They've sort of always done their thing.

I'm, I'm really feeling a concern of not seeing sort of that ordinary middle of the road congress person who said, wait a minute, what the heck just happened here? No, I'm not going to do that. Because if people don't stand up, then all manner of abuses become possible. I'm very concerned here in Canada.

I, I, I follow the, you know, the media coverage, and it's like nobody wants to say what is obvious. And they hope that it'll, if we just pretend that this is just some blip, that life will go back to normal.

Like, I was in the car the other day and there was, there was a Democrat, I guess he was somebody important. I didn't get his name. And he was talking about the midterms. I was like, are you kidding me? People are being kidnapped off the street.

Judges are being arrested at the courthouse, and you're talking about waiting until the midterms. If that's your strategy, there may not be midterms. Like, we have to call this out.

And the language that I've been using about dealing with gangster regimes, about the rise of tyranny.

If I had said stuff like that three years ago, I'd probably be given my own conspiracy channel where a lot of other loopy people get to rant and rave about this Illuminati. But right now, that's the language that's passing the nod test because ordinary people see it.

What we don't see is the leadership from the courts, from the people that stand up and just do the right thing, and it's their job to do the right thing. Where the hell are they yeah, I've.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:20:52

Tried to peel the onion back and get to the core of this. And I still think that the strange relations between the U.S. and Canada is Trudeau's fault.

Because you've seen that picture where Melania Trump is looking up at him like, oh, yeah, I'd hit that.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:21:10

Yeah.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:21:11

But, you know, Trump's a vindictive person, and I think that's as good a reason as any for him to turn on Canada. That look that his wife was giving the former prime minister.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:21:23

Well, yeah, it also could be because we, you know, ideas like diversity and equity and inclusion, we don't really think that that's a problem. Like, isn't that what a democratic nation does? It's like, we're like, you're. You're that freake out. You.

I mean, God, you took Ira Hayes off your Pentagon website. What the hell is that? You know?

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:21:43

Well, I tell. It's kind of scary. I was looking at some polling today and, and Trump's numbers are actually up from where they were.

He's approching 50% approval in, in some of the polls. So, you know, the reality is a lot of Americans like what he does. But it was interesting.

The New York Times kind of done a deeper dive and they found that the people that approved of Trump, that about half of them weren't aware of most of the things that he had done, the big things, and the people that disapproved of him were aware. So if people find out, if they get the news and are educated, then they have a lower opinion of him.

But he's, he's doing everything he can here to suppress the truth. You know, he, the right wing here literally owns social media. Yeah. And they've beaten the mainstream media into submission.

You may have seen, you know, we have the, the big three networks here, but the producer for, you know, Big show here is 60 Minutes. The producer quit a couple of weeks back, and now the head of. Of news for CBS has quit because they're knuckling under.

And so I'm just worried that the public is not going to get the truth.

And I think that's the strategy that Trump is employed, is to try to wear down the media so that he can keep the folks from learning about his conduct.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:23:14

I think it's a really. Again, I've been telling people at the rallies that I am at, you know, that we are in a unique moment in Canada. We've really shown the world.

I get messages from all over the world saying we want to be strong Canada. You know, nobody's ever said that before, but they're saying that now, but that it's a fragile line that we're holding.

And the, the, the MAGA attack on our country is going full out in terms of disinformation. And it's something, again, the mainstream media don't want to talk about it.

It's, I think they're spooked by it, but also they don't know how to frame it. But the attacks on Mark Carney as prime minister, on all these fake sites, know, I don't know how many of them are Russian disinformation sites.

Attacks on Canada undermining our nation, attempts to divide us from the west, from the East.

You see this separatist movement that suddenly rose up, you know, when Alberta has like the highest income in the country now, saying they want to be their own country. Danielle Smith, their premier, she's total maga.

So unless we're paying attention and watching actually how it's played out in the United States, it's going to play out here in Canada.

The upside for us, and it sucks for you guys, but you went first into the MAGA hole with the election of Trump, and it's given us at least a really clear picture of what's coming if we don't keep our guard up. But we really do need to keep that guard strong.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:24:49

Yeah.

You know, in: 2016

And, and I'm not a big fan of big cities, but if I had to live in one, Vancouver would be really high on my list. But, but you guys won't let us in anyway. Can we get you to change that and let us the good ones come up?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:25:23

Well, I've been a big supporter of that.

When I was younger, there were a whole whack of people who'd come up during the Vietnam War, and they actually made our communities a lot more interesting. And they were involved in all kinds of stuff. And some went back, some stayed. I still got some who live up the road from me.

And it's like, we should do that. I think it would be a good thing. But one thing we do want to encourage people, people are very worried about the response they'll get in Canada.

Come on up. Just let everyone know you didn't vote for my son in law is a jazz musician, was in Montreal, great jazz city.

And he said there were four tables in this little club who are all American. The first thing they said is we didn't vote for him. And it's like, okay, you're up. You're perfectly okay. You can stay and have a great time.

But if you're Meg, I leave your hat at home. Or maybe just stay home.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:26:14

All right. Well, I guess if you do come back to the states, you're not going to be going to Texas. Texas to visit Greg Abbott.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:26:25

Well, you know, that son of a.

David B. Wheeler: 00:26:27

Doesn't deserve to have Charlie.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:26:30

I'm not going to a state. But you know what really struck me again, people are making a real sacrifice in this boycott. So I got a call the other day from a woman.

She didn't want to give me, she didn't want me to tell her story with her name.

But she comes from a very conservative religious background and she studied for years, years to get her diploma through correspondence out of a Bible seminary in Pennsylvania. And she's decided not to go to her graduation because she didn't want to break the boycott. So there's a huge personal cost there in terms of Texas.

South by Southwest is the biggest musical gathering in the world for alternate artists. And we have musicians that go down every year. They made an announcement that Canadian acts had decided not to go.

So those are people who are losing career opportunities in order to hold the line. So if they're not going to Texas, then no, I'm not going either.

David B. Wheeler: 00:27:31

Well, good for you. Again, Abbott doesn't deserve no good people at Canada and their money down there.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:27:36

Yeah.

David B. Wheeler: 00:27:37

So you, you decided not to run for real action, correct?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:27:42

Yes. Yes.

David B. Wheeler: 00:27:43

And how did you come to that conclusion? You just felt like it was time to move on or what was your thought process there?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:27:50

Well, my constituency is bigger than the United Kingdom and so I mean, I get into some of my communities in little float planes because there's no roads very far north and I love the people. But they decided in the latest. We don't have gerrymandering in Canada. We have something that is just so much more perfectly bureaucratic.

We outsource our gerrymandering to like a group of three academics who just draw lines on the map. And they decided that our rural population was somehow over represented in Parliament.

So they threw on an extra 20,000 square kilometers, about a dozen more communities, hundreds of miles of roads. About eight of those communities speak only French, which is okay. I get along pretty Cool in the French communities.

But I was like, I am not going to do all that on top of representing a region bigger than the United kingdom. So after 21 years, I thought it was time to step out. And then the Trump thing happened.

And I've been busier now than I've ever been in terms of my political work.

My, one of my assistants from the Hill came with me and we're, we're out all the time trying to organize, trying to work with people, trying to respond to people's needs in terms of resisting Trump. So I think it was fortuitous. I mean, 21 years to, to survive, 21 years in the House is not a lot of people get that far.

And my old man who did everything, terms of boxing metaphors would say to me, he said, no great heavyweight ever got beat by heavy. Another great heavyweight, he always got beat by a bum because he stayed in the ring too long.

And my dad used to say, don't ever stay too long in the ring. So 21 years seemed like the right time.

And it, it's given me now the freedom to, to take this fight against tyranny on full on and, and, and not have to worry that I'm offending someone in the leader's office.

David B. Wheeler: 00:29:40

Yeah, good for you. Good for you. That's a lot of travel to and from Ottawa, for goodness sakes.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:29:46

Yeah, well, I mean that where I live, we count, we count everything. Not by miles or kilometers, but by hours.

David B. Wheeler: 00:29:53

So, so what's next for you? You're on this tour, Resistance Tour throughout your country. What's next?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:30:02

Well, I mean, it's full on. So the Resistance Tour continues.

I have Charlie Angus, Resistance Substack, which has become pretty much a full time job of WR on everything from what Robert Kennedy Jr. Is doing to deconstructing disinformation. My band, Grievous Angels, are going back in the studio, we're doing some big shows.

I had always played music and I couldn't do that while I was in politics. So we're going back in the studio for our 10th album.

hich is really about the, the: 1930

I really wanted to focus on what it meant in a particular place and it's just, it's too prescient because we are in the time of monsters, as Gramsci says.

David B. Wheeler: 00:31:06

That's an apt description of Trump if I've ever heard one. So the tour, your musical career, and any chance that we could. We could get you to come to the States and do something down here?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:31:24

Well, you know, I've had a lot of requests to come down. I'm wary for two reasons. One is we've been telling people to keep the boycott strong.

So if the guy who's telling people to keep the boycott strong doesn't. That's a. You know, I. Concerned about that, but just very. We don't trust. I don't trust the border right now. My.

I was talking to some young university professors who told me that they're told if they go to do research, I mean, all these, you know, research programs, cross border, blah, blah, that they can't go without taking a burner phone because they're afraid of what will happen if they're searched. So you're having to bring a burner phone when you're a, you know, a humanities professor.

So I figure if they're worried, a loudmouth like me, man, I'm. I'd definitely be in for it. So. Yeah, I don't.

David B. Wheeler: 00:32:16

I don't think they have the balls to mess with guys like you, to be honest with you. I think it's the immigrants that don't speak very good English that maybe don't have the resources to fight them.

They're chasing, and they use them as a scapegoat.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:32:30

Yeah, Yeah.

David B. Wheeler: 00:32:31

I. I think the same thing for probably Mo and me, because, you know, we do have a public following, a public Persona. Most people don't like me.

They like Mo, but I think they would stick up for me. But I don't think that would mess with you if you came to this country. But let me toss it back to Mo for one more, and then.

Okay, for sure, we're going to close out.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:32:53

Yeah.

David B. Wheeler: 00:32:53

After that.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:32:54

Yeah. Oh, we've. We've covered all the light stuff. I wanted to ask a serious question, and you brought up your band, Grievous Angels.

But which is the better band, Rush or the Tragically Hip?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:33:07

Oh, well, I'm hoping this is really an American audience. I hate Rush. I always hated Rush. I hated him in high school. I was like the dissident. You know, people still get mad at me. Tragically Hip.

Okay, so if you don't know Tragically Hip, you know, when Gord Downey, the singer, was found to have brain cancer and I. I knew Gord not well, but we. We traveled in the same circles. And Gord Announced he was going to do one last tour across Canada.

And he did it to raise awareness of the indigenous children who had been stolen and taken away by the church and the government, to erase their identity. And that tour was such a profound moment.

Like, there was a guy dying, and the last thing he was going to do was to cross the country to tell us how we had to reconcile ourselves with our indigenous history. And so Gord and the tragically hip, anywhere you go, if you're at a.

If you're at a party out in somebody's backyard and someone starts singing the hip, everyone sings along. So. But for all those Rush fans out there, sorry I offended you, but I'm just being honest.

Now that I'm not in politics, I don't have to worry that the leader's office are going to say, did you really say that about Rush? No, that's. That. That's not a demographic we want to offend. But I just love that. I mean, again, he's a great guy. Getty. I know.

I don't know Getty, but I know a lot of people know him. He's a great guy. Alex Lifeson, Great guy. Neil Pert, who passed away. People loved him. I just didn't like the band.

Colonel Moe Davis: 00:34:38

Well, I'm a guitar player, and I always had a lot of respect for Alex Lifeson. Yeah, Just a remarkable guitar player.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:34:45

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, they were all incredible musicians. So.

David B. Wheeler: 00:34:52

Speaking of musicians, do you ever run across the guy named Barry Stagg?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:34:56

No, who's that?

David B. Wheeler: 00:34:57

He was from Nova Scotia. I think he sang quite a bit in the Toronto region back in the 60s and 70s, and he relocated down here. I'm a big fan of Nova Scotia.

Annette Versurin's a good friend, and I've been up to her part of the world many times, and. And I've had a. Had the chance to try some Glenn Breton whiskey. Have you had it?

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:35:28

Glenn Breton's very good. My. My mom's. They come out of Nova Scotia. They were coal miners that came out of Nova Scotia, so that's where I learned how to sing that.

All that traditional maritime Cape Breton music. Yeah. So.

David B. Wheeler: 00:35:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:35:41

So my mom. My mom likes that Glenn Breton. Yes, it's good.

David B. Wheeler: 00:35:45

All right. And what about bourbon? Are you a bourbon guy? Because Mo's a big bourbon guy.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:35:49

Well, you know, you can't buy bourbon in Canada anymore. We took it off the shelves.

David B. Wheeler: 00:35:53

Well, I was trying to slip that one in there.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:35:56

Yeah, but. But so once we took bourbon off the shelves, we said, well, what do we have? And then people started telling us about all these great stuff.

Okanagan bourbon, great. Apparently my son in law loves it. People are telling me, great, there's some great whiskeys coming out of Alberta.

And you know, maybe when this thing's all settled someday we'll be, we'll be sharing those drinks again. But right now, good luck trying to find it in Canada. And nobody would buy it if, if they could. So sorry about bourbon.

David B. Wheeler: 00:36:26

Yeah. All right. Well, Charlie, we really appreciate your time and, and joining our show today. And that's a wrap for this episode of munkh.

Huge thanks to Charlie Angus, our guest from Canada today bringing the heat and insight. Keep up with us on Blue sky at American muckrakers.

Visit americanmuckrakers.com to learn more about us and consider tossing a few bucks our way to fuel the muckraking mission. Charlie, give us your website one more time.

The Honorable Charlie Angus: 00:36:55

Charlie Angus, the resistance substack&charlieangus ca cool.

David B. Wheeler: 00:37:00

Until next time. Stay curious, keep digging and when you've had enough of maga, tell them Muck you.

Jimmy Muckraker: 00:37:09

This has been Muck you. Co hosted by Colonel Mo Davis in Asheville, North Carolina and David Wheeler in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.

Thanks to our guest today, the honorable Charlie Angus, former member of the Canadian Parliament.

merican Muckrakers. Copyright: 2025

You can learn more and donate at American Muckrakers.com follow us on Blue sky under American Muckrakers.com and on substack@AmericanMcKrakers.substack.com David and Mo hope you all come back soon for a new episode. And remember to never take from anyone, especially Trumpers.