What they said. What they meant.

“I will take any compliment I can get. My job is to disagree with you. I want to talk about the budget instead. I want voters to think about the budget and debt, not election results. I want to threaten you with the next election. I want to look like I am fighting for voters. I want to stop your spending. That's my job.”

“I don't like the Liberal's new fund. It's not a real sovereign wealth fund. Real sovereign wealth funds need wealth. Canada doesn't have wealth. Canada has a lot of debt. The Liberals are spending too much. The Liberals want taxpayers to pay for their new fund. The fund will be managed by Liberal insiders. Brookfield Asset Management pitched this fund idea. The Liberal Prime Minister used to chair Brookfield. This fund will benefit Liberal insiders at taxpayer expense. Canadians are struggling. This fund won't help them. It will only help Liberal insiders. Growth doesn't come from the government. Growth comes from free markets. I want the government to get out of the way and let Canadians build wealth.”

“Countries like Norway that have these funds don't have other problems we have. Maybe you should stop reading your economics textbook. Go talk to real people and see their real problems.”

“The Liberal fund isn't like other countries' funds at all. Other funds invest globally to get the best returns. This one will just benefit projects tied to Liberal insiders. It was pitched by Brookfield, the firm the Liberal Prime Minister chaired in 2024. I'm saying it's corrupt, just like past Liberal corruption.”

“I'm filling time by talking about my former staff member's engagement. But let's get back to the topic. Alberta already has a sovereign wealth fund called the heritage fund. It was created when Alberta was making a lot of money from oil and now it's worth $32 billion. I want my colleague to say something about that.”

“The Liberals want to create a new bureaucracy to control money. I don't trust them. They've created 13 new agencies this year! They say it will be professionally managed, but I think they'll just use it to help their friends. We should be attracting investment, not adding more debt for taxpayers to pay off later. A sovereign wealth fund needs actual wealth, but the Liberals have only made more debt.”

“I don't like that accusation. I want to correct the record. I think you should hear me out before jumping to conclusions.”

“The Liberals make up false talking points because they killed Energy East and other pipelines with regulations. I helped build four pipelines under Harper. We'd be much better off with Energy East and the other pipelines Liberals blocked.”

“The government's investment schemes always fail. They can't spend your money better than you can. The Prime Minister is a failure and full of corruption. His bad ideas caused inflation everywhere. He will ruin the whole country.”

“I want you to justify your accusation. I demand specifics.”

“This government spending announcement is not what it seems. It's fake. The government is borrowing at 3.5% or 4% and betting that a Crown corporation run by political appointees will outperform that cost. It's leveraged speculation with taxpayer collateral. This isn't a sovereign wealth fund, it's a debt fund. The fund's mandate is politically directed - it's not a real investment fund. Major projects aren't getting built in Canada because of regulatory burdens, not lack of capital. The government should cut taxes, eliminate red tape and trade barriers, fast-track approvals, and scrap bad laws preventing development. None of that requires borrowing $25 billion. This fund will spend borrowed money, pick winners and losers, and distort the market. The government should get out of the way and let private capital and business work.”

“You want to spend spend spend. You're not really explaining how a sovereign wealth fund works. If Canada actually made money we'd have the kind of fund you're talking about. We don't. So you want taxpayers to bankroll the businesses you think are nice. Your spending chases away business and makes everything cost more.”

“The government's new bureaucracy will meddle in the market. It takes money from taxpayers to push unwanted projects. That's not how a free market works. That won't build Canada's future.”

“The Prime Minister thinks he's wise to put money in a savings account. But that won't be enough to retire on. He's wrong.”

“The Liberals are just as bad at math as I am. They think they're saving money, but they're really not. Canadians don't need the government to save money for them. The government just needs to spend less so Canadians can afford their own groceries.”

“I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later. A long time ago, things were better. The Liberals are doing everything wrong. Canada is worse than other countries. The Prime Minister's plan won't work. Liberals just want more control. Conservatives will fight for low taxes and less government.”

“Stop attacking our motives. We all care about Canada here. I'm asking you to explain how this fund would work. You should answer those questions.”

“Canada used to have a rich middle class but now we have the lowest private sector investment in the OECD. That's because of our taxes and regulation. We opened a Major Projects Office to help with this. In less than a year, other countries expanded LNG capacity. But we haven't started building anything yet.”

“I want to thank Dan for advocating for energy development and affordability. The Major Projects Office is just another example of the government making big promises but not delivering. In 2015, for the first time in Canadian history, capital started flowing from Canada into the U.S. instead of the other way around. The Major Projects Office hasn't designated a single project in the national interest. Most of the projects it's announcing have already been built or gone through regulators. The Liberals are not delivering on their promises to cut red tape and interprovincial trade barriers.”

“I don't like how the government spends money. They make things expensive. We should make them tell us what they are doing. They want too much control. They aren't helping anyone.”