I Interviewed The Prime Minister of Canada on Housing and the Economy

Wow, driving around in that McLaren really opened some doors for you!

Not really sure who this Trudeau guy is, but he must be important if he's made it on to The Plain Bagel.

Help, the random financial YouTuber I watch has a better interview with my prime minister than any news station

Incredible. I remember back when Justin was just the son of a well known politician. But now he's being interviewed by one of the most respected finance channels on youtube.

I can't believe the PM got to meet such a nice bagel. He's so lucky

Such a privilege for Mr Trudeau to be able to associate himself with such a high class quality economics producer.

Thoughts on the interview... He completely dodged the first question about how to define the middle class. His ideas about increasing the supply of homes seems at least plausibly good ideas, though the mention of AI felt like throwing it in for the sake of the buzzword. He seemed to sort of dance around the question asking how you make housing more affordable without damaging the economy of real estate investment. He answered that they're trying to balance this, but that's impossible. If you bring the price of houses down, the people who bought them as an investment will lose value, and if they see the supply continuing to increase, then they'll know that housing will continue to lose value, further damaging real estate investments. Now maybe the answer is that they shouldn't worry about real estate investments, and that's a valid stance to take, but that's not the one he took in the interview. His answer to the productivity question pointed to a lot of good data points about Canada, which, while giving credit to the Canadian economy, doesn't really talk about the question of productivity. Though his thoughts about leveraging Canada's good financial position to help the country is interesting. It makes sense to a point. But it can also be taken too far, leading to squandering their good financial position. His idea that childcare is not only a social program but also an economic program is a good one. It's a cost, but sometimes, it takes spending money to make money. If spending taxpayer money on childcare lets parents stay in the workforce, that generates economic growth, leading to more taxes being collected to offset that expense. Similar with the spending to attract the foreign investments. It could be seen as cooperate welfare, but if that spending leads to good jobs for the area, that can be a win-win situation. Whatever deals there are would need to be structured in such a way to ensure it actually works out well for Canada and the people, not just good for the business. Pointing to YouTube videos as a place to understand these complicated topics was not what I expected, but it makes a lot of sense. I don't trust the mainstream media to give me an understanding of the complicated topics. But I learn a lot about these complicated issues from Plain Bagel and other YouTube channels. Granted, some of them are also all about outrage, but there are good ones out there. Disclaimer: I am not Canadian nor do I know anything about Canadian politics. But it was still very interesting to hear Trudeau's thoughts here.

I would be interested in you doing a retrospective on your interview, and comment on where you agreed, or disagreed with the PM's answers. where you would have pressed further, and what follow up questions do you wish you would have asked.

Say what you will about Trudeau, but this is a massive win for Bagel and financial YouTube

The fact that you've been so objective, apolitical and respectable, is what gave you this opportunity

“How do you define the middle class?” .. “well, it’s how Canadians see themselves..” Okay dude 🙄

My jaw dropped when i saw this notification. Congrats on this opportunity, Richard!

Question Time Stamps: 00:00 - Favourite bagel type 02:18 - Defining Middle Class 03:08 - Housing Crisis 06:14 - Challenges for implementing the housing plan 07:34 - How do you make properties more available 09:13 - Changes to tax structure 11:19 - Balancing capital gains changes 12:22 - How does Canada compete for capital 16:29 - Role of government managing markets 19:18 - Balancing oil and gas with new tech 21:12 - Financial literacy

Oh wow, regardless how you feel about Trudeau, it's a big win for Mr. Bagel

Finally, Trudeau being interview by someone who truly knows about finance.

Bro really mentioned "AI" as something that might relieve the housing crisis 💀💀💀

you mentioned at the end there were a few points that you didn't agree with or would have wished to press further on. I was thinking that might be a worthwhile follow up video to highlight a few of these and go in more depth on what he's talking about and maybe why you disagree or what you would have liked to hear more about from him.

As a non-Canadian, you are the only person that would make me listen to this man that I have no political interest in.

As an american, the most incredible part of this interview was listening to a politician who can string together more than 2 sentences in a coherent manner.

I like how Richard is dressed like any of us would in such a setting while the PM has got his sleeves rolled up and collar loosened in a relaxed air.