The Ben Mulroney Show - A bad day for BC premier David Eby/Nicolas Maduro gets some interesting neighbours

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

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Welcome, then. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Ben Mulroney Show. It's the 7th of January 2026th. It's a Wednesday. It's a hump day and a lot of stuff is happening. We are learning that in this new time slot, this is that time of day where news breaks right as we are coming to air. And my producer, my trepid producer, Mike Droulet came down. He said, what are we going to do? There's so much news. I said, what have I missed? I went to go, I went to the shoppers, drug mark to go get a Coke zero. What did I miss? Well, we missed a lot. There was a woman that was killed in Minneapolis by ICE agents. The news coming out is spotty at best right now. The first person accounts suggest that a woman was in a car and for one reason or another, while they were trying to talk to her, she ran away or tried to run one of them over seemingly. I'm not trying to blame the victim of this this uh this shooting but we don't know yet we don't know she was there was some sort of altercation with ice agents i think she tried maybe tried to peel away perhaps she was afraid i don't know and then for yeah you can tell but there's a bunch of different angles

no i didn't see the video yet i only saw the aftermath so i haven't seen the video yet because literally we were sitting down as this happened yeah uh but but but there is a woman dead that's at the hands of ice and i don't believe she was armed i don't know i don't know if the ice believe their lives were in danger. And for those who would say they should have known better, I can't put myself in their shoes. For those who say you shouldn't have shot her, I do know that police officers,

if they feel their lives are in danger, they shoot to kill. Yeah, they shoot right in the center mass. But listen, we will find out. All we know for now is a woman has died at the hands of ice. And the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry is none too happy. But I do have a message for our community, for our city, and I have a message for ice.

To ice, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. Yeah, tensions are running very high in Minneapolis and all over that state, indeed, not just because of the ICE agents that are there, but because of this daycare fraud that's been going on, but that has either been uncovered or is a scam depending on who you believe. It does seem to be taking on a life of its own. So that state is under a lot of intense scrutiny and a lot of people very, very emotional. Now, where I land on this ice thing, I don't know until I get more information. And I hope you will do the same.

You know, I don't know yet. We'll have to see, I don't like at all that police are, you know, law enforcement. A shot a woman in her car. I don't like that at all. But I'm sure there are circumstances and details that will inform how we feel about this. And we will be sure to follow it as fairly as we possibly can. Now, the next story is another follow-up that needs a little less judicious care. I had an opinion on this yesterday.

I have an opinion on it today. New York City mayoral aide, Cia Weaver. We talked about her yesterday, where I brought. believe she said some insane things. She previously posted that home ownership is racist, right? It's a weapon of white supremacy, became emotional and refused to comment when confronted about the fact that her mother owns a $1.4 million home in Nashville.

Is she a Republican? Do you think so? A white woman in Nashville, maybe. No, I'm talking about the C.O.ie Weaver, she might have been growing up. She's a socialist now. I mean, this is. So your mom owns a $1.4 million home in Nashville. So maybe you grew up in a home just like that.

And it's a too. So it's the nonsense. This silly, this would be silly if this woman wasn't close to the mayor who can make these decisions. I mean, she said some pretty awful things. And let's go back into her past social media post. She talked about dismantling capitalism, seizing private property, rejecting the idea of good gentrifiers.

And keep in mind that the mayor is putting in this program where if you have a building of a certain size, I believe it's over four rooms, you have to put it up to... If you want to sell it, the city has a right of first refusal. But it's not just the city, it's any of these sort of these NGOs.

Non-governmental organizations, charities have a right to buy it at first. And then that delays it. They have like another 30 days and another 80s. days and it's like it's oh yeah on and on so she she said there's no such thing as good gentrifiers and look we've talked about before if you um if white people go into a neighborhood they're gentrifying it and that's a bad thing if they leave it's white flight so either either way like you're getting you're getting in both directions uh and despite all this stuff now she deleted all that because she knew that that was bad uh however zoran mom donnie doesn't care about

this sort of thing and he's standing by weaver she's an activist what have i said mike droulde about activists. That they should be running the world? They make terrible politicians. That was it. That was it. You're right. They make terrible politicians because they are incapable of seeing through anything but the keyhole of their interest, that one interest that they have. This woman sees things through one particular lens. You cannot be part of a government representing millions of people like New York City and be an activist. If you spent your entire life focusing on on one issue and one type of person and saying things like

capitalism needs to be destroyed. You have no business running a city that is the engine of the capitalist economy around the world. It is the capital of the world. But Zoran Mamdani was an activist too and he got elected. He's going to be a fine mayor.

I'm sure there's nobody that's going to want to leave New York City. No, of course not. No, no, no. Well, we didn't expect that off the top of the show. So now let's... I just want to say it one more. more time. Private property, including any kind of especially home ownership, is a weapon

of white supremacy. That's, if she were in 12th grade and put that in a paper, she would get a failing grade. First of all, the grammar alone is terrible. But it speaks, it speaks to a worldview that would find more purchase in Narnia or Middle Earth than here, because that has nothing to do with the reality of the world. Just like your boss said that we are going to replace the cold grasp of rugged individualism with a warm embrace of collectivism. In other words, we're going to take all your stuff and we're all going to share it. That's nonsense too.

And New York elected that nonsense. And can you see that clip being said by somebody from in politics here in Toronto or British Columbia? Yeah, well, exactly, because our... Possibly. Yes, because David Eby, the premier, is having quite a day. He gave a press conference announcing that he's on his way for a tour, a press, a tour, a trade junket to India. And he, so he's leaving on a trade mission for India on the 12th to 17th. Not a big, I don't think he's spending a lot, just a few people going.

And I do appreciate that he wants to keep that small. But as, you know, as someone who talks about human rights and as someone who talks about human rights and as someone who talks about, equality before the law. This is a government that has done a few things, especially on Canadian soil, that are no bueno when it comes to those things. And so to me, I find that a little interesting. But the more interesting thing and the more immediate thing

that affects so many of us is his stance and reversal on decriminalization of drugs. We are nearing the end of the three-year nightmare pilot project of that province going off. and decriminalizing every drug while doing nothing to help people get off of drugs. And here's what he said about the conclusion of that pilot project. Well, we're working closely with the federal government on this. But let me be clear, we are not going back to the old policy of decriminalized public drug use in British Columbia.

It didn't work. And we ended that. So we're in close conversations with the federal government. I look forward to having more to share soon about that. Find it really interesting that you would say something like that. Anytime anybody said that prior to you, Mr. Premier, they were demonized, villainized. They were right-wing reactionaries. They hate people.

They want to see drug addicts die, but you get to say it today. Why? Because you're the Premier? Okay, sure. But the most, the thing that we want to end on is the Premier's position on pipelines and tankers. If we're going to do public investment into our resources here in Canada, I think it might be time to pivot that discussion to a refinery. We still buy oil products from the United States. I don't understand why if we're talking about massive public investment

into supporting Albertans in this fragile global time. We can't talk about supporting all Canadians with oil and gas products that are made right here at home while we transition. And so I hope that that's where some of the conversation goes following the uncertainty that comes from Venezuela, but we'll see. All right, don't go anywhere. We're going to continue with this. and then we're going to take your calls next on the Ben Mulroney show.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulrini show. Thank you so much for sticking with us. And before the break, we were talking about a few nuggets that came out of BC Premier David Eby's press conference right before he goes to India on a trade mission. And one of the biggest things that he said is the three-year attempt to see what decriminalization of drugs would look like has been a failure. And we're not going to go back to that. And I think left-right center should all be happy with that because they didn't do what they needed to do in order to make it successful.

So back to square one. But this was their idea, right? This came from that side of the aisle. And what has been the impact of these ideologically driven drug policies? Because don't forget for years as people like that. like me were saying, hey, you didn't do it right and people are dying and the whole thing is pear-shaped. People like me were called, shame on you, you hate marginalized people and you want people to die. But now all of a sudden David Eby gets to say it, and it's all

good. London drugs, which is just a staple of the West Coast, is closing its store in Vancouver's downtown east side on February 1st, citing ongoing safety concerns, violence against staff, low customer traffic and more than $10 million in losses over 15 years. That's what those drug policies get businesses like that. That's one business in one location. Imagine how many other businesses have closed their doors, but we don't know about it because they're not called London drugs. Okay.

This has been a sustained downward trend. Think about how much money's been lost, how much economic development and economic activity has been lost. Okay, so that's one thing. So we have to look to other places to spur the economy. I don't know. Resource development. But David E.B. says, no, there's no business case for a pipeline.

We don't need a second one. The one that we already have isn't being used. I've got my reasons to think that that's dubious. He did say one thing that I liked. How about a refinery? I do think we should be refining our own bitumen. But I think we can do both. It's not either or.

Canada is a big place and we need lots of money. So either or is as small-minded as far as I'm concerned. but we want to hear from you. Give us a call at 1-8-2-25 talk, especially if you're in Alberta. We'd love to know what you have to think. You're the guys with what you've got what we need under the ground, and we need to ship it to people off the West Coast.

But if the guy on the West Coast said Canada is closed, how do you feel about that? We'd love to hear from you, 1-8-2-25 talk. Yes, we're live in Calgary. We're live in Edmonton, so we'd love to hear from you. Let's go to Ted. Ted, welcome to the show. oh thanks for the topic ben i'm i'm a huge proponent of canada being self-sustainable and and we should

start with the refinery i'm not a big fan of ebby but i this idea i think it's just sure like you mentioned it's a huge positive i mean we still are importing oil in eastern canada from the middle east we shouldn't be doing no we should i agree with you but i i would replace or with and that's right we didn't even have that I mean we should have I don't know what the location of the refinery could be there hasn't been a new one built

but we can build state of the art world class yeah and there's so many byproducts that comes from it why do we want other countries to take part in this value added yeah well Ted we do the same thing but we do the same thing with lumber we take the lumber we cut down the trees we send the lumber across

the border the table gets built and we buy the table back with the wood that we sent them That's right. We've got to get out of that mentality out of taking stuff out of the ground and let somebody else finish and manufacture and we buy it back. I love it. Amen, Ted. Thank you very much, Ted.

I appreciate it. He's absolutely right. You know, I keep saying, I remember when I used to be on planes, if I would ask the person at the window, if I'm on the aisle, and I ask the person on the window to close their blind, if they say no, then I make it really hard for them to get up to go to the bathroom. Because if they believe they, own that window, then I own the aisle.

It's as simple as that. And nobody wins that way. And right now, David E.B. acts as if he owns the aisle or he owns the window, right? And guess what? If you do that, then somebody else gets to say they own the other side of that equation. And there's no way to run a country. And with all due respect to David Eby,

he got 45% of the vote. So he does have a mandate from British Columbia. You do not have a mandate to dictate this sort of thing to the rest of the country. And so I dispute that very, very much. Hey, Greg, welcome to the show. Hello.

Hello. How are you? Yeah, good. How are you doing? I'm great, though. What do you think of all this? Well, I'll just speak about the refinery. I think it's been on the plates of the minds of many people in Alberta for a long, long time at high levels and, you know,

and, you know, what are we doing? You know, we get diluent. We put it into the bitumen and then we ship it away and then we buy it back. It's like, well, that does this doesn't. make any sense. I agree. I agree. So, yeah, like, we should have had a refinery 20 years ago. I agree.

Now, if you need, like, you probably know more about three or four of them, right? Yeah, oh, I think so. Greg, you know more about this to me. If, if we were to build one right now, where should we be built? I would build it near the oil sands, like Fort Sask, you know, someone in there. Yeah. You know, where we don't have to ship the Ditchman, because the moment you start shipping it too far, then, you know, then you can ship the ditchment back to the,

you know, the Dillet back to the full sense, right? So, anyway, it doesn't make any sense to me. No, of course not. It's, it's, it's, again, it's Canada not finishing, like, not taking the train to the, to the end of the road, right? We go halfway there and we let somebody else, we let somebody else finish, uh, finish and get the reward. Yeah, I mean, what, what we don't have fundamentally, and I've worked in the Middle East and other places, is the, we don't have a 20-year plan. Like, no.

What is our 20-year plan? And whether you get industry involved in that, you know, in order, you know, get the private sector involved, because private sector will have a lot of, a lot of input into that 20-year plan or 30-year plan. I love it. You look at anyone in China or any of these guys, they got 50-year plan, 100-year plans. We have a five-year plan. Greg, I got to leave it there. Thank you so much for calling us.

Call any time. who do we have we got clarence a clarence is calling from uh the heart of the oil patch clarence welcome welcome i'm calling from niskew alberta proud alberton i don't think the premier of bc stands a chance this pipeline has to go through with what's happened in venezuela and i i kind of find it humorous that he was the one that was set dead against kind of kinder morgan and the LNG, and was going to destroy the province and everything else. But guess where he was at the grand opening of the LNG plant? Where?

He was standing on the podium saying this is the best thing that's ever happened to British Columbia. I'm proud to be a supporter of it. I can't wait now for the second phase. He's even come up with that. Like, give me a break, guy. Start thinking about what's required for Canada and not in the best interest of B.C. and the NDP party.

Hey, thank you, my friend. Call back and have a great Wednesday. We appreciate it. No, he's absolutely right. This is nonsense. And this is not how you build a country. Now, back to what we heard before about not having a plan.

We, more or less as a country, from the time my dad was elected to the time Justin Trudeau got elected, more or less every successive government, left and right, blue and red, got the big things right. They all did, they didn't change too much. They didn't change too much.

So they rode in the same direction. And then Justin Trudeau came and broke from all of that. And now we have to start from scratch in a lot of ways. We've got another call from Alberta. Welcome, Ben. Hey, thanks for taking my call, Ben. Absolutely. Welcome.

Hey, my main point, Ben, is that if we are still talking about this eight years from now, we have failed as a nation. Oh, yeah. I agree. I agree. You know, like, I mean, it's even written on the walls now, like with this Venezuela thing, they're saying, oh, yeah, if Venezuela and oil comes on screen, it's going to take 10 years.

Well, you know what? Our starting line is today, and we've got 10 years to get to the finish line. And in eight years, if we haven't even got a struggle in the ground, we may as well just pack it in. Ben, we're living in a world where this last election,

so many people call it a change election. We elected the same team. I've never seen anything like it in my life. People call it a change election, and the only thing that changed was the guy on top and maybe a few other key people. That's it. and so when that's the level of sort of national delusion

in a lot of ways that we're dealing with, you know, we're going to get some changes. We're getting some changes in tone and a few changes in policy, but we're not getting, we're not going to get their dramatic change we need to pivot this country in the way that it needs to happen, in my humble opinion. I know that our prime minister...

All we're going to wind up being banned are like basically baristas and skip edition driver. Hey, thank you very much for the call. I appreciate it. All right. Listen, take care. We've got to take a break, but coming up on BMS, I've been to a lot of exclusive parties. But there is one club that is so exclusive, I'd have to break the law to join it. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show.

Thank you so much for taking some time. and helping us build this show together. I showed up at the office today. And my producer, I could tell if he's got something in mind and he's got this grin on his face. He's like, I'm going to say something that's so smart. And he says, so the Diddy Bowl happened last night. And, of course, it elicits the question, what's the Diddy Bowl?

He's like, well, Edmonton beat Nashville 6-2 last night. And I said, well, why is that the Diddy Bowl? He says, because it was the Predators versus the Oilers. I don't play poker. That was funny. That was funny, but it got us thinking about all the luminaries, if you will, of the criminal underworld that are in this Brooklyn detention center right now and have been there as well because there are a number that have been there. This is where Nicholas Maduro is. Yeah, this is where Nicholas Maduro is.

And we're like, who else is there? A lot of people are there. Like a lot of people are there. So there's this guy. We're starting low. We're starting low with Takashi 6-9. If you are If you're an Affisciano of Hip Hop Then you know that this guy's music is garbage Okay

Simple as that Garbage It's this like new New I don't know what you I don't know what the expression is It's just garbage hip hop But he's made a lot of money

And he's got a lot of fans And he He turned himself in yesterday To serve a 90 day sentence And correct me I'm wrong He's excited about this You are very correct

Because it's a weird, it's weird. Let's listen to this guy. Yo, guys, remember when I told you that I was arrested? I was in prison with Diddy, the president of Honduras, and Sam Beck Freeman, I believe, the FTX guy. And you guys thought I was lying. Did I remember that? And then it came out to President Honduras.

Like, yo, he's such a cool guy. I put Diddy on the phone with academics. Now I'm about to go meet the president of Venezuela. I have that luck with just being locked up with presidents. Oh,

and I'm about to meet Luigi too. I guess Luigi Man Gioni. About to play chess with them to eat ramen noodles.

Making Chi Chi Chi Chi-Gis I'm not sure what that last thing is. The guy talks tough but he went to one of the things about him is he's a snitch, right?

That guy's a snitch. He cooperated with the federal prosecutors against the gang used to protect him. Yeah. And then I think, I think that's why he's comfortable being in jail because they maybe can't get to him there because I don't think they're very happy with him.

So that's one guy there, right? Takashi. He's, he's only there for 90 days. Yeah, he's, he's there for just a, just a, he's just past, he's a passer. He broke the terms of his supervised release for whatever he was charged with before. Yeah, probably the thing that we were just talking about. Okay, so Nicholas Maduro is there as well. And he's awaiting his U.S. trial on drug and narco-terrorism charges. Luigi Mangione is there.

He was the guy that shot. He shot the United Health Care CEO in cold blood. And he's got so many fans because he's good looking. Like it's absurd. It's absurd. Think about this. Well, Amy, when we mentioned it, Angie, oh, the good-looking guy? Yeah.

Well, that's what he's not. Yeah. But it's insane that people like it. He's a murderer, allegedly. He's a murderer. Allegedly. And, okay, so those are guys there that are awaiting trial. But then you also have people who have been convicted and serving prison time.

For example, there's this guy. I want a cookie. Would you recognize who that, based on the voice, would you be able to tell who that was? Yeah, it's, I mean, it's ignition, baby. Okay, I wouldn't have been able to tell. Yeah, that's R. Kelly. That's R. Kelly serving 30 years. No, he was there, right?

and now he's serving a 30-year federal sentence at Federal Correctional Institution Buttoner Medium 1 in North Carolina. There's that. And then there's this guy. Are you going off to agree with me? You've got to go to sleep for a week. Yeah.

That's Diddy. Yeah, that's a clip works. Yeah, but my favorite thing about Diddy is 50 Cent. Like 50 Cent did that documentary about him. Designed it in such a way as to ensure that when he gets out of prison there's nothing he can do to rehabilitate his image.

That's how much he hates Diddy. That's how much he hates him. He wants him to never be able to come out to a hero's welcome. He wants everybody to see him as he believes he is. And no matter what happens, he's not coming out to a new liquor brand. He's not coming out to a TV show.

He's not coming out to starting bad boy records or getting it back. None of that stuff. 50 Cent has decided this guy will be, he'll be walking the world, but he'll be dead. If R. Kelly and Diddy were in the same cell together, their cellmates, which one would be more nervous about the other? Yeah.

I think they'd both talk tough. I think they'd both talk tough. Oh, like, the fact that Diddy, the fact that 50 Cent, essentially credibly accused Diddy of killing both Tupac and Biggie. Like, he's got to have the East Coast. and the West Coast coming after him. Like, that's it. He's going to have to live in the middle of the country,

and they're just going to meet there and have at it with him. Here's some previously held people at this place, but they're no longer there. El Chapo. El Chapo, is there one of the biggest drug dealers in the Royal? Gulen Maxwell was there, but now she's at federal prison camp. She's the Epstein confidant.

And then not currently incarcerated, but related, the high-profile convictions. They were there. Martin Screlli. See if you can, yeah, this is him. On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and respectfully declined to answer your question. He said that over and over again.

He was the guy with a smirk on his face that made you want to punch him more than anybody's ever wanted to punch me and lots of people want to punch me. He was the guy who increased the price of his HIV drug from $13.50, $13.50 per. pill to $750 per pill. And I know we don't like to do math. What kind of an increase is that? Five thousand percent. Wow. Yeah, five thousand percent. Your math is getting good. Yeah, it's

and he also, he also bought a Wu-Tang Clan album. Yeah, I think for like the three million bucks or something. And then, and then never release. He didn't want anyone else to hear it. And he had that smirk, man. It was that smirk that just said, please, I'm a he looked like a villain. He looked

like a Batman villain. Yeah, but he's the Batman villain where you go through all the henchmen, and then you're like, oh, he can't defend himself. No, of course not. And then, and lastly on this list, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Al Sharpton, not currently incarcerated. Obviously, he's on MSNBC. Past legal issues included brief time in that place, public figure free today.

I don't know what it was. What were his issues? Probably taxes, I'm guessing. Maybe taxes. Or, you know, he might have been there because he was protesting something and he got arrested. A lot of protests in his past. There's a lot of protesting. But the thing is, is that it's, like, you listen to that guy, Takashi 6'9, 6 and 7?

No, don't do that. We don't do that here. We don't. I'm sorry. But it's become sort of cool to go to this place now. No. It's almost like. Takashi 69, who's real name, maybe we should call him that.

What is his real name? His name is something, Hernandez, I think. Like, yeah, he, he, he. Daniel Hernandez. Daniel Hernandez. That guy is the least cool guy And look at me I wear blue on blue

Or black on black every day I'm not cool I know Like not cool Recognize is not cool Takashi 69 is not cool He worked really hard to be cool And that's how you know

He's not cool So when he says stuff like this It's because he's got nothing else man He's got nothing else He's got so he's going for notoriety He's going for notoriety But Yeah the mangionis of the world

He's deluded Nicholas Maduro is diluted. A lot of people who support these people are diluted as well. I mean, I was watching some videos of people saying they would rather have Nicholas Maduro running America than Donald Trump. Yeah, I know. I saw that. Okay, come on. This is like, okay, he ran the country into the ground and you want him running this place.

He killed people. He trampled on their rights and you're a social justice warrior. I just can't with some people. I just can't. Okay. On the other side of this break, our good friend Craig Baird joins us for our weekly Canadian history lesson. So here's the question. What do Madonna, Angelina Jolie, and hockey player Boomboufriand have in common?

Let me say again. Madonna, Angelina Jolie, and Boom, Boom, Jepriion. What do they have in common? Craig knows he'll tell us next. Thank you so much for taking a little bit of your day and enjoying it with us. You may be listening on the IHeart radio app. You may be listening across the chorus radio network. You may be listening as a podcast or on social media or even on YouTube.

Wherever you find us, we say thank you. We want you to join us in any and all ways. And that's why we are where you are. I promised you before the break that our next guest, has an answer to the question, what do Madonna, Angelina Jolie, and Boom, Boom, Jeffreon, have in common. So please welcome to the show,

the professor of Canadian history, Craig Baird, the host of Canadian History X. Craig, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for being here. Oh, thanks for having me. So what's the answer to the question? What do they all have in common? They are all descendants of the King's daughters.

Les Filles du Rois. All right, tell everybody what that's all about. Yeah, so they came from 1663 to 1673, 800 French women immigrated to New France. And this was because when New France was founded, it was populated mostly by men. So it was a severe gender imbalance. Oh, yeah.

That's a good point. You know, one of the people always wondered, why is there such a big population disparity between Canada and the United States? And one of the biggest differences was originally Canada or, you know, British North America, the northern part, was viewed as it was a resource colony.

and they were actually so they weren't necessarily trying to populate they were just trying to extract resources but in the south in the south where the what eventually became the United States they were actually trying to populate and build it up yeah that's absolutely true

and so they wanted to be able to kind of build this colony to make it viable for you know the long term to be able to extract those resources so they've sponsored this passage of 500 women which eventually was increased to a thousand and this was approved by King Louis the 14th which is where we get the term

the king's daughters. And so over the course of those 10 years, about 800 women, 737 or so, came to New France and most actually did marry. Some would marry within a few months. So others would take a few years. They really had their pick because there was such a gender imbalance. They could choose between at least a dozen guys

and choose the best one that would fit, who they wouldn't want to be married to. But Craig, what kind of women decided this was the life they wanted? It's a big risk to leave everything, you know, in France, get on a boat, some may not have survived, to go to a place, the wildest of all wild places back then, to maybe find love. Yeah, this was a huge gamble for a lot of them because they knew that if they went to New France, that's it, that's where they were going to live.

It's not like you could just go back to France, but they didn't have very many options in France, and they felt that this was the best option for them. So they would have to get a reference from a parish priest, and they were typically aged between their late teens and mid-20s. And there were claims that a lot of them were prostitutes, but this has been discounted. They were women who were looking to find a new life, find, you know, start a family and get away from France

where life was very difficult. And a lot were probably searching for adventure. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's exciting. That's interesting. Has ever ever been a movie about this or a mini series? Because it's, again, it sounds like real fodder for pop culture. Yeah, there's so many things that can be turned.

into a movie in Canadian history. And this would be a really good one. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there's not really any well-known movies beyond documentaries. And a few books have been written about it, both fiction and non-fiction. James Cameron should do it, right?

James Cameron could do it justice. All right, talk to me about this week's episode of Canadian History X. Well, this week I'm talking about Wilfred Grenfell. So he was born in England in 1865, and he came to Newfoundland with the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fisherment. And over the next 40 years,

he set up hospitals, social services, and just really help the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador, especially in coastal communities where they had no resources whatsoever. And in 1908, he had a really amazing bit of survival. He was on his way to help a child in medical emergency when he and his dog sled became stranded on an ice flow. He lost most of his supplies. So he was actually unfortunately forced to kill three of the dogs to make a fur coat to survive and then use their legs to construct a flagpole so people would be able to see him from shore. and it worked. He actually survived and turned the experience into a best-selling book. In the 1927, he was knighted, and his work really helped improve the lives of countless people

in these fishing communities along the coast. He passed away in 1940, and then Grenfell campus, which is a campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland, is made for him. So he's stuck on this ice flow with his dogs. How many dogs, do you kill all the dogs or of the three, there were others? Yeah, there was just the, there was three, and then I believe there was about six others that he had. So he had to sacrifice those three dogs for the rest of them to survive, unfortunately. And so the other dogs survived?

They did. Yeah, absolutely. They must have been worried that they were going to be next. Yeah. But no, but they definitely would have been a odd thing for them to see. What a terrible decision that he would have had to make. It must have been heartbreaking for him to have to do that to one dog, two dogs,

three dogs. Oh, my goodness. But the rest of them survived. That's wonderful. Now, when you talk about, his work helped improve the lives of people in these fishing communities. Talk to me about that work. Well, what happened was he was originally through, you know, the program that I talked about

the Royal National Mission of Deep Sea Fishmen, but eventually set up the International Grenfell Association. So they would provide health and social services, boarding schools, hospitals. They would provide scholarships for, you know, medical training and things like that. And he helped a lot of people. One was a young, in a girl who had lost both their legs. and he was able to get her artificial limbs and she actually became a nurse and worked for the association helping other people.

So he really kind of paid it forward and really lifted a lot of people up. And they adored him for it. All right, well, let's listen to a clip of this week's episode of Wilford Grenfell. For two days, Wilfred drifted on the ice with his remaining dogs. Shivering in the cold with no food or water,

he was becoming delirious. Then, when all seemed loss, A man who knew nothing of Wilfred's mission or the sick boy decided to go out with his telescope and look at the ice-covered horizon of Hare Bay. As he peered through, he saw something. At first he thought it was an illusion, but then he realized what he was seeing

and was shocked by the sight of a lone man, wrapped in animal skin, huddled around five dogs. Next to them was the leg flagpole as blood stained the ice crimson. But that's not the event. most unbelievable part. He was the only man on the entire coast who owned a telescope. As soon as the man saw Wilfred, he alerted others who started to dig out a boat from the snow. Venturing out into the ice-filled waters was dangerous, but for Wilfred, they would have gone

through hell to save him. And the man piloting that boat was none other than the grandfather of the boy Wilfred was coming to help. When they reached Wilfred, he was near death. They quickly forced tea down his throat and took him and the dogs back to shore. And Wilfred Grenfell never forgot the sacrifice of those three dogs. At their graves, he installed a plaque that said, Who gave their lives for me. Aw, that's so sad. Oh, but you know what?

This man feels quite evolved, right? That he knew the appreciation of the sacrifice of those animals that helped him and helped save the other dogs as well. Absolutely. He never wanted to forget that. And in fact, that they did save his life. Yeah. And later in life, as you said, he did all this great work. What did he die of in 1940? He died of, I believe, just natural causes.

He was getting on age. He was 75. He was dealing with a lot of health problems, arthritis, and things like that, having lapses in memory. So his wife had died about two years earlier, so that definitely played into it. Well, to think he could have died 32 years earlier. the world was gifted 32 more years of this incredible man. When they found him, I know that we said that he was weak and he was near death and they forced him to drink some tea. Was he suffering from frostbite or anything like that as well?

No, not frostbite or anything like that, just severe malnutrition, the fact he was heavily dehydrated, somewhat delirious. But, you know, overall actually came out of it pretty well, like didn't lose any toes or anything like that. Exactly, exactly. Thank you very much for joining us. Another great story, another great week with our great friend Craig Baird from Canadian HistoryX, and people can find the show where?

You can find it on all podcast platforms, and that's EHX, and you can listen to it on the Chorus Radio Network every weekend. Be well, my friend. Everybody, I have an announcement. Your favorite family in law. It's Lawyering 101. It's back. This is going to be fun. Controversial cases.

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