The Ben Mulroney Show - A contrast in how two Western Premiers are reacting to Mark Carney's victory

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Guests and Topics: -A contrast in how two Western Premiers are reacting to Mark Carney's victory -Looking back at Expo 67 and the Halifax Riot with Guest: Craig Baird, Host of Canadian History Ehx If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From early morning workouts that need a boost, to late night drives that need vibes, a good playlist can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard to help you earn the most PC optimum points everywhere you shop. With the best playlists, you never miss a good song. With this card, you never miss out on getting the most points on everyday purchases. The PC Insider's World's Elite Mastercard. The card for living unlimited.

Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit PCFinancial.ca for details. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of your Wednesday with us. Post-election, new Liberal government coming into effect. It will be a minority parliament for the Liberals, a fourth consecutive government for the liberals, a fourth consecutive government for the liberals, third consecutive minority. And I think that you can be of two minds

when a new government comes in, especially a government that you didn't necessarily vote for. You can, well, I think we've got two examples of it here. You've got, and not to say one is wrong or one is right, but you've got two examples of how to approach this new government if you are a provincial leader. On one hand, you've got the leader of Saskatchewan, Scott Moe, who is taking a decidedly conciliatory tone. You'll remember Scott Moe openly endorsed Pierre Poliev and his vision for government that did not come to pass. And here he is the day after the election saying this. You had very strong support in some parts of Canada. There are many Canadians, including most of us

in Saskatchewan, who voted for a degree of change. And now it's up to you to show that you have heard that message and to deliver change not only for Saskatchewan people, but for many Canadians as well. For Saskatchewan industries that help drive the Canadian economy and very much are part of the Canadian economy to provide some degree of change for Saskatchewan people. Last night, what I heard was that the Prime Minister Carney had said that he wants to work

with both Saskatchewan and Alberta. He's also said that he wants to make Canada into a global leading energy superpower. And that's great to hear. But those are nothing but words. And I would say, and I've said it many times, that policies truly do matter. Trust but verify, that's what it sounds like from Scott Moe, willing to work with the government productively,

taking them at their word, that they're gonna do what they say and say what they do. And so that's one take. Yesterday on this very show, I spoke with Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, and I asked her, has the government in Ottawa, is there a red line that they could cross from which they could not come back? Especially is it related to possibly taking steps

that could further alienate Westerners and lead to a rise in a separatist movement that could become a problem for the country? And she said, I'm not concerned about them crossing a red line because they've already crossed that line. I'm asking them to walk back. So she and her government have put forth legislation that could make it easier for publicly triggered referenda

in that province. And a reporter asked Danielle Smith about the door being open to Alberta separating. This was her response. I believe in Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada. However, there is a citizen initiated referenda process that if citizens want to put a question on a ballot and get enough of their fellow citizens to sign that petition, then those questions will be put forward. Again, I don't want to prejudge what a question might be, but not by our government. And given the context of the conversations that she's had with me and more generally

with the press, this is, it feels to me like Danielle Smith is putting this government on notice. There is no time to be wasted here. She has said what she needs, she expects it, and if she doesn't get it, then I don't know that there will be a positive relationship between the Alberta government and the federal liberals anytime soon. So really a tale of two outlooks and we don't history will judge which one is the appropriate one.

But for now, it's going to be an interesting case study to see those two provinces, at least in the short term, take different tactics in terms of their relationships with this new government in Ottawa. One person who talks to the press all the time, and I mean all the time, is Donald Trump. You can hate every word that comes out of his mouth, but you do need to appreciate his willingness to say the things publicly.

Because there is a record that can be held. Not that he's unwilling to ever say, I never said that when there's record of him saying it. But yesterday, ABC News posted an interview between ABC News' Terry Moran and Donald Trump from inside the Oval Office. And boy were they sparring about everything. Earlier in the show, we aired a clip of them sparring over Canadian anger

and Canadian tourism plummeting in the United States. This was even more fiery as far as I'm concerned. The two of them sparring over Putin's desire, supposed apparent alleged desire for peace. He's willing to stop the fighting. Don't forget, this is a- desire, supposed apparent alleged desire, for peace. He's willing to stop the fighting. Don't forget. You think he wants peace?

You think Vladimir Putin wants peace? I think he does, yes. I think he does. I think because— Even with the raining missiles on. I think he really, his dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he's not gonna do that. Do you trust him?

I think- Do you trust him? I don't trust you. I don't trust a lot of people. I don't trust you. Look at you, you're coming all shooting for bear. You're so happy to do the interview. I am happy. And then you start hitting me with fake questions. You start telling me that a guy whose hand is covered with a tattoo doesn't have the tattoo. I mean, you're being dishonest.

No, I'm not. Let me just- No no i'm not let me just i don't trust a lot of people but i do think this i think that he let's say he respects me yeah uh i don't know what to do with that you know i i often ask myself what would i do if i ever had the opportunity to sit down with donald trump and make no mistake, that is a stretch goal of mine. I would love to be able to sit with the president and see if we could get somewhere. But that was a pretty, those are some pretty fair questions as far as I'm concerned and he couldn't get an answer.

And the second I think Donald Trump felt himself being cornered was when he reverted to his stock and trade of insulting the interviewer, demeaning the person, vilifying the person, and trying to undermine their credibility, even though there's nothing about the questions that you can discredit. They are fair, good faith questions. So that would be, it would without a doubt be the most challenging interview that I was ever able to secure. But I promise you, if I secure it, I'll be shouting it from the mountaintops, the mountaintops being this chair and this microphone letting you know that that interview was a go. So that's the take of one journalist on Putin and how

he views Donald Trump. Here is the opinion of senior senator John Kennedy on his take on Vladimir Putin and whether or not he respects the American president. Here's what I see. Putin has reneged on every promise that he has made to President Trump. His latest proposal is, well, nothing. He wants to keep all the territory that he's taken. He wants to prohibit Ukraine from joining NATO, and he wants America and Europe to stop

helping Ukraine. I think that Putin thinks that America has taken the bullet train to chump town. I think he thinks we're afraid of him. He has jacked around President Trump at every turn. He has disrespected our president. I don't think it's going to get any better until we make it clear to Mr. Putin that we are willing to turn him and his country into fish food. And here's the problem for Donald Trump. When you spend years criticizing the administration,

i.e. Joe Biden's administration, for allowing this war to ever happen, this would have never happened on my watch. Never would have happened. Putin did not invade when Donald Trump was in power, only invaded after he left. And when I come into power, I'm gonna solve this. I'm gonna bring peace to the area in a heartbeat.

It's gonna happen yesterday. When you start making those promises and you're 100 days in, and it doesn't look like things are improving, your credibility, sir, is in question. And I know, I think that Vladimir Putin is simply, it's death by a thousand cuts, string you along, string you along, string you along, then rain fire,

then string you along, then string you along, until next thing you know, you find yourself looking ineffective in the, I'm gonna bring peace to the region agenda. We don't have a lot of time left, so we're going to skip the O'Leary thing. Instead, we're going to go to Trump being Trump in, he loves sowing chaos and he loves being the center of attention. And it really is all about him. And when you put all of those things together, you get, you get him when he's asked about whether

or not he should be, who should be the next pope. As pope? I'd like to be pope. That would be my number one choice. No, I don't know. I have no preference. I must say we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who's very good. So we'll see what happens. I mean, it's, listen, it's funny, but it does. It speaks to how he sees himself. Anyway, that that concludes today's roundabout on Donald Trump. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for joining us. And this is I mean, this is I say it every week, I sound like a broken record, but I don't care. I love this segment, because I love learning something new every, every week. And I love learning something new every

every week and I love learning something new every week about this country. And today we are joined by, as always, we're joined by Craig Baird, the host of Canadian History X. Now the elections are done. We're turning our attention to, I don't know, let's say cultural moments in Canadian history. And we're going to talk in just a moment about Expo 67, the World's Fair in Montreal. But before we say that, I just want to let you know how much I love the history of World's Fairs. I remember one of my favorite books of all time is Devil in the White City.

That was the story of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, where they built this entire white city. And there was a killer loose in Chicago that was just killing people, taking people off trains. He created a murder house and he killed all these people. It's one of the most grotesque stories you've ever heard. But I learned all these stories about the architect who built that white city, Burnham.

He was responsible for building, I think, Central Park as well. Anyway, the ambitions of Chicago were in reaction to the success of the Paris World Fair just a few short years earlier where they built the Eiffel Tower. So then I read this book called Eiffel's Tower and it is bananas how incredible that story is too.

Anyway, all that to say, there is so much history that is told through the lens of a world's fair. So I'm so happy that we're talking about Expo 67 today. Craig, welcome to the show. Craig Smith Thanks for having me. Jared Svelter Have you read either one of those books? Craig Smith I haven't, but I know about the serial killer H.H. Holmes or something like that. Jared Svelter Yeah, H.H. Holmes. Craig Smith His name. Jared Svelter Well, and the thing was the reason he was able to work with such impunity is there

were no records. In Chicago, there were hundreds of thousands of people that were coming in every month off of trains. There was no records. They were just showing up. And if somebody disappeared, it was just par for the course. So he built this house that was, I think, a boarding house. It was supposed to be a boarding house.

But there were all of these trap doors and hidden rooms where someone could show up. They'd go into a room and they would never come out. They would never come out and nobody ever, they didn't know what was going on with that guy. And anyway, Eiffel's Tower is a tremendous story about what it took to build. Today, it's one of the most beautiful things in the world.

Back then, the people were afraid that it would literally fall on neighborhoods. And so Eiffel himself had to indemnify the entire neighborhoods. He had to ensure entire neighborhoods personally that this thing would not fall over. Greg, you there? Yeah, I am.

Oh, okay, sorry. But anyway, so let's move on now to Expo 67. Yeah, so Expo 67, thankfully no serial killers that I know of at least, but we actually weren't supposed to host that World's Fair. Moscow was. They actually wanted in 1960, and then they pulled out. So in 1962, Canada decided to host the World's Fair. It was going to be in 1967. It was our centennial year. It just, everything was lining up. And I don't think people realize what a massive event this was for Canada. This was kind of like our first really showcasing to the world. This was before we ever hosted the Olympics or obviously Expo 86 or anything like that.

So this was a very big deal and it was a massive undertaking. It took years to like build an entire island in the St. Lawrence River so people could access it from Montreal. And so much work went into this and it really paid off. It was, you know, the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century and really helped showcase Canada, but also Montreal and Quebec to the rest of the world. Yeah, and people don't appreciate it because I don't think they, it's so easy to travel, it's so easy to see things today. It's so easy to appreciate other cultures by way of, you know, the internet in a way that we couldn't back then.

And so really a World's Fair allowed people to travel to one place and appreciate the diversity of the world in one single event. Absolutely. And so many famous world leaders and others came to the World's Fair or to Expo 67. Ed Sullivan hosted two shows there. Queen Elizabeth was there. President Lyndon Johnson was there. Charles de Gaulle was there, and that was a whole thing afterwards, but we don't need to get into what happened with that. And then musicians played there like Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and just a massive event.

54 million people went to Expo 67. And at the time, Canada had a population of 20 million. So it just shows how many people came to this amazing event that happened from April to October in Montreal in 1967. And in 1967, so much of the modern Montreal that we know today was spurred, the development was spurred because of this one event. Absolutely. And some parts of it still exist. Obviously the most famous is probably Habitat 67, which is now apartment buildings,

but that was made for the World's Fair. And so many other aspects to it. You wouldn't have had the Olympics in Montreal without this World's Fair. And obviously you had the, yeah, and you had the Montreal Expos as well. I mean, they were named for the Expo 67. So such a long legacy of this amazing event.

And they expected 200,000 people to show up on opening day, but 300,000 to 350,000 arrived. I mean, this was incredible. And of course, you need to, yeah, you had to build roads and you had to build infrastructure to host the world. And so, yes, Montreal experienced a massive boom. And yeah, it was really showcasing the city to the world. And so, yes, Montreal experienced a massive boom. Mm-hmm. And, yeah, it was really showcasing the city to the world.

All right, well, let's take a look. Let's move to something a little bit different, and not as a proud moment, but the Halifax Riot of 1945. Yeah, the Halifax Riot of 1945 was a very interesting time, because it was a riot in one way, but it was also just a massive party that got completely out of hand because the Second World War had ended and you had all of these servicemen and women and citizens who just wanted to release all of the stress of the previous six years. And they did that in the

streets of Halifax by just partying their heads off. 9,000 soldiers went into the streets. Eventually that swells to 12,000 and they lay waste to the downtown core of Halifax. Really? So yeah, 363 people arrested, hundreds of businesses damaged. Why don't we listen to a snippet of your episode of Canadian History X featuring the Halifax riot. A young man, Donald Douglas, wrote a letter home after the riot stating, The three liquor commissions were broken into in the entire contents released to the use of the people. Every store on Barrington Street, the main street, was almost demolished. There wasn't a window left and the contents were either looted or thrown into the street. There were shoes, boots, Chesterfield clothes, cash registers, pots, pans, and nearly everything you could imagine on the street.

One liquor store was broken into, so the security guard called police, and when they arrived, the mob threw bricks and stones at them. The police retreated, and the liquor store was liberated of every drop of beer, wine, and hard liquor. Some intrepid members of the mob deduced that if they could rob a liquor store, they could also pillage the source. A portion of the crowd went to the Alexander Keith Brewery, then overpowered the guards, and a steady stream of people carrying boxes of beer out of the brewery began. Within a short time, the brewery was empty. Craig, I mean talk to me about how an event like that morphs, because it started with

the best of intentions. At what point did authorities in the city know that they had something on their hands they didn't anticipate? Well, they really did respond to it quite late. And what happened was on the ships, you had your canteens and they had alcohol and the soldiers, the center of the semen, eventually drank all of that very quickly and started to go into Halifax. And because they had been serving their country, a lot of people didn't really want to stop them because they felt like they had earned the right to party a little bit. Unfortunately, it gets out of hand. And like I said in the clip, you know,

61,000 liters of liquor, 8,000 cases of beer, 1500 cases of wine are stolen, only three people died, two by alcohol poisoning, which is, you know, obviously that's way too much. And then one possible murder and it was $5 million in damages after they were said and done. Do you $5 million in 1945 dollars? What did you have any sense of how much that is today? You think that's about $30 million today? 30 million do entirely to damage from I mean, listen, I like to talk on this show about how Canada has a an unhealthy relationship, a dysfunctional relationship with alcohol, but people who want to put the rain in alcohol consumption should

point to this, should point to this event as one of the reasons we can't just let people drink willy-nilly. But as, did they, in just a few short seconds, can you let me know, like, were there lessons that were learned by Halifax after the fact? Well, not really. Once it was said and done, we kind of just all moved on. There were some people who were arrested and there were obviously some, some retromans

that happened, but overall we kind of just moved on. We just let everybody celebrate the end of the war. Craig Baird, host of Canadian History X. Thank you so much. As always, I love nerding out on history with you and we'll talk to you next week. Absolutely. And your Sundays? Well, Home Network is giving you the chance to love your home with $15,000. There can only be one winner. Tune in to Renovation Resort every Sunday and look for the code word during the show.

Then enter at homenetwork.ca slash watch and win for your chance to win big. Amazing! The small details are the difference between winning and losing. Watch and win with Renovation Resort on Home Network.