The Ben Mulroney Show - A flag-waving apology from Toronto and football (the real game) allegiances

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

GUEST:   Joe Warmington / Toronto Sun GUEST:   REGAN WATTS  Founder Fratton Park Inc. If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠��⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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unlimited travel across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10, and a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for $5. Buy yours at go-transit.com slash tickets. the final show of the week. It's Friday, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Ben Mulroney. This is the Ben Mulroney show, and it is the 5th of December 2025. It's been a long one. It's been a good one. It's been a lot of fun, and thank you so much for joining us every step of the way. It's a big day today. Today is World Cup Draw Day. FIFA is announcing who's going to be in the World Cup, and more importantly, what games are going to, what matches, rather, are going to be in Toronto, as well as Vancouver,

because we are hosting some first round matches here in the city of Toronto. Before I continue with this, let's welcome to the show. Oh, we got Joy in today. Joy, welcome. Good morning. How are you? I'm good. It's always a pleasure to see you. Oh, it's an amazing day today. I know. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm glad you're going to help us decipher this because I don't understand this draw.

See the odds of me coming on the day when the FIFA draw is coming up? I mean, that is some insane thing. Nobody loves sport more than joy. Love soccer, I guess. Yeah, he loves soccer. He loves the Olympics. Yeah, I need you for the Olympics this year, my friend. Hey, let's welcome Mike Drolle, our intrepid producer, to the conversation.

Still at home, still fighting Ebola and monkey pox. How are you today, sir? Well, at least it's just Ebola and monkey pox today. Yeah, yeah, you've got big germ energy. Well, we know that. So how are you feeling? Still under the weather, hoping to be 100% by Monday. All right.

Or at least 80. Just rest up and make your way back here because I miss you. I miss your big giant head. Well, let's talk about this. Yeah, big, big day by noon. At noon, that's when the draw is happening. That's when we're going to find out. But let's cast our regard back to 1993.

The last time the World Cup found itself in North America. And Robin Williams was the star of the World Cup draw. Let's listen. Ladies and gentlemen, we are at the end of the draw, but it's very important. We are happy to have you. Robin, that's wonderful, or shall I say, Mrs. Doubtfire? Oh, thank you, Mr. Blida. Funny, I met you just in the men's room, a minute.

Here we go. Can we go? Are we ready? I'm ready, but not yet. Okay. When I put my... Oh, all right. Take one out.

If you'll turn your head to the side and a cough. Well, listen, I have been trying to make sense of what you wrote in the document here, Mike, about the draw itself. It's confusing. It doesn't make any sense to me. Canada, as co-host, is placed in pot one. In a trial draw, Canada was paired with South Korea. Pot two, all teams rank higher than Canada. Pot three, all teams except Norway are ranked below Canada.

Pot four, Canada cannot face blah, blah, blah. It makes no sense to me. Before you, Reagan Watts will be here. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to anybody. You need an advanced mathematics degree to be able to figure it out. All you need to know is they have a bunch of pots, which are basically goldfish jars, and they put the names in there. And it seems to work for them, I guess.

But yeah, who can, it's European. Very European. Very European. Listen, I'll just wait to hear what the results are. I'm not going to follow it moment by moment because I'm just going to get lost. Sort of like, I have a feeling it's going to make as much sense to me as cricket. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or just like, or darts.

I mean, just throwing darts on the wall. Well, all right. So that's coming up a little bit later. But in the meantime, let's go back to October 20th, 2025. Game 7 of the American League Championship series, George Springer, hit the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning that eventually helped the Jays beat Seattle 4-3, sending the Blue Jays to. the World Series. One very lucky gentleman caught that ball, Michael Angeletti. And when everyone saw

that he caught it, we're like, oh, my God, he just caught a pile of money. That's what we all thought, right? Let's listen to Michael Angeletti talking about the knock-on effect of catching that ball. The ball received multiple lucrative and interesting offers from anywhere to to memberships at golf clubs, to cold hard cash, to vehicle bus wrapping offers for my tour company that you had mentioned so favorably in your intro. The cash got as high as 85 grand. The cash got as low as 40 grand. So nothing lower than 40.

By that way, that was on with Greg Brady. When was that today? Was that today? Mike? I've lost Mike. Yes, sorry, that was this morning. All right. Yeah, so as low as 40 and as high as 85 grand,

plus all that extra stuff that people were offering them. They were offering them the sun and the moon and the sky and everything in between. Yeah. Golf club membership. That's like, that could be hundreds of thousands. Well, or it could be if it's a goat track. It could be, you know, case of beer.

But it's, I mean, it's interesting for sure, all the things. And as high as 85,000. thousand dollars and you go you have that in the hand and you go yeah no he's like no you know what i feel like this is a lottery ticket i feel like i've got a winning lotto ticket so he turned them all down he turned them all down and i guess because because he sees what happens with like the yankees whenever they get a home it's like 300 000 bucks yeah million bucks whatever it is for these these mementos yeah right yeah so he figured he wanted to get in on that and he thought he had the like a, he, he was going to be able to ride this to, I'm guessing, over 100 grand.

I think that's what he thought. And nothing wrong with that. Good for him. Good for him. But he signed up with Golden Auctions, right? And let's listen to Michael again about what Golden Auctions offered him. And they were willing to roll out the red carpet, fly me to New York, put me on the block in the studio, tell the story again, featured on the Netflix series. with a ceiling of anywhere between $300,000 and $400,000.

Okay. So that's, that was the arena they thought they were playing in, right? So Mike, how many bids so far on this ball? Just one. One single bid, it seems. Single bid for the ball thus far. For the minimum. For how much?

It's the minimum bid and the minimum bid is 10K. So the bid is sitting at 10K and it doesn't look like there's a big bidding war pushing the value of this thing up. I tell you, man, like, if you know that you were staring down the barrel at 85K and you're looking to get $10,000 for it, I mean, are there people, are there people thinking that this bid isn't even real? Yeah. It might be just him bidding. You know, it could be just, they could be just putting that in there as like, okay, we've started it off. Yeah. Because it's, yeah, at least you have one person in there.

It doesn't necessarily mean it's real. It doesn't mean it's fake either, but, I mean, it's been up for days now and one bit. I got to wonder, you know, we talk about it all the time with Craig Baird from Canadian History X. We're not good at creating our own myths. We're not good at selling ourselves to ourselves. We're not good at telling our own stories to ourselves. And, and like, there are some great Canadian stories that have even been. been pilfered by Americans and turned into American stories because they just know how to do

it. And there's something about sort of that American way of life and how they see themselves that everything is a story. Like the story of the world is the story of America and we are all just bit players in that story. That's how I believe how a lot of them see themselves. We don't see it that way. I wonder if it would have been different if the Jay's had won the world Series. They came two outs away from winning it. They're two outs away. Yeah. And then they ended up losing in dramatic fashion. It was heartbreaking. And all of the gear, all of those, the T-shirts that were that

showed Blue Jays World Series, they're all on like in Africa now because that's where they sent them all. Yeah. I mean, look, that, that, but whether they win or they don't, the World Series, it doesn't change what George Springer did in that moment. That moment is exactly the same. And it has nothing to do with what came after it. So I don't think it would have changed anything. But who knows? Oh, hey, listen, today, big day, because we got, is it BS or is it real? Did I win last week? No, you did not. No, you did not. I didn't win two weeks ago? No. I'm pretty sure I did. I'm pretty sure I did. We're going to have to go back. Go back. You got to go back and look. I'm 99. I don't know. I think the files were

corrupted. Oh, there we go. I know I won. I know I won. So we're going to see if you can, if you can, I don't know, get on the board finally. But you lost, you lost, you lost. You lost last week. I wasn't here last week. It doesn't matter, though. Because you lost, Alex Pearson was sitting in for you. You're an awful loser and an even worse winner. You do know that. I don't make up the rules. Yes, you do.

It's your game. All right. Okay. Up next. Up next, Joe Warmington from the Sun joins us to talk about a flag and an apology. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulrooney show. at capital one we're more than just a credit card company we're people just like you who believe in the power of yes yes to new opportunities yes to second chances yes to a fresh start that's why we've helped over four million canadians get access to a credit card because at capital one we say yes so you don't have to hear another no what will you do with your yes get the yes you've been waiting for at capital one dot ca Yes. Terms and conditions apply. Get to know yourself and your roots better with Ancestry DNA.

Want to know where your family comes from in northern France? Maybe you'd like to see how your genes influence certain traits like diet, fitness, and allergies. There's so much of you and your heritage to discover. Visit Ancestry.ca and get started with an Ancestry DNA kit today. Welcome back to the Ben, Mulroney show. I guess it was a couple of weeks ago at the inaugural flag raising of the Palestinian flag at City Hall to honor the fact that Canada had recognized the Palestinian state. A gentleman was sort of a subplot of that entire day. A gentleman showed up with a loudspeaker to play

Oh Canada. And somebody, one of the security guards, came and just turned off his loudspeaker. Just cut off of Canada. And on this very show, I expressed my confusion and more than a little bit of, it wasn't outrage, but it was annoyance, a very high level of annoyance. Well, it turns out this gentleman has had a few brushes with security at Nathan's Phillips Square. His name is Scott Humans. And Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun has been chronicling who he is, what the flag, what the anthem mean to him.

and how City Hall has gotten it wrong and then right and then wrong. So let's welcome Joe Warmington to the conversation. Joe, thanks so much for joining us. Yeah, it's really good to be with you, Ben. You're right. It was a little shocking there when they, it was actually a police officer who shut down the boombox of the old Canada in right in Nathan Phillips Square. It was about 45 or 50 minutes before the flag raising,

so it wasn't even interrupting it. Thanks for that context. I didn't know that. Yeah, but even if it was interrupting it, it's a square. And Lord knows that there's, you know, all kinds of people with addictions and different things to interrupt a lot of things. And there's nothing you can do about it. It's life in a big city. When it comes to a patriot like Scott, you know, I just want to say he's 58 years old and he was a forklift driver and a truck driver. He's got some, you know, disability, he's on a disability pension for, you know, some health issues.

that are very serious for him. And yet, you know, he's the only person lately, I guess, along with the, you know, like the rebel and different things where you get the police surrounding you all the time. You can be, you know, anti-Semitic and it's okay, for the most part and the other things. But this guy, they love to, you know, to surround. I want them to stop it. I really do. I think it's just leave him alone.

He's not doing anything wrong. Like the anthem and bringing the flag. So I, when I brought this up, him playing the anthem and the police coming to turn it off, somebody pointed out to me and you can tell me whether this person was right or not, but somebody said that it's against the rules to play anything on a speaker in Nathan Phillips Square. Is that true? Well, there's some bylaw that says that, but they're very selective on how they enforce it. You're not allowed to take heroin there either or defecate, you know.

You know, but we see that happening. Can't shoot people there, but they do that. But, you know, in the case of, you know, that, I talked about that in one of the columns I wrote about it, there was an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish kind of presentation on a video that was displayed on the wall. Oh, that's during Newie Blanche, right? And let's not forget, at Newie Blanche, there was all sorts of art that was draped over City Hall, some of the most anti-Western, anti-colonial, anti-white, anti-blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, stuff. And I guess we paid that person to be there.

But, yeah, anyway, continue. Well, it's just a double standard. I mean, they let some stuff go. They go after the people that are easy. I mean, you know, you can take down a 58-year-old and beat them up and feel good about your job. Or you can say, you know what, you're a good Canadian, and you just stand here and you you do what you want to do. And, you know, I'm so proud of you because you're holding the flag and you're playing the

national anthem. But that's what they should do. That's what they would do if it was somebody that hated Israel. They would say, you know, you've got all the rights in the world. You do what you want. Yeah. So do it for this guy. The latest thing was that he went on the Friday, last Friday, week ago, and he had his Canadian flag

and the security. This is all in Toronto Sun.com, if anybody wants to see the videos of it. And they came out and they told him that it was against the bylaw to have a Canadian flag there. Well, okay, wait, wait, hold us. So start again. So he was at Nathan Phillips Square this time with a, with a Canadian flag. He was. And that was a week ago right now.

And they came out and told him, how long are you going to be here? I was still not their business. And there was staff and security, no police this time. Please have been much better, by the way, since I think they realized that they went too far on that. and they're not going to be told by City Hall security anymore to do that. But they were really giving them a hard time about it. He stuck up for himself. And we found out, and credit to Mayor Chow and the team at City Hall,

they've admitted that they were wrong on that, and they've corrected it, and I have a call on that today, so that if you want to bring a Canadian flag, how about this, Ben? How would your dad feel about this? Bring a Canadian flag in the single Canada in front of City Hall. Turns out you can do that. Well, I mean, what I don't get, there's the application of the rules. Whatever the rules are, I'm down to respect whatever the rules are.

But so long as they're applied fairly, so you've got this one guy who has a boom box and wants to play, Oh, Canada, he's told he can't do that. Meanwhile, you've got, you've got hordes of intimidators walking through residential areas where Jews live with bullhorns, screaming vile things at them while they're out with their kids. So on one hand, you got a speaker. On the other hand, you got bullhorns. And it's a complete, it's two sets of rules. No, it's so true. And, you know, I think that's the easy way to approach it. I think, though, that when it comes to the Canadian flag and the Canadian anthem,

you can play it all day long anywhere you want, like on public property, public sidewalk, or the town square. The other stuff is just hate. I mean, it is. I mean, I look at it. I try to be really reasonable. And I know you do, too. You know, we're free speech people.

But, but like when you're talking about, you know, lies about Jewish people or Israel, and we just turn around, we're afraid. I'm not afraid. You're not afraid. Nope. And say, wait a minute. Now, you know, and of course, they're very silent, the same crowd that do this about, and I brought it up in one of my columns about the slaughter not only on October 7th,

but just when the ceasefire kicked in, Hamas went and murdered all kinds of people and the firing squads right on the streets. and no one says a bloody thing about that. You know, that's why I don't like Hamas being in charge here in Toronto. They shouldn't be. I give Toronto Police and Chief Dempchew and the whole team credit for the other night at the Monk debates. I don't know if you were doing. I was there.

I was there. Because they did push back, you know, and they handled that particularly well. In the case of Scott, you know, he got the guy we were talking about originally, he got caught in the middle of it, and he sort of apologized for losing his temper there. You know, he said a couple of things like left F-bombs or whatever. And I understand. I understand why he's feeling like that way. But like the police have a very difficult job.

I've talked to, you know, dozens of them about it. But I do think that at the end of the day, we have to stick up for what is right. And what is right is a patriot, playing the anthem, you know, holding the flag, these kinds of things. In terms of the pro-Israel, if you'll notice that, the only. sort of that public demonstration that I have seen was on Sundays at Bathurst and Shepard, and that was for the hostages, primarily. That was the reason to be there. People visit them, come up into the neighborhoods. We've all seen that. They've swastikas and many other things. But you don't see anybody doing only the walk for Israel or the one-year anniversary to commemorate it.

So anybody who says that it's equal? No. On one hand, you've got people. who show their faces and on the other side you've got people who don't on one side you've got people who wave the canadian flag on the other side you've got people who burn it on one side you've got people who champion democracy and human rights and on the other side you've got people who are calling for death and destruction and a holocaust i and i'm painting with a very broad brush but that that that is that's what i see and that's what's happening and that's why we call it out and they're not going to normalize it just because they're bullies or just because they're tough or they have power and whatever they're

They can beat you up or all the things that they say, but who cares? Yeah. The reality of it is that, you know, Hamas is the evil terrorist bad guy. They did that on October 7th. And anybody that supports it, you know, they can do that if they want to, but they're not going to intimidate people like us. Well, Joe, we got our Scott Eumans, who is a patriot and he lives and breathes by the Maple Leaf. And I'm glad that you highlighted him in your column so that hopefully people will think twice

before asking him to shut down his outward expressions of patriotism. I do appreciate it, and thank you very much for highlighting this guy. We all do our little part, and thank you for inviting me here today. All the best. Take care, my friend. All right. Up next, FIFA World Cup Mania is here. What should you expect from the World Cup draw?

We got the answers next. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show at about noon today. We're going to start figuring out who is going to be in the World Cup as well as what the matches are going to be, the matchups are going to be, and which matches will be taking place in Toronto and in Vancouver. Very, very big deal. I've been trying to make sense of how this actually works. And I was reading what my producer, Mike Droulet put into my document. And it is gobbledygook to me.

I have no pot one, pot, two, pot, pot, three, pot, pot, I don't understand any of it. Fortunately, our next guest knows a little bit more about this than I, and he's going to be our little, our Sherpa, as we navigate this draw. So please welcome to the show. Somebody you will recognize as our political pundit, but today he knows more about soccer. Regan Watts, founder of Fratton Park. And he was named checked by Canada's head coach for helping a British soccer star

under the cover of darkness, defect, and join team Canada. At least that's how I remember it. Welcome, my friend. Bonjour, much. Okay, so I, are. Are you going to be watching this thing live? I don't know if I'll be watching it live on television, but I will have my ex-platform open,

and I will be following it, at least on social media. I depends on how the day it goes, but I will be certainly paying attention. Okay, so a lot of us don't understand how it works, right? So as best as you can, talk to me like I'm a five-year-old. Well, Ben, here's the thing. I always talk to you like you're a five-year-old, so today's no different.

So the way the draw works is this. FIFA has points or rankings for national teams based on their performances, whether that's in the World Cup or in other international competitions or international friendly matches that they play. There are rankings that FIFA calculates. And you started the call then by talking about the various pools that countries are put in. in the pools, there's pool A, pool B, pool B, full C, etc. Those pools are based on two things. One, FIFA rankings, or two, if you're a host country. And so there's three hosts, Canada and the United States and Mexico, who are hosting,

along with the other top-ranked countries, they are in pool A. And then pool B is the next rung of countries and who have qualified it. It goes on the way down the list. And so the idea being the best countries will avoid, generally speaking, playing against each other in the in the in a group matches although there's always and those who are soccer fans uh football fans I should say uh who are listening to this there's also uh almost every tournament what is known as a group of death that is a country who's very good but somehow struggled in the qualification ends up in a pool that is

lower down the tier and so you get you know sometimes two big countries uh playing against each other uh in a group uh in a group round uh in a major tournament like that okay so let me ask a question is if the best teams are in this first pool that we're in with the United States and Mexico and Canada's ranked 27th, what, out of 48? Yes. Okay, so we're middle of the pack. Middle of the pack

but still, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, we've got a pretty strong team relative to the teams that we've put on the field, on the pitch rather, in historically. Well, Canada is in with the big boys

of world soccer, you know, Argentina, the holders, England, France, Brazil, etc. That's pot one. They are, though, in that pot, then, not so much for performances, but because we're the close country. So does that mean we're going to be playing one of these top teams in the first round? No. No, I know what happens is teams are drawn from, like, Pot One will have a draw, and let's

say Canada is the first name out of the draw, Canada's in Group A. And then the next name out of Pot two, I believe how it works is they'll go, they'll be pulling all of the teams out of each pot and they'll go in across the group. Oh, I see. We will, you know, for Canadian soccer fans, you know, it is highly unlikely we are going to face one of the big boys in the first round. I got you. We could get tricky and, you know, like a Uruguay or a Colombia or a coasia who

are in pot too, that they could end up in our group, which would be a tricky game. But, you know, as you go in further into the pots, I mean, the countries that have made the World Cup for the first time, like Uzbekistan or Curacao or Cabo Verde, you know, or Jordan, we could get lucky and draw one of those teams in our group. Look, I fully expect, and Jesse Marsh, who's our head coach, who's an outstanding coach and has been great for Canada. I fully expect Canada to perform very well in the World Cup and to get through to the second round.

And, you know, we should avoid the big boys in the group matches. It'll come, it'll be up to the second round and third rounds to determine just how good we've come or how good we've played and how far we've come as a nation to see we can get through to the knockout rounds and how far we can progress. So in your humble estimation, what would be the best matchup for Canada to ensure that we win that first match?

Oh, well, that's a big question. Look, I think if Canada played somebody like Australia, which would have been a rematch from earlier this year where actually Australia beat Canada in Montreal 1-0. We had some players out who were injured. Australia would be a good first

match for us or Iran. I think we can get by either of those teams, Ecuador as well, who were in pot two, they're likely, you know, that pot two is the likely first match for Canada. So, you know, Ecuador, Australia, Iran would be a good way to start. It would be a tricky match if we had Croatia or Uruguay or Switzerland or Colombia or Morocco in the first game. But, you know, the good news is it will be playing at home and Canadian soccer fans are, if nothing else, passionate. And Bimo Field will be rocking when we get going at the start of the World Cup. Well, you know, I'm glad you brought Bimo Field into it because there's, you

are a lot of people out there who are so excited that the World Cup is coming to Canada, coming to Toronto, coming to their hometown, and yet the tickets are out of their price range entirely. And so do you think that's soured anyone? I don't know if it has because you're going to have people watching in Little Italy just like they did during the last World Cup. You know, you're going to have little communities all over the city enjoying these matches together on the big screen. Yeah, what do you make of it? Well, look, there's a couple of things to note, Ben, and I should give a shout to my father who's been, I think, to eight,

seven or eight World Cups around the world. And for those who felt or were frustrated that they didn't get chosen for tickets, my dad, who's been to that many World Cups also did not get an opportunity to buy tickets. It should be clear for Canadians that it's not the Canadian Soccer Association or Soccer Canada

who set prices for these things. It's FIFA. And so, you know, FIFA has done its own evaluation in terms of what they think the market will bear. And the prices are what they are. You know, it's a, it's the largest sporting event in the world than more people watch the World Cup than watch the Olympics. I think you're right about the, so that's the first point.

The second point is I think you're right, people will be tuning into the various cultural communities, not just in Toronto, but across the country to watch. You know, and soccer, it's going to be noted. You know, soccer has come a very long way in this country. For those who are listening right now, you know, there used to be something known as Soccer Saturday, which was a show on TSN hosted by the late Graham Leggett. You know, that was for a long time, the only soccer first. footage we could watch, and it was a week delay then.

And so, you know, we watched last week the highlights of the previous week's games. So to go from, you know, Graham Leggett and Soccery Saturday and TSN, you know, when I started watching soccer in the 80s and 90s to where we are today, which is hosting a major international tournament, you know, the Canadian Soccer Association and the leadership of Kevin Blue, who's the president and general general director, director general, deserves enormous credit for how far the game has come. Regan, I want to ask you, I want to see if I can get in at least one more question. Do you think that this tournament happening in Canada, in Toronto and Vancouver,

do you think it's going to be a soccer equivalent of the Vince Carter effect, where it'll supercharge an already excited fan base and more kids are going to be attracted to the game because of this? Well, look, soccer is already the most popular game for families in Canada, and more kids play soccer than are playing hockey, in part because of the cost to playing ice hockey is equipment and registration, all that stuff. I hope it has the Carter effect. I think we're already there.

We've got Canadian stars like Alfonso Davies and of course our newest star, Alfie Jones, by way of Bristol and England. You know, we've got faces that kids are going to look up to. Don't forget, Canada qualified for the Qatar World Cup and actually performed very, very well and we're unlucky not to get through. So my hope is that is indeed the case. Canada has some outstanding athletes across a variety of sports,

and soccer fever will grip the country. You know, it's just a question for Canada, if we can perform well, what does that mean for legacy? And the legacy behind this World Cup, I hope, is infrastructure and enthusiasm for infrastructure in terms of fields and facilities and enthusiasm from families and kids who find new stars and heroes to look up to, and there's plenty in our team for kids to wrap their arms around. and to continue to grow the game because it is the world's game.

And Canada is a cultural melting pot of folks from all over the world who loves the game and we should do better. And that is going to thank you so much for being here. I believe it or not, I actually do understand a little bit better what's going to be happening a little later today. So I want to thank you very much, Regan. You have a great day. Megwitch. All right, we're going to open up the phone lines. Are you going to be waving the Canadian flag or are you going to wave that and the flag of the team you've always supported?

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Shop 3-1 megablocks at Walmart for ages 3-plus. Are you listening to the Ben Mulroney show, and before the break, Regan Watts was here to help us understand a little bit more about the World Cup draw that's going to be happening at around noon today. That's going to allow us to have a better idea as to who we will be welcoming here in the city of Toronto. which national teams will be joining us here in the city to hit the pitch at Bimo Field. And the question I have for you at 4168-8-6400 or 1-8-2-25 talk, 4168-8-6400 or 1-3-8-2-25 talk is, who are you going to be rooting for? We're all Canadian, so we should all, I mean, on some level, be rooting for Team Canada.

However, I know this city well enough to know that in little Italy, the Italian team is cheered for quite a bit. In Little Portugal, you got Portugal. In Jamaica, you got Jamaica. And on and on and on. This is the most multicultural city on the planet. And so I could absolutely see dual loyalties. I could absolutely see people pulling for two different teams equally.

But then what happens if those two teams meet? All right? That's the question. And I also want to know, are you going to be going to the matches? Are you going to be watching on TV? Do you have viewing parties, I want to hear how you're going to be enjoying the World Cup here in Toronto. 416-8-60-600 or 1-8-2-25 talk.

Gord, welcome to the show. And very glad to be on your show. I love your work. Thank you very much. Anyway, I'm not going to watch a minute of it because I'm not a soccer fan, but I think that a lot of these people that are cheering for their home team should be cheering for their now home team because this is where they're making their bacon. Oh, listen, I agree, but you got, listen, you cheer for the team that your dad was cheered for, right?

That's why you've got, like my brother, for example, is every single one of his kids is a massive Montreal Canadiens fan, even though they all live in Toronto, because you cheer for the team that your dad cheered for. And if you grew up cheering for Italy, or if you grew up cheering for England, or you grew up cheering for whatever, that team is going to have a special place in your heart, no? Yeah, yeah, but you can still share. show the passion for your country. I know, like, they drive around in their cars with their flags from their home country. Well, fly the Canadian flag for a while longer, too. Oh, I agree. Listen, I agree. I think

you can do both. I'm not going to give grief to anybody if they're still going to cheer for, you know, the team they've always cheered for. But if this Canadian team is on a steady march towards getting better and better and more and more competitive and it's happening here in Canada, then yes, I think we've got to fly that

Canadian flag of tall and proud. Gord, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yeah, that's, listen, if I, well, Serbia is in, I think Serbia is in the World Cup, right? Are they going to be in the World Cup, Joy? No, I don't think so.

Okay, well, that they were once, right? I might be wrong, but yeah, they were once, for sure. Yeah, so, like, I remember, I think I watched a match a few, like, years and years and years ago. You know, if, if that's where my mom is from, so I would probably have been cheering for Serbia. But now that Canada is there, I think I'm going to be, you know, cheering for the rest of,

White. Jerry, welcome to the show. Good morning, Ben. Good morning. As a child growing up in an Italian household, even though we're born in Canada, we always identified Italian. When people ask us, oh, what are you? We're Italian. Then we're older,

then we started saying we're Canadian. But now that liberals have been married for a while, I'm very disappointed to be Canadian, so I say, we're Italian again. Oh, you've gone back, have you? Oh, yeah. Now, what about for the World Cup, though? World Cup's different than politics.

Well, you know what? It kind of goes hand in hand. Yeah? Kind of. Yeah. Yeah, we're proud to be Italian because when there was a half billion people in St. Clair in 2006, not even one incident. So we're proud to be Italian because we're very good people. And so, but when it comes time to cheer for one team or another, are you going to cheer for the Italian team, the Canadian team, or

both? Both. I'm not really a sports fanatic. I don't really terrible sports, to be honest with you, but I would cheer for both. Because I'm proud of the Canadian athletes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Hey, Jerry, thank you very much for the call.

I appreciate it. All right. Who do we have next? We got Joe. Joe, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hi, guys. I love your show. Thank you.

So, yeah, definitely I will cheer for both because I will bring my kids with me and my kids are raised and born in Canada. So if Canada score a goal, of course, so we're going to share for Canada. And if my country, my home country, scored a goal, I will share for my home country. So at the end of the day, it's going to be a fun time. Yeah, yeah. Do you think it's, do you think that this is going to be one of those moments that we're going to look back on and say that was a defining moment because after that, so many more

kids jumped into soccer, so many more, like the quality of play. the participation, the intensity, the knowledge, the depth of knowledge that Canadian fans are going to have is going to improve? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. In today's world, many, many kids started to play soccer. And we have a lot of immigration in Canada who started to dig deep into soccer more. And, yeah, it's going to be fun, guys. It's going to be a lot of fun for all the families. And Joe, tell me, how are you going to be watching? Are you going to be watching on TV or are you going to try to get tickets? No way.

Tickets are expensive. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. Hey, Joe, thank you very much. Thank you. You have a great day. Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy your weekend.

All right, Dave, Dave, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Happy World Cup Draw Day. Oh, yeah. Very happy. I was telling the screener, and I'm a little conflicted because I was born in France. Yeah. I have Porteague's parents. my wife's Italian and I'm also Canadian so I got four flags to put up no no no no that's too many

I'm sorry I'll give you with a country I'll give you the country you were born in or the country your parents came from and I'll give you Canada you can't be grabbing your your in-laws and all that stuff that's too many that's you got to pick you're trying to be too many things to too many people yeah that's what the United Nations are but no no this is this is going to be exciting isn't it? It is exciting. It's not too bad I won't be able to go, but it is exciting. It's something that as a kid, it would be a dream,

and would it be a dream to go to see the World Cup and stuff like that? I managed to see the Euro's when I was in Portugal back in 2008, and that was fun. Yeah, that was fun. You enjoyed that? Oh, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed watching Portugal lose to Greece twice. But, you know, I remember going through Little Italy

and watching sort of these street parties of people watching, watching from the cafes and on the streets, on big screen TVs. I have to assume that that, in and of itself, is an incredible World Cup experience. That is, that is. Like, for any country, like, I didn't know my wife back then, but I would go through Little Italy with my Portuguese flag, and we'd all celebrate it our teams. Yeah.

Or go to Little Portugal and do the same thing. Yeah, all right, my friend. Hey, thank you very much. I hope you have a great weekend. You too. All right, let's go to Tony. Tony. Thanks so much for calling in. Happy World Cup Draw Day.

Same to you, Ben. Ben, I just want to let you know. I'm born Canadian of Italian descent. My parents came here back in the late 50s. And my father, before he died 15 years ago, he would say, Canada's my country. I'm rooting for Canada first. But then if Canada loses, I'm going to jump on the Italians and vote for them back then. I said, that's fine. I'll do the same thing. And Tony, listen, let's also, we've got to be, we've got to be, it can't be too hard on ourselves. For the longest time, Canada wasn't in the World Cup. So a lot of Canadians would default to where their parents came from as a sort of a, who they should be cheering for.

Absolutely. But Ben, just one last fact before I go. And if you talk to any Italian with different dialects, the Southern Italians, there's the Calabres, the Sicilians. If you were to talk to them, and they would let. you know that I'm not Italian. I'm a Calabrese. I'm Sicilian. But then when the World Cup come around, he won the World Cup, all of a sudden they became Italians again. Yeah, everybody. They forgot they were Calabrese and Sicilian. Now they're Italian again. But in your face, they would tell you, I'm a Calabrese. I'm a Calabrese. Hey, thank you very much, Tony.

I appreciate it. All right. Listen, this is, this city is the most multicultural city in the world. The city is the world. And the fact that we will be welcoming the World Cup is a reason to celebrate. It's the perfect situation of hand and glove. I want to thank everybody for giving us a call. I want to thank Regan Watts for joining us one segment ago to help us understand a little bit about the draw and how it's going to work. Thank you.