The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben breaks down Pierre Poilievre's Canada First Rally

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Guests and Topics: Ben reacts to Pierre Poilievre's Canada First Rally 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

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by the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation featuring inspiring personal stories about what happens when world leading doctors, nurses, researchers and their patients come together to ignite breakthroughs. Carry the Fire launches Monday, January 27th, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show.

I am Ben Mulroney coming at you on the Chorus Radio Network from coast to coast to coast, or you may be listening to us in podcast form and thank you very much for that. You might be searching us up at Ben Mulroney or the Ben Mulroney Show on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts or on Amazon Music. Thank you very much for listening to us wherever and whenever you do. We appreciate your time and we appreciate your ears. We also appreciate your opinions. We also appreciate your opinions. We know that we have an opinion line and you can get in touch with us, drop us a line and

give us a 45 seconds. Let us know who you are, where you're calling from and what your opinion is. Now over the weekend on Flag Day, Gare Poliev had a defining speech, if I may say, about who he is and what his party stands for and the future that he wants to lay out for Canada under a Conservative government, under a Pierre Poliev Conservative government, and right in front of him, emblazoned on his podium, unlike what we've seen in the past. We've seen Axe the Tax stop the crime. Now it's emblazoned with Canada first

with an immense Canadian flag behind him. And a lot of people, especially certain people in the media, have been suggesting that his Axe the Tax platform has run out of steam, which is why he had to pivot his campaign. He says, I mean, I say campaign, we're not even technically in a campaign. We should have been weeks and months ago. We haven't been. Here we are today, slightly disorganized on the Canadian side of the equation, but we take the world as it is. But Pierre pushed back on what people have said is the need for him to change his platform. Let's listen. The media is now saying that I should change my entire platform because of the tariff threat.

In fact, the Trump tariff threats have proven conservatives right on everything. It's true. conservatives right on everything. It's true. Everyone now admits, everyone now admits or they claim to admit that conservatives were right on the liberal capital gains tax hike, that conservatives were right on the carbon tax, on pipelines, on LNG, on fentanyl, the borders, immigration, and the need to celebrate rather than cancel our proud history and country. Yeah. And so look, I've already told you, our listeners, that I believe that Pierre Poliev has earned

my vote in the next election, that the Conservative Party has earned my vote in the next election. What he says here to me is as plain as the nose on my face and the nose on your face. He and his party have been sounding the alarm on what he believes have been the negative impacts of policy initiatives from the liberal government over the past nine years. And the fact that they have been so eager to turn the page on those disasters doesn't speak to vision. It speaks to political expediency. And so Pierre highlighting the fact that he has been victorious.

He has been right on these things to the point that they have changed their minds and they've been so willing to turn their backs on those things that have defined them as a government. I think bears highlighting and I think he's right to highlight it. The Conservative Party has been victorious before an election has even been called. They have been victorious because every single one of those issues, he has been proven right on.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a victory lap. But he also says there is more to come. Unlike what the liberals are promising, unlike under Mark Carney and Christia Freeland, he is promising on the tax cut side, unlike under Mark Carney and Christia Freeland, he is promising on the tax cut side some pretty significant changes. Let's listen.

Taxing the carbon tax is only the beginning. We will go ahead with the biggest and most patriotic tax cut in Canada's history, the bring it home tax cut. It will lower taxes on energy, work, home building, investment and making stuff in Canada. We will axe the sales tax on new homes, saving you $50,000 and sparking 30,000 extra homes built every single year, which will mean more jobs for our carpenters, plumbers, electricians and trades workers. Yeah, it's, I think I again, this is, you know, if you don't like Pierre Poliev, then

you're going to listen to that speech and say, he's not given me anything. This is all slogans. I disagree completely. I think what he is giving us in advance of a campaign mind you, before he, he's the front runner. And the conventional wisdom of politics is you do not give your opponents anything to punch at. If you are leading, you let them flail. We've seen it in many campaigns in the past.

We saw it with Justin Trudeau in his second election, I believe. He didn't release his entire liberal platform until a few weeks before the actual date of the election. And it's par for the course, and it's nothing to attack anyone for. But the fact that he is putting so much in the window, he's putting so much meat on the bone is a credit to, I believe, his belief that he is on the right side of this. He goes on at that point. This is Flag Day, right? I mean, we are in the face of massive tariff threats from our southern neighbors. And so part of this Canada First message,

it's not just all intended for Canadians, it's also intended for the Americans to understand where he would be coming from as a potential leader of this country. Let's listen to him speak directly to Americans. There's something else I'd like to say to our American friends. We've always loved you as our neighbors and friends. There's no country with whom we'd rather share a border,

the longest undefended border in the world. We know America is the biggest economic and military superpower the world has ever known. And we've been a good neighbour. We fought on the same side of the same wars. We paid with Canadian lives and treasure to fight for America, avenging the 9-11 attacks. You have your grievance with us, we have ours with you. But I would ask you this question, which other country would you rather have as your neighbor?

It's a very good question. It's a very good question. And you do know that Donald Trump would answer that saying, we don't want a neighbor. We want you to be our 51st state, which is a non-starter. And that leads us into our next clip from Pierre Poliev. He continues to talk to Americans about how he would deal with the tariff threat. We must respond with strength. And strength means leverage. America has leverage. And we have leverage. I will use that

leverage. Retaliation is only the beginning. Yes, we need to retaliate if they put tariffs on our steel and aluminum, I will put tariffs on their steel and aluminum, I will put tariffs on their steel and aluminum. If they hit us with generalized tariffs, we will respond dollar for dollar. Yes, we will carefully target American goods that we don't need, can produce ourselves, or we can get elsewhere to maximize the impact on Americans while minimizing the impact on ourselves. the impact on Americans while minimizing the impact on ourselves. But he goes on, he knows this is going to hurt and he knows it's going to hurt. And he lays out why, why it's going to hurt us both.

Let's listen to this. So let me spell out the possibilities for our American friends and speak directly to them. Option one, you can carry out an unprovoked attack on our economy. Your consumers will pay more and your workers will make less. Gas prices will skyrocket. You will turn a loyal friend into a resentful neighbour forced to match tariff with tariff and to seek friends everywhere else. Both our economies will weaken, leaving less money for defense and security, and our enemies will grow stronger. The problem is at times we might be too

polite, soft-spoken and humble for our own good. We are slow to anger and quick to forgive, but never confuse our kindness with weakness. Anybody who listened to that speech and heard somebody who is Canada's analog to Donald Trump, somebody who is a fan of Donald Trump, wasn't listening or deliberately misleading you into a false reality. That was Canada First and well done by Pierre. At Desjardins, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. here. Join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardins today. We'd love to talk business.