The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben breaks down Pierre Poilievre's viral moment with a reporter and why it keeps happening

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Ben breaks down Pierre Poilievre's viral moment with a reporter and why it keeps happening 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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We were patiently waiting to have him on the show because he was on another network and we were actually watching it on TV, waiting for it to end. I think they kept him a little longer than he was supposed to. And so we were, I was tap dancing, waiting for him to clear that show before he was able to call into ours.

And everyone's, I mean, everyone's talking about my interview with him as well, but everyone's talking about this interview for all sorts of reasons. And we knew when Donald Trump got elected that he was going to set the stage for all sorts of conversations. He was going to be the tip of the sword for a whole lot of change in the United States. And that was going to beg the question of leaders around the world. Will you too usher in that kind of change in the United States. And that was going to beg the question of leaders around the world, will you too usher in that kind of change? And so the journalist from yesterday

put this question to Pierre Poliev. On his first day on the job, President Trump signed an executive order, the US government only recognizing two genders, male, female, they're unchangeable. If elected as prime minister, is that something that you're going to kind of walk in line with or what are your feelings on that executive order?

Well, I don't know. You have any other genders that you'd like to name? Me personally? Yes. I'm just asking more. If you're in line with what he is saying, do you agree with what he's saying? Is that something that you would be lockstep with if elected as prime minister? I'm just asking more so if you're in line with what he is saying, do you agree with what he's saying? Is that something that you would be lockstep with if elected as prime minister?

Well I'm not aware of any other genders than men and women. If you have any other that you want me to consider, you're welcome to tell me right now. So that's his position and you can agree with it or you can disagree with it, but it doesn't end there. Well, there's, well, there's personally, I am a man. I am a, as people say, cis man. There are people there who, you know, they say they're

gender neutral. Me too, I am a man. You are a man, yes. There are people there who say they're gender neutral. Yeah, they say they're gender neutral. They're, you know, they're a trans person. Is that something that you would recognize here, whereas in the States, at least with their U.S. government, the way they're seeing it, there's only two? I'm only aware of two, but if you have, if you come up with another list, then you're

welcome to do that, but I'm aware of two. And as far as I'm concerned, we should have a government that just minds its own damn business and leaves people alone to make their own personal decisions. That's the kind of government I'm going to run. So that's about two minutes of the interview right there, two long minutes of the interview. And you'd think it would have ended there, but the journalist goes back in again. And with that, you know, the current current over the currently have passports that allow people to put on

gender neutral on their passport advocate groups want the government might be outgoing government to ask the u s with the u s recognize these passwords obviously on their way out if you are the next prime minister is that something that you would have to be honest yeah something on is with you and you can decide your segment on homeless encampments that are popping up all over Toronto. We've got 25 percent of our population in poverty, housing costs have doubled, crime

is rampaging through our streets. I just find it to be a strange priority to spend time talking about this. My priority is to give people back control their lives bring back Canada's promise that anyone who works hard gets a powerful paycheck and pension that buys affordable food gas and homes in safe neighborhoods that's the promise we need for Canadians if liberals want to talk about different labels that for gender that they want to put on passports in the United States they can do that I'm going to talk about the things that will bring home Canada's promise.

Yeah, and I think he's getting ahead of one of the tactics that certain people in the media, and most certainly the Liberal Party, loves to do around election time, which is to falsely to do around election time, which is to falsely link the Canadian Conservative Party with the scariest parts of right-wing politics in the United States. When things get tough for the Liberal Party of Canada, they start to campaign against the looming threat that the conservatives have a secret agenda and that they're coming for your rights

and they're coming for every marginalized group in the country. What he's trying to do in this moment is point out that that's not the conversation he's interested in having. He wants to govern on big ticket items. He wants to make homes more affordable. He wants to make paychecks bigger.

He wants to lower taxes. He wants to lower the barriers of entry if you want to start a new business. He wants to unlock thechecks bigger. He wants to lower taxes. He wants to lower the barriers of entry if you want to start a new business. He wants to unlock the potential of the country. And for far too long in this country, in my estimation, we have been bogged down with these wedge issues dividing us from each other, asking us how can we divide ourselves

even further than we are? It's been happening for nine years. And the main beneficiary of it has been the Liberal Party of Canada. And Pierre Poliev, I believe, is trying to get ahead of what I think are petty, small-minded conversations, where we have so many big problems in front of us

that we can only solve as one united country. We can only do it if we view these problems as Canadians not as from if you're from this region or you're from this group or you speak this language or you're from that background or you have you know this, or you have this size paycheck versus this socioeconomic background. We cannot accomplish what we need to accomplish on the world stage and within our country if we are incessantly dividing ourselves into smaller and less significant groups.

We're already the junior partner at the table. We already have a smaller population and a smaller economy than most of the countries we're dealing with. The last thing we need is to subdivide ourselves further into smaller, less meaningful groups. And Pierre, to his credit, has been banging this drum and highlighting the problems in this country for years. And I've been in rooms with him where people say,

listen, we love your approach. We love your policies, but we think you're a little too angry. And he says, of course I sound angry. I am angry. Let's listen to him in his own words. You know, politics is divisive in nature, no doubt. But over the last few years, it's kind of gotten downright nasty. It's happened in BC politics as well, federal politics, it's certainly a south of the border. Who does that benefit? Well, what do you mean by nasty? Well, it's gotten nasty, right? I mean, you got kicked out of the House of Commons for calling the Prime Minister a wacko, a minister on the federal liberals

told you to grow a pair. I think that's pretty nasty, is it not? Well, I don't, I think it's, I think it's actually what I said about Mr. True is true and most people would agree it's true. I think it's better to be blunt. I think we need a moratorium in politics on polite conversations actually, because things are going really badly in this country. Right.

And they're going really badly because I think politicians are giving themselves a nice pat on the back for screwing things up. At the end of the day, I think it's time our politicians were held accountable. And yes, that's going to mean sometimes a tough language. You'll embrace it. So even if you're a prime minister, you want that nastiness coming towards you. I don't call it nastiness. I call it truth telling. If I have to choose between polite and truth, I pick the truth. Yeah, look, back when I was younger, I did not like Jean Chrétien.

I did not like him. He was an opponent to my father. I did not feel that he was very respectful of him. I think he got in a great many ways got elected, saying that he was gonna sort of tear down most of what my dad did and worked hard for, and then kept it and then got the benefit of those things. Free trade, NAFTA, the GST, all that stuff.

But I was never as angry as I am right now, ever. Same with Paul Martin. There were a great many things that I disagreed with Stephen Harper on. But I was never as angry as I am. And I'm not alone in this. I do believe that this government has behaved in a way that elicits a has behaved in a way that

elicits a toxic anger in a great many people and it's not because of social media and it's not because of you know xenophobia and racism it's because we have been tarred with those words. This is a different feeling as the electorate than I've ever seen before. And I agree with Pierre. It's not time to be polite because the house is on fire and he's been, he's been trying to put it out for years and he's been told, no, no, no, no, you're just angry, you're just angry. I don't think so.

I think now is the time to be less polite because the times demand it. Home Network is here. I love it. Discover the best shows and your favorite trusted experts all under one roof. Are you kidding me? Every Thursday, watch heartwarming programs like an all new Extreme Makeover Home Edition at 8. Who's that?

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