The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben discusses if the Liberal Leadership race has become a farce

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Guests and Topics: Ben discusses if the Liberal Leadership race has become a farce Guest: Marcel Wieder, Liberal Strategist, President and Chief Advocate of Aurora Strategy Global Guest: Sharan Kaur, Political strategist and partner at Sovereign Advisory  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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Thank you so much for joining us across the Chorus Radio Network. Happy Monday to each and every one of you. So it's the long goodbye that we are subjected to with our prime minister who admitted or he told us a few months ago that he was resigning but he hasn't resigned just yet, which means there is still business to tend to because he is the longest serving a leader in the G7. He is the dean of the G7 and as such in that leadership position, he had a call with Donald Trump over what a lot of leaders in the G7 believe is an alarming development of rapprochement, if you will, between the United States and Russia.

They are having bilateral meetings to discuss a peace deal in the war with Ukraine. Let's not forget, this is a war that was started by Russia over the most ridiculous pretext that they were going to denazify Ukraine, which is led by a Jew. So figure that one out. But I have to say, I do not have a reflexive disdain for our prime minister. I believe he acquitted himself very well on this call.

If Robert Fife in the Globe and Mail is to be believed, and I have no reason to ever distrust what Robert Fife writes. Apparently the source close to the prime minister made the point that everyone wants the bloody war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. But Mr. Trudeau drove home the point that any peace deal

should not be seen by Russian President Vladimir Putin as appeasement, the source said, because that would open the door to future land grabs in the Baltic States and Eastern Europe. The source said the US president didn't agree with Mr. Trudeau, but he also didn't counter those arguments. So I believe he staked a moral high ground, if you will, and I have to give credit where credit is due. Now Donald Trump is gonna be Donald Trump and a little bit later he was on the

Brian Kilmeade show on Fox News and he had some choice words in describing our Prime Minister. We won the first game and the second game was a great game. We could have gone either way. Justin's a loser, always has been, and you know he's he's a he's just a guy that really doesn't I think he's done a very bad job for Canada. He's taken a radical left. Justin's a sort of a nice guy think he's done a very bad job for Canada. He's taking it radical left Justin's a Sort of a nice guy, but he's a loser I mean, I don't know what to do with that. I

That's the noise right noise versus the signal and Apparently in dealing with the Donald Trump administration You have to know the difference between the noise and the signal and you've got to ignore the noise and focus on the signal. That to me sounds like the noise. There has been a deafening noise of Americans standing up against the tariffs that Donald Trump wants to levy on Canada. We've spoken about it on this very show. Where are the opposing voices to Donald Trump's position that he needs to levy 25% tariffs

on everything that goes across the border from Canada to the United States? Where are those voices? Not to say these are people who would be opponents of Donald Trump, but people who oppose this specific policy. Well, the first major conservative voice has finally stood up in solidarity with Canada and it's Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire. He posted on Twitter,

I still don't understand why we're levying 25% tariffs on Canada. I've got to be honest with you, I don't understand that one. I get it on Mexico, I get it on China. In fact, I think we should have much% tariffs on Canada. I've got to be honest with you, I don't understand that one. I get it on Mexico, I get it on China. In fact, I think we should have much higher tariffs on China because China is an actual geopolitical enemy. But I don't understand what exactly we're trying to pry

out of the Canadians. And therein lies the rub because none of us do. Donald Trump came out and said, fix the border, we fixed the border, by and large. I mean, it'll take some time, but we're fixing the border. He says, jump, we say how high. And once we do that, he shifts the goalposts. So a lot of us are scratching our heads

and it's nice to hear a prominent conservative voice from the United States, someone who is deeply supportive of Donald Trump, but perplexed by this policy. Explain why China is, he's going to levy 10% tariffs on China, but 25% tariffs on Canada. Are we two and a half times the problem that China is? Two and a half times the headache? Two and a half times the worry and concern?

The answer is absolutely not. So what else is going on? We don't know. We don't know. And of course, we'll have to wait and see if these tariffs are actually gonna be put in place. The ax hangs, but it does not fall, as my friend used to say all the time.

So in a little bit, we're gonna be talking about Ruby Dalla, who was running for the liberal leadership. And she was promptly cut by the Liberal Party, they told her, we don't want you here, you cannot run for liberal leader. But right before that happened, Stevie O'Brien, the former Liberal Chief of Staff was on the CBC. And well, let's listen to what she said about Ruby Dalla and her candidacy to be the liberal leader. I certainly hope that the party finds a legitimate reason to

disqualify her candidacy before the debate. Really? I hope so. I think that, you know, we've got a serious campaign, Canadians are looking for a serious leader. I think that's one of the reasons that Carney is doing very well. I would really's one of the reasons that Carney is doing very well. I would really hate for us to lose, as a partisan, to lose that momentum because someone's trying

to turn the debates into a circus. That's a tough thing to do. I mean, they've already disqualified Chandra Arya, right? Yeah, the two people of color in this campaign to become the next liberal leader and prime minister were both turfed by the Liberal Party. And look, there may have been valid reasons, but the chief of staff said that and just a little while later, Rubi Dalla's campaign to become liberal leader was over.

Now the party claimed that there were a lot of problems with her fundraising and that's the reason why they got rid of her, but she is not taking it sitting down. The added curiosity here is that she was on the CBC for an interview and she discovered on the CBC by the CBC that she was no longer a candidate to be liberal leader. She did not find out from the party she found out from the CBC. Let's listen. Well, I think it speaks to the state of the Liberal Party of Canada

that a candidate who is running to become leader of the party, who is running to become prime minister in our country is finding out that she has been disqualified on air from an email that the media outlet that she is interviewing with has received. So it is very alarming and very shocking. It is certainly not surprising because I think the Liberal Party of Canada

was seeing exactly what our internal polls are telling us. That my campaign and my team, we were neck to neck with our front runner in the race. They did not want me to go on to that debate stage in Montreal. They They did not want me to go on to that debate stage in Montreal. They certainly did not want me on that ballot. And the Liberal Party of Canada wanted to complete the coronation of Mark Carney. Yeah, this is not a good look for the Liberal Party. We first of all, I did not want to be subjected to this. The drama that is the Liberal Party leadership. I was a big

fan of the idea of going straight to the polls and having a federal election. But here, this is the world that we live in. So this is the race that we're focused on. We were promised by Justin Trudeau, a robust and national debate that would lead to the selection of a new leader who would ultimately become our Prime Minister.

That's what we were promised. And I don't know that that's what we're getting. I do believe, I agree with Rubi Dalla, we are getting a coronation of Mark Carney. It's a contest in name only. This is going to be a direct line from candidacy to leadership to prime minister for Mark Carney and the fact that the Liberal Party that posits itself as progressive and inclusive remember because it's 2015 remember the the gender equal cabinet that we were all that we all saw that we all that he was so very proud of not so much when it comes to picking a leader, because yet again, another woman and person of color

has been marginalized by the liberal party to make way for a white man. Mark Carney makes me look like a marginalized person. That's how much of an elite Mark Carney is. He is the tip of that sword. And this is not a good look. And like I said, Rubidalla is not going down without a fight.

I'm sure she will have more to say in the coming days. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. And listen, I didn't want to have to be subjected to this liberal leadership race. I was hoping it would just go to an election, but here is the world that we're in. And tonight, the liberal candidates are meeting in Montreal for a French language debate. Tomorrow is the English language debate.

One absence from that stage is candidate Ruby Dalla, who has been unceremoniously turfed from the campaign. Apparently there were inconsistencies, problems with her fundraising. They said it was a bridge too far. And so bye bye, Ruby. Here to discuss all of the inner workings of the drama that is the liberal leadership. I'm joined by Marcel Weider, the liberal strategist and president

and chief advocate of Aurora Strategy Global. And I must point out that I have a professional relationship with Aurora. And Sharon Carr, political strategist and partner at Sovereign Advisory. And she's also a recent colleague of mine here at 640 Toronto. To both of you, I say hello.

Hello. Okay, so let's talk about the Ruby Dala of it all before we get into the debate. Why? Well, because she promised that she was gonna really debate. She was gonna throw some haymakers. How could she? She doesn't even speak French.

Well, okay, maybe not in the first debate, but certainly in the second one, she was gonna get- Well, if she doesn't participate in the first, how can she participate in the second? Well, okay, no, no. Let's call it what it is. She really wanted to tussle. Yeah, because it's all about Ruby.

Or it's all about a coronation for Mark Carney, the appearance of a debate, the appearance of a real fight, the appearance of differences, but not really. There are 400,000 liberals who will choose a candidate. It's a ranked ballot. We don't know how that's going to play out. The majority of the membership that is signed up were former liberals. None of the leadership campaigns have said how many that they've signed up,

so we don't know how many are committed to any one candidate. Sharon, are you going to stick with this party line? Listen, I thought I was the number one fan of the crap on Ruby Dala fan club, but you know what, Marcel? I can tell you what. Listen. Okay, guys. I have a personal reason. Oh, I'm sure you do. We all have one actually.

So listen, I understand optically for those who are not familiar with Ruby Dalla or the liberal party politics of Ruby Dalla, might see this as something nefarious or might see it as someone pushing her out. But for anybody who knows her, who's had a history of dealing with her, I'm sorry, but I'm shocked it took this long

to get her thrown out of it. This has always been purely about Ruby Dalla. The party gave her a list of questions to answer, which she was not transparent about. Everything with her has been, I am neck and neck with Carney. That's BS. She's purely in this for herself. And you know what? Good riddance.

Absolutely. All right, well, listen listen, well we will turn the page on Ruby Dalla and let's focus on these debates. The first in French, the second in English. Marcel, what can we expect? Because like I said, with her out of the race, I think it's gonna be very polite. There are three different audiences that will be looking at this. First are the Liberal membership, that's who these candidates are going to be appealing to. The second is Canadians in general and the third is Quebecers. That's the three audiences that each of the candidates have to appeal to and in terms of the Liberals members the best indication is who is going to be able to challenge Pierre

Paul Dieff because it's going to be a campaign against the conservatives versus liberals the NDP is not a factor and in Quebec the block is dropped off in fact under Carney liberals have doubled from Trudeau from 22 to 44. And so that could pose a real problem for the conservatives because they need to have seats in Quebec to form a majority government. Sharon, this entire exercise of trying to reinvent the party in power, trying to reinvent the Liberal Party as the vehicle for change from even though they have been in power for nine years. That's a tough needle to thread and it's all going to be on there for us to see on television

in the debate. Well, yeah, it's going to be interesting to watch. I actually think we might see a bit of firecrackers between the between Carney and Freeland on this because we have both Freeland and Karina Gold who were members of this government and Frank Bayliss previously as well and Carney the guy who is the apparent outsider. So I'm very interested to see how Krisha Freeland tries to push him as the PMO candidate because she has. So it's going to be hard for any of them to say that

they're not part of this government, but I do think that Carney will probably lean into his, I'm actually from the outside. Now I know you have and I've been trying to get him on the show to kind of push his way to show how he's the outsider. We have not succeeded yet, but the night is young. Who knows? Maybe this week. I find it really interesting. I never thought that during this campaign, Marcel, that every significant candidate would have rebuffed the signature policy of this liberal government, which is the carbon tax. When my father resigned, there wasn't a single person who presented themselves for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party that would have deigned to say they were going to throw out the GST, for example.

They all supported that. And here, this signature policy is being cast aside before this government has even been turned over. Well, in the case of your father, your late father, the GST turned out to be the right policy decision so we can't criticize people for not wanting to support that. In the case of the carbon tax, it's one that has really created a number of fissions across the country. It's certainly, you know, both Carney and Freeland have said that they would remove it from the consumer

side of things. And really that's where it should have been. It should have been on the producer side where the carbon tax should be applied. And in Ontario and Quebec, along with California, they had a carbon exchange where they could sell credits and things like that. And so it wasn't impacting directly on consumers. And that was probably one of the best models out there. We've seen carbon taxes in Europe and elsewhere.

We have to deal with climate change, and that's one of the best avenues to deal with that. Sharon, the Liberal Party is experiencing a little bit of a bump right now in the polls. They're far better today than they were just a couple of months ago. What do they need to do? What do these candidates need to do collectively over the next couple of days to keep that wind in their sails? I don't think there's that much they can do, truly. This tends to happen all the time, but we are actually seeing a bit of a change in terms

of how people actually felt about Trudeau in addition to what's happening with the U.S. The focus has been over Canada into the U.S. So I would say don't see anything stupid in the next couple days. Don't go out there saying the carbon tax is great but I think for the most part things are going to be steady for the next several days. The shift will come after the leader if it's Carney or whoever else is elected. And I think that is when we'll see actual polls that are going to tell us what we're looking at. Marcel, if you were advising anyone besides Mark Carney, who is the front runner, what would you tell them to do in these debates in order to score some points and tighten the gap between them?

Well, first of all, you have to show leadership. I think you have to identify what Canadians are concerned about and certainly the number one issue among Canadians is kind of US relations. The Trump issue is dominating the headlines. The second is on affordability. That's concerning a lot of Canadians. It's getting tougher and harder to make ends meet and so you need to have a credible plan in order to gain the trust of Canadians. And so presenting a well-thought-out plan would help your campaign and differentiate yourself. Sharon, there is a number that I find very interesting.

Apparently the over-under is that Donald Trump's name will be mentioned 26.5 times in the debates. So it's really all about Donald Trump, isn't it? Oh yeah, it's a hundred percent about Donald Trump and this is where that bump comes from. They're not going to do well when it comes to campaigning against Pierre Pauli, because it's really easy for Pierre Pauli to attach them to Trudeau, whose brand has been too toxic these days in our, I would say in our politics so say Donald Trump I'm surprised I'm gonna say it's gonna be more like 70 or 80 times the more they say it the more helpful it is to them absolutely yeah Sharon Carr Marcel Weider I want to thank you both very much are you gonna be watching I'm gonna try

yeah I listen I I will be watching too because I'm a policy wonk for this sort of thing. But again, I'm gonna say it one last time. This is not the election I wanted. But here we are, we're subjected to it. Have us back on Wednesday. We will definitely talk about it then. I want to thank you both very much. That's Marcel Wieter, Liberal Strategist and President and Chief Advocate of Aurora Strategy Global, and Sharon Carr. Daniel Blanchard is no ordinary thief. His heists are ingenious. His escapes defy belief. And when he sees the dazzling diamond CC Star, he'll risk everything to steal it. His exploits set off an intercontinental manhunt. But how long can CC Star stay lucky for Daniel? I'm Seren Jones, and this is a most audacious heist.

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