The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben goes to our listeners to find out their top election issue

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Guests and Topics: -What is the top election issue for you in this Ontario Election? 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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at 1-866-531-2600. BedMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Now is the time where we turn the microphone over to you, our listener, you can give us a call at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. We're going to hear a lot about policies with big price tags over the next 30 days, but I want to hear from you. What is it going to take to move the needle for you as a voter? What do you want your provincial government to do for you? What are you struggling with the most in your everyday life?

What's the top line issue for you? And what do you think they should be doing? So let's start the show off with Rick. Rick, what say you? What's the most important issue for you in this election campaign? Well, health care seems to be the top of the list. I mean, everybody so far from Dalton, McGinty to Kathleen Wynn is all practice, you know, promise doctors for everybody.

And that can't be done because you got to pull away from one country or pull away from another province to get more doctors. So that's, uh, that's going to be a big, big issue, but still that's not going to change my vote because I just remember the years of Kathleen Wynn and Dalton McGinty and that just furiates me. So, uh, Well, what do you think, Rick? What did you think of the PC government's announcement right before the election of 1.4 billion in new funding for an action plan that was going to connect with, as according to them, 2 million more people in Ontario with a primary care provider?

And so I guess as long as it becomes an action plan and not something just sitting on a desk. Yeah, yeah. And I agree. What we don't, Rick, what we don't need is $1.4 billion that we just hand over to the system in its current form, because that's just going to go down a rat hole. That's going to go down into a bureaucratic rat hole that doesn't help with improve outcomes

and doesn't help connect Ontarians with doctors. So thank you very much for your call. I was talking to some members of the Progressive Conservative Party. They're very excited about this announcement from a few days ago, that it's not just money, but it's money to essentially reimagine the system from the ground up in a lot of meaningful ways.

I'm gonna drill down into this proposal over the weekend so that we can have a fulsome conversation about it next week. Welcome to the show, Anthony. What's the most important issue to you? So I was telling your screener accountability for sure, just see promises through. But, you know, simply because you're talking about this in your next segment about safe injection sites, I know what I don't want. I don't want politicians to

just keep opening safe injection sites and pretend shelters to house people like how the hell did we get to this point where we're short of shelters? Yeah. And shelters are, they're not at full capacity. And I know people in the system in the city of Toronto, who basically tell me these these people don't want to go in there, because they don't have the freedom to do what they want. Right. There's rules. Yeah. And now they're they they've got the the backing of the courts that talk about, you know, the need to preserve human dignity, and they have the rights, they have rights that that prevent us from helping them when they are

clearly in a crisis. No, no, they have they have agency over their lives. We can't do x, y, and z to save their lives. Instead, we have to give them license to do drugs that could kill them because that is their charter right. That's the absurdity of the system situation that we're living in. And yeah, we need we need to have a level set and and and fix our perspective on that. Daniel, thank you so much for calling into the Ben Mulroney show. Good morning, Ben. One thing hardly nobody's talking about, and I wonder why, is I want to see an entirely

transparent and public procurement practice. We have guidelines and best practices as far as tendering, but I don't want to see any more non-disclosure agreements, no more backroom deals, no more hundred million billion, you know, lifetime worth of deals that nobody knows the particulars. It's public government. Deals have to be transparent. Is there a deal in particular that sticks in your head? I'd love an example of something that you don't like.

Well, the competitive bidding process related to Ontario Place has a non-disclosure. So the public does not know what the tendering process entailed and who other competitors were. So 75% of Doug Ford's deals all have non-disclosure agreements. And that's bogus in public procurement practice. OK. Well, thank you very much for your call. I appreciate that.

I like it when people highlight things that are not even remotely on my radar because now I can pay attention and move forward. Who do we have next? Adam, thank you for calling in. What's the issue that's top of mind for you? I have two big ones. Least likely of happening is some sort of government purge.

And you know, the government's growing at a pace that exceeds the private sector. And I just don't think it's sustainable. Is it likely?ge. And you know, the government's growing at a pace that exceeds the private sector, and I just don't think it's sustainable. Is it likely? No, but you know, that's the first thing on my wish list. The second thing is, I think I do not want the government throwing more money at healthcare. I think they should let nurses or people

who have the experience, whatever the qualifications are, open up routine clinics, whether it's itches, flus, colds, fractures, basic stuff, you should be able to pay whatever the market bears to get that taken care of immediately. And that would take people away from going to the hospital or going to the doctor's office for basic routine things and allow more money to be put towards

the catastrophic healthcare rather than the routine stuff. Yeah, Adam, I subscribe to that idea. At least, I, at the very least, subscribe to exploring that. Because you're right, like these fatalists who say, oh, if that comes to pass, universal healthcare as we know it is over. And I look at the system today, I was like, is that such a bad thing? Can we stop this notion that every, everything is a slippery slope towards American style health care?

Like enough with the fatalism, enough with the pearl clutching, enough with the misdirection. We have a system in crisis, and we know from years and years of throwing billions upon billions of dollars into the system that money alone will not solve the crisis that we have. We have to start thinking out of the box. We have to start be willing to have uncomfortable conversations. We have to start making choices and priorities that

we never had to make in the past because left to its own devices, if we continue going down this road, there will be no health care system to speak of that we would want our kids, our families, and those who need it most to avail themselves of it. But thank you very much for that. Let's see. Dean, Dean, thank you so much for calling in. Good morning. Good morning. I've been telling your call screener there that for me, I would really like to see a law put in place where all these parties making all these promises about spending billions of dollars on public health care and teachers and all the rest of this. I want to know, I want analysis. How much is it going to cost? What's going to do to our deficit?

What's going to do to our debt? When are we going to pay it off? Where are you going to find savings? I want all those financials sorted out and prod forward during these campaigns. Yeah, and you know what, I take your point because unlike the pandemic, our starting position is far weaker than it was during the pandemic. And so like we spent what we spent, we can't get it back. It is what it is. And now we find ourselves in already precarious,

dire straits as it relates to our public finances. And to say, all right, we're gonna have to spend this money. Oh, fine, I can get behind it, but I'm gonna need some more information. I'm gonna need a lot more information as to what the knock-on effects are gonna be one year, five years, 10 years from now.

And how do we get back to a place of fiscal responsibility? If somebody can provide me with that roadmap, I will feel far more assured, far more rested knowing that there is a plan, a commitment to get us back on track. I think we've got time for one more before the break, but we'll keep these calls coming. Welcome to the show, Tony.

Tony, what do you think of all this? Well, you got me just in time, Ben, because I'll tell you the plan for this frivolous spending is to stop doing it. $189 million on an unneeded election, $3.2 billion in tax bribes, luxury spas, green belt scandals, $189 million to pre-buy the beer store contract a year early to put what beer in corner stores? Tony, dare I say that you, Doug Ford and his PCs are going to have to really work hard to win your vote? Well, I mean, listen, it didn't start with Doug Ford. I mean, you know, Ernie Eaves gave away the 407 and now Doug wants to dig a tunnel under the 401 for who knows how many billion. I mean, are we connecting the dots yet?

Hey, Tony, thank you so much for your call. And everybody, if you're online, stick around because more of your calls on this very subject when the Ben Mulroney Show returns. We've got a provincial election coming up at the end of February. And so right now you have the floor. Our listeners here on the Ben Mulroney Show at 416-870-6400-1888-225. Talk. We, all three provincial leaders need to hear from you.

What matters to you? What are your priorities? What are your big ticket issues? The things that affect you most. Give us a call, keep the calls coming. And right now we've got some people patiently waiting online. And let's start with Max. Max, what's the issue that is going to

get you to the ballot box? Hey, Ben, my big issue this time around is fiscal conservatism. I think right now we've seen the thing conservative about the current government is their name. They spend a ton spend it unresponsibly. And it's tough for me as a small business owner to see that. You know, at one point I just wanted to make as well really quickly, minimum wage. You know, I understand that that's a thing for a lot of people, but it's just my philosophy as a business owner that when the minimum wage goes up, even if my

employees are above that minimum wage, I feel like I need to increase their salary in equal amounts. You know, they give a lot of commitment to me and my business in order for me to return that. I can't just verbally tell them that I have to show them that in their compensation schedule. And so when the minimum wage goes up, everything goes up for somebody like me. I get that's my choice. But that's just the way that I run business.

And I thought Doug Ford had that in mind when I voted for him in 2018. But clearly that hasn't been the case. And I'd like to see that this time around. Well, and I appreciate that. And listen, I got you on the radio, a lot of people listening. You want to plug your business? Uh, sure. We're a dog house golf co.

Uh, we're up in Barry. We do golf equipment, customizations, custom fitting, everything like that. So if you need golf, come and see us. And if you, you spend so much time on the golf course and you end up in the dog house, you got a place up in Barry for us. Hey, Max, thanks so much for calling. Have a and you end up in the doghouse, you gotta play something very broad. Hey, Max, thanks so much for calling. Have a great day. Thanks, Ben, you too.

All right. Hey, Mark, welcome to the show. What's the issue that affects you the most? Well, yeah, I'd like to see two things. One, just overall less government, less government spending, smaller government. You know, look at the city of Toronto. All the biggest employers now are all government TDSP TTC TPS. You

know, it's sustainable, federal, provincial, municipal colleges and universities. It's crazy. Right sizing government. That's what we need. We need a right size all these departments. And one more thing I'd love to see. I'd love to see a voucher system. For for what? For schools? Yes, absolutely. So in an ideal world, what does that look like for you? Give it to

me. Give it to me quick. Yeah, just a choice more academic choice. No. Maybe you have a STEM specific school or you know, something heavier on sports, you can make your own choices in your academic career path. Mark, thank you very much for the call. I appreciate it. Good morning, Jason, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Oh, hey, Ben, thanks for taking my absolutely everything above what everybody said. Yes, I'm for and then one extra thing. And this is a tricky subject to talk about seems that everybody

wants to stay away from it. But I'd really like to get back to a meritocracy. And what I mean by that specifically is abolishing the policies that to employment. And that's also the way in which we're teaching our kids. Oh, boy. It's gonna be real hard to move the needle into TDSB, my friend. And we'll be talking about that a little bit later. We're taking your calls right here on the Ben Mulroney show 416-870-6400-1888-225-TALK. We want to know what is important to you. What do you want all three of the major Ontario leaders to know about what they need to do to get your vote?

Give us a call and tell us what matters to you. What is affecting you the most? What is your big ticket issue that's going to get you to the ballot box? John, welcome to the show. What is your top election issue? Yeah, it's the the protest that we've been having recently. All these people wearing these face masks and hiding behind that, creating problems for the place to deal with. Like, sure, you want to protest, you have the right to protest, but make a law that you can't protest while hiding your face behind a face mask. I think we already have that as a law.

It's about the it's the enforcement of the law. Yeah, we keep seeing this happening in Toronto over and over again, and certain groups are being targeted by it and they're hiding behind this mask. Listen, I know we're talking the province, but while we're on this subject, I think they've got to go a step further and make it illegal to go into a mall or any business wearing a face covering. Because the smash and grab epidemic in the city of Toronto around the country is out of control.

If they knew that their faces were seen by cameras, they would think twice. Thank you so much for the call. We've got John on the line. John, thank you so much for calling in. What matters most to you? John, you there? John? No? All right, we'll come back to John in just a minute.

No, these, oh, we've got Nick now. Nick, thank you for calling in. Hey, Ben, pleasure talking to you. Yeah. Ben, I wanna see agriculture. We need to start taking this a little bit more serious. There's no such thing as seedless grapes, Hey, Ben, pleasure talking to you. Yeah. Ben, I want to see agriculture. We need to start taking this a little bit more serious. There's no such thing as seedless grapes, seedless watermelons,

and start teaching health and nutrition again in schools. So these kids learn to eat something nutritious as opposed to grabbing sugar and fake stuff, fructose, and all that other crap. Yeah, listen, to me, that's part of preventative medicine, right? That that that is an investment in ensuring that we don't have, you know, long term health issues that are self inflicted. And that'll take pressure off of the health care system, which can use a little depressurization on every front. But I take your point. Absolutely. More education, financial literacy, health literacy, these types of things are the knock on effects of those types of investments would

help us with a population that can manage their funds, start a business and stay healthier longer taking pressure off of the healthcare system. Darren, thanks so much for calling in. Hey, thanks, Ben. Ben, my biggest concern and and is that we're hearing a lot of how should I say it? They're going to do this, they're going to do that, but they're not talking to the communities much like we did back in North Middlesex in the Ontario rural school symposium with the help of Monty McNaughton. We came with solutions and when we had solutions to this day that with the help of Monty McNaughton from a little little meeting that cost next to like $200 renting a community center we came up with solutions through a symposium to help get a moratorium on

closing schools. I think we need to look at that when it comes to education. I think we need to do that when it comes to medical issues and quit putting out blanket solutions and cookie cutter solutions and start working with rural communities and community councils to come up with solutions that we can come up with better solutions that work across the board.

You know, Doug Ford did that before he was on the premier side of it, along with good help of people like Monty McNaughton. I think we need to go back to that because what's going to happen is it's going to save a lot of money with us out there as people that, you know, that Joe Public coming forward with solutions and picking the best ones out that work across the board. So a grassroots approach to policymaking and a recognition that what works in the city doesn't work in the country. And so dynamic solutioning for provincial

problems. 100% awesome. We understand that Trump's got his stuff going on. But there's a lot of stuff that we can take care of Yeah with the help of you know, the common people the middle-class people that have the solutions already there and thank you Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And now we've got John John you think the biggest issue is homeless encampments Yeah. Well, first of all, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely Just wanted to say yeah, just real quickly. I, I mean, look, I'm not all that politically informed. I don't follow politics as closely as perhaps I should, but I'll give you a quick 10-second

story. I was at the park with my daughter the other day. I live in East Hamilton, and I'm not kidding you, probably 30 yards from the park, there's a guy doing crack cocaine. There's garbage all from the park, there's a guy doing crack cocaine, there's garbage all over the park. This is a new development. Of course, we've had homelessness in this area before, but every park nearby here

could have been completely taken over. There's garbage everywhere. You'll recall recently, you might've heard a story about tunnels being dug under gauge park, like it's out of control. Yeah, no, it is. I think I think that's my guess is that's primarily a municipal issue, but every level of government should be taking very close, paying very close attention to all of that. Hey, I want to thank all of you. And, and hopefully we're going to make sure that we do our

best to, to take these calls and put them in front of all three of the major provincial party leaders so they can hear from the listeners of the Ben Mulroney Show what matters to you. We appreciate your candor. We appreciate your passion. We appreciate your vision. So thanks so much. She has partial retrograde amnesia.

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