The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben speaks with Pierre Poilievre about what this election campaign has meant to him

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Guests and Topics: Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, running to be Prime Minister of Canada 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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Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and before the break we played you some audio of then candidate Brian Mulroney in 1984 looking into a camera and reminding voters that the Trudeau years were no picnic and the problems that we were experiencing were not because of the Americans but they were due to bad policies and bad values and a bad vision for the country. And the voters turned out, turned in a mandate for a conservative government.

Well, our next guest is hoping to, I guess, bottle that feeling, and hopefully lightning will strike twice. Please welcome to the show, conservative leader, Pierre Poliev. Pierre, welcome to the show. Good to be with you, Ben. Thanks for having me.

I gotta ask, it's a 35-day campaign. I've been following it very closely. I've been struck by how far you've traveled, how many people you've talked to. What have you learned on this campaign? I'm aren't that people are ready for a change. Everywhere I go, people say their lives are worse than they were 10 years ago, more dangerous, more costly, that they don't see a path out. And that the liberals are only offering fear to keep themselves in power for a fourth term. And my message to people is it

doesn't have to be this way. We can restore the hope that we had and that you don't work hard, you get a great life, you get a nice house where you can raise kids, you get a nice basket of groceries that are, that doesn't break the bank and that your family is safe in your neighborhood. Those are things we used to take for granted in Canada before the Liberals got in a decade ago. And there's things we're going to restore. So I guess the message is hope for a change. What would Pierre Poliev today tell Pierre Poliev on on January 1, because it has been a heck of a roller coaster over the past four months.

I would say hold on for the ride. It's gonna be a real adventure. And it has been, you know, there's been so many events that have popped up that we didn't anticipate so many new developments. But I'm really stoic about it. I have a prosthetic that the people will do what's right for our country. They know that we can go forward and change things. And there's a brighter tomorrow coming,

a brighter future for everybody listening. And so my message to people is get out and vote. This is your chance to make a change. I should let our listeners know that as soon as we're done here today on the show, I'm going to go vote and then I'm getting on a plane and I'm going to be at the Pierre Puglia headquarters with the global news team to cover the election. And I was wanting to know what's what's your evening going to be like, Pierre? My family and I are going to gather in a hotel room at the hotel where we will be watching the results and we'll just relax and have a bite to eat and enjoy each

other's company. Thank God the laws are here to help with this. Get them to bed so we won't have to be uh... change diapers and and wrestling with kids who don't want to go to sleep and then uh... when the results are known we're going to walk downstairs and into a big ballroom and hopefully celebrate the change that Canadians will have voted for

there was an emotional moment at your rally in Carleton yesterday between you and Anna uh... can you tell us a little bit about what what that was all about moment at your rally in Carleton yesterday between you and Anna. Can you tell us a little bit about what what that was all about? Well Anna has worked so hard she's been by my side throughout this entire adventure and we're very touched by the people we met. You know I've now done over 181 of these rallies and at most of them we stand and shake hands with every person who wants to meet us.

And it's meant so much to us to have these countless numbers of people vest their hopes in us, tell us their stories, their pains, their heartaches, but also aspirations for the future. And we're kind of in awe of the fact that so many people would vest that hope in us. And this was the culmination, last night was the culmination, it was the climax of the whole event. And I think Anna was overcome with a combination of joy and exhaustion and hopeful excitement. And so it was a really special moment for us to be there. We tried to soak it in because you don't have special days like that every day.

Yeah, Pierre, there was a moment, it wasn't even in the election campaign, it was in the lead up to it. I believe you were in a bottling plant and you were with a young worker inside the bottling plant. And he told you he was working two jobs looking for a third job, and he felt like a failure. And I could see that you were trying to console him and let him know that, you know, he's not a failure. It's the Canadian promise was broken. What you were promised has failed you. And that was one moment that I witnessed and I felt so much in that moment. And you must have heard countless stories like that over the course of the last 35 days.

Do you feel the weight of the hope that these people have in you that they want you to get over the finish line? Do you feel the pressure? I do, I feel in awe. I feel in awe of that responsibility. You know, that guy clearly worked nonstop. He was telling me that his kids wonder where he is all the time and why they can't ever move their tiny apartment into a nicer place. And it's hard for him

to explain to them what's going on in our country. And so he said, he felt like a personal failure to his kids. Of course he's not a failure. He's doing everything right. He's doing everything we asked him to do. And I, I have it on my shoulders and I, without any complaint, I welcome the burden to, to change things so that he can have the life that he's worked for. And his kids will grow up and say that my dad is a hero. My dad went out every day into the jungle and he fought for me and he gave me a

good life and launched me into an even better one. And, um, so I, that's one of the reasons I think Anna and I were so emotional yesterday is that we have the hopes of so many million people who just want to earn a good life again in Canada. That's my purpose in Canada to bring home that promise for every single person. And that's why we get change. Everyone, everyone of my siblings agrees that the, the memories that we have on the campaign trail with my parents are priceless.

We'll never forget them. We were so glad to have been there on the bus, shaking hands in the hotel rooms, in the rallies. We loved every one of those moments. What, now your kids are younger for sure, but have they enjoyed this experience? And what's it been like in the quiet moments with them? Well, there really haven't been any quiet moments to be honest.

Even when there's no politics around, there's no peace and quiet with our two Munchkins. They handled it very well. They were on the road for about two weeks at the outset. the road for about two weeks at the outset. Cruz is very analytical, very inquisitive. He just enjoys playing his games on his iPad and asking lots of questions and then participating in the little activities at various photo walks and so on. And then Valentina, you know, she has some special needs, but one of them is the advantage. She loves to be in motion. She likes to physically move and campaigns move. She looks to physically move. And campaigns move. All they do is move. The vehicles, the wheels on the bus are turning round and round. The planes are flying. And I think the constant motion was very good for her. She was almost felt greater

peace than she normally would standing still. I'm very proud of the two of them. They were very strong. They went back to be with the in-laws for the rest of the campaign. But I'm so glad that they had that experience and I hope that they're able to remember some of it as they get older. Lastly, Pierre, you know, you've thought about running for prime minister, being prime minister for quite some time. Has this campaign been everything you thought it would be? Was it? I mean, I know that you you were running a hopeful campaign. Did you feel hopeful during the campaign?

I felt hopeful when I was with the people. Because I saw it in their eyes. I saw it as I walked down the aisle to shake their hand, like see that intense hope and a little bit of desperation and that you're sort of filled with all these different emotions all at once and it's happening so fast that like it feels like it's just been a tornado for six weeks. But yes, I do I have felt hope and I do feel more hopeful now than ever. And it has convinced me that this is worth doing. This is worth fighting for. Here, we're going to leave it there. Thank you very much.

All the best to you, Pierre Poliev, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada running to be the Prime Minister. Thank you very much, Ben. Take care. Want to transform your space and your Sundays? We'll see you next time. for your chance to win big. Amazing! Ha! The small details are the difference between winning and losing. Watch and win with Renovation Resort on Home Network.