The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben takes issue with those ashamed of our Country's history

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Ben takes issue with those ashamed of our Country's history 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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Maybe, but definitely 100% closer to getting 1% cash back with TD Direct Investing. Conditions apply. Offer ends January 31st, 2025. Visit td.com slash dioffer to learn more. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. Canada is and always has been our country. And we want Canada to be a true North that is as strong and as free as it can be in every way that matters.

The best country in the world. That's why we're here. That's why we strive. That's why we serve. Canada must reflect the true character of the Canadian people. Honourable in our dealings, faithful to our commitments, Canada must reflect the true character of the Canadian people, honourable in our dealings, faithful to our commitments, loyal to our friends, by turns a courageous warrior and a compassionate neighbour. It is our purpose that Canada must be great, it must be great for all Canadians, it must be a country of hope and an example to the world. And only when it is these things, when Canada is all that it can be, only then can we say that our work is done.

That was one of the most inspired I have ever been by Stephen Harper. I did not agree with him on a great many things, but damn it, did I love that commercial. I remember it when it was on TV. He got knocked by critics calling it like, Michael Bay does Canadian citizenship or something like that. Some nonsense like that. But Stephen Harper just reposted that. He said, true when I said it, true today.

And you're damn right, sir. You're damn right. And as we marshal our resources and as we look to plan for what is going to be punishing tariffs by Donald Trump, it seems like everybody is reconnecting with their pride in Canada. And I just wonder, where have you been?

Where have you been as the symbols of our country, the history of our country has been denigrated, demeaned, taken out of context, outright lied about, and the people who have built this country have been attacked, their reputations besmirched, their history cherry picked so that you could call them all manner of sin, colonizer, imperialist, genocider. I don't know what else you'd call them.

That's not a word, but where were you when the statues were torn down of the people who had the vision and the courage and the bravery to help build this country? Why were you so unwilling to have an honest, good faith conversation about what made them great and the, but also what made them human? The ills, the problems that they didn't solve

and the problems that they exacerbated. Why were you so unwilling to have an honest conversation about them? Why were you in such a rush to tear them down? And in doing so, projecting a view of Canada that we are unworthy of our own existence, unworthy of our pride in ourselves. There's the CEO of Shopify pointed out on Twitter,

when the protesters tore down the statue of Sir John A in Montreal, my wife and I offered to pay for it, to put it back up. We caught a lot of flack for it back then. We lost friends because the mainstream media kept repeating lies about our country and its history. Canada is a wonderful country with a proud history. It is worth fighting for all of it.

Its history, its leaders, its ideals. Canada is not just a slightly colder version of California. It has a distinct and unique place in the world. It has been a shining light to the idea of ordered liberty. As Wilfrid Laurier used to say, Canada is free and freedom is its nationality. Let's reclaim this history. Let's put up more statues celebrating this history.

Let's make Canada the most free country in the world again. Amen, sir. Amen. And things got even worse than that. At one point, we were being held to account for a history that wasn't even ours. When racial injustice was put on television for all to see with the murder of George Floyd, all of a sudden I and our country was being held to account for a history that is not ours. We have enough to atone for in this country. We need to be brave enough to have those conversations on reconciliation, on equity, on structural racism.

We have those issues here. I will not be held accountable for someone else's history. I am not accountable for the grooming gangs in the UK. I am not accountable for the murder of George Floyd. We have enough to be responsible for in our own country. And those who have suffered at the hands of the Canadian government or provincial governments or different levels of government, yes, absolutely, let's have those conversations. Let's atone for our own sins. But with so much to atone for, I am not and never will be held responsible for the ills of another country. I remember back when I was on television,

we would have intelligent, well-spoken professors who would come on and say Canada was a slave-owning nation. No, we weren't. There was slave trading within British North America, but it had long been made illegal after long after Canada became a nation. Not to say we don't have to atone for that past, but we got to call things what they are. You don't make matters better

by claiming things are worse than they were. And yes, none of what I'm saying is to diminish or marginalize some of the crimes that Canada has been responsible for and some of the terrible decisions that have been made. But you have to call these things what they are. And so as we look to a big issue with Donald Trump, ask yourself, where were you when our prime minister said we have no core identity? Where were you when he lowered the flags at half mass for I think over a year to the point that when there was another tragedy that we had to deal with, he had to raise them back up so that he could raise lower them again. I remember being on Parliament Hill for Canada's 125th anniversary. It was a celebration

of all things that make this country great and I will remember being there for our 150th and it felt like a funeral. There was nothing, nobody was celebrating our 150th, certainly not in the way we celebrated one, two, five, certainly not in the way, because we have been plugging away at the idea that Canada is not a country. And if it is a country,

then it is a genocidal imperialist cancer that needs to be treated. And I do not subscribe to that, I do not subscribe to that. I do not subscribe to that. And it's just, it's a little rich for me today where all of a sudden people are rediscovering their patriotism in the face of Donald Trump. The call was coming from within the house for years

and you had no problem demeaning this country, rewriting our history and canceling some of the great figures who built this place up to the place where you have the liberty to lie about our history. And so where were you then? Because I suspect a lot of the people who are waving the flag today had no problem using it as a punching bag. I don't know what the image is I'm going for there. You know, look to our, look to Queens Park in Toronto, the seat of the legislative body there where there's a box there because so many people

were throwing paint and trying to tear down the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald. It's right there. The box is still there. Let's unbox Sir John A., whom my father believed, and I believe he was right, is still today the greatest prime minister in the history of this country. Was he right on everything? Did he get a whole bunch of stuff wrong?

Yes. Name one prime minister who didn't. Name one prime minister who didn't. Can we please stop judging people from the past based on our values of today? Because I promise, if you do that, you will be judged by future generations as lacking. You will be judged as unenlightened. You will be judged as a racist. You will be judged as whatever the social mores of the future are. If you are judged by them, you will be judged poorly. I'm glad we're having these conversations again.

I'm glad that I can say these things and not worry about people coming. Oh, there will be people coming at me for this for sure. But that dog don't hunt anymore. You can't get there from here anymore. I'm glad that we've rediscovered a pride in this country. But you gotta be honest with yourself about what side of the fence you were on

for as long as we were there. We need strong leadership. We need to celebrate our history, not hide from it. We've united against the threat of Donald Trump, but where were you when the threat was coming from within the country?