The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben weighs in on how hard it will be financially for the next generation

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Parents were asked if their adult kids would have a better life financially – it’s shocking how few said yes 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

This episode is brought to you by FX's Dying for Sex on Disney+. Based on the podcast of the same name, Dying for Sex tells the story of Molly, who is diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Determined to feel everything she can before she can't feel anything, she decides to leave her unhappy marriage to explore her sexuality with some encouragement from her best friend Nikki. FX's Dying for Sex, streaming April 4th, only on Disney Plus. Sign up now at DisneyPlus.com.

Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The Ben Mulrooney Show. Thank you so much for listening to us on CFPL in London, on 640 Toronto, on the iHeartRadio app, or in podcast form. It's gonna be a good day, but let's, let's, I mean, look, there's good and bad in every day, right. And I woke up today to some good news and some bad news. We'll start with the bad. And firstly, when I heard this driving in today, I thought it was Groundhog Day, I thought that somebody in the newsroom, well, I thought it was a April Fool's joke, to be honest. And then

the more I listened, I was like, No, it's not an April Fool's joke, it's just Toronto. The fact that there are additional closures to the Gardiner Expressway after we were told. I mean, you all remember the drama from this summer when a huge swath of the expressway is being closed to rebuild it. And it's a three year process. And then the mayor came in and told me work was being done 24 seven.

Then we find out it's not being done 24 seven and then more money came in. So it could be done 24 seven. And then I think it from three years down to two years, which I guess is normal. I mean, I've never seen another city that closes major arterial roads for as long as we do and as often as we do,

but Toronto is Toronto, right? We're exceptional that way. So to find out that on top of that construction, there are going to be nearly a year's worth of work to repair five bridges. And that starts April 7th. There's gonna be a number of reduced lanes. I just thought to myself, first of all, why didn't they seed the ground and prepare us for this?

As you're giving us all the bad news at once. You knew this was coming. You knew this was coming. Like, again, I can I go back to it, Toronto. What are we getting for our money? Like, what are we getting for our money? Like, what are we getting? Because clearly the money that we're pouring into the city isn't being spent on the maintenance of infrastructure. If maintenance was the goal, then we wouldn't have to close these things for as long as we do.

That's not maintenance. That's overhaul. Right? A weekend here and there to fix something, that's maintenance. The place is crumbling. You're past maintenance. But Toronto is Toronto, right? We're exceptional. Elbows up Toronto, right? Elbows up to avoid, I guess, to avoid crumbling infrastructure falling on your head. Okay, so that's the bad, right? The good, at least on its face, is that this morning, if you want to gas up your car, you could see at the gas pump an immediate reduction in the price of

gas by 20 cents per liter. That's a lot of money. I mean, if my tank is bone dry, I'm spending as close to 100 bucks, sometimes in excess of 100 bucks. If you're telling me that I'm saving money, I'm happy. But there is a certain type of person in this country that is gonna look at that and say, thank you, Mark Carney. Thank you, Liberal government, for doing this for us,

for giving us the relief at the pumps that we so desperately need. And I have no idea how you get there from here, after 10 years of railing against the carbon tax by the conservatives and the liberals demonizing them, saying that they wanted the planet to burn, only to turn around what was politically expedient and doing what the what the Tories have been saying they were going to do at much political cost to them. I don't if you're saying thank you, Mark Carney, do you not realize that you were overpaying for, I mean, since the carbon tax came in, I mean, every time you went to the pump and paid a buck 60 a leader, were you railing against the liberals? Because if you're going to thank them today, then you should have been you should have

been burning them at the stake metaphorically. Every time you filled up. But look, I take good news. I'm happy I'm paying less. I'm glad that cooler heads have prevailed, even if those cooler heads are politically opportunistic. It saves me some money. And of course, we're gonna save money on natural gas

and home heating and all of that stuff. So we are saying goodbye to the carbon tax, at least in terms of its effect on us, because the carbon tax, at least in terms of its effect on us, because the carbon tax is still a law. But tomorrow is Liberation Day, according to Donald Trump, where the tariffs that he has long promised come into effect. Our premier, Doug Ford, has a different name for tomorrow.

He's calling it termination day. And he warns Ontarians need to fasten their seatbelts because they're gonna hurt. So Donald Trump has said he's gonna announce the details of his plan. And I put plan in air quotes because I don't believe the man has a plan when it comes to tariffs. To slap reciprocal tariffs on trading partners,

including Canada. And so far we have no idea what they're gonna look like. They could be, we could be on the lower end. We could be on the higher end. Don't know what that means. And according to Doug Ford, he said, Howard Lutnick doesn't even know. Either he's blowing smoke or he really doesn't know.

And I think it's the latter. I think sometimes Mr. Trump doesn't know either. So let's fasten our seat belts think it's the latter. I think sometimes Mr. Trump doesn't know either so let's fasten our seatbelts and let's get ready. And look, you know something we're gonna talk about over the course of this morning is the Donald Trump of it all in this federal election campaign. You know there's a lot of polls that are suggesting that people believe that Mark Carney and the Liberals are best suited to take on Donald Trump. And I don't understand that.

Somebody needs to make it make sense because there was practically a ticker tape parade for Mark Carney last week, claiming, oh, he had a really productive phone call with Donald Trump. So he gets credit for that. And then if these tariffs come in tomorrow, well, then he's gonna win there too, because he has the enemy that he always wanted to prosecute this election

and make people forget about the last 10 years. And so we're gonna be asking our political panel later in the show, is this a win-win for Mark Carney? Because no matter what happens here, so long as Donald Trump is in the mix, Mark Carney looks like the guy to solve the problem, even though nothing has improved on that front at all. Like, at all. Before we go to break, I want to give you the daily dose of F around and find out. Here is,

we know that progressives in the states are having a hissy fit. It's the only way to describe it. It's a hissy fit. They didn't win the election. And now they are coming after Elon Musk for his work in Doge, I guess, and his cozying up to Donald Trump. And Teslas are the front in this war. Well, one gentleman, I say that in air quotes, was caught on the cameras of a Tesla carving a swastika into

the car. And because there's cameras all over a Tesla and they caught him. And this is the moment he finds out he's confronted about damaging someone's Tesla. Free service. How about you pay for the repairs? Write a check. You just bought a Tesla. I can wipe it off.

No, no, no, it is a crime, sir. It is a hate crime. Did you write a swastika on there? Sorry, you're upset. Did you write a swastika? It didn't even work. Did you write a swastika on it? It's a key, sir. We see it on the video. Did you? Is it a swastika? I was putting my keys in my pocket. Have you looked at your car? Is there a key mark? Yes. Is it a swastika? That was probably putting my keys in my pocket. Is it a swastika? Have you looked at your car? Is it a swastika? Is there a key mark? Yes.

Is it a swastika? That's impossible. It's at the police right now. It's being fingerprinted. What do you mean it's being fingerprinted? Because they're trying to track you down. Thankfully, Facebook tracked you down. So your business, your freaking livelihood,

everything now, because you chose to write a, so to tell Facebook that you're sorry for writing a swastika on a Tesla. Okay. And in that moment, it's dawning on him that the hissy fit that he had, the his, his, his feeling that he had the right, his outrage about Elon Musk was so great that he was able to do whatever he wanted to do, including break the law. Now it is dawning on him that the weight of the police could possibly be bearing down on him. Listen to this. Obviously, I have something against Elon Musk, but that's not the way to show my... So Elon Musk owns that car?

No, he owns the company. Because it was bought and paid for a long time ago. That's why it's misguided, and obviously I did not intend to do this. Yeah, they all assume that they can do what they want with impunity until they get caught. And then you see how truly petulant they are and how fragile they are. They're very, very loud until all of a sudden they cross a line fragile they are. They're very very loud until all of a sudden they cross a line and get caught and then all of a sudden they're little kids and they're willing to be diplomatic and they're hoping to appeal

to your better angels. Welcome back to the Ben Mulry Show. Thank you for joining us. First segment I gave you my opinions on a whole bunch of stuff and now it's your turn. 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. There's a piece in the Globe and Mail where parents were asked if they believed their adult kids would have a better life than them financially. And the numbers, they're shocking but they are not surprising. 13.7% of parents agreed that their adult kids would have a better life financially, which means 80 some odd percent disagreed with that. They believe that the future is less bright

for their kids. About four in 10 parents said their kids would not have a better life financially, but they'll be okay. Okay. And there's about 27% of parents who think their kids will be worse off. Oh, sorry, a full quarter of them think that their parents will be worse off, their kids will be worse off. And so I want to hear from you are your kids, do you believe your kids are gonna be better off than you? Are you worried about their financial future? What steps are you taking that you never thought would be your responsibility? In a lot of

cases, once the kids leave the nest, you've armed them with as much as you can, and then you wish them the best, and you hope that, you know, they have all the tools they need to build on what they've learned from you. In other cases, you know, adult kids get financial assistance, and we're living in a time where the bank of mom and dad is helping kids secure a mortgage, pay for a house outright. In a lot of cases, the kids are still living at home until they can get their their financial legs under them, which becomes increasingly difficult to do these days. So I want to hear from you. Are your kids going to be better off than you? Please let me know. Let's start with Yvette. Yvette, welcome to the show. Do you have adult kids? Yes, I have two adult kids.

And when I told you those numbers, if I were to ask you, do you believe your adult kids will have a better life than you financially? How do you answer that question? I don't know how anybody can think they will. Given the climate we're in, if these kids are buying homes at 900,000, you know, they're putting the minimum deposit that they have to put down, their mortgages are 500, $600,000. Yeah. Yeah. How?

Yeah. How? Then they have kids added to, I mean, I'm not blessed yet with grandkids, but I was at the store looking at toys and I'm astounded at the prices of these toys. Right? Yeah.

How are you going to clothe these children, like babies, as they grow? And how? I don't, I just don't. So, Yvette, let me ask you. At what point, at what point did that reality, that disappointing and frustrating reality dawn on you? Do you remember? Was there a flip?

Because we grow up with this notion of the greatest part of living in a country like Canada is every generation can believe that their life will be better off, they will be better off than the generation that preceded them. That's sort of like the bargain. That's the belief that we've all, that underpins sort of Western optimism. So when did you realize that that wasn't necessarily gonna be the case for your kids? Let's say before the last liberal election.

Okay, I wasn't trying to lead you there. But I you know, we are in the middle of an election campaign. And even if I can, if we can continue this for a second, there is a generational divide that we're gonna be talking about on the Ben Mulroney Show today, where boomers are tending to line up behind Mark Carney, and it's the young people that believe that it's time to change governments

so that they can have a shot. May I ask, and you don't have to answer, but may I ask who you're gonna vote for? Oh, gosh. Pierre. Okay, so you don't have to answer, but may I ask who you're going to vote for? Oh, here. Okay. Okay. So you're. All right. So you're an outlier. I'm dealing with that boomer thing because my parents are 100% liberal and there's no reasoning with them as to why, you know, why would you want to vote for this guy again?

Interesting. Right. Yvette, listen, thank you very much for your call. I really appreciate the conversation. And let's turn the microphone over to Steve. Steve, welcome to the show. Good morning, gentlemen. So let me ask you, so are you, do you have adult kids? Oh, yeah, well, they're in their 20s, 21 to 25.

And have you, if I had to ask you the question that was put to the the the people in the survey in the Globe and Mail, if I asked you do you believe that your adult kids are going to have a better life financially than you, how do you answer that question? Never. No. And you're going to leave the country? Yes sir, I have no choice. I just actually talked to my wife about it last night, and we made a decision to get the head out of here before I get bogged down. And then what happens? What do you, what advice do you have for your kids? Well, my advice is to pack their bags real quick so we can get out of here. Really?

pack their bags real quick so we can get out of here. Really? Because I have never been so depressed in my life. I came here in 1975. Yeah. I could get the job every five minutes. It doesn't matter when or where. Now they can't find a job in six months. They'll never buy a bloody house here. Now they move to North Bay and they go fishing or something. Other than that, I had to buy them the used cars. They can't afford anything. It's ridiculous. Steve, thank you for the call. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I love, I'm sorry that that's the reality, but I thank you for adding that to the conversation. Jason, welcome to the show. Talk to me about your kids. A welcome to the show. Talk to me about your kids. Oh, I got four kids. Two of them are adults. One's 26. The other's 23. Both work pretty

good jobs making more per hour than I do. But I know right now there's no way they're going to do better than me. They're just getting hammered every which way. They can't even afford to buy a house and they already know know that, and they're pretty upset about it. They figure a good hard day's work, and they work hard for their money. I mean, my oldest boy, he works 50 hours a week. He makes, I think about $35, $36 an hour. At that kind of money, you should be able to buy a house,

and that's what he wants. But he knows, right now, there's no way. He knows it. He's so mad about it. And he's just starting out in his life and he feels dejected already. My other son, he works for LiUNA. He's been making pretty decent money, got a red seal.

He ain't buying a house and he already knows it too. He said, you know, the houses that he looks at, they're like six, seven, $800,000 for a house. Yeah. He's not making that money. There's just no way. And he just got married, got a kid on the way and just starting out and he feels dejected already too. Yeah. Hey, Jason, thank you for the call. I'm sorry that that's happening. And I do appreciate you calling in and sharing that story.

Let's take one more call before the break. Chico, welcome to the show. Hey, good morning. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. So do you have parents? You have kids? I do. I do have kids. And I come with a family that has been brought up to us like, it's up to the parents how good your kids is going to do. Like my kids have been teaching since little. Now you're going to have to start think about opening a business, selling, buying, do trades. Houses and liability. Most people think oh we're gonna job buy a house. No, that is not the way to do it. I own my own business, I don't own a home. Houses and liability. You earn your money as a business operator, whichever whatever you

do right and feel rich, have the money there. When things go sour, know things are gonna still get cheaper, you buy a house. But most people believe that get you have kids educated, send them to college, go graduate and go get a job. No, have your kids go to school, do the basics, whatever they wanna do. Teach them how to operate a business. They can do entrepreneurs, you know?

Sure, yeah, but can I ask, listen, I love the optimism. I really do, you know? Sure. Yeah. But can I can I ask me that? Listen, I love the optimism. I really do. You sound bullish and confident. And that's great. And I think we need more of that. But I mean, there are certain realities you can't get away from. And there's certain reality, like it's harder to open a business today, it costs more to open a business today, there's more risk, it's harder to find investment. It's and it's and you say rent, well, even rent has skyrocketed as well. So aren't those realities we got to give you about 10 seconds to answer.

It is reality. But if you start with business, when you date, they very young, they will they will hit a wall, they'll start again, they hit a wall, start again, eventually will happen. You know, you don't need a million dollars to open a business, you got a million dollars, go stock bonds, you know, savings. Chico, thank you very much for the call. I love his optimism. I don't need a million dollars to open a business. You got a million dollars, go stock bonds, you know, savings, something like that. Chico, thank you very much for the call. I love his optimism. I don't know if it's shared by everyone. Hey, listen, if you're on the line, stick around. And I want to hear more of your calls on this next on the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you very much for joining us. And thank you for holding on the line. We're having a discussion about the future

of your adult kids. There is a survey from the Globe and Mail that suggests that over 25% of parents believe that their kids will be worse off and that they are worried about it. And so I want to see if that's accurate. And so we've got some people who've been waiting on the line but I urge you to give us a call 416-70 6400 or one triple eight two to five talk.

Let's say hi to Jamie. Jamie, welcome to the show. Hey, Ben, how's it going today? It's going well. Thank you. OK, so now I don't particularly have children. However, I've got nieces and nephews and I know I know a lot of younger people. I don't know what happened, but there was there was a moment in time where the country

something that happened to me was that I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war.

I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of a war. I was in the middle of younger people. I don't know what happened, but there was a moment in time where the country, something got out of control. Years ago, like I bought a house back in the late 90s, and it was affordable. You could have a half decent job with a half decent pay, and you can get into the market. But today, what happened is it started started at one point, things started just doubling and tripling and quadrupling, but the pay and the wages never caught up to inflation, right? So now these poor kids are struggling to get a house, to buy a house, and what happens is they're locked into their family dynamic and then they probably feel

guilty to move to another country or to another place in Canada whereas our parents that came from Europe left everything, left their mothers and fathers and everything to come here to start a new life. I don't know if these new kids have that same, they've got all this guilt on their shoulders to say, you know I'm not gonna fly the coop. Yeah. No, that's a good point and Jamie. Yeah. Yeah, you're right And thank you very much. And look, I wasn't gonna make this about politics, but I am gonna make it about politics Pierre poliev gets Unfairly tarnished with this notion that all he does is talk in slogans, right?

That's not true. He's put more in the window in terms of policy than anyone. I still don't know what Mark Carney stands for. The policies that he has brought up are either Pierre Polio's policies or Justin Trudeau's policies. And this idea that we're all in this together. They love saying that Canada is better when we're together. All that stuff. together. They love saying that Canada is better when we're together. All that stuff. Do you feel like Canada's got your back as a parent who's being forced to sacrifice and do even more for your kids who cannot get ahead? Where is Canada for you? Like honestly, where is Canada for you where all of a sudden you have become the bank for your kids, you become the landlord for your kids, you become the daycare for your kids. And despite all of that, they still can't get ahead. That is one of the most meaningless

and I think offensive things that it comes out of the Liberal Party because they're making you feel bad that you have to look after your own and you're not thinking about the community at large. You don't have enough time, enough bandwidth, enough money to think about your neighbors and your community because all of it is wrapped up in trying to make sure that your kids get ahead and they can't.

All right, that's all I'll say about that. Let's go back to the calls. Dan, welcome to the show. Good morning. Good morning. Hey, Ben. Hey. Your last caller had it right.

This all happened to be coupled during the, we've been in a 20-year bubble and it all started with those wonderful artificially low interest rates where 2016 2017 mainlanders were coming here and offering 200 grand above an inflated house price oh yes I remember Justin Trudeau looking down his nose at a journalist saying interest rates rates are historic lows, Glenn. As if. Ben, it was only 2% of all the state was foreign investments. When you can see entire subdivisions being gobbled up over weekends from foreign... Yeah, yeah.

...watched it with my own eyes. But anyway, all these calls are focusing on what... defining their kids' futures as owning a house. Since when was a house your entire future? Well, I mean, you posed the question, so I'll say it. I mean, it has been the dream. Home ownership has been the dream for generations. It's not something that popped out of nowhere. It's not something that was made out of whole cloth. It's something that our parents did, our parents before them did, and it was a way to build wealth. But it is a blip though, a specific North America post-war. The rest of the world was living in fishing villages or had the hell bombed out of them, or they've always lived

multi-generationally in a home handed down from generation to generation. I'm sure your last call there knows what I'm talking about. And it's only a North American thing because they had no competition. Well, guess what? Now we have three billion people to compete with, more people to compete with. And our ancestors moved from crappy conditions to come here. Well, guess what? It's time for our kids to move. You can go down to Orlando and get a house for 250 grand American or somewhere else. Or you can go to Winnipeg or Saskatoon or whatever it requires. Or you can leave Canada. Yeah. Yeah, if you want, right, I could live for half the price elsewhere. So it's up to our kids. But but but but don't you think Dan,

what does it say about the country? What does it say about this entire country? That if you if you feel that your best option to to succeed is to leave your country like what does that say about Canada we're on same page Ben trust me a lot of ten years have changed structurally have changed it however our job as parents are to tell our kids and youth and I think they bought it it's never been better for them it's cheaper you said last call that there are two calls ago that it's more expensive to start a business. That's nonsense. It's never been cheaper. I'm a business owner. You can start a business from your computer, your register,

boom, boom, boom. You can have the entire world's resources at your fingertips on your phone. You can work internationally. You can work by the hour, whatever you want. You can work on a beat if you want. Kids know this. And the world's not burning to a crisp, unlike the bros that have been telling them that for the past few decades, that they're going to die in 10 years. Well, guess what? Now there's no carbon tax. I guess we're not dying. Dan, I'm going to let you go because I got some other calls lined up. But thank you for the discussion. Hey, Heather, thank you so much for calling and happy Tuesday. Hi. Hey, it's so easy to start a business. Let's all be business owners. Why don't we? Nobody's going to be a lawyer. Nobody wants to be a doctor. You know, it doesn't even make sense

to be a doctor in Canada. Let me tell you something. I'm a mom. I have four kids and I feel sad for them. And if I could tell my, if I now could tell my, myself in the past, I wouldn't have had kids. And I think in this country, women should take a break and stop having kids. Yeah, well, the problem with that, Heather, and I respect your everybody's something to think about. Yeah, listen, I respect if you don't want kids, I respect that we're a country that has a plummeting birthrate, which is

so we have to compensate for that by bringing in immigrants and we've done it in such an unchecked way that a lot of our resources or services rather are are splitting at the seams. But I do take your point. And I appreciate the commentary. Let's welcome Jim to the show. Jim, thanks so much for calling in. to the show. Jim, thanks so much for calling in. Hey, Ben, thanks for taking my call. You're amazing. You're got a great show. Thank you. I'm not worried about my kids' future. They have left. They've gone to New York City, and they are killing it there. And people in Canada here, we say, oh, you got to pay for health care. They pay for their benefits, but their taxation is so much less there. They are never coming back. Well, and Jim, I remember years ago that the sort of the bargain that was struck is,

yes, our taxes are higher, but it's offset by the fact that we've got great world-class health care and things like that. You don't have to pay for insurance and that sort of thing. And it's one less thing to worry about. It's one less responsibility that's offloaded from the individual. That's not the case anymore. When you've got subpar outcomes from our hospitals, we've never paid more into it, and our taxes are high. I know a lot of people who say, I would rather, honestly, I'd rather the high quality health care and pay for the insurance that is required in order

to get what I need and get what I deserve. In the United States, I take your point 100%. We've got time for one last call. Elizabeth, thank you so much for calling. Hi. Hi there. Hi. Well, I'm a senior and I just have an alternate point of view. We are going to be voting conservative 100%. And I found that many seniors who have grandchildren And I found that many seniors who have grandchildren are making that choice because they're worried not so much about their children, but their grandchildren. And that's exactly- But do you have- I only have a few minutes left, Elizabeth, but do you have friends who

are hell-bent on voting for Mark Carney and the Liberals? Yes. And what is their explanation? I'm trying, I struggle to understand why they would, why anybody would automatically, almost reflexively, give this liberal party a fourth term. They don't really have any good reason, as far as I'm concerned,

and we almost can lose the friendship over it of debating, but they just feel he's the most qualified and they can't stand of Poliev when he opens his mouth the looks of him. Do they realize that some of the policies that he's putting in the window were taken from Pierre Poliev? Absolutely, absolutely. They're well informed. I will say as well, though, one of my adult children did immigrate to Japan and the other one stayed here. But to me, it's all about the grandchildren. I want my grandchildren to have this country like I had it. And it's just not shaping up to be that way. The debt is out of control and

nobody's even talking about it like it's not even, you know, top of mind. Yeah, Elizabeth, I want to thank you very much for your call. I want to thank everybody for adding to this discussion. I think it really painted an interesting picture of where we are as a country and where we're going. Want to transform your space and your Sundays? Well, Home Network is giving you the chance to love your home with $15,000. There can only be one winner. Tune in to Renovation Resort every Sunday and look for the code word during the show.

Then enter at homenetwork.ca slash watch and win for your chance to win big. Amazing! The small details are the difference between winning and losing. Watch and win with Renovation Resort on Home Network.