The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 2 - Pierre Poilievre + More

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

Best of the Week Part 2 - Pierre Poilievre + More Guests: Pierre Poilievre, Caitlin Green, David Cooper, Dr. Oren Amitay 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

Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show best of the week podcast. We had so many great discussions this week, including Pierre Poliev's first interview since the election. Enjoy. It's now time for us to focus the elections over we now have a cabinet, we've got a government the House of Commons will be sitting soon. And this government will be getting to work on the issues and values and policies that are important to them that maybe got them elected. values and policies that are important to them that maybe got them elected. We'll have to wait and see on that. But on the other side of the aisle, the that party is somewhat incomplete in that the leader of that party did not win his seat and is now seeking a seat in a by-election, which should probably see him in that role restored to the leader of the opposition by the fall. And we are joined by that person. Pierre Poliev joins us right now here on the Ben Mulroney show

Pierre welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us Good to be with you Ben. Thanks for having me. So let's let's get your take on a few things The cabinet was announced. I think the the prime minister had an interesting job He had to make what was old look new what was tired look fresh How do you think he did? Well, first of all, I congratulate everyone who got named. It's a big deal to get become a cabinet member. There's only about 40 cabinet ministers out of 40 million Canadians. So it's literally a one in a million opportunity to do some

things. I think that there's a lot of the names that were around Justin Trudeau's cabinet. For example, he has Melanie Jolie and Champagne. They're doing the two economic files. Well, they were very strong members of the Trudeau government that delivered really terrible results for our economy. This is a time when we had the worst economic growth and the G7 and cost doubled, poverty went up to 25%. I was kind of surprised that he would pick

the same Trudeau ministers to head the big economic portfolios. The new justice minister is Sean Frazier. He was the immigration minister that ran our system out of control and gave us the biggest immigration crisis in history. He became the housing minister and of course he gave us the most expensive housing in the developed world and now he's in charge of crime. So I find it hard to understand why you pick a guy who caused the housing and immigration crises to deal with the crime crisis. So unfortunately, the new liberal cabinet looks a lot like the old liberal cabinet and

that's why it's going to be more necessary for than ever for a conservative to step up and fight for the values that 8 million people voted for on election day. Now you've got the there are purists out there who believe that the role of her majesties or his majesty's loyal opposition is to oppose and to and to propose alternatives to policies that they feel are anathema to the best outcomes for Canadians. However, given the fact, and if I can be cheeky here, given the fact that the liberals got elected because of on certain files,

they pretty much lifted things from the conservative platform. Can you see once you get back into the House of Commons, can you see finding common cause on certain issues of national importance with the liberals and voting in favor of certain select parts of their agenda? Well, it will be, if they vote,

if they put forward our agenda, then we would vote for our agenda, of course. And we've been, as conservatives, leading the national debate on carbon tax, inflation, housing, crime, drugs, natural resources. I mean, you know, the positions that we took over the last three years, they were, you know, seen as far out there until we came along and won the debate. And so now everyone claims to agree with us. And if the Liberals implement a conservative

agenda, then we will obviously vote for that agenda. But if they are, if they continue down the same path of radical government spending, money printing, indebtedness, soft on crime, liberalized drug laws, then we oppose those things. So, you know, it's like Lincoln said, I stand with a man when he stands right and I stand against him when he stands wrong. Right. Well, you are running for a seat now in Alberta, which puts you in a, you know, you're going to be representing or attempting to represent, you know, people who have a very particular view of Ottawa and what they want out of Ottawa. Before we get to what you're hearing at the door and how you're preparing for that by-election, you know, two key cabinet positions for Alberta are environment and natural resources. What do

you make of his of Carney's choices on both those files? I don't know a lot about the new resource minister because he is new to politics. So I hope that he works out. He's a good guy. And I'll support him in any way I can to get pipelines built, the mines dug, eliminate the anti-development laws like C-69, the energy cap, the industrial carbon tax, and the list goes on. But so wait and see what he does.

Then you've got the environment minister. She has unfortunately, a background as opposing our oil and gas sector. She's she calls it the tar sands rather than the oil sands. She has been a strong supporter of banning plastics and other essentials of our modern economy. And so I were concerned, frankly, the minister, the premier of Alberta has said that she's worried that this new appointment could be a real disaster, but it will depend on whether she governs based on her past statements or whether she's changed tack. And I hope that the latter is true. I'm in conversation with Pierre Poliev here

on the Ben Mulroney show. And Pierre, have you begun the work of getting to know the people in the riding where you, that you seek to represent? I have, yes. I did a small tour about 10 days ago, I think it was, it was a couple of Saturdays ago,

and we went and visited the people of consort, and I've been on the phones with the local mayors in the many small towns and villages of the region. It's a heavily agricultural and oil and gas region of the country. But you know, you say, well, of course, but it is especially so. They have 56,000 kilometers of landmass. They have the hardesty energy hub, which is, I'm told actually, 3% of Canada's GDP literally travels through the pipes and systems of that

one hardesty location, even though there's only five or 600 people who live in the town. So an incredibly important part of our national economy that is unfortunately not well enough known. So I will be championing energy production, agriculture, free enterprise, small government, less tax and law and order. Because those are the things that people in the community and the region want done. And they happen to be the same things

the entire country needs. Pierre, if you are lucky enough to represent the people of that area, and how are you going to, I don't know, thread the needle of being able to defend Canada as an idea, Canada as something worth preserving in the face of a rising tide of preserving in the face of a rising tide of separatist movement. And that separatist movement, it seems, is linked to what the people of that area would view as poor decision-making or disrespect from Ottawa. So how do you defend Canada when the people that you're opposing in the House of Commons would be in one way, shape, or form responsible for helping rise that tie to separatism?

Well, I think that the things that the people in Battle River, Crowfoot, want are the same things that all Canadians want, which is a strong national economy driven in large part by our immense resource wealth. So I don't think Albertans want to separate. I think they want a change. They're tired of being told, pay up and shut up. And I agree with them on that. Um, if they, if we can convince the government to

get off the backs of the energy sector, approve pipelines, um, LNG plants, mines, and repeal the anti-energy laws, then the province of Alberta will roar with economic activity. And I think the people will say, wow, this country works for us again. So that's what I'm going to try to do. Let's unite the country by doing the things that are not just good for the whole country, but also for people who live in the communities across Battle River, Crowfoot and the province of Alberta. Pierre, I wish we had more time, but I want to thank you for joining us.

Following your journey over the next few months is going to be very interesting, very exciting. I hope you come back to talk to us about where your head's at. I can't wait. Thanks so much. Pierre Puglia, the leader of the Conservative Party. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you for joining us on this hump day edition of the Ben Mulroney Show. I am your host, Ben Mulroney, and I was away yesterday. I had an event in my schedule that actually predated the Ben Mulroney Show and I could not get out of it. And I missed a lot. I missed the announcement of the cabinet. We're gonna be talking about that a little bit later.

But yesterday, our Prime Minister, Mark Carney, elected to form government, sat down with CTV's Vashi Kapoulos. And I have to say it was a wide ranging interview. They spoke on a lot of subjects I think important to a lot of Canadians. And Vashi, to her credit, asked a lot of questions that people like myself have of Mark Carney. Hopefully one day I will be able to ask him those questions myself and perhaps new ones as well.

We the invitation is always open to the prime minister to join us here on the Ben Mulroney show. But in the meantime, let's break down some of the key points that came out of this interview. Vashy asked Mark Carney how he was looking at his cabinet as a whole. So there's some similarities. There's experience, experience being deployed in different ways. I'm a new prime minister. And let's look at the let's look at the cabinet as a whole, because I'm not quite sure I make the distinction between the quote front bench and the cabinet as a whole. We only have 28 cabinet ministers.

That's down from the mid upper 40s, some previous governments. Half of those ministers are new. Never been cabinet ministers before. In many cases, they're new to parliament as a whole. So we're bringing in a lot of fresh energy, fresh ideas, fresh perspectives alongside with experience. And that's a good team. That's a good management team in my judgment.

Obviously, I spent a lot of time trying to construct it that way. Yeah, listen, I'm not going to complain for the sake of complaining. My biggest chief complaint of this cabinet is the gender balance of it all, the 2015 of it all, if you will, 38% of his caucus is female, but 50% of his cabinet is female, which tells me that he prioritized gender over the best people. That is a binary choice. Not everything in life is binary.

That's a binary choice. You're, by definition, prioritized the appearance of progressiveness over making sure that you had the best people in. And look, we've been doing it for years. This is another layer of that. We do it when we try to balance the cabinet regionally and linguistically.

Those are choices we have made as a country, no matter who's been in power. The liberals have now added this additional layer of performance over, not performance, performance suggested the performance of the people there. But the the the the pageantry, the the look of progressive values over the actual performance of for and striving for excellence. And it just, it is what it is. So that was disappointing.

But he did have a really difficult job to do. The people decided that they wanted him and his team to represent Canada and form government. And so that's just a fact. There's no mincing words and I'm not somebody who is gonna complain about that. It's just, it's the fact. So how does he put a new face on an old team? And we'll have to see whether the choices he made

translates into a successful government or not. I'm not going to complain yet because he hasn't done anything with it yet. We'll have to see. But he, Vashy continued on pushing him on why you've got the same faces in there. How is that different? Constructed that way. And I do take the point on the fresh faces, but even when you point to the experience

of those who are in the sort of biggest roles, the reason why I highlight them is because they were at the forefront of the decisions that the previous government made They were I mean Melanie Jolie Francois Philippe champagne. He led the industrial policy now He'll be in charge of finance Dominic LeBlanc led a lot of those files as well We are used to hearing from them justifying and explaining the decisions that Justin Trudeau made Well, so now we're gonna hear from them again. Well first off now you're hearing from me. I'm a new prime minister I'm the 24th Prime Minister of Canada. I've got a very clear set of objectives which I laid out in the course of my initial government from that cabinet table, cancel the carbon tax right there. In fact, just to our right of my first act. But developing this focus on one Canadian economy, getting rid of internal

trade barriers will do our job by Canada today that means the federal government we're working with the provinces so that they can move out of the way some of them are moving really fast Nova Scotia Ontario others moving fast we're trying to get all of them but plus unlocking these major projects that are going to build this economy for the next generations not just growth today, but growth for generations. That's a focus, that is an entirely new focus of this government.

Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. I mean, he referenced inter-provincial trade barriers and the one Canadian economy. I believe he's got one minister who's in charge of the one Canadian economy, and one that's in charge of inter-provincial trade barriers. I don't know that those things, there's a difference between them,

so I don't know why one has one. They're the same thing. One Canadian economy implies you're getting rid of inter-provincial trade barriers. So that to me, there's a redundancy there that somebody's gonna have to explain. I take his point. He was elected on a new platform. The people were asked to choose

and they chose this team based on his new platform. And so in that way, there is a reset. You can't, I'm not gonna go back and say, oh, but they were the face of the Justin Trudeau party and the values that he espoused. Yes, they were, but they are now part of a new government with a new leader who is espousing, well, he says he's espousing different values. So the reset has happened. So they are old faces,

but they are they are now representing his vision. So I'm not gonna I'm not gonna complain about that. We'll have to, I mean, we can have a more esoteric debate as to what that says about their own personal values. Do they even have any? If they were willing to stand against the carbon tax only to now be against it. I mean, but that doesn't get us anywhere. That doesn't help shepherd a conversation forward. And the only other issue I have with that piece of audio

is he did not cancel the carbon tax. He brought it down to zero. He brought the value of it down to zero, which means he could bring it back up if you wanted to. So that part wasn't true, but the performance was very nice. The stroke of a pen got rid of it, very Donald Trump of him.

Vashy was very smart to bring up the fact that we're still getting to know this guy. You know, we still don't, and things he's said in the past haven't really stuck to him. And she's trying to square the Mark Carney of his book, Values, with the Mark Carney who's now prime minister. We're getting costs down, including the oil sands, the marginal production is low cost

and low carbon. All three of those come together. We have the ingredients of all that. Let's get together and move on it. And it takes more than just one pipeline in order to accomplish. And I do understand that point, but I think like in your book, multiple occasions for example, you talk about the merits of a carbon tax. And now we have a different Prime Minister, Mark Carney,

who says, the first thing I did in this very room was get rid of the carbon tax. Got rid of the consumer carbon tax, which is different than... The industrial side, but it's still a portion of the carbon tax scheme that existed in this country. And how much of the resources did that consumer... How much of the emission reduction scheme that existed in this country. And how much of the resources did that consumer car... How much of the emission reduction did that consumer...

9% Yeah, well it's actually 6, but you've extrapolated out to 20, 30, it's 9. If it went the furthest... Yeah, yeah. As far as it was supposed to go, it's supposed to be... It's not nothing. It's not nothing, it's not much. It's not much.

And we can do much better with different approaches, including collaborative approaches, which is what I'm looking to do. The big question that most people have, and certainly I have, is does Mark Carney stand for building pipelines? And this is what he had to say. If you want a simple answer on will I support building a pipeline, yes, that simple answer. I've given that multiple times. But I don't stop at that. I don't stop it. For example, if you want a simple answer on how do I make homes more affordable? I could just say we're gonna cut GST on homes. But that doesn't solve the problem. Just doing one pipeline. It's good. Don't get me wrong. It's good.

That's a positive thing and and working collaboratively in order to happen. But it's not enough. It's not enough to make Canada energy superpower. It's not enough to build our full potential. It's not enough to truly get incomes growing across the country. We can do much more. We are going to be very, very ambitious. Build big, build bold, build now. I'll say one last thing. I've noticed and I'm gonna see if this bears out over time that when he's speaking about something he doesn't wanna talk about, he stumbles, he shortens his words and speaks very quickly,

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The card for living unlimited. Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit PCFinancial.ca for details. Welcome to the Dilemma Panel. No question is too awkward. No problem too petty. And no opinion goes unchallenged. Our panel of over-thinkers is here to dissect, deliberate, and sometimes derail the conversation

entirely. Grab your popcorn. This isn't just advice. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat.

It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. It's a front-row seat. Our panel of overthinkers is here to dissect, deliberate, and sometimes derail the conversation entirely. Grab your popcorn. This isn't just advice. It's a front row seat to life's most hilariously relatable train wrecks. Here's your host, Ben Mulrooney.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. And already today we've talked a lot of politics. We've talked Carney. We've talked cabinet. We've talked with Pierre Poliev. So now it's time for the cleansing tonic that is the Dilemma Panel. And if you have a personal dilemma, a homegrown dilemma, an issue in your life that you want

resolved, then look no further than The Ben Mulroney Show. Email us at askben at chorusent.com. That's C-O-R-U-S-E-N-T dot com. And of course, it wouldn't be a panel if it was just me. That's just not how they work. So let's welcome to the panel for the very first time, Caitlin Green. She's a media personality and co-host of the Jan Arden podcast. Caitlin, welcome.

Thank you so much. It's great to be here. And we've got David Cooper, good friend of the show and host of the last show with David Cooper on the Chorus Radio Network. David, welcome back. My goodness, what a pleasure. David, you have very, very big glasses.

I know, my personality is mostly glasses and I have other qualities. Are they as heavy as they look or are they light as a feather? They are, I don't have to go to the gym, I just need to. Just squat with those glasses on and you're gonna get the quads of steel that we all want.

All right, so here's how it works, Kaelin. I'm gonna read, because David knows this, I'm going to read the dilemma and then we're going to jump right into solving these all important issues to the benefit not just of the listening public and the person whose dilemma it is, but for the world writ large. All right, let's jump right into the- It's like an educational segment. Yes. Dilemma number one, can a man and a woman who are both straight be just friends slash best friends?

I ask because I'm in a relationship and while I have no female friends, my girlfriend has a few guy friends. I told her that while I trust her, I don't trust that all her male friends simply want friendship. I feel like they're waiting in the wings for our relationship to stumble. Am I wrong? Can men and women actually be friends? Well, I'm very glad I've got a man and a woman on the panel.

It's a very Harry and Sally sort of situation. So Caitlin, let's start with you. I think you need to find out how attractive her male friends are. Yeah. OK. Yeah. I think if she has like smoking hot, very eligible platonic friends who she is spending a lot of intimate time with. So solo

dinners, drinks, not just like a lunch and an occasional phone call, then I think that is probably more troubling. Now, what about in your life? Have you ever had a guy who's just like a quote unquote friend who just sort of like hovers around and waits for the relationship to hit the rocks? I'm here for you, Caitlin. I know you're going through a rough time. I just want you to know, I can be your shoulder to cry on. Yeah, I'm here for you. And then I'm just here. No, I don't. Not blatantly, but you can't rule it out. I definitely had platonic male friendships where at some point in the friendship, they

would express a romantic interest. And then you kind of both collectively have to decide if you want to move forward and stay friends. But I've had a lot of very platonic male friendships, a lot of them, you meet them at work and it's just not the vibe. But I would say it's just people who you quickly assess, you have no chemistry with, but probably like some of the same stuff. Maybe you like the same bands, stand-up comedy, whatever that is that you're going to bond over. And I think that that is possible. David or Harry, what do you think? Strong opinions here. I hate that Caitlin said you got to

evaluate someone's looks and then decide if you're significant, if I can be friends with them. My girlfriend does this and it irks me. It's like you're deciding whether I can be friends on someone for the most superficial reason. No, and it's not superficial. It is not. Your girlfriend is smart. She is taking the world as it is, not as she wants it to be.

And I got to jump in, and then I'm going to let you continue here. But we have to call a spade a spade. We are a visual world. We interact with it with our eyes first. And in all these, every scenario is different, because everybody's level of hotness is different. And when I say hotness, it depends on the eye of the beholder.

What you see is hot, right? And so I think anybody can be friends with anybody so long as they're not attracted to them. Like- Bad values, bad values. Not bad values, it's just a recognition of fact. And there are a bunch of dudes who've got in their eyes hot platonic friends and they feel that they are at the level of hotness that she would find attractive if only that other guy

wasn't there. Well I don't know about you guys but I trust my significant other like I trust them to have boundaries and even if this is someone who they would hook up with if they were single that doesn't bother me because we're together. And then if we break up and they hook up, it doesn't bother me that they were friends. I trust my partner and I see the best in people. And I think men and women can be friends and I know I'm talking over you, so go ahead.

Kaitlin, what do you think to that? Because I think you and I are probably more closely aligned in our worldview here than David, who seems to be living in some sort of fantasy land. Well, we've already established based on the size of David's glasses that maybe this is just a vision issue. I'm really ugly and so if I can't be friends with anyone they're the same level of hotness as me.

It's like, it is also chemistry for sure. It's just, I think that what this particular person who wrote in is experiencing is some very on-its-face insecurities. Yeah. And I'm just curious as to whether or not he's talking about like a jacked six-foot-five firefighter who is like going out for dinners with his girlfriend. Because that would be troubling to everyone. And to him I would say you're only human. Yeah. So I think what we're all saying here is to the person who wrote in like, if you're hot enough, you've got nothing to worry about

Okay, let's move on to dilemma number two dear Ben I'm in my early 30s which seems to be prime time for everyone I know to start having babies I'm genuinely happy for my friends, but there's one part of this phase that drives me absolutely up the wall gender reveals I can't stand them the over-the-top theatrics, the confetti canons, it all feels so performative and unnecessary, and I secretly think that people who throw them are narcissists who just want attention. Whatever happened to just picking up the phone

and telling your family and friends you're having a boy or a girl, the worst part is you're expecting to bring a gift on top of the fact that there are baby showers too. Tell me I'm not wrong. I'm gonna go first, you're not wrong. I find those things ridiculous. They are at their most ridiculous when people put them on social media.

That's I have attended and they're fine and the food's good and the drink is always flowing. But I just I find them unnecessary. David, you go first. At best, they're ridiculous. They're just a weird display of gender norms. At worst, they play out like this. It's a boy fireworks, California burns down. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Those are the ones that always go viral. They always go viral. Yeah. I think it's disheartening because then you discover that maybe someone who you've hung out with and thought was normal for years is a gender reveal person.

I think that's disturbing part of it all. And like you said, the ensuing photo shoots and the posting on social media, although I do really enjoy watching a gender reveal fail on social media. Yeah, I think we all do. Yeah, and you're right. When the fireworks go awry. I mean, I saw a really nice one where they just flushed

a toilet and the color of the water swirling in the drain was either blue or pink. I was like, that's a gender reveal I can get behind. That social commentary, I like it. Yeah, yeah. Okay, dilemma number three. Dear Ben, a few weeks ago, I did a nice thing and gave a coworker a ride home after a late shift.

I was on my way, it was raining, and I didn't mind helping out once, but now it's turned into a thing. They wait for me after work like it's a given. They do offer gas money, which I appreciate, but honestly, I don't want the money. I want my peace. My drive home is my decompression time.

I listen to podcasts, zone out, or call my mom. Now I feel like having to make small talk or just sit in an awkward silence while presenting the whole situation. I don't wanna be mean, but I also don't wanna become someone's unofficial Uber. How do I get out of this without creating weird tension at work signed faith?

David. Wonderful, optimistic advice from my father. No act of kindness goes unpunished. You're screwed, you're screwed, writer. In future, don't be nice to people. You're suffering the consequences of your actions. I don't know what you say. I don't know how you get out of this one

without making it awkward. Caitlin, that was deliciously heartless advice from David. It was. Yeah. From the man who thinks that we can all be friends. Yeah, we can all be friends and everybody's the same level of hotness. Yeah. I'm an optimist when it comes to gender relations.

I'm not when it comes to being nice to people. Caitlin, how do you get out of this? You lean into the mom phone call. You just say, you know, this is the only time my poor mom and I get to connect and she's really missing it. Throw a grandma in there, but lean into the polite lie of this is my phone call with my family who lives far away time. And I really, it's uncomfortable, but I can't keep doing it with you.

Yeah. And I would slap lie upon lie upon lie. There's always another reason for you to go out of here. You're not going home right after work. You're going in a completely different direction. You're meeting friends after work for coffee. You've got a meeting after a meeting after a meeting. There's so many ways you can get out of that.

You've been nice. You do not have to continue. So create a facade, create a character that just needs to be, or hey, you don't want to be her unofficial Uber. Just say you started driving for Uber right after work. The clock is on and you got to get paid.

So Faith, just lie your way out of that one and you'll be okay. All right, don't go anywhere much, much more with the Dilemma Panel after the break right here on The Ben Mulroney Show. This is The Ben Mulroney Show and very pleased to continue the conversation with my dilemma

panel. Caitlin Green and David Cooper are here solving your everyday problems. Welcome back guys. Oh yes, thank you. Yes indeed. Alright, let's jump right in. Dear Ben, I am currently engaged in a silent slow burning battle with my boyfriend over the garbage.

Neither of us has officially claimed trash duty, but over time I've noticed that if I don't take it out, it just sits there. So recently I decided to test a theory. What if just, what if I just didn't? What if I just waited him out? Well, we are now two stubborn adults living with a trash can that's overflowing above the rim, empty boxes are being stacked like Jenga. I know this sounds petty, but I'm tired of silently being the one who breaks first. How do I end this ridiculous standoff without turning it into a blowout fight about trash? Signed, Nancy. Caitlin, you want to take this one first? This seems like a layup.

Oh, my gosh, take the trash out, Nancy. That's like I can't live like that. And if he does something else in the house that you don't want to do, then you can just say this is the way the tasks are going to be distributed. For whatever reason, he has garbage blindness. Maybe he has some smell issues based on the fact that there's garbage piling up all the time and he's not noticing, but I just don't want Nancy to live this life. And I think she should just bite the bullet and take this out. You're better than this, Nancy. Like, go take the garbage out.

Yeah. I mean, it's like my, I mean, the old advice that my dad used to give me, do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? Like pick pick, pick, pick, pick a side. It's pretty simple. David, what about you? Who's going to take your garbage out when I've packed my bags and gone? That's a great tune, by the way. Yeah, I had this problem with my girlfriend. I was taking out the cat litter too much and it was annoying me. So as a favor to her, I basically said, why don't we do this? You feed him every day and I'll do this chore

that you refuse to do, and then we'll feel like we're both doing something. So you should probably take out that trash, Nancy, if he refuses to do it, but say, hey, I'm doing that. You gotta do another chore that you find more palatable. I do think, guys, that there's, I mean, this is a red flag that you're living with somebody who doesn't mind living with a pile of filth in the house.

I don't know that that bodes well for building a mature relationship in the future. If you don't care about garbage in your house, there's a lack of attention to detail there that should be concerning. No, Caitlin? Yeah. And I question whether or not this is the only way in which he is gross, because it is shocking. So if he's gross in a bunch of ways

and you have to have an intervention about personal hygiene or cleanliness, then you need to have that. But if it really is isolated to just this one thing, you're gonna have to just chalk it up to distribution of labor in the household and take the garbage out. It's terrifying me to think about this Jenga box situation. And the fact that she is more than willing to like live with with the garbage, she wants

to live with the garbage more than she wants to have a conversation about the garbage, to me is concerning as well as you got if you can't have a conversation with your with with your boyfriend, your live in boyfriend boyfriend, about the, like a pretty simple thing, the division of labor within the apartment or the house. You got some bigger problems there. But that's not a problem for us to solve here. We've solved the dilemma of the garbage. All right, next one.

Dear Ben, my wife and I are expecting our first child, a boy, and while we're excited, there's one thing casting a bit of shadow. My dad really wants us to name the baby after him. He hasn't exactly asked, more likely heavily hinted repeatedly to the point where it's becoming uncomfortable. I know it would mean a lot to him and I love him and respect him, but I just don't want to name my son after him. I'm dreading the moment we announced the name and he realizes it's not his. Any word of advice signed Sam? Well, I've got, listen, my grandfather's name was Benedict. Ben had a Brian, my dad.

Brian had a Ben. I had a Brian. So we're- That's your dad. Yeah, yeah. So we're going back. It wasn't something we actively sought to do, but my dad's name was actually Martin Brian Mulrooney.

And so my other brothers, their sons, have Brian as a middle name. And so Sam, my recommendation would be give your son your dad's name as a middle name and name them whatever you want. And that way, you're giving him a little bit of a victory. And if he gives you a problem with that, say, this is my kid, you named your kid what you wanted,

I named my kid what I wanted. Then we move on. Caitlin, you're nodding in agreement. I've solved it. Yeah, I 100% agree. But I'm also so curious as to what his dad's name is. Because what if his dad's name is something like Fauntleroy, and you don't even want it for a middle name,

and you just can't tell your dad that you don't like his name? So that's the only caveat. But yeah, without knowing that, just give just do the middle name thing and move on. Yeah. I was going to say your dad's a man child to learn to draw a boundary, but I actually like your solution better. Ben. Yeah. I sort of want him to maintain a relationship with his dad. Uh, I think that's sort of the goal of the dilemma panel. It's not to create more problems for our listeners. Well think that's sort of the goal of the Dilemma panel, is not to create more problems

for our listeners. Well, that's your goal. That's my goal, yeah. Just light the whole thing on fire, that's your suggestion. No, I do think that the dad has overstepped a line by injecting himself into a conversation that is not his to participate in.

Like, I have a lot of friends who will not tell people what they're naming their kid, because they don't want those unsolicited opinions. But this is taking that even a step further. This is a person who's just starting a conversation saying, I'm expecting you to do this. And so I think the father has absolutely crossed the line. And so, Caitlin, you're right.

If you don't like the dad's name, then do nothing and force the issue in a conversation later. But you have every right to do what you want with your kid. It's your kid. And if your dad wants to have a kid named after him, he should have a kid, another kid and do that. But I think that would be a whole other kettle of fish. Okay, next one.

Kettle of fish. What are you doing to these poor fish in the kettle? We're taking from the fish, from the kettle. We're putting them in a barrel and we're shooting them. Okay, so you're not boiling them at least. Thank goodness you're not boiling them. Okay, here is a classic Reddit, am I the a-hole? Am I the a-hole for refusing to sign my parents' house,

which is under my name, over to my wife if I die? Oh my, this is specific. In 2008, my parents lost most of their money and it got to the point where they were no longer able to afford their house. My dad is quite a bit older than my mom and his biggest worry is that he's not able to leave her enough to live and pay for a home slash rent without having to be financially reliant on me. The plan we came up with is that they would put the down payment on the house that would be in my name. I would make the payments while they live in it. I love my parents very much, so agreed to this deal. Plus it would end up being a good investment for me long term. Here's the problem. I have the house in a trust. In the event I die, the ownership of the house

will transfer to my parents and then transfer to my partner slash offspring. Once they pass away, my wife wants me to change the trust to have the deed of the property go to her instead of my parents. She says she of course will let them live there, but wants control of the property. While I trust my wife, I don't even want to allow any room for my parents to She says she, of course, will let them live there, but wants control of the property. While I trust my wife, I don't even want to allow any room for my parents to not be taken care of. She absolutely refuses to see it from my perspective. Who's the a-hole here?

David, we'll start with you. I don't know, this sounds like one of those deep values fights where you get an update from the person a year later and they're divorced. Like, I don't know how you resolve this. This is like a really fundamental beliefs about family, about what you should be doing with money. And these kinds of fights run deep.

If it were me, well, I would just let my parents go to the wolves. But if I loved my pit, which I do by the way, I would maybe like hold my line here. Because I, you know, they're my family and I want to take care of them. And I don't know, this seems like it's indicative of a bigger problem. Well, again, like the wife seems to be pushing, creating. And I don't know. This seems like it's indicative of a bigger problem.

Well, again, like the wife seems to be pushing, creating a problem that doesn't need to exist because correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, it says that in the event that he dies, the ownership of the house will transfer the parents and then transfer to my partner slash offspring once they pass away. So, so long as it's clear that they,

the ownership transfers to the parents, but they can't do anything, but then transfer it to the wife slash offspring. Uh, doesn't everybody win their Caitlin? Yeah. And I think I agree. And I also feel a little bit like what is at heart here is that she doesn't feel like he trusts her, even though he said I trust my wife, but also then goes on to basically say I don't. Because if I'm putting myself in her position, I would definitely trust my husband, my current husband, to take care of my parents. So it would be weird for me, though, to then, I guess.

It's very complicated. And I am drawn to say, go see a lawyer. If you think you can come up with a new document that creates a safe workaround that also pleases your wife and like, let this be a lawyer's problem. But she's the one making it about trust in her. Like he had this, she's the one who's injecting the lack of trust into this conversation.

It didn't have to be part of this. He was taking care of his parents and set up a system where they'd be taken care of, they'd own the house, and then it would go to her slash the kids. She's trying to create a dynamic where she says, well, what this actually means is you don't trust me. She had nothing to do with this. This was about caring for the parents. And so on that front, that is why I am dictating that as the host of the show and the leader of the Dilemma panel, it is the wife who is the a-hole. Hands down. Kaylin, thank you so much.

David, thank you so much. Please join me again soon. Yes, thanks, man. Thank you. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard.

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Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. And now it's time for us to have a very important conversation about Canadian youth and the struggles that they have with making friends and bullying. This is according to a UNICEF report that one in five youth in Canada face frequent bullying. One in five are lonely.

One in four struggle to make friends. And that's despite Canada being one of the 10 wealthiest countries that were studied. Canada ranked 19th out of 36 countries overall, landing toward the bottom of the end for adolescent suicide, child mortality and social skills. These are not good indicators. As we know, we're trying to build resilient youth to take over, to pass the torch to. And so to speak about this,

we're joined by Dr. Orin Amate, psychologist. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Ben. Yeah, this is this is scary stuff. This should be concerning to all of us. Well, it is concerning. But the numbers haven't changed that much over the years. I mean, I've been doing these interviews for many years. And, you know, every few months, we see another survey with what would seem like alarming numbers. But you know, if you look back a few years prior, they haven't changed that that much. But that doesn't mean there isn't a serious issue going on. Yeah. Yeah. So what what can we attribute it to? I mean, there's a disconnect between the wealth of the country, our ability to communicate the social services that we take

great pride in, and this outcome that is really, really concerning. Well, there's a few things. One of them is that, and most important for anybody, students or adults, when they're answering these kinds of questions, it's very subjective. You're talking about your wellbeing, your, you know, like how many friends you have and so on.

I mean, it is subjective. And unfortunately, over the past number of years, you and I have and so on. I mean, it is subjective. And unfortunately, over the past number of years, you and I have seen it, many people have, which is that students are really being delivered some harmful messages. They're being told the world's against you or society is against you or you're a bad person because of the color of your skin or whatever messaging there is that, you know, when you hear this all the time, when you have teachers telling you the world's going to end, you know, climate, right? When you're being inundated with that,

it's really hard to have a, you know, kind of a positive perspective on the kinds of questions that are being asked. So that's one factor. Is there a breakdown by gender or race as well? Because in keeping with what you're saying, you know, you and I have talked about, you know, the messages that are being put forth in schools to young, impressionable kids. And I got to think, you know, we know that adult men in Canada are more prone to suicide, for example,

than anyone else. And I've got to wonder whether, you know, if young white boys are being told, you know, you're the problem that needs to be overcome in society, that the patriarchy is a thing and you're part of that problem, and then I've got to wonder whether that affects their mental health. It certainly has, and it is more than ever before. And I'm seeing this anecdotally,

I'm seeing some of the studies. And I'll tell you, interestingly, for a number of years, when you look at the research in the States and Canada, where they look at, you know, when you break down by gender and let's say race, and oftentimes you actually found that, let's say black children who are supposedly the ones

who are put upon the most, they had some of the highest self-esteem in these studies. And girls seem to be doing more poorly than boys at certain stages. But some researchers have attributed to something that I think makes sense, which is girls develop faster. They're more mature. They get a better view on the world than boys do. So a lot of the studies that show that girls are doing worse, they were just being more realistic about what was going on around them where the boys are still kind of living in fantasy. Yeah this is so so how can we address this in a way that supports these kids all while recognizing that there's certain factors in the world we can't change we can't change social media we can't change I mean there's a there's a lot of things we can't change so so what can we do to

adapt? Okay so what we have to do is something that's not happening which things we can't change. So what can we do to adapt? Okay, so what we have to do is something that's not happening, which is we have to instill in the children a sense that they are agents of change, not slacktivists, not I'm going to change my Twitter handle or something like that. It's more about that what can you do about the circumstances around you, immediately around you,

not in some other country, but you. That's number one. Number two, it's related to this, which is really self-ethicacy. Like, again, once again, that you can do something about it. But the other thing is that the adults in charge, this is so important, they have to take more of a leading role, whether it's teachers, principals or whoever, because when we talk about the bullying that you brought up at the beginning, that is real. That is increasing. That's getting worse and worse. Cyberbullying is terrible. Kids can't escape it. And the problem is, and I've spoken with so many people about this, when they go to the school and they say, this is what's happening, the teachers or the principals or the superintendents,

the trustees, they are incompetent. They are impotent and they are not showing the kids that, hey, you know what, when there's a problem, you do your part, we'll do our part and we're going to address it. So many kids are not getting that sense. That's what's so important. Yeah. But that requires a rethink on the language that we use and where we talk to kids, where we go find them as well. I mean, I like to say on this show that we go find our listeners wherever they are. So if they wanna listen to us as a podcast, we put up a podcast.

And kids are not in the same places as they used to be. It's not just as simple as putting a public service announcement on TV anymore. We've gotta be far more creative with how we engage with them and more creative with how we engage with them and more importantly, where we engage with them. Well, it's the how and the where. And the problem is the people who are directly engaging

with them, like I said, they are failing. So many, again, the educators, the police, the justice system, so many of them are afraid to tackle the issue head on. They're not going to the parents of the children who are doing the bullying, you know, or worse. They're not going to be holding them to account whether they're afraid of being called racist or something else. They are just not taking the necessary steps. And once again, I've got to say this, I've had so many patients when you are a child or an adolescent

and you feel that the system cannot help you you that you are powerless, not just you, but the people above you will not do anything to stop what's going on. It gives you this sense of hopelessness. And that's the opposite of resilience. That doesn't fuel a sense of heartiness and resilience. It makes you feel why bother? And that's what we're seeing in a lot of these kids. We're looking at this UNICEF study, this UNICEF report, and they they're looking at wealthy countries that were studied and, and, well, all sorts of countries, but we were amongst the wealthiest. Are there any countries that are

doing something that we should be doing in order to address this problem? It's tricky, because when I looked at some of the countries that were doing better than us, they have some of the same problem that we have. So there's some factor going on here that it's hard, it's a bit intangible. I'm not quite sure. I think the most important goal, and I can't name the countries specifically, but the goal

is to redevelop a sense of community, a sense of, you know, feeling responsible to the people around you so that if you do something wrong, you shame your family, you shame the neighborhood, the community, and they will hold you to account. Countries that sort of have that ethos, they are the ones who typically do better. So, taking a hard, it's almost like taking a more traditional approach to, to child rearing, almost being like a tough love sort of situation, is that what you're saying? Well, it's tough love, but it's a sense of accountability.

It's a sense of personal accountability, a sense of if I do something wrong, A, I'm gonna be held to account, and B, that's not the kind of person I want to be. But that's not what children are seeing. Children, whether it's on social media or directly in front of them, they're seeing people get rewarded for doing bad behavior.

Yeah, it's, again, like I don't know how we can counter social media or directly in front of them, they're seeing people get rewarded for doing bad behavior. Yeah, it's as I again, like, I don't know how we can counter the negative effect and negative impact of social media. If if this is the if this is the end result, like, I don't know, it seems like that is the biggest stumbling block. But why is it so more so much more prevalent in a place like Canada than than in other places? Well, it really comes down to, I got to say it, it goes back to the people in charge or quote unquote in charge. And they are the ones who are promulgating the type of messaging that is very harmful, which is if you belong to a certain background or something like that and you something wrong,

it's not your fault. Okay. It's other people's fault. And I'm telling you, it really boils down to a sense of control among about control over yourself over your environment and accountability. And I'm telling you, Canada, you've seen it, you've seen our quote unquote leaders, you've seen our quote unquote educators, they are basically abdicating that responsibility. They are not instilling that sense of personal accountability in, you know, in the people that they're supposedly trying to raise.

Dr. Orin Amite, we're going to leave it there, but it's a really important conversation we have to have. Be honest with ourselves if we want the outcomes to be better and if we want the kids that we're raising today to become the leaders of tomorrow. I thank you very much for your time and I always thank you for your candor and your honesty. Thank you so much, Ben. I always appreciate the opportunity.

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