The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 2 - Tasha Kheiriddin, Regan Watts, Jaskaran Sandhu

Episode Date: March 1, 2025

Best of the Week Part 2 - Tasha Kheiriddin, Regan Watts, Jaskaran Sandhu Guests: Tasha Kheiriddin, Regan Watts, Jaskaran Sandhu, Mohit Rajhans, Mariya Postelnyak, Oren Amitay, Caryma Sa'D 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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Nova Kane, forming theaters March 14th. This is Carry the Fire. I'm your host, Lisa LaFlamme. Carry the Fire, a podcast by the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, featuring inspiring personal stories about what happens when world-leading doctors, nurses, researchers, and their patients come together to ignite breakthroughs. Carry the Fire launches Monday, January 27th, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Best of the Week podcast.

Our political panel usually delivers, but our midweek panel was really good this week. One of the panelists threw some grenades into the discussion. We also talked about how much damage the hyper-progressive era has done to society and how we're gonna fix it. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show.

Thank you so much for joining us. And let's welcome our panel for our This Week in Politics midweek panel. Let's say hi to Jaskarin Sandhu, co-founder of Baz News and board member of the WorldSick Organization of Canada. We've got Regan Watts, the founder of Fratton Park, Inc. and former senior aide to the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty.

And for the first time, hopefully not the last time, Tasha Carradon, political analyst and writer. To the three of you, I say hello. Hello. Bonjour mon chum. Bonjour, bonjour. All right, that's already our level of French is better than what we witnessed yesterday

on the debate stage for the Liberal Party. Tasha, I wanna start with you. When Jean Charest was second in the polls, he went after Pierre Poliev, like he trained his rifle on that guy. And he gave him everything he could. And I believe that makes for a better race. And it makes for, ultimately, a better winner.

Because if you're tested under pressure, you're going to come out a better candidate on the other side. We saw none of that yesterday. As a matter of fact, we saw Christia Freeland, who claims she wants this job, actually helping Mark Carney take his foot out of his mouth when he accidentally said that he agreed with Hamas. Yes, I saw that.

She jumped in a lot, actually. She didn't just jump in there, but yes, she jumped in to save him. And I think that, you know, the general consensus is that this was a debate of agreement. The candidates agreed on most things. And you're right, that doesn't make was a debate of agreement. The candidates agreed on most things. And you're right, that doesn't make for a lot of difference. It doesn't make for a lot of fireworks.

I think, though, that they all had their sights trained on somebody else, and that was Donald Trump. And that's really the person that they're running against. And they're trying to tie Pierre Pauliev to Donald Trump. That was the second theme. So they don't have as much interest in taking each other down as they do in positioning themselves as the best person to take him down. And I think Carney also refrained himself. He didn't jump all over Chris Freeland at

all. In fact, there were moments where he actively ceded the floor to her, like even with his hand. I saw that visual. I was like, wow. I think nobody wants to look like a jerk because the idea is that they're going to be running against a jerk, ie Donald Trump, and they want to look statesman like and they want to, you know, that sort of thing. So I think that partly explained it and also the language issue because honestly, it's all their second language, you're never as, as glib and you're never as quick in your second language. So that didn't help either. Just Karen, if you believe as I do that, that you make a diamond through pressure,

then you've got a front runner here who has not been tested by the national media in any significant way. And he certainly isn't being tested by those who are fighting him for the top job. So what does that mean for who for whoever ultimately comes out? I mean, it will be Mark Carney. But what does that mean for Mark Carney, the liberal leader when he ultimately has to face a true gauntlet in a federal election campaign? Well, there was only one test yesterday. That was how good is everyone's French. Now look, it's definitely better than mine. Oh, yeah, but you're not just going you're not running for anything. You're not you're not trying to you're not trying to secure votes in Quebec.

That's right. That's right. That's right. No, I you know, I've always looked at the French debate as a test on how well someone speaks French. And that always seems to be the number one topic after these anyways. And this is true, even for conservative races, you know, the Harper's French improved over the years, but it was never, you know, sharp out the gate. And so I think that was the number one thing everyone was looking for, especially towards Carney. How much French can this guy actually speak? Now, was he able to handle himself? Yeah, probably. And the Hamas slip of the tongue, you know, a lot of folks, including folks from the conservative side of the aisle came out to say, you know, that was obviously he was misspoke. And I don't think he

actually supports Hamas. That doesn't stop others like MP Lassman from taking shots, but that's politics. As far as pressure creates diamonds, look, I think Carney has been around for a while. Yes, he's not been an elected official, but he's held very public profiles. I think he'll hold himself very well in an English debate and a French debate. That's a whole different topic, especially with Pierre, who hasn't got much better command of it, and will be much more aggressive come election time. Regan, what do you think what Giscard just said? Yes, he's been around the public sphere, but elected politics is a completely different beast and Pierre Poliev has been honing

his skills for the better part of two decades. Well, there's some interesting comments that have been made. Ben, you mentioned Jean Charest at the top. I think Mr. Charest would have been at home in the liberal debate that took place last night. Probably would have been a better place for him. I'll also say that even David Copperfield would have been impressed with the liberal debate last night. These candidates did their best to disappear a decade of liberal government in just 90 minutes. It was unbelievable. I'll also say what was really startling to me is an hour into the debate, we didn't hear the words Prime Minister Trudeau. Nobody was articulating what the carbon tax, his signature policy had

achieved. Nobody was talking about how many houses had been built. You know, it's like that season of Dallas, except Bobby Ewing's not in the shower. It was legitimately a flat debate. And I think that Mr. Carney, who the mainstream media are doing their absolute best to prop up in the same way US media did with Kamala Harris during the US presidential campaign. Our media are doing our best to create Mr. Carney into something he is not he is not a debater He is not a politician now that may be a value proposition. He wants to bring to Canadians

And I would understand the strategic rationale for doing so But I thought it was a very unimpressive showing from a party that couldn't defend its record and it clearly put forward no new ideas Because all they seem to agree on was one thing which is they didn't want to see Mr. Poliev become prime minister and you know there were so many backflips there I don't know if it was Simone Biles or Nadiya Kulbache there was there was a lot of backflipping there and not very much progress. Okay I'm going to give you guys a theory of mine and then each one of you is going to get about 40 seconds to respond. Mark Carney's French was so bad. And Quebec and Quebec votes are so important to the survival of the Liberal Party after the next election,

that we will not see a snap election. Mark Carney is going to need weeks, if not months, to improve his French so that he does not suffer a massive defeat in Quebec, the likes of which he's probably going to suffer elsewhere in the country. Tasha, what do you think? Nope. And I'll tell you why, because reading the French press this morning, they didn't, they glossed that issue over. They're not interested. Maybe going to what Regan is saying, that they're giving him an easier ride. But the reason I think they're doing it is because there's this existential dread in Quebec right now that if Canada becomes part of the US, that's the end of the French language

and culture. It is a real serious fear. And so for once, everyone in Quebec, the separatists included, are all of a sudden waving Canadian flags and going, yay Canada, yay, here we go. Let's look for Captain Canada. So no, I don't think French would have been more of an issue. If this had been any other time, any other election, I don't think it will be. And I think that the issue really will be who the, you know, who the who Quebecers as well see as being able to defend the country against this existential threat. So in that sense, I don't think I think an election could come. He hedged a little. I'll give you that. He hedged a little. But I don't think it'll come late. Just Karen, what do you think? Because listen, his French is not good. And there will, if he calls an election, it's happening and it will be there for everybody to see, not just in this small debate

that was very hard to find. Look, as long as he's not Arya Chandra on saying, Dave, do you speak French? And his response is nope.. He's the bar is set so low that it's probably a little easier for him to jump over it. The larger context, but all jokes aside, I think the liberals, especially under Carney, call an election right away. And it's much bigger than just Quebec, Ontario swinging their way in a way we haven't seen in a very long time. Ah, yeah, but just got and that's. And that's that's that's temporary. That's just because it's the only show to watch right now.

Reagan, I'm going to give you the final word. You got 30 seconds. I believe an election will be called. I think Tasha is is correct on that. I think Mr. Carney, though, deserves credit for comments he made not last night about the election, but a couple of weeks ago where he talked about not having a seat and not having a mandate. I believe that's actually the right thing for the country. We live in a democracy where our prime minister is elected by the people and Mr. Carney has acknowledged that he does not have a seat.

And so I do believe we're going to go in an election because Mr. Carney, I believe, thinks he needs to do the right thing, which is to either find a seat in Parliament or seek a mandate from Canadians, particularly around these perilous times with President Trump. I misread the clock because I don't do math. I've got time for one more question. Tasha, I just want names. Who is the biggest winner, biggest loser?

Boy, OK. Winner, Christopher Eland. And loser on the French piece would be Mark Carney. Regan. The biggest winner I believe was Mr. Poliev. He was clearly positioned by the four liberal candidates as their main opponent and everybody on this call and everybody on that panel knows that his French

and engagement with- Just names, Regan. What's that? Who's the loser? I think I lost because you just cut me off. I'll yield the floor to my Yes, just Karen winner loser. The bar was so low carny went the spectrum is good enough. And I guess I'm the I'm the loser for not being able to count the clock. Hey, don't go anywhere more than political panel after the

break. Welcome back to my mid week this Week in Politics panel. Let's say hi again to Jaskaran Sandhu, Regan Watts and Tasha Carradon. Thank you both. I thank all three of you for sticking around. All right, let's let's move on to Donald Trump. He has gone on record saying that he is going to hit Canadian goods with a 25% tariff after a month long pause. And, and finally, it feels like there are some conservative voices, Rand Paul being one of them, but now Ben Shapiro coming out scratching his head saying, I still don't understand why we're levying 25% tariffs on Canada. I've got to be honest with you. I don't understand that one. I get it on Mexico. I get it on China. In fact, I think we should have much higher tariff on China, because China is an

actual geopolitical enemy. But I don't understand what exactly we're trying to pry out of the Canadians. And so it's he's saying what we've all been saying. Do any of you and we'll start with you, Regan, do any of you expect that expect that this will change as the deadline ticks down? Or are we gonna have to live with the reality that this is coming? Well, I'll start by saying, Ben, I don't think anybody on this panel, and I think I speak for all of the panels,

to say none of us want tariffs, and none of us like what's happening. But I do think Mr. Shapiro's, and I do think Canada should respond, and has to respond, but I do think Mr. Shapiro's, and I do think Canada should respond and has to respond, but I do think Mr. Shapiro's comments also miss the mark or are reflective of commentary that still misreads or misunderstands Trump. You know, the facts don't bear this out. How many times have we heard Canadian or US media say these things? But the fact is, Ben, it doesn't really matter. We must see things as they are, not as we wish them to be. And President Trump has it in his mind, for better or for worse, as well as the people around him, like Peter Navarro and others,

that Canada is taking advantage of its economic defense security relationship with the United States, and that Canada isn't doing its fair share to strengthen shared priorities. And so, look, I don't understand why President Trump is doing it either from a Canadian perspective, and yes, China is an actual geopolitical enemy, but Canada has not been a great partner, and we've got a lot of work to do to address issues,

and I should give the government some credit credit around fentanyl and security and border. They've been taking action and the government deserves some credit for that. But there is so much more to do and it shouldn't have taken and it shouldn't take an existential threat like President Trump and tariffs to cause or force the government to do the right thing which they should have been doing all along. And we're gonna I take your point everything you say I

co-sign but just Karen, he said he wanted action on the border and Minister McGinty laid out that there is a significant amount of action that is finally happening. He said that we've taken advantage of America with some of the worst deals ever signed. He signed the deal. So, and yes, there is the military of it all. That is shameful and that is our shame as a nation to bear. But we've jumped through a lot of hoops already for this guy. Well, that was gonna be my point. We did come to the table, we listened to him,

we implemented the programs, some of which was already announced before. And let's not forget that there's much more coming up from America into Canada than the other way around. It's not even close. It's completely disproportionate. And then if you look at what Trump has been saying lately, he's not even mentioning fentanyl. He's not even mentioning those things. He's still implementing the tariffs. Trump is not necessarily what we traditionally have understood as a rational actor on the global stage. This is very, very rational. And he is a strong man who's trying to twist our arms and try to use it as leverage for a million other things that probably swirl around in his head. And the only way to deal

with a guy like this is to go pound for pound as best as we can as a country that is obviously 10 times smaller than America. And so at the end of the day, it's about what can we do aside from retaliatory tariffs to strengthen our ability to go to other markets. That means pipelines coast to coast, not just north and south, but east and west. It means doing more to refine and pull out the resources that we have in this country. And how do we start looking outside of North America? Because after the last whatever couple of months with Trump, you no longer can trust America as a stable partner. You just can't. Yeah, Tasha, I'm gonna play the optimist here. Because these

tariffs aren't coming in until he hears back from his cabinet, who do research and they come back with the data and they say what the impact of these things are going to be. And and you can't fudge the data and the interconnectedness of our supply chains, specifically, particularly in the automotive sector, for example, are going to make it so the data will tell him you will shut down the automotive industry in America as well as in Canada, if you do this.

So I'm holding out hope that the data will save us. Yeah, well, one can hope and I hope you're right, Ben. I do. There's other data that came out today. Consumer confidence index in the US is at 98.3, which is a drop from 105 just in January. It's the huge drop and it's the kind of thing where people, you know, pessimism is bad for an economy. People stop buying stuff.

People lose faith and they lose faith in their president who they expected to turn things around. So I think domestic pushback is one thing that will that could also those sorts of numbers could also change his mind. But I think the bigger picture here is becoming very clear. It's clear from what he's doing in Ukraine. It's a shakedown. He's going to ask Canada for the same thing. He'll say, you know what, you want our continued military protection? Well, let's say you owe us you owe us hundreds of millions of billions of dollars. You're going to give us mineral rights. You're going to give us oil rights, I'm gonna give you a deal and you're gonna sign it or else.

That's what he's gonna do. So I think that that's coming. And it's basically just, it's like the US is turning into this mafia state of like, we're just gonna, it's totally transactional. We're not gonna help you because it's the right thing to do or because we don't have a history. No, it's what can you do for us. I want to play some audio for you of Health Minister Mark Holland who said that he said

the Canada needs a me too moment for a-holes. We need a me too moment for a-holes, right? Like we're all, I don't care who you are, you're walking through your day, all of us are holding on to way more than anybody understands. Everybody's holding up all kinds of people and just trying to keep their stuff together in this world. You have no business being cruel to anybody. And I think, look, you could be 10 years old and have the internet and tell me what's wrong with the world.

Right? Why are we rewarding anybody for just saying what's broken in the world? I think you evaluate people based on what solutions they're offering. If you're spending 80% of your time talking garbage and being negative, then you're the problem. Okay, so Mark Holland clearly was taking a shot at Pierre Poli. I have a couple of things here. Am I missing something, Regan, because Pierre has put real policy initiatives in the window.

He hasn't just said things are broken, he's laying out a clear path on how he believes he can fix it. And secondly, I think he did a grave injustice to true victims of sexual assault by being so glib with the Me Too movement. But that's just me editorializing. What say you, Regan? Well, Mark Holland, making a comment about needing an equivalent moment for a holes. I was wondering, was he saying that in a mirror or was he looking at a picture of the prime minister? You know, this is a government that has thank goodness, the there's 12 days until the long

national nightmare that is known as Justin Trudeau. Hey, Reagan, we only have a little bit of time left. So give me 10 seconds to sum it up. Yeah, I'm going to give you 10 seconds. This is a government that has divided the country since they came into office. Mr. Poliab laid out a very thoughtful, reasonable, content-rich speech a couple of weeks ago. And to attack another political leader because you don't like what he has to say. And using that type of terminology is beneath the

office of a parliamentarian. You know what, everything you just said, I agree with. Just Karen, do you take issue? You know, I sometimes we complain that politicians aren't, you know, why are they so robotic? Why can't it just be emotional real human beings? And this is a real human being comment. And let's face it, part of the brand of pure polyeth is to be an evil. No, it's not. No, it's not. That's not true. That is just garden. That's not true. I will

say most Canadians would agree with me. No, I disagree. No, they don't. No, they don't. Look at the polls. No, just garden. I disagree with you. And that that and the conservatives have dipped in unprecedented way. The moment Trudeau leaves. And that that and the conservatives have dipped in unprecedented way, the moment Trudeau leaves. And that was more because Canadians were tired of Trudeau, that it was that they like Pierre. If people don't like Pierre, because they think he's an a-hole. And Canadians don't like that. I think you are massively misreading voter intention and how people see Pierre Poliev. I genuinely say that with respect to Scar. And I think that is wishful thinking on your part.

I think a part of his brain... Can I jump in? Yes, you can. Oh my gosh, 10 seconds. 10 seconds. I think some people do like a politician who behaves like a jerk. I won't say a-hole, but a good jerk because they want to stick it to someone. I think that a lot of people are fed up. We've got to leave it there. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling saying I do.

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with a great friend of the show, Mohit Rajan's, a meteorologist and consultant with thinkstart.ca. Mohit, a lot of great topics for us to get to today. And let's start with the first one that kids today, kids today, the kids today, they are literally terrified of phone calls. Yeah, we're talking about a class that's being taught

at a university right now in Nottingham. Yeah, there's two actually, there's one in the US to help Gen Z, Gen Zed, who are terrified of taking live phone phones. And the greatest miscommunication we have is they infer aggression from my texts based on how I, the syntax that I use and the grammar that I use. They, it's part of that group of people think that using punctuation in a text is somehow aggressive. So there's definitely, I do recognize that we communicate differently.

Yeah, and nobody's ignorant to that. I think what is remarkable about this story is the fact that there's two things happening. There's so many different types of communication devices that people use and the way that they use them, that there's really no playbook that's given to anybody at any age about how you should and shouldn't use these devices. Right now, Gen Z is really suffering from the fact, if you think about it, that if you go into the workforce, it's not only them, you know, it's not only them in school, it's not only them communicating, teachers communicate differently. And so it's funny, because on one hand, we are going to need courses like this that

are going to have to like this that are going to have to teach people how to communicate specifically within industries. But on the other hand, it's also true that I watch the gens ed people around me and they almost have a little bit of anxiety when the phone rings because it doesn't normally ring and it doesn't normally mean a good thing to them. But listen, and I get it, listen, we have the ability to text and we have the ability to send emails and we have all these social media components, but very few of those are communication in real time.

They are, as you say, asynchronous. And it is an absolute skill and necessity in life to be able to communicate in real time. And if kids don't have that, then that is a failing on society's part. It gets worse. It gets worse when we start to introduce some of the technology we've spoken about on this show. So for example, first level customer service right now has become so automatic that even kids know that they're not actually dealing with a human

there either. So now we're getting into a place where we're starting to really take that interaction away from them by not having these live phone calls. You and I both know that there's nothing better than hearing a live voice on the other end when you want to communicate with somebody. So I hope, I hope that Gen Z goes retro and starts to pick up the phone once in a while and have these conversations. All right. Let's move on to a story involving Apple.

Typically Apple's the biggest kid on the block, but in this case, they caved to UK pressure about end-to-end encryption. Yeah, this is something that I've been following quite recently because for the longest time, like you'd mentioned, everybody does rely or sort of boasts about Apple's encryption. And really the fact that only you and with double authentication can have access to certain things. They have been hacked before. We have been in situations where Apple has had security problems.

But the EU in particular, in the UK, are starting to really dial back what tech companies can do with the data in their country. And this latest legislation indicates that if there's any suspected criminal activity that happens within the UK border, you can actually have your iCloud account transferred to the authorities. And that is making people stop and say, well, wait a minute, we thought all of this was a matter of our personal security and safety. And unfortunately, it's caused a lot of discussion. Well, I mean, the what's going on in the UK is as it relates to the thought police and

arresting people for what they say online is is the slippery slope that that we can a lot of people in Canada are fearful for. And I'm concerned that this pressure from the UK government is part of that drive to get people to conform to social norms that they otherwise wouldn't. Well, it's definitely introducing back doors to the system, right? And so, you know, like you just said, there is this tracking that had this discussion that needs to happen, but it also needs to happen from a broader perspective of just how the guardrails are going to be set moving forward. Because, you know, but we don't want to get into a place where tech companies just start pulling

out of every country. And then all of a sudden it becomes every country has their own version of rules, because it's going to make people not even want to travel when it comes down to what certain rules are in certain countries. Well, you won't be able to travel your if you work for a big corporation, they won't let you travel because it will put their data at risk. That's another great point I never even considered here I am talking to people about safety with AI and I think about how quickly it's changing in mobile technology as well. Oh, the liability, the corporate liability would be incredible if your data is protected in one country and not in another, then they just won't do business in those countries.

Yeah. And to that point, it also makes the corporations liable in that sense too. And so they're going to have to disclose that to clients. So there's a ripple effect for sure. Let's, all right, let's move on to a happy story, a feel good story. And this, I had no idea this was even a thing, but there is a tiny Indian village that somehow became a YouTube powerhouse.

Yeah, it's really, so people don't realize YouTube is 20 years old. And I didn't realize it's been around that long. I feel like it's quite younger than that, but that just might be my age. I found this story on bbc.com. It's this tiny Indian village named Tulsi. And they really sort of grabbed on to the cheap and reusable electronic versions of phones and

started to make YouTube videos about their village. And it really has transcended everything when it comes down to borders and what people perceive of India and all of that stuff. And what's amazing about it, Ben, is that it's actually a microcosm of what people can do more of within the YouTube sphere now. Gone are the days where you wanna be just the Mr. Beast or hope that your one video will go viral. This shows that there's a little bit of a movement from DIY tutorials to comedy, et cetera.

Just this little niche has gained worldwide attention and I'm so proud to see it. So are they showing that there's an another business model that can be successful? Is that is that what you're saying? I think what it's showing is that there are communities around the world that are actually reaching out to the world through a free platform like YouTube, without the whole garbage associated with, you know, in North America, what do we see,

right, you go to your for you feed, it's sponsorships, it's car ads, etc, etc. Rarely do you start to get a glimpse of what's happening actually around the world. This is showing that if you start to go a little bit and you use your own actual search, you'll find these amazing worlds that exist on YouTube. And I'm quite fascinated by it. Do I think it's necessarily feeding their economy? I'm not 100% sure, but I do know that it's actually caused hundreds of other villages to do the same thing in India.

Well, you know, I feel that YouTube has become in my life, the most important website I visit, without a doubt. It is so many things to me, that it is a distraction, it is entertainment, it is to me that it is a distraction, it is entertainment, it is a news source, it is, it's so many things. And the, and that's what, that was the promise of the internet, right? It was going to put, it was going to put the creator at the center, whatever they wanted to do, whatever they want to create, that was the forum, that was the arena for them. And it wasn't, there were not going to be gatekeepers saying, No, that's not what people want. That's not you know, we're not going to do that show because people don't want that they want x y and z. And this is proof of that that if you whatever you want to do, you can

make happen on YouTube. Yeah, I completely agree with you. And also, I do believe that YouTube is Google's single biggest asset right now in terms of what they can do with it in terms of the future as well. So you know, all the power to anybody that can actually find some utility in any of these social media apps. Yeah. Where where do you see YouTube going in the future? Because it's already become like this is where I get my live news now. This is where sometimes I watch sports on on YouTube.

There's a lot available there that wasn't previously available. YouTube is actually, I think, overtaken most apps for connected television households. So people watch YouTube in their living rooms with their family now. Yeah. And they share share experiences that way. It just recently, if I'm not mistaken, has overtaken any other social media app connected to the family, television, etc. So I think we are in a situation where your user experience is indicative of what a lot of people are doing. Mohit Rajan's Mediologist and Consultant with ThinkStart.ca. Thank you very much, my friend. Always a pleasure. Take care. Crisis breeds opportunity. That's just a fact. And every crisis is an opportunity to build better.

Donald Trump is the living, breathing embodiment of crisis. But the opportunity that he has provided us is to take a look at how we can be the best version of our own country without relying on the United States on so many different fronts. And so we have an opportunity in this country today to tackle some Canadian born problems in the shape and form of inter-provincial trade barriers. There seems to be the public will to attack this. There seems to be to a certain extent and to a large extent political will to do so.

But inter-provincial trade barriers, we kind of understand it in in theory, let's figure out what this actually means for you, the listener to your pocketbook and to your everyday life. And for that, we welcome Maria Postolniak, Consumer Affairs reporter for the Globe and Mail, who has written a terrific piece for the Globe, provinces are vowing to eliminate trade bearers, how much could it save you? Maria, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me, Ben. So you do a really great job breaking this down

into all sorts of different buckets. Let's start in your opinion, your assessment, after doing all the research. If every single provincial trade barrier disappeared tomorrow, where would we, the consumers consumers feel it most and first? I mean, so it is difficult to say the exact impact. We have some data from Statistics Canada that says, you know, we pay up to 7% more for a variety of goods

and services as a result of interprovincial trade barriers. That data is from I believe believe, 2017. And recent data suggests that companies pay between, I think, 8% to 22% for different kind of interprovincial trade that they do. So that costs their businesses. They're passing some of that along to consumers. But of course, there's impact on, for example, you know, labor mobility.

There's impact on the sort of competition that you see in different provinces for a variety of goods and services. So I guess it is difficult, I will say, to quantify this, but we did try to do our best. And I think where we really saw a huge impact is on food. For example, cheese is one of the top inter-provincially traded foods, but data suggests that about 8.3% is how much businesses kind of bump their costs

of transportation and trucking as a result of inter-provincial trade barriers. So you can imagine that the cost of things like cheese and other dairy products will be a bit higher for us. Also meat faces a lot of inter-provincial roadblocks like slaughterhouse regulations, federal inspection rules and all that. And one of our experts calculated that Canadians can save up to $234 a year on their, just their food bill alone by removing some of these barriers. Let's talk about the surprising case of the automotive industry.

Because in my mind, I was living in this, I guess a fugue state where I just assumed a car is a car is a car. But that is not the case, that we could be paying thousands more for our vehicles owing to, as you say in your words, to different provincial rules in the auto industry that demand customizing vehicles and paperwork. Tell me what you mean by that because I think people would be fascinated and frustrated by this

news. Yeah, there's a lot of regulatory hoops that manufacturers have to go through. For example, David Adams, the President and CEO of global automakers of Canada. He talked about all these different programs provinces have for properly recycling and disposing of parts, like for example, tires and antifreeze, things like that. These obviously create administrative hassle and additional cost for manufacturers. Another thing that they pay a lot for is recall notices. That one was a surprising one for me. He said manufacturers can spend millions a year just mailing out recall notices. So if there was a kind of a more formal inter-provincial records exchange where you

could do kind of an easy VIN number check when someone renews their plates, that would kind of automatically flag to consumers where there are outstanding recalls and potentially save consumers and manufacturers money, according to David. Yeah, to me, it's just, so I remember reading that one of the problems with the automotive industry is what we stuff inside the car, One of the problems with the automotive industry is

what we stuff inside the car, the chairs in the car, the seats in the cars is different, say, in Quebec than it is in Ontario. And that just adds to the overall cost of all the cars. It's a fascinatingly frustrating Canadianism that we've been paying for without knowing for so long. What about beer and wine? Those are big ticket items as well.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, as one of my, as one of the experts I spoke with put it sort of aptly was that an Ontario winery would find it easier to send their product to Europe than Quebec. I thought that was pretty jarring. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you a story. I went to New Brunswick years ago when I was on television for a sort of a tourist tourism event. And I went to the oldest winery in Canada, I can't remember what was called. But it's owned now by a Swiss gentleman. And he said that it

is easier for him to sell a case of wine to China than it is for him to sell it across the border to Nova Scotia. Yeah, there's tons of examples. After researching this, that's no longer surprising to me. But explain it to me. Why? How? How does that make any sense? How is this a status quo that we as a country have been willing to live by? I mean, it's hard to say. Obviously provinces wield a lot of power. There are a lot of, I guess, there's a lot of interest in keeping some of these inter provincial barriers in place as of now. But as you can tell, with Donald Trump's terrible threats, you know, it's just pushed Canada's economic growth to the top of the national agenda right now.

And policymakers are looking to sort of diversify away from the U.S. and increase domestic trade. I mean, we need to if tariffs do come into play to the extent that they're promised. And of course, we know that last week Ottawa said it will be reducing federal exceptions to, I think, 19 of the current 39, A lot of them to do with procurement. So we'll see a few of those inter-provincial barriers hopefully dismantled, but it remains to be seen. You know, we've talked, we talk a lot about goods, but services are also subject to these barriers as well. And you highlight quickly the financial and insurance services industry. What do you mean

by that? Yeah, for sure. So banks, for example, insurance providers, banks, specifically, they operate nationally and they're federally regulated in Canada. But they they have different regulations by province. So the banks will have different compliance costs across different provinces. And those are, you know, for example, if a bank is in 10 jurisdictions, they're going to have to pay compliance costs for each one and satisfy those compliance regulations. So yeah, that's, that's, that's interesting, because, you know, we were always talking about how this will help the consumer, but it seems also, I'm not even looking at the other side of the equation, which means in almost all these cases,

that bringing down these barriers would be a boon for the bottom line of these companies as well, be they massive insurance companies or a mom and pop shop that makes cheese. Yeah, absolutely. The impacts of interprovincial trade barriers there stand from I would say from cars construction industry like houses and cottages can be potentially significantly cheaper if we make it a bit more accessible for businesses to transport materials say from Ontario to Quebec where there's a lot of interprovincial trade barriers between the two despite them being neighbors. A lot there's a lot

of impact that can be made and for example on, I think more than a quarter of the goods and services bought by businesses in Canada last year came from suppliers in another province. So you can imagine if we ease some of that, some of the hurdles they face, that can probably lead to some cost savings. Well, Maria, thank you so much for the work that you did on this. There is very good at the end of this road. Unfortunately in Canada, we really very much love talking at the beginning of the race

about how we're going to win the race. And then we don't necessarily do the hard work to get to the other side of it. So here's hoping that on this important file, we as a nation do the right thing and do the hard work. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Brian. This episode is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Ever captured a

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Stream live and on demand on StackTV. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney show. And one of the most, one of the most popular segments we've ever done on that we put up as a podcast was a sort of an analysis I did of what happened in my life a few years ago as it related to cancel culture and the progressive insistence that they own the moral high ground on every issue and a simple disagreement is enough to end somebody. And if you disagree with a certain type of person

who views the world in a certain type of way, you are going to make their heads explode. And so we want to put the question, how do we unwind ourselves from the hyper progressive era that has done so much damage to us psychologically and honestly to us as a society? There are certain debates that I have been afraid to wade into with good faith questions for fear of being tarred and feathered in the public square. It feels

like we're coming out of it a little bit, but to discuss it, we're joined now by Orin Amate, Dr. Orin Amate, psychologist. Doctor, welcome to the show. Thanks, Ben. Glad to be here. So here is some audio. We're going to listen to a lot in the world will talk about on the on the other side a woman who got unhinged on the topic of elon musk

i think that elon musk has no skills and no ability to raise the richest in the world's got some skills he cheats he lies he steals any part of presidency he has done nothing original other than to create some skills, right? He cheats, he lies, he steals and he bought a presidency. He has done nothing original other than to create things off of other people's ideas. You think that Elon Musk is Tesla and SpaceX? Hold on, we don't, we don't, we don't have to, hey, hey, hey, hey, why do you get so emotional though? Stop. Let's just have a conversation.

I want to hear what you think. Okay, so to the interviewer's credit, he does try to calm her down. Let's listen to the de-escalation. Ma'am, if you're that upset though. Don't call me ma'am. Okay. Don't call me ma'am. Sir? Call me sweetheart. Sweetheart. Okay, whatever you want to be called. Whatever you want to be called.

Why are you so upset? Why are you letting politics get you so upset? Like don't you see that we're just human beings? Seriously, you think completely different for me. I don't think ill of you. You treated me so disrespectfully right here And I still don't think less of you. Don't point your finger. I'm sorry. I didn't mean this. I did certainly mean that no I didn't mean that in a disrespectful way. Trump Trump you want Elon Musk Trump to be the president. So just because I have certain political beliefs, you think you're going to treat me like that, is what you're saying? Yes, yes.

Okay, that's insane to me. And so, Doctor, this is the state of play today. We cannot have good faith conversations anymore. And so how do we come back from this? Okay, so the first thing is to recognize what is going on. And when I saw the whole clip that George sent me, and what we're looking at is the limbic system versus the prefrontal cortex, the fear system, the lizard brain part of you know, part of our brains, our minds, versus the higher functioning. And that limbic system gets triggered when there's an excessive fear. Okay, that these, um, that the people that we're talking about, um, and there's several factors going on, but one of them truly is this fear and they don't want to admit it. They think they're framing it as no, no, I am virtuous. I am righteous. I am dealing with some

evil people across the aisle. But in reality, they're just having the fear systems of their brain triggered beyond their emotional control. So they lose control. That's why you see people acting so irrationally. That's one factor. The other factor is, and again, this is all biological, the in-group out-group bias. We are wired to prefer people like us, whether it's the color of our skin, whether, I mean, like we're talking from the earliest days, but that's just, it's for survival.

So if you can identify the other, the out group, the enemy, okay, it makes it easier to, you know, to just dehumanize them because the person's brain is telling them that I'm in danger, like I have to protect myself. And it might sound like I'm speaking hyperbolically, but I'm not, I'm talking on the neurological level. And then on the more psychological level, it's the cognitive dissonance reduction that's

in play. And people talk about this a lot, but people really have to understand that, especially in the West, people want to see themselves as good and smart. And so when they are thinking, saying, or doing something that might not be that good or might not be that smart, they have a really hard time recognizing that what they've just thought, said, or done doesn't define them. Maybe they made a mistake. Maybe they had a bad moment or something, but a lot of people have a hard time recognizing

that. So instead, they believe that if they acknowledge what they've done, thought, or said, that that makes them a terrible or a stupid person. So they just start distorting reality. Yeah. So that they don't have to face the reality of what they've actually done. There's also I know what's going to happen next, because my next clip is going to be from a debate that conservative, conservative podcaster Michael Knowles had with a trans activist.

conservative podcaster Michael Knowles had with a trans activist. And here's the predictable path to anybody who would criticize me. They would say, oh, because you are putting these conservatives on as the level-headed people, that means you agree with everything they say. And we have so many conversations start that way in this, in society today, where somebody says something and the other side will extrapolate it to the most illogical end in order to make their point. And it's very frustrating. It really is.

And I know the clip that you're gonna play. And I'm just gonna say one more point that people can understand, to help them understand why people become so irrational is there's also, to combine with the other factors I mentioned, there's an over identification with ideologies, politics or people, so that if again someone disagrees with your, let's say, belief or your politics, people see

that as you are attacking me. If you over identify with something, you take it so personally, you internalize it, so it feels like again another threat against you, an attack against you. Once once again that fear system kicks in and you can't uh you know muster rational thought which is what we're about to see in a second yeah we're coming here in a second exactly so michael noels is the conservative podcaster and he's having a debate with a pro-trans activist who is a terrible debater and is shifting the goal posts uh in the. What does transgenderism in public look like to you? It's allowing men to be treated for the purposes of the law as women.

It's men taking 900 sports trophies from women in recent years. OK, that doesn't happen. They didn't take 900. They took 900. This report just came in from the United Nations, actually. 890 trophies and medals across 600 women who were competing, competitors, across 29 different sports and 400 competitions.

That came out like yesterday. And they deserve them. It didn't happen and they deserve them. Okay, that is the logic I hear from the pro trans crowd. Thank you. They do deserve them. So look, I'm a best practices guy doctor, like I come on this show with a lot of bluster and bravado. But if somebody if I have a debate with somebody and they come equipped with facts that that could change my mind, they will change my mind.

And this is an example of somebody who had their mind made up. They will not change their mind. No amount of logic will allow them to have a reasonable discussion. And by the way, let's be very clear for anyone who's out there looking to attack me. This is not a conversation about trans rights right now. We were talking about the we're not talking about the substance. We were talking about the structure of the conversation. How do we have good faith conversations today? Well, if it was people like that, it's literally impossible to have a good faith discussion. You can try like the

first gentleman that clip where you try to maintain your common composure and you don't allow yourself to be reduced to the same, you know, uh, let's say, um, I can't even describe it in, in comprehensible thought processes that you're seeing in front of you. You, you breathe deeply, stay calm and, um, you know, try your best to compose yourself in the best manner. The problem is pretty soon if you realize that this isn't gonna go anywhere,

and once again, the person across from me, they cannot handle anything that goes against their belief systems, because once again, if you prove them wrong, it's not that you're proving their facts wrong, you are attacking them in their mind. That's how they're seeing it. If you recognize that, you realize you cannot have

a good faith discussion with them. So eventually you have to sort of depart and do it in the most, I guess, calm and the best practices manner. Just like you wanna conduct yourself well, you don't wanna lower yourself to them. And you have to realize, unfortunately, there's a large proportion of people

who truly cannot hear what you're trying to say. Because once again, when cognitive dissonance reduction kicks in, all reality gets distorted. They have to protect their sense of self. And just again, I'm going to keep emphasizing that they truly see it as an attack on their very being. They feel that they are in some form of danger. Maybe logically they know they're not, but down deep down neurologically, physiologically, they feel danger danger, and their fight or flight system is just ramped up and they can't, you know, formulate rational thought. Yeah, it does seem that more and more

I see examples on the right of people having rational conversation, whether you agree with their points or not, they are coming at it from a from a rational perspective. And when they're speaking with someone on the left, it immediately becomes emotional. Thank you very much, doctor. It's always a pleasure. Thank you, Ben. Well, the pro-Hamas protests that have choked this city for over a year and a half, in my opinion, have reached another low, not a new low, another low, protesting outside the home of former police chief of the city of Toronto,

as well as the current Minister of National Defense, Bill Blair. Now, for context, Bill Blair is a member of what I believe is the most pro-Palestinian government in recent memory. What the words and actions and silence sometimes from this government on where they stand vis-a-vis standing with Israel has been very telling.

And despite that, the protesters decided that it was appropriate to congregate en masse outside of the home of Bill Blair on a residential street in a community for over two hours. Let's listen to the protests. Bill Blair, what do you say? Bill Blair, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today? How many kids did you kill today?

All right. Well, that's some classy stuff right there. Well, Karima Saad, who's a lawyer and also a protest watcher was there and she joins us now. Karima, welcome to the show. Hi, good morning. So how many people were there? There were about 100 protesters or so by the time my team got there. Okay, and and they have to assume 100 protesters on a residential street that takes up a lot of

real estate. Definitely. And the road was blocked on either end. There was a fairly heavy police presence, lots of cruisers, at least. Although the protesters were mostly left to their own devices, apart from police creating this buffer around them. Are there no laws prohibiting protesters from congregating in front of a residential home and making somebody feel unsafe in their own home? I think there's probably a couple of laws available already on the books. We don't need to make new laws to deal with this. That police could have availed themselves of what comes to mind causing a disturbance,

potentially intimidation, blocking a road is an act of intimidation according to the criminal code. Although there is some nuance when protest is involved, I think in this case, the overall context would lend itself to people in the neighborhood feeling afraid of what was happening outside. Well, absolutely. I mean, this is, I guess this is a new flank

in the protest war that has been gripping our city. And and yet the police so you said the police were there the entire time and what they were just standing there making like what were they doing police were standing there for sure. I didn't really observe or my team didn't observe any interventions with police asking protesters to do anything one way or the other. You know, one thing that is maybe noteworthy, this particular type of demonstration is the kind that is invite only. So you know, it wasn't advertised broadly on social media, more likely the organizing was happening behind the scenes in group chats where people need to be vouched for or vetted to participate, but it's certainly not the first time and not even the first protest movement that has targeted politicians at home or where they

imagine their home to be. Yeah, you know, we've had these discussions before about, you know, politicians being approached when they're in public or when they are, you know, out having dinner, out shopping. There's something distasteful. It feels like there's a line being crossed right now. And the fact that the police didn't push back to say, no, this is a line you're not going to cross, to me is disappointing. to say no this is a line you're not going to cross to me is disappointing. I do believe Toronto police you know I don't this isn't a formal statement that they've made but to my observation take a path of least resistance approach and

so at the point where there are already a 100 or so people gathered somewhere. The idea is, okay, let's have this unfold as peacefully as possible rather than try to move everyone. And that may actually have, you know, physical contact between protesters and police that could otherwise be avoided. So path of least resistance, but I think the cumulative effect of that approach is one where to the average observer, the whole system of law and order seems a bit in disarray.

I'm speaking with Kareema Saad. She's a lawyer and a protest watcher and she and her team were on site for the protest in front of Bill Blair's home. Kareem, I want to play something for you. Greg Brady has a theory that he's operating under about the reason perhaps why these protests are not facing the full force of the Toronto Police Service. Let's listen. facing the full force of the Toronto Police Service. Let's listen. I have had it said to me over and over again by more than enough people that there is clearly an agreement that Demp Q gets his police budget and Chow tells Demp Q you go easy on the protests and the protesters. There's no other way this makes sense. I've asked people who work in other police jurisdictions this question. I've asked people within the Toronto Police themselves,

to a man, to a woman. They are certain that this is the case. Karima, what do you think of Greg's theory? I think it's a pretty strong working theory. I think it's a pretty strong working theory. I myself have said and that's without benefit of any internal conversations

that the effect of nonstop constant protest is over time for police and sometimes even new toys. I also think

that there are different stakeholders involved. I think the interest of frontline officers may be a little bit different. I think the interest

of frontline officers may diverge from what management is prepared to have happen. And those who are frontline, it's not an easy task, policing, but they are subject to verbal abuse, sometimes physical contact, physical abuse, and they're protected by their gun and badge, of course. For the average citizen, then, we get the rawest deal of all.

There's no real upshot or benefit. The other thing I would say is, looking at the individual protesters who are involved and some of the patterns that emerge, people who are off recurring, we can actually draw some through lines between those individuals and elected officials, other institutions with a bit of power. So it makes sense that there would be some sort of buffer from the

protesters perspective. They would claim to be heavily surveilled and criminalized. So it does matter a little bit, one vantage point, I think. Yeah, I certainly hear from frontline officers that there is investigation that happens on the ground during those protests. And I think we have to be very careful to separate the value and the hard work of the frontline officers who are there, the boots on the ground. You're never going gonna find a greater supporter of those guys than me. But what's going on at the head of that organization should be subject to far more scrutiny and accountability

than I think the people of Toronto have gotten. I think we have not heard a fulsome accountability of why these protests are allowed to go on as they are Do you think that's ever going to happen? Maybe with some changes in leadership. That's something but that's more after the fact in the meantime you know, what is the mandate of police and How can that be reconciled with people exercising

their charter rights, but not in a way that oversteps and infringes on other people's rights? That is the core issue here. And as long as there's backdoor politics and intrigue, which is no part of the game, but again, there's a lot of people who are being harmed by the way things are currently unfolding. Kareema, you and your team have been following these protests since day one. Did you ever think they would be they would go on this long? I mean, I started documenting protests with the anti-lockdown freedom convoy movement. So yes, a little bit I'm not entirely surprised. My real observation has been that whatever the cause, we still do see the same people out in the streets leading and instigating others. So I can't say that I'm entirely shocked.

I am surprised at how law enforcement has responded. Kareem Asad, thank you so much for all your hard work. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening to the Ben Mulroney Show podcast. We're live every day nationwide on the Chorus Radio Network. And you can listen online to the Radio Canada player and the iHeart Radio Canada apps. And make sure to follow and subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get

your streaming audio. We release new podcasts every day. Thanks for listening. Daniel Blanchard is no ordinary thief. His heists are ingenious. His escapes defy belief. And when he sees the dazzling diamond CC Star, he'll risk everything to steal it. His exploits set off an intercontinental manhunt. But how long can CC Star stay lucky for Daniel?

I'm Seren Jones, and this is a Most Audacious Heist. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.