The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 2 - This Week in Politics, Greg Brady, General Hillier

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

Best of the Week Part 2 - This Week in Politics, Greg Brady, General Hillier Guests: Sharan Kaur, Jenn Hollett, Chris Chapin, Greg Brady, Eric Kam, General Hillier 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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is who pooped their pants. Killer messaged you yesterday? This is so dangerous. I got to get out of this. Based on a true story. New season Mondays only on W. Stream live and on demand on Stack TV. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Best of the Week podcast. Our political panel usually delivers, but was especially good this week. We talked about the economics behind this high speed rail with Dr. Eric Kam and what our Canadian military strategy should be with General Rick Hillier. Enjoy.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. And this is the time, this is the high water mark of our Friday. This week in politics, we've got a great panel for you. Let's welcome on the phone, Chris Chapin, political commentator and managing principal at Upstream Strategies.

Chris, great to have you on the show. Always a pleasure, Ben. And then in studio, I've got Jen Hollett, from my old stomping grounds of the chat room. We worked together 24 years ago. She's now the executive director of The Walrus. Jen, great to have you here. Well, I made it through the high snow to get here.

Ah! And Sharon Carr, political strategist and partner at Sovereign Advisory. She's also sitting in for John Oakley this week. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much to get here. Ah! And Sharon Carr, political strategist and partner at Sovereign Advisory. She's also sitting in for John Oakley this week. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here. Hello. OK, I'm going to say something that I don't often say.

But with this tweet, Justin Trudeau had his finger on the pulse and got it right. After the game yesterday when Canada won the game that we needed to win, he said, you can't take our country and you can't take our game. But it highlights the fact that for a very long time he and his his ilk have been missing the mark. Chris is this what do you make of this tweet? Am I am I reading too much into it? No, you're not at all. You know, I laughed last night as the conservative on this panel. The first and only time I've ever liked the Justin Trudeau tweet. It was, it was perfect. It

was tone perfect. It was pitch perfect. You name it. You know, the country was united last night for obvious reasons. And I don't know if it was the prime minister himself that wrote the tweet, but kudos to his comms team for doing it. It's all the more important if he didn't write it himself because it speaks to like the brain trust finally getting it right. They used to be, Jen, so good, that Liberal Party used to be so good at knowing what buttons to push, knowing what buttons to avoid and getting it right almost all the time. And it seems like in the recent past, they just, they keep missing the mark.

Well, I think this is a moment that everyone is tuned into. So I'm going to match the tweet with an email from my mom. I sent her Stephen Harper's article in the national post and she replied, thanks for LinkedIn. I'll read it later. I have a busy morning. I was so happy to see that Canada won last night's hockey game with USA. As Canada's head coach said, not only does team Canada need to win, but Canada needs

to win. I don't usually follow hockey, but it made my day when Canada won. Love, mom. PS, I wish Canada wouldn't boo the USA at the game. No, absolutely. It was a moment. Canada met the moment and Justin Trudeau was right there and he deserves credit for it. But Sharon, I was with Pierre Poliev at one point when I asked him, I said, you and your team are so good at social media. But I said, how is it that the same question, how is it that the liberals used to be so good at it, now they're so terrible at it?

And he made what I thought was an interesting point. He said, social media is the tool of the insurgency. That is how they get their message across. And when we form government, we are going to have to figure a way to be able to still maintain that edge on social media, knowing that it's almost by default transfers to those who are on the outside looking in.

Absolutely. And it's so easy. And like, Pierre Poliev is a wonderful communicator. You don't have to agree with his policies, but he's so good at the social media aspect. But that's going to shift dramatically when when and if they come into power because right now he's fighting the guy, but who is he gonna fight when he's in there? He's the one who's gotta prove his worthiness of being in that role, so of course. But he's self-aware if he's already thinking this.

Absolutely, but you know, when you just said that, it made me think maybe that's why Donald Trump has always been so effective on social media because he always needs a foil. He needs a villain. He needs somebody to be fighting. Even when he wins, he goes and finds somebody else to fight. So that might be one of the reasons he's such an effective communicator on social media. He also has no shame where the rest of us post something, oh who liked it? Oh my god, they sent this. I'm so upset. He doesn't care. No, he doesn't. Hey, let's go to

Pierre Poliev because he was on TV yesterday and he was asked, you know, he's been beating the drum that Canada is broken or Canada's institutions are broken and and he's getting pushback for that and he yesterday pushed right back. And it is patriotic to point out what is broken so that you can fix it. I mean, liberals, they're trying to gaslight Canadians into saying, if you point out any of the problems that they caused after 10 years in power, you're unpatriotic. I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way. Patriotism is about having an honest conversation about the enormous damage the Liberals did to this country. And by the way, I won't take any lessons on patriotism from Mark Carney, who took jobs

and money out of Canada to put them in the States, in China, and in the Middle East. I won't take any lessons from the liberals on patriotism after they have been lowering our flag and putting down our history for the last 10 years. Look, you know where I come from politically, and Jen, you and I do not come from the same place, but I love our conversations. I co-sign this entirely. I find it offensive that my patriotism or Pierre's patriotism or anybody who doesn't fall in line with this government, we are challenged for our love, the quality of our

love and the level that we love our country. I find it offensive. Well, I come on radio shows like this because the country is broken and we discuss it and we debate it. And I think that's the freedom we enjoy in a country like Canada. But I think at the heart of this is that a lot of us still believe in the promise of Canada. And while Canada is under attack, we're feeling very proud and a bit sensitive. I think there's room to do both

though to be very proud proud but also to debate, especially at election time. But you have to, you can't be afraid to have the debate and that's the problem because anytime somebody steps out of the line of the orthodoxy of the Liberal Party, and by the way this is their stock and trade in my opinion Sharon, they do it all the time, that whenever you step out of what they believe is the line you are, Pascal Saint-Aude said it about the CBC, if you don't get in line with how they want to fund the CBC, you are not for Canadian sovereignty, Canadian independence. You don't get it and you don't love Canada.

Well, this is my concern with my former colleagues. There's a lot of pitting people against each other. If you don't believe in X, that means you believe in Y. And I'm of the view in the world of politics, you have to find a happy medium amongst everyone. It's not about, to me, it's not about patriotism. It's not about is Canada broken. It's about how do we fix the system and it's okay to point out the errors, but we have to fix them. Yeah, yeah. Chris Chapin, in this era of a rising

tide of nationalism, patriotism, anti-Americanism, does the liberal tactic of challenging Pierre's patriotism, Could that be an issue for him? I think so. It's you know, we talked about the liberals comms game being so strong for so long, and then it felt like it fell off a cliff for the last five or six years. This is what they're good at sharing spot on that they do a phenomenal job pitting Canadians against each other and they've been given a bit of a gift because of Donald Trump that they think they can exploit. I think that's disgusting and very concerning but they're very, very good at it. I think you're already seeing, it's very recent and who knows if this is just a bump, but the Liberals have crept back up substantially in

in public opinion polling. And I think there's something to be said about, yeah, we're all wrapping ourselves in the flag. You know, I watched a proper hockey game for what felt like the first time in 15 years last night. And, you know, and we're all feeling that sense of, you know, national unity and they're doing a really good job of trying to exploit it. Now I think the question comes, can they do it over a sustained period of time

against somebody who's such a strong communicator like Pierre Paul? That I'm not sure about because he is shameless, I'll even say, in pushing back. He has no fear in pushing back. Just like we joked about Donald Trump hitting tweet. Pierre has no fear in calling something out when he sees it.

And so I think that's gonna be the challenge because that clip that you just played was phenomenal. Yeah. And Sharon, how different is it going to be in terms of this dynamic, this communications flow, this back and forth? How different is it during an actual election campaign? Because for all intents, people like to think that we're on an election footing. We are not technically an election campaign. My, my amateur position is a lot changes when all of a on an election footing. We are not technically an election campaign. My amateur position is a lot changes when all of a sudden an election is triggered. Absolutely, so much changes. I guess my only concern would be is that,

sure, the election gets triggered, you go, it's peer poll you have against, whether it's Carney or Freeland, whoever. Oh, it's Carney. Yeah, it is, we're gonna bet on that. There's a debate next week, don't jump ahead. You mentioned timing is important. Campaigns are important.

Okay. Well, Jennifer's for a team, some other than Carney maybe, but we have this big elephant in the room of Donald Trump who has taken over the narrative, the rhetoric around the election and as much as Poliev is going to try to come at Carney or whoever, liberals are going to go for Trump and it's going to be, that's going to be the narrative. And that's where I think the conservatives are are gonna fall short. I don't know. I listen I believe since before Donald Trump was even elected when it looked like he was gonna get elected I said that the greatest gift to Pierre poliev would be Donald Trump because he's gonna supercharge the American economy

The the gap in productivity is going to widen immediately And the question is gonna be who do you trust to keep pace with the Americans the ones who've made us dragged us down for nine years or the guy who's promising to unleash our potential so but but that's why we have election campaigns anyway everybody stay here because we've got a lot more with the political panel panel and we're gonna continue including claims that not supporting the CBC as I just, means you do not love this country. That's next on the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. So glad to have our political panel with us.

Jen Hollett, Sharon Carr and Chris Chapin are here, have returned. They didn't leave during the break. Very glad about that. And look, I've got, I've got a bee in my bonnet over this Patrice Saint-Ange announcement on the CBC funding for a number of reasons. One, I think it's misplaced. Two, I don't think that this government has the mandate to put this in the window. She's an outgoing minister. The prime minister has resigned and the government and the parliament has been prorogued. So all of that should make this dead on arrival. But they're putting in the window to position themselves

opposite Pierre Poliev who wants to defund the CBC. We've already talked about, if you don't support this, you don't love the country, I think that's nonsense. But I've got in front of me right here, Jen Hollett, who is the managing executive director of The Walrus. I read The Walrus all the time. We have your writers on this show at least a couple of times a month.

I don't agree with half the stuff in that. I like being challenged. I like having positions that are not mine. They make my ideas better because they get challenged. So I'm not against that. I don't need everyone to believe what I believe. But you're not out there asking for a billion dollars a year. And you're also not suggesting that asking for a billion dollars a year.

And you're also not suggesting that without you Canada isn't Canada. So there's a lot going on here. I will say as someone who worked at the CBC, that the people who are the most critical of the CBC are actually CBCers, right? If you know anyone who's worked at the CBC or is there right now. And I think the CBC, as is any government issue, priority campaign process is worthy and needs our criticism. But right now news media is in crisis and that includes the public broadcaster,

includes private broadcasters, includes the walrus, we're an independent news media org or registered charity. And that's because of the shift in the business model. It used to be in the eighties and 90s maybe even the early 2000s subscriptions and advertising that money went to the tech companies and so much is free online So we have to make a strong press a priority I think elections a good time to do that and I think a strong public broadcasters part of that my question for you been in the panel is

Why aren't the conservatives looking to defund Radio Canada? Why is it only English CBC? People listen to Radio Canada. People watch Radio Canada. It's not a suck. The outcomes of the CBC, English, in my opinion, don't justify the inputs. So why don't we fix it? Why don't we get CBC English to meet the moment that we're in and learn from Radio Canada rather than defund it where they won't stand a chance to do so? I don't want to anymore. I'm tired of it.

As somebody who's worked in private broadcasting, and Chris, I want to bring you into this, as somebody who's worked in private broadcasting where we've had to make really tough decisions over the course of years, I started in TV when we were high on the hog. Everyone was watching CTV. Number one, show this. Number one, that. Everywhere we went, when we were high on the hog. Everyone was watching CTV. Number one show this, number one that. Everywhere we went the eyeballs were on

CTV and then they started started going elsewhere and we threw everything and the kitchen sink at the problem. It's not going away and Chris I would suggest that this idea of getting rid of commercials during news programming that would have been a great idea nine years ago, but we are way past that. It might've been a great idea 20 years ago. I think we're so far past what would have been good 10 years ago. We can't keep sinking money in a sinking ship.

And I mean, I think that's, you know, where a lot of Canadians concern is with the CBC. You know, we started this panel talking about the hockey game last night. It was broadcast on Sportsnet. We didn't need the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to broadcast something that made us feel national unity. And so, a billion dollars goes basically nowhere these days.

And that's why Radio Canada is alive and well, is because it's profitable, it's successful. And I think we just, you know, there's got to be a better way we could spend a billion dollars aside from subsidizing the CBC as it is. it's profitable, it's successful. And I think we just, you know, there's gotta be a better way we could spend a billion dollars aside from subsidizing the CBC as it is, because it's just, we're gonna just keep doing the same thing and fewer and fewer people are gonna watch the CBC, log on to cbc.ca to get their news. It's just, it's a dying medium.

Maybe there's a different way we could invest a billion dollars into Canadian journalism, but the CBC as it is, is not the not the answer anymore. Sharon Carr, with the rise of Canadian pride and Canadian patriotism, and some would say it's not necessarily patriotism per se, it's something else. But there is this more there's a there's a there's a skip in our step. Is this a pure political play by the liberals to take advantage of that to say,

hey, this is a Canadian institution, we're proud of Canada, let's all get behind the CBC? There's definitely a bit of that. And I think as someone who has been a contributor for many years previously at CBC, we know there's value from a regional perspective. And what the problem is, is that this government, as they do with many things, they've politicized it. They've politicized it to the point where people treat it like, here, this is my tax dollars. Why the service is not the way I want it to be. So why should we be paying a billion dollars for it? Now, that being said, radio Canada, very successful, very loved throughout Quebec, the Canadians, the English side of it and the television side of it,

isn't meeting the standards that people want. So it's kind of the we're leaving government or we're walking out and we're just going to throw the whole kitchen sink at it and it's going to die. All right. We've got time for one last topic. And this is Ontario Premier Doug Ford saying that in a lot of ways, Canada is its own worst enemy when it comes to delaying expansion, delaying growth. Let's listen to the man himself. So everyone's heard of the Ring of Fire. This has been going on for 25 years, assessment after assessment after assessment after assessment. Where are we going to have assessments the rest of our lives? Well, America and the rest of the

world are trying to eat our lunch. One of the most powerful tools we have in Canada is our energy and our critical minerals. Enough of the assessments and waiting around and... So people who don't like Doug Ford will say, oh, he wants to shut down environmental assessment. He wants to destroy the world and he wants to just, he wants to rape the natural world. That's the extreme that I would hear from people who don't like him. However, there are best practices around the world where people get to get these things to market far faster than happen in Canada. So I don't think he's necessarily off base.

Everyone's going to get about 30 seconds on this. Chris, you go first. We would never have had this country if we had the same regulatory environment we do today. We would have never built the CN rail across the country. He's spot on. And I think there's a reason he does so well is he calls a spade a spade.

And we need to get out of our own way. It's absurd that yesterday's announcement from the liberals was that it's gonna cost upwards of $90 billion to build a high speed rail track from here to Montreal. I mean, we have to be able to do things faster and we have to be able to do things cheaper. Sharon, I just saw you chuckle there.

You know, I hate the fact that everyone suddenly now is like, let's do these things in Canada. And Doug Ford is right. I remember I spent a day in and day out on Energy East when they were trying to build it and dealing with the environmental assessments and there's value to it, but nothing gets done. Nothing gets done here at all.

And we will always continue to be in this pit of nothing. Yeah, it feels to me like the larger an organization, I've worked in big organizations, there are people who have jobs. Their only job is to slow down progress, to slow down decisions. And if that decision is slowed down, then they actually look at it and say, I did my job today. I, oh, you know what? Let me got to circle back.

We got to take another meeting on this. And so it's no surprise to me that the bigger the government gets, the more people like that there are who slow things down. And we find ourselves in a place where nothing gets done because there's an entire army of people whose job it is to send something back for review. Well, army of people are going to be voting this week in an advance voting and next Thursday for the Ontario election. And assessments have highlighted that certain projects are a waste of money

and that includes plans for the Ontario Science Centre, Ontario Place, Green Belt, ripping out bike lanes so assessments have value. You are not gonna, you are not going to, I am not going to let you get by talking of that bike lanes are a net positive in this city. They are, they have a, there's a time and a place for them. And that time and place ain't on Bloor. It ain't on University. It ain't on Yonge Street.

So you'll waste the money in the investment that's been made despite assessments and reports. Oh, it was a bad faith investment. Those things, we were told that those things were going to be temporary. They were going to pilot projects. And all of a sudden, they start down and putting permanent structures down.

I do not trust the people who put them in. I trust the guy to take them out. The traffic is going to remain on the Gardiner and the highways and those don't have bike lanes. I travel on Yonge Street every day, every day. And on that note, I want to thank our listeners. We went off course there for just a minute, but I don't care. I love talking to Jen Hall at Sharon Carr and Chris Chapin. I want to thank all three of you for joining us on This Week in Politics, and I hope you come back soon. and 1923. Stream Paramount Plus for 6.99 a month. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments.

Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, the credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show.

And I got to say, I've been, I've been looking back at this show and I've given, I've given you a heap of Ben Mulroney opinions. And the only, the only antidote to that is, um, not more cowbell, but more of your opinions at a one833-724-1811. What I'd like, just give us a call anytime, 24-7, 45 seconds of your time, that's all we need. Tell us who you are, where you're from, and what your hot take is,

and the best opinions always make it onto the show on Fridays, and yes, I do listen to all your opinions. Tonight's a big night. Tonight's a big night for Canadian Pride for Canadian sport for Canada's sport. The four nations face off final is happening US versus Canada. It's a rematch. Canada's looking for revenge. All of this happening on the backdrop of Trump tariffs. Canadian Pride at an all time high. Anti-American sentiment in Canada possibly at an all-time high, anti-American sentiment in Canada, possibly

at an all-time high. So to break it all down as someone with a far, far greater grasp of what is at stake and the history of the sport is a great colleague of mine and a good friend, Greg Brady, the host of Toronto Today on AM 640. Greg, thank you for taking time out of your day. I know you had a busy morning, so I assume you will be watching the game tonight. Well, you'll laugh at this or cry given the state of health care in Ontario. I have an MRI appointment downtown tonight at 10 PM

for my shoulder. And right as the third period is starting, Ben, so don't turn those down. Are you going to be watching on your phone? You're watching on your phone. I'm not sure I'm allowed to have my phone or several of my articles of clothing on, so this could be an awkward way.

I'm not going to have a pocket in that gown to stick my phone into. That gown covers just enough, as we're well aware, those of us who've been through the MRI machine before. But it's an unbelievably exciting game and and I'll catch up. I'll record it at home and make sure I know what's going on before it's more morning. Okay, but like, do we actually want a repeat of game one? Not the result, but do we want three fights in the first nine seconds?

Do we want booing of the American national anthem? And granted, this is taking place in the United States. I'm not quite. Are they going to be booing our national anthem? 100% 100%. I'm expecting it tonight. Just, but that's more, that's nothing to do with the politics or the, or the tariffs. Uh, Boston's a pretty left-leaning city, Massachusetts, a pretty left-leaning state. We almost had a president Dukakis back in 1988, who would have been visiting, uh,

with your dad on a frequent basis. Uh, I don't, I don't, I don't think Mr. Dukakis had a shot after he had that helmet on the tank. I think it was over. Yeah, you can't pose in a tank if you look like you've never been in an army tank before. He and the late Mel Lassman both learned that very, very quickly. So I don't expect that much aggression out of the gate, but you're right. The tension is high.

And we thought we missed this in international hockey. We're like, well, what is there to dislike Russia about? Well, they gave us a good reason three years ago and they haven't even worked their way back into, uh, into the sports world, not just for hockey, but soccer or really anything. So, uh, yeah, Canada, USA is, is a true rivalry now. And, um, and I don't expect anything less than just as physical a game, maybe without the three fights in nine seconds. You know, you did make a good point. You just

brought up Russia and Connor McDavid, best player in the NHL, the face of the NHL, made a couple of comments about how he would like to see this tournament improved. I'd love to see all countries represented. You know, it's great that it's best on best since, you know, four nations and stuff like that. It's been really, really exciting, but there's some great, great players sitting at home. And if we want it to be the biggest stage in the world, then you need all everybody involved. Okay. So where do you land on this, Greg? Because he's obviously talking about Russia. And if you believe that, you know, war is an extension of diplomacy by other means, then sport too is an is an extension

of diplomacy. And, and we see boycotts of Olympics, we we've seen this happen at play at we play out on other stages. To me, it makes sense that Russia is not there on principle for the NHL to take a stand against, you know, the Russian government and how it's behaving on the world stage. Yeah, and they're not the only one until this war ends. It's a no go. It's absolutely a no fly zone. And then depending on how the war ends and Russia's behavior afterwards, Ben, I

think it's a struggle. They stopped having soccer World Cups during World War Two. But the first one back, you know who they didn't allow in Germany and Japan. Like there's there's always been I've heard people say, ah, we've always had a separation between sport and politics. You and I very much remember that South Africa was, you know, basically the bastard child of the world and for good reason for their apartheid policies. Now individuals were allowed to play golf and tennis.

It's the same thing right now with Russian and Belarusian players. Belarus is supporting this war and they'd make the occasional world hockey championships, but this is utterly the right call. I get McDavid saying that too. It's worth pointing out his teammate, Leon Dreisaitl, who's a great player is German. So he's probably also thinking Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia. We always used to have those great Canada Czechoslovakia games. They always felt like one of the top few teams.

So I don't know if there's a universe where Russia's back anytime soon. And it hasn't just been the NHL like FIFA has been consistent. You're not playing men's World Cup, women's World Cup, the Olympics haven't hasn't let them fly the flag. I think it's a ways off. Yeah. Meanwhile, like you said, you don't think that the intensity is going to be there at the top of this game as it was last,

but when I read that Donald Trump tweets, I'll be calling our great American hockey team this morning to spur them on toward victory tonight against Canada, which with far lower taxes and much stronger security will someday, maybe soon become our cherished and very important 51st state. I'll be speaking before the governors tonight in DC and will sadly therefore be unable to attend, but we will all be watching and if Governor

Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everyone and have a great game tonight. So exciting. President Donald J. Trump. So he like he's trolling Canada with this one and he's and I think he's trolling the Canadian players as well. If you, you know, knowing what you know about Canadian athletes and Canadian hockey players, does something like this have an effect? the Canadian players as well. If you, you know, knowing what you know about Canadian athletes and Canadian hockey players, does something like this have an effect? I think it motivates the US players. I really do.

Whether they would vote for him or not. And this is how it was supposed to be, right? Ronald Reagan would call the winning team of the World Series on like a landline phone or the Super Bowl winning team. And, you know, we've had those moments, obviously, your dad was prime minister in that amazing 87 Canada Cup when Wayne Gretzky and Mary LeMieux playing on the same line.

That's still the best hockey I've ever seen in the fall of 1987 when we all were a lot younger. Sure, but this feels different. Again, going back to what we said, this feels like he is going to be using sport to further political aims. I think so and listen there's a reason why there's this folklore of the U.S. Miracle on Ice team right it's been it's been made into movie after movie especially the Kurt Russell one bunch of college kids nobody would give them a chance against this big Soviet machine

that our best players in North America weren't even beating at the time. So you know you need to you need to stir it up when you've got a so-called quote-unquote enemy politically and do you think if Justin Trudeau calls the, what do you think happens if Justin Trudeau calls the Canadian room tonight? I think he'll be smart enough not to but but if this motivates the Americans, then surely the possibility of what Trump's tweet would be like if America wins should be motivating the Canadians. Yeah, that's true.

That's absolutely true. Of course, you're on the road, it's on their ice, it's at the home of the Bruins. It'll be a fascinating, Brad Marchand is a villain in every other NHL arena except Boston and everybody in Canada, 40 million people are gonna be cheering for him to score the winning goal tonight and then go back to rooting against him when he comes to Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa in the weeks to come.

So listen, this is a can't miss if you're a sports fan or even if you're on the fringe tonight, MRI machine or not, I gotta find a way. I gotta work on this. And let's be honest, the NHL lucked out, didn't they? This could have been a very boring, drab all-star game weekend, or all-star game, and instead they lucked out on political and sports pay dirt.

Well, I think, yeah, exactly that. I mean, both Trudeau and Pierre Poliev, who I know you're talking to next hour, were in the stands. I think it's great that they both were there. I think it's wonderful they both were there on Saturday's game. And yeah, they've got you. You need a hero and a villain in sports sometimes, Ben.

And and they've got it here tonight, for sure. Now, if you were a betting man, are you willing to stick your neck out and tell me who you think is going to win? It's hard. It's been hard for teams to win twice in these tournaments. We saw the US pound Canada at the Vancouver Olympics and then going to win? It's hard. It's been hard for teams to win twice in these tournaments. We saw the US pound Canada at the Vancouver Olympics and then, and then Canada won a much closer game the second time around. I'm not, I, if I make a prediction, you know, what's going to happen.

I jinx them if I get it wrong. So I just, I'm, I can't imagine either of these teams not having a shot to come back and win or it being tied with a few minutes left. It just just it's hard to see a game that's a blowout when these two teams get together. Greg Brady, host of Toronto Day on AM 640, thank you so much. I wish you very good luck with the MRI and I hope you get to see the game from start to finish. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for listening to us and joining us and sharing your opinions. As always, our opinion line is open to you to share what you think about the show. Sometimes it's good, sometimes bad, sometimes it's

ugly. But give us a call at 1-833-724-1811 anytime of the day and drop us a line. Tell us what you think about the show, who you are and where you're from. And the best opinions always make it onto the show on Fridays. I want to welcome to the show now a great friend of the show, Dr. Eric Kam, economics professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. Dr. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. Benedict Hello from South Florida. Oh, good for you, my friend. Very smart of you to be there

and not here. So the parliamentary budget office has said that implementing a guaranteed basic income or universal basic income could cut poverty rates up to 40%. And you know, in full disclosure, near the end of my dad's life, he he expressed his support for universal basic income. And on paper, it sounds like a very good idea. And and so I. And so I don't take issue with it academically and on paper, but there are very few countries that have tested this. In the places that have tested it, how has it gone?

It actually has gone better than I would have thought. Now, as usual, your father was right, because on paper, which you know what they say about paper, I don't like the idea. I don't like any of these basic ideas where you basically rob from the rich and give to the poor and try to make everybody a little bit better off, except for the wealthy people, who are the people that generate wealth. But that's another story. The problem is, is that in the environment we live in today, what makes this a little bit more palatable is that it actually might be cheaper, Ben,

to provide a basic income on one level than it is to provide the other social programs on the other level. So in a sense, this is really just a substitution effect of saying, what if we just give people a basic level of income as opposed to a certain level of welfare, unemployment insurance, and any of the other social programs that are killing our country? Doctor, that therein lies the rub. See, well, two things. One, you would have to you would have to

commit to a substitution. And I don't know that the current government would ever commit to a substitution. It would be an addition. And secondly, I don't trust any government in this country to fully execute and fully realize a proper universal basic income. At every step, we have a big flashy announcement that we're going to do something and then rather than see something through to its full execution, we stop at half measures. We saw it happen with safe supply.

We saw it happen with COVID. We see it happen at each and every step. Anytime a government has been tested at rolling out a proper government program, they fall short and waste money. And so I don't trust anyone in this country to do this right. No, and I agree with you in that right there. I mean, you stole my

thunder, which is fine. It's the Ben Mulroney show. But it's the difference between theory and policy. In theory, I could come up with a story for you on paper with numbers and graphs and pretty diagrams, where this could actually be okay. It's the implementation of it. And we know that this government, this federal government can't do anything but trip over its own shoelaces. So I should have prefaced my comments by saying maybe, maybe a poly of government could see itself clear to doing this successfully. Do I believe any level of government today in Canada could do this?

No, they would do nothing more than just tax and spend. we can't have more of that, that's killing us. Well, let's talk about an investment in this country. We don't see a lot of big stories like this so we should highlight it, but Loblaw is set to open 80 stores in 2025 as part of a $10 billion investment over five years. This is very, very big news. And now the rub is that most of these

stores are going to be of the low cost bargain variety. But there are a few things that stand out incredible investment at a time where there's a lot of talk about the loss of Canadian jobs and people taking their investments to the US. And I would love to know what the NDP think about this with the big bad grocery cartel investing millions, billions of dollars in Canada, providing for thousands of new Canadian jobs. First of all, the NDP are irrelevant. Who cares what they have to say?

They have never seen a good wealth creating economy producing idea that they didn't want to kill. So let's not even ask the NDP because frankly, they don't matter anymore. This is an excellent thing. This is an investment in our country. This is what we have been crying for since the pandemic. And I don't care whether it's low cost, lower cost, high cost. These are new stories being built and jobs being created.

And by the way, Ben, I think this is really, really an important marker. And Canadians should remember this. When the anti-profit coalition or whatever the hell they call themselves, go out with their placards and say that profits are too high, profits are too high. Please remember for a second, you hypocrites, that it's these profits that are going to eventually hire Canadians. I am never afraid of a company making profit because profit means jobs and jobs mean employment and employment means growth. And so, go back to your first point. Well, Eric was-

I was just going to say, the NDP would hate this idea because it's a good idea. But you're absolutely right. I mean, there are certain types of people who have an aversion to the private sector writ large that forget that publicly traded companies have a mission to grow. And if you have profits, those profits by and large get reinvested into into growth activities, be it hiring more people or building more stores that then in turn hire more people so that you can then make more money. That's the whole conceit of the system.

But if you are of the political ilk that you don't like the system and you don't like capitalism and you think that it's an ill, you're gonna come out against these things. The problem with those idiots is that we do live in a capitalist society. If you don't like the way the game is played,

try to change the game. But until then, this is the game. And if you want to see your economy grow, you have to create employment opportunities. So bravo to Loblaws and the Westin Company for trying something in an era where people are trying nothing. I'm speaking with Dr. Eric Kam, economist about all things economics. And there was an announcement by Justin Trudeau the other day about a new high-speed rail line that would connect Quebec City to Toronto.

This is something that a lot of people have been clamoring for forever, but if you believe that the medium is the message, I'm wondering why Justin Trudeau is the guy announcing this. He is a guy on the way out. He's a lame duck prime minister. He's a caretaker. What is he doing making this announcement right now, except maybe trying to tack something

on to a legacy that thus far is quite lacking? Yeah, lacking to say the least. I was thinking about this because it's not a bad idea. I assume that somebody has crunched the numbers to figure out how many people would potentially take this line and what kind of revenue would generate versus the cost of doing it. And if in the super long run, 20, 30 years, if it pays for itself or even makes money, then I'm okay with it. But in the end, what do I think this is right now? I think this is buying election votes for his party, which may be going away present, which is really all he has to offer the party, Ben.

Well, yeah. When I heard the Bloch-Kbécois coming out saying they completely co-signed this, I was like, and there we go. It's the battle for votes in Quebec between the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois. Who gets to take credit for this? Who gets to say they're more in favor of this? That to me is what I see right here. And I see that as a perversion of Justin Trudeau's current role as a caretaker. But that's a conversation for another day, Eric.

Let's move on to something that sort of, I'm scratching my head over and I'm hoping you can explain me through this. The S&P 500 closes at another record on Wednesday as investors seem to be looking past Donald Trump's tariff fears and I just assume, I've been told that chaos and uncertainty are what causes stocks to drop. People don't like those things. So how do you explain stocks going up in an era where we don't

know what's coming from day to day from Donald Trump? I can tell you exactly why. It's because of the difference of where you are sitting right now versus where I am sitting right now. You, in Canada, where we are both from, are surrounded by talk of chaos and topsy-turvy and up and down, but I am sitting in South Florida where that is not the case. People here are far more comfortable and far more confident and in a city as wealthy as Miami far more content with where the federal government in this country is going We don't see it down here and I use the term we loosely but it doesn't matter because I'm here right now People are confident in Trump. They have faith in him. They believe like most Republican presidents

That have come in in the last hundred years We know that there's an economic bump when a Republican takes the White House and so I think what you're seeing right now is really the difference and the bifurcation between Canada and the states this widespread panic isn't happening down here. Doctor we're gonna have to we're gonna have to leave it there my friend thank you so much enjoy the hot weather. Stay healthy Ben. All right. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling,

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Book at aircanada.com. Condition supply. We talk a lot about Canada's military, our role in the world, and how the Americans see our role in the world and our responsibility in the world quite a bit on this show. And Canada's top general says that the military relationship with the United States is solid, even as Donald Trump's threats continue. We've got a lot to discuss with our next guest. So pleased and honored to have him with us. General Rick Hill, your honorary patron of allies for a strong Canada. He's a retired Canadian Forces general and he served as the chief of the defense staff. General, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your service. Ben, good morning and thank you for saying that.

I'm glad to be here. There is in a great many ways American and Canadian soldiers have a great relationship. How do politics play and affect that relationship soldier to soldier? Well, there's always an effect. But what you do is say, you know, politicians come and go, political agendas come and go. A focal point at any one point in time will change.

And the important thing for us at the military level was to keep it consistent, to realize that both of our futures were entwined, that security for one is security for the other, and that we both had a role to play. And right from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to myself as the Chief of Defense Staff, and that continuing to this day, we had that thought process.

And then we cascaded that down to the operational commands. We built on the strong relationships of working around the world of our historical relationships with military and of course not just with the United States but specifically with the United States, the great exchange program, the exchange of education, the exchange of commanders and you know, air and land and sea and special forces, we do it with many nations, but we do it more with the United States of America.

So we built upon that. And then we just use, for example, NORAD as the example. NORAD ensures the security of both Canada and the United States. It's important to both of us. And what we tried to do, and I think we're successful, is making sure we maintain that at that very level, on emotional, professional and capable level. And I think that's the crucial part. And that's a key value of the military. But General Hillier, you know, earlier in the show, I played some audio of Sean Hannity

of Fox News, essentially referring to Canada as freeloaders. And I then sort of editorialized a little bit to say that he appreciates Canadian history through a keyhole. And he does not appreciate the history stained in blood, the noble history of our armed forces and what we have done and what we've accomplished and the values that we have promoted around the world

and the sacrifices that you and your fellow men and women in uniform have made on behalf of Canada. Do Canadian soldiers who have fought in so many wars alongside Americans, do they take offense to the president's comments? Yeah, I think they, I don't speak for all the veterans or any veterans beside myself and you know, I take offense at the comments. I resent the fact that, you know, the sacrifice and the blood that we shared and the blood that we spilled on behalf of both country's security is not either recognized or dismissed if you will.

But I would assure you that, you know, yeah, it might come from journalists and news people like Sean Anity, but it doesn't come from the military chain of command in the United States of America. I would say on the other end, what we did yesterday is not as important as what we are doing today. And there is a view that we are not doing enough today and we are not spending enough on security of Canada and the North American continent and therefore the United States and Canada together. And that has been recognized more and more and more and I've heard that from senior commanders

across the Canadian forces is that, you know, every meeting they go to now is not just the United States of America saying that and the military, it is other nations militaries also. And so, yeah, what we did yesterday is crucial and important. And you know, I resent it when it's not recognized, but it's what we're doing today and what we're planning to do tomorrow that now becomes the focal point. And we need a be doing more right now and doing a heck of a lot more tomorrow. General, we can't be rebuilding the military unless we have men and women to rebuild the military around.

And it seems like we're being given that opportunity by Canadians. In the last month, the military saw about a thousand more applicants than they did this time last year. Now, senior military officials didn't go so far as to attribute it to Trump's comments, but they didn't rule it out. And so this seemingly this rise in Canadian pride could be the cause of that. What do you do? What does the military do with this additional Canadian Pride that's translating into more people willing to enlist? Well, I'm not sure if that is actually the case, Ben. I hope that it is that Canadian Pride is increasing that, therefore,

more people see the armed forces. But, you know, the first thing the Canadian Armed Forces got to do is be out there amongst all those people, not be invisible. And people say to me on a regular basis, where the heck are the Canadian Forces? We never see them. We never see them in our towns and our events and our important gatherings of any community in our society. And we never see them. And I think you got to be there, first of all, and be seen as a great Canadian institution. And then you got to market yourself with this exciting opportunity for young men and young women and look at my age they're all young men and young women and the exciting opportunity to

serve your nation to be part of something really important for Canada and to work with the greatest teams in the world and to get some leadership development and to learn how to use your initiative and to survive in tough circumstances and to actually achieve missions that are incredibly, incredibly good. Those are the kind of things that appeal to young men and women and we got to get out there and make sure that they hear those kinds of things and we'll get a lot more than a thousand recruits if we do it. It starts with you know something that starts at the very top. It starts with the Prime Minister who has to make sure that he or she articulates the importance

of the Canadian forces and the people who serve there, the men and women in the Navy, the Air Force, the Army and the Special Forces. And then it goes to the military training command, be out there, be positive, be excited by it, inspire people and talk about the great institution that we have and that we wanna build into an even greater and a bigger institution. That's the kind of excitement that we want to build into an even greater and a bigger institution.

That's the kind of excitement that you need to generate to build upon an increased Canadian patriotism and get people in the door, get them trained and get them doing business for Canada. The current Chief of Defense Staff, which is a position that you also held, was asked about Pierre Poliev's comments about changing the military's culture from a woke culture to a warrior culture. And she said she doesn't know what that means. She doesn't know what he means by woke culture. I think I think most people appreciate in their own lives what what woke culture means. What do you think about what he meant? Well, I'm not going to try to say what Pierre Poliev meant. From my perspective, what you're concentrating on are producing warriors.

Hard, physically fit, well-trained, absolutely superbly led, beautifully equipped warriors – air, land, and sea, and special forces – who can take on any mission from our country. And let's not forget the basic role of soldiers and sailors and and aviators and special forces troopers is to go into combat to take on an enemy to destroy that enemy and to win that battle and that's what we have to produce warriors and never mind all of the other sort of words that go around that warriors fit equipped led inspired ready to soldier for Canada whether it's on the sea in the air on the sea, in the air, or on the land.

General, in about 30 seconds, I'd love your comment on a timeline. If we were to begin in earnest a good faith rebuilding of the Canadian military so it could get to a point that a person like yourself with your expertise would deem not only acceptable, but a world class outfit worthy of Canada and our military history. How long before we can get operational on that front? Well, first of all, we build on what we have and we have some operational pieces even though we've decimated them brutally over the last decade. And we have done that. But I would use increments of two years, two years, four years, six years, and look in two years,

we can be back with the units that we have that are well equipped and brought up to the right staffing levels of men and women in them, ready to do the business and train, that's in two years. And so what we have then could be capable, more capable certainly than they are now because they're lacking all of those things. And in four years, we can increase the size of the training forces, we could bring into being

more years, a lot more people recruited and trained. And then in six years, we would have that enlarged additionally capable general we got to leave it there. We got to leave it there. Thank you very much. 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 I Heart Radio Canada apps. And make sure to follow and subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your streaming audio. We release new podcasts every day. Thanks for listening.

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