The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 2 - This Week in Politics, Mohit Rajhans, Emerson Csorba, John Thomson

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

Best of the Week Part 2 - This Week in Politics, Mohit Rajhans, Emerson Csorba, John Thomson Guests: Marcel Wieder, Regan Watts, Andy Gibbons, Dave Bradley, Mohit Rajhans, Emerson Csorba, John Thomson 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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you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hey there, Alex Pearson, filling in for Ben Mulrooney. And these were some of the best interviews we did this week. The political panel on point. Is this BS or is it real?

Plus a whole lot more. Enjoy. This is the Ben Mulrooney Show. And I am Alex Pearson. It is great to have you here. It is this week in politics. We're going to dig in and get some of the opinions of, I'd say, some of the best voices that we can find. And of course, we've got them with us.

We've got Marcel Weidner, and he's a liberal strategist, president and chief advocate of Aurora Strategy Global. We got Regan Watts, founder of Fratton Park, Inc., former senior aide to Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty, the late Jim Flaherty, and Andy Gibbons, former VP of WestJet, currently an independent consultant. Welcome all. Great to have you. Thank you so much.

All right. There you go. Good morning. Morning, Alex. Let's dive into this. Abacus and Leisure polling showing two very different things in their polling. Abacus has, you know, they see the conservatives in a very comfortable lead. We've seen a couple of polls where you've got Mark Carney getting a big, big bump. You've got Leger polling showing a much tighter race. Let me kick this off with you,

Marcel, you know, given you've been in the trenches, certainly in politics, behind the scenes. What's the noise and what is it you're paying attention to? At what point are you getting excited? I'm getting excited because there's a leadership race right now. The issue is that different polling firms have different methodologies in terms of how they gather their samples and how they have their secret sauce in terms of analyzing things. And so that's why you're seeing some really different numbers from different polling groups. But one thing you are seeing consistently is that the liberal numbers are tracking upwards. And that's a positive sign.

You know, the nightmare with Justin Trudeau seems to be coming to an end. And, you know, whoever, right now it seems to be Mark Carney, but, you know, if it's Christian Freeland or Karina Gould, either way way the liberal numbers are improving and that's what excites me is that they're back in the game. It's no longer trying to save the furniture. We actually may have a real shot at re-election. Well okay, we'll stick to the furniture for now maybe for some people, but Regan Watts, let me kick this over to your side. For the conservative view on this, I mean, at what point do you get concerned about this,

right? Because there's, I think, been a lot of shock when we started to see polling numbers as high as they were, and people saying, oh my gosh, what happened to Pierre Polyev? Is he losing his lead? Has he somehow positioned himself wrong? But we saw with Kamala Harris, when we were looking at the United States and when she replaced Joe Biden,

we saw the same kind of bump. At what point do you sweat or do you? Well, it's a good question, Alex. And I think Marcel, I think said it best, which is the long national nightmare that is this country being governed by liberals is almost over. And spring is around the corner and it's going to be a brand new day, which is a great thing

for Canada and for Canadians. With respect to the polling itself, I don't believe anybody worth their salt in Canadian politics had any expectation that the Conservative Party of Canada was going to maintain its lead over the Liberal Party of 25-30%. It was not practical, not real, and I, for one, as an observer, never believed it was going to continue to be the case. I will remind your listeners, Alex, and the folks on this panel, These numbers that Pierre is receiving right now, whether it was the abacus poll that was out yesterday that showed up 4628 or some of the earlier polls that showed them up between eight and 10 points, these are still numbers that are higher than Stephen Harper ever had when he

was conservative leader. And so if you were to ask a conservative after the 2021 election, would they like to be 10 points higher, 15 points higher, 18 points higher than the Liberals today than they were then? Every conservative, 10 out of 10 conservatives would take that in a heartbeat. What Canadians and your listeners should be paying attention to with respect to the polls, in my view, is a couple of things. One, what is the committed vote? That is, who are going out to vote? Who are Canadians who are responding to these polls saying they're absolutely going to show up? And what do those numbers look like? Conservatives consistently pull ahead of liberals because they

are committed to vote because they, more than anybody, want this national nightmare to be over. So that's the committed vote is something to look at. And then secondly, regionally, is what are the numbers in Ontario and British Columbia in particular look like? And then secondly, regionally is what are the numbers in Ontario and British Columbia in particular look like? And conservatives for the last two and a half years have consistently pulled ahead of liberals in both of those provinces where there is a huge number of seats, which is very consequential. And so for me, I'm not sweating this as a conservative. I never was. It's not easy to win federal elections in this country. And look, liberals are a special breed and they will do anything to hang on to power. So it was always going to be a dogfight, but I still like where we are.

I think politicians as a whole in this country are a special breed. But having said that, Andy, let me kick someone over to you. I mean, look, Mark Carney says he's open to going to the polls as early as possible or, you know, when it's the most opportune. He likes to say when it's good for Canadians, Pierre Poliev will say, look, he's just trying to avoid the media scrutiny. And the bottom line is we're in a leadership race, but it's really the only time Canadians can get a look at him.

And he has basically avoided the media. But again, how long can he hold this on? Because most people don't know him. Most Canadians don't know him. So how does he keep this game going? Well, we've never seen this before. You know, Mark Carney is going to be prime minister in a few weeks and he's been in the public eye, but he hasn't been scrutinized. Think of the years that Stephen Harper was scrutinized, Paul Martin, Jean Quentin, Pierre Paul, sorry, he's not prime minister yet, but Justin Trudeau, these gentlemen spent years and years being scrutinized. And we just haven't seen that level of scrutiny from Mr. Carney yet.

And I think the other thing to remember is, he's not battle tested yet. It is a grind to travel this country. And one regional issue, one slip up, one misquote, and his momentum can be derailed very, very easily. So caution is probably very prudent. And you can see these these events he's doing. And he's already had a couple of small little slip ups that are people are trying to pounce on. So, you know, we're going to have a prime minister that is less battle tested than anyone, I think, in our modern era.

And I think that's going to be something interesting, interesting to watch. But at the same time, if you're him, you know, you've been given a brand new car, you're not going to keep it in the garage. Yeah, no, he's going to want to ride whatever momentum they think they have. But the key question I'm watching is is this legitimate liberal numbers or is this you know a reasonable body of opinion in Canada saying let's get behind the government because this is something we face together Yeah, and that's the key question for me to watch. All right Well, let me let me kick one last question over on this one for Marcel is you know

But his car can be a lot fancier than Canadians, right? Like he could pull out of a garage in anything he wants to drive and And so his big, he's going to have to convince a lot of Canadians that he's just like them. And he doesn't sound just like them. Even in tweets he puts out, it's like he uses words. I'm like, people don't talk like that. Right. So how does he convince them? He's just like us.

Well, it's not necessarily that, you know, the politicians want to be relevant to the public. want to be relevant to the public. I think we have a very significant situation here where you need real leadership in dealing with Donald Trump and the US administration. And Carney can give that type of, he has that gravitas that's necessary to be able to deal with those existential issues that Pierre Poliev and Jack Mead Singh don't have.

And so when Canadians look at the resume, yes, this is a guy who went to Oxford, went to Harvard, Bank of Canada, Bank of England, steered us through the 08, 09 recession, the Brexit in England. And then you compare it to Polyev, who's never held a private sector job, never, you know, other than being an elected politician, you know, who's going to be best able to manage the economy and deliver on Canadian jobs and protect Canadian interests? I would just take someone who focuses on monetary issues. Like remember, it was the Prime Minister himself who said, you'll have to forgive me. I don't focus on monetary policy.

I focus on families and to which, you know, Reagan and I'll finish up. But that's exactly where Carney is. He can focus on those monetary issues and does understand the macro and the micro issues. Right. And it's the micro issues that, uh, that are so key right now because it's the macro issues that are just adding up to more and more and more costs for a lot of Canadians who are looking for the next person to come in and either fix this country up and make life more affordable.

When we come back, we're going to go over a couple of other things, including some comments that Mark Carney has made. How far is he going to go as far as using his powers to get things done to take on the Americans but we'll also talk about Donald Trump. He doesn't need Canadian products. He keeps talking about us being a member of the 51st state we need the protection. We will talk about those stories as well. What does Pierre Poliev do? Does he have to now pivot? Does he have to change anything? He's got a very big rally coming up on Saturday but in Canada first. What challenge does he have to change anything? They're very big rally coming up on Saturday

But in Canada first what challenge does he face? We'll talk about that coming up here on the Ben Mulroney show It is the Ben Mulroney show I am Alex Pearson it is great to have you here with us This is a panel where we talk about this week in politics. We've got our talkers Marcel wider waiter It's a wider waiter my st. Weider. Is it Weider or Weider? Am I saying Weider? I shouldn't have known that. All right. Marcel Weider, Reagan Watts, and Andy Gibbons weighing in. And Andy is with WestJet VP, or former VP of WestJet. Let's dive into all things Donald Trump,

which well, every day is all things Donald Trump. And I will do this segment now, and I take no responsibility if the opinions of Donald Trump have changed in the next 15 minutes. But he says you know we don't need Canadian products you know and yes we're a very big contender to be his 51st state because well we need their protection. Take a listen. I spoke to Governor Trudeau on numerous occasions and we'll see what happens but it just sets up so good for them. Look, the people would pay much less tax than they're paying right now.

They'd have perfect military protection. They don't have any military protection because they essentially because, and you take a look at what's going on out there. You have Russian ships, you have China ships, you have Chinese ships, you have a lot of ships out there. And you know, people are in danger. This is a different world today.

It's a different world that they need our protection. All right. Andy, let me give you the first kick at this. If you had no idea of what was really going on and you didn't understand the relationship between our two countries and you were hearing this for the first time, you know, what would you think? Who, who's our biggest enemy? Who would be Donald Trump's biggest enemy?

Yeah, the thing I think about when I heard that clip was, was actually Barack Obama's speech in our parliament years ago, where he basically said Canada was a laggard on defense spending and needed to step up. And he got a standing ovation from all parties. So the concept of Canada being a laggard militarily and relying on the peace dividend and the grace of American money is not a new argument. There's a new actor and he's more volatile and he's more provocative.

But this is not a new issue and it's not a new allegation for our country. And I think this is where liberals are challenged because I think people will rally behind them instinctively, but tough questions are going to come. I was looking the other day, they said that they're going to fast track defense spending, the 2% commitment. Well, why wasn't it already fast-track? This is something an American president eight years ago said. So, you know, it's volatile and it's confusing and it's a challenge for sure, but it's not a new comment. And I think the second observation would be, you know, this is less about the Canadian government convincing Donald Trump that he needs our products. Canada needs Republican and Democrat governors to tell him they need our products. And I think that's where the effort should be. He's dug in and that's clear. But we're not the people, I mean, we'll make the message,

but I think it really is those governors that rely on this country that need to step up and need to be engaged by Canada. Yeah, I mean, Regan, one of the more frustrating things is we knew all these warnings were coming in that we weren't ready, our military was a problem, we had problems with terrorism, we had problems with drugs. I in that we weren't ready. Our military was a problem. We had problems with terrorism.

We had problems with drugs. I mean, we have been told by our Five Eye partners that we're now the lazy eye, right? So these are not new. It's just that we haven't done anything about it. And here we are, right? I don't agree with anything Donald Trump is doing, but you know, this is what we have to deal with and somehow have to fix it very quickly. Yeah, and I agree with everything Andy just said. Look, I don't want tariffs. I hate what's

happening and I don't like how President Trump is speaking about Canada. And media and elites and liberals are blaming Trump for being unfair. They say things like, the facts don't bear this out. Every time an argument about fentanyl comes out, we come back with our 43 pounds of fentanyl as if that's 43 pounds is okay. Guess what? It does not matter. We must see things as they are, not as we wish them to be.

And so we've had some complacency. Andy talked about President Obama's speech, but every president, since George W. Bush has made comments and quiet and not so quiet complaints about Canada's role as a good partner and a neighbour, Canadians in Canada has taken for granted that we were America's trusted partner and we assume that our friendship was unshakable. But as anybody knows, friendships aren't entitlements. They require effort and we have been neglectful. So that Donald Trump is saying these things

speaks to his volatility, but it also speaks to the fact that our elites and our governing classes who are in many respects, very mediocre have allowed us to get to the position that we're in. And let us not forget that Prime Minister Trudeau and his team, Katie Telford and others, Catherine McKenna, people who worked in that government have had contempt

and disdain for Republicans and President Trump and the people who support him. And they have been public about it. These quote unquote hot mic moments have not been hot mics. These have been very deliberate, clear comments that reveal what Canadian political leadership and governing leadership feel about towards Republicans and President Trump. So it should not be a surprise to anybody that he's reacting this way. What we do need to

do though is work with the Americans and try and find common ground. And as Andy says, find those governors and Democrat and Republican states, mostly Republican states, who we can work with so that our message is getting through to those in the White House. All right, let me get to you, Marcel. We had the premiers going down there with the territorial leaders. It didn't seem to make much of a difference,

and there's no guarantee of protection, as Trump talks about. So where do you see this going? Well, with respect to Washington, the premiers went down, Doug Ford went down for a photo op and really didn't come back with anything. In return, Dominic LeBlanc and the ambassador spent 90 minutes with the Commerce Secretary and putting— And a guy named Sergio. Sorry? And a guy named Sergio.

Yes, and a guy named Sergio. But the but the reality is, is that we don't necessarily have to walk lockstep with the US. I'll remind your listeners that when Bush declared war in Iraq, Kretschen decided that Canada should not participate in it. So, you know, we have our own foreign policy, we have our own, you know, defense policies and don't have to parrot what Donald Trump says or

wants us to say. Uh, I personally want us to see that we should get to that 2% a lot faster. I've always been in favor of a strong Canadian military. We have a proud record of that and, uh, we need to do more in that respect. Well, we actually have to walk our talk. I don't have a ton of time that and we need to do more in that respect. Well, we actually have to walk our talk.

I don't have a ton of time for this, but I do want to give each of you 40 seconds to kick this around because patriotism is a very big theme tomorrow at a rally in Ottawa and inside pure Poliev's, you know, Trump induced strategy shift. Regan, I'll give you the first kick at this 40 seconds if you don mind, of how problematic or do you see this as a problem for Poliev? Well, B, it is an interesting political time and the dynamics are fluid because President Trump is as unpredictable as he's always been. But it is an opportunity for Mr. Poliev, who has consistently shown and demonstrated his love for the country. And his speech tomorrow is not a pivot, I believe I think it is a continuation of

the path that he has been on, which is he loves this country and he's been talking about issues that matter to Canadians like affordability, etc. For some time. So President Trump, I think is an opportunity for Mr. Poliev to demonstrate his qualities and why he's a great leader. You know, we started earlier in the segment. I want to get the other two in so just got about 10 seconds. Yeah, so 10 seconds. We started earlier talking about how we need to fix the country and you know Mr. Poliev has had a plan for some time and his discussion tomorrow with his supporters

will be about adding further meat to those bones and not a straight pivot. All right, Andy, 40 seconds to you. Yeah, I mean, I expect him to hammer the government without undermining the Canadian position. And I think I expect him to say, if we wanna have a strong democracy and showcase our leadership, why is parliament shuttered? Why aren't those being passed? Right? Like why do these things have to

wait while liberals sort out their family affairs? And I think those are the real hard questions liberals are going to get. And I think also he needs to show the bench strength that he has. People like Mike Chong and James Moore and John Baird and Randy Hoback and the conservatives who are dedicated and can manage this file for Canada. So I mean, if he wants to be prime minister, he has to see this as an opportunity and sees it. And yeah, I got to wrap you up because I'm going to hit the clock and then I get in trouble.

All right. Sorry, Marcel, you just get to stare at me. I'm sorry, but I do have to hit the clock because I want to appreciate, I thank all of you for joining. We have Marcel Weider, we got Reagan, Watts, and Andy Gibbons joining in for this week in Politics, our panel. This is an ad from BetterHelp Online Therapy. We always hear about the red flags to avoid in relationships, but it's just as important to focus on the green flags. If you're not quite sure what they look like, Therapy can help you identify those qualities

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Find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music. That is where you'll find the Ben Mulroney show. You can find all the shows there. I want to talk a little bit about Made in Canada, because, you know, we were just chatting about Donald Trump and one of the fallouts of, you know, this latest chapter is that Canadians are in fact more and more looking to buy Canadian. It's not as easy as we assume, right? A lot of things we think are made in this country, not necessarily made in this country.

So I think it's become a little more tricky for people, but there is an app for that. So let's get into this conversation because there are apps for just about everything we bring in Moeed Rajan. He's a meteorologist and consultant with thinkstart.ca. Great to have you, Moeed. Hi Alex, how are you? Thank God there's an app because it really is, it is tough, right? But there is a new app and I think a lot of people do want to support local if they can.

But this one helps by scanning labels. Well, there's actually a few different apps is what I ended up hearing about as a result of doing research for the story. So what ended up happening is first we ended up talking about this by Canadian tech app. So we, sorry. And so what we ended up doing was a little bit of research to figure out what exactly is happening right now to actually mobilize people to feel like they can engage with things and know that they're able to look at products and know if they're Canadian or not. But the interesting part about this is that when you break down how you can look

and scan and, and find this information, this information exists. And so what we're noticing is that from Shopify right down to this by Canadian app, you can take your phone and start to use and interact with products and be able to figure out that a if it's actually been made in Canada, B if it ships from Canada and C if it's a combination of a Canadian product. And that's where the red flag comes in a little bit because as much as people want to be patriotic right now, we are not really doing an audit about whether all of these apps, etc. are doing the right thing other than marketing for the cause, so to speak.

All right. Yeah. And so then how do you wade through that? And how new are these apps? Because I think everyone sees an opportunity and they jump into it, but sometimes the kinks aren't worked out. Well, I mean, that's the other thing. That's the other reason why we're not actually doing, you know, a full feature about everybody just downloading one app in order to feel like they're able to show their, uh, uh, pay, pay, patriarchy, no patriarchy. That's it. Patriarchy, different show, right.

But Patriotism, no, but Alex, to be honest with you, what you're noticing right now online is every social media account that's able Alex, to be honest with you, what you're noticing right now online is every social media account that's able to show their allegiance to Canadian-made and Canadian products, they're starting to do that. You're starting to see it incrementally from the software-related companies right down to social media. But what the trick, the unfortunate part about that is, is a lot of it still goes through an American pipe, right? And so we're not necessarily, is a lot of it still goes through an American pipe, right?

And so we're not necessarily, like a lot of it is marketing. And so why we could, I believe that you will go to the app store and see your browsers and see different things show you that they're gonna help you shop with this Canadian accessibility in mind. Just be wary that a lot of it is still marketing. And a lot of it is designed in order to keep you,

the consumer, just well informed. It's still a part of it is still marketing and a lot of it is designed in order to keep you, the consumer, just well informed. It's still a part of a larger ecosystem, an ecosystem that still pays a tax to actually operate in Canada. Yeah. Plus if you're going to just only buy a Canadian, you're going to have to get rid of a lot of stuff that you like, like kind of like Netflix and stuff like that. NFL. Yeah. There's a lot of things that you would be getting rid of. I think you're also putting a situation now where you're going to go through a little bit of exhaust trying to figure out, is this really making a difference? We've been through years of greenwashing and we've started to realize more and more that

corporations have been able to do that. I think the intent is good. Put up the hashtag, get the loyalty, do that, but just understand that you putting up a flag on your Facebook saying you're only going to buy Canadian, I challenge you in about three months to see if whether you're actually able to do that with online purchases. Yeah, it takes a dedication. It takes a dedication. Let's talk a little bit about AI. There's always going to be stories about AI. You know, it's just a part of life and certainly becoming more dominant in life, but certainly AI in the news this week with Scarlett Johansson

actually calling out, you know, for more AI laws, this having to do with that fake video of celebrities condemning Kanye West's anti-semitism and basically AI created this image and, you know, this t-shirt with a blank you Kanye West kind of retaliation, but it was AI. It freaked a lot of people out. And so she wants more laws in an area where we don't have anything. This is actually another case of a pop culture moment that's redefining what people are understanding. What's happening right now with synthetic video, Alex, is absolutely crazy.

I'm able, first of all, I can foresee this. I can foresee three things happening in the near future. A, there's gonna be a massive disruption to social media as a result of all these synthetic videos being littered online. Is that a bad thing? Well, we'll get to that in one second. We'll get to that in a second.

Two, I think that every single social media app is going to start to use these tools as a way to keep people there. So I read recently that YouTube is going to start to let people create what I refer to as synthetic media as part of their marketing tools. So that changes things. Just six months ago, all of these places from YouTube to Facebook said, you've got to label this as AI. I challenge you to find one thing on your feed in the five or six things that you scroll that doesn't have some sort of AI influence. Now back to the story. The story is very real mainly because of the fact that all of the celebrities that are featured there, if you didn't have the North American context and you just saw this somewhere around the world where these people seem to be famous

because of syndication or, you know, Seinfeld is only famous because of the show, you wouldn't know the difference. Right? No, it's a very big problem. And again, it's like you have to ask what can go wrong? It's like everything. Everything. And the, uh, I have beta tested over 30 different apps in video generation alone. And I will tell you that they're all getting better and better day by day. I don't know where they're coming up. Some of the inputs that I put, I'm geeking out with you right now, but I'm telling you that I'm basically playing with fire and I know that it's going to cause a ripple effect. If there's no label on this video soon,

it's going to be very, very bad for people. Yeah, no question about it. It's like, where are we going with this? And I don't even wanna know. But meanwhile, you know, US, the UK, they're just, they can't agree on how to actually regulate it, right? Like they're so far behind, you know,

the toothpaste right out of the tube on this, but they don't know how to put it back in. There's many aspects of that that just baffle me, you know, on one hand, you see this posturing where you have this AI action summit this week, where people are just basically talking about holding hands and making sure the world is secure. On the other hand, these countries are making global announcements about the powers that they're building and infrastructure to be able to win the AI arms race. We are in no way as Canadians, we are in no way at the forefront of

being able to lead conversations about this technology. Right now we should be more concerned about the fact that we need to employ and retain people here that are able to build some of these backbone systems that we need in order to stay competitive and to service our actual population. We have a population here that could really benefit from some real economic impacts of some great technology and some use of spreading out the ability to have a connected health network that's proper. Totally. Like family doctors, there's so much can be used for, but I feel like we're too late. Well, I don't know if we're too late only because there's a lot to worry about before

we can get to a solution. But we are definitely not too late from seeing solutions being built here for here. And that's where I think that we should be. You know, I don't think Canada is necessarily going to be able to walk into an AI action summit and have the keynote speaker slot in the next two and a half years. But I do believe that Canada is going to be able to export global solutions as a result of what we've been able to do. So if we can get to that point where we can stop fear mongering and start excelling in what we're good at, that will be the main key. I'd be happy going back to the rotary dial phone at this point in life, but that's just me, Moid.

I still have one. I still have one you can borrow at any time. Don't tempt me, don't tempt me. Hey, have a great Valentine's Day and a weekend. Thank you. You as well. There you go. That's Moid Rajan joining us.

He's with thinkstart.ca. And again, artificial intelligence, it's here. It's not going anywhere. And it is, it is crazy. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. It sure is, and I am Alex Pearson, and it is great to have you here with us. It is that time where we ask the question, is that BS or is it real?

And of course, who else would we do that with? And our friend, Dave Bradley, who is of course our AM640 news manager and morning anchor. Hello there. Good morning. Oh yes, this is one of those segments, Dave, that gets so much love and on Ben's podcast, which of course you can hear it's one of the most

down-laded loaded segments that he does right now. But I have to warn you, if you've got little ears and sensitive ears in your listening area, be mindful there's a bit of adult language that you might want to turn the radio off for this next segment. So some of the clips have a little bit of colorful language. With that said, you've been warned,

it's time for Is This BS or Is This Real? See now that's some bullshit. This is bullshit. Man this is some bullshit! You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers? I want the truth! You can't handle the truth!

You are fake news. Alright you get to play at home now. Dave tells the story. He's gonna give you a couple of seconds to think about it. And then you answer, is this real or is it BS? So, let us get started. family affair, a father stepped onto the ice to help his son's team secure a win.

It was the Fairview Falcons. They were facing a must-win situation. They needed to win their final regular season game just to make the playoffs. So head coach Deegan Clark and Doug Matthews, who's the father of one of the players, made the decision that Matthews was going to wear his son's jersey, put on a helmet with a full face mask so it would be hard to tell who was underneath that helmet. The Falcons went on to win 4-2.

Matthews scored three of the team's four goals, but celebration didn't last long. Shortly after the game, one of the players on the team told his parents about the teammates father's step again. The local authorities were called. The father wasn't arrested, but it did lead to an investigation, eventually a full banishment for his son. From the Minnesota Minor Hockey Association, the head coach, Deegan Clark, also expelled as well.

So did a father secretly play on his 16 year old son's hockey team in an attempt to win a game? Yeah, like, this is so, like given what we see in hockey, I'm like, yes, totally, 100%. No, yeah? What's the answer? See, now that's some bullshit. Oh, I don't know. We have so many crazy hockey stories,

including one we heard this week about like someone who didn't do the right paperwork and the whole team loses like 16 games I like yes, nothing would surprise me. Okay. All right. Here we go again story number two So not only does US President Donald Trump want to buy Greenland He wants to rename it red white and blue land under a new bill that was introduced by Congress. The bill was introduced that would give Trump the power to enter into negotiations with Denmark to acquire Greenland and rename it if it passes both the House and the Senate. Meanwhile, Denmark and thousands of Danish citizens have already been together, signed

a Denmarkification petition to buy California from the US in response to the current bid. The Danes have signed the petition encouraged to donate to the fundraising goal of a trillion dollars, give or take a few billion, quote unquote. There are also five major incentives, according to the Danes, to sign the petition. Sunshine, tech, avocado toast, protecting the free world, and Disneyland, which the petition calls to rename Hans Christian Andersen land So will we be seeing Mickey Mouse in a viking helmet?

Or and will we have what sounds like a theme park as part of Greenland? Being named red white and blue land Oh god, what do you think out there? I I This is crazy enough it could be true, but I'll say BS. Is it possible this story is true? Yes, it is. What?

It's actually legit. I kind of had it right. At the beginning I was like, this could be true-ish. Yeah. Right? Again, with what's been going on in politics lately. I know, no kidding. I'm scared to ask. All right, here we go again So this one has to do with boiling an egg

How long is the perfect time to boil an egg and it was Italian? researchers who went through a lot of cartons to try and crack the recipe of what they declare as a perfectly boiled egg So they called their new method periodic cooking. It doesn't require a sous vide machine or any other specialized device. By alternating between boiling and lukewarm water eight times over 32 minutes, they claim to have achieved not only even doneness,

but a higher nutritional content than eggs cooked by sous vide or conventional boiling methods. So the study notes that egg yolks and whites, obviously, they cook at different temperatures, 65 and 85 degrees Celsius respectively. The researchers say standard methods for hard boiling at 100 degrees, they're overkill. So that renders the eggs fully set. Sous vide's used to cook eggs in water bath for an hour

between 60 and 70 degrees doesn't go far enough that leaves the whites under cooked so the authors have concluded that the 32 minute method leaves the best-looking and best tasting egg I gotta be on I'm gonna call this BS only Dave cuz I guys did this research like no woman's got time to spend this much time figuring out how to boil an egg right? This has got to be BS. It's fact. What? I'm terrible at this game. 32 minutes for an egg? Who's got that kind of time in their day? That's true. Albeit I will say I think I'm right when I say you can't burn an egg.

It's fair, if you burn an egg, you're really bad in the kitchen. You can blow up hard boiled eggs by forgetting about them. But 32 minutes is after a long time. All right, here we go again. Next. This one asks the question, did a tech company bring in paid sex days

to boost employee happiness? It was a groundbreaking move, a Hels did a tech company bring in paid sex days to boost employee happiness? It was a groundbreaking move. A Helsinki-based tech company, Tech Nest Solution, has introduced controversial yet intriguing policies aimed at enhancing employee well-being and productivity. So the company announced recently that they will offer employees paid sex days, which is designated time off specifically for sexual activity aimed at fostering healthy work-life balance, boosting happiness, ultimately increasing productivity in the workplace. It's believed to be the first of its kind in Finland, but

possibly the rest of the world. It's the brainchild of the CEO, and according to them, the idea came from research showing that a positive sex life can reduce stress, improve mental health and increase overall satisfaction, both personal and professional realms. The company's paid sex days policy will allow employees to take up to 10 full days off per year without using vacation time or sick leave. They can be taken individually or combined. Employees are encouraged to use them for activities related to intimacy, rest, or self-care.

In a move to ensure the policy is inclusive, the company has emphasized that the days are meant for all employees regardless of relationship status or sexual orientation. So did a company in Finland come up with paid sex days to boost employee happiness? Oh, I guarantee you another idea I'm thinking from a guy. But this probably is true, shockingly.

It's fact. Crazy enough, yes, that does not surprise me. This is bullshit. Oh. That was the wrong button. Oh, I was positive that the world had gone crazy enough This is bullshit. That was the wrong button. I was positive that the world had gone crazy enough to do that. It will be a thing. Don't let the public sector unions know about it.

We've got enough time with sick days. We've got time for one more? One more quickly. So is Donald Trump Jr. backing an Olympic disruptor that would allow steroids. So it's a group led by Donald Trump Jr. that's infusing funding and some political muscle into the Enhanced Games, a sports festival that would hold track, swimming, and other events free of anti-doping measures. Trump's group called the 1789 Capitol is bringing what Enhanced Games founder Aaron D'Souza said was double-digit millions to a project

set to kick off with an event in the US next year. They are in the age of disruptors and disruptors are in the White House, D'Souza said in an interview, and there are people like Elon Musk front and center in the administration, and I think this is a time where new ideas front and center can come to be. So the enhanced games is not a doping free for all, but as a celebration of humanity at large and a celebration of science. Is it legit? No, no, not buying this one. A similar event did take place.

It did. I'm terrible at this. It's been better at this game than me because I. He is much better actually, yeah. Whatever, fine. Alright, well, I learned something new every day. Thanks, Dave. No problem. Appreciate that. I got them all wrong. I swear to God. This is the Ben Mulrooney Show.

It sure is and I am Alex Pearson. It's great to have you here with us, certainly. And one of the big conversations I think a lot of us have reflected on and should be reflecting on is Donald Trump's rhetoric, you know, continues to ramp up about making Canada a 51st state. Certainly it has ignited a lot of patriotism in this country, a patriotism that we never should have let go of and a shame on us for doing so, but it raises questions about how we let our great nation go from once upon a time punching above

its weight to being so vulnerable. Once upon a time we did have a very healthy military, like no president would disrespect us, not certainly like we're seeing right now. We were strong, but not so much now. We were strong, right? But not so much now. We certainly are getting a lot of promises from all the leaders about what they'll do with the military. Again, woulda, coulda, shoulda, all these things should have been done a long time ago.

You know, we should have taken care of our veterans a long time ago before allowing them to become homeless and suffer with PTSD, right? Should have made sure our recruits were up. should have made sure we had weaponry, right? If you want the best and brightest, we can get them, but you have to have the equipment. And once upon a time, if you look back to the numbers, 2021 census, we have 461,240 veterans in Canada, or roughly 1.2% of the country's population.

These are the people who are willing to serve, put their lives on the line for our country. But can we get those people back? Can we actually rebuild our country and bring back numbers that people would put their lives on the line for what we have now? We have to support our military and veterans in order to make sure that we can defend ourselves.

But how do we do this? Let me bring in John Thompson to this conversation. He is a Canadian Air Force veteran. He also is an opinion columnist for the Western Standard. It is great to have you with us, John. Thanks, Alex. Really happy to be here today. Let me ask you, you know, your thoughts, first of all, on what it is like. You know, I think of my grandfather, certainly whenever I hear Donald Trump open his mouth about making us a 51st state and all those men and women to a degree, but others battles after the great wars,

you know, what they must feel like when they if they if they could hear that, right? It's so disrespectful. But what do Canadian vets like yourself think about it? Well, I won't speak for every Canadian vet because like any, any group, there's a wide range of opinions on the matter. But, you know, personally, I think you nailed it that, you know, there is a bit of disbelief that after, you know, everything you do as a, as a Canadian veteran who served along, you know, at the US military through numerous

conflicts that that rhetoric exists. And yeah, I think it's something that we need to address. Yeah, I mean, look, the bottom line is we need to rebuild and we need to rebuild fast. And we can look back and say, well, we should have done all these things. But the point is we have to do it now. And we have to somehow convince people to come into service, right, to want to step up and fight. How do we get back to a point where we can actually not only support our vets, but make people or entice people to want to stand up and serve?

Well, I think right now we have a really unique opportunity where, you know, is everyone's passion for the country right now actually patriotism or is it primarily a strong dislike of President Trump? And I don't think they're the same, but I do think that we can use the one to increase the other. And you know, what we need is some leadership from the government from our political leaders to to channel that into something constructive and work towards creating a narrative that supports the CAF and our

veterans at the same time. I'd like to see less narrative and actual action right we get the talk what we don't get is the action and the action we have seen has been paltry. I mean, to hear that soldiers of ours on the front lines in Ukraine had to buy their own equipment, you know, to hear that veterans are homeless on our streets, not being given supports for PTSD. Like the more we hear about these stories, the harder it is to convince younger generations or people to actually step up, right? Because once upon a time, men and women would run to that. How do you then change the culture, right? Because we do need younger generations to step up.

How do we get back into schools? How do we somehow, you know, start to market military as a step, something you can do, opportunities? How do we get young people more interested where they're serving with cadets, right, that they're starting to put country first. Once upon a time a president said, you remember Kennedy said, you know, ask not what you can do for your country, ask not what you can do, what's the saying, I'm gonna forget it now as I'm tired, ask not what you can do for your country, or I'm getting it wrong, you know what the saying is, I've got it wrong. It's all backwards.

But bottom line is you got to ask what you can do for saying is. I've got it wrong. It's all backwards. But bottom line is you got to ask what you can do for your country. We've got to get that back to that question. What can I do for my country? Right. And, you know, I think in terms of action, there's a lot of things we can do. And, you know, I and many others have written about ways the government can, you know, speed up the procurement process by allowing more flexibility for purchasing within the structure of the CAF. But also, we need to do a better job of honouring and recognising our heroes. We talked about Canadian war heroes and creating that sort of patriotic narrative that supports a military or the build-up of a new military.

We talked about the legion's bishop or John McCrae or Tommy Prince or Leo Major, but you know, those are soldiers and served generations ago. You know, we do a terrible job about talking about our modern veterans and their accomplishments and their sacrifices. Like in 2022, we had a position in front of the House of Commons to re-examine a victory, to set up a Victoria

Cross Review Board and potentially recognize some of our Afghan bets with that because we're the only country that never did award its top honour. And it was voted down. So, you know, we need to change Ottawa Parliament needs to change its direction and action and start taking real steps like you said. Yeah. And I would say I have to think that it does start at a younger age, right? I think we have to change our whole mindset because it's pretty naive to think that we're not going to be involved in some kind of conflict, especially with the geopolitical situation that we're facing today.

Yeah. And I mean, I think all of us grew up and we're fortunate to grow up where, you know, we had World War II vets and Korean vets in our schools talking to us or writing, doing the marching into the colors. And a lot of that has gone away now. And, you know, a lot of it does, part of it does fall on modern veterans to get involved and to take up that torch and get into the schools and create that awareness. But, you know, those actions have to be supported as well from the top. Yeah, 100%. But again, we have to expedite all of this and go on war footing, so to speak, to do all these things. And do you think we have it in us? That's the real question is how much of this is just talk? I think that's the question that's going

to play out over time. I think that we do have it in us. You know, whether the patriotism we see is more hate for Trump than it is actual patriotism. Right. I don't know. Like we went through a decade where Canadians were buried in silence about having our flag and half-mask for six months or our statues of Sir John A. were torn down. I think that patriotism is there and I think the capability to rebuild the military is there.

I just think we need to, like we have in the past, be pointed in the direction that we need to go and then turn loose to do it. That's going to take leadership. Well, and really walking that talk. Well, we'll stop talking and hopefully get that going. John, very much appreciate your time on this. Thank you. Great to be here, Alex. Thanks again. There you go. That's John Thompson. You can read about his view on this in the Western Standard. He's written about it. And again, the saying, don't ask what your country can

do for you, but what you can do for your country. And this weekend, fly your flag with pride. It is great to have you here. I am Alex, here's my friend Ben Mulroney, and I don't think this is a secret. We have a brain drain problem in this country, right? We need the best and we need the brightest if we wanna build the best country, right? If we want to have good things in this country and all too often,

you'll hear Canadians say, look, if I'm going to get to the top of my game, I've got to go elsewhere to reach success. I don't know why we do this in the country, but we seem to shame those who do well. It's like you do well and all of a sudden you're a villain. You're some kind of greedy something. I don't know why we do that because we actually need the best and brightest. And so the question then becomes,

well, how do we keep people here? And then how do we bring people back who have left, who might wanna say, hey, I wanna go back to my country, how can I go back? Or even if you're maybe living outside of the country, how do we bring more power into this country and not stand in its way? Emerson Sorba is a business executive previously working in geopolitics. He writes about this in the Globe and Mail. He joins us now about Canada's brain drain problem and why

it's so hard to bring Canadians abroad back. Thanks for joining us. Thank you Alex for joining us. Thank you, Alex, for having me. What was the biggest eye-opener for you yourself? There probably hasn't been a single eye-opener. It's been a number of small conversations. And I think this was really highlighted. I was back in Toronto in mid-September, first trip back to Canada in a few years. And I just had a real sense of closeness from everybody that I met, who would basically say, great that you've done these things abroad,

but really take time to get to know Canadians. Don't talk about what you've done abroad, and that's your way to reintegrate. So it was a number of small things, but it was that mid September trip that really struck me. All right, and so what is it the experience? Like what's the door being shut? Is it that you bring back too many skills?

What, what is it that that that's such a problem to come back to? You know, it's, it's exactly what you're saying. It's what you were just saying in the break. I think it's there's a, there's a suspicion towards Canadians that have been. I think there's a suspicion towards Canadians that have been abroad and just a light closeness to outsiders. That's what I'd say it is. It's nothing that particular. It's just an annoying suspicion of people that have spent time outside of the country. Yeah. I mean, I think in a lot of people's young career, you think, well, maybe I go abroad even just to get more skills, even just to open more doors,

maybe just to try other things and then to be punished on your way back. You know, that shouldn't be a thing, but people do this thing and then not realizing that they might actually be doing more harm to themselves That's exactly it and it's what you were saying earlier We should want Canadians to go abroad We should want our best and brightest to spend at least a few years abroad and then come back Right is the world is really big and that provides us with knowledge. It provides us with connections that we can use to leverage Different strengths for our country. But we don't really encourage that. Why is that?

Is it because people here are worried about seeing how others do things? Are people here, businesses here, so afraid of outside perspectives of maybe they didn't think of it or maybe it's a threat to their own existence. Like, what is it they're so scared of hearing? Well, you're putting exactly what you're putting your finger right on the problem. I think the problem is that in Canada, we have a moral sense of superiority. We think that we're this, this, this do gooding country internationally, and we really, really care about that reputation. But we're afraid to encounter other countries to actually engage in the world and realize

that some of that is true, but that some of that is not true. So by engaging in the world that is big, that is very competitive, that can be very wicked, it risks bursting our self narrative as a country, as this peace-building nation. And adapting to a world that is much more cruel now than what it used to be. So it's easier to hold on to things that we pride ourselves on than to adapt. That, I think, is the problem. And that's why Canadians don't like it when people come back from abroad and say, this is actually how the world is right problem. And that's why Canadians don't like it when people come back from abroad and say, this is actually how the world is right now. Right. Yeah, it's interesting that you say that.

I mean, but especially now, given all the stuff with Trump, it's a big eye opener, I think, for a lot of people who are saying, well, what's the rest of the world doing? Why aren't we doing it? It's like, well, because you're not open to what the world is doing. I mean, even our prime ministers have had, or even the ones who want to be prime ministers have had a hard time coming back to this country. And Mark Carney will, I guess, be tested on this too, coming back to this country and once again, selling himself. But then in this new Trump era,

what would you say, Emerson, is what we have to do? Because we do have a brain drain problem, but we have areas, we need talent right now. If nothing has woken people up in this country more than Trump is now, we need this talent here, we need to bring talent in and we need the best minds working to be able to kind of maximize of what has to happen. The question is, are we all talk about that? Will we actually do anything? Exactly. So your question on what we need to do with Trump, first we have to realize that, and I'm sure you've covered this elsewhere, the annexation plans, I think, are real. Greenland is a test run for taking over Canada to see what the international reaction is to Greenland

and our Panama Canal. And we have to realize that our ally is not going to be our friend anymore. So we then need to find ways to protect ourselves. And part of how we'll protect ourselves is by building out stronger relations with other countries. I've written elsewhere that we should consider as provocative of an idea that as this is to look at joining BRICS as an observer member. So we engage more with China, Saudi, those kinds of countries. We have to look more towards Europe, although Europe is not going to help us. But we basically need to focus on our self-protection as a country and realize that the US, even though it's been our friend, is not going to be our friend anymore. So that's the attitude that we need. And then the reason why going abroad and spending time abroad is so important is because we need to cultivate these networks outside of our country to defend ourselves. And I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, part of what wins in annexation battle for us is a disinformation war with the American public. Canadians will need to get very, very smart on a citizen level about engaging with their American peers to fight a disinformation battle that Trump is going to lead to show that Canadians

are bad people. That requires going out into the world. Yeah. And that's already underway, right? Like the talking points of us being in debt and all the rest of it. And it is taking hold. Just before I run out of time with you though, I would say this, there's no question AI

is something we do really well. Technology is something we are known for doing really well. We haven't capitalized on it. We're not moving fast enough on it here in this country, but they want to in the States. I know so many people, young people, they're ready to go. They are okay with a 51st state, right? How do you stop them from going

and keep that brain power here? Such a good question about young people wanting to be Americans, which I find devastating. I think what we need to help solve that is we need more Canadian nationalism. We need more Canadian nationalism. We need more confidence as Canadians, which comes back to this point we've shared or that we're talking about, which is understanding our role in the world and the meaningful role

that we can play. What's our job as Canadians in the world as bridge builders between adverse powers? That to me is what we need as a way to reinstill a healthy nationalism that shows that it's actually really good to be Canadian rather than wanting to be American. So again, it comes back to role that requires understanding the world in which we operate. You mean punching above our weight. Exactly.

Emerson, I'm gonna run out time, but I certainly appreciate your perspective on this. I completely agree with you. I appreciate it. Great. Thank you for your time as well. 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.