The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 3 - Bryan Baeumler, Scott McGillivray, Dimitris Soudas

Episode Date: April 12, 2025

Best of the Week Part 3 - Bryan Baeumler, Scott McGillivray, Dimitris Soudas Guests: Dimtris Soudas, Sharan Kaur, Bryan Baeumler, Scott McGillivray, Dr. Gordon Osinski 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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Join the ride at ridetoconquer.ca. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show Best of the Week podcast. We had so many great discussions this week, including an inflammatory tweet from a liberal MP that I went off on. Plus, Ryan Baumler and Scott McGilvray joined me for the dilemma. Enjoy. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show,

and my goodness, my Twitter was on fire yesterday, and I was so angered when I saw a liberal candidate and Olympic gold medalist, Adam Vancouverden, write, congrats to Pierre Poliev on his endorsement from Stephen Harper. He joins felons like Conrad Black, conspiracy fraudsters like Alex Jones, Nazi saluters like Elon Musk,

and far right influencers, Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, and Ben Shapiro. Good company. And I wrote back, I pointed out that there is literally a picture of his guy standing next to a convicted sex trafficker online. And I pointed out, I used that by way of illustration,

but I said, I don't, I have, it's never occurred to me to bring that up on my show in any substantive way beyond illustrate, to illustrate my point. And I never would, because it's beneath me. And this should be beneath Adam Vancouverden. And Twitter had a lot to say my point. And I never would because it's beneath me. And this should be beneath Adam VanCouverton. And Twitter had a lot to say about that. You know who else had a lot to say is my next guest, Dimitri Soutis, Senior Vice President at Cavalia

and former Director of Communications for Stephen Harper, the man who gave the endorsement and sparked this fury inside of Adam VanCouverton. But I wanna talk about this with him because you urged him to apologize. Has he since apologized, Dimitri? He definitely hasn't, Ben, and it's nice to talk to you again.

I really found that tweet by Adam to be completely out of line. My only conclusion, Ben, is what Adam has in muscles, he lacks in brains. And at the end of the day, making a parallel and literally accusing Prime Minister Harper of being a Nazi is just completely, completely unacceptable, unfathomable. And beneath anybody who truly wants to represent the people of Canada,

I'm surprised nobody from the Liberal Party has asked him to withdraw those comments. Oh, I know. But this is a party who likes to do as I say, not as I do. We are going to champion kindness in sunny ways, and then we are going to disparage people in the worst possible ways. It's a mock female premiers. It is. It is. It is. It is hypocrisy is base hypocrisy. And I'm gonna be digging into that a little bit later in the show specifically about this. But like, I'd like to remind people that there's only one party that invited a literal Nazi

into the House of Commons, the people's house and gave him a standing ovation. And then when they were called out for it, they want to have it removed from the record and pushed it as a teachable moment for everyone. And it's, it is, I, to have it removed from the record and pushed it as a teachable moment for everyone. And it's it is I it hurts my brain that that that this is that this behavior is rewarded at the at the polls and at during election time.

Well, the reason it hurts your brain, Ben, is because you have one. And I can't necessarily say the same thing about that of a court and on this issue uh... the he truly should be ashamed of himself you know a former prime minister who by the way the candidate he's supporting to be prime minister uh... was unemployed to steven harper yeah so does that mean that marconi is also a sympathizer by association uh... does that mean that Mark Carney is also a sympathizer by association?

Does that mean that ultimately Adam van Coeverton gets to say whatever he wants without any form of impunity? Yeah. It's, it's, it's, as you said, do as I say, but not as I do. Well, let's, let's, let's talk about Mark Carney's sympathies and where they lie. I think there are a lot of fair questions that have come up, not because of opposition research by the conservatives, but naturally through the election campaign popping up

on social media, popping up in the news. People have been wondering where exactly Mark Carney lies and what he actually thinks about the Communist Party of China. And that we can dig into the reasons why people are asking those questions later. However, there is a question looming out there. Why, Mark Carney, do you think the Communist Party of China is praising you? And he had a disastrous answer. From understanding, you know, some of the campaign was pushing positive narratives about

you, why do you think that China, the PRC, seems to like you? Why are they praising you? I have absolutely no idea. And I, yeah, I have absolutely no idea. And I think, well, I'll leave it at that. Demetri Soutis, you were a communications director for a prime minister. If there were questions about your leader's allegiance, what would you have urged him to say in a moment like that?

Well, I worked for Stephen Harper. And when it came to his moral compass, he did not need communications advice. I take your point. However, let's put ourselves in a situation where you've got a candidate who is being questioned. Well, what what Prime Minister Harper would have said and what Mark Carney should have

said yesterday is I utterly reject any form of support from the People's Republic of China. Why do I reject it? Because it is a totalitarian regime that abuses basic human rights. It is a totalitarian regime that has literally assassinated and imprisoned Canadian citizens. He was not able to say that. So is it fair then, am I an honest broker? Am I a good faith Canadian?

To ask the question, why didn't he ask that? Why didn't he say that? I think it's a very fair question. Why did he answer? I don't know much about this. Well, don't you have a security clearance? Like, like, how can you not know anything about this? And even if you know nothing about this? Do you accept the endorsement? Yeah, yeah. Of the People's Republic of China, a communist totalitarian dictatorship that has no respect for basic human rights. Okay, well, let's go back to, he's fighting a number of fronts in terms of his, who he is and what he stands for. It's been released that, you know,

Brookfield has found ways to shelter their, revenue, to avoid taxes in a place like I think is Bermuda, and he was asked about his stance on tax havens by a reporter and and this was his answer. On tax havens in relation to Brookfield you've said that you know how the world works. Should Canadians infer from that that you wouldn't condemn the use of tax havens? I have a very strong, I have a long career in the private sector. I have a longer career in the public sector. What's important is that we have an effective tax system and the companies, every company follows the rules of those tax

to not just the letter, but the spirit of those regulations. And we need to continue to refine our tax system to ensure that companies are paying their fair share of tax. Demetri, again, I'm a smart guy. That makes no sense. That's not that that he had the opportunity to say, you know what, those were the rules I played I played with before. I'm going to make sure those rules are beefed up. I'm going to make sure that we close those loopholes so that so that companies pay the taxes that are owed to the Canadian people, and we are able to support our social services for those who need them.

Again, why doesn't he say these things? Well, I'm a very harsh critic of Mr. Carney's French. As you know, I'm a francophone then. Yes, I saw you, Antoine Monnotal. I will start becoming a harsh critic of his English as well because this just makes no sense. At the end of the day what does this come down to Ben? It comes down to every Canadian dollar should it stay in Canada, be invested in Canada or should it be sent to a tax haven with no benefit to Canadians and again his

answer yesterday reflects his views. What are his views? One set of rules for the rich and famous, another set of rules for the hardworking, blue collar workers, young families who are starting to start, who are trying to start their career, his inability to even condemn. You know, over the last 40 years, tax shelters always come up during election campaign. Every single politician goes out there and condemns them. He wasn't even able to do that. At the same time, I do want to drive a contrast, because yesterday, it's the first time, at

least in the 30, 40 years that I've been following politics, that a leader says, we're going to shut these down. Not only that, we will name and shame those those but ultimately take Canadian dollars out of Canada, send them to tax havens to no benefit to zero benefit to Canada. I just I don't understand he had the opportunity to say you know I had a fiduciary duty to my company I did that to the best of my ability I will have an obligation to the people of Canada to work for them for the best of my ability. And because of that, I'm gonna make sure that CEOs or chairmen of the board

of companies like Brookfield in the future cannot avail themselves of these loopholes in the future. It exists in the past, it doesn't exist anymore. Dimitri, thank you so much for being here. I hope you come back soon. Thanks, Ben, have a great day. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for spending

a little bit of your Wednesday with us wherever you find us in podcast form, on a streaming app or on the radio. I'll take you where I can get you. Thank you so much. And look, yesterday was an interesting day for me on Twitter. I don't, I engage every now and then. I pop in, I pop out. And yesterday I felt compelled to pop in because Adam VanCouverden of Olympic fame and the Liberal Party decided to post on Twitter,

congrats to Pierre Poliev on his endorsement from Stephen Harper. He joins felons like Conrad Black, conspiracy fraudsters like Alex Jones, Nazi saluters like Elon Musk, and far right influencers, Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, and Ben Shapiro. Good company.

As the big Lebowski would say, this aggression will not stand, man. And I simply pointed out by way of illustration that his guy, the guy that he's picked in this race, has a picture of himself standing shoulder to shoulder with a literal sex trafficker online. It's there for anybody to see, anybody who suggests that the picture that I'm talking about is AI is full of it. And I said, I have never, it's never occurred to me to address that on my show or online.

And I never have. I only brought it up, as I said, by way of illustration. Because it's beneath me. And it could be explained away. And I have no time for it. We have other fish to fry. And I told him it was beneath him. And he may have seen it, he may not have seen it, but he turned his comments off, which

will tell you, I don't think his comments are on ever, which tells you about how much he wants to engage. And I'm just, I am sick and tired of being talked to by the liberal party that holds itself up as a bastion of moral clarity and angelic behavior when they go around and do stuff like this. And so I'm joined now by a friend of the show who's a good and honorable and honest broker who calls it like it is, who happens to be on the other side of the fence. And I respect her for that.

And I'm happy that she's here, but we're gonna have a real conversation about this. Sharon Carr, political strategist and partner at Sovereign Advisory. Sharon, what'd you think of Vancouverden's BS? So listen, I totally can. I appreciate why this is troubling for you. And it's not my style of politics. Adam is a friend and I personally would not do that. But what I do want to say is we live in a time where divisiveness is not helpful.

And I think that and you're right, listen, there is a photo out there that people have used of the leader in a picture with someone who is troubling it. And what I've said to everyone is that he doesn't have a relationship with that person. People can take pictures with. Yeah, happens all the time. It shouldn't happen. And I think if an MPs or anyone from my party wanted to say something about someone like Jordan Peterson, there are real true things you can say about them without it, like without bringing Stephen Harper and other folks in it. So I'm, this is not the type of politics I would do, to be honest. I personally, I do have issues with someone like Jordan Peterson because of what he has said about women and some of his controversial posts, but it's not the type of politics I like to subscribe to.

And I don't think it's the type of politics that Mark Carney would subscribe to either. So I think we all, far too many times under Justin Trudeau, when he was found to be lacking morally, he turned it into a teachable moment for all of us. And I don't have time for that. I don't need to learn from his mistakes. I don't need to look inside myself when somebody else fails. I need them to take accountability.

And we have to level set the conversation because I don't wanna be accused of what aboutism. I believe that when one side seemingly out of the blue and for no reason attempts to claim the moral high ground by disparaging their opponents with disgusting smears, we've left the realm of what aboutism. And in my humble opinion, the liberals do it more than anybody.

And yeah, and I get it. And I listen, it's something triggering for a lot of people and I like, you don't do it, but in all fairness, I see it. And I listen, it's something triggering for a lot of people and I like you don't do it. But in all fairness, I see a lot of conservatives like I'm sorry, Canada proud, which is a very big platform for the conservative base with not only people like this MP from the liberal or the candidate from the Liberal Party. And I think that we we might not like doing that, but there are people in our base in our parties that do that. And when Canada proud, like a massive following does something like that, we should be able to call those people out, too. Like, I think we should all stop being stupid with this stuff. Like, let's not go to a level that is so beneath this that we are tarnishing politics to

this grimy what like and then yeah you know what there's things that Trudeau made people feel crappy about and we should not be re-litigating that in this campaign. But no but I think I think we have to re-litigate it because thus far in the campaign the liberals I think have gotten a pass on defending their legacy. They've been very good at saying, look in front of us, look through the windshield, because Donald Trump is in front of us. Don't look in the rear view mirror

where we've got 10 years that we should be judged on. And until we have a discussion on Canada's natural governing party and how they behave when they are in power, because they've been in power for 10 years, and they're looking for at least four more, I think it's incumbent upon us to ask ourselves, what will the next four years look like in terms of tone?

I think we lost her, but look, I'll continue, and hopefully we'll get her back. This is a party to me that claims to be for feminism, standing up for women, even though our prime minister had a history of turfing strong women from his cabinet, and telling, and the new one has told female reporters to look inside themselves. We talk about they talk about elbows up they talk about Team Canada but if you're if you're not if you're

not subscribing to what their view of Team Canada is you're a traitor. I've heard that many times and and so welcome back Sharon I'm sorry we lost you there for a moment you know they claim to be the party of the Charter. And yet anytime Quebec has a problem with the Charter, they don't do anything because it's politically expedient for them. But anytime someone else does, and it's a conservative, they will disparage them. So these are the issues that I have. And I don't think I am picking on them. I think they've got 10 years to answer for,

they want five more, and I want the tone to change. And listen, I think I'm with you on that. I would like to see us in a place where we as a country are not divided and we're not picking and choosing. The one thing that I do want to say, and we talk about 10 years and 10 years, and yes, Justin Trudeau was the prime minister for 10 years. And maybe this is not the best analogy or comparison,

but if a company isn't doing well and you replace the CEO, does it require you to replace the entire workforce as well? And maybe this is not the same, but I- It's not, Sharon, it's not the same, because not every decision in a company has to get voted on by everybody in the company. And 85% or 75% of the company is still there. And look, yes, you replace the CEO,

but you got employees like Adam Vancouverden, like Mark Miller, who are some of the worst at smearing people when they disagree with them. And then when they turn around and change their policy to adopt the policy that they smeared the other guy for, now it's all okay. This is, this to me is so infuriating and so frustrating. And this, this is the cause of a law,

the polarization that we have. And I, I, I ascribe it to the liberal party. And I completely can appreciate that. Listen, as someone who was in the liberal Party my entire life and deviated out of it from 2020 after not agreeing with how folks in Trudeau's center and PMO were handling things, I'm with you. I have been one of the most vocal proponents of telling them where they have done stuff wrong.

I do believe that there are caucus members who need to be better. But you know what? There's also caucus members who need to be better on the conservative and the NDP side as well. And I like to hold people accountable. But I also think that Mark is a different person. And I know, I know we're going to say people are going to think he's an insider and all this stuff.

And I do. I haven't seen him come out and condemn Adam Vancouverdine's comments yet. That to me should have been an automatic slap down. You know, they clearly know each other. They were together in a pub a couple of days ago. So clearly he could call them up and say, you're going to apologize for that. You're going to take it down. This is not how we do it in my party. The comment is still up. He has not been chastised by his leader. So I don't know. I don't know yet that I can agree with you that he's a different guy. I haven't seen it yet. Show me the evidence and I'll believe it.

And I think that's fair. I think that we are in a campaign period and people tend to get overly, I would say, partisan with some of these things and I wouldn't tweet something like that. And I think that I can't, again, I can't speak for Adam. I know what kind of person he is at heart and I don't, I know he's not a, he doesn't mean ill intent, but I think for people within the Liberal Party, it is triggering when you have people like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan and some of these folks who do say things. Again Sharon, Sharon I wish I'm sorry that we lost you a little bit I wish we could have talked more but I gotta leave it there but I really thank you for coming on and I really appreciate you

and thank you so much. Thanks Ben. Well the wait is over. The NBA season is here, and FanDuel's the place to bet on all the action. I'm talking everything from point spreads to money lines to player props. You can even pick who's going to win it all. Whether you're betting on a breakout performance or an underdog victory, tip off the season right with North America's number one sportsbook. Just download the app and bet on the NBA all season long.

Please play responsibly. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connectsontario.ca. My parents have had a lot of time on their hands lately. At first it was nice. Hey mom, can you drive me to soccer practice? Sure can.

We're having slow cooked ribs for dinner. It was awesome. And then it became a lot. Some friends are coming over to watch a movie. Oh, what are we watching? I'll make some popcorn. Thanks to Wallah, they can order all our fresh favorites from Sobe's, Farmboy and Longos online, which is super reliable. And now my parents are reliable, a little too reliable.

Wallah, your groceries delivered just like that. I'll come back to the Ben Mulroney show. We're doing the dilemma panel a little bit differently today because I've got two guests who are here who have domain expertise in a subject that I think is very important to me and very important to listeners of the Ben Mulroney show. And that is the subject of sort of the state of the trades in Canada. Why it's important, what we can do to trades in Canada, why it's important, what we can do to make them healthier, bring more people into them. And I'm joined today by Brian Baumler, host of Renovation Resort, and Scott McGilvery, host of Renovation Resort. Boys, welcome to the show. Glad to see you.

We do some other stuff too. If I had listed everything you do, we'd be into the next segment. Yeah. Those are a few things. Very, very busy. So let's talk about this first. Let's talk about renovation resort. Sure. Yeah. This, we're excited. This is season two of renovation resort,

stepping it up a notch. The properties are twice the size as they were for the first season. But tell our listeners, if they haven't seen season one, what's the hook? So renovation resort, we've got four sets of designer builder duos. so folks who are maybe even fans of shows on the home network for a long time.

They come to this resort and they renovate these blank slates into these dream vacation properties. They're competing against each other. Brian and I, along with several guest judges, are there to evaluate the work. Winner gets $100,000 and all the bragging rights. judges are there to evaluate the work. Winter gets a hundred thousand dollars and all the bragging rights. And it's a super duper intense eight weeks

with the backdrop of, you know, Canadians vacation destination. And where's the location? We're on the Trent this year on the Trent Severn. So we're kind of north east of the, of Toronto. Frankfurt is the closest town. Yeah. Yeah. We're kind of off East of the, of Toronto. Frankfurt is the closest town. Yeah.

Yeah. We're kind of off in the middle of nowhere. Brian and I start the whole show camping in the woods. Canoe country. It's canoe country. It's canoe country. Yeah.

That's great. And we're taking some of these contestants are coming in and we're fully out of their comfort zone. Yeah. You know, they're, they, these are city folk. And all of a sudden there's, there's skitters and you know, there's, there's crit and there's critters, and they got production teams

and everything, so we get to see them, as we did when we started in the television industry anyway, we get to see them come in overconfident, and we watch the break. Yeah. We see them crumble. I've seen you crumble on TV. Yes.

I see Brian crumble every day. Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, you've met the crumble on TV. Yes. I see Brian crumble every day. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, you've met the reason. Oh. No, I'm so glad to see you. I haven't seen you in a really long time. And of course, you've got so many other things

on the go as well. You've got talent stuff going on. Yeah, yeah. We produce several shows. Really proud to be producing shows all across Canada here. And we've got renovation resort, obviously, Brian and I championing that show right now, along with Scott's Vacation House Rules

also launching this week. So it's a big week for us, but yeah, Got Talent, MasterChef, there's a bunch of shows. What happens when two alphas who do their own thing so successfully come together and partner? Like who's the tie-breaking vote? Oh, are you considering Brian and Alka too? Scott's very competitive.

Yeah. And I mean, we have spent the day saying this, I don't need to be. I'm comfortable. You can't see it, yeah. See, if the three of us were on a desert island, the only thing that I could contribute to the team in order to survive-

Is meat. Meat, that's it. Honestly, on day one, I'd say, boys, there's no food around. I'm sacrificing myself for the greater good. You know, hunters need gatherers. I don't even know that I could gather. That's why I'm just literally offering myself up

for barbecue. Just meat. But one of the reasons I was so happy to hear that you guys were coming in today is because we're having a national conversation about the trades. And there's a crisis looming in, and housing for example, housing construction,

that there are far more people about to retire from the trades than we are bringing in. And that's not the only crisis in housing. I wanna know from you guys on the front line, what are the crises facing the trades? Oh boy, this is gonna be long. We got six minutes. How many days have we got?

I mean, the first thing is that we don't have enough people coming into the trades. And some people, there was a stigma. I think that stigma has been removed or beaten down. Yeah. Anyone that wants to come into the trades is more than welcome. I think Scott and I and Mike and this whole industry on television

has helped to do that. Yeah. So we need more tradespeople. When AI shuts down, when the internet stops working, when the market crashes, you better know how to do something with your hands. And unfortunately for the next generation, that means you're gonna have to sweat

and carry some things and be dirty, but that is good, honest money. Yeah, and you can build it into a successful business. Yeah, I mean we've done okay for a couple of trades guys. Well listen, they're saying like the average electrician and plumber is gonna be a millionaire. Oh yeah, that's the next band of millionaires. Yeah, that's the next band of millionaires.

There's a bit of a, you know, I think the whole real estate industry is getting pressure from many different areas. For a long time, there has been a challenge with replacing the skills that are in our industry with new up and coming younger generation, getting people into being electricians or plumbers or master carpenters and the skilled trades. We just don't have enough people to replace

the stock of labor that's there. What is the average age of a bricklayer is like 78 years old. Like it's just, you can see the crisis coming. Now, ironically, all at the same time, we've got geopolitical issues coming. We've got potential tariffs on products. I'm already seeing it on things like appliances and finished products. Those are going up in price.

So people are pulling back. It's really like real estate's never seen so many things happening all at once. And that's not it. I mean, we are now seeing unprecedented north of 80% of young Canadians under the age of 40 have given up on home ownership ever in their lives. So we are quickly heading back to the feudal system

where all of a sudden when we get to 90, 95% of the population that does not own their home, we have now lost control of the cost of housing completely. You're the jester, renting from the king. If the number of people coming in is too low, then would one way of accelerating it be, I had a listener yesterday who's a tradesman, and he said, there's the ratio, a rule of one to one

for master to apprentice is one to one. It's ridiculous. And he said, you gotta remember, these guys have to go to school. That's where they learn. They come to us for the nuance, for the protocols, the processes. So is that something, and he threw that out as a good

idea, I would check with you guys, is that a good idea that should be explored? I would say five to ten to one is, you know, a master in his trade, whether it's a red seal or licensed or not, someone that's spent ten or fifteen years building those hours and getting that experience, you can train as many people as you can train. As long as you can supervise them and train them, I think anything we need to do to get more people into the trades, and I think it's not a matter of like,

hey, do you want to be on your knees and laying bricks for the rest of your life? Hey, do you want to be on your knees for 10 years and then own the company, and then own the trucks, and own everything? There's so many ancillary businesses around. You can be a trades person on a yacht in the winter. Yeah.

And a lot of them are. Well, I see your tan. Wow, I like this. I see, I'm looking at you. You're a tan. I don't have a tan, I'm just naturally darker. Yeah. No, and I think you made a good point,

credit to television shows like yours that show the upside opportunity. Just bring it to mainstream. Because to be fair, I think when I was growing up, the implication of if you went into the trades it's because of any number of reasons, most of them negative, right? Like you couldn't get into university

or couldn't afford that lifestyle and therefore this was the avenue open to you. And we have to, we gotta change the conversation that no, it is a proud, valuable and valued a way to grow a business. If you look back at the history of the trades, a lot of it had to do with new Canadians who didn't necessarily speak the language.

So this was something they could do where they didn't really have to talk to anyone other than the other trades. And now it's, you know, we live in a world. Interestingly enough, they're all multimillionaires now. Yeah, they're like billionaires. And they're families, they've created generational wealth for their families for generations to come.

Yeah. And we've spent the last few generations outsourcing manufacturing, outsourcing ownership of corporations, outsourcing all this stuff, waving flags made overseas, claiming patriotism, and here we are now with this economy, we're missing people, we're all these things.

Well, all these things can come together. The buy local, buy Canadian, betting on entrepreneurs, I mean, that's what the trades are, right? And with a successful trade community, we'll have the tools to solve a lot of the problems that we're dealing with today. 100%.

Yeah. The challenge, one of the challenges, just the narrative as well, though, you know, you got a lot of folks looking for instant gratification. And so we need to get people back to thinking long term careers. Brian Baumler, Scott McGilvey, they are my guests here on The Ben Mulroney Show. Coming back, they're going to solve your problems in The Dilemma. We've got a lot of questions that need to be answered and these are the problem solvers.

Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome to the dilemma panel. No question is too awkward. No problem too petty and no opinion goes unchallenged. Our panel of overthinkers is here to dissect, deliberate and sometimes derail the conversation entirely. Grab your popcorn. This isn't just advice. It's a front row seat to life's most hilariously relatable train wrecks. Here's your host, Ben Mulrooney. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney show.

Welcome back to the Dilemma Panel and my two guests know a thing or two about solving people's problems. They've been doing renovations on TV and in real life for years. They're hosting the second season of renovation resort on home and they join me now. Please, I said please welcome us if I have an audience. Ryan Balmwood and Scott McIlvery, welcome guys. Welcome back. Woo!

Look at that audience. All right, so let's jump right in to dilemma number one. Dear Ben, my husband is obsessed with home renovations. Oh, there you go. On the surface, that might sound great, but every time he starts a project, it spirals out of control. What begins as just painting the bathroom

turns into tearing down walls, rewiring lights, and weeks of chaos. We end up spending way more money than planned. Our house is constantly construction zone and it's putting a strain on our relationship. I've tried suggesting we hire professionals who stick to smaller projects, but he insists on doing it all himself,

quote, to save money and because he enjoys it. I appreciate his enthusiasm, but I'm at my wits end. How do I get him to see that his DIY dreams are becoming a nightmare? Signed, Ellie. Now I've seen both of you, like there is stress that comes from any sort of messing up with someone's home space, right? So that can put stress on a relationship

and this is clearly that. So what would you, Scott, what would you say? Well, first of all, I would say this sounds like a perfectly normal renovation to me. You know, it goes over, over time, over budget. It's really hard to start a project and not fix all the problems as you start to dig deeper and deeper.

So I understand that piece, but planning obviously would, it sounds like it's a tool that would probably help this relationship. Yeah. And you got to plan it out properly. If you're going to do the bathroom, you got to figure out the entire scope of the work. I get some quotes, get everything sorted out, make sure you do have the proper budget.

The, the danger of kind of picking at the, the loose thread with renovations is you have no plan. Yeah. You're at the mercy of whatever's happening. We have electrical problems. We've got to deal with it. We might have to pay someone too much because it's last minute.

So I would say, just just say stop where you are, decide where this renovation is going to end, agree on it, and then move forward. And that's I think Ellie's issue. I don't think her issue was like him taking on one project. It seems like as soon as he's done with one, he starts another. And I don't think he's consulting Ellie. Yeah, Scott made some great points here. All that rings true when you're planning a renovation. But I'm gonna approach this from the therapist angle, from the renovation therapist side. Ellie, has Ellie really analyzed what role she is playing?

Because I may or may not have been in this situation where it's like he's just going over the top and it's like, well, what role is she playing? Is she enabling him? Is she forcing him to increase the scope or change things or continue? See, I would look at it from his eye. What is motivating you to constantly fix things

and expand on those things? In other words, I think what we're all saying is they need to communicate better. They do. They, you, Ellie, you need to talk to your husband, but you tell them to put down the drill bit or the. Yeah. You know, the saw, I don't know what you guys use. Distract him somehow.

I just distract him somehow, Ellie. The thing to remember in a big renovation, you're either going to get in a fight with your spouse or with your contractor. So if you're both, if you're both, you're doomed. Yeah. All right. Dilemma number two, dear Ben's panel, my wife

and I are having a disagreement about our twin boys getting jobs. They're both 15 and I've never, and have never worked a real job. I'd like them to get an afterschool job, but just for a couple of hours, my wife hates the idea and she wants them to focus on school. It's not about finances since we do well.

To me, it's about them learning a lesson and how to make their own money and save it I think it will also give them some freedom and a taste of adulthood I started working when I was 12, so I don't think 16 is too young who is in the right my wife or I Brian when did you start working put those kids to work? I opened my first business at 14. There you go I mean, I was it. I was the Moon River handyman. We picked up your garbage. We mowed your lawn. We painted your shed.

We did it all. So you painted their shed. OK, I thought you said something else. Yeah, we did all kinds of stuff. But I would say get those kids to work. It's not just about the money. Yeah, at that age, you know, they're not you're not paying rent. But with our kids, even with allowance when they were younger, we would say, OK,

you get you get 50 bucks the month. But half of that's going to go to tax and 10 of that's going to go to food. And so here's your five bucks you're left with. I think it's an important lesson for kids just to get financially literate and get some education on that, to realize the value of a dollar, but also the schedule, to learn like, hey, you're not here just hanging out with mom and dad or flipping through memes. You have to go somewhere and adhere to a schedule. And be accountable to someone who's not your parents.

Exactly. Yeah, and Scott, to me, I've noticed in schools there's far less homework for my kids than there ever was for me. I mean, I had minimum three, four hours, sometimes five hours of homework a night. It was absurd, right? But they don't have a lot to do after school.

They have some. And so for them to go somewhere and learn about the balance of responsibilities, I think it trumps the money, trumps anything else. It puts them in a place where they have to figure things out on their own. Yeah. I think the responsibility is critical.

I mean, my kids are getting to the age, they're 11 and 13. We talk about jobs. Put them to work. Yeah, put them to work. I mean, I kids are getting to the age, they're 11 and 13. We talk about jobs. Put them to work. Put them to work. Yeah, put them to work. I mean, I had, I started delivering the paper. I remember before we moved from Leeside

and I was nine years old and I had to, my brother and I had to deliver the newspaper. I had to do that up with the, I had to deliver the liberal when we lived in Richmond Hill. Um, and then I got a job, there was a garden center at the corner. So I, there was a garden center at the corner. So I was working at the garden center on the weekends, um, did some landscaping and then my

first sort of real job was a lifeguard at 15. Yep. Right. It was a junior guard. Um, so I've definitely have been chatting with my kids about this. They're little or you could use them as duct cleaners.

Yes. Yeah. It's a great idea. Uh, right, right. Fantastic. I mean, you could say. You've put. There's lots of as duct cleaners. Yes. Yeah. It's a great idea. Right? Right? Fantastic. I mean, you could say you've put. There's lots of things they can do.

I love it. I love it when, you know, like a 15 year old kid in the neighborhood comes to the door and says, I want to cut the grass this summer or I want to do, I'm like, here's three jobs I can do. You know what? You're new to the windows, you're going to do the grass. I love it. See the kid with the grass, you're supposed to say, I'll tell you what, I'm

going to consider it, but I want you to throw today in for free. Just show me what you can do. Oh wow. I never called him back. So the answer is Colin, you are the right, you're in the right, your wife's completely wrong. Kick the kids out of the house to send them to work. Mark this date on your calendar, it will never happen again.

All right, we got time for one more. Hello there, I'm struggling with how to handle my feelings towards my 23 year old daughter's boyfriend. She's smart, independent, has a good head on her shoulders, but I just can't seem to warm up to the guy she's dating. It's nothing dramatic. He's not disrespectful or abusive, and he hasn't done anything objectively terrible.

But something about him just doesn't sit right with me. Sometimes it's little comments that make me feel off or the way he seems to take her for granted. Other times, I feel like they just don't bring out the best in each other. The last thing I want is to damage our relationship or push her closer to him just because I disapprove. But I also feel like I'd be dishonest

if I kept pretending everything's fine when I have real concerns. How do I express my feelings in a way that doesn't create a rift between us? Is it even my place to say anything? And that's signed anonymous. Well, I would say- So we don't know if this is mom or dad.

Yeah, we don't know if it's mom or dad, but I'm looking at this and she says, how do I express my concerns? I say, I don't know that you can even put your finger on the concerns that you have. Like you're saying it's a feeling, it's a vibe. I've got a gut feeling I don't like this guy. I don't know, yeah.

I mean, and your daughter's 23, you may, exactly, you may be right, you may push her in the direction that you're trying to pull her away from. Yeah, you don't wanna become the bad guy, I would say, number one. No. You don't wanna be like, I don't like this person you're dating, because then they marry them or something, and you know, that's always there.

But I think it's valid to ask your child questions. Like, do you feel this person brings out the best in you? Yeah, I think that that's it. You guys, your daughters are a little young for this, but I have absolutely beautiful 18 year old daughter that is terrifying as a 50 year old father. Hey now, heading off to university and she's had a boyfriend out for two years.

Yeah. Did you properly vet this guy? I did. I took him out behind the barn. I taught him how to protect himself from my daughter. No, he's a wonderful kid. Sarah and I both sit and we listen to them communicate. And they have such a healthy style of communication.

I'm like, where did they learn this? So he's a great kid, we're lucky on that part, but if you're a parent and you get that gut feeling, you can't get in the way of love. That will push your kid away. What you wanna do is make sure that they're safe. At 15 years old, your 15 year old daughter, yes, you wanna monitor that situation,

make sure that she's safe, but I don't think addressing it directly, having been through those teenage years with with the daughter, that's that's not going to end well. There we go. Anonymous, we have solved your problem. Just listen to us and everything is gonna go well. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. Remind me, when is the show on? We've got Sunday nights, renovation resort season two at 9 p.m. and Monday nights, 9 p.m., Scott's Vacation House Rules. And you can stream on SAC TV.

Yeah, there you go. Real quick, top of your heads, one word answer. How many shows have you been on and produced? You got another number. 17 or 18. Scott? Yeah, a couple dozen, I'd say at least 15. At least 15.

My God. I mean, I love you guys, but I kind of hate you guys. But I thank you so much for coming and really appreciate it. I hope to see you again soon. Continued success. Thanks, Ben. Thanks for having us, Ben. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling,

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participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. You're listening to the Ben Mulrooney show. I never do, I still miss you, baby, and I don't wanna miss a thing. You're listening to the Ben Mulroney Show. Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? I have just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need you all to stop what you're doing and listen. Armageddon is upon us. Well, not really. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show.

I don't know if you noticed there, but I'm combining two of my favorite movies, Anchorman and Armageddon in like one minute radio. This is a high point for me. You know two things about me. One, I love the stories of extinction level events. That's why Armageddon is one of my favorite movies, even though it's terrible.

And I love talking about them. And there has been a story that has consumed us here at the Ben Mulroney show for a very long time. There was an asteroid that was, the closer it was getting to earth, the higher the chance was that it was going to collide with Earth. And so we talked about that.

Did we need to start an Armageddon program and send Roughnecks up into space and save us all? Turns out it changed its path. We're safe. Or are we? Because now we're hearing that there's a chance that it could hit the moon. And what could that mean?

And so to discuss this we're joined by dr Gordon Osinski professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Western Ontario And he's got an expertise in planetary geology and impact cratering. This is the guy folks Doctor welcome to the show Thanks for having me back on the show band. All right, so let's talk about this What are the chances that this asteroid hits the moon? Yes, so this is new news out this week. As you mentioned, this asteroid hit the news back in February when there was about a 1, it was 3.1%. So that's kind of like a 1 in 30 or so chance of

it hitting the Earth. That fell to about zero. But based on new telescope measurements, it looks like a 3.8% chance. So that's actually one in 25, which, you know, if you're a betting person, that's pretty high odds of this asteroid hitting the moon in about just under a decade's time. Okay, okay. All right. So we got to deal with it as if it's a possibility. How big is this thing? Do we know at this point? So there's still some uncertainty. We think it's something between like 50 and 100 meters. And so, you know, it's not, it's not, you know, the extinction level events by any chance, by any stretch of the imagination, but it would form a pretty sizable impact crater on the Moon,

if it does indeed strike. Okay, let's play these scenarios out because I love disaster movies and I love the unpredictable happening. I don't want this to necessarily happen, but is this thing big enough? Could it be big enough to do something like, I don't know, alter our relationship,

Earth's relationship to the moon? Thankfully, no. Okay. You know, we need to have an asteroid or comet, you know, in the several kilometers size range to really do anything to change Moon's orbit. But I guess maybe it depends on, you know, what your perspective is in terms of our relationship with the Moon. You know, we've never witnessed anything like this. And I mean, what if we're all just looking up at the moon on a clear night and suddenly we see this giant plume of material coming up for it. I think it was a new perspective that things are floating

around in the solar system. They can occasionally hit the moon and that also means they could hit the earth too. Oh, that would be a sight to behold. One thing that our listeners probably know about me is, I talk a mean game, but when it comes to science, I don't know that much. That's why I love talking to people like you, Doctor. What do we need the moon for? I mean, it's a good question. Do we, you know, we take it for granted. And you know, the biggest thing, right, is tides. You know, if you live anywhere near an ocean, if you've ever been to the beach, you know, we only have tides here on Earth because we have a Moon. We have an object that large in close

proximity that exerts gravitational influence and literally pulls the water towards it as the Earth rotates. And so, the tides would disappear. That would cause some pretty significant changes to all coastal ecosystems and erosion and things. Could we live on Earth without a moon? I think we could, but there'd be some pretty big changes for sure. And the night sky, I have to assume, would become a heck of a lot less bright. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, for sure.

I mean, we'd see a lot more stars, I'm guessing, but we wouldn't see a whole lot more. Yeah, no, absolutely. And what would happen if, I mean, what would happen if there was an impact that was large enough to significantly alter the shape of the moon? Like what if it cracked in two? I mean, I think if we're getting up to that kind of stage, you know, we would be looking at those, you know, Armageddon like scenarios, right?

The most recent movie, which I haven't yet, you know, sat down and watched, I think it's Moonfall. Oh, yes. But no, you know, I should have asked you off the top doc. You which I haven't yet, and I've sat down and watched, I think it's Moonfall. Oh yes, but no, I should have asked you off the top doc. You have seen Armageddon. I have, actually, that was a year because I was maybe about the right age and just in university and things, there was the year of deep impact.

Yes, not nearly as good. And on a scale of one to 10, one being you love it a lot, 10 being you love it with all your heart, where do you land on that scale? Maybe somewhere in the middle, six, five or six. I must say, and I hope this doesn't change our relationship that I think Deep Impact was maybe more scientifically accurate.

I'm not watching it for scientific accuracy, Doc. I'm watching it because I want to see, I want to see Roughnecks save the world. I want to see Bruce Willis saving the world. I told you one of my favorite lines ever is right at the end of the movie when Bruce Willis does not come home because he gave the ultimate sacrifice,

his life for everybody on earth. And the Air Force pilot who did not like him in the beginning, but ended up loving him at the end, goes up to his daughter Liv Tyler and says, Lieutenant Commander Willie Sharp, United States Air Force, requesting to shake the hand of the daughter of the bravest man I've ever met.

And then the F-15s fly overhead and the music swells. And if you do not feel something in that moment, then you are dead inside. I'm not asking you to comment, Doc. I'm just letting you know where I'm coming from. I'm being vulnerable with you, Doc. That's awesome. But okay, in a situation where we see this thing coming,

we realize that maybe it is bigger than we anticipated and the chance of it hitting the moon is significant. Do we have the technology today to do something about that? I'd say on paper, yes. There's been quite a lot of development done, lots of speculation, but this is a serious area of research and as you can perhaps imagine, a lot of this research happens in the military, even here in Canada, but you know, particularly in the US, there's a big,

you know, they have a space force in the US. And the militaries around the world are interested in this topic and have, you know, have thrown out the ideas of, you know, sending up nukes and trying to blow asteroids apart. We do think that's probably actually the worst thing you can do. Well, I learned that from Armageddon. You gotta drill down. You gotta put the nuke at the heart of the beast. If you don't, it's just gonna bounce right off. Or you'll... Well, it depends, again, on the perspective. or you'll change one very large object into a whole bunch more smaller objects that would then strike all over the Earth's surface. And we saw the impact of that foolhardy policy again in Armageddon.

Yep. Yeah. New York said Manhattan suffered the greatest damage because of that foolishness, shall we call it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Fool me once.

But NASA did demonstrate this a couple of years ago now through this DART mission. And so this was a proof of concept, essentially, where they were able to fly a spacecraft close to an asteroid and just change its trajectory. And so that, you know, I think has been proven. But it's not like we have a bunch of spacecraft sat on a shelf ready to go. Or do we? Or do we, Doc? For all we know, NASA has a secret shuttle

just like in Armageddon. Listen, I can hope. Hey, as it gets closer, I'm gonna have you back on the show and we're gonna pick the right team to send up there and save the earth. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us. You're welcome.

Thanks for having me on the show. Thanks for listening to the Ben Mulroney Show podcast. We're live every day nationwide on the Chorus Radio Network. You can listen online to the Radio Canada player and the iHeart Radio Canada apps. And make sure to follow and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your streaming audio. We release new podcasts every day. Thanks for listening. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your streaming audio. We release new podcasts every day.

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