The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 3 - Doug Ford, Danielle Smith, Brad Smith

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

Best of the Week Part 3 - Doug Ford, Danielle Smith, Brad Smith Guests: Doug Ford, Danielle Smith, Brad Smith, Johnny Garbutt, Dan Williams If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Best of the Week podcast. We had some of the best insights you heard all week on these tariffs, including back-to-back interviews with premiers Doug Ford and Danielle Smith. Plus, we had another great edition of The Dilemma. Enjoy. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. If you're a regular listener of the Ben Mulroney Show, then you know that I like to say that I very much enjoy my job, quote, chirping from the cheap seats. That's why I'm very pleased to have somebody who has been in the arena, somebody who has been fighting against these tariffs, fighting for the people of Ontario and the people of Canada.

Please welcome to the show Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Premier, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us and congratulations on your third consecutive victory for the PC party. Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me on, Ben. And I'm very, very grateful and humbled for the opportunity to serve the people again for the next four years.

Now you've said that until all these tariffs are dropped, Canada, Ontario needs to retaliate. Who, Mr. Premier, is the last person you've spoken to inside the US administration? And how did they receive that tough message? Well, Howard Lucknick was the person I talked to, the Secretary of Commerce. And we had a pretty strong conversation, let's put it that way. Yeah.

I'm not getting into details, but you know, who I absolutely loved are two people. One was President Ronald Reagan and one was Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, your father. I'm reading a quote when your dad and President Reagan had such an incredible relationship. I won't read the whole quote, but it was a radio address that President Reagan did on November 26, 1988. And I'll just quote it real quick. And this is President Reagan speaking. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. And war for one side to win, the other side must lose.

But in commerce, it's not warfare. Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies, they're our allies. We should be aware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends and weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world, all while cynically waving the American flag. And that's just part of the quote, but my point is, your dad and President Reagan had an incredible relationship and-

Sadly, that's not the world we're living in right now, Mr. Premier. Tariffs are not of provincial domain, but you do have a lot of tools in your tool belt. One of them is the possibility of certain exit tax on electricity going to the United States. You've said that you're going to throw 25% on there to the electricity going to the states. When's that going to start? Monday, Monday, really, I think it will be enacted on Tuesday, but we are moving forward with it. I feel

terrible for the American people because it's not the American people. It's not even the elected officials. It's one person. And that's President Trump. But it's totally unacceptable. But he's, he's coming after his closest friends, closest allies in the world. And it's gonna it's gonna absolutely devastate both economies. But did he did he underestimate the Canadian resolve and our willingness to fight and our appreciation that this was going to get hard and we were willing to live in that difficulty?

He definitely underestimated the resolve of the Canadian people the strength, the resilience. We've been on this for three months in Canadians. It's like we've been ready for this. And the American people just woke up a few days ago when all hex breaking loose. The market dropped $3 trillion and bounced a little bit back, then it dropped again today. There's nothing more than the market hates and businesses hate and everyone hates is uncertainty. This is an unnecessary trade war that President Trump has created. The facts are that if we take the oil that we ship down that they desperately need, the

4.3 million barrels a day off the table, the Americans have a $56 billion trade surplus and that's fine. Everything seems to be working. He just doesn't understand the supply chain with the auto sector. There's a lot of things he doesn't understand, but I believe in building an Amcan for fortress, two greatest countries in the world. And we put a, you know, fence around around North America and protect us against the people that are not friendly with us. And that's kind of trying to undermine. But Mr. Premier, I keep getting stuck on what is this really

about? I mean, you can't negotiate if the person the the person on the other side table isn't negotiating good faith if they're not being honest. And I do not believe that this is about fentanyl or the border because we have addressed that. I believe that you got to listen to what JD Vance said yesterday, which is, hey, if you don't want tariffs, move your businesses down here. That to me is what it's about. It's about hollowing out the Canadian economy and taking jobs that exist up here and industries that exist up here

and moving them to the United States. That's what he wants here. Well, what he wants is a trillion dollars or a couple trillion to put his tax cuts in. And if two congresspeople go sideways on them, then they aren't going to get it done. Yeah, so he wants to target his closest friends and, and try to get money off us. Well, it's not going to happen. We're going to hold strong and we're going to keep fighting because what he's doing is unprecedented around the world. The world's watching two countries, best friends going at each other, but he's underestimated the will of the people of Canada

and their resilience. Have you ripped up the Starlink deal with Elon Musk? And if so, how are you going to replace that need? How are you gonna fulfill that need for people in Northern communities who have difficulty accessing the internet? So there's approximately about 15,000 people, but this is out of principle.

We cannot support a person that actually got educated at Queen's University, Elon Musk, lived here in Toronto for a few years, coming after us. He's fully onside with everything Trump's doing. I can't justify that. Yeah, is it going to take maybe a year or two years longer, we're going to come up with other solutions for those people up there. But we cannot sit back and, and support someone that's attacking our country attacking our, our problems. And that's exactly what Elon Musk is doing.

President Trump asked Prime Minister Trudeau when we're going to be having an election in Canada, how important is it that we have a federal election as soon as possible so that whoever's in charge has the mandate, a similar mandate to what you were asking for that could outlast this president? Well, first of all, address our situation. I knew this was going to come forward and that's why I needed that mandate. I'm very, very grateful for the people

giving me that mandate so we have certainty here for the next four years. Now federally, we need to call the election right away, immediately. Looks like Mr. Carney's gonna get the nod and he needs to call it within 10, 15 days. And let's get to the polls, let the people decide, let's get certainty and let's move to the polls, let the people decide, let's get certainty

and let's move forward. And I will work with anyone. I don't care if it's Poliev or Carney or anyone. As long as they have the best interest of Ontario at heart, then I'm gonna work with them. And if they don't have the best interest at heart for Ontario, well, you know, I'm gonna be after them. I'll be all over them. And I don't give two hoots about political stripes. I really don't ever have.

Mr. Premier, you said you needed a mandate to deal with Donald Trump, but also so that you could have the will to spend money to help people in industries who may be affected by these tariffs. Have you given any idea, do you have any ideas to how that looks? And are we talking subsidies, direct subsidies? What are we looking at? Well, we've put over $40 billion to the side. And we're going to see how this rolls out. Hopefully it will end right away. But I can guarantee you one thing, I'm going to protect the

people, you know, protect businesses, protect jobs, retrain people, and refocus on new customers, even though we've been doing it for the last seven years. We've seen $70 billion of worldwide investment come to Ontario, a million more people, actually over a million more people are working today than seven years ago, and we're gonna spare no expense to protect the people, very similar to the pandemic.

The only difference with the pandemic, the whole world was feeling the crunch right now is just Canada and Mexico to a certain degree. Lastly, Mr. Premier, are you going to move ahead with the tunnel under the 401? And are you going to avoid working with Elon Musk's boring company very quickly? Very quickly? Yes, yes, absolutely. We are we need jobs. Yeah. Thank you very much, quickly. Yes, yes, absolutely. We are, we need jobs. Yeah, thank you very much, Mr. Ford. Really appreciate it. We know how busy you are. The stakes are very high these days,

and it means so much that you would spend time with us here on the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much. And yes, your sister will be the president of the treasury. She's a champion. Absolutely love her. Thank you very much, Mr. Premier. That was Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and in this time that we're living in, there's a lot of uncertainty, there's a lot of nervousness. My next guest has been speaking with such confidence and with such, in my opinion, depth of knowledge and pride in her province and pride in Canada, that it has elicited, at least in me, a deep sense of reassurance and confidence. Please welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Welcome to the show, Premier. Nice to talk to you, Ben.

Thanks for having me again. So what was your immediate reaction when hearing about the tariffs going in place levied against this country by Donald Trump? Grave disappointment and lost opportunity. There's just so much that we can do together as an integrated economy, whether it's on oil and gas, critical minerals, the auto sector, chemicals, food, to see that the Americans are prepared to compromise. That was gravely disappointing after all the work that all the premiers did on trying to prevent the train wreck from happening.

But now they're watching what's happening. Their stock market's in chaos. They have 170,000 job losses so far this year. It's only going to get worse. Gasoline prices are slated to go up 40 cents a gallon. And I think they're realizing all of the things that we were trying to warn them about. So I don't know if that'll cause them

to switch gears completely, but it's too bad it got to this point in the first place. Yeah, and until we get back to a point where we can work together, we have to take action on our own to either defend Canada or to apply pressure on the Americans. And you've taken the measure of no further purchases of US alcohol through the AGLC until further notice. Any other measures you're considering? There's a few things. So that is the most immediate impact all of the provinces can have because we can all just turn off our ordering system. So if you think about Alberta, we buy about $292 million with the US product each year. We're only about 12% of the population. So know that every province acting in concert on that is about $2-3 billion.

We've also suspended our purchase of new VLT machines. That's about $95 million. I've directed my departments, all of our agencies, our school boards, our municipalities, to buy local, buy from Alberta, buy from Canada, buy from any nation in the world that honors its free trade commitment. We'll see what kind of impact that has. by from any nation in the world that honors its free trade commitment. And so we'll see what kind of impact that that has. But that that we have no choice but to do that because the tariffs have the effect of

reducing the amount of Canadians goods going to the United States. We don't want our own businesses to be harmed. So our call to action is let's support our own Canadian businesses, let's make sure they're not harmed by using our purchasing power. We can do that as government, but I hope that Canadians do the same thing. Now, Premier Doug Ford of Ontario said that as of Monday, he will be applying a 25% exit tax

on the electricity that we sell to the states. I believe he keeps the lights on to 1.5 million homes and businesses in three states. Would you consider anything like that on Alberta oil and or gas? No, I mean, part of it is I think Ontarians and Quebecers need to understand is that that would harm them. We have the luxury in Western Canada being able to have our own supply, but, but Ontario and Quebec don't all of their oil comes to them by way of the United States line

five goes down through Michigan. If we start playing games with the price of oil and natural gas, it could potentially cause the lights to go out and the heat to turn off and the gasoline pumps to be empty in Ontario and Quebec. I just don't think that that is a wise policy. I don't want to hurt my fellow Canadians. We're not going to do that, but we are going to act where we know that there is a reasonable replacement for goods and services. I will say just on that note, if we'd built Energy East, then Ontario and Quebec would be able to rely on getting the products from Western Canada rather than via the United States.

So I think that one's off the table. Well, let's talk about pipelines for a moment because Bloch-Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet claims Europeans, they don't want Canadian oil and gas. First of all, do you believe that? Second of all, do you believe we need to find more partners to purchase our oil and gas? And if Quebec is going to be a sticking point, saying no pipelines through the Quebec territory, can we just go around them? Can we build into Hudson's Bay? Well, let's look at this. First off, the bloc wants to split the country up. So it's in their interest to sow chaos and division. And I'm so pleased that Tim Houston has called

them out on that Nova Scotia premier. He's doing great work on that. Secondly, he's wrong. I can tell you as intergovernmental and international minister as well, I've had a parade of people coming through my office from Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and on and on all talking about how can we get more Canadian product to our markets. So he's just incorrect. He has an ideology. It's an extreme left ideology. We've been the victim of that for the last 10 years.

But I think people are now beginning to understand that you can't run the world, an industrialized economy on solar, wind and batteries alone. You need to have baseload power that comes from a liable energy. We've got it. We're reducing emissions across the board on all of our products to make it a more attractive product than any of our competitors. We're going to be very active in finding those new markets. I hope that what we can do is find a pathway through Quebec that Quebecers can support. I know that it's hard to go through Montreal and so maybe we

find an alignment that's closer to Quebec City or closer to the region where Quebec's own natural gas resources lie so that Quebecers can develop their resource and have a new revenue stream. Maybe we talk about building another refinery in a more northern Quebec so that those high paying value added jobs go to go to Quebec. So I think as long as we talk in terms of how Quebec will benefit, I think we can get a deal. And I don't really think that the block is going to be very influential on that.

The media end up losing ground with the position they've taken. Well, there are a lot of fronts in sort of breaking down inter-provincial trade barriers. Tim Houston, as you said, he's been a leader on that file. He said he's by default wants to be an open, an open province. Doug Ford jumped on board immediately. It sounds like you are as well. Do you think that this, the desire to break down inter-provincial trade barriers is, is getting to a point where we won't be able to stop its momentum and are sticking points like supply management going to derail this thing? I would say that the premier is, it's been amazing to me because I've only been premier for

just over two years and there has been some turnover but no matter who's at the table, it is such a constructive table to be at. Ten different premiers from the provinces, three from the territories, all different parties and every single time we've come up with significant communicates where we find common ground. So I think that with the chaos happening at the federal level, us not knowing who the Prime Minister is going to be, I mean we've got one today and different one a week from now and then another one that may be six weeks from now, we need the stability of the premiers working together. So that's why I think you've seen us taking a leadership role.

And it's going to be many of the, I think other premieres are going to take the same approach on mutual recognition. And when it comes to supply management, I found with great interest that the US is doing a call-out. They want the price of eggs to go down. They want more eggs being sold to the United States. Maybe we've been so protective of supply management here. Maybe we've been so protective of supply management here. Maybe we should start looking at how we might be able to get more of those products to the U.S. for our mutual benefit. That may be a pathway forward. Going back to the States for a moment, it's hard to negotiate when you don't know what is actually driving the people on the other

side of the table. I was very bullish on the idea of confronting the issue of fentanyl and our poorest border. And I said, if Donald Trump is gonna be the one to highlight that, then that's a good thing. But I don't believe it is about fentanyl. I don't believe it is about the border. You've been in those meetings. You know the work that is being done has been done.

The money that has been poured into those issues. And yet here we are still with these tariffs on the table. What do you think this is really about? I can tell you he needed a pretext to be able to violate our free trade agreement. And so I think it is plausible that we have a problem with with opioid deaths and everyone is to blame for it. I mean, the idea somehow that you'd have to believe that America doesn't have cartels and doesn't have organized crime and doesn't have their own drug problem to think that the only way it gets solved is the actions of Canada and Mexico.

I think that's unrealistic. What we do know from the work we've done at the border is that there's a lot of cocaine and crystal meth and guns and human trafficking coming up from America. So this is a two-way street. And if we want to solve this problem, we've got to work together on it. But I do think that he needed a pretext in order to violate the free trade agreement. And now I was just doing a Fox News hit this morning. And a minute before I came on, we heard that because of the chaos in the US market,

Howard Lutnick may be talking about a reprieve across the board on all USMCA covered goods until April the 2nd. So just keep watching Truth Social throughout the day because it's a change five minutes from now. But that's the potential for what we're having today. But it is terrible to have this kind of uncertainty. It's very sad not to be able to rely on a trading partner that we've had such a good relationship with for so long. Yeah, we have skirmishes. Yeah, we got problems. Let's get to the table in the context of renegotiation and solve them rather than this kind of tariff war, which benefits no one. Premier Danielle Smith, thank you so much for your time today. Hope to talk to you again soon. You bet. Thanks, Ben.

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Oh, wow. ...imagine how it looks. Is it anymore? Yeah, big time. Nova Kane. Warming Theaters March 14th. This is the Ben Mulroney Show on the Chorus Talk Network. 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. Did we get the law and order guy? Because that sounds just like the law and order guy.

My god, yeah, that voice guy. Yeah, in the criminal justice system. All right, welcome to the Dilemma panel. This is where we, it's like the cleansing salve, if you will, from the outrageous news that we have to deal with on a daily, daily basis. And so what I like to do is I like to bring on people who are far more interesting than I,

and we ask you, our listeners, to email us your personal dilemmas. It might have something to do with your home life or your work life, your work life balance. Might be financial in nature, might be sexual. So email us at askbenn at chorus and dot com. Ask Ben at C-O-R-U-E, let me try that again. Ask Ben at C-O-R-U-S-E-N-T dot com.

And today I am joined by Johnny Garbitt, cohost of Q Morning on Q107. Johnny, welcome to the show. Hey, good morning. Thanks for having me. And Brad Smith, for some reason, we can't get rid of this guy. No, the people at chorus do not tip their valet person well at all.

I've been working in the basement for like three weeks now. Well, welcome to both of you. Let's dive into our first dilemma, shall we? Dear Ben's panel, so this is going to be directed to you guys, they don't want to hear from me. I recently found out that my co-worker is making more money than I am and it's really bothering me. I've been with the company for a few years and I consistently put in extra effort to

ensure my work is top notch. I always go above and beyond to meet deadlines, help the team and contribute to the success of the company. I've got great performance reviews and I'm often praised for my work. When I found out that my coworker who has been with the company for less time and in a similar role is making a higher salary,

I was shocked and frustrated. It feels like I'm being overlooked. Should I say something about the pay disparity? I just feel like I deserve more and want to make sure I'm being and frustrated. It feels like I'm being overlooked. Should I say something about the pay disparity? I just feel like I deserve more and want to make sure I'm being treated fairly. I also think I'm better at my job than him. Signed, Phil. Johnny, you go first.

I think that you should stop doing everything you're doing to put that company over. If you have had the reviews and they have acknowledged you're doing an amazing job, there's something wrong. Stop it! Well, you know what? Phil does not lack in confidence. But here's the thing. Uniquely having been a boss before and having employees, there's a lot of things that we don't understand here. Is it a metrics-based company where your performances are empirical? Or is it one of those things where whomever gets hired is from the chain of command? And this looks like a situation where Phil, just do yourself a favor.

Never compare yourself to anybody else in the office. Because you're not going to go up to your boss and say, this guy's getting this much, I deserve this much. That's not how real life works. You've got to go in with your own confidence that you clearly have in your job and shoot, sell yourself. Sell yourself. But I don't know that there's you clearly have in your job and shoot, you know, sell yourself. Sell yourself. But I don't know that there's anything wrong with Phil going in and saying, saying all

the things you said. Yeah, I've got great performance reviews. I go above and beyond. I show up early. I leave late. I work at night. It's all that stuff. However, I have learned that there are people in similar roles to me that are making more

money and I and I'd love to know the logic behind that and how we can get to a place where I feel like. You think bringing that up, right? Yeah, without naming names, right? I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't put the spotlight on anybody else, but this is new information to them and this is messing with their morale. Do you think the boss then would open up and let you know that you are correct in your

assumption about the other person making more money? I don't think that that's realistic because there's like that confidentiality thing. Well, I know this is a fact and I'm not looking to lay blame or take issue with anyone. Everyone gets what they get and congratulations to them. But I think given my contributions to this company, I should be at the top of the top.

See, as a boss, that looks more like a squeeze to me versus you coming and selling yourself based on your job. No, no, I said off the top, you lead with selling yourself. Lead and then squeeze. Lead and then squeeze, of course. Do you think there's a little bit of like, in this climate, I'm just lucky to have a gig? Like I shouldn't rock the boat, I'm getting a paycheck, I'm employed, I should just be

happy? I don't know, I just saw on the news that there's another public service union that's looking to take a Go on strike again. So there's a lot of people out there who don't really care about the the economic climate. They're going out to get theirs Fair enough. Yeah each their own. Yeah. All right, Phil. I don't know if we helped you but Good luck to you, sir. Yeah. Okay dilemma number two dear Ben. I am an incredibly difficult. Okay, so let me try again I'm in an incredibly difficult situation and I'm not sure what to do.

I recently discovered that my father cheated on my mother last year, but that she forgave him. He was having an affair with a coworker for nearly nine months. I wasn't told but overheard my aunt talking about it with my mom. I'm an adult, I no longer live at home and neither are my other siblings.

The three of us are torn on whether she should stay with him or not. I want her to have some respect for herself and leave him. I'm also really mad they didn't tell us about it. What is your best advice on how to deal with this situation? Signed Julia. My take is this has nothing to do with you. There you go.

Julia, this has to do with your mom and your dad. And if your mom has forgiven your dad then that's on her then if you want to be happy this is apparently what she wants to do to be happy. This is like such a foreign conversation to me because I don't know how you guys are with your parents but my parents are more parents than they are friends. Yeah. To even broach the idea of having this conversation with my parents just curls my toes but you know what to your point Ben Julia it's not your business. No,'s not your business.

It's not any of your business. It really isn't. I think if this was a nine year old Julia emailing the show saying, I'm in an environment where this is happening and I'm affected, you're not in the room anymore. I have to concur with both of you. This is not Julia or any of your siblings issue anymore.

And if your mom forgave the father, you have to go with the decision. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, listen, if you've decided that as a child, you can't forgive your father for this indiscretion that you found out about that's on YouTube like that. Then you're then that's that's within your rights as a as a as his child. You can say, I don't like the way you treated mom and therefore I'm putting you I'm putting you on the outside. And here's a very harsh lesson for some people is that parents do make mistakes to you. Yeah. Yeah. And they are human. Exactly. And then you can very harsh lesson for some people is that parents do make mistakes too. Yeah.

And they are human. Exactly. And we can't idolize them like they are. They are foul people. And Julia, by the way, also, I'm gonna push back on the last thing you said. I'm also really mad they didn't tell us about it. Why?

Yeah, that's a weird- It's not your business. Guys, we need to sit down for dinner. Dad's got some explaining to do because dad wasn't in the room a couple of times either. Yeah, like Julia, this doesn't concern you. This is, this, your parents had an issue, and you don't know, apparently you don't know the whole story.

Like, I would like to know why this happened. Like, I mean, if I, sorry, let me rephrase. You were about to go down a dark hole there. No, no, but I don't know what goes on in this relationship, and maybe they were going through tough times. I don't, I don't know, I have no idea. And neither do you, Julia. So if they have resolved this in a way where they're happy again or they're working on it, I mean, take the win.

Are you also not throwing the ant under the bus by bringing this up to the dad? Hey, just so you know, now you're calling like massive family strife. Just go to bed. Julia. All right. We got time for one more dilemma before the break. Hey there. I've been invited to my cousin's wedding, but there's something about the invitation that's been bothering me. They made it clear and they're not allowing kids at the wedding. My partner and I have a young child. Well, I totally respect that it's their decision.

It's making me question whether I should even attend, especially given the fact that we are family. I'm torn between wanting to be there to support my cousin being frustrated that can't bring my child. I understand this is their special day. And I know it's a personal choice for them. But I feel it's a bit much to ask guests to find child care for a wedding especially if it's going to be a long evening. I'm also wondering if I should send an envelope with a gift and skip the wedding

altogether. What should I do? Should I go despite the kid free rule or should I politely bow out and send a gift instead signed Sam? Ben married. Brad are you married? No. Not married. I am married. Yeah. I decided to have a non-child wedding. Look at you hero. Do not bring your kids. The issue was somebody who was very close either could not come if they didn't bring their kids and we broke that rule.

But you know that sending out the invitation that way though, right? That that's a possibility. Correct. But the day of the wedding when other people where the rule was you can't bring your kids, saw kids at my wedding, there was tension. You need to stick to it. Look, if you're willing to go to a wedding, that means you're willing to spend a little bit of money.

That's not cheap. Yeah, it's one night, if you, it's your cousin, and you are nickel and diming over child care, like a babysitter for four hours, five hours. Like, I don't know what to tell you. If that's the choice, if that's the issue that you're facing, I don't know, do you really like your cousin at all? Okay, so we've all been to these weddings. Let's just agree that they're the best version

of the wedding that you can have. But the person sending out the invitation, they know that there is a possibility that people aren't gonna come because of this Yeah, also too when you're getting the invitation that is a free pass for you to say I can't come because of my kid And send the gift as well. Just be nice. This one sounds a little passive aggressive when it's pretty much a cut-and-dry situation Yeah, not asking any if you can't do it. Don't do it. Yeah, exactly. And if you can oh my god It's gonna be the best. It's gonna be like sandals the whole week. No kids. 18 plus. You know what? Just don't go into the bathrooms after

midnight. Top shelf booze. I love it. Okay hey guys more with the Dilemma panel including what to do when your mother-in-law pressures you into spending more money on an engagement ring. That's next on the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and welcome back to the Dilemma Panel. I'm joined by Johnny and Brad and we are digging into your life issues. Shall we jump right back in, gentlemen? Let's go. Johnny and Brad.

Yeah, it sounds like- Johnny and Brad in the mornings, wow. Sounds like a new show on Flavor Network. Yes, please. I've always said, if I ever did a show, I think I told you about this, it would be a show sort of like somebody feed Phil.

Yeah. A travel show. And it would be called Ben Appetit. I like it. Look at you. Thank you. Because I'm Q107, we play rock music. I always said a dessert show and only about Zeppeli and we call it Led Zeppeli.

You don't want to do a dessert show. Okay. Those ones kill you. All right. All right. Let's jump right back in. Dear Ben, I've been dating a guy for nearly two months and it's been really good so far. We met at the bar where I work. He lives near downtown Toronto within walking distance of my job. So usually we've met downtown when we go out or I just go to his place after work.

Last week for the first time he picked me up from my place so we could go to a movie. I was shocked to learn he has a handicap parking sticker. He doesn't actually need it. He told me he got it so he can avoid paying street parking downtown but also to get premium parking. This has really turned me off and everything was going so good until that point. How do I get over it? Or is this the end of our fun together signed Rachel? Um, listen, I think well, how about you just talk to him about it? Yeah. Rachel, how about you just ask him like what the deal is and then he can like, you can put it to him.

It's not really an ultimatum. This is something that turns you off. And you can say, listen, I don't like this. And I need to know how important the handicapped sticker is to you because I and then he'll have to pick. Does he want Rachel or does he want a good parking? Okay, Rachel, here's my observation is that this guy completely is a decrepit human being, but at the same time in society, he's playing chess while we're all playing checkers on

this move. But the problem is unless you talk to him, like Ben said, you're going to be in a situation where you're going to Costco and he's having to limp out of the car because he's been there so many times with that sticker that he's got a whole act going Yeah, and that's where you know, you're going down a rabbit hole But anybody who has that of age that is mobile is just yeah. Yeah, I feel like as far as red flags go This is one of them When you're scratching the douchey surface

How far down does it go if you're willing to admit this, what aren't you admitting on the other side? That's my biggest concern. That's a great point. You think that this is a harbinger of worse things to come. Yes, it is just the starter of bad things. Interesting. Well, I take it for what it is,

that it's a guy who did a douchey thing and it's benefiting him. But look, and I'm not condoning this. I think, as you said, it is decrepit. But in a world where we are paying more every single day, we're getting less and less. This guy said, you know what? Screw it. I'm going to get something for myself to make music. I don't condone it. I wouldn't do it. I find it gross. But come on. This is his 2025 rage against the machines moment. It used to be take down the man, now it's just place the sticker in my windshield so I can park wherever I want.

Rachel, just talk to the guy. If he matters to you, and if you matter to him, then this sticker will go away. Just run. Just run. Rachel! Alright, here's the next one. Hello, I'm currently in the process of picking up an engagement ring for my partner and I'm feeling a lot of pressure, not from my partner, but from my future mother-in-law. She's made several comments about how important it is to pick a quote, nice ring and nice diamonds, even going as far as saying I should make sure it's something my partner will be proud to wear. My partner says her mom is joking, but it's one of those jokes that have a bit of truth

to them if you know what I mean. I've heard so many different opinions on how to spend on an engagement ring, and now I'm not sure what's reasonable. Part of me thinks it should just be about the commitment and not the jewelry. How much should I really spend on an engagement ring? And how can I ignore my mother-in-law's comments and not let it get to me?

Signed, Ian. There's a lot to unpack here, sir. Ian, I don't think you can ignore it. Jokes are done with a little bit of truth in them. And it's easy to say, don't worry about it. It's between you and your partner, and don't worry you can ignore it. Jokes are done with a little bit of truth in them and you know, it's easy to say don't worry about it. It's between you and your partner and don't worry what she has to say. Well, you're technically going to spend the rest of your life knowing that this woman is looking down on you and what you spend for it. I think you're in a real trouble here, man.

Well, it's a good thing that he's not marrying the mother-in-law. That is one of the few archaic things that's passed down through generations that is totally just a generational gap Yeah, right because that was very important to that generation now. It's just something. I don't know. This is my personal opinion I think I've said it on this show before we had someone talk about a similar situation where it's like if that person doesn't Accept the ring that you give them that you put effort to into buying, then that's a them problem. Anyone should be accepting the fact that you're getting married, you're spending a life together. And if that's the precursor that's not gonna lead to the-

If that's the barrier to entry, it's a terrible barrier. Also, listen, one trick of the trade that I sort of made up with my wife is, I bought her what we at the time was an engagement ring that we both loved. I was proud to give it to her and she was proud to wear it. And then later on, a few years later, we beefed it up.

You beefed it up? We beefed it up. Yeah, we took it to the gym. We melted that thing down and we created our own from the fires of Mordor. We added some more side diamonds to it and really made it look a little more substantial. And so you can always, it can always grow with you.

I mean, there's no one says that the ring that you give for on your engagement has to look that way. As you hope the relationship does too. Yeah. So you should write to mom and I owe you in five years. I will beef it up. That's as good as money. That's it.

That's as good as money. You're gonna wanna hold on to this one. That's a car. You're gonna wanna. That was dumb and dumber for those of you who have no idea what just happened. Okay, I'm dealing, dear Ben, I am dealing with a frustrating situation with my neighbor and I'm not sure how to handle it.

Lately, I've been finding anonymous notes left on my car criticizing things like how many guests I have over or how I drive on the street or how loud my snow blower is. The notes are always passive aggressive and nobody signs them and I strongly suspect my neighbor is the one leaving them. I don't want to escalate things but I also don't want to let this kind of behavior slide. and nobody signs them. And I strongly suspect my neighbor is the one leaving them. I don't wanna escalate things, but I also don't wanna let this kind of behavior slide. If you have a real issue with these things,

confront me personally and let's discuss how valid your complaints are. I'm wondering if I should confront my neighbor directly or just let it go. I don't wanna make things awkward, but I don't wanna keep things, I don't wanna feel like I'm being harassed. What's the best way to deal with this situation

without making it worse? Signed, Siobhan. Siobhan, I think things are already awkward. You just said things are awkward. So you do have to address it, right? You already feel a sort of way towards your neighbor. You suspect it's him. It might not be him.

It might be somebody else in the neighborhood. I mean, clearly is someone in the neighborhood. If it's not in the neighborhood, we have a bigger problem. Right, exactly. But yeah, address it with your neighbor. Are you the one leaving me these notes? And if they say no then then just go about your life you do not owe anything to an unaccountable note leaver so you should have a face-to-face conversation with the person who has the problem. I feel like my anxiety is so 2025 already that I

can't walk this earth knowing that anybody in my life is upset with me therefore I need to confront whoever I think this must be just to know that it's them and then we can work on it. So like I would go canvassing door to door like a girl guide cookie salesperson and try to figure out who this is. That's it. Is this you? Is this you? I would have to. This is a weird one because I grew up in a town where you had space in between your neighbor. And so I've always thought that neighbors specifically in suburbia are very, it's a

very weird situation where you're hyper incubated and you have two feet in between your house and you can see into their backyard and you really, it freaks me out to the point where when I was in Etobicoke, I moved to the suburbs and my car, which I notoriously don't wash that often, had written on it, have some effing respect for yourself. And I was like, but this is the thing with neighbors. If you don't address it, like where is this going to go? Are you going to be the person in five years who it's like, don't go buy old Smith's house over there.

He's throwing cats again. I find it really weird that somebody has so many problems with you and they're so willing to tell you what you've done wrong, Siobhan, passive aggressive, but they're unwilling to put their name down to it. Like this is, this is not going to end well. Like this is, there's toxicity building up in your own mind right now and you don't know who the problem is. So you have to figure out who this is or you have to say to yourself, I don't care what this person thinks. It's meaningless to figure out who this is, or you have to say to yourself,

I don't care what this person thinks. It's meaningless to me because they're unwilling to put their name to it. I'm gonna live my life the way I want until they come to me and confront me face to face. I think it's gonna be hard living in that neighborhood, walking this line that anything that I could do is constantly being watched.

I would be judged on it. It takes me back to COVID days when people were rollerblading in parking lots and people would call like bylaw officers to give them $800 tickets for being outside. Like what are you doing? I'm just just trying to live my life. Yes, I have, I don't know, 15 people over a Saturday night to watch a UFC pay-per-view. Big deal. For the worst advice ever, just do everything that annoyed them, but do it 10 times harder. Exactly. You know what I mean? And then see where the notes go. Draw them out. Yeah, yeah.

If you're driving really fast, maybe just, I'm kidding. Yeah. But hey, a ring doorbell could help with this matter as well. There we go. Everyone's always getting caught on a ring doorbell, right? Or those electrified campaign signs that we see all the time.

Exactly, exactly. Well, listen, thank you guys so much. Brad, I assume I'll see you around the building later today. Yeah, that lunch. You work in craft services? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Johnny, really appreciate it. Thank you guys so much. Brad, I assume I'll see you around the building later today. Yeah, that looks... You work in craft services? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Johnny, really appreciate it.

Come back any time. And to all of you who rode in with your dilemmas, we hope we helped. We probably didn't, but we hope we helped. Looking to simplify? How about the simple sounds of neutral vodka soda with zero gram sugar per can for the next 15 seconds. Neutral. Refreshingly simple.

If you have listened to this show in the past, then you know that issues like addiction, mental health, the fentanyl crisis, opioids, safe supply, the BC model, safe injection sites, these are things we routinely talk about on this show and the more I've discussed it the more I feel that there have been some short-sighted bad moves by By people who are governed not by fact or data, but by ideology. I was a

original proponent of the BC model because it was going to be based on the Portuguese model. And for those of you who don't know, Portugal decriminalized all drugs in their country. But in doing so, they created an alternate path of justice so that if somebody was caught with drugs, they would be diverted not into the criminal justice system, but into a parallel system that allowed them to have a clean record and also go into treatment and so the money that was saved in criminal justice was diverted into this new program. I was quite bullish that BC would get it right just do what the Portuguese did they did did no such thing. And they created the chaos that we have seen in British Columbia. Enter Alberta with the Alberta model. And Alberta has plans to impose mandatory

addiction treatment on people suffering from drug addiction. And here to talk about this is the person in charge of this plan, Dan Williams, the Minister of Mental Health and Addiction of Alberta. Minister, thank you so much for joining us on the Ben Mulroney show. Ben, thanks for having me. So this is so explain to me the genesis of the the Alberta model. Is it in reaction to the failures that you've seen elsewhere in the country? Is it based on a best practice elsewhere in the world? Yeah, it is a reaction. Is it based on a best practice elsewhere in the world?

Yeah, it is a reaction, I think, in many ways. Canadians have been gaslit for, I'd say, two and a half decades from so-called experts telling us what at first seemed reasonable, as you said, that we should reduce the harm to those in addiction. And there were And you can bring out as many community college professors as you want, trying to tell us that if you dump high-powered opioids onto my street, my community will be safer and we will reduce addiction. But that's not been the case. And a common sense approach would tell you that it was only going to get worse.

The Alberta model, by contrast, doesn't assume that facilitating drug addiction is going to help. We understand that it started off as harm reduction, but it's become harm production when you have unsafe supply and drug injection sites in every street corner. Instead, the Alberta recovery model says that recovery is not only possible, but it's plausible. It's even more likely than not if you provide those avenues. And so the premise is healthcare should be healing and not harmful and that the addiction model within Alberta

is about getting people into recovery. Now for most people that's building capacity within our system, meeting them where they're at so we can get them options like opioid agonist therapy and the world's best and innovative program when it comes to immediate access, same day access to sublicates, aboxone, methadone, etc. But for a small group of Albertans, just like we have across the whole country, people that are so gripped by the addiction, they need an intervention. Just like if a family or a

workplace or others weren't intervening, but these folks don't have a workplace and their families have been frustrated or long gone because of the nature of the addiction, so it's left up to society to intervene. And so, compassionate intervention says for that small group of people that are danger to themselves or others, we had one individual overdose 186 times last year that we recorded, likely more times than that then, and that for that individual and others like him or her, we need to intervene as a society and say that this is not a lifestyle choice and that this will lead given enough time in one of two ways. Either to an intervention of some kind and recovery and a new lease on life out of

addiction as a family member, as a brother and mother, or given enough time at least to pain and misery and death. Well you know let me let me tell you Minister why I think everybody should give this model a chance to either succeed or fail on its own in good faith. I believe that you have a very good chance of succeeding. I think the metrics will will bear that out, but the reason I won't listen to ideologues who say, oh, people have to hit rock bottom before they have. Most people probably have to hit rock bottom, or some people have to hit rock bottom, but not all of them.

Some of them need a chance. Some of them need to be told in a pretty heavy handed way, you can't live like this. If you continue to live like this, you will die. And if a project like this saves some of those people or at least gives them a fighting chance to get off drugs, they might return to them. But in its own way,

this model is the definition of harm reduction because you are taking somebody and saying, you don't have the requisite ability to form a proper judgment here. So we are going to replace your judgment with ours. And in that way, they detox, at least temporarily. And in that way, that is in and of itself harm reduction. Yeah, I think that you're exactly right,

that given enough time that this is just going to end to more chaos and disaster, not just for that individual in addiction who has dignity and worth as a Canadian, but also to the wider community. I mean we have individuals fencing with the wind with a used syringe out front of the community rectplex as family members, parents, mother with children are trying to get into their swimming lesson and somebody's speedballing methamphetamine and fentanyl and they're not in possession of their faculties the way you and I are. They're not

choosing the way you and I are to have this conversation today Ben. They're compelled by this. So if they're a danger to themselves or others, this program of compassion intervention I'm proposing is not for the kid in mom's basement that's smoking too much pot. You know cannabis can be dangerous for especially for youth. That is a fair consideration. I'm not talking about that. Yeah. I'm talking about that 186 overdose turning to a 187 and that person potentially dying. Yeah. Not having to reverse. Now what happens minister, what happens minister when you ultimately face ideologues who pervert justice and say that you are infringing on the charter rights of Canadians.

And it is you who are actually not respecting their dignity of choice. Okay, it's not a choice. This isn't a lifestyle choice. Walk down any street, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, or heck, rural northern Alberta, where I represent, and tell me that these individuals are choosing to live intermittently homeless taking fentanyl to the state of ketosis Where they risking life and limb living in what they call encampments in reality are drug dens where laceration rape and physical violence are regular occurrences And they're as they're extorted for money so they have the right to live there under the drug cartel.

It is nuts to say that that is somehow some right that these people are choosing to enact. That the nature of addiction compels you into these tragic states and it restricts you like shackles and a slave to it. There's nothing at all Canadian, nothing at all compassionate about letting people continue down this path of losing limbs to frostbite as they seek drugs and lose a fifth or quarter of their body weight because they're more compelled to seek a fentanyl than they are to consume calories to live. Yeah. Hey, Minister Williams, when will this program be fully up and operational? Well, we committed, pardon me, we committed $180 million to building the first two compassion intervention centers. That's going to start here right away. We introduced some legislation very soon to this end when the legislation is passed and regulations are in place.

We're hoping to see the first folks going through this program as we stand it up in 2026. So it's going to replace PCHAD, which is the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs Act in Alberta. That's a mandatory treatment regime we've had for decades in Alberta for children. And it's going to be parallel to the Mental Health Act that we have in Alberta for those suffering from mental illness, as every single province has a Mental Health Act for mandatory treatment for those dealing with mental

illnesses if they're dangerous themselves or others. And it will obviously be parallel to drug courts, which has mandatory treatment that we have in many provinces already. Minister, we're gonna we're gonna have to leave it there. I've been in conversation with Dan Williams, the Minister of Mental Health and Addiction of Alberta. I look forward to following what I believe will be the success of this program. And I wish you, I wish you well, sir.

Happy to chat anytime. Thanks for the time, Ben. Thanks for listening to the Ben Mulroney Show podcast. We're live every day nationwide on the Chorus Radio Network and you can listen online through the Radio Canada player and the iHeart Radio Canada apps. And make sure to follow and subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, or wherever you get

your streaming audio. We release new podcasts every day. Thanks for listening. Daniel Blanchard is no ordinary thief. His heists are ingenious. His escapes defy belief. And when he sees the dazzling diamond CC Star, he'll risk everything to steal it. His exploits set off an intercontinental manhunt. But how long can CC Star stay lucky for Daniel? I'm Ceren Jones, and this is a most audacious heist. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music,

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