The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 3 - Pierre Poilievre and More

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

Best of the Week Part 3 - Pierre Poilievre and More Guests: Pierre Poilievre, Morgan Hoffman, Erin Bury, Anthony Koch 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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Yeah, it's a big deal. The Ford It's a Big Deal event. Visit your Toronto area Ford store or Ford.ca today. This episode is brought to you by FX's Dying for Sex on Disney Plus. Based on the podcast of the same name, Dying for Sex tells the story of Molly, who is diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. Determined to feel everything she can before she can't feel anything, she decides to leave her unhappy marriage

to explore her sexuality, with some encouragement from her best friend, Nikki. FX is dying for sex, now streaming only on Disney Plus. Sign up now at DisneyPlus.com. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show Best of the Week podcast. We had so many great discussions, but the one chat I enjoyed the most was an in-studio sit down with the man who wants to be the next prime minister, Pierre Poliev.

Enjoy. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. We have been talking about this interview all morning. Very pleased to welcome into the studio, live in studio for the very first time, conservative leader Pierre Poliev. You're also here with your lovely wife, Anna. Great to see both of you. Yes, great to be here.

And you know, you've been on the road with the family, right? You've been on the road. Yes. I remember those days. I remember those days of traveling with my family. I remember them entirely fondly. What's it been like?

How old were you? Oh gosh, first one, 84, I was eight. I was eight years old. Yeah, I loved all of it. You know, the staffers became like old. Yeah. I loved all of it. You know, the, the staffers became like family. Yeah. I got to see, um, I got to see my dad in the best possible light because it was what he wanted to be

doing. And, you know, I'm hearing some knocks on social media, uh, that, uh, that that's, uh, that people, people assuming that it's not necessarily a positive, I can speak from lived experience. It's an entirely positive experience. Are the kids responding to it? They love it. My, uh, my little guy, Cruz can speak from lived experience. It's an entirely positive experience. Are the kids responding to it?

They love it. My, my little guy, Cruz, he loves the excitement, the sound, the noise, and all the adventure. And he helps us with little projects. Uh, we do, we did a visit to a pizza shop the other day and he helped put the mushrooms on the pizza. I ended up almost dropping the pizza on the ground.

I think I saw that. And, uh, my, our little girl, um, Valentina is, she loves motion. She likes to be moving, physically moving all the time. So a campaign tour is actually quite good for her. Sometimes she gets a little bit overwhelmed

by the lights and the sounds and she has to make her way to a quieter place. Uh, but it's been, I think overall, wouldn't you say a good experience for them? Yeah, he's been trying to steal my microphone, so I might have some competition here. Speaking of family, one of our own, Greg Brady, is running for the Conservatives in Ajax. Are you as impressed with him as a candidate as we are as a colleague? Yes, and you know, he has an incredible track record and a big following, a big listenership,

And he has an incredible track record and a big following, a big listenership. And he's been pushing the same kind of common sense ideas in his job. So thousands of people already knows where he stands. So when he goes to the door and says, you know, I want to cut your income tax by 15% they said, well, that sounds like something you've been saying for a long time. Or when he says, I'm, you know, we're going to lock up the criminals and make our community safe again. And they probably say, well, I've heard you say that on the radio. So you're probably meaning it when you say

it now on my doorstep. Um, so I think he's going to be a great part of our, our Canada first team. Uh, now you made a speech in Toronto today and before we get to that, uh, I know you were introduced by my sister, who's a minister in the Ontario government. That's right. Uh, she's also, uh, I know you were introduced by my sister, who's a minister in the Ontario government. That's right.

She's also, she endorsed you, she reminded people that Brian Mulroney was one of your first donors. He was. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. $500. I haven't asked her specifically about how she ended up in that position, because I actually wanted to ask you, she works for the Ford government, a lot has been made

about, call them not the best relations between the federal party and the Ford government. A lot has been made about the, uh, call them not the best relations between the federal party, the Ontario analog. Is this a signal of things changing on that front? I think it's a signal of a great friendship. Um, Caroline and I have known each other for a number of years. We, we talk from time to time about economic

matters. Obviously she has had numerous big economic portfolios, transport, treasury board, and the list goes on. And I think we share the same values, you know, good value for taxpayers, money, um, getting P letting people keep more of their paycheck, getting the red tape out of the way to build some more homes. So our youth can

actually put a roof overhead. And she was saying that her kids listened to a lot of my social media posts, um, you know, and they're part of the generation that's really rallied around conservatives. That's kind of unusual. Yeah. Typically we were the old, uh, the old, old guys party, but now a lot of youth are here

because basically they can't afford a home. And I'm the only one that's been talking about how to eliminate the red tape, get rid of the sales tax on new homes, sell off federal land to build those homes, train up the trades to build them so that we can bring back that promise that anyone who works hard gets a beautiful house. Yeah.

Um, and, uh, so I think that, that resonated with your, your niece and, uh, with, uh, Caroline's kids. And, and so I was very touched by her endorsement. She spoke beautifully as she always does. She's a very, very important person. that resonated with your niece and with Caroline's kids. And so I was very touched by her endorsement. She spoke beautifully as she always does. She's a very, very impressive woman. Well, we're gonna talk about housing and we're also gonna talk about that generational divide

and how you might be able to bridge it. But I do wanna get into the meat of the speech today. There was a couple of things that you talked about, an immediate response to Donald Trump as well as an after-election response. So drill down on those two things for me. Well, the immediate response that I think has to come as early as tomorrow morning is counter tariffs,

targeting American goods we don't need, can make ourselves or buy elsewhere. So we maximize the impact on them while minimizing it on us. Um, but we also have to keep people working. There'll be particular sectors that might take a hit. We want to make sure that those businesses have

the cash they need to keep paying wages. Cause once they lose their employees, it's very hard to rekindle that bond. It's cheaper for a government to keep people in their jobs than it is to have them lose their jobs, collect EI for a long time when they're searching for a new one. So I've said, we need to create a saving

Canadian jobs fund. It'll be a loan program targeted specifically to those businesses that are hit. Um, but then after the election, we got to figure out how to solve this. This insanity cannot go on. So what I'm proposing is this, the Kuzma deal, the trade deal we have now,

it has to be renegotiated by the end of 2026, by I think the summer of 2026. Why would we wait? Why would we have this kind of revolving chaos for another year and a half? Let's nail down a deal. So the first the the first foray into foreign affairs by a I would call go right down there. I call up the president say look suspend tariffs both ways and

let's set a tight deadline to renegotiate the deal on both economics and security. The deal would do three things as far as I'm concerned. One it has to maintain our sovereignty. We're gonna control our country, our dollar, our laws, our healthcare, our water, all of that. Secondly, we need tariff-free access to the American market, which we should grant in return. And third, we should do our part on national defense.

I mean, the Americans on this point, they're not wrong to say that Canada needs to rebuild its armed forces. And I'm going to say to the Americans, the more you trade with us, the more money we will have for our military, we'll do our part. You will not have to carry our weight on defense. And that's how we nail down a deal that can put this insanity to rest and bring calm, growth, and strength to our country. Safety on our streets has been something

you've been talking about, not just during this campaign, but for years, really, and the Toronto Police Association penned a letter, not just to you, but to Mark Carney, about four issues that they want to know your positions on. Two of those issues are bail reform and ending the handgun ban to redirect resources to frontline police workers. What do you say to the questions that

they have levied at both of you? Well, the police know what they're talking about. The Toronto police have per said that the liberal catch and release bail law, C-75, which requires judges release offenders at the earliest opportunity under the least onerous conditions, and I'm quoting, have caused chaos everywhere. The same repeat offenders are released within hours of their

latest arrest, often before the paperwork is done, and then they re-offend. They're literally arrested three times in a day. So I will repeal liberal catch and release. I will end liberal house arrest laws and I will pass a law that says any repeat offender will be ineligible for bail, parole, probation or house arrest. It will be jail not bail, jail not bail. But we also have to build more jails, right? No, actually you know the funny thing is when Harper brought in a major crime track down with tougher laws, everyone said oh you're gonna need massive California style prisons.

Turned out incarceration rates went down. Now why is that? One, the people we locked up for good were people that were in and out weekly anyway, because they were released to go and re-offend. Then they go back in and then they're released. And then they go back in through the revolving door. You have to reserve them a room.

It's like the hotel California, they check out, but they never really leave. So you're actually not adding a new prisoner. You're just keeping them there. The second thing is you deter crime. The small time offenders say, I'm not going to risk going to the slammer for 10 years. I'm not going to do the crime in the first place. So we actually brought crime down by 25% and reduced overall incarcerations by focusing on the work We don't have a lot of criminals in Canada. The problem is they're very productive in Vancouver

They had to arrest the same 40 offenders six thousand times So you just take those 40 guys off the street you have six thousand fewer crimes but I'll tell you after the lost liberal decade of rising crime and chaos of hug-a-thug, catch-and-release, we can't give the liberals a fourth term. What we need is a new conservative government that will put law-abiding Canadians first for a change. Now, if Canadians were to give them a fourth term,

Mark Carney has laid out a housing plan. I haven't heard you talk about his housing plan, but clearly, clearly it's something you've thought about. Well, it's a lot like the last liberal housing plan, you know, um, over the last liberal decade, housing costs have doubled. They've gone up faster in Canada than any other country in the G seven Toronto and Vancouver are

now the most expensive markets in all of North America after the lost liberal decade. It takes 29 years to save up for a down payment in Toronto after 10 years of liberal government. And now Carney is doubling down on Trudeau's plan, which is to build these monstrosities of these incredible bureaucracies in Ottawa.

He says he wants a $35 billion government housing corporation that's going to build tiny prefab homes bureaucracies in Ottawa. Since you want a $35 billion government housing corporation that's going to build tiny prefab homes with no driveways, because of course they don't want anybody driving cars, and we know the money will go to building bureaucracy, we don't need more bureaucracy. After the lost liberal decade of doubling housing costs, we can't give liberals a fourth term, we need a change.

And the change I offer is this this let's axe the GST The sales tax on new homes, but incentivize municipalities to speed up permits free up land and cut development charges Let's sell off 6,000 federal buildings and towers thousands of acres of federal land to build Let's train up 350,000 trades workers who will build the homes and let's cut income tax by 15% so that people can afford their mortgage payments. That is a real plan for a change and to bring homes you can afford.

Earlier in the campaign, I was sort of struck by how many endorsements you were getting from blue collar workers and unions. And then it occurred to me, well, if you support the trades and you also support all the work that is going to put the trades to work, then that's a great formula to get them behind you. And one of those sort of massive projects would undoubtedly be pipelines and energy corridors across this country. And one of the differentiators that I'm now seeing since yesterday between the two campaigns is position on Bill C-69 with Mark Carney yesterday

saying he would not repeal it. He did tell Danielle Smith, and she said that he said something privately that was different. He swears he wants to ramp up resource development. Do you think he's trying to cater to everybody? And what's your plan to expand the development of those industries knowing that it's not all up to you? Well, um

In the lost liberal decade, they have killed 178 billion dollars worth of resource projects Two major pipelines one that would have gone west to east To get around amer America. They've killed 15 massive natural gas export plants that would have allowed us to take billions of dollars of our gas overseas rather than giving it to the Americans at a discount and All of that is because of liberal bill c69 They call it the no new pipelines law, but it will make sure that no bigger, no new mines,

nuclear plants, LNG export plants will ever be approved again. We will never have a national pipeline to go around the Americans. We will have to get, I'll give them all our energy at a discount and Mr. Carney said very clearly he will keep the ban on pipelines. He was very direct, finally. And so there's the choice folks. Do you want to continue to give your energy cheap to Donald Trump, keep our economy weak and reliant on the Americans or do you want to take back control of our economic future? My Canada First plan will repeal C-69, bring in a new law that requires that we approve projects within six months, bring in shovel-ready zones. These are zones that have pre-permits before there's even an application for pipelines,

mines, data centers, LNG plants, nuclear power stations, and other infrastructure that break our dependence on the Americans. And this is the choice in the election. After a lost liberal decade where the Americans dominate our resource market are we going to give them a fourth term or do we want to put Canada first for a change with a new conservative government that will unleash our resources bring home our jobs so we can stand up to the Americans from a place of strength I have talked to a number of people where I said hey

why with Mark Carney, he's had some long held beliefs say on climate change and only to turn around and reduce the carbon tax to zero. I said, what does that say to you about his values? And they say, no, that's not a problem. We view that as pragmatism. And I have a tough time pushing back on that. If that's how they see it, that's how they see it.

How do you see it? Well, what if pragmatism means that he raises the carbon tax back up after the election? I mean, his criticism of the carbon tax up until about a year ago was that it was not high enough. And he has gone on to say that he wants to keep the industrial carbon tax, which will drive our steel, aluminum, fertilizer,

cement, concrete production south of the border where there is no carbon tax. You don't think that that tax is going to be passed on to you in a higher cost for a car. Steel goes in cars. You don't think it will cost more to, for, to rent an apartment when all of the concrete in those apartments is taxed at a higher level?

What about the people who work in those jobs? They won't be able to keep them. This is an area where Mr. Trump and Mr. Carney agree. They both want to tax Canadian industry. Carney with a carbon tax, Trump with tariffs. I want neither. I will ask the entire carbon tax for everything, for everybody, for real, for good, and for a change.

We gotta talk about this generational chasm that seems to exist right now. If polling is to be believed, then older voters support Mark Carney, and they think that the ballot box issue, that Trump's everything else else is the president. How do you break through to them? Well, a couple of things.

First, I would say, say, look at the lives that your kids are living. You know, my parents were able to afford a home on a teacher's salary. This generation, our generation now, here in Toronto, it takes 29 years to save up for a down payment after the lost liberal decade doubled the costs. Um, think about the crime and the chaos that's

overtaking our streets after the lost liberal decade, think about the rising food prices that you're paying after four or three consecutive liberal terms, we need a change in this country. And as for Donald Trump, Mark Carney wants to continue with the same liberal policies that gave us the worst growth in the G7 that pushed a half trillion dollars of our investment south of the border that gave our resources to Trump on a discount. If you want to reverse that, then we need a change with a new conservative government that will put Canada first, unleash our resource production.

We have to take back our streets by locking up the criminals. We have to cut taxes so that our seniors can keep more of their pensions and retirement income. That's what it means to put Canada first. And that's my pitch to older voters, wiser voters. I can't go on to Twitter up here and say anything about this election without an army of people coming at me attacking you for security clearance issues. Can I get you on the record so I don't have to do it anymore? Like I explain once and for all the situation with your security clearance. Well, first of all, I've already had a clearance. I was a minister in a cabinet, so I've already been cleared.

Secondly, what the Liberals have been trying to get me to do is sign an oath of secrecy so that I can't speak publicly about foreign interference without their permission to get locked in to an oath of confidentiality so that when an issue of foreign interference comes up, I have to risk criminal prosecution if I say something the government considers that it has briefed me on, even if I might have said it anyway. The other day example, I had to speak out because a liberal candidate had spoken, had said that he wanted to turn over a conservative

candidate on a bounty to the Chinese embassy, which would then send him back to China and potentially imprison or kill him. And I talked about how Mr. Carney, for example, took a quarter billion dollar loan from the Chinese government for his company just six months ago. Would that kind of comment have been captured by the confidentiality rules that go around

getting these security clearance briefings? It might be, but the reality is I will get the briefings I need when I'm prime minister to protect our country against foreign interference, but I will not be silenced or gagged in the meantime. Will you talk about East-West divide, we talk English-French, we talk about rich and poor and old and young, but I want to talk about urban and rural because there are 18 writings in this country with the word center in the title. Oh, I didn't know that. That's a good piece of trivia.

Well, currently, here's another one, currently the conservatives only control one. Really? Yeah, so how does a conservative, how do conservative policies, how do you tweak them or how do you deliver them so that they resonate with downtown urban dwellers? I think it's the cost of living. It's costs and crime.

Liberals have driven up both in the last 10 years. Let's start with costs. Urban dwellers are often hit extra hard by inflation because they tend to be renters. And higher rent, rent has gone up by about 100% in the last decade. So that's why we need to, a new conservative government that will unleash home building, reduce taxes

so that we can get more apartments that people can afford to rent. We need to stop the inflationary spending so that our city downtown residents can afford groceries again. And we want them to be able to walk to the grocery store without looking over their shoulder or worrying that they're going to be robbed. And so that we need to stop the crime. And we will be cracking, we'll do the biggest crackdown

in crime in Canadian history when I'm prime minister, by locking up the most serious offenders. We're going to put fentanyl kingpins in prison for life so they stop killing our people. We're going to secure our borders with high powered scanners and watchtowers so that we can intercept the guns that are responsible for 90 or 85% of the gun violence that often afflicts inner city communities. That's how we're gonna bring safety back to our country. So, you know, after 10 years of rising costs and crime, the question is, do we want the liberals to have a fourth term, or do you think it's time to put

hardworking downtown Canadians, the people who are trying to slug it out in these expensive and often dangerous inner cities and they, we want to put them first. And I think we do. I only have a couple of minutes left. I want to get to at least two more questions. One of the criticisms that we hear here is, is not about policy. A lot of Canadians are behind the vision and the policy. They, they, they tend to complain about tone, uh, the tone of the campaign or the tone of

speeches. Um, how do you set about changing someone's mind when it seems like they already agree with a big chunk of it? It's a fair question. You know, um, I'm very passionate about what I believe in. I do get frustrated with what is happening to our people.

You know, when I meet young people who can't afford a home or I meet an elderly couple that say they're choosing between their grocery budget and their heating bill, it upsets me because I know it's so unnecessary. And so sometimes that can come out as hostility, but what it is is really frustration for the fact that our politicians have caused these problems. And what I'm going to do for the closing three and a half weeks of this campaign is focus on a hopeful solution.

And so my message to that elderly couple who's choosing between eating and heating is that hope is on the way. To the single mom who's going to bed hungry and wondering how she's going to feed her kids in the morning, hope is on the way for her too. To the grieving family who have lost a child to an opioid overdose. That death was not in vain. We're going to save other lives. That's the hopeful, optimistic message that I think we need to share the people know why I'm in this. Why? Lastly, Pierre, why do you want to become prime minister? What does it mean to you? I want to bring back what I call the Canadian promise. We have something in this country, it's a deal. It's a deal that the country made with me,

and it made with all of us. Made with your dad when he was born, a poor Irish kid in Bay Como to an electrician father. Is that anybody who works hard gets a great life and do anything they want. You have a beautiful house on a safe street, good food, under a proud flag. That promise has been broken over the last ten years and the promise was made to me. I was the adopted son of two school teachers. It was made to my wife who came here as a refugee and has succeeded.

My family owns this country, everything. And I think the way I can give back is to restore that promise. I've been in conversation with Pierre Polly, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Pierre, thank you so much. Anna, thank you for coming in as well. And we wish you good luck on the campaign.

Great to be with you. Many blessings. McDonald's new cheesy jalapeno and bacon quarter pounder with 100% Canadian beef is here. So if you crave beefy burgers with a pretty peppery punch and pickled jalapeno peppers pile in a perfect bunch and if you plead please if a cheesy taste came in threes with cheesy jalapeno pepper sauce poured with ease

and if smoky strips of bacon make burgers better, you'll love our cheesy jalapeno and bacon quarter pounder. Get this beefy bold bacony melty mouthful only at mcdonald's for a limited time. 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.

My goodness, I love that we've got two people introducing this segment. That's how that's how big of a segment it is. But of course, we can't do this without your voice. And we want to hear from you. If you have a dilemma that you want our panel to answer in the future, just email us at askben at chorusent.com. That's C-O-R-U-S-E-N-T.com.

And today we're joined by Erin Burry, the founder of Willful. She's also a Globe and Mail columnist. And Morgan Hoffman, entertainment reporter for The Morning Show and Global News and also a former intern at E-talk where I was once a host welcome to the both of you Yeah, all right, so thank you so much So this is this is the moment on the show where we like to you know, we like to be helpful I don't know that I'm always helpful with my opinions

I think sometimes I just I just anger people but in this moment we try to be helpful opinions. I think sometimes I just anger people. But in this moment we try to be helpful. Let's dig into the first dilemma. Dear Ben's panel, my neighbor is very inconsiderate. I oftentimes will help cut his grass or rake his leaves when I see him out there doing it. And yet in the winter time, he never repays the favor. He has a snowblower and I still shovel my driveway. You'd think he'd remember all the times I've been helpful and come over and save me a lot of time, but he doesn't. I don't know if I should let this go or speak up and say nothing. Signed Gary. Erin, have you ever had a problem with a neighbor? Well then my husband is the guy who snow blows everyone's driveway in the winter. And I know that if we were, you know, in a pinch and a neighbor didn't return the favor, he would be just as mad as Gary.

So when I heard this dilemma, I just thought, you know, Gary, neighbors aren't mind readers. It's like our children. You can't expect them to understand. And really, if I'm Gary, there's two options here. You either say something in a nice way, right? Hey, I've helped you out. I see you have a snowblower.

Would love if you could do the same for me. Or you say nothing and you stop doing the nice things for this person. I'm sure someone else on the street has a snowblower and they'd be more than happy to do a trade. I think that makes a lot of sense. Morgan, what about you? Here's the deal. You're being really nice to this neighbor, right? And if you're not getting it back, I agree with Aaron. Just, I would just stop it, but I definitely wouldn't say anything because my concern would be that they would look like

they have the problem. The other neighbor might get defensive. Like, it's just like, hmm, just I would step back and I wouldn't even confront them. You wouldn't even confront, no, but that's when hostility builds up, Morgan. That's when resentment builds up. Communication is how we build community.

I am not a good neighbor, Ben. I don't know if you know this about me. I live in a townhouse and I barely talk to anyone else. But I'm just saying, I would back off. I don't know. I think I would go the opposite way. I think, look, if you've done all these nice things for your neighbor, I don't think there's anything wrong

with saying, hey, listen, it just snowed. You've got your snow blower. I would say, hey, any chance I could borrow it so that I can clear my own snow. And maybe that's the hint the guy needs to then come out and say, you know what? You're right. I'm sorry. I'll do it.

I know how to operate it. Let me repay the favor because you've been so kind to me. Maybe he just needs you to jog his memory over all the nice things that you've done for him. But listen, I had a terrible neighbor. We were cool forever until I wanted to build a deck on the back of my house.

And she found out because the city gave her a notice that this would be discussed. And she stormed to my house and said, who the hell do you think you are? Why didn't you come talk to me about this? I was like, well, this is the process I was told I was supposed to do, like go through the city and this is you finding out.

And if you have a problem with it, we discuss it through the city. And I said, and by the way, you never came to me when you decided to rent your house out to a family of nine. You just disappeared for two years. And next thing you know, I have nine neighbors I don't know. So like, let's, anyway, she was so terrible that it solidified my decision to leave the neighborhood.

And we moved into what I believe is our forever home, and I couldn't be happier. So- Oh, that's amazing. Yes, exactly. There's always a silver lining. All right, time for a dilemma number two. And this is actually from Reddit.

A woman boots friend for bringing child to adults only dinner. The Reddit community is in a tizzy after a woman booted her friend from a birthday dinner because she brought her child along. It all started when a 29 year old woman planned an intimate adults only get together at a nice restaurant celebration of her birthday. One of her friends, Laura 31, mom of a three year old daughter originally inquired about bringing her child due to lack of childcare.

However, the birthday woman politely declined reiterating that she wanted to be adults only. Laura seemed to accept that request and said she would figure something out. Then came the night of the dinner. Laura arrived with her daughter. She tried to address the situation, discreetly pulling Laura aside to chat. And then, and then she said, quote, Yeah, but I couldn't find a sitter and I didn't want to miss your birthday. Laura was ultimately kicked off. Okay, so was this person wrong? How do you handle people who bring their kids to something without permission? Who am I gonna start with? I'll start with Erin. Well, then you're starting with the right person because I have a three

year old daughter. Maybe this is about you. Maybe Laura's assuming them. You know, I have to say, if I brought my three-year-old daughter to a birthday dinner, it would ruin it. She's amazing, but it would ruin it. And if I planned a birthday dinner where I communicated a boundary, no spouses, no pets, no grandparents or siblings, and certainly no children,

because mom wants to have some uninterrupted friend time with some wine and someone brought their kid, I have to say I would do exactly what happened here. And in reality, I think it's the not respecting of the boundaries, right? She set a boundary and regardless of what that boundary is, even if she said, wear orange, it's her birthday and she has a right to do that.

And so, if I were the friend or if I were ever in this situation, again, I would recognize childcare is difficult, maybe work with a friend to see if I could find some options. And instead of bringing my three year old to that birthday dinner, knowing I can and should be booted, I would plan a separate brunch with or without children and still find a way to celebrate her birthday. Yeah. And Morgan, it's not, it's not the woman with the kids birthday, like she, oh, I didn't

want to miss it. No, then, but then you, then you do what you have to do if you don't want to miss it. The rules are the rules and you should you could have called her before and said hey I can't get childcare can I bring my kid and you didn't do that. You put her in a difficult position and she I'm glad that she acknowledged that this one crossed the line and she f'd around and she found out. I agree here I thought I was going to be cold-hearted because I don't have kids and my initial reaction was like, well, if you agreed not to bring your kid, even when you brought it up and your friend still said, no, this is adults only, you are actually disrespecting their wishes and it's a birthday party. You can miss a birthday party. It's not that big of a deal.

Yeah, yeah. It's not a I'm moving to Europe and I'm never coming back party. All right. Here we have time for one more dilemma. Dear Ben, my wife is the worst backseat driver. She's got the awful combination of being highly critical, but also hyper dramatic if I don't break fast enough. She has a frenetic energy to her. It got to the point where she stopped saying anything after I confronted her. But she slides passive aggressive comments after we arrived at our destination.

Now we drive to events in separate cars. My wife says it's embarrassing when people see us pull events in separate cars. My wife says it's embarrassing when people see us pull up in separate cars, but I told her I can't handle her critiques. What's worse is when I tell her to drive instead and I'll be the passenger, she doesn't want to. How do I get her to break out of this habit? Morgan, what's your take on this?

Oh, man, I'm not a fan of people who act like the victim when they cause the problem. So I love that the husband has decided to go in separate cars. on this? Oh man, I'm not a fan of people who act like the victim when they cause the problem. So that the husband has decided to go in separate cars. I honestly think that is the best move. But then for this supposed to be upset and embarrassed that they show up in separate cars, this is just the way it goes. Yeah. I think the separate cars is actually brilliant. It's unfortunate, but I think that's a great way to go. So just keep on with that. Or I would say at this point, I'm not going to the events with you. Yeah, Aaron, she complains when he how he drives,

she doesn't want to drive and then she doesn't like the solution that he brought to bear of driving in separate cars. It seems to me that in this instance, there's no pleasing her. Well, I had a business coach who introduced this idea of reasons, options, choose, here are the reasons you're driving me insane when we drive together, and here are your options. None of those options is continuing with the status quo. We can take separate cars. You can work on it and try not to criticize my driving,

or you can start driving, which you seem reticent to do. Either way, we're not going forward as we do and let her pick so that she's in the driver's seat, pun intended, of the decision. But it seems like he's done all of those things and she's still not happy. Like this is... Well then she can't be a passenger princess anymore, Ben. I don't know, I don't know what he does. And listen, I've been in the car with my wife who doesn't appreciate that. I can see in oncoming traffic. I know how to brake. You just don't like how I'm doing it." And she'll get very good. She thinks I'm going to hit things. I remember Jim Carrey saying once, he's got that voice in his

head that has to remind him, driving into oncoming traffic is counterproductive. We all know these things. And if you really want to take the wheel, take the wheel. But it can add stress. I do like the fact that he did communicate those things. But that's the first half of our panel. More from our Dilemma panel when we continue including what do you do when your niece destroys your expensive coat? That's next on the Ben Mulroney Show.

Welcome back to the Dilemma panel. We are solving your problems left, right, and center. Joining me on the panel of problem solvers, Erin Burry, the founder of Willful and the Globe and Mail columnist, as well as Morgan Hoffman, entertainment reporter, and for the morning show, as well as global news. Welcome back, guys.

Thanks, Ben. Thank you. Okay, here we go. Dear Ben, my best friend and I are having problems because I no longer want to hang with her when she's with her boyfriend. She has the habit of leaning on me when she's having problems with him, but some of the things she has said have repulsed me. While she has forgiven him, it's hard for me to accept that and pretend to be friendly with someone who's treated my friend like crap.

It's driving a wedge between her and I because I just don't wanna hang with her when she's with her boyfriend and now we hardly see each other. She says he's genuinely changed his behavior, but I can't shake the negative impression I have of him now. What should I do? Signed, Frenelon. And Morgan, have you ever had a situation

where a boyfriend, you know too much about the boyfriend? Oh, man, do I ever. I live with my sister. This has happened with my sister and her last boyfriend. They have since split. I think it's okay to talk about this. But yeah, and my sister is my best friend.

I'm not going to lie. There's not a whole lot you can say because I even found my sister would just defend him. And so at this point, you sort of just have to back away and accept that this is kind of the way it is until they see reason. But it is tricky when they come to you for advice, you tell them and then they don't listen to it. I actually took a bit of a step back.

Aaron, isn't it sort of incumbent on the one with the boyfriend? Look, if you are living in a world where you could possibly reconcile, you should probably keep the most sorted things to yourself because you're poisoning the well. You're poisoning the well, you're putting ideas in your friend's head

that when you then go to them and ask them for advice, that's gonna inform anything they say. Absolutely, but I mean, we've seen it in movies, I've seen it in my own life. Morgan, you know, just highlighted a great example. People wear rose colored glasses when they're in relationships and they don't see it that way. They expect you to go back to just acting

like nothing has happened. And it's really hard to do that when you've seen the other side of a person, but you're never, it's never the right idea to tell them the truth. It seems so natural. We'll just tell them that they're dating a jerk and they'll obviously listen to you. You're their sister. You're their best friend. That's never how it goes down. The person always gets mad at you. You

end up being the bad guy. And inevitably, as in Morgan's sister's case, they come to their own conclusion anyway. So I have learned over many ill-fated times doing this, stay silent, be supportive, and wait for them to see the light. Yeah, no, I agree. But listen, I like almost everybody. It takes a lot for you to get on my bad side. And one of my best friends had a girlfriend

who was so terrible. She was just such an awful person. That she is the only person in the history of my life that I have gone up to when she was invited back into my, my friend's life. I went up to her at a party at his house. I looked her in the eye and I said, I hate you. I hate you for the way you've treated my friend. And it's a good thing they didn't really get back together.

It was just sort of, she was invited to this party, but I made her know, I made it known to her that the way she had treated my friend was disgusting and she's the only person I've ever told that to. So you gotta be really careful with the information that you share because we're our, as friends, we are there to defend fiercely. We're not there to forgive. That's somebody else's job.

And so there you go. I hope that helped. Good for you, Ben, good for you. Thank you. I hope that helped, Friendly Lynn. Okay, this next one is from Reddit. And it's a classic, am I the a-hole story? I'm a 28-year-old female with a 16-year-old niece. She is my only sister's only child.

Two years ago, I married a very wealthy man and my mother-in-law gifted me a coat that is worth more than $20,000. Last week, I wore it while I was visiting my sister. While I was putting it back on to leave, I felt something go splat on my back. And then my niece started cackling at the smell of paint as it hit me.

I was so pissed off while she was not apologetic at all. Her mom screamed at her and she was grounded. She then said she will pay for the dry cleaning. While I was in my car still in shock, I got an alert that my niece posted a reel it was of her doing a prank of me and she said I'm going to I'm going to hit my aunt's $20,000 coat with a paint filled balloon to see how she reacts. I saved it on my phone, sent it to her mom and told her that a week's grounding is not

enough. She did not reply and I saw that my niece took it down. The next day I found out my coat could not be saved by the dry cleaner, so I called my sister and told her that her daughter has to pay it back. Well, we got into an argument and she said that they will not be paying for it and if I wanted a new one, I should get my husband to buy it for me.

I think that they should pay for it. However, we did not reach an agreement, so I told her that I will be suing. Other family members think I'm out of line, so am I the a-hole? Oh, this is a tricky one, because it escalated. I kept thinking that at each level, there was a reasonable outcome that could be achieved.

And now I think the gloves are off and I think they have to duke it out. Morgan, your thoughts. Oh, man. Listen, I don't think you're going to get anywhere with suing. I really don't. I understand.

But unfortunately, you will be painted as the bad person, even though you're in your right for that. This is what I would have hoped. I would have hoped my sister would have made her 16-year-old daughter get a job specifically to help pay this back, no matter how long it took, even just for six months or a year, just for just helping to do something

to own responsibility. But if that's off the table and they're now fighting, I do think suing is not the right move. But it would be sad that this is what causes a massive risk between them. So this is a real tricky one. I wouldn't sue though. I wouldn't. Yeah, Erin, it feels to me like the right way for this to end is, well, I think what

Morgan said was the mom recognizing how egregious this was and how gleeful the daughter was. And oh my God, she needs to be taught a lesson. She has to get a job. And whether or not she ended up paying the $20,000, the onus being on her, the responsibility, the burden of her actions would have taught her the lesson that really should have come out of this. Absolutely, but it sounds like her sister's not stepping up

and taking that role. She's instead making excuses for her daughter. And I totally agree with Morgan. If it were me and my daughter did that first, I really want to know what kind of coat cost $20,000. It's supposed to be the world's most amazing, like the Technicolor Dreamcoat. But either way, that's not the point. The point is, she is, as Morgan said, she's within her rights to pursue legal action.

But if she does that, she's gonna lose more than a coat. She's gonna lose her family. And listen, every family is complicated. We've had lots of those rifts over the years in my family and my husband's family. And I always come back to the same thing, which is you only have one family, these relationships are priceless.

And at a certain point, you have to swallow your pride and pick your family or the hill that you're going to die on. And so, you know, if she sues, that's, that's going to make for some awkward holiday dinners for the rest of her life. Maybe the solution here is the threat of a lawsuit, right? Just like I'm willing to do this, but I will take it off the table. I am within my rights I will collect the money you will have to pay but I don't want to poison the well I do not want this to ruin our family What I do want is for this not to happen again And so if you can we can come up with a solution here. I will take the lawsuit off the table

I wonder if that's the way forward Morgan It's true, but the sister's already in defense mode. Like if this had happened to my daughter, I wouldn't be in defense mode. I would be like, listen, I can't afford 20K. However, let me try something where we can, you know, work this out. But if the sister's already in defense mode,

I think even the threat of suing is like, it gives them more power to be even angrier with them and take the onus off them, the fact that it was her daughter. Okay, we only have a little bit of time left, so I'm gonna read this quickly, and then I'm gonna get really quick advice from you guys. Dear Ben, I'm about to get married later this year, and I'm having problems with my Italian family.

It's customary to have a lot of your relatives in the wedding party, but my husband doesn't wanna have many groomsmen. So I told two of my cousins, I can't have them as bridesmaids. Of course, this started a huge fight in my family. Do I stick to my guns on this, or do I appease everyone? I feel like this wedding is more about keeping everyone happy other than myself. Erin, this is, I mean, this is a, it's a unique problem,

but not, not a unique problem. And marriages and, and, and, and weddings can cause this sort of thing. Absolutely. I faced this in my own family, relatives who wanted me to put other people in my bridal party. And I'll tell this person, Isabella, the same thing I told my family. My wedding, my choice. I appreciate your opinions. I am not going to listen to them.

And if you don't like it, you don't have to come to the wedding. And in this case, I'd be wondering why these relatives were even invited in the first place. Morgan, the last 30 seconds to you. Oh, yeah. I mean, my brother just got married at City Hall, so I'm telling anybody.

So my family is not into major traditions. And so I say, it's your wedding, same as Aaron. And you know what? People will get over it. They'll get over it eventually. Morgan Hoffman, Aaron Burry, thank you so much for joining us on the Dilemma Panel. I really appreciate it.

And my take is if both sides, if one side wants to have two groomsmen and the other side has a big wedding party, who cares? Enjoy yourselves. Have a great wedding. I hope you join me again for the Dilemma panel. Take care, guys. Thanks, Ben. Thank you. We've been talking a lot about the generational divide in this country as it relates to who people are going to vote for in the next election with a

lot of young people lining up to vote for Pierre Poliev and a lot of boomers saying that they trust Mark Carney to steer us through the next four years. Well, Anthony Kosh is a big friend of this show. He comes on often to talk about all manner of things. Wrote a piece in the national post, said Canada works fine if you're a boomer. And so to drill down on what he means and and and where we go from here is Anthony cost himself managing principle at a case strategies and former national campaign spokesperson for Pierre polio. Anthony, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me back on. Okay, so give us the thrust for those who have yet to read it and are excited to do so. Yeah, so effectively what I'm saying is that Canada has been divided. There's a generational divide that goes right through the center of our politics. And your experience of Canada is very much a reflection in the manifestation of when you were born. So I said, for example, if you bought a house in 1996 in a major city in Canada, you spend about $150,000, you wake up today, your house

is worth over a million. Right? So over the course of your life, you saw interest rates decline, you saw the values of your assets massively inflate, your retirement account is probably flush with cash, things have been going well. So what I say is, the reason why Canada is broken hits the ear so negatively, is because for people of a certain generation, Canada isn't broken and never was.

And what I argue is for young people, it never even got started. Yeah, well, I've taken a lot of calls on this prior to even your opinion piece coming out. And there is a consensus among young people that they can't get ahead. But what I'm struggling to understand is how, even if you have all of those things

that you just described, you also probably have kids. And you're watching your kids struggle. And the callers that I've had on the Ben Mulroney show who have kids feel that they have been working overtime as the bank of mom and dad or as as a landlord, or as a lender, or as they've been helping with daycare. You name it, they have been trying their best to give their kids a leg up in a world

that may not be broken for them, but it is broken for their kids. So here's the thing, and this is what I'd say to all those people, because I'm happy to hear that. Just if you look, even Abacus Data did a really good breakdown of this a few days ago and they've been doing a sort of running update to it over the course of the campaign where they break down by age group, which electoral issues are the most important by age cohort.

If you go to 18 to 34 and even let's say 34 to 50 ish around there You see stuff the number one issues cost of living housing costs Taxes the domestic economic reality and then the second you hit that 55 plus mark Donald Trump number one issue far and away most important and if you look at younger Canadians It's still relevant, but it's far from the most important issue. if you look at younger Canadians, it's still relevant, but it's far from the most important issue. There's more of a domestic access that is prioritized on the issues that I just listed. My rent's too expensive. I can't afford a house.

I have a master's degree and I'm making more money than my parents ever did at my age, yet I can't afford half as much as what they were. Right. yeah. And look, some of the samples of phone calls that I have received as well. Look, I've got a particular type of listener on this show. So I've got elderly people, I got boomers who call in, who say they're voting for Pierre.

But there's the odd person, I haven't received a boomer caller saying they are voting for Mark Carney, but I have people say, I have friends who are boom saying they are voting for Mark Carney, but I have people say I have friends who are boomers who are voting for Mark Carney. I've got grandparents who are voting for Mark Carney. And then I said, well, have you talked to them? I said, there's no talking to them.

There's no talking to them. I cannot get them to see reason. I may have to stop talking to them altogether. And you know, it does worry me for for the conservative campaign because Pierre has been putting some stuff in the window that should directly address issues of life for boomers and but if there's no talking to them, if it's all about Trump for them, I don't know what he can do. Yeah, well, in fairness, there's also the conservative

equivalent to that voter, right? There's those people who, no matter what Mark Carney says or does, they're not, you know, put me in there, right? There's nothing Mark Carney could do for me to get me to vote for him. That exists on either side of the equation. But yeah, it's definitely a needle to thread. I think a lot of people, especially young people in this country, something else that I talked about, underestimate just how traumatic Donald Trump's comments, which are reprehensible and I condemn to the full extent of everything about annexing Canada, 51st state tariffs and all that, just how traumatic that has

been disproportionately specifically for a generation of people for whom their first and primary political identifier as Canadians is anti-Americanism. That has reignited that to a great extent for reasons that in many cases are justified, but it's just, it's caused, it's given an issue or people, certain people, the ability to completely ignore the domestic reality in this country and the very real problem that people are suffering

that are not as a result of Donald Trump, but are a result of the lost liberal decade and the policies that we've all been subject to for the last 10 years. I'm speaking with Anthony Kosh. He's written a piece in the National Post entitled, Canada Works Fine If You're a Boomer. I just, I'm trying to figure out how young people

could talk to those boomers in their lives who believe all the things that you just said, that they've got the money that they want, and they've got the house that they want, and they've got the house that they want, and they've got the security that they want. So Canada's never been broken for them, or the Canadian promise rather, to use the parlance of Pierre Puglia.

The Canadian promise was honored for their generation, whereas it's been completely broken for younger Canadians. But at some point, they start thinking about what happens when they leave this earth, and what happens to the things that they pass on. Is there something that the conservatives could do about making it, I don't know, allowing so that whatever you're going to leave your kids, they get to keep more of it? Is that something that could appeal to the boomers? I think so, but I think this is not necessarily

a political solution. I think this is a generation generation. One of the things that I had difficulty whenever I would bring these topics up in my family, people would get upset. You're saying I didn't work hard. No, I'm happy that you were able to accomplish what you were able to accomplish. But take my grandfather, Italian immigrant, comes to Canada four or five years later, he buys his first house for $23,000 in the 1970s. If you adjust for inflation, that house today costs $185,000.

I encourage you to find anything in the greater Montreal area, or let alone Toronto or Vancouver. But I'm just saying when you do that adjustment, you really understand just how insane things have become. And I think young people need to be a little bit more sensitive to the idea that sometimes we're very sweeping and we make them feel like they didn't do anything to deserve what they have. But at the same time, I wish from some of our older Canadians that we would just get an appreciation for just how much things have really changed since they were our age. Well, and look, I get that these are two different realities, and it's sad that that's the case.

I'm just trying to figure out how both sides can communicate with each other, and I think you just laid out a possible solution, where everybody needs to put a little water in their wine, and so that nobody feels particularly attacked. But there is an election to prosecute here, and it does feel like people are lining up on opposite sides, and have already, I'm just trying to figure out, is there room for people to be

swayed? I think so. And you see that already, not only on the left, but also on the right, especially with Mark Carney's positioning right now, that a lot of his support is a manifestation of the moment that we're currently living, but it's not what we call hard support. We discussed this, I think, last week when I was on the show. Conservative support right now is lock-zoned.

You're not peeling any more pieces off that onion. Whereas Mark Carney, he sort of, the Liberal Party has been very adept at seizing the Trump moment, but you're seeing a complete, nutter collapse of the NDP, the bloc's down, all sorts sorts of like that. I think in this election campaign the debates are gonna matter far more than they ever have previous ones and when the Canadian tunes in to see this guy on a major

platform for the first time, they're gonna see what people like me and you have been seeing when he jumps in front of a camera and a microphone in front of the journalists and makes a complete clown of himself. Especially in Quebec, especially in Quebec, I think it's going to be a massive impact. But we still got right 27, I believe if my count is correct, 27 days to go. All right, Anthony, we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much. The article is called Canada Works Fine.

If you're a boomer, it's by Anthony Koss in the National Post. I appreciate it. Talk to you soon. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Ben Mulrady 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,

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