The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 5 - Caesar-Chavannes, Kate Harrison, Brad Lavigne

Episode Date: April 27, 2025

Best of the Week Part 5 - Caesar-Chavannes, Kate Harrison, Brad Lavigne Guests: Caesar-Chavannes, Kate Harrison, Brad Lavigne, Dave Bradley, Adam Zivo 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

From early morning workouts that need a boost, to late night drives that need vibes, a good playlist can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard to help you earn the most PC optimum points everywhere you shop. With the best playlists, you never miss a good song. With this card, you never miss out on getting the most points on everyday purchases. The PC Insider's World's Elite MasterCard. The card for living unlimited.

Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. Okay, Martin, let's try one. Remember, big. You got it. The Ford It's a Big Deal event is on. How's that? A little bigger.

The Ford It's a Big Deal event. Nice. Now the offer? Lease a 2025 Escape Active all-wheel drive from 198 bi-weekly at 1.99% APR for 36 months with 27.55 down. Wow, that's like $99 a week. Yeah, it's a big deal.

The Ford, it's a big deal event. Visit your Toronto area Ford store or Ford.ca today. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and this is it. This is the panel to end all panels prior to the election. It's for the whole enchilada. Welcome to this week in politics. Very pleased to have an all-star panel, including Brad Levine, President of Council PA, NDP strategist, Selena Cesar-Chavann, former Liberal MP, rather, and parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, and Kate Harrison, vice chair of Summa Strategies. To all three of you, I say happy Friday,

and thank you so much for joining us. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. I wonder what we're gonna talk about today. Excellent point, excellent point. Now I've been beating this drum all day. I'm gonna welcome opposing positions. My position is the uncovering that the first call on the 28th of March between Mark Carney

and Donald Trump, the fact that it was misrepresented, changes a lot for me on is he the man for the moment. He told us that this was a crisis that only he could deal with. And the prerequisite to talking to Donald Trump was no more of this 51st state talk. And turns out his first call with Donald Trump, a lot like the last call that the Trudeau had. So not much has changed there. But I'm willing to have my mind changed.

Who wants to start? Brad will go with you. Ben, I'm surprised that you've changed your votes and no longer supporting Mr. Carney. changed? Who wants to start? Brad will go with you. Ben, I'm surprised that you've changed your votes and no longer supporting Mr. Carney. That is a shock. I'm surprised that you waited this long to change your mind. Normally you lock in early, which I appreciate I do too. We're very similar that way. Look, I mean, you know, it's common for the last couple of days, you know, we call it, you know, the last minute surprise in an election campaign, something may uncover, something may come up. The question becomes, is this enough to change people's minds?

Do people follow it? Was it that clear that he misrepresented? I know that there's certain media outlets that are playing this up big, maybe try to get some momentum from Mr. Poliev. I know that there, you know, the last couple of days are important. And some people, you know, haven't made up their minds just yet. A lot of people have, but there's still a few. I know that some people are pushing to see if they can make it. To be honest with you, Ben, I just don't see this changing too many minds. I think most people right now are just are thinking tactically

in their writings on things like outcome. If you're with the conservatives, I don't think this was ever gonna change your mind. Selena, the thing that makes no sense to me is in justifying why he said that the outcome of the call was different than what it actually was. We said, hey, when we were talking, he was talking to me as if I was

the leader of a sovereign nation. And I thought to myself, well, of course he would. You are the leader of a sovereign nation. And if Jagmeet Singh or heck, Elizabeth May had been the leader of Canada, he would be talking to her as if she was the the the leader of a sovereign nation. That has nothing to do with the fact that you didn't tell us the truth. It doesn't. But to the previous point, like this is this is just moot at this point. I don't think it's enough to make anybody go, oh my God, we gotcha.

This isn't a gotcha moment that it really needs to be. We all know that Carney has said that Canada is a sovereign state. And the fact that the president treats world maps like it's coloring books, it's something that I think most Canadians who have their elbows up are not expecting that Carney is going to even entertain this conversation about the 51st state. So I don't think it's as big a deal as people are making it. And I think that people have made their mind that Carney's the right person for the job on the 28th are going to continue to vote that way.

And I take your point, Selena, but Kate, it's not that he's the right guy. He told us he's the only guy. He's the only guy who could do this. But then he turns around yesterday in his defense saying, listen, Donald Trump is gonna say what Donald Trump is gonna say. So, and you're going to change his mind.

He's got these ideas in his head and you're not going to change them. I mean, that's what he said. And if you take him in his word, you then have to ask the follow-up. So then what are you doing here? If you can't change those circumstances, why are you here? I think it is a strategic misstep on the part of Carney to suggest that he or anyone can manage what is happening coming out of the White House. That is why much of the conversation I think that the Conservatives have been trying to

have is, what are we doing to shore up our own backyard? Because Donald Trump is going to say and do whatever it is that he wants to do. So coming in to suggest that you are different and that he's going to listen to you when it's pretty clear he may not even listen to his own people most of the time, that is setting a really false expectation. I'm not sure though, Ben, this is about the moment of the call. I think this is about a broader trend here with Mark Carney saying some things that may not be totally transparent, maybe not being the most honest.

That could be about the use of tax havens. That could be about conflicts of interest. That could be about the nature of these phone calls with Donald Trump. So I think that if you were on the fence about Mark Carney's character and the kind of person that he is going to be, the kind of leader he is going to be, and you already had your spidey sense up that maybe you weren't getting the full story from this guy, this most recent revelation will help reinforce that trend. If there ever was a conversation or a topic in this election that deserved empathy and emotion and honesty, it's the issue of sort of the drug epidemic in Canada.

And Mark Carney was in BC yesterday and a journalist asked him why people in the lower mainland should trust the liberals to solve the drug crisis, citing the fact that under their candidate, Gregor Roberts' leadership, or Gregor Roberts' leadership when he was mayor of Vancouver, overdoses in that city rose by 600%. And I found his answer, Selena, lacking.

He said, look, the issues around the epidemic are myriad. There's a lot of them, and we are gonna address them head on. But we also have to recognize that whatever we do, we have to walk in lockstep with provincial authority. I didn't hear any humility in that. I didn't hear him say, you know what? Our party got it wrong. We're wrong and we're sorry and we're going to change.

And I think the victims of the drug epidemic deserved to hear that from the people who want to solve the problem that a lot of people blame them for. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I was going to come at this answer completely from a different perspective but you're right, the lack of humility that was in that response didn't transcend but the point that he was making is salient, you know, wrapping this crisis in sort of this municipal undertaking and pretending that one mayor was the whole problem. It's convenient, but it's misleading. The wraparound support, accessible housing, integrative social services, mental health care,

and low barrier treatment options that don't criminalize people trying to survive. You know, if Carney talked about that in a little bit more depth, a little bit more understanding of the comprehensiveness of a problem of a 600% overdose increase, which people are still reeling from. These are people, there should have been a little bit more empathy to your point and compassion because he has the power to actually do something about it as prime minister. So this is a national emergency that he needs to take a little bit more seriously in his responses.

Brad, you and I come at this from completely different perspectives on the political spectrum, but do you sit here in this election campaign and shake your head at the fact that we are looking at the prospect of the Liberal Party gaining control again, winning a mandate again without having to be held to account for anything that's happened over the past 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. This is as we've talked on this panel before, this is this this unfortunately for the challenging

parties, that is the conservatives and the NDP. This is a looking forward election campaign, not a let's look back and prosecute the incumbent on all of their failures. On the issue of the opiate crisis, particularly in the lower mainland, this is a significant crisis that's been going on for many years. Yes, Gregor Robertson was the mayor and I'm not defending any member of the slate of Mark Carney. I'm voting full-throated NDP in this election campaign. But at the same time, and we have to be careful on this, Gregor Robertson was the mayor of Vancouver between 2008 and 2018. But Gordon Campbell was the premier. Now, Mr. Campbell is supporting Mr. Pauliev.

At the same time, for most of Mr. Robertson's tenure as mayor, Stephen Harper was the Prime Minister of this country. And he has also endorsed Mr. Pauliev. This is not, I don't think that you can solve the crisis. And I know that Philip Owen, former mayor, was a conservative. Other mayors of various stripes have all took stabs at this crisis and we've barely made a dent, unfortunately. Now, some of the deaths are going down now,

but this is after more than a decade of since the crisis with Nicole. But I don't believe that we gain the public trust by saying you happened to be in office for a period of time during this crisis. He was at one level of government, but conservatives were at the other two levels of government. Brad, we're going to leave it there. Kate, on the other side of the break, I'm going to get your take on this. And will our political panel tell boomers how to vote? That's next on The Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to The Ben Mulroney Show. And I promised Kate Harrison that

I would give her the final word on the last conversation that we were having before the break, where Mark Carney was asked why people in the lower mainland of British Columbia should trust the Liberals to solve a drug crisis that at least a lot of people feel they had a hand in creating. More people have died because of the Sentinel crisis, Ben. More Canadians have died than Canadians did in the Second World War in the last 10 years. It's claimed over 50,000 lives. This is a national crisis. Mark Carney answered that question without empathy. He did not admit to any wrongdoing and it was a status quo answer, but we've seen that he has the ability to acknowledge when the Liberals have

gotten it wrong. He said that for the carbon tax. He has said that for capital gains changes. Why not the Sentinel crisis? I think the reality is he will have a very status quo approach to this issue that is surrounded in ideology in terms of safe supply. I'm using air quotes as I say safe and that there's not going to be a real change there. There was a moment he could have taken to acknowledge that in the leaders debate or yesterday, he declined both opportunities.

So don't expect a different approach. I think a lot of us were happy for the health of the Canadian democracy when we saw how many people showed up in advance polls. I think if those numbers bear out, we could see as high as 75% turnout this time, which would be, I think, a feather in the cap of anybody who is proud of Canada as a democracy, and a participatory democracy. And so let's view that possibility as an opportunity.

And I want to start with Selena and ask you, Selena, if you're talking to people who have been mobilized to get off the couch for the first time in a lot of cases to vote in this election, what do you tell them? What should they be paying attention to moving forward before they cast their ballot? Oh, my goodness. Well, they first of all, I mean, I think everybody will point their heads towards the Donald Trump and what's happening in the US. But I think looking at those lines and seeing that we are pulling together as a nation is something that people will be paying attention to, looking out for each other, looking out for our economic interests, our housing interests, our affordability interests.

I think the domestic situation is just as palpable and strong as what is happening on the international side. And you know, it's going to drive people to the polls to make sure that we as a nation stand strong. Brad, make sense of the sort of the pivot that I think I saw from Jagmeet Singh asking people to come back to the NDP because now he doesn't want Mark Carney to get a majority. What's the last minute pitch to vote NDP? That Mark Carney is likely going to win the most seats. I think it's kind of overwhelming

consensus going on in this country. Now, think, don't just think of election night. Think of a month, two months from now when the House of Commons reconvenes and big decisions are going to get made, the budget will get formulated. Do you want the only voice that's whispering in the ears of government or that are calling on the government to be Pierre Poliev's Conservatives? You know, he's going to call for huge cuts. Carney will try to meet him some halfway. So the cuts will be less so than Poliev, but there'll still be cuts, or tax cuts for the

rich. All of the poll right now is going to be a Carney, which is a centre-right liberal prime minister. And all the poll, just like in the 1990s, will be to the right. And that means that the Liberal Party will not govern as a progressive party, they will govern as a Conservative party, unless there is a strong presence of New Democrat MPs in there. And so the call is, if you have an NDP member of Parliament today, then it is safe to ensure that Poliev will not win because the Conservatives aren't going to win that seat. And in many cases, particularly in Western Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver Island,

voting for the Liberals at this stage may end up electing a Conservative in your riding. So if you want to make sure that the Conservatives don't win in Western Canada in dozens and dozens and dozens of ridings, the NDP is the only chance to stop Pauliev in Western Canada in dozens and dozens and dozens of writings, the NDP is the only chance to stop Paul Yev in Western Canada. Kate, I suspect that you're going to have a different perspective. But before you do, I'd love for you to comment as well on this notion that I'm seeing for the very first time ever. We always talk about the vote inefficiency of the Tories, given the fact that you've

got such a concentration in Western provinces. But now that there's been a significant bleed from the NDP to the liberals, especially in big cities, the argument is now that it is the liberal vote that is less efficient than the Tories. I mean, they could win in downtown areas across this country by tens of thousands of votes and they'll get one seat.

And so knowing that, what's your pitch? Yeah, well, just on that, there are going to be weird things that happen on Monday. I would be looking particularly at southwestern Ontario and northern Ontario, where there is some of that inefficiency playing out that may allow conservatives to actually come up the middle in a rare circumstance. So I think this has been a weird election. Election night is going to be weird as well. For the Conservatives closing pitch, it really is not much different than what it's been throughout the campaign. Do these guys deserve another fourth term? I would ask Canadians, did your problems start on January 20th when Donald Trump was inaugurated in the White House? The answer, of course, is no. We need a Prime Minister that is going to be able to lead this country for more than the next six

months. We need somebody that is going to solve the problems that have been created over the last 10 years over the course of the next four. So don't be distracted by the short-term sugar hit of the Trump pain. Think about the pain that this

country has been in for the last 10 years. How can we expect the people that made the mess to be the ones to clean it up? Brad, given the fact that already before this election campaign, the NDP were in a in a tough financial position to prosecute this election, if it doesn't go the way that stalwarts of the party hope and they end up with a smaller cohort in the House of Commons. How likely is it that they can rebuild and prosecute another election, especially if we find ourselves in a minority situation and back at the polls in nine to 18 months?

Yeah, that's one thing that's dotted the history of the New Democratic Party is that even in elections where, you know, there was a, let's say, lack of growth, to put it politely, there's always a core that are ready to pick up and take it on. It's going to be out come. We're going to talk on, you know, talk next week after the outcome of the election campaign. A lot of people are projecting, oh, what if this happens? We don't know. We just saw the provincial election in Ontario where the NDP won 27 seats, official opposition. Two days before they said it was going to be an absolute white vote. Wasn't the case because of the efficiency of the NDP vote and the strength of the NDP

ground game, particularly in incumbent writings. So I think that there's gonna be a good cohort being sent back to the House of Commons and ready to take on the next federal election, whether it's four years or earlier. Selena, have you gone to vote yet? I have. You have, huh? I'm voting, yes.

I haven't had a chance. It was Easter weekend. I was too busy. I wish I could have. I went at 8.30 on the Monday night and there were still people trickling in. It wasn't the big crowds, but there were still people in the parking lot coming in, moving out. So I'm really inspired by the energy around this election. Did everyone vote? Kate, Brad, have you both voted?

Oh yeah, I voted Easter Sunday. Yeah, no lineups. Sounds brilliant. And Kate, you too? Well, Friday for me, I tried twice, had a two hour wait each time. So I went to my returning office and got it done. But yeah, it's been encouraging to see how many people are getting engaged. And that's the thing. I mean, we're going to end it here. And maybe just some final quick thoughts from everybody. But given, I saw Tristan Hopper posted.

He said, look, given the fact that we're seeing such voter turnout and we don't know where it's going, I'd like, the polls could be right, they could be wrong. I've never seen an election where I just don't know what's gonna happen. I'm not gonna ask you to make any predictions, but are you fairly certain that you know what's gonna happen, Brad?

Oh yes, yeah. You know what what you do this a number of times eventually you got to go with the gut which is informed by the data and I think I have a pretty good sense as to what's going to happen. Kate, don't tell me what's going to happen. Do you think you know what's going to happen? Nope. I hope that I don't know. Okay, very good. Selena, what about you? I don't know, but I hope I am correct in my thinking, because I have bets with all my neighbors to buy you a car. You have bets?

Oh my goodness. Oh, hey, Brad, Selena, Kate, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for helping us and guiding us through this entire election campaign. I wish you all the very best, and we'll see you on the other side. Thank you. Take care.

Hi, I'm Donna Friesen from Global National. Life moves fast these days and we want to make it even easier for you to get the news you need. That's why you can now get Global National every day as a podcast. The biggest stories of the day with analysis from award winning global news journalists. New episodes drop every day, so take this as your personal invitation to join us on the Global National Podcast. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show.

My BS meter is pinging at 11 right now, ever since uncovering, we uncovered that Mark Carney positioned his call on the 28th of March with Donald Trump as a seminal moment, that he as the leader was going to change everything, and he got respect where no respect was being offered. Turns out that was BS. And we've been dealing with that this entire show. So now we're gonna see, now that if my BS meter is all the way up to 11, is it going to survive this next segment?

It keeps getting a ton of love on the podcast. It's the one, one of the most downloaded segments we do. And since adding Dave Bradley to the mix, he offers gravitas and seriousness that I simply am not capable of. But before we start, I gotta warn you, sensitive language on this part of the show. Frankly, I don't know how we get away with it, but we do. If you don't like this type of saucy language, turn the turn the radio down or go do something for a few minutes. Some of the clips have that colorful language. And with that being said, it's time for Is This BS or Is This Real?

You know, that's some bullshit. This is bullshit. Man, this is some bullshit. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers? I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. You are fake news. Yeah, I haven't run the table yet, but I'm feeling. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. You are fake news.

Yeah, I haven't run the table yet, but I'm feeling that today I may be able to, Dave Bradley, because like I said, we've been dealing with BS all day. I have faith. Okay, let's start with story number one. So, mortars paying their final respects to Pope Francis has been disturbed by others. So why so? Well, because some of the visitors were snapping selfies beside the Pope's body in his open casket. Some even posting smiling photos online. Tens of thousands have already flocked to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City to see the late Pope,

many using it as a grim photo op rather than a moment of somber reflection. While some look sad in their selfies, at least one Instagrammer posted a photo of herself smiling as the Pope lies lifelessly in a coffin just feet away. People were being asked to put their selfie sticks away when they got to the front, said one tourist. Some 50,000 people have made their way to St. Peter's Basilica from across the globe to pay their final respects to the pope who died of a stroke on Easter Monday. The crowds were so large that the Vatican kept the doors open overnight on Wednesday. All right. Yeah, it is gross. But we've seen versions of this in the past. And I mean, with the advent of social media,

it just opened the door for people to just act so very gross. So I'm going to say it's real. I'm going to say it's real. I wish it didn't exist, but I bet you it does. Is it real? Is it possible this story is true? Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. It kind of makes me weep for humanity. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me. It kind of makes me weep for humanity. Yeah, it doesn't disappoint me because I'm not surprised by it, but it's who we are. It's who we are. All right, story number two, my friend. Okay, so did the first ever robot versus human marathon take place? In recent months, there have been plenty of developments in robotics. The latest, another small step, including thousands of steps Humanoid robots ran alongside actual humans in a half marathon in China

So the robots of various makes and sizes Navigated the 21 kilometer course in Beijing last week supported by teams of human navigators operators and engineers What event organizers called a world first competition? featured what event organizers called a world first competition featured 12,000 human participants and just 21 robots now despite what you might think the robots did not outrun the humans during the long-distance Marathon many could be seen falling over needing help to get back up onto their feet One robot crashed into a railing after we're out running only a few. That caused its human operator to fall over with it. The Sky Project Ultrarobot claimed victory among the non-humans, crossing the finish

line in two hours and 40 minutes, which was nearly two hours longer than the winner of the men's race. All right. The easy answer would be to just assume that the robots are going to take over and so I should say this is real. But Dave Bradley, I suspect it's not because I don't know that the battery power is at the point now where a robot could run for two hours and 20 minutes without getting recharged. So I'm going to say it's false.

It's fact. Ah, damn it. See I'm overthinking this stuff, man. I'm also we're almost there. The robots are mobile and they've got the battery. They got the juice to take us out. They're coming. They're coming to get us.

All right. Story number three, a couple in Mississippi has drawn attention sparked intense debate after naming their newborn son MAGA, an acronym for Make America Great Again, of course. The political slogan that has been popularized by US President Donald Trump, Mark and Angela Kluber, the residents of a rural Rankin County, say the name is a personal and political statement

that reflects their deep-seated beliefs and vision for the country. The couple, both in their early 30s, said the name raised some eyebrows among family and friends. However, they were undeterred. The baby, whose full legal name is Maga James Kluver, was born last week at a local hospital,

reported to be healthy. Reaction online has been swept and divided. Supporters praised the couple for standing by their convictions. Critics accused them of politicizing a child's identity and trying to make it a polarizing era of American politics. And despite the attention, the Kluber's say they don't regret their decision. I remember reading Malcolm Gladwell's show book Outliers. And there was a story of a woman whose two favorite desserts were orange jello and lemon jello, and she named her kids Orangelo and Lamangelo.

There was also a woman who named one of her sons Winner and another one Loser. Winner became a criminal and Loser became a police officer. I remember that a person who used to love the sports channel ESPN so much, he named his child Espen. So this is absolutely in keeping with some of some of the outliers of American culture. I'm going to say it's true. That's some bullshit. Oh, come on.

Oh, I thought I made such a good impassioned well reasoned case for that being real. You had good reasoning. I had good reason. Okay, so I'm down to one win and two losses. We got time. Yeah, of course we got. Is there another story? Yes.

Let's go to number four. Mistakes in the media often rightly criticize the latest involves a chiron that briefly aired on Fox News late Tuesday. So the headline, which appeared for approximately 47 seconds during a segment of the uh Ingram angle, read AG Pam Bondi 15 years prison for anti-Trump speech. The claim, which is entirely false, was quickly corrected by Fox News, but that didn't stop the internet from doing its thing. It became an internet meme for the evening and trolls, and stop the internet from doing its thing. It became an internet meme for the evening and trolls

in how they had their fun. Fox News attributed the incident to a production error and said the internal investigation is now fully underway. Okay, so this was when? It was this week? It was... This week, it says Tuesday. Yeah, Tuesday, Tuesday of this week.

Okay, so look, these mistakes happen in TV. They happen, I've seen it happen myself. And a lot of times they can stay up for a while. I mean, I stare at the TV here and I'll catch typos on the TV screen all the time. But I'm also on social media. I'm on the Twitter machine quite often. And I was at work on Tuesday,

which means I was gearing up for work on Wednesday. And I didn't see anything about this on Tuesday. So, oh my God, this is really messing with me. I really wanna say, I wanna say it's true because it can be true, but I didn't see anything about it. So I'm gonna say it's, I'm gonna say it's false.

This is bullshit. Yes, okay. You've redeemed yourself. I have redeemed myself. Do we have time for one? Is there one more? I think we can squeak it in. Oh yeah, squeak it in. So this is a groundbreaking experiment. Scientists have discovered a brand new color, one they say has never been seen before. It's been dubbed Ollo. The color is described as an intense blue-green that sits outside the usual range of what the human eye can see.

Now the study details how a team of researchers pioneered new technology called OZ. This innovation allows scientists to stimulate individual photoreceptor cells in the human retina using laser light. How it works is the OZ system selectively targets only green sensitive aspects of the eye with a laser light thus leading to the participants able to see a color that doesn't exist in nature. The team believes this could one day help improve tools for studying color blindness. Okay I don't feel like I cheated I heard this on another radio station so I know it's real. Similar event did.

He's back in the game Dave Bradley thank very much. Thanks for playing along at home. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. And when we all head to the polls for this federal election, every party leader is promising to solve your problems. I promise to do that in a far smaller way with our dilemma panel every week. If you have a personal dilemma, it may be with someone you work with or someone you love or someone you live next to and you want a solution to a problem, let us know what that problem is by emailing us at askben at course

and dot com ask ben at c o r u s e n t dot com. And then I alongside two other very incapable people are going to try to solve your problems. It's always a lot of fun on a Wednesday. I'm very happy to be joined yet again by a good friend of the show, a good friend of mine, as well as someone whose birthday is coming up this weekend, Adam Zivow, the National Policy columnist, National Post columnist rather, and Executive Director for the Center for Responsible Drug Policy. Adam, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Okay. So earlier today, we've been talking about a response that Mark Carney gave while he was in the British Columbia in the Lower Mainland, talking to a journalist who said, why should we trust your party to solve the drug epidemic in this country when your party was essentially responsible for a 600% overdose increase in Vancouver and your candidate is the former mayor who oversaw that. And his answer to me, Adam, was very lacking in that it lacked complete empathy or understanding that his party, while he was not in charge, but it was his party, was responsible for a lot of that suffering. And he didn't really take accountability for it and said,

well, we're going to attack this problem from a lot of different ways. Yeah. I mean, look, so obviously under the liberal government for the past 10 years, we've seen a significant explosion in overdose deaths. We've seen a rise in public drug use, we've seen streets become unsafe, and I think a large part of that comes from the fact that for 10 years the Liberals only embraced radical harm reduction and completely ignored drug treatment, drug prevention, and law enforcement. And one would hope that if Carney's going to position himself as a new face of the Liberal Party, as someone who's going to change the status quo and take us in a new direction,

that he would articulate what that new direction would be in his platform. But when he actually goes through the Liberal platform, it says almost nothing about drugs. So there is no clarification about where the party stands on drug decriminalization or safe supply or overdose prevention sites All of that is absent and in the absence of a new direction I think that we can assume that we'll just see more of the status quo The only thing that they've really committed to is I think about 500 million dollars put towards drug treatment in some capacity, but the fund that they want to give this funding to is one that also supports radical harm reduction as well. So I don't really know why Mark Carney can be trusted to reduce overdose deaths if he just seems to be perpetuating

the problem. Yeah, when asked about it, he said, oh, there's a lot of reasons for for the the opioid epidemic. And, and we're going to attack all of them. But we're also going to work in lockstep with our provincial partners. That's not an answer. That's an answer that somebody gives. If you're called on by a teacher, and you don't have the answer, that's what you say. Exactly. And look, he's very correct, though, in saying that there are many different reasons why we have this catastrophe. And to be honest, many of them are because of the liberals. And I hate to sound overly partisan here, but part of the reason why drug traffickers are allowed to operate with such impunity is because our justice system is currently broken. And if you're a drug trafficker, it's very likely that you'll be let out on bail very easily. And that if you are eventually convicted of a crime that you'll face a light sentence

Yeah, and part of that is because back in 2019 liberals passed bill c-75 Which greatly loosened bail conditions and mandated that arrested individuals be released as soon as possible Then in 2022 there was bill c-, which removed mandatory minimum sentences for traffickers and imposed greater use of house arrest. So if you, for example, are a street level fentanyl dealer in BC and it's your first conviction, then you're going to get maybe about 18 months to three years for that crime for selling lethal poison that kills people. So how is how is this acceptable?

Yeah. And Carney hasn't really he hasn't provided any real solutions to this. He hasn't. And I tend to look at who are the police endorsing who are the police associations. They're the ones they're the frontline workers who have to keep our streets safe. And if they're telling me that the guy with the plan to make our streets safer is Pierre Poliev and the Conservatives I'm going to believe them. There's a strong reason why right because policing feels almost

pointless if you can't keep people in jail and if you want to keep people in jail if you want to keep them segregated from the rest of society so they can't prey upon the vulnerable if you want to keep them segregated from the rest of society so they can't prey upon the vulnerable, if you want to deter criminals, you need bail and sentencing reform. And that's something that we just don't see in the liberal platform. The only thing that they have on bail is for people who are to engage in violent carjackings or house home invasions. Carney wants to ensure that they have a reverse onus when it comes to bail, which essentially means that they have to prove that they should be released into the public instead of the crown proving that they should be detained.

But the thing is that we already have reverse onus for many of these crimes and reverse onus just doesn't work because of the framework created by Bill C-75. So unless you eliminate Bill C-75 and change the wider bail norms that we have right now, reverse onus is not going to keep these people off the street. Yeah. Similarly for sentencing, right? For sentencing, they want denunciation to be emphasized for people who are once again engaged in home invasions or, or car thefts.

But, but why is it limited to that? Why don't we see something reformed for drug trafficking? It doesn't make any sense. I want to take our last few minutes to turn our eye to Ukraine. You know, Donald Trump claimed had he been in office, uh, when the war had started, it never would have started. And once he came into office, he was going to end it pretty quickly. If not immediately, that hasn't happened yet. And for some for some reason I mean we've heard some pretty bananas things coming

out of him and some of his team members that you know somehow Ukraine started this war and they are responsible for it well now he's Trump is pleading with Putin to to to stop his attacks on, his deadly attacks on Kiev. How does he message this? Because he's put all his eggs in being the broker of a peace deal here and throwing a lot of negativity towards Ukraine, but it's so clear to anybody watching that Vladimir Putin is the aggressor. Well, yeah, he's clearly the aggressor.

We would, I think any person who's have watched this conflict closely would be, would have been able to tell you months ago, years ago, that any attempt to negotiate with Putin needs to come from a position of actual strength and not appeasement like Trump has been doing. Trump wanted to present himself as the strong deal maker, but the, the tone of rhetoric that he's been using with Putin sounds like, I don't know, some like an abused woman who thinks that she can fix her dangerous boyfriend. Right? Right. Yeah. I see what you mean. Yeah. His true social post that,

you know, Vladimir, no, don't do this. Which I'm sorry, this is not a strong response. It feels weak. It feels like he's, it feels like he's begging Putin to be, to not, to not bomb civilians. But he's begging in a way where it feels like he's not actually holding Putin accountable, as if he's not recognizing the fact that this is who Putin is. And there's been an interesting contrast in the kind of rhetoric he uses with Putin versus Zelensky. You know, he'll write these long, incredibly aggressive diatribes against Zelensky, but when it comes to Putin, he'll write something short and indulgent.

But what's Putin's endgame here? It seems like he had the most favorable conditions with a president who was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Why then poke the bear? I mean, that's a good question. I think that fundamentally Putin wants to get as much as he can. And although the Americans have been whites, I mean, they've given Putin much of what he wants. I don't think that's enough to appease him. Yeah. The fact is that historically speaking, when you show weakness to Putin, he acts more aggressively. And I don't see why Trump would be the exception.

Trump is being weak and Putin is taking advantage of that. And we see that that's paying off because Trump can't even provide a full-throated condemnation of this major attack, which only illustrates that Putin has no reason not to escalate going forward. Yeah, I'm still waiting for somebody to point out that this this war was supposed to end

the second that Donald Trump came into office. And yet that has not come to pass. Adam Zivow on these two important issues. I always love having you on because there is no more sober and reasoned person on either one of them than you. And I thank you very much. And I wish you a very happy birthday, my friend. Well, thank you, it's very kind of you to say. Want to transform your space and your Sundays?

Well, Home Network is giving you the chance to love your home with $15,000. There can only be one winner. Tune in to Renovation Resort every Sunday and look for the code word during the show. Then enter at homenetwork.ca slash watch and win for your chance to win big. Amazing! The small details are the difference between winning and losing.

Watch and win with Renovation Resort on Home Network.