The Ben Mulroney Show - Canada is hit with 35% tariffs, and what's the plan for 24 Sussex Drive?

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

Has Canadian leadership failed on Trump's Tariffs, the Middle East, and where's the "laser focus" on fixing the issues of the past ten years? Plus, Donald Trump has grand plans for the White House….meanwhile, 24 Sussex is sitting in Ottawa in a state of disrepair. If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash Mulruni. Welcome to the Ben Mulruni show on this first day of August. It is Friday, August 1st. I hope everybody is gearing up for a great weekend. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for helping us build this show. And listen, we're not living in a linear world anymore. You may not listen on the radio.

You may find us on a podcast platform. on a streaming app, you may find us on YouTube, or you may find us on social media. At Ben Mulroney's show is where you can find the show. And please enjoy the content, share it, follow us, like, subscribe, all the buzzwords, do it all, and help us build this show into something significant. So we woke up today with no trade deal. We now have the fifth highest tariffs in the world.

Obviously, that doesn't take into account all of it. of the goods of, that are USMCA compliant, which I believe makes up about 85% of our total trade, but that still doesn't change the fact that we are in a worse position today than we were on the election day. Our relationship is worse today than it was. And I remember, I remember that first meeting between Mark Carney and Donald Trump. The press of this country, as well as the people of this country, could not get enough. of this, my goodness, he's the Trump whisperer. Do you see how well they get along? You see, he's, uh, he, Donald Trump is so taken by Mark Carney. This is fantastic.

We, uh, we could not be in a better position is what we were told. I was told by a friend, uh, when, um, when we ditched the digital, uh, sales, not the sales tax, services tax, the DST, brilliant. Brilliant. This is going to serve us. in the long run. This is going to be great. And Donald Trump is going to, we don't know what Mark Carney's planning. That's how smart he is,

but this is going to pay off for us. And he told us during the election campaign, do this, follow me, and I will get us through this. I would not have shown up if this were regular times. I am like a wartime president. I showed up because this is an emergency. Okay. I want, I'm hoping that we get the deal tomorrow or the deal the next day.

I am not relishing any of this. There are businesses that are going to be suffering because they are now, they now have an additional tariff burden making their goods all the more, all the less attractive in the United States. He did, Donald Trump did point to two things. One, he pointed to this, our position on Palestine. which since it reared its head as something that was going to be discussed this week at Cabinet, I just ask, why now? Why now? What is it about now that makes this essential?

And the more I read, the more I think Canada's position is untethered from any meaningful reality. You know, you've got, you've got aid that is being stolen by terrorists, including Hamas. The images of the hostages are still burned in my mind. The war that was started by Hamas, it feels like they're being rewarded. And look, I would love if this thing never doesn't materialize until there are some responsible people leading Gaza. But what's it going to say about Canada if this commitment just sits in the air. You know, it just sits in the air like a stench. And we don't do anything to move the needle on all the conditions that we have said are important to Canada.

What if the Palestinian authority that Mark Carney wants to take over doesn't do all the things he wants them to do? What if Hamas doesn't lay down their arms? What if they don't give back to hostages? What if all that stuff doesn't happen? What are you going to do? You're still going to go ahead with recognizing the Palestinian state? Probably not.

So then what does it say about Canada and how we can look around the corner of history just a little bit? That's a line, but Bill Clinton coined, I believe. Leadership is looking around the corner just a little bit. Look around the corner of history just a little bit. If we got this completely wrong, what does that say about our leadership? Not just Mark Carney, just Canada's leadership around the world. Yeah, so I don't know.

I don't know why he did that because then Donald Trump, on top of that, Donald Trump didn't like it. Donald Trump has said that he's committed to peace in the Middle East. He's committed to the Palestinians one day having their own state, but this was very unhelpful. And this is not the most important part, but from a time management position and perspective, at times binary, for every second that you spend on one thing, that's one second you don't spend on something else.

You can't split that time. We were promised laser focus, laser focus by the Prime Minister on solving the problems that came to ahead over 10 years of mismanagement under the previous liberal regime. This is not laser focus. This is a distraction, a self-induced distraction, that to me is more about virtue signaling to a certain type of person than accomplishing anything positive.

And look, not for nothing. We've got a lot of problems in this country. I'd very much like it if our prime minister prioritized that. Prioritized building the one Canadian economy, tearing down interprovincial trade barriers, resting control of the civil service and of unchecked federal spending. Do those things.

Rebuild our military. But this is a pet project. thought we were done with pet projects. I thought Justin Trudeau, the day of Justin Trudeau, feeling like wanting to show people how big his heart was, we're done. But I guess old habits die hard. There is a vote today by the, the vote continues today by the Canada Post employees on the final and best offer made by Canada Post.

The union representing the workers has told them that their recommendation, is for them to reject this deal, which would mean a strike would be imminent. I think that's foolish. But if we take everyone at their word and we assume good faith, then we got a problem. We've got a Canada post saying,

we've offered you the very best we can. And then you've got the workers saying that's nowhere close to good enough. You can't run a business that way. It means your business model is broken. That's what it means. It means fundamentally, you can't make the numbers work. Canada Post will, if this doesn't happen, if there's a strike, it will be proof that

Canada Post is broken. And the answer to fixing something that's broken is not throwing more money at it. The answer is to look really intently and ask yourselves, what do we need Canada Post for? Who needs it the most? When do we need it? and possibly create a leaner, meaner, more nimble, smaller Canada Post that can survive into the 21st century. But this back and forth of and living in a world where a service, whether it's well run or not, a service that we depend on is no longer dependable, that's a problem. That's a problem for businesses.

That's a problem for people who depend on or lived on a fixed income and they depend on checks coming in. There are a lot of people who depend on it. And if we can't count on it, then we have to, we've got to blow it up and we've got to start again. That's just my two cents on that. And lastly, I wanted to talk about the White House. So the White House has unveiled plans to build a $200 million ballroom. They're redoing, I think, the East Wing. And as part of it, it's going to be a massive renovation and an expansion.

It is being paid for by private money, being spearheaded apparently by Donald Trump. Although I suspect people on the other side of the aisle are going to want to see for themselves that that money is coming from Donald Trump. But when I hear stuff like this, it begs the question in me, why can't we get our act together and build a nice house for our prime minister? What is so hard about that? If we as a nation cannot agree that our prime minister, whoever that person may be, deserves a home that shows how much Canada is proud of its institutions and the people representing them,

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I want to go back to that story of the White House because it's easy to make a joke about not being able to build 24 Sussex, but it speaks to a larger problem in Canada. Look, public buildings are symbols, right? They, when you look at them, they're supposed to make you feel something. They're supposed to make you remember something. Whenever they're built, they're built with intention, right? I think City Hall in the city of Toronto is a terrible symbol. Not because I don't like the people who work there or that the work is not done well.

And not that it's not a great example of a particular type of brutalist 1960s architecture. But it's for those of you who don't know City Hall in Toronto, it's two buildings that sort of create almost a semi-circle, and that building has no outward-facing windows. What does it say about our city hall in the city of Toronto that there is no way for anybody who works for the city to look out onto the city? Instead, all the windows, they're like inside the clamshell looking at each other. So a person who works at City Hall, his only view is of somebody else who works at City Hall. The symbolism of it is all wrong. And so I think about these things a lot. These things matter to me. The White House matters to the Americans. When they built

Washington, D.C. after they won their independence, it was a small upstart republic that wanted to go to Toto Tocode and be treated as an equal to the established powers of Europe. So what they did is they They built Washington, D.C. with intention, with the intention of becoming the world's greatest country. Broad boulevards. Buildings that were 10, 15, 20 times bigger than anyone needed at the time. The Department of Agriculture building. There was, I think the Department of Agriculture had maybe five people working there. The building is like the size of like a city block. And everywhere you look from every point, as they built the Capitol and the White House.

They asked themselves, what's this going to look like from a mile away, from two miles away, from three miles away? We don't do that in this country. Parliament Hill, there is no direct view. There's no boulevard that leads up to Parliament Hill. So there's no view of Parliament Hill like you have of the Capitol. There just isn't.

Because we never cared about that. Because we don't take symbols as seriously here. And... So I read this story that they are building a $200 million new ballroom alongside the modernization of the East Wing. The money is going to be donated by Donald Trump and some anonymous donors. He's been talking about this for years. They have a lot of formal functions at the White House.

The current room can seat about 200. This is going to be much bigger. And this is because they take those things, Seriously, when Donald Trump or whoever is the president hosts a world leader, they want it to be feted like the event that it is. We don't think that way in this country. We don't. As a matter of fact, we look down on our prime minister. I want Mark Carney.

If the leader of our country was a member of the NDP, I would want that person living in a house that we would be able to look at and say, that's where my leader lives. but we nickel and dime our way through this stuff all the time. I don't know when we're going to build it. I don't know how we're going to. I also don't know why it's such a political hot potato. I have no idea because whoever green lights it isn't going to be there anymore by the time it's ready. And Justin Trudeau never met a bill he didn't want a foot. Why didn't on his way out?

why didn't he budget for this? I don't get it. I don't get it. And to me, of all the things to not take seriously, the pride that we have in our institutions should be taken more seriously.

It's disappointing. It's unsurprising. But it is an aspect of the Canadian character that I am not excited about, never have been. But, yeah, it's like when we moved in, when we moved in, the way you entered 24 Sussex was there's a semicircle driveway.

So you go in one side, you show up at the gates and you flash your lights. And then the RCMP, who were sitting in a Crown Victoria car, would get out and look at you. and if they liked the look of you, they'd open the gate. And then you would drive in. And on your way out,

the RCMP would get out of their car on the other side. Then they'd see someone wants to leave. They'd open the gate and they'd let you go. And so my parents thought when they got there, you know, if we're being protected by the RCMP, they should be comfortable. And, you know, they shouldn't be sitting in a car. What if they need to go to the bathroom?

So they built these two security huts on either side. With, they were heated, that had a bathroom and that had the security camera. This was politicized by the opposition in the House of Commons, people declaring that my father thought he was a king. Okay, that's pathetic. That's pathetic. And then of course, after 9-11, no one seemed to care when they beefed off security again. But we're always behind the eight ball on this sort of thing. We're always reacting as opposed to having a leader get up there and say, you know what, being prime minister is an honor.

I want to bring pride to Canadians, and I want that pride reflected in the home that the prime minister lives in. I will never live in this house, but whoever succeeds me will. And so the plan would be to have a national competition, architectural competition, to put forth the designs for the most modern, greenest, most advanced, most intentional leaders' home on the planet. It could have the lowest carbon footprint of any building in the world. It could rely on Canadian tradesmen, tradespeople, Canadian lumber, Canadian steel, Canadian aluminum. It could, there could actually be some offices there where the prime minister could

have their own West Wing, like a working office that works 24-7, separate from the residents. you could even have, if you wanted, you could come up with a way to have 10 rooms, 10 provinces. Each room represented, each province represented in a room. And it could be like a museum. And there could be public tours if you wanted.

All of that stuff could be possible if we just allowed ourselves a little bit of pride. Paul, welcome to the show. Hello. Hey, Paul. Hey, how you doing, Ben? I'm well, thank you. I just fully agree with you when it comes down to the residents or leader of the country.

One of the big things for me is that we fly them around and we might as well put him in a Cessna. I mean, I don't care who the prime minister is, whether he's an NDP, conservative, liberal. He's representative of this country. And when you say we nipple and dime that kind of thing, it just makes us look. like we're a bunch of Hicks up here. Yeah, I just want to say I fully agree with you. Well, thank you, Paul. I appreciate you calling in and voicing your opinion.

I'm glad to see I'm not alone on that. It's, look, it shouldn't be political, but there are some people out there who can't help themselves. If the budget came in for this house and it was whatever, there would be somebody on the other side of the aisle saying, how many hospital beds could we have kept open? How much infrastructure could we have built? Instead, we're building a cushy palace for this prime minister who thinks that he's a god.

That is not it. And it's a disservice. Those are cheap political points. And I would love for us as a nation to move past that sort of thing. We've got to, unfortunately, we don't have time for any more of our calls. But I thank you for allowing me to vent. I think about this stuff a lot. They come from Survivor.

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