The Ben Mulroney Show - Could a guaranteed basic income work, and would you trust any Government to implement it?

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Four National Final is especially important given the political climate with Guest: Greg Brady, Host of Toronto Today on AM 640 -Could a guaranteed basic income work, and would you trust any Government to implement it? with Guest: Dr. Eric Kam, Economics Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University 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

At Desjardins, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardins Business, we speak the same language you do, business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardins today. We'd love to talk business. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney show and thank you so much for listening to us on the chorus radio network or you may find us as a podcast on your favorite podcast network, be it Amazon or Apple or Spotify in any event.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day and spending time with the Ben Mulroney show. Well, it's looking increasingly like Mark Carney will absolutely become the next leader of the Liberal Party and by default Canada's next Prime Minister. So obviously we're paying closer and closer attention to the vision that he has for the country. One of the great problems that the liberal government has had has been its allergy to not

spend money. And they've been doing it. They've been spending money very, very well over the past nine years. They've increased the they've doubled the size of the national debt. It took Canada, what 141 years to make it to a certain point, and they doubled it in nine years. Well done, Mr. Trudeau. Here's what Mark Carney said when he was asked how much he'll need to cut in order to fund his proposed spending plans. What we're looking to be much more disciplined around is the programs of the government or any direct investment of the government,

that it catalyzes many multiples of private investment, and that as a consequence of that, it's growing our economy. And so being very clear and disciplined and linkages between those, that's the first. The second is that we have looked, and there will be an appropriate point, if I'm selected leader and move forward, to cost out directly and reveal those costings of the various measures that we put in place. I have worked in the Federal Public Service. I assisted in that role in the preparation of seven different budgets over time. I've seen both how to do

program reviews, reviews of government spending that yields results and how not to do it to yield results. I look at the figures and the shifts in the level of public spending and I can see opportunities for those savings. I listen, he's he sounds like he knows what he's talking about, but this has been a government that has spent so irresponsibly for so very long that for this man to take the reins and just think that because there is a cosmetic change at the top that the structure and genetic predisposition of this political party

that he feels that the simple change at the top Can all of a sudden turn the most iris fiscally irresponsible government the history of this of this of this country into something that will steward us into fiscal restraint and responsibility is Laughable on its face He was then asked Okay, I remember back in the day when Justin Trudeau promised to balance the budget, he was going to have three years of quote unquote modest deficits. By the way, Stephen Harper warned against that. He said they wouldn't be modest and

it wouldn't be three of them. He said that in 2015. We didn't listen to him. But Mark Carney was asked how he was going to balance Canada's quote-unquote operational budget. If I'm elected Liberal leader, my government's fiscal policy will focus first on reining in government spending. And that will help create the room for personal income tax cuts so that Canadians can keep more of their hard-earned money and cope with a higher cost of living.

We will deliver more efficient and effective government, focusing on maximizing the outcomes achieved, not on the dollars that are spent. We will slow the growth of government spending. We will cap the size of the federal public service. We will review program spending with an emphasis on outcomes. And we'll use technology, including AI and machine learning, to create efficiencies within programs and across government. So as a result, we will balance the operational budget within three years. Okay. He says if he becomes the leader,

he's of course gonna become the leader, that we know. So he will be the prime minister. So what he's saying here, he says, this isn't by the way, these aren't policies. This is top line headline stuff. There's no meat on the bone here. We don't know how he's gonna do any of this. These are bullet points.

And by the way, I'm 95% sure, 95% sure that I have heard every single one of these broad strokes before and they came out of the mouth of Pierre Poliev. More efficient, saving money, at cost is focused on outcomes, slow down the growth of the public sector. All of those things I have heard before out of the mouth of Pierre Poliev.

And for the record, I'm going to ask Pierre Poliev about that when he comes on the show in just a little bit. We're going to talk to him exactly about this. But slow down government spending. But what does that mean you're going to cut, sir? Because when Pierre Poliev has suggested he was going to do exactly what you said. He was attacked by people who support you that he was going to get rid of dental care and pharma care and aid to the elderly and this program and that program and every single new program that the liberals could have invented over the course of the last nine years that have helped very few except to line the

pockets of even fewer. So what are you going to do? You're saying you're going to slow down spending, but that spending is responsible for all of these programs that have been touted as essential to building Canada, to investing in Canadians and delivering for Canadians. So sir, you're going to have to get a heck of a lot more specific than what you're giving us right now. You will be the prime minister in less in about a month, just over a month. What you have told us here is not enough. It is not enough by a country mile.

But that doesn't seem to bother sort of the gatekeepers of this information, which are the mainstream media. And James Moore, former cabinet minister in the Stephen Harper era, was on CBC's Power Play. And he sort of explained away why this man is not being properly vetted by the media. There's a bit of a love affair going on as well. Let's be honest, right? I mean, maybe three great love affairs in history, Romeo and Juliet, Will and Kate and the national media and Mark Carney. I mean, maybe three great love affairs in history, Romeo and Juliet, Will and Kate, and the national media and Mark Carney. I mean, the national media really likes this guy. They've known him for a long time

and they're giving him a free pass so far, but he's in the short time that he's been liberal leader without any real protest, without any real pushback. He doesn't really have opposition within the liberal party. He has a free run of things. And so far he has made some mistakes that he has to be accountable for, right? He says in English that he'll build, he'll use extraordinary powers to show national leadership to build

the pipeline from east to west. And then he says something very different in French that he will respect Quebec's position and things. He says that everything should be on the table with regard to trade, but he leaves it set aside for some industries. He says he's going to balance the budget inside of three years, but then he says he's going to run deficits in order to make sure that we backstop Canadians who might be hurt by Donald Trump tariffs. You cannot play the age old game old trick in Canadian politics of saying one thing in English and a different thing in French and think you can get away with it. He's absolutely right.

There is a very big difference between announcements by Pierre Poliev today and announcements by Mark Carney. And the difference is that Mark Carney will absolutely 100% become our prime minister one day. We cannot say the same thing about Pierre Poliev. As solid as his support looks in the polls, there's still an election that needs to be fought before he controls the levers of power.

Mark Carney will 100% become our next prime minister. And therefore, it is incumbent upon everyone with a microphone to take every word that he says, break it down and put it through a smell test and there are far too many people lapping up everything he says. Well he was a central banker so he knows how these things work without ever testing what he actually says and we have video documentation of him saying one thing in English and something completely different in French and he is not being put through the wringer the way Pierre Poliev as the leader of the

official opposition is even though Pierre Poliev does not have the same guarantee that he will one day be our Prime Minister. It is just a fact and and it's not going to change. It's obviously not gonna change. This coronation will happen. He will become prime minister. He will be anointed. It will be a, it's a smooth sailing. I mean, Christ, look at it.

And even Ruby Dalla right now, the only other person of color in this race, already she's getting the gears from the liberal powers that be that I don't think she's gonna have smooth sailing going on and it looks like another white guy is gonna be the leader of the Liberal Party. I'm sure much to the chagrin of our feminist Prime Minister.

But that's a conversation for another day. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and I gotta say, I've been looking back at this show and I've given you a heap of Ben Mulroney show and I gotta say I've been looking back at this show and I've given you a heap of Ben Mulroney opinions and the only antidote to that is not more cowbell but more of your opinions at 1-833-724-1811. What I'd like, just give us a call anytime 24-7, 45 seconds of your time, that's all we need. Tell us who you are, where you're from and what your hot take is.

And the best opinions always make it onto the show on Fridays. And yes, I do listen to all your opinions. Tonight's a big night. Tonight's a big night for Canadian pride, for Canadian sport, for Canada's sport. The four nations face off. Final is happening.

US versus Canada. It's a rematch. Canada's looking for revenge. All of this happening on the backdrop of Trump tariffs, Canadian pride at an all time high, anti-American sentiment in Canada, possibly at an all time high. So to break it all down,

someone with a far, far greater grasp of what is at stake and the history of the sport is a great colleague of mine and a good friend, Greg Brady, the host of Toronto Today on AM 6 40. Greg, thank you for taking time out of your day. I know you had a busy morning. So I assume you will be watching the game tonight. Well, you'll laugh at this or cry given the state of healthcare in Ontario. I have an MRI appointment downtown tonight at 10 p.m. for my shoulder. And you know, right as the third period starting Ben, so don't turn those down.

Are you gonna be watching on your phone? You're watching on your phone. I'm not sure I'm allowed to have my phone or several of my articles of clothing on. So this could be an awkward way. I'm not gonna have a pocket in that gown to stick my phone into. That gown covers just enough. Okay, as we're well aware, those of us who've been through the MRI machine before, but it's an unbelievably exciting

game and and and I'll catch up. I'll record it at home and make sure I know what's going on before it's more morning. Okay, like, do we actually want a repeat of game one? Not the result. But do we want three fights in the first nine seconds? Do we want booing of the American national anthem? And granted, this is taking place in the United States. I'm not going to are they going to be booing our national anthem? 100% 100% I'm expecting it tonight. Just but that's more that's nothing to do with the politics or the or the tariffs. Boston's a pretty left-leaning city. Massachusetts, a pretty left-leaning state. We almost had a President Dukakis back in 1988 who would have been visiting with your dad

on a frequent basis. Oh, I don't think Mr. Dukakis had a shot after he had that helmet on in the tank. I think it was over. Yeah, you can't pose in a tank if you look like you've never been in an army tank before. He and the late Mel Lassman both learned that, uh, very, very quickly. So, um, I don't expect that much aggression out of the gate, but you're

right, the, um, the tension is high. And you know, we thought we missed this in international hockey. We're like, well, what is there to dislike Russia about? Well, they gave us a good reason three years ago and they haven't even worked their way back into, uh, into the sports world, not just for hockey, but soccer or really anything. So, yeah, Canada, USA is a true rivalry now. And and I don't expect anything less than just as physical a game, maybe without the three fights in nine seconds. You know, you did make a good point. You just brought up Russia and Connor McDavid, best player in the NHL, the face

of the NHL made a couple of comments about, you know, how he would like to see this tournament improved. I'd love to see all countries represented. Um, you know, it's great that that it's best on best since, you know, four nations and stuff like that. It's been really, really exciting, but there's some great, great players sitting at home. Um, and if we want it to be the biggest stage in the world, then you need everybody involved.

Okay, so where do you land on this, Greg? Because he's obviously talking about Russia. And if you believe that war is an extension of diplomacy by other means, then sport too is an extension of diplomacy. And we see boycotts of Olympics. We've seen this happen, we play out on other stages. To me, it makes sense that Russia is not there on principle for the NHL to take a stand against,

you know, the Russian government and how it's behaving on the world stage. Yeah, and they're not the only one. Until this war ends, it's a no-go. It's absolutely a no-fly zone. And then depending on how the war ends and Russia's behavior afterwards, Ben, uh, I think it's a struggle. They stopped having, uh, soccer world cups during world war II.

But the first one back, you know, who they didn't allow in Germany and Japan. Like there's, there's always been, I've heard people say, ah, we've always had a separation between sport and politics. You and I very much remember that South Africa was, uh, you know, basically the bastard child of the world and for good reason for their apartheid policies. Now individuals were allowed to play golf and tennis. It's the same thing right now with Russian and Belarusian players. Belarus is supporting this war and they'd make the occasional

world hockey championships, but, uh, this is utterly the right call. I get McDavid saying that too. It's worth pointing out his teammate, Leon Dreisaitl, who's a great player is German. So he's probably also thinking Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia. We always used to have those great Canada Czechoslovakia games. They always felt like one of the top few teams. So, uh, I don't know if there's a universe where Russia's back anytime soon. And it hasn't just been the NHL.

Like, FIFA's been consistent. You're not playing men's World Cup, women's World Cup, the Olympics hasn't let them fly the flag. I think it's a ways off. Yeah. Meanwhile, like you said, you don't think that the intensity is going to be there at the top of this game as it was last, but when I read that Donald Trump tweets, I'll be calling our great American hockey team this morning to spur them on toward victory tonight against Canada, which with far lower taxes and much stronger security will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished and very important 51st state.

I'll be speaking before the governors tonight in DC and will sadly therefore be unable to attend, but we will all be watching. And if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everyone and have a great game tonight. So exciting, President Donald J. Trump. So he like he's trolling Canada with this one and he's and I think he's trolling the Canadian players as well. If you, you

know, knowing what you know about Canadian athletes and Canadian hockey players, does something like this have an effect? I think it motivates the US players. I really do. Whether they would vote for him or not. And this is how it was supposed to be right. Ronald Reagan would call the winning team of the World Series on like a on like a landline phone or the Super Bowl winning team. And, you know, we've had those moments. Obviously, you know, your dad was prime minister that amazing 87 Canada Cup when Wayne Gretzky and Mary LeMieux playing on the same line. That's still the best hockey I've ever seen in the fall of 1987. When we all were a lot younger, but this, this feels different.

This again, going back to what we said, this feels like he is going to be using sport to further political aims. I think so. And listen, there's a reason why there's this folklore of the U S miracle on ice team, right? It's been, it's been made into movie after movie, especially the Kurt Russell one bunch of college kids. Uh, nobody would give them a chance against this big Soviet machine that our best players in the North America weren't even beating at the time. So, um, you know, you, you need to, you need to stir it up when you've got a so-called quote-unquote enemy politically.

And do you think if Justin Trudeau calls the... What do you think happens if Justin Trudeau calls the Canadian room tonight? I think he'll be smart enough not to, but if this motivates the Americans, then surely the possibility of what Trump's tweet would be like if America wins should be motivating the Canadians. Yeah, that's true. That's absolutely true. And of course it's you're on the road.

It's on their ice. It's at the home of the Bruins. It'll be a fascinating Brad Marchand is a villain in every other NHL arena except Boston and everybody in Canada. 40 million people are going to be cheering for him to score the winning goal tonight and then go back to rooting against him when he comes to Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa in the weeks to come. So it's, listen, this is a can't miss if you're a sports fan or even if you're on the on the fringe tonight, MRI machine or not, I got to find a way. I got to work on this. And let's, let's be honest, the NF,

the NHL lucked out, didn't they? This was, this could have been a very boring drab all-star game weekend or all-star game. And instead they lucked out on political and sports pay dirt. Well, I think, yeah, exactly that. I mean, both, both Trudeau and Pierre Poliev, who I know you're talking to next hour, were in the stands. I think it's great that they both were there. I think it's wonderful. They both were there on Saturday's game.

And yeah, they've got, you, you need a hero and a villain in sports sometimes, Ben, and they've got it here tonight for sure. Now, if you were a betting man, are you willing to stick your neck out and tell me who you think is gonna win? It's hard. It's been hard for teams to win twice in these tournaments. We saw the US pound Canada at the Vancouver Olympics, and then Canada won a much closer game

the second time around. I'm not. If I make a prediction, you know what's gonna happen. I'm not, if I make a prediction, you know what's gonna happen. I jinx them if I get it wrong. So I just, I can't imagine either of these teams not having a shot to come back and win or it being tied with a few minutes left.

It just, it's hard to see a game that's a blowout when these two teams get together. Greg Brady, host of Toronto Day on AM640. Thank you so much. I wish you very good luck with the MRI and I hope you get to see the game from start to finish. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for listening to us and joining us and sharing your opinions.

As always, our opinion line is open to you to share what you think about the show. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's ugly. But give us a call at 1-833-724-1811, any time of the day, and drop us a line. Tell us what you think about the show, who you are and where you're from. And the best opinions always make it onto the show on Fridays.

I wanna welcome to the show now a great friend of the show, Dr. Eric Kam, economics professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. Doctor, welcome, thank you so much for joining us. Benedict, hello from South Florida. Oh, good for you, my friend. Very smart of you to be there and not here. So the Parliamentary Budget Office has said that implementing a guaranteed basic income

or a universal basic income could cut poverty rates up to 40%. And, you know, in full disclosure, near the end of my dad's life, he expressed his support for universal basic income. And on paper, it sounds like a very good idea. And so I don't take issue with it academically and on paper, but there are very few countries that have tested this. In the places that have tested it.

How has it gone? It actually has gone better than I would have thought. Now as usual your father was right because on paper, which you know what they say about paper, I don't like the idea. I don't like any of these basic ideas where you basically rob from the rich and give to the poor and basic ideas where you basically rob from the rich and give to the poor and try to make everybody a little bit better off except for the wealthy people or the people that generate wealth but that's another story. The problem is is that in the environment we live in today what makes this a little bit more palatable is that it actually might be cheaper Ben to provide a basic income on one

level than it is to provide the other social programs on the other level. So in a sense, this is really just a substitution effect of saying, what if we just give people a basic level of income, as opposed to a certain level of welfare, unemployment, insurance, and then the other social programs that are killing our country. Doctor, therein lies the rub. See, well, two things. One, you would have to commit to a substitution,

and I don't know that the current government would ever commit to a substitution. It would be an addition. And secondly, I don't trust any government in this country to fully execute and fully realize a proper universal basic income. They, at every step, we have a big flashy announcement that we're gonna do something.

And then rather than see something through to its full execution, we stop at half measures. We saw it happen with safe supply. We saw it happen with COVID. We see it happen at each and every step. Anytime a government has been tested at rolling out a proper government program, they fall short and waste money.

And so I don't trust anyone in this country to do this right. No, and I agree with you in that right there. I mean, you stole my thunder, which is fine. It's the Ben Mulroney show, but it's the difference between theory and policy. In theory, I could come up with a story for you on paper with numbers and graphs and pretty diagrams where this could actually be okay. It's the implementation of it. And we know that this government, this federal government can't do anything but trip

over its own shoelaces. So I should have prefaced my comments by saying maybe maybe a poly of government could see itself clear to do in this successfully. Do I believe any level of government today in Canada could do this? No, they would do nothing more than just tax and spend and we can't have more of that. That's killing us. Well, let's talk about an investment in this country. We don't see a lot of big stories like this. So we should highlight it. But Loblaw is set to open 80 stores in 2025 as part of a $10 billion investment over five

years. This is very, very big news. And now the rub is that most of these stores are going to be of the low cost bargain variety. But there are a few things that stand out. Incredible investment at a time where there's a lot of talk about the loss of Canadian jobs and people taking their investments to the US. And I would love to know what the NDP think about this with the big bad grocery cartel investing

millions, billions of dollars in Canada, providing for thousands of new Canadian jobs. First of all, the NDP are irrelevant. Who cares what they have to say? They've never seen they have never seen a good wealth creating economy producing idea that they didn't want to kill. So let's not even ask the NDP because frankly, they don't matter anymore. This is an excellent thing. This is an investment in our country. This is what we have been crying for since the pandemic. And I don't care whether it's low cost, lower cost, high cost. These are new stories being built and jobs being created.

And by the way, Ben, I think this is really, really an important marker. And Canadians should remember this. When the anti-profit coalition or whatever the hell they call themselves go out with their placards and say that profits are too high, profits are too high, please remember for a second you hypocrites that it's these profits that are going to eventually hire Canadians. I am never afraid of a company making profit because profit means jobs and jobs mean employment and employment means growth. And so, go back to your first point. Eric was I just gonna say, the NDP would hate this idea because it's a good idea.

But you're absolutely right. I mean, there are certain types of people who have an aversion to the private sector writ large that forget that publicly traded companies have a mission to grow. And if you have profits, those profits by and large get reinvested into growth activities, be it hiring more people or building more stores that then in turn hire more people so that you can then make more money.

That's the whole conceit of the system. But if you are of the political ilk that you don't like the system and you don't like capitalism and you think that it's an ill, you're gonna come out against these things the problem with those idiots is that we do live in a capitalist society if you don't like the way the game is played try to change the game but until then this is the game and if you want to see your economy grow you have to create

employment opportunities so bravo to Loblaws and the Westin Company for trying something in an era where people are trying nothing. I'm speaking with Dr. Eric Kam, economist about all things economics. And there was an announcement by Justin Trudeau the other day about a new high speed rail line that would connect Quebec City to Toronto. This is something that a lot of people have been clamoring for forever. But if you believe that the medium is the message, I'm wondering why Justin Trudeau is the guy announcing this. He is a guy on the way out. He's a lame duck prime minister. He's a caretaker. What is he doing making this announcement right now, except maybe

trying to tack something on to a legacy that thus far is quite lacking. Yeah, lacking to say the least. I was thinking about this because it's not a bad idea. I assume that somebody has crunched the numbers to figure out how many people would potentially take this line and what kind of revenue would generate versus the cost of doing it. And if in the super long run, 20, 30 years, if it pays for itself or even makes money, then I'm okay with it. But in the end, what do I think this is right now? I think this is buying election votes for his party, which may be going away present,

which is really all he has to offer the party, Ben. Well, yeah. When I heard the Bloc Québécois coming out saying they completely co-sign this, I was like, and there we go. It's the battle for votes in Quebec between the Liberals the Bloc Québécois who gets to take credit for this, who gets to say they're more in favor of this. That's that to me is what I see right here. And I see that as a perversion of Justin Trudeau's current role as a caretaker. But that's a conversation for another day, Eric. Let's

move on to something that sort of I'm scratching my head over and I'm hoping you can explain me through this. The S&P 500 closes at another record on Wednesday as investors seem to be looking past Donald Trump's tariff fears and I just assume I've been told that chaos and and uncertainty are are are the Are what causes stocks to drop? People don't like those things. So how do you explain stocks going up in an era where we don't know what's coming from day to day

from Donald Trump? I can tell you exactly why. It's because of the difference of where you are sitting right now versus where I am sitting right now. You in Canada, where we are both from, are surrounded by talk of chaos and topsy turvy and up and down. But I am sitting in South Florida, where that is not the case.

People here are far more comfortable and far more confident, and in a city as wealthy as Miami, far more content with where the federal government in this country is going. We don't see it down here. And I use the term we loosely, but it doesn't matter because I'm here right now. People are confident in Trump. They have faith in him. They believe, like most Republican presidents that have come in in the last hundred years, we know that there's an economic bump when a Republican takes the White House. And so I think what you're seeing right now is really the difference and the bifurcation between Canada and the States. This widespread panic isn't happening down here.

Doctor, we're going to have to leave it there, my friend. Thank you so much. Enjoy the hot weather. Stay healthy, Ben. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. And as we've said many times, since Donald Trump has been threatening this country with tariffs, there has been a rise, a steady rise in nationalism, patriotism, anti-Americanism, and a willingness to support our country any way that we can. There was a worry that there were some tariffs that were going to be coming onto some products into Canada a little while ago. And the question was, were we going to support Canadian products by buying Canadian products over the American products that we typically buy?

And what is a Canadian product? And how hard is it to decipher at a grocery store what we should be buying versus what we should be avoiding in order to support Canadian jobs, Canadian companies and the Canadian economy? Well, enter a young man by the name of Sasha Ivanov, who's an app developer, who has created a new app called Maple Scan and to help shoppers identify Canadian products by analyzing photographs to provide details about where they were made and whether they meet the government criteria for being labeled quote product of Canada

or quote made in Canada. And I'm very proud and honored to be joined by this great Canadian Sasha himself. Sasha, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show and congratulations. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Okay, so this is, by the way, I just downloaded the app two minutes ago. It's number two in the shopping, in shopping on Apple. So you're doing very well.

Congratulations. I appreciate it. Thousands of people have been using it now. And it's crazy. It was so popular yesterday. It crashed our servers. So we I quickly got that up and running again. But it's been fun. So so so first of all, I remember joking with somebody, they said, somebody's got to develop an app like this. And I

said, well, so long as we don't get the people who did the arrive can app, we should be okay. So how long did it take for you to develop? And if I may ask ask how much did it cost to develop this app? Well, you know, the app really actually only took two days to prototype. It was really quick. I sent it out to family and friends for testing over the next few days.

And then I released it a week later, basically. Cost wise, I mean, I'm an app developer myself. So, you know, basically just, you know, my hours spent. And although it does cost a little bit of money to run on the backend, every time someone takes a photo, it costs a couple cents for me. So, yeah, looking at that too. So what's it looking for?

Because, you know, there is, depending on what your values are and what your goals are, you should, you could be looking at a product one way versus another, meaning if your goal is to only shop Canadian companies, that's not the same as shopping for companies that employ Canadians or use Canadian ingredients. These are all different things. And I guess, like, what does this app help me do? Yeah, and this is the really interesting thing is that, what does it mean to shop Canadian?

And I agree, all these things are so important. Really, the goal of this app is to provide that context of what is this company's ties to Canada, what is the product's ties to Canada, by scanning that label, like actually looking at the photo that you take, and then cross-referencing it with the AI's kind of like knowledge base of this company and product

and looking online as well. Yeah. And so far, I mean, you know, people are going to be using this and and and it's it's gonna like, how did you troubleshoot it? I guess that's what I'm going at. Oh, how do I troubleshoot it? Like as far as like, you know, just just testing it out? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well, you know, I think the thing is here is that what we're doing right now is just, I mean,

of course testing it ourselves, but we actually have a feature in the app where folks can, you know, mention like if something's incorrect or something like that, and we'll be actually building a database here with a bunch of product information too that people can vote on to say, hey, is this correct information? No.

Submit some information that's more up to date as these products kind of change over time. I've watched enough Dragon's Den and enough Shark Tank to know that the sharks would say, if you were looking for an investment, they would say, this is a great product, not necessarily a business. So how do you take this product that clearly Canadians want, you've identified a need and you're satisfying that need. How do you take this and grow it into a larger,

more self-sustaining business? Yeah, well, I think a couple of things here. I mean, definitely partnering with businesses to kind of integrate it into their systems. We're actively looking for partnerships that way. But also, I think with everything going on, this has changed a lot of Canadians buying behavior permanently.

You know, it sounds like, you know, even regardless of what happens with the tariffs and regardless of what happens in the future, I think this has really brought us all together and we're just thinking more, how can we support each other? Well, exactly, all the more reason for you to succeed. Now, now you've, you've done us a service, so I'm going to do you a service. If those businesses want to get in touch with you and they want to partner with

you, how can they do that? Yeah. So we have a website, maplescan.ca. And if you want to email me directly, it's just Sasha, S-A-S-H-A at maplescan.ca. Sasha Ivanov, thank you so much. Congratulations. I will absolutely be using this app the next time I go to the grocery store, thank you so much. Congratulations. I will absolutely be using this app the next time I go to the grocery store. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you. So this is an avenue for people who feel that their patriotism has risen and their desire to help their country over America is an imperative. And if you want an example as to why our patriotism or in certain cases, our anti Americanism is on the rise. Look no further than Fox News's Sean Hannity. Here's what he had to say about Canadians. As a former hockey player myself, what happened next? This is legendary.

In the first nine seconds of the first period, u.s.a. dropped their gloves squared off three fights for our break out against the canadians three separate times physically dominating team canada during the fights and they won three to one in a decisive victory in a humiliating defeat uh... of the canadians in their own national sport in montreal and on and off the ice well Canada and little Justin Trudeau would be wise to realize that this free ride that they've been having from us is over and for all of you in Canada thank you for watching

you need to start securing your own border you need to start contributing to your national defense because you rely on us and you need to start paying your fair share to NATO. Yeah, okay. Listen, I've met Sean Hannity. He's the person who's not on camera is far more polite than the character that you see on TV. But that doesn't matter. What matters is when Canadians see that, here's what I see. I hear somebody parroting back White House talking points. And I hear somebody who, if Donald Trump wasn't talking about Canada, Sean Hannity wouldn't be thinking

about Canada, because it is a absolute universal truth that Americans in normal circumstances do not care about and do not think about America, which means they do not know about Canada. And yes, in the most recent past, Canada has absolutely been a freeloader. I've said it, I'm not ashamed of saying it, doesn't make me love my country any less. Not only have we been freeloading and skating on the past and relying on the Americans to do things that we should have done ourselves, but on top of that, we like to dress down

and look down our noses at Americans. It is a terrible aspect of our national character, but it is there. And I know it's there and you can call me, you can insult me, it's a fact, okay? And it's not a good look, but it's part of who we are. That being said, Sean Hannity's lack of Canadian knowledge discounts the fact that we have a history stained in blood

and that blood is linked to our shoulder to shoulder allegiance to our Southern cousins. We have fought shoulder to shoulder with them. We have died on the same beaches. We have fought for the same land. We have promoted the same values. When America was attacked after 9-11, we were the first to stand up.

We welcomed them into our homes when they were stuck in the sky. They came to Gander, not Gander, Newfoundland. They came to Newfoundland and were welcomed into strangers' homes. We went to Afghanistan when you were attacked. We lost hundreds of Canadian soldiers valiantly supporting America during that war.

We have always been there for you. And you don't know that because you don't know anything about Canada. And so for you to choose this one photograph of us in this one moment, and you decide you know a lot about us, that is offensive to Canadians. That is like looking through a keyhole and believing you know our history. You know nothing. You know today. You do not know the 150 years that define this proud nation. And that's why we're going to win tonight. That's why we're going to win tonight.

That's why we're going to win. 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

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