The Ben Mulroney Show - Discover Philly? Big campaign aimed at Canadian tourists. Will, or should, we go?

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

 -  Gregg Caren is the president and CEO of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB)  Visit Philadelphia campaign - Mauricio Zelaya/EY Partner - Noreen Labelle -- 60s scoop  survivor   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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to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash Mulruni. Welcome back to the Ben Mulerunia show. And thank you so much to Sir Elton John for that classic song. Every time it comes on, makes me want to dance Philadelphia Freedom. All right. The reason we welcomed you back with that song is because, well, as you know, Canadians have decided for many reasons to park their tourist dollars closer to home,

not necessarily going south of the border for their annual trips. Sometimes they've got property to visit. Sometimes they've got friends and family. And sometimes there's just a place they go time and time again. That's happening less and less. In fact, a March 2025 Ipsos poll found that 62% of Canadians plan to avoid U.S. travel in the coming year. And land border crossings, they've collapsed as well. that's down 30% in some months.

And a lot of, there's so many reasons why it's happening, but the fact is it is happening. And when you are a city that enjoys and depends to a great degree on tourism, you do your best to bring those tourists back. And Philadelphia is a no different. In fact, they've put out a campaign called Discover, Discover Philly. And the entire thing is geared towards bringing. Canadians to Philadelphia. Canada will always be my home, but Philadelphia, that's my home away from home.

There's so much about Philadelphia for Canadians to love. We have arts, fantastic cuisine, sports, and music. All right, and so we are, so we're joined now by, I guess, one of the people, Greg, Greg, Karen, who's part of this campaign. Greg, welcome to the show. Good morning, Ben. I love the musical intro. I would have preferred me running up the steps to the rocky theme, but only John is a good way to start any day. And Greg, Karen, is the president and CEO of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Greg, I have to assume that because you're directing an entire ad campaign at Canadians, that you've noticed a market drop in Canadians visiting Philadelphia. Without question, Ben, and thanks for sharing the statistics at the front. And I mean, for us in Philadelphia, we're projecting about an 18% drop. And Canada is our number one international theater market for Turkey. here in Philadelphia. And for us, it's about jobs and tax revenue and arts and culture and all the great things that make our city wonderful. And we wanted to remind Canadians of two things. One is a lot about the city, but even moreover to lean in on some of the most

prominent and powerful Philadelphians are actually Canadians and let them help tell our story of their experience living here and leading our arts, culture, sports, and culinary cuisine. Well, look, I've been chomping at the bit to come to Philadelphia for years. I've got these two young, two sons, they're 15 years old now. And I've told them for years, I said, you know, there's nothing more exciting than learning about early American history. And I've told them, I said, one day I'm going to take you on a tour of early American history by visiting Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, D.C. And that's on our bucket list of things to do. And I'm going to curate the entire thing. I mean, you've got the Liberty Bell, and you've got the

Independence, National Independence Historical Society, you've got the Museum of Art, you've got the Zoo, you've got Independence Hall. Of course you got the Rocky Statue. You got it all. And, you know, for, for, I showed my kids, um, um, National Treasure, right? And there's a, it's a great fun movie, right? And I said, and I said, this should spark some fun in you and we're going to go do that. But for lots of reasons, my personal reasons for not traveling right now is are financially. Like the dollar does not go as far as it used to. For others, there's, you know, it's just a political hostile. People are genuinely, how do you counter? the fact that in a great, in a meaningful way, there are Canadians who are feeling unappreciated by our American cousins. So two separate questions I'm going to dive into real quickly. Number one, when we call it the city of brotherly love, it's funny. I used to think that that was an ad campaign years ago. I was a transplant from New York about 35 years ago,

and it had become a biggest champion and lover of this city. But Philadelphia is translated literally in Greek to mean city of brotherly love, as it was named by William Penn when he created this great city. So it's not just a tagline. It is truly the embodiment of what the city is, what the vibe is, what our people are. We're probably one of the most diverse. We've been listed as one of the most welcoming cities in America. And it's not just because of hospitality. It's because of policy and practice and the way we welcome people from hundreds of, over 100 countries to live, work and play here in Philadelphia. I mean, I have to assume, though, that

the bold exception to that claim is when you show up at an Eagles game and you're wearing anything but an Eagles jersey? You know, I will not say anything about personal safety, but I would not highly recommend. It probably is limited more so to a Dallas jersey than almost anything else we wear here. But, you know, there's a fanaticism about our city and a grid about our city that translates from sports to even the way we deport. ourselves on a daily basis. We are a great city of hardworking people that live and breathe the history of our city. And you've got to remember that Philadelphia is not just American history.

It is truly world history. It's also the seat of Western democracy. And Philadelphia is a city of firsts, including the first post office, first hospital. So many layers that you could go through with those kids of yours and others. And you mentioned the dollar exchange rate is a real thing in traveling south from Canada into the U.S., we are probably the best value on the eastern seaboard. Studies have shown that, you know, pricing for hotel rooms and restaurants and the things you would spend the most on in any vacation or holiday with your family are could be as much as 50% less in Philadelphia than in New York City, and yet we're just about an hour and a half south on an Amtrak train from there.

So I always say if you're doing both and you've got an extra swing night, spend the extra here in Philadelphia and save some money. And once you get here, it's the most walkable city in America, according to USA today. So you don't even need to use. Yeah, great. I don't want to interrupt because, listen, again, as I said, you don't have to sell me on

Philadelphia as a destination. But let's assume that you have a person like me. One of the problems that the Canadians are encountering is getting across the border. There's more and more stories of people's phones and personal devices. as being opened and scanned and studied by border patrol on the U.S. side.

And it feels like for cities like yours, I put Vegas probably at the top of the list because a full 30% of all of their visitors come from Canada. But what used to be one of the easiest borders to get across this side of the EU is now barriers are being put in front of Canadians who do in fact want to go across the border. yeah and again look we rely heavily on the Canadian tourist as well I would say that I'm not familiar with the land border crossings as much you got to remember we also have direct flights here from a number of Canadian cities and I do experience what it's like coming through air uh landings at Philadelphia International Airport and they're smooth they're fast they're friendly um and I've

I've not seen or heard stories of anybody oh no that's that well that's because it's happening in pre-clearance in cities like Toronto, where if the border control wants to open your phone, you got to give them your phone. And they're doing it more and more often. And look, like I said, it seems to me like there are barriers being put in front of cities like yours. Is there any communication between sort of the tourist boards in a city like Philadelphia and any sort of national leadership, anyone at the federal level where you can go to them and

say, look, these are some problems that we're having. and this is what we're hearing, and these are some stumbling blocks and things that are hindering our ability to bring these people down. Is there anybody who's listening to you at the national level? Yeah, without question. So we've got an organization called the U.S. Travel Association. It is, as it sounds, it's a professional association that covers all aspects of travel. So everything from cruise lines and hotels to airlines and destinations like Philadelphia and New York, D.C., themselves. They are an advocacy group for us. They are in constant communication on Capitol Hill, and at the White House, and they do voice those opinions.

And a lot of those conversations have led to positive things for us, like the ability to actually close on and book the World Cup into almost a dozen American cities and deal with the planning for hosting those games, those matches here in the U.S. next year. So they are actively advocating on our behalf. Well, Greg, Karen, I wish you the very best with this endeavor of bringing Canadians down. Like I said, one day I'm going to come down. I think I'm going to give you a call. Maybe you can help me plan my trip with my boys.

I will be your personal tour guide and you got to make them watch also trading places and when they're ready to six cents yes indeed hey thank you very much my friend all the best Ben thanks for the time

and Canadians come on down to Philadelphia we welcome you with open arms welcome you with open arms welcome back to the Ben Mulroney's all right you know we are all consumed by in the last In our last segment, we were talking about the reasons why Canadians don't necessarily want to travel to the United States.

And I reference my personal reason is the dollar doesn't go as far. And I don't have as many of them to spend. And so we're staying closer to home. But for others, it's the principle of it, right? It's the principle of feeling like we've been good and decent and caring neighbors to our friends to the South. And it's not being appreciated and we're being treated like some sort of bad actor when we absolutely. are not. And the tariffs are central to that fight, right? A tariff is placed on. It's a tariff is a punishment. And we're being punished for something

we didn't do. And so we want to focus on the trade issues that are playing out and the impact that they're having on Canadians and what you need to know. And so to walk us through some really important stories and why they impact you and how they impact you, we're joined by EY partner, Mauricio Zelaya. Welcome to the show, my friend. Thank you. Very happy to be here. Yeah, glad to have you back. All right. So here's some of the major Canadian U.S. trade stories from the past week.

Let's start with Ontario Premier Doug Ford sort of pouring out Crown Royal in protest of the closing of the whiskey bottling plant by Diageo, which is one of the biggest alcohol companies in the world with over 200 brands in their portfolio. And they've decided they're going to shutter 200 jobs in Ontario. Restructuring, they say. And tell me what the net effect is going to be on, on sort of Canadians because of something like this. Yeah, and we have been seeing this already. It's just, I mean, Crown Rail is a household name is all.

That's why it's getting more public. That's why it's much more public. But these are the decisions that business are making right now. Unfortunately, what we are seeing at the moment is that businesses are being very proactive. as opposed to when they were being a little bit more careful and cautious in the beginning of this year where all this geopolitical and tariff and certainty was created. And as a result of that, they're now focused on optimizing their operations, focusing on their core operations.

So what that might mean is actually focusing on really headcounts and movements of people and their business as well. Okay. So a lot of people are saying, well, it's still technically a Canadian alcohol because of the plant in Gimley, Manitoba, but we know that Diageo is planning on expanding their footprint for Crown Royal in Alabama. And so a lot of us are wondering, is that Gimley operation next to fall, and are those jobs going to move south to Alabama? That we don't know, but it's definitely an area that we are seeing where you're seeing

capital leaving Canada and being invested in the U.S. So one of the biggest here is that we've been constantly focused on here at the firm is around fiscal competitiveness. I think right now, especially when it comes in manufacturing, Canada isn't as competitive as we would like to see relative to the U.S. Oftentimes when we help companies, when they're looking to make investments in North America, if it's between U.S. and Canada, it's very challenging to be very competitive, but when it's within provinces, that's when it becomes somewhat more competitive. So it's not at the aggregate, a good feel story. Well, Marisa, I remember back in the day the competitive

advantage that Canada had. I mean, this was the conventional wisdom at the time was, yes, sure, our taxes are a little higher, but if you open a massive, say, like, operation for Google and you've got, you know, you're bringing in a thousand people to run something for Google in, say, the city of Toronto. One thing you don't have to worry about is, you know, medical insurance because it's covered here, right? And so, and that's not necessarily the case anymore. yeah and in that case i mean you're you're not really hitting on some of the key points because before that used to be very attractive was the cost of living the cost of living the livability the affordability was was was very attractive to talent to be able to attract them here now that's

unfortunately now going um going sideways so to speak as well yeah so that's another challenge that that we're dealing with as well okay so let's let's move on um you know we've been talking a lot and this has been i think overly politicized i mean we're at the point the election election's over. I don't want to prosecute the election anymore. And I hate the expression elbows up and I hate that. Somebody's, oh, elbows down, the chicken dance. I'm done with that. I'm tired of it. But our country has dropped most of its counter tariffs on U.S. goods. Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that Canada has lifted its retaliatory tariffs on approximately $60 billion worth of U.S. goods covered by NAFTA 2.0, aiming at restoring

free trade while retaining tariffs on steel aluminum and autos. Like, is this a net benefit or is it a negative for us? And in the long run, is this going to play out well for us? Yeah, I mean, well, it's definitely a concession that they're putting into play now to hopefully come to an agreement in the near term. I mean, it is positioned right now that with the removal of these retaliatory tariffs, and actually it would not impact Canadian businesses. But if the aggregate, the way it's being positioned is that the net or the effective tariff rate that we have in Canada from the U.S. on a relative basis is much lower than everywhere else. So what that's really telling us and we're seeing early data here at the firm as well

to suggest is that this is probably not going anywhere anytime soon and because that you're seeing businesses move quite quickly. So it is moving in the right direction, but we don't know what a trade agreement will look like in the future. I remember during the pandemic, there was a website that kind of popped out of nowhere and it was the darling and everyone in Canada was so proud of essence, S-S-E-N-S-E, essence. And it's a high-end online retailer based in Montreal. And they did gangbusters. I mean, multiple billion dollar valuation, almost a billion dollars in revenue.

This was a Canadian success story. And so to turn around and realize to hear that they have filed for bankruptcy protection, citing the U.S. tariffs, but most importantly, it's what it's called the de minimis exemption. Tell our listeners what the de minimis exemption is, why it matters to so many. retailers, why it matters to so many companies that ship to the United States. Oh, yes, and it's actually going to be more harmful to the U.S. as well, in addition to Canada,

but the Diminidivist Act is really that any product that's valued $800 or less will be exempted from tariffs or some form. Correct me if I'm wrong, but just a few years ago, Marisa, just a few years ago, that de minimis exemption was raised, right? It went from whatever it was to $800. Yes, exactly. So it was

slightly raised, and, I mean, there was historical reasons why, the Diminisement Act was there in place. But now with e-commerce being such a large portion of large, I mean, where it's such a global economy, we're bringing products from all over. Right now, if you recall, this was over the past few months, when the de minimis rule was actually removed, it was actually put back in place, I think, within a few days,

just because the large volume of products that were coming into Canada or in the U.S. could no longer actually process this. So I'm actually more curious that when this is removed, how they're going to deal with that. Because it is actually, in fact, it's quite a challenging exercise for the U.S. to even be able to provide and tariff each of these products individually. Yeah, that's going to be interesting. But again, it's so sad to see such a big company that grew so quickly, fall so precipitously. Okay, lastly, we don't have a lot of time for this one, but our economic growth has slowed.

the Canadian GDP contracted by 1.6% in Q2 of 2025. That's the second straight quarter of decline. Are we getting to the bottom here? Are we hitting rock bottom before we climb out of this? And please, give me your answer in like 30 seconds. Well, I'll try to not be too pessimistic, but we're seeing the tariffs actually running through the economy right now. Right now, the reason it's been delayed is because there's a lot of front loading of those products.

So you hadn't seen what those impacts are. So it's only time we'll tell. To be honest, I think this is down going to put a little bit of pressure on the Bank of Canada to reduce interest rates and perhaps will provide some sort of relief. But it's going to be hard. I don't know where this will go. My view is I think it may be a little bit more prolonged before it gets better. All right. Marisa Zalea, thank you very much.

All the best to you. Oh, no. I forgot him. We appreciate it. We appreciate your time. And we hope that you have a great week. Oh, thank you for having me. Okay. We'll talk to. Thank you. Yeah, I got to say it's, uh, this, this essence thing is the one that, uh, it's sort of, I remember during the pandemic. It was, I, I read about it for the first time in like Bloomberg magazine. They're like, look at this Canadian retailer. Came out of nowhere. Look how well they're doing. And then to see that, uh, how quickly, uh, the, the effect of these tariffs. And I don't know how, how Donald Trump looks at that and, and thinks, well, I won like the good for me. Look at what I did.

Yeah, well, I mean, the problem is is that he keeps on saying he just wants all those Canadian businesses, oh, come over here. Yeah. And he doesn't see, obviously he doesn't care what happens to any other country but the United States if even that's what he cares about. But he certainly has no

problem luring Canadian businesses down south. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Let's be honest. We've all shared our problems in some pretty funny places, the group chat, your barber, maybe even a stranger on a plane. And, hey, sometimes that helps. But when it comes to stuff like stress, anxiety, or relationships, it makes a big difference to talk to somebody who's actually trained to help. That's what BetterHelp is all about.

They connect you with credentialed professional therapists online. And what makes them stand out is their therapist match commitment. After a quick questionnaire, BetterHelp does the hard work of finding someone who fits your needs. Most people get it right the first time, but if it's not a match, you can switch counselors anytime at no extra cost. It's flexible, totally online, and you can hit pause whenever you need to. With over 5 million people supported to date globally, BetterHelp is now available in Canada with a network of counselors who have expertise in a wide range of specialties.

With a 4.9 out of 5 rating based on over 1.7 million client reviews, BetterHelp makes counseling affordable and convenient, and you can switch counselors at any time for no cost. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash Mulruni. That's better help.com slash mulrooney. In the 70s, four young women were found dead. For nearly 50 years, their cases went cold. I'm Nancy Hixed, a senior crime reporter for global news. In the season finale of Crime Beat,

I share how investigators uncovered shocking evidence of a serial killer. And hear exclusive interviews with the killer's family. the full season of Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon music by asking Alexa to play the podcast Crime Beat. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. If you go back onto my Twitter timeline, I believe somewhere in 2015, I wrote something to the effect of if the next prime minister, the first prime minister to break down interprovincial trade barriers and achieve true reconciliation.

with Canada's first nations will be regarded by everyone as one of our great prime ministers. I said that then. I say it today. I'm glad we're working on one with the interprudential trade barriers. And in terms of meaningful reconciliation, I don't know that we are anywhere close to that. I've seen a lot of performative nonsense that doesn't help a single person. And I feel that we are sometimes go down the wrong path of attacking the past as opposed to really taking ownership and stock over the failures.

of Canadian governments, Canadian citizens over the years. One of our true failures, that unless we do, unless every single Canadian knows about the tragedy that was foisted upon First Nations in the 60s scoop, unless everybody knows this, we're not ever going to figure out how to truly solve for it and atone for that failing. And that is indeed one of the true, one of the most egregious blights on Canada as a country. And we're joined now by Noreen LaBelle. She's a 60s scoop survivor. Noreen, thank you so much for joining us today.

Hi, Ben. Thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to it and sharing my story with you. So, you know, I think it's always incumbent upon me to let my guests know where I'm coming from so that we can have a fair conversation, right? I've got some information about you here. And look, I've said before, I'm somebody who wants to atone for problems. of the past, make them right, but I also am somebody who appreciates the nuance of history, and I'm not going to judge people who have failed Canada, according to today's standards,

from 150 years ago. However, the 60s is not that far back, and we should have known better. We absolutely should have known better. Tell me, in your words, what the 60s scoop was, and then tell me about your experiences. Well, I didn't even know I was part of the 60s scoop only like five years ago. Really? So I was actually a survivor of it, and I didn't know. So this is all fairly new to me as I'm just coming into my own culture and doing my own healing.

So it's all fairly new to me. And just aside just learning my culture alone, as well as doing my healing the last two years. So it's been a rough road. I'm not going to lie about that. But at the same time, it's been amazing my healing journey the last two years. And it's really made me know who I am as a proud indigenous woman. And it's given me courage and strength that I never knew I had. It's made me have a voice for so many 60-soup survivors that don't have the voice.

So I could try to be that for them. Yeah, well, we've got to tell people that, so we've got to let our listeners know that there was a program in place where children, First Nation's children, were removed from their families, from their communities, under the justification of neglect through poverty and cultural differences. And then they were raised in households with no connection to their heritage, no connection to their language, no connection to their culture. You were taken from, tell me, like, what if you, so you did you, so you did you, you did. didn't know you were a part of the 60 scoop. That's what the 60 scoop was. So tell me what, like, when did you learn what you learn? Well, I was about five years old when we were scooped up and taken away, no warning. They just came. And it was the children's aid. You know, back then they had a mandate. They had an agenda. And that was to take the native out of the

child. And they just literally took us out of our homes, no warning. We were moved around. My siblings and I from home to home. And as you can well imagine, that was heartbreaking. Could you imagine, like, being ripped away from your parents, your siblings, no warning. No, yeah, I can't. You know, yeah, it was heartbreaking. And it was very tragic, just all the different homes and never having a place to call home. Did you ever find, many, many years?

Did you ever reconnect with your family? Oh, yes, I did. My siblings and I were kind of in similar foster homes together, and then my two brothers were adopted together. My sister and I were eventually adopted together, and I did find my biological parents many years later when I was in my mid-20s. And what was that reunion like? Because as you just said, you said, I can't imagine being ripped from my family.

I don't know who I would be today if I wasn't raised by my parents. And if I did, today's my brother's birthday. As you just said, you weren't raised with your siblings. And so I can't imagine what my life would be like under those circumstances. Well, I know you were very close with your father as I was with mine. So when I finally found my dad at the age of 25 and I left my number and he called me back, we just cried for the longest time because his voice just took me back to that little. five-year-old girl, and, you know, we talked for hours, hours, and then that same

weekend he came to see myself and my children, and we were just reunited in a beautiful way and, you know, to make up for lots of time. Noreen, did you ever ask, did you ever ask your dad what the impact of having his kids taken away from him was? It was very hard. He tried to come and visit us, but the foster homes would say it was too hard on Noreen. You can't come and visit her anymore because all she does is cry. Well, how could you not?

Like, that was my dad. I wanted to be with him. And so they stopped all the visitations, and that was it. And he tried to find us through the courts, but the courts would not give him any information back then. So he just had to let it rest. And it was very hard on him. My father was also a residential school survivor, too. So, you know, he had his own demons and his own trauma that had happened to him.

So this was, you know, passed on through the residential schools, then threw onto me with the 60s scoop. And, you know, it's all generational, all this hurt and trauma. And I'm just trying to break those things. Yeah, and you're coming on this show, and I hear, there's pain in your voice, but I'm not hearing, I'm not hearing the level of anger and resentment that I would have expected. No, no, I can't be, and I'll tell you why. When I speak at schools, and that is one of the things that I really press against the children, that I don't want to be bitter, I want to be better. I want to educate. I want the kids to learn.

And let me tell you, like, our kids get a bad rap in high school. But all the high schools I've been to, they are so loving and warm and welcoming. And they just want to learn. And they are so sorry. Like, it's in their tears and their hugs that they tell me they're sorry. And it's just really, it makes it. Not that it makes it worth everything that I've gone through, but it helps my healing process

and it helps to educate and that is my biggest thing is to educate and you know hopefully this doesn't ever happen again well Noreen LaBelle I wish this conversation could continue I promise you we will continue it at a later date I'm looking at my producer right now

because I want I would love to have you back on I'd love to have a larger conversation with you I'd love to talk about like we said how can we take this pain how can we take this awful event that was orchestrated by Canadians and it was foisted on your community how can we take it and like you said not be bitter

but get better as a nation together and so I would love to have that conversation with you at a later date I would love that then thank you very much and I'm so sorry this happened to you and I'm so glad that you're on the other side of it and doing something productive with it and if there's anything we can do to help with that we absolutely will

We're renovating a hotel, expanding our resort, and breathing some life back into the lakehouse. Out of here. All while raising a family. It's messy, it's real, and it's all us. Exciting. I can't tell if that's your exciting face. This isn't just construction. This is our life.

Who needs sleep? Building Bomber. News series Sunday, September 7 on Home Network. Stream on Stack TV. I do.