The Ben Mulroney Show - Donald Trump makes it pretty clear, the Liberals are weaker. And he prefers them

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Donald Trump makes it pretty clear, Mark Carney and the Liberals would be far easier to push around Guest: Michael Barrett, Conservative MP 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. So we have a prime minister who doesn't really like to talk to the press, right? But in the United States, they got a president who has no problem talking to the press and yes, he favors right-wing press,

but he's also done interviews on ABC and NBC and CBS. And he's willing to get out there, whether you agree with him or not, he tells you what he thinks. And last night, he was on a Fox News show, Laura Ingraham's show, and this is what he said about dealing with Canada. You're tougher with Canada than you are with some of our

biggest adversaries. Only because it's meant to be our 51st Street. Okay, but listen to this for a second. We need their territory. They have territorial advantage. We're not gonna let them get close to China. Look, I deal with every country indirectly or directly. One of the nastiest countries to deal

with is Canada. The people that now this was Trudeau, the people that that good old Justin, I call him Governor Trudeau, he was his people were nasty. And they weren't telling the truth, they never told the truth. There's a lot to unpack there and now it seems like this 51st state thing has morphed into it's our destiny. It's our destiny to be the 51st state. I really I'm trying my best to tune that out because it's a practical impossibility. It would be a violation of NATO, I think. And it demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge of history and shared values and traditions. And look, Donald Trump is a lot of things, but he's not a scholar and he's not a curious person. And he doesn't ask himself,

what don't I know? And how can I seek out the knowledge to know that thing? He's decided that this is the fact and he's decided that this is the path. I don't know if he's gonna do anything about it or if he's just trying to, as Steve Bannon said, flood the zone with so much noise that we don't pay attention to what he's really trying to accomplish. But Laura Ingraham, to her credit, stayed on this topic.

And here's what Trump had to say about Canada being a state. Canada was meant to be the 51st state because we subsidized Canada by $200 billion a year. We don't need their cars. We don't need their lumber. We have a lot of lumber. We freed we freed it up as you know last week, we're freeing it up so that you can actually cut down a tree without being you know given the death penalty because what these radical environmentalists have done to our country but we freed it up but we don't need their lumber, we don't need their energy,

we don't need anything, we certainly don't want their automobiles. They make a lot of automobiles. Millions of automobiles are sent in. I'd rather have a maid in Michigan. Yeah, okay. He said that before. He's used those lines before. And so let's just take him to task one last time. Mr. President, because he didn't hear us last time, and I say this with respect, you do need our lumber, you do need this with respect, you do need our lumber, you do need our aluminum, and you do need our cars. Because you promised your people that America would be great

the moment you took office. And if you make it impossible for us to produce those cars, and if you make the aluminum too expensive and the lumber too expensive, sure, that might incentivize certain companies to start making those things and building those things and harvesting those things south of the border. But that stuff doesn't happen overnight. It's going to take at least five years for an automotive plant to be entered into full production. You will not be president anymore. And in the

interim, the automotive industry will have been decimated and that will be on you So all of the workers in Michigan Who voted for you? That's over. That's over So you can muse all you want you can't you can't speed things up that can't be sped up And so it's a great narrative that you fed yourself, but economists and people in the automotive industry are pushing back and are telling you as much

and they are becoming increasingly vocal. And the stock market has told you that they don't think this is a feasible plan, at least not in the short term. So the unstoppable force that is Donald Trump is going to hit and butt up against the immovable object that is reality. And we'll see what happens. But here is the piece of audio that has that has gotten the chattering classes in Canada all in a tizzy. For the first time it does sound like Donald Trump has weighed in on the debate as to who can best stand up for

Canada in the face of Donald Trump. The Liberal Party is going to win now in the next election most likely. And they were on, they were down and out. Isn't that going to make them more hostile to us? And possibly open the door for China closer to Canada? And that would really put us in a bind. The conservative that's running is stupidly no friend of mine. I don't know him, but he said negative things.

So when he says negative things, I couldn't care less. I think it's easier to deal actually with a liberal. Okay. So look, if you are a conservative, you are all over that statement today. If you are a liberal, you are going to turn around and say, well, of course he's going to say that he wants Pierre Poliev to win, to which the only thing to reply is, what would you be saying had Donald Trump said the exact opposite thing today. If he had said, though the conservatives are weaker,

I don't want to deal with them, they are harder to negotiate with. What would you be saying today? You would find a way to justify that this intern, justifies that Mark Carney should be our leader going toe to toe with Donald Trump. So, okay. We'll see if there's any value

because I did also hear online that some people are saying, look, can you really believe anything that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth? I don't know that it's the silver bullet that certain conservatives believe it is, but I do not think that you can spin this into a positive for Mark Carney. But Mark Carney has positioned himself.

He said he came into this because we're in a crisis. He left millions of dollars on the table to sacrifice for Canada and be the leader that we need to go toe to toe with Donald Trump. And he was asked, he was asked yesterday when he was in Iqaluit, what his expectations are for his very first phone call with President Donald Trump. Well, I think, let me say a few things. with president donald trump well uh... i think let me say a few things uh... the first is uh...

that the president united states the prime minister of canada but certainly the president of the states has many responsibilities and there are many issues i can think of uh... uh... many geostrategic issues that uh... the president is uh... is helping to lead on uh... and uh... you can think of events most recently with respect to the Houthis and all the way through

to trade and other aspects. So there's a wide range of issues to be discussed. Can you pause for a sec? Pause that for a sec. Okay, he's 20 seconds in to a question that he should have a stock answer for. What do you want to talk about with Donald Trump? And he mentioned nothing.

He hummed and hawed looking for a point and stumbled onto geopolitics and the Houthis. Ladies and gentlemen, this is our prime minister who said I came into politics because only I, or rather, I am the best person to sit opposite Donald Trump, and he cannot tell us what the first phone call is going to be about. Let's continue. Another aspect.

So there's a wide range of issues to be discussed when we do connect. From with respect to trade, I look forward to at the appropriate time, the appropriate time having a discussion as two sovereign nations that is comprehensive, not targeted at one issue. That was 55 seconds of nothing. He was asked, what do you want to achieve on your first phone call? What's it going to be about? And you talk for 55 seconds and say absolutely nothing. That, Canada, is very telling. It's very telling. Look, to me, that is reminiscent of Kamala Harris being asked a softball question about what she would do differently than Joe Biden and said nothing comes to mind.

If that doesn't give you pause in terms of your support of Mark Carney, I don't know what will. If you can turn that into a positive, then you drank some Kool-Aid that I would not advise. That was 55 seconds of humming and hawing and not being able to answer a very simple question, what's the first phone call gonna be about? That should frighten you. That should frighten you.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and our Prime Minister Mark Carney believes that part of his strategy to win the next election is, in my opinion, punt the ball on Donald Trump until after the election and ask Canadians to live in this limbo world right now where nobody's really talking to him because he wants us to trust that he is the best person, the strongest person for Canada to have negotiating on its behalf versus Donald Trump. So he wants it to be a jump ball and he thinks that Canadians will select him. Why test it now when you can test it after the fact?

That's my cynical view, but that's what I think he thinks is part of his winning strategy. Yesterday on Fox News, Donald Trump gave us some insights into who he thinks is the strongest or weakest person, liberal or conservative, to negotiate up against. some insights into who he thinks is the strongest or weakest person liberal or conservative to negotiate up against The liberal party is gonna win now in the next election I don't see likely and they were on they were I don't get down and I Isn't that gonna be make them more hostile to us and possibly over the deal with a liberal than a China? Closer to Canada and that would really put us in a. The conservative that's running is stupidly no friend of mine. I don't know, but he said negative things.

So when he says negative things, I couldn't care less. I think it's easier to deal, actually, with a liberal. Okay, so that's what he said. Here's what Pierre Poliev said in reaction to that. It's clear that President Trump wants the liberals in power because they will keep this country weak. After 10 years in power, the liberals have given us the weakest economy in the G seven. They've doubled their housing costs, driven half trillion dollars to the South.

All right. So there you go. You know that that is going to be a football that the conservatives pick up and run with here to talk about that and many more stories is a conservative himself MP Michael Barrett Michael welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hey Ben thanks for having me on. So that dropped on my social media feed that Trump positioning yesterday and at first blush I was like it will this help won't it help what are your thoughts as somebody who's going to be going into the fire and fighting this out in an election? When you heard that, what did you think? Well, I wasn't surprised to hear that Donald Trump thinks that it would be easier to deal with

Mark Carney than it would be to deal with Pierre Poliev. And the two things that come right to mind are one, you know, that he needs to soften his edges or his image. And this is exactly the kind of guy that we want dealing with, an aggressive US president who's looking to get all kinds of concessions from us. And that's who we need. So we don't need someone who's gonna bend to Donald Trump.

So I'm not surprised by it at all. You know, every day feels like Groundhog Day with Mark Carney, where he says something and then the next day has to walk it back. So he did it with the semiconductors. Apparently we make all of America's semiconductors. Oh no, we don't. And then, oh, I've canceled the carbon tax. Oh no, I don't. And then, and the, oh I've cancelled the carbon tax.

Oh no I haven't. And now, after dressing down Rosemary Barton for suggesting, for deigning to suggest that there may be some conflicts in his blind trust, he turns around and promises a conflict of interest screen to prevent him from making any decisions for companies on which he served. And in other words, there may be conflicts in his blind trust, so he needs to set up a system to avoid them. At some point, this is going to stick to him, right? Well, look, it only takes anyone who can see or hear what Mark Carney says one

day to know that the next day it's probably going to be the opposite. That's in fact true. As you pointed out. This issue with the conflicts of interest is just brutal. This is a completely unforced error. You know, Mark Carney just needs the antidote to this poison is for him to just be honest with Canadians. Tell us what the conflicts of interest are. Tell us what discussions you're gonna have to recuse yourself from and what's his plan for from now until election day because he doesn't have a screen in place. That's something he's gonna work on. Meanwhile, he's setting policy and

he's making commitments and he's meeting world leaders and what's that doing to his assets, to his investments? And I don't understand how the Prime Minister can recuse himself. He's the ultimate decider. At some point he has to weigh into every decision because a decision in government doesn't get made without the say so of the Prime Minister. Well, and this is why when he says that he's divested, he hasn't sold anything. He's putting them into a blind trust and all kinds of the money that Mark Carney is eligible to continue receiving aren't things. These are funds that he set up. He knows exactly

what's in them from his time at Brookfield. He raised the capital from billionaires, got them into these funds, so he built them. He knows what's in them. So they're in a blind trust, but they're not gonna change. So the decisions that he makes on infrastructure, energy, transportation, communication, you name it, Brookfield's in it. So is this gonna be a prime minister who's not able to go into the cabinet room?

It doesn't make any sense. I wanna talk about a big announcement that came out of Pierre Poliev. It sounds like he listened to Ontario premier Doug Ford on the day that he, the premier, congratulated Mark Carney in becoming prime minister. He said, congratulations, now get out of our way in the ring of fire.

And it looks like Pierre listened to that. So why don't you explain to our listeners about this announcement and what the ring of fire is and what the conservatives are prepared to do. Well, the ring of fire is basically a massive, untapped potential resource in Canada, in Ontario's north. And it's got all kinds of rare earth minerals. And the the federal liberals, Justin Trudeau and his ministers Wilkinson and

Gibo, they've blocked permits for Ontario to realize this. So this is huge potential money for the First Nations communities in Canada's North, huge potential for Northern Ontario communities. And what Pierre has said is that it'll start with a billion dollar commitment over three years to get a road built so that we can actually connect it to Ontario's highway network and so that we can green light

all of the permits within six months. Now that might seem like, well that doesn't sound very fast, it's been five years of the Liberals who have been you know racking the pocket, they're not getting these permits approved. This has a potential bend to boost our economy with billions of dollars. And these are strategic minerals, we need these. And, and my goodness, it also has some added added benefits, because the investments that we'd make would actually contribute to our defense spending. Yeah, because these are these are militarily strategic resources that we'd be tapping into. to our defense spending because these are militarily strategic resources that we'd be tapping into. But Michael Barrett, by making this announcement today, I mean, we're technically not even

an election campaign yet, and you guys are putting a lot in the window, and some of that stuff is getting pilfered by the liberals. Any fear that by putting this out there now, they might find a way to take bits and pieces, if not the entire thing, and claim it as their own? Look, we've seen from Mark Carney that they just can't help themselves. So like he said, he was going to get rid of the carbon tax because it's a very popular common sense policy from Pierre Polagyev's conservatives. He lasted three days before he walked back that promise. And we've seen for nine years that they just can't get stuff done. So if they weren't able to do it in the first nine years of their mandate, Canadians are going to recognize that they're not going to do it in the next,

in a fourth liberal mandate. If they want to put Canada first, if they want us to build, they're going to have to vote for common sense and vote for Pierre Poliak. Real quick at the end here Michael, what's your sense? Is Mark Carney going to call an election or is he going to recall the House on the 24th at which point it'll probably the government will probably fall and we will be in an election campaign? Well I'm not supposed to make predictions Ben. Here we go and look they padlocked parliamentarians locked us out of the House of Commons at the end of January. Mark Carney doesn't have a seat in the Commons and doesn't have the confidence of the House.

I don't think he'd get it. I think we're going to go to the polls. I think he's going to drop the writ this weekend. Michael Barrett, Conservative MP, thanks for joining us. Come back any time. Thanks so much, Ben. Take care. There's no limit to how far criminals will go to cover their tracks. But investigators will go even further to uncover the truth. I'm Nancy Hicks, a senior crime reporter for Global News. This season on Crime Beat, I'll take you from the crime scene to the courtroom and inside some of Canada's most high-profile cases and some you've likely never heard of

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