The Ben Mulroney Show - Friday Political Panel -- It was a bad week for PM Carney

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

GUEST:  Mark Norris / Former Alberta Minister of Economic Development (under Ralph Klein)      Guest: Chris Chapin, Political Commentator, Managing Principal of Upstream Strategy 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 Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. You know, there is a lot of news, and it can take up, it can take up a lot of bandwidth to cover it and to give analysis, and it can get emotional. And today's been one of those days. And so that's why I'm very glad, as I always am, to be joined by my panel for this week in politics, the Friday edition, because I can offload some of that weight on Mark Norris, former Alberta Minister of Economic Development under Ralph Klein, and Chris Chapin, political commentator managing principle of upstream strategies. Guys, I'm just going to lay back and listen to you for a couple of segments, if that's okay. Well, if nothing else, happy below the birthday.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you. But we've got to talk with something that, I mean, if someone isn't offended by this, they have to take their political blinders off. This isn't about left or right, liberal or conservative. This is about what the duty of a government is in terms of transparency, accountability, and respecting the military as well as, I think, the people who support our military. And Mark Carney failed to disclose, then Iranian attack put our Canadian troops in the line of fire. And we found out. because journalists did their job. Kudos to La Press. And then another journalist posed the question to our prime minister. And you would think that after 13 days, he would have had a better answer than what he had. Hey, Joy, not Joy, Santi, can you pull up that his answer for me again real quick? I want to hear our prime minister with 13 days to figure out what he was going to say.

I find him very lacking. And I find it, I just, here, let's play it real quick. You know, Prime Minister Carney has had multiple occasions. That's not it. It doesn't matter. We all heard it. It was not a good answer. It did not, it would, it certainly wasn't on par with his Davos speech.

Chris, am I, am I off base? Am I being too partisan? I actually am quite upset about this. No, I don't think so whatsoever, Ben. You know, I, we should not be living. a country, the great country we do, where that kind of stuff is not, you know, disclosed automatically to Canadians. It's the, you know, it's the safety of those that put themselves on the line for our country and our military that, you know, we often,

unfortunately, take for granted, but their safety should never be one of them. And the fact that the prime minister even tried to tiptoe around this one and not just be transparent and own up and say they made a mistake not to disclose this immediately. You know, I think tensions are high, not just in Canada, but across the, world right now around what's happening in Iran, and at the least, literally the least the prime minister should have done, is at least communicate to Canadians as soon as it was possible and made available to him what had taken place.

Mark Norris, there are people within his cabinet. I assume it's not everybody, but a lot of them knew that this had happened when it had been, when we were, when we learned that there was going to be an all-party debate in the House of Commons about this very conflict. if that's where all of our representatives were present to discuss this matter and it did not come up. I'm shocked that not one member of that cabinet had the wherewithal or the respect for that house to tell us that had something gone just a little bit differently. We would be talking about dead Canadian soldiers coming back from the Middle East. Yeah, 100% Ben, but it goes further than that.

The liberals have always had a disdain for the military, at least under-Dustin Trudeau. It was underfunded. It was laughable, the pro-criminal process. But here's what I have to say about our current prime minister, and I've been saying it from day one. He's a liar, and he gets up there and he says things and makes promises and has no intention of following up. And for him to stand there and say, there are other people in the government who could have spoke, when he's the only person who's spoken for this government since day one, even declaring Palestine a state when nobody agreed with him,

he's running and hiding right now, and it's disgraceful because those people who are putting their life on the line over there who came within a harm's breadth of dying deserve way better than that. And, you know, my wife, her family was from the eastern bloc countries, and they used to talk about the ministers of disinformation and how they would work in, you know, how things are great when it was absolute lies. I'm starting to feel in Canada,

like there's no real journalism, no disrespect, Benjamin, but there's no real people saying, this is just nonsense. Like, this guy's got to be held accountable. Yeah, I don't understand, because there is a lot, on a lot of files,

there's controversy, and people will be split on party lines, but I think a lot of conservatives were pleased with his initial statements and his plans to rebuild the military. I myself at, count myself among those people, proud to have heard the statements from him looking forward to seeing those statements turned into action.

And then at this moment, when he could have led and he could have shown to Canadians that the safety and the safety and the lives of our military in the Middle East matter to him, and therefore he could show that to us by letting us know on the 2nd of March that this had happened. instead he he hid it from us. I mean, I think you actively have to hide it to not tell us. I don't think it was an oversight. He literally had to go day after day after day, not telling us. And I got to wonder why. But I guess we'll never know because I don't know that there's a whole lot of journalists out there that are going to push him on that matter.

I hope they do. I hope they do. I hope that I do. I do hope that the search for truth that we saw in La Prés going out there and finding this information is carried on by somebody else to find out what what did you know when did you know it and why didn't you tell us but let's move on to sort of the the population of Toronto, Montreal and most certainly Vancouver girding for al-Quds chaos tomorrow the the Ayatollah's baby his brain child celebrating whatever you want I don't care what the what the Ayatollah says about what al-Quds day is it's a hate-filled chaos fest. and the question is, should cities like Toronto and Montreal and Vancouver have done what London did and said, okay, you can stand in one place, but the second you start marching, that's where we take an issue. Chris, I'll start with you. I mean, that's bad. I think I give a lot of credit to, you know, I'm not sure if you saw the, you know, the video the Premier put out today. But, you know, I think a lot of credit goes to Premier Ford for standing up on this one.

It was it was the right position. I, you know, I hope they're successful with the injunction that the attorney. General is going to put forward to stop this, at least here in Toronto. It's absurd that we were going to allow this to happen. You know, there has to be a line when it comes to free speech. There has to be a line when it comes to protesting, what you're doing when it crosses over into hate. And there was no question that this, you know, this proposed protest was, you know, 100% hate-filled. And so I'm glad at least it looks like we might be putting a stop to it here in Ontario. Now, do I believe for a second that,

the same hateful people that are organizing this event are going to follow the rules and follow the law on this one? Well, they didn't get a permit. No, of course. You and I are footing the bill. I didn't know a guy's mark. I didn't know that if you get a permit, then that flips the responsibility of the cost, that if all of a sudden there is damage to property, you are, the organizers are on the hook

for it. And that's never been the case in this city with these anti-Western. And that's how I'm going to call, what I'm going to call them from now on, these anti-Western, protests that they've never bothered, they've never had the respect for us, the city, or us as Canadians, to go out there and get a permit. And so instead, you and I are foot in the bill. And we've heard, Mark, that, you know, the Toronto Police Association is asking for help from the province and the federal government to say, hey, we don't have the money to do

this anymore. Well, you know, you know what's mind-blowing to me, Ben, is that when the university campuses were taken over and the administrations did virtually. nothing. Jewish students were targeted and bullied and all that. It was sort of accepted. And you kind of wonder where the pendulum is going to swing back far enough to say, if you want to take, engage in those actions, we are a country based on law and order, and this is what we expect from you. But it makes me really even more angry about the efforts that were made to cancel Jordan Peterson or just speaking his peace and his truth. And nobody seemed to say, hey, that seems

offside. But if you want to go scream about how, you know, from the river to the sea, Jews have to die, feel free. You know, this country, like, I don't want to sound like, you know, I'm ranting, but it really does have to focus on law and order, and who's footing the bill is the biggest part of that. And I'm with you 100%. It's good. Their accountability has really gone out the window where these things are concerned, as long as you're yelling about the West. No, you're absolutely right. All right, guys, don't go anywhere. When we come back, we have a A couple more stories about Iran, but these have to do with Iran in Canada. Lots of canceled visas over Iran.

But what about all of the asylum seekers attached to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps who won't leave and keep using our court system against us? We're going to be talking about that, but also the stories of so the families of high-ranking Iranians who find themselves living in the lap of luxury and the freedom that comes with living in the West. how are we letting this happen? So don't go anywhere. The Ben Mulroney show continues. This is the Ben Mulroney show, but because it's Friday, I'm joined by Mark Norris and Chris Chapin as part of this week in politics, the Friday edition.

Gentlemen, we got to talk about the people that we have in this country, why we let them in and how we get rid of the ones we don't want to have here. And Canadian border and immigration officials say they've canceled at least 239 travel visas over concerns that the holders had connections to Iranian leadership. And, I mean, that's better than none. But then there are the stories that we hear about those who then claim asylum. And the second that you claim asylum, there's nothing you can do about it. So how do we fix this mess?

Mark, I'll start with you. Well, you know, Ben, the reality is when a government wants to be all things to all people, doesn't have a true north, then anything is possible. And I've watched in my 60 years of being a Canadian going from understanding what was going on to not having a clue. So people who come with the intent of doing harm to our country should be vetted by the various agencies, and certainly if CIS knows something, they should share it.

I suspect they have been sharing it, but much like the former Halfwood Prime Minister said there's no business case for LNG, which now the world is screaming for, Well, so are we, by the way, because we bought some from Australia just last week. Yes, absolutely. I think the liberals know, but I honestly don't think they care as long as they get reelected. And it's a very sad statement to make, but I can't understand it anymore, Ben. So I wish I could shed some light on it.

Maybe Chris is a higher intelligence to me, but it boggles my mind. Well, Chris, I personally believe it comes down to the belief that infected the Canadian Hive mind that was brought about by Justin Trudeau saying that Canada has no core identity. And when you devalue what it means to be Canadian, it's easy to let anybody in. Yeah, a thousand percent then. I don't think there's any question of that. And unfortunately, I think we've seen that mindset after a decade plus seep its way into our institutions.

And I mean, to a certain extent, how couldn't it? Right. The government sets the tone for the way the entire machinery of government operates. And the liberals have been just fine pushing those boundaries. And then we see it in things like border control and immigration. And frankly, they found themselves, you know, certainly Mark Carney's found themselves in a bit of a pickle because he's trying to, you know, I do believe in some of these efforts, he's trying to walk them back. you know, I think there is a realization that they've made some big mistakes. But to the conversation we had before the break, part of the challenges, it might be a new

prime minister. And it's certainly something Pierre Paulyev and his team tried to talk about during the election. It's still the same team around them. It's still the same group of cabinet members sitting around the cabinet table that are pressuring him and pressuring this government to continue doing the same things Justin Trudeau did. Okay, but maybe you guys can explain this to me. And I know we didn't have this on our agenda of things to talk about.

But, you know, one of the reasons that we were given as to why it was so hard to dislodge Justin Trudeau from his position at the end of his political career was because he brought the party back from the brink. He brought them for third place to first place. So I was told by great many people, he doesn't owe anybody anything and everybody owes him everything. And I said, okay, that makes sense. How is that not different with Mark Carney? Mark Carney took a party that was going to get destroyed for a generation at the polls. and brought them back not only to relevance, but to government. And so by that same standard,

they owe him everything and he owes them nothing. Why can't he come in and upset the apple cart? You know, he says it's a different party. I'm a new leader. And therefore, why can't he come in and tell those, the leftists in his caucus? Guys, you're going to do what I say because we're not for me. You would be out there trying to get jobs in the private sector

and given the fact that there is practically no private sector anymore. you should say thank you that you're still on the government dole. Like why can't he do that? Chris, you go first. Well, I think it's just, it's the math of it, Ben. It's 173 seats, 172. You know, he's, you know, he's scraping his way up to that majority. But that, that matters.

You know, for that first stretch, you know, you got to remember that team around Trudeau that, you know, the big majority they won in 2015, obviously that, you know, that had slipped away from them. But I think at that point he had. like that was where Trudeau still had ingrained so much trust, whereas I think Carney's just realizing, like, I'm sure he'd love to at times tell his leftist to fly a kite. But, you know, one vote and they're back into, you know, it undoes all the work they've tried to do to try to secure this majority,

not through an election, but through floor crossings. And so I think that's the challenge for him right now, Ben, is he hasn't been able to really sink, like, you're absolutely right. He's brought this party back from the brink. You know, they were down 20 points to Pollyette, and he showed up, and now they are, you know, a floor crosser away. and two by-elections from a majority government. But Mark, if we take our partisan hats off for a moment

and just ask the simple question, and why can't he say to these people, listen, I brought you to the promised land. I got you as far as I could. And if we want a majority next time, then we have to show Canadians that we are not just in Trudeau's party. So you guys are going to park your ideology and we're going to think practically here for a minute.

And here are the things that we need to do to separate ourselves from that toxic past. and if you have a problem with that, I'm going to turf you from cabinet or from caucus. And I don't mind doing that because I know that on the other side of this are many votes that I could get from the right flank. I could bring in some more centrist or moderate or disillusioned Tories, for example. And so pick your poison here, guys,

short-term victory or long-term success. Why can't he do that? Well, he could. But to Chris's point, it's a bit of a numbers game, but I'm still waiting for Jebel and something. of the others across the floor to the NDP. Yeah. Because I think they're just, they're rolling in their, in their pre-death graves.

Do you think they're waiting for Avi Lewis to take over? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, that's a party on Death Watch as well. But I was in a cabinet room where we had an extremely strong leader, but towards the end, there were cracks. And we were held together with far right, far left, because we knew we could get elected under his banner. if Carney can display that, he will be able to do it.

And it's a very sad and cynical thing. But when my buddy Ralph was starting to show his age, you could see some of the people starting to say, okay, now the door is open. Carney doesn't have that fear because none of them have any courage. So you're right. I don't know why he doesn't do it, other than I think, like my old man used to say,

if you don't stand for anything, you fall for everything. And he doesn't have to speak on every issue. He just has an opinion about everything but does nothing. So eventually, Canadians are going to say, hey, you know, it's 87,000 Canadians say, I lost my job last month. And there'll be a day of reckoning. But right now, the honeymoon isn't over yet. I don't believe, Ben. Yeah.

Well, you know, I have to, I've got to be honest. And, you know, I take the liberals to task when I think they deserve it. And I am not a reflexive conservative who's going to pair it back, whatever what a party wants me to. And my sister is a member of the Doug Ford, Ontario provincial government. but when I see that the Ontario government says it wants to introduce legislation that would exempt the Premier Cabinet Minister and their offices from having to respond to freedom of information requests and allowing them to keep certain documents secret

and emails about their decision-making secret, I got a problem with that, Chris. Can you explain that to me in a way that makes sense? Yeah, Ben, I actually can because I think the headlines are a little misleading. It's frankly bringing Ontario in line with every other province to different extent in this entire country. These rules that the Premier is bringing in are the exact same rules

that the federal government operates in. I think there's a lot of, you know, a lot of fire here that shouldn't, you know, frankly shouldn't be. The, you know, conversations, my understanding the legislation is conversations between the public service and the minister's offices

will remain the same, you know, searchable, effeliable documents they've always been. Okay. It just allows the political staff within a government to talk freely amongst the, themselves. And I think that is important, frankly. I think there's a reason those rules exist. You know, the same rules Ontario is now going to pass exist for the federal government,

exist in Saskatchewan, and exist in Quebec. And then just about literally every other province except for Nova Scotia does have a certain limit on what's that's reliable for political decision makers. And I think they should be able to communicate freely within themselves. I think your sister's staff should be able to email each other, you know, when they're weighing decisions that she's going to make and be able to do so freely without the idea that, you know, one word that they, you know, miswrite, tired in the morning or after a long day, might find its way in the Toronto Star. I think that's, there's a reason those rules exist federally. And I think it was about time Ontario kind of straighten them up. But unfortunately, I think as you know, when it comes

to, you know, the Premier and this Premier specifically, anytime he makes any kind of change like this, the opposition and certainly the media Queens Park jump all over it and cry foul. Well, and don't report on the facts. Well, on that note, he, I just, I think, I think they've got have a better communication strategy on this because it didn't look good. It didn't look good, but you did a very good job selling it, Chris. And Mark, I want to thank you as well. I hope you both have a tremendous weekend. Have a great weekend, Ben.

Thank you. And just a reminder, if you want more BMS, we put out a podcast every day. Thursdays on Global. I'm Madeline Matlock. She's the lawyer with a legendary name. Don't underestimate Miss Matlock. This woman's a shark. You know it, baby.

The one you can trust, even if she has to bend the rule. Things aren't always as black and white as they seem. To crack a case. This is how I get things done. Emmy-winning actress Kathy Bates is Matlock. All new Thursdays at 9 Eastern on Global. Stream on Stack TV.