The Ben Mulroney Show - How Hollywood went form fearing A.I. to embracing it

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Guests and Topics: -The double standard: How Conservative women are vilified for leading with Guest: Candice Bergen, Former Leader of Conservative Party & MP -How Hollywood went form fearing A.I. to embracing it with Guest: Mohit Rajhans, Mediologist and Consultant, ThinkStart.ca 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

One rule for me one rule for the it's a it's a hard and fast rule in politics do as I say not as I do, but it has been laid bare by our next guest in an article called the double standard, how conservative women are vilified for leading and joining us to discuss this and many more topics. I'm pleased to have the former leader of the Conservative Party and MP Candice Bergen in for a chat. Candice, thanks so much for joining us again on the Ben Mulroney show. Hi Ben, thanks for having me. Okay, so lay it out for me. Where do you see the double standard? Well, you know, I noticed it, I've noticed it many times over the years. And you know, I think like many conservative women were just like, we're used to it. If a liberal woman does something, it's incredible. like, we're used to it. If a liberal woman does something, it's incredible. You know, it's leadership, it's strong, it's success, it's breaking down glass ceilings. And if a conservative woman does it, it's just kind of, oh, whatever, you know, she's an extreme conservative. You know, ask Leslyn Lewis, the first black woman who ran for leadership

of a major conservative party, our major federal party. So yeah, I've seen it before, but Ben, where it really has hit me, and I've seen it so clearly, is the way the left has been treating Danielle Smith. Oh yeah. Yeah, you're right. She went down to Mar-a-Lago,

she went to talk to the president, and she was tarred and feathered as a traitor. But the second that Mark Carney does it, oh, it's a very productive meeting. Exactly. And I'm even seeing some argue, well, she shouldn't because she's just a premier. Whereas Mark Carney, well, Doug Ford has been doing a lot of good work for his province. Yeah. Nobody's criticizing him.

And he's doing what he believes is right for his province. It's only conservative women. And frankly, I think some of them are a bit jealous of what Danielle has been able to accomplish, frankly. Well, and yeah, but also let's not forget that the reason she had to do that was because there was a vacuum of power, of leadership at the top,

and every premier had to do what they could to fill that vacuum. Nobody was doing anything in Ottawa, so the premiers had to pick up the torch and do it themselves. And she accomplished something. You know, when that first round of announcements, when Trump was imposing 25% tariffs on everything,

he said, I'm going to carve out oil and gas. It'll only be 10%. Well, that was because she did what, frankly, I think a lot of, you know, not just conservative women, but I think women, we tend to know how to kind of navigate difficult relationships we we have to deal with them whether we're moms or you know whatever our role is we have to navigate difficult relationships and have strong EQ yeah and and I think Danielle really showed that which I thought should be

uh you know whether you don't want to maybe you don't want to celebrate it, maybe you don't want to praise her for it. But you certainly don't call her a traitor and say she's betraying her country when she's doing the exact opposite. Oh, Candice, the same people who told us that we that we that we we have no core beliefs and no values as a nation, the same people who want to cancel big swaths of our history are now picking up the flag, wrapping

themselves in it and deciding who is a patriot and who isn't. It's, it is so rich that I can barely stomach it. But you know, we can broaden this conversation out about the double standard, not just about women in politics, but about the subject of women. You know, yesterday, Pierre Poliev was talking about, he wants to stand up for couples whose biological clock is ticking and it's gonna run out before they're able to afford a home. He wants to stand up for those couples. And that's been weaponized against him.

Now people are claiming that he's talking about women instead of couples, but where was the attack on Mark Miller when he said that we need to normalize talking about women's menstruation. Yeah, that was Mark Holland. Yeah, it was Mark Holland who did and I mean, listen, a biological clock that women have is a fact. Yeah. And maybe some men don't want to talk about it. Maybe they don't want to admit it. Maybe they don't want to think about it. But the fact is, there is only a certain amount of time that we as women can bear children. And the older we get, the harder it is for us to become pregnant. That's

just a biological fact. And couples usually, it's couples who are dealing with that. Sometimes women are single and they want to have kids. and for different reasons, they aren't able to and they really regret it and they're very sad about it. It's actually heartbreaking for women. I went through some secondary infertility problems when I was a younger woman. It's heartbreaking every single month when you can't get pregnant.

But it's another thing if you are able to and you want to, but then you can't, cause you can't afford it. And you aren't able to pay the bills. And you know, if you have a child, you won't be able to get that house. That's what Pierre was talking about. And it's a reality that a lot of women and couples are going through.

And frankly, I think we need to be talking about the real issues that women are dealing with. And many times the liberals think they own women's issues. And you know, actually the things that we are dealing with. And many times the liberals think they own women's issues. And actually the things that we're dealing with and our young women are dealing with right now, we don't wanna talk about. So I thought it was very refreshing that Pierre had the courage to talk about

the real things that women are dealing with. Well, one of the issues specific to women that they are dealing with, that this liberal government is going to have to own, whether they like it or not, is the subject of my conversation in the next segment, because a group of survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence have announced that they're launching a landmark charter lawsuit against the government of Canada, alleging systematic failures by the feds, particularly since the Supreme Court case in 2016, that has caused severe injustice and left dangerous offenders

on the streets. So, like, you can't have it both ways. You're either a feminist or you're creating conditions for women who've already been victimized to be re-victimized. Yeah, and we've seen what the liberals did. It was, I think, about a year ago when a victim

of domestic violence tried to testify at committee and the liberals shamed her and shut it down. And you know, listen, there are a lot of liberals who truly are, they believe in women's equality. And I don't put every liberal in the same category, but there are a lot of what I called fake feminists. You know, frankly, I believe Justin Trudeau was a fake feminist. I see now Mark Carney with the same disdain towards some women reporters we saw when he you know, called out Rosemary Barton and said, Rosemary look inside yourself. It's such a patronizing can imagine a conservative man or any man other than Mark Carney saying that to a woman. So there is a sense of, again,

it's back to the old virtuous signaling. They say they believe in women's rights and standing up for women, but when it comes to the action, they fail miserably. So I just, I see Carney and Trudeau the same in terms of their so-called feminism. And for the liberals right now to be, and I do just wanna get back to this because I think Danielle Smith is somebody that

will go down in history as somebody who has not only stood up for her province, but there was nobody there a month and a half ago. Danielle Smith was the only one who was making concrete effort to get something for Canada. Donald Trump, you have to think about these things around Canada and our oil and gas and what you're doing to our province and our country.

That was only Danielle Smith that was doing it. She wasn't just going down to that lowest common denominator. You know, we hate to hate the Americans. We hate orange face. She would say, no, we actually need to get something done. And I just see that as such strong leadership, and solid leadership. Well, the article is entitled,

The Double Standard, How Conservative Women Are Villified for Leading. Candice Bergen, in our remaining time, I want you to put your former leader hat on, and talk to me about sort of the perplexing behavior of Mark Carney for standing by his candidate who said deplorable things about essentially renditioning an opponent to China

for a bounty where he most certainly would have been executed. Standing by someone like that when every single rational person on both sides of the political spectrum would have told him that was a bad idea. Well, initially I would have thought, oh, poor political judgment, somebody's giving him bad advice. However, I think he does have some pretty strategic shrewd people around him. So there's something deeper here. And I think it does go to his affiliation. And just like the man before him, Justin Trudeau and the party around him, they have a deep relationship

with the Chinese communist regime. And there is some reason, and part of it, and the case of Mark Carney has to do with his financial interests, of which we don't know all of them, there are some ties there that they feel beholden. That's the only thing I can see, because there's no reason they wouldn't just dump a bad

candidate or somebody who made a mistake. Well, exactly. Exactly. Candice, like this, there's there, there are, there are already a lot of questions that he needed to answer. And this decision is so perplexing. It only amps up the need the responsibility of him to answer those questions. I suspect we will not be getting them because he is a, yeah, he's a candidate. They protect like a fine piece of China on moving day.

Candice, thanks so much. Yes, I do. Thanks, Dan. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you for joining us. And I want to remind you that despite all the intensive, intense, hardcore political stuff that we talk about intensive, intense, hardcore political stuff that we talk about on this show, there is a respite in the

storm on Wednesdays as we try to solve your everyday problems on the Dilemma panel. And we can't do that without your dilemmas. So send us an email at ask Ben at course and.com let us know might be an issue with a co worker, or a friend or a family member and I alongside two very interesting guests will try our best to fix your problem. And if we can't, well, we will strive to entertain you. Somebody who with whom I never have a problem is our next guest Mohit Rajans. He is the meteorologist and consultant with thinkstart. CA. We got a ton of tech stories to talk about. And he is our Sherpa guiding us through the wilderness. Welcome to the

show. Mohit. Sherpa is a very, very, very positive thing to be called. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. No problem. Oh, hit. Listen, there's a story that I definitely guidance on because I don't know what it means. We saw news of just a few days ago that Elon Musk is sold X to another company he started an AI company. I don't know what this means. I don't know what it signals. And I don't know how it ultimately will affect the consumer. Yeah, the Sherp Disturber, if nothing else,

right? Of course, Elon Musk has pulled a little bit of a bait and switch here. Here's what I think is happening versus here's what is saying, they're saying in the business as they say. It's an acquisition that is fundamentally going to change the way that data is used by Elon Musk and XAI from Twitter and its archive to create products in the future. So we're essentially all going to have to sign up for a newer version of X that gives a bunch of permission, maybe perhaps,

to build on the ecosystem that he wants to build rapidly. But what doesn't make sense is he owns both companies. And so a lot of people are assuming that he's running away from some major debt associated with the original Twitter company. And that's why he's trying to bury as much as he can in terms of the value in a new company called X AI. Okay. But conceivably, this could reinvent the value of X in our lives by really powering it by AI? of X in our lives by really powering it by AI? Yes. There is a very strong move from Elon to be able to, you know, I think Grok, if anything,

which is his AI function that he's built in, is just sort of the beta tape to his DVD, right? And I do believe that he sees the intense value associated with the way he's been able to create discourse online, use the app to be able to fundamentally shift certain POVs. And he sees the value in a, you and I discussed this before, and in some cases you haven't signed up for a new social media app since being on the original Twitter. Yeah. So there is some value associated with that digital footprint.

All right, let's move on. I mean, listen, every week it feels like there's another story of somebody trying to push the boundaries of AI showing us that they've got the AI platform to beat. And OpenAI has come up with their latest image generator. It's pushing technological limits. I heard earlier today that you can essentially take, you know, like the Lord of the Rings trailer, but you can make it

in the style of Wallace and Gromit or a Pixar movie or Studio Ghibli, the world famous Japanese company. And there are a lot of IP issues around that. But more than that, this is a this is an issue of server strain, there's more and more pressures being put on these things, because they require a lot of juice. Yeah, two things are happening at once. Everything you just described is flooding the internet right now, because open AI has created the most accessible image generator that we've ever seen. And I don't mean that from high perspective, as somebody who's in this ecosystem, it's crazy for me to think that our kids can just draw

Pixar cartoons based on a story from the sporting event they went to. As a recid, there's so many crazy, amazing things they're gonna be able to do now that the cat is out of the bag, but what's it doing? It's doing exactly what you and I have thought it's going to potentially do, which is it's gonna strain a bunch of systems

that are not prepared for all the different things that AI can actually empower and do, because once it's out of the bag, everybody wants to play with it. So just in very, very basic terms, it is all of this content is being made as a result of people just coming up with ideas. It's creating server capacity issues for open AI, but they love the hype around it because

so much so that there's a rumor right now that they're close to closing $40 billion in funding, which would make it the largest private tech deal on record. Oh my God. Look, I learned something new from my kids every day. My 11 year old daughter dropped a bomb on me a couple of days ago. She said, did you know that a search on a chat GPT is the equivalent, just one single search

is the equivalent of keeping your light on for six months, a light bulb on for six months. And I don't know whether she's right or not, but it does speak to the fact that people are starting to appreciate the power required to build out these AI platforms. 100%. I think the one positive thing about that conversation

is that it now puts the onus on that global footprint to be less and less, right? So if that's one of the things that we're keeping an eye on, think about how many things we didn't keep an eye on when it came to social media. We're just like, yeah, I'll upload it. It'll go somewhere, right? And now we're keeping an eye on. Think about how many things we didn't keep an eye on when it came to social media. We're just like, yeah, I'll upload it. It'll go somewhere, right? And now we're paying the price.

So let's forward thinkers like your daughter is what we need. AI is infiltrating Hollywood. And I guess I'm reading that they're going from fear to feature. What does this mean? Well, now we're in a situation where it's just realistic that the tools are embedded into everything from, let's say, if you're an Adobe studio or if you're a place that uses various tools, you know, the tools that Hollywood has been asking for in order to be able to use AI

at scale. Let's think about preserving old film that has never been preserved properly or the original version of people's voices that were never been able to translate. That's happening. And it's creating this blurry line amongst people who are trying to create their and create, protect their IP versus studios who have to find different ways to make money because as you and I know,

they're not making it at the box office or on streaming the way they used to. So I think one of the conversations that will continue to happen here is, are you saving, you know, revenue streams for these big corporations that are need to be able to turn around their investment? Or are actors just going to have to come to grips with the fact that there's never going to be a plausible way to save their IP? Well, I think also, you look at how much how expensive it is to make a big blockbuster save their IP. Well, I think also you look at how expensive it is to make a big blockbuster movie. You see how much money was lost

in this ridiculous Snow White remake. If you could get the cost down of the special effects or speed up the time required to edit the film, all of those things are possible today using the tools that exist today, then that could lower the cost of producing a film. But in doing so, you know that certain people are going to be left on the sidelines.

You're gonna need fewer animators, fewer editors. And so it's gonna be, there's gonna be a crossroads for Hollywood. Where are they gonna go? Are they gonna stick with the people that help them build Hollywood? Or are they going to recognize that they have to cut costs and use AI? I don't know what they're going to do.

I think Ben, one of the things you allude to is think about how many times we've just had to sit around and wait for something. Yeah, you know, and I think, you know, you've made television in the past, and you've thought there's probably more efficient ways to do this. Yeah, if we started thinking a little bit more about efficiencies, we're not going to have problems with people saying, oh, they don't tell our stories or they don't blah, blah, blah.

No, it'll be efficient for you to just go make it rather than wait for somebody to give you a handout. Hey, before we go, before we go, I want to talk about something different because you're delivering a keynote in Toronto. Tell me about that. April 16th, Digi Mark on is happening at the Eaton Center CF Sheraton there, Pailton, sorry, I forget the name. But I appreciate that because I'm talking about the media evolution to revolution when it comes down to the use of

technology and AI. So if anybody's interested, I would love to see you out there. You're so you're gonna focus on early adoption of AI in media and television. So give me an example, like where has it been adopted? So now I'm currently focused on efficiency with workflow. I think many of us have lived in a world where we've had all these sort of booking sheets and information and bookmarks and stuff like that. Just utilizing it to create proper knowledge that we can share with people so that we all feel

like saving an hour every day is actually something we can aim for. Well, I mean, we had a little technical snafu here a couple of days ago when the phone lines didn't work and we asked ourselves, what was it like before Twitter? Like for information gathering, how did we get the news before it?

I still have no idea, but you can't run from technology. You gotta embrace it in a way that works for you. And I'm glad that you can be there to help people make sense of it all. Mohit Rajan's, Mediologist and Consultant with ThinkStart.ca. As always, a pleasure. Okay, take care of my friend. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. And I don't think there is a Canadian with a pulse

who doesn't think that Donald Trump is a concern that needs to be addressed by anyone who forms government in the next after the next election. Nobody thinks that he's not a threat. Nobody thinks that he's not a problem. However, in the leadership debate that led to Mark Carney becoming leader and ultimately Prime Minister, he admitted that the flaws and weaknesses in the Canadian economy predate Donald Trump. He said they started five years ago, the contention is by the Pierre Poliev, that they predate that by another five years. It has been a lost liberal decade. And so if the polls are to be believed, people are telling Pierre Poliev that he shouldn't focus on those things,

he should focus on Donald Trump. And here's what he had to say in response to that. Canada now ranks 23rd in the World Bank's ease of doing business. We fall in seven places. We're the second slowest country in all of the 36 nation OECD to get a building permit, the second slowest.

The Liberals radical Keep It In The Ground agenda killed 16 major energy projects and many billions of dollars. And then think of the number of businesses from around the world who don't even bother proposing a project in Canada because it is a waste of time and money under the Liberals keep it in the ground economic policy. Yeah, he's reminding us that these are things that we did to ourselves. These are things that the Liberal government put around our neck

to keep us from thriving as a nation. And he wants to keep the attention on that. Now he did have an ask, a specific ask to his opponent, Mark Carney. Let's listen to this. And let's be clear, liberal, no new pipelines law C69 will make it impossible for any other project to ever get approved in this country.

And Mark Carney could have repealed that law. I encouraged him to reconvene Parliament after he won the Liberal leadership race and quickly, under emergency conditions, repeal C-69. He didn't do it. So it doesn't matter what he says about the law now. We know he doesn't mean it it because he could have done it. It is a liberal law that they passed, that they brought in and that they have defended. And it is the same liberal ministers, same liberal MPs, same liberal strategists, same

liberal promises that they made 10 years ago. If you vote the same, you will get the same. And so I think what he is doing is he's asking people to think rationally rather than emotionally. Let's be scared of the orange man and what he could do to our country. And yes, he has the power to affect us negatively on a lot of fronts. But what can we do on our end to ensure that we can buttress against that? And he is using ideas on policy and on legislation and on tax structure in order to position

Canada a vision of Canada that can be stronger even in the face of Donald Trump. And so I don't know if he should pivot his campaign. I have no idea. But he has a clear vision for the country. And that vision includes a world where Donald Trump is president. And so I like what he's saying there. Meanwhile, on the Mark Carney side of the equation, we've all been we were gobsmacked that four days had to go by before Mark Carney made a decision on his candidate who had asked to have

his opponent kidnapped and renditioned to China for a bounty. And after four days, he's stuck by the guy. He's stuck by his, he stood by his man. And it was only after the RCMP said they were going to investigate did the candidate resign. And this is a question for the ages that I know we will never get a fulsome answer to. But finally, the CBC decided this is a story worthy of a national conversation on the national broadcaster. And they had a conversation with Chuck Kwan, who's a co chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China. And this is what he said about Mark Carney's decision. I think anybody with an ounce of moral integrity should know enough to do the right thing.

For Paul Chang, he should resign. For the Liberal Party, they should think twice about, you know, allowing him to run politically or not. So in that sense, I think a lot of people are kind of trying to brush it off. And as you talk about in the previous segment, they're hoping this will go away. But I guarantee you this won't go away because the Hong Kong diaspora, many of them in Canada and elsewhere in the world is also facing kind of these kind of China harassment and threats.

Of course it's not gonna go away. The decision was a layup. You get rid of the guy, simple as that, but he didn't. And look, we've been saying for weeks that this this man mark Carney Refuses to take real questions from real journalists for extended periods of time He has not been forthcoming about disclosing his assets even though they are in a blind trust we don't know what they are and

There are videos of him from the past popping up on social media that through this new lens, elicit even more questions, flowery, positive commentary about China, their government, their leadership, their decision making, their outlook, their, their vision, all of it. He is effusive in his praise of China on a lot of fronts. It's borderline, Justin Trudeau, I admire their basic dictatorship kind of stuff. But now that we have this moral dilemma that he seemed to be wrapped in and he landed on the wrong side of it. I think all this other stuff comes into focus in a different way.

And you know, it makes people possibly question his, his values, his priorities, his principles. Here's what one pundit on the CBC said about sticking with this candidate. I would begin with a simple question. If I had said that on the air, on this show, would you have me back? Maybe to explain yourself, but not as a regular. That is the answer to the question. You would not have me back.

And if I was still running this place you I wouldn't be back. So I think to Brad's point we're in day four. How long will they continue with this? I don't think that they can continue much further. They haven't answered the question about Chandra Arya. They haven't asked questions about Hang Dong. Why they were not allowed to run? Why is this guy allowed to run and they're not allowed to run, becomes the next part of it. This is going to go on. I think inevitably he will probably be asked to step aside or he'll offer to do it.

If that happens, it will be because of politics rather than principle. He had a moment here to actually establish principle. Yeah, and that's a real problem, I think, for Mark Carney. He presents as the candidate of wisdom, of measured thought, of deliberation, of calm, steady hand on the rudder. And after four days of dealing with this storm, where you have a candidate that is threatening the personal freedom and the personal rights of a member of the opposition. And let's also remember

he didn't apologize two and a half months ago when he made the comments. He was fine living in a world where he said what he said. He was fine living in a world where he had led to his opponent feeling threatened that he could at any point get kidnapped by the Chinese and renditioned to China. He was fine with that until the mainstream media caught wind. That's when he was sorry. In other words, he was not sorry at all. So the excuse that, oh, we're keeping him because he's sorry does not hold water. So you keep him after four days of deliberation. And this is the decision you come to that not a single rational good faith person tells you

is a good idea. What happens to your reputation as the thoughtful hand on the rudder? What happens to your reputation as the adult in the room, as the guy who can weather us through some really tricky waters, navigating us with the right decision ultimately at the end of the day, if after four days you can't come up with the right answer on something that should be a slam dunk. What's gonna happen when you are forced to make a decision that requires even

more thought and even more deliberation? We'll have to see. Tune in to Renovation Resort every Sunday and look for the code word during the show. Then enter at homenetwork.ca slash watch and win for your chance to win big. Amazing! The small details are the difference between winning and losing. Watch and win with Renovation Resort on Home Network.