The Ben Mulroney Show - Iran could derail G7, and could regime leaders come to Canada?

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Mark Carney and G7 leaders -Iran and Israel trade blows -Casey Babb on the possibility of Iranian leaders coming to Canada -Tony Chapman on interesting marketing trends 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

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Conditions apply. Visit your GTA Volvo retailer or go to volvocars.ca for full details. You're listening to the Ben Mulrooney show. Welcome to the Ben Mulrooney show on this Monday, June 16th, 2025. Thank you so much for being here. It has been on the calendar for a very long time. And when we finally found out that Mark Carney would be our prime minister following the last election, a lot of us were wondering what was he, how was he going to present A lot of us were wondering what was he, how was he going to present as our leader as he brought the G7 together in Cananascus, Alberta? I have attended a number of G7 summits

when my father was prime minister. And I also remember, I think it was 1989, I could be wrong, but 1989 it was here in Toronto and dad was the prime minister. And because you're the host, there are certain responsibilities and certain privileges afforded to the host. One of the responsibilities, or maybe he didn't have to do it,

but he met every single world leader that arrived at Pearson and drove down with some of them. They closed down the highways to get people into the city of Toronto, to get the leaders into the city of them. They closed down the highways to get to get that people into the city of trying to get the leaders in the city of Toronto. And he was he got to decide where where the Canadian delegation got to decide what they're going to eat where they're going to eat all that stuff. And so a lot of powers, I have been very surprised to see the extent that

of the powers afforded to Mark Carney on this, at this summit in terms of who else he gets to invite. G7 is a very select group of countries and it hasn't changed since the 70s, I believe. I think they added Russia for a while in the hopes of bringing them into the world order. That didn't work.

But every now and then another world leader gets to attend. But this is a mean this is like living we're living in a time where there's a lot of featured artists on songs. You don't just get a song by Maroon 5 anymore you get a song by Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa and Megan Thee Stallion and so on. So you got the G7 featuring India, South Africa, Ukraine, and am I missing one? I think there's another one in there. Anyway, there's a lot because in my estimation, based on what I'm seeing, Canada has plans and designs to leverage this very important coming together of the most influential world leaders in one place to its benefit, to have side conversations,

to normalize our relationship with India. And I don't know what the plan is with South Africa, but obviously if there are dissenting opinions at the G7 about Ukraine, this is an opportunity for us to take a leadership position and sort of steer the ship in a direction that we would like it to go. But what's that line? If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. Because despite all of that, and by the way, these are all commendable stuff.

And what I'm learning about Mark Carney, because I'm learning about him in real time, I did not know much about him when he became our prime minister. So we're learning about him in real time. What I'm learning about is he has grand ambitions, he wants to do a lot, he wants to take on a lot, he has a lot of balls in the air, you think about all the self inflicted wounds that we as a country are dealing with, because of bad decisions that were made over the course of 10 years of the Justin Trudeau liberal governments.

He's got a lot to fix on top of the stuff that is beyond our control, like Donald Trump, like war. So he's got a lot to deal with and he wants to deal with a lot. But the world has a way of doing what it wants to do, despite your best laid plans. And so there is a worry that despite all of his ambitions, despite all of his planning, despite all of his attempts to really take control, rest control of the narrative of the G7,

this might end up becoming a summit that is dominated by what's going on in the Middle East, specifically the extension of the war between Israel and Gaza to Iran, where both countries have been trading volleys of missiles for three going on four days. And that is, I mean, that's just how it is. It's why don't we listen actually, let's listen to Senator Lindsey Graham about his take on what he would like to see the end game being in this war, because it is a war between Israel and Iran. But Senator Graham, the thing with diplomacy

is that the Israeli prime minister is calling for the Iranian people to rise up against the regime. A regime, he says, is calling for the destruction of his state. It doesn't really seem like there's a compromise there, if it's truly this existential. Is this just leading us towards the outcome you say,

which is the United States getting involved in military conflict? Well, this is what I would love for the regime to fall. If you don't, if you want this regime to stay in power, you're wanting people to oppress the Iranian people. You want people to threaten their neighbors to be the largest states. Who wants the largest state sponsor of terrorism to stay in place? But regime change is not the policy of the United States. It is not the purpose of this

attack yet. But if there's one attack on an American anywhere in the Mideast by Iran, then you'll get regime change. So what are we dealing with? We're dealing with a non-negotiable part of the deal. They can't have a nuclear program that can make a bomb. Diplomacy is preferred, as Dick says, but force may be the only option. And I've said it as clearly as I can say, if diplomacy fails, Mr. President, President Trump, you've been great. Help Israel finish the job. Give them bombs.

Fly with them if necessary. I cannot stress to you how, if you want to get Russia right, you want to make China be better, you want to convince international terrorism, we mean business, you got to finish the job of the run. Well, we'll see if there's any willingness to negotiate so far. We haven't seen much. Well, that's a big mistake on a run, Spar. It's not on President Trump's.

If we don't have negotiations, it's not because of Trump. It's because of the Ayatollah. Yeah, and speaking of the Ayatollah, the religious leader in Iran, apparently Donald Trump was briefed by the Israeli government about a plan to take him out. And Donald Trump vetoed that. He said absolutely not and I guess they listened to him because he's still alive. You would think that the Iranian regime would be thankful that Donald Trump sort of was the mediator between those sides, de facto in that moment mediator, but not so much because according to Fox News, Iran has marked Donald Trump for death. And just listen to what I just said there. The leadership of that country has decided that they were going to make it their policy

to assassinate the president of the United States. Does this sound like a good actor to you? Does this sound like an honest broker? Does this sound like a good actor to you? Does this sound like an honest broker? Does this sound like a rational player on the world stage? So when I hear the useful idiots who've lined up to attack Israel, and anytime they do anything, anytime they do anything that would be normal for any other fricking country in the world, but because it's a bunch of Jews, that's when we have a problem. The fact when I hear the useful idiots say, oh, so why is it okay for Israel to have atomic bombs, nuclear bombs, but not Iran? If I have to explain that to you, then you need to be

bubble wrap. You need to wear a helmet every time you leave the house because it's not safe in the world for you. I like to say don't talk to me like I'm an idiot. When somebody says something like that, they're talking to me like they are the idiot. Like it's it's probably one of the dumbest things you could hear anybody. And if you are somebody who stands up for women's rights, for gay rights, for human rights, and you are not standing with Israel in its attacks on Iran where for the first time in 40 some odd years,

the people of Iran who have been held hostage by the religious zealots of that country, if you are not standing with them as this country is for the first time on the precipice of possibly shedding the yolk of this insane regime that has caused so much destabilization in the region, so much pain, so much death. If you're not standing with them,

then you stand for nothing. You're a hypocrite and your voice is useless. You are taking up space and you need to get out of the way because you are not helping. You are not helping. All you are doing is talking for the sake of talking. And you have shown us exactly who you are. This is a moment in time.

For the first time, the people of that country who did not have a say in the Ayatollah's taking over and repressing that country from what it used to be. And by the way, what it used to be is not what it should be in the future. I think people think that because the Shah was a bad guy that that justifies this heinous regime. That what comes out of this hopefully can be

a democratic expression of that incredible people. But if you do not stand with Israel right now on where it stands on Iran, you are part of the problem. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. In our previous segment, I sort of gave you the lay of the land as I see it on the changing circumstances in the war in the Middle East, now with a new front opened up between Israel and Iran. But I saw a tweet that begs such a longer conversation. This by Casey Babbs, senior fellow with the McDonnell-Laurier Institute. This is what he wrote.

He said, several people, people who have been following this issue for years, have told me that senior Iranian officials fleeing Iran are seeking refuge in Canada. That's it, that's the tweet. So fortunately, we have the author of the tweet here to drill down for us. Casey, welcome to the show. That's quite a bombshell.

And I don't know, so you're gonna have to explain it to me because I don't know how that's going to land in certain circles. Yeah. You know, Ben, for a lot of people who have been watching this space for many years, it's actually not that surprising. We know that over the last several years, many, many senior officials of the Iranian regime, despite inadmissibility laws, have already made it in here. And only one has been successfully deported. According to the CBSA, they say on their website, which most people, of course, would not be

looking at, they say that they know of at least 20 living in Canada that they've caught. But Iranian activists tell me the number is into the hundreds, maybe the thousands. So when you write that they are fleeing Iran, seeking refuge in Canada, so are you suggesting they're seeking refuge by illegal means? They're trying to get in here, they're trying to secret their way into the country?

Both. It's actually a really troubling situation then. So these people are smart, of course, right? And we have a huge Iran, Iranian diaspora in Canada, one of the largest in the world. A lot of these officials have family members who are here, family members who are studying, they have assets here, they have property. Some might even have dual citizenship. So you have people coming here, probably doing things illegally, which we've seen in the past,

changing their names, concealing their their true identities concealing the reasons why they're coming here but then there are also people who come here and they're very smart they actually do it legally and they claim refugee status and that's very problematic so these are high-ranking officials and I mean this is like this is like Argent Argentina welcoming the Nazis after the second world war. That's right. That's right. Yeah, I've spoken with many activists, Ben and dissidents, and this has been an issue that they've been trying to get on the radar of the federal government

for years, the better part of a decade, many people have told me, and it's gotten really, really out of hand. And so with the regime on the brink of a decade, many people have told me, and it's gotten really, really out of hand. And so with the regime on the brink of collapse right now in Iran, these officials are looking at their former colleagues saying, oh, okay, we can learn from this. We know how to get into Canada. Casey Bab, this is, I mean, as we're talking, my mind went back to when the Canadian ambassador and his team were central in helping the Americans get out of Iran at the fall of the Shah,

and made famous in the movie Argo. And that was such a point of pride for Canada, to have stood with our allies, our democratic allies, our friends in the United States, against this Iranian regime. I mean, how did we get here, where we're welcoming these people into our country, at a time where, if we were reading the tea leaves,

like, there's a, I don't know if it's a safe bet that this regime will fall, but it could. Shouldn't we be doing everything we can to make sure that, A, it does fall and B, if it does, those who propped it up for so many years find no quarter here? Yeah, but I mean, look, these issues are really stemming from problems that our system is just overwhelmed with. I mean, you look at our immigration applications, which as of April 30th, sit at over 2 million,

there's almost 800,000 backlogged cases. So this is a whole system that people can really exploit quite easily and they know this. They know that they can get into Canada and that it's easier to get into Canada than it is many other countries. And you know, I spoke with David Thomas recently, a longtime immigration lawyer who was actually the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal chairperson. And he said, you know, they're coming here because we're letting them in because we are, as he

said, complete morons when it comes to this stuff. So it's been out of hand for a very long time, Ben. Well, listen, I know you're gonna stay on this because I know you're writing more about it than that tweet, which I'm so glad we're talking today. But I would love your take. You know, what is it about the state of politics in Canada right now where there's almost a knee-jerk reaction

by this government to demand a ceasefire. Whenever there's a flare-up, their immediate reaction is to demand a ceasefire. They did it at the beginning of the war between Hamas and Israel, and they still do it. And they did it as soon as Israel started its attack on Iran. We need a ceasefire right now.

Nevermind the fact that one of the most dangerous international actors in the world was on the precipice of developing a nuclear weapon. We got to stop the fighting right now. What is it about our political class, especially on the left, where they, it's all about a ceasefire. Yeah, I mean, it's really comes down to a variety of things. And for me, it's not really rocket science. It's trying to appease and pander to their constituents and they're doing it in really the wrong way. They're thinking they know what people want to hear when in fact, they probably don't have that great of an idea. And, you know, as you know, Ben, probably better than most, it's become harder and harder, evidently, to come down on the right side of history,

to actually have the backbone to say what needs to be said. Israel right now is doing the world a service. They're doing Canada a service. They did this in Iraq, dismantling nuclear ambitions there. They did it in Syria as well. And now they're doing it in Iran. The last thing we need is Iran to have a nuclear bomb and

Israel is making sure that they never get that. And you know a nuance that's lost on a lot of people who stand firmly against Israel, you know they raise this specter of quote-unquote regime change and then they falsely link it to some of the foreign policy disasters that America has had a hand in, in Canada as well, you know, with the fall of the Iraqi regime and Afghanistan. Those two have nothing to do with the historical precedent of Iran because there it was a revolution where the, you know, the religious extremists took over a country that had that had been very successfully led as a as a non-religious state and so to return it to that state is to return it to its original state.

Absolutely and you know it should be said though as well that that Israel has made it clear that you know right now their operation this war is designed, it's not being carried out for regime change. Israeli intelligence officials had information suggesting that Iran was days away from acquiring a weaponized nuclear weapon and that they were also going to be taking those nuclear weapons and giving them to their terrorist proxies. What this is about is survival and it is about ensuring that Iran does not carry out a nuclear holocaust, something that they've been publicly

calling for for decades. Yeah, I don't I mean, I was nothing surprises me anymore. It's almost impossible to talk to people who are so knee-jerk in their opposition to Israel's right to defend itself, but they're defending all of us here. I mean, if the Houthis were given one of these nuclear weapons, I don't know where that nuclear weapon ends up in six months. I don't know, neither does anybody else. This is for global security.

And the fact that that is, that there are people who are putting their blinders on and refusing to see what should be plain to them speaks to how far we fall in terms of being able to have a public discourse. Absolutely. Well, I can tell you where that ends up in six months, Ben. That bomb, that missile ends up in Tel Aviv and that ends up killing millions of Israelis. Yeah.

And so again, Israel is now the world's police force against radical Islam, against these theocratic regimes. And where are our leaders, having hors d'oeuvres and champagne in Canada mucking it up while they're out there doing what we should be? Canada did not come out with a full-throated support of Israel on this front. The UK, same deal. France, same thing. This is a shocking abandonment of our traditional ally and the only democracy in the Middle East.

Yeah, it's sad. It's a sad state of affairs and something has to change. But the Israelis, they know, they know from history, they know from their ancestors, they know from their family members and the lessons that they've learned war after war, that they don't have the time, they don't have the luxury to wait around

for others to come to their side and to come to their aid. They're gonna go out there and handle business and that's what they're doing. And the military and intelligence operations that we're seeing play out in Iran right now are historic. And really the regime is on the brink of collapse. Yeah and all you have to do is see the social media videos of how emboldened the people are to voice their glee at the prospect of finally being free to appreciate what could be on the

horizon. Casey Bab, I want to thank you so much for joining us. I look forward to reading your piece. Thanks Ben. your piece. Thanks Ben. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and every week we like to keep a note of all the big stories that involve some of the biggest brands in the world and we keep them tucked away. I could talk about it myself but I would be like a child wandering into the middle of

a conversation. So instead, we like to bring an expert on to break down these stories and what they might mean to you. So please welcome to the show Tony Chapman. Welcome, thank you so much for being here. Always a pleasure. Okay, so let's start with this concept of overtourism. There are certain places that are just brimming with so many tourists that the people actually live

in those places are getting upset. We saw it happen in Venice. Now we're seeing in places like Barcelona, where the number of tourists is not only offending the people who live there, but it's actually making life worse. And they're starting to take matters into their own hands.

You know, it's an interesting, because as you listen to the leaders of these groups, and these are massive protests, we're not talking about a dozen people, they're saying it's not interesting, because as you listen to the leaders of these groups, and these are massive protests, we're not talking about a dozen people, they're saying it's not the tourists they're upset with, it's the fact that so much wealth has been consolidated with a handful of people. They're buying up all the apartments that people used to live in and turning them into Airbnbs. And then they're only sort of paying minimum wage, so there's no sense of wealth sharing. So the people living in Barcelona, my costs are going up,

my wages are going down, there's more traffic, so something's gotta move and something's gotta change. And they're putting a lot of pressure on the politicians and what we're seeing is a huge backlash against the Airbnb's of the world saying, you know what, you wanna buy an apartment, live in it as opposed to rent it out. So I think that's the tension point that's gotta add,

something's gonna snap. Well, it's interesting on a lot of fronts. One, like the fact that they're taking matters into their own hands and they've got like squirt guns and they're just randomly squirting tourists. And the goal is just to make them a little uncomfortable. And I kind of like that. I mean, listen, in Canada, we call it assault.

Assault, and I'd like remember that story about the guy who got arrested with a squirt gun for having a weapon. But I kind of like that. It sort of sends a point. But the second thing is it's important to note this isn't NIMBYism, right? This isn't like, oh, we love tourism. We just don't want to hear. They like tourism. Of course, they know it's a driver for the economy, but it's just that it's driven the culture and the reason to live there off a cliff. Yeah. And not only that, even the little shop owners, I remember going to Venice the first

time, every shop owner, there's a little map store, there's a little crystal store, there's a bookstore, and all of a sudden it's all taken over by Burberry and Gucci and Versace and every city has the same street. So I think that what greed overpowers what the culture of the city should be about local people. I want to see somebody hanging clothes in the morning. I want people that live and breathe that city. That's why I go there. I want to experience Barcelona like Barcelonaians, but if it just becomes this big tourist game,

shell game, everybody's pushed aside. What you get is social unrest and civil unrest. And sadly, that's what we're seeing. Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but if people can't afford to live there, pretty soon it's just going to be a Disneyland. It'll be a movie set. Right.

Yeah, exactly. Okay. So it feels like almost every week we have an example of Netflix taking over the world and rewriting the rules. And a few last year or this summer, rather, there was that big Mike Tyson boxing match, right? And a lot and a lot of viewership got some hype, not a great fight. But now that they've announced the Alvarez Crawford fight on September 13th, which is a real fight, one of the biggest fights in years.

I got to wonder whether this was all part of their design where, okay, the first fight we're going to do is going to be one where the stakes are very low, but we get to test out, we get to road test our idea for becoming the destination for boxing. Yeah. Well, look at what Netflix has did with F1, Formula One. They put that on the map because they realize they have streaming services. Everybody says you end up pay per view.

It's called pay per view. Netflix, you pay to view that thing. They've just got the subscription base and the dollars and cents. They can go after the biggest sports properties now. The domain of the CBSs and the ABCs and even the pay-per-view are all going away because Netflix says, I can write the check. So what are you going to do? You're going to say, well, maybe everybody's going to show up that night in the bar and pay the money or I'm going to take the guaranteed money up front. And that's what Netflix has got. Money always rules those negotiations. And listen, they got Dana White in from Ultimate Fighting.

They've got a lot of big promoters. I think this is the beginning of Netflix's major move on the chessboard to dominate sports and those big live events and to leave the main networks hanging and without sports, I question the hanging part. But it was that live thing that a lot of people were wondering about. I think that's why they had to try it on something where the stakes were low, right? Because they had some failures, right?

I guess they couldn't, the servers couldn't handle how many people were jumping onto the network. Yeah, and it was jumpy and everything else. But again, you know, everybody talks about change taking years with AI nowadays. It can isolate the problems and fix it at the speed of light. And I'll tell you something, you look at Netflix, would you not bid for the F1 taking years with AI nowadays, it can isolate the problems and fix it at the speed of life. And I'll tell you something, you look at Netflix, would you not bid for the F1, now that you own the F1 audience with Drive to Survive?

Would you not bid for golf, now that you have the full swing as one of your hit shows? It's just a natural extension. The backstory and the live story combining the two, I think Netflix is a runaway train with very little in front of it. So I remember back in the day that if you wanted, if you were a sports star and you wanted to leverage

your celebrity to make money in marketing and promotion, you had to play in New York, Los Angeles, maybe Boston, Miami, if you had roots in the Latin community, that was it. If you worked anywhere else, you'd get like small local campaigns. Pizzaville ads. Pizzaville ads. Yeah, nothing wrong with Pizzaville. We like them very much.

I know, but I'm just saying, I mean, my thing is you get a local brand. So you got this Canadian kid, Shay Gilders Alexander, who's one of the greatest players of his generation, playing in Oklahoma. And he's the face of converse. He wants to be a guy who moves the needle on global fashion. Well, this is a great story to unpack. But first of all, athletes used to just sing for their supper. They had a bit of celebrity, you hired them as an endorsement.

Then they said, I actually want to control the creative product. Michael Jordan, I want to be part of designing the shoe. Kanye West with Wheezy's. Now you're going saying, I don't want to just sing for the supper and be part of the creating the menu. I want to own the diner. Yeah. And what these guys are doing is realizing there's celebrity on the court.

If they can turn it into a following online, they can monetize it. They can make the billion dollars George Clooney did passing gold with his tequila. And this is what we're seeing is we're seeing these young kids coming out going, we're fashion forward. Why should we simply be, oh, send me your clothes, I'll wear it. No, I want to own a piece of the fabric.

Yeah, the Converse, in an effort to keep him as their biggest star, gave him the title of creative director of Converse. And apparently he's his finger. It's not a vanity title. He actually works for that. But they're so image conscious. You see people have come up on TikTok and social media and digital media.

They've been creating since they're age five. Why wouldn't they want to express their creativity? The fact that the shoes I wear. And you know what? Because they're doing it, there's authenticity to it. And authenticity is what sells fashion. So I don't know if you listen to the podcast, Smart List, but it's one of the funniest.

I love it so much. Insightful, very funny, three great friends. What are their names? Will Arnett. Will Arnett. You got Jason Bateman. Jason Bateman and Jack from Will and Grace. And it's a tremendous show.

And look, these guys typically have on their store, they got a merch store. Like that's what you do. That's how you find a new income stream. How did they find their way into having their own cell phone service? Well, it's interesting because you're now seeing these podcast stars being signed for hundred million dollar deals and migrating to television, YouTube. But what they did differently is they said, we've got such a following and we're kind of represent the people. Like we're not the elite, we're just the average

guy you want to have a beer with. So a cell phone service came in saying we're launching this line extension value brand, everybody's in the no-frills space, why don't we do it with you? You three be the lead singers of it, we'll give you a cut of the action. You don't have to do anything, you're not like they're going to go hang fiber anywhere. They're just simply trading on their celebrity. It goes back to the same story we talked about. When you build a following bigger than CBS, we have a hundred million followers. When you have every week somebody's listening to your podcast, that's the attention that every marketer lives for. Attention is the oxygen of marketing. They breathe attention and therefore they can sign these deals. And tell you something, they're becoming, everybody wants to give me a hundred

million for chatter that matters, I'm all ears I tell you something their podcast they deserve it yeah well and this is this is this is the new media right like I mean the podcast space is probably the most competitive media space around it I think a couple of years ago I was quoting the number that there were there were a million active podcasts like three and a half million now it's three and a half million I mean that's a lot of know I gotta give you a stat I'm in the top half of one percent most popular worldwide with Chad to Magic, that's amazing. 17,000 other podcasts can claim that, including Joe Rogan, who gets more downloads as we're speaking than I've had since my inception. That's how competitive the field is. It is. So

three million television channels. If you're able to cut through that noise and create something of value for your listeners, then that value should translate into money in your pocket. And if they can find ways to do it, I'm all for that. I'm all for it for them. Absolutely. Tony Chapman, thank you very much for being here. I hope you enjoy the rest of this beautiful day. I will. Are you ready for a life changing opportunity? BC Cancer is actively hiring for all healthcare roles across all its regional centers in beautiful British Columbia. Join a dedicated team committed to ending cancer for good. And experience the lifestyle you've always dreamed of in stunning BC.

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