The Ben Mulroney Show - Is Canada being too generous in foreign aid?

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

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Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. It is Monday, December 1st. I am back from my trip to Israel, ready for a great week ahead. I'm going to do my best to help you, our listeners and our viewers on YouTube, to be armed with the information that you need going forth from Monday to Friday. Today, we're going to start out with a question. A question to you, a question to our government, a question to ourselves. How much should Canada be giving in 4 and 8? Should we be giving less?

Put another way, should we be looking to help ourselves? The bigger question is, how do you determine the benefit to Canada or its entities when you're cutting huge checks elsewhere? So just as a reminder, this liberal government has cut foreign aid significantly, but we're still giving away a lot. Here is Anita Anand talking about how much money we're giving to Africa. First of all, I want to say that Africa is Canada's largest recipient of international assistance, and our assistance will continue. Over the past five years, Canada has invested $4.5 billion in bilateral international assistance programming in Africa to build economies, to support health and education, and to respond to humanitarian needs. Listen, high level, of course you want to help people who need help. When my dad passed away, when my dad passed away, we had so many dignitaries from so many

different countries waiting in line to pay their respect, especially in Ottawa, where most of them make their home. And I want to say it was the Bahamas. I could be wrong. It might have been Jamaica, and I apologize if I'm getting it wrong, but I think it was the Bahamas. A representative of the government of the Bahamas stopped and shook my hand and thanked me and he said, you know, your dad made the modern economy of my nation possible because he forgave all of our debt, which is ostensibly the same thing. He forgave our debt

and because of that we were able to build our international airport, which today is the single most important driver of our economy. Without that, we do not have a modern-day nation. There are certain types of investments abroad that work because that country is stable and successful and prosperous, and that's what you want in all of your neighbors. But it feels to me that, and again, I'm placing this at the feet of our previous prime minister, when he started looking at everything through gendered and racial lenses, And, and, um, and, yeah, gendered and racial lenses that what happened was everything became mucked up.

You weren't looking at, you weren't looking at, uh, helping out a country, uh, to build an airport. You were like, okay, we want to invest in this country because we're going to help them, um, promote transgender farmers of dandelions. You know, I made that up, but it could be, that could happen. and the reason I'm confident in making up that hypothetical is the case and point. This week in questionable spending. We're spending $4 million of Canadian taxpayer money on a Lebanese ski chalet. Let's listen to MP for Kitchener South Hesbler, Matt Strauss, asking about this Lebanese multi-gender ski school.

Canada is undergoing an affordability crisis, food bank usage, in my region of Waterloo has gone up five times over the last few years. I've had people at the doors telling me they're worried about paying their rent. Nobody under 35 can afford a house. Could you explain to Hungary taxpayers why it would be a good use of their money to send $4 million to Lebanese Ski Soldier School for multi-gender occupancy? Thanks very much for your question. Supporting international development isn't, it's not about choosing between helping others

and helping ourselves. It's really about recognizing that we live in this interconnected world where global stability, health, and prosperity directly affect Canadians. So we take the perspective that by addressing issues like poverty, like inequality, and conflict in countries around the world, whether it's global south or other countries where poverty exists or security challenges exist, as they do in Lebanon, Canada's international assistance directly supports Canadian security,

their prosperity as well as their well-being. Yeah, okay. I mean, that doesn't hold water for me. I'm sorry. The program's purpose, to be fair, said the counterterrorism capacity building program provides assistance to foreign states to enable them to prevent and respond to terrorist activity.

It supports global efforts to fight terrorism and address terrorist threats to Canadians and Canadian interests throughout the world. But it's a ski school. So I don't get that. And here's what I'll say. I am now at this point, having watched and paid attention to these things,

far more reticent to believe that the purpose of the program is exactly what is going to be funded. And the reason I'm skeptical is because of the money that we've been giving to the UN under UNR. UNRWA is supposed to be helping the educate the people of Gaza. That's the point. Money's supposed to go in there. It's supposed to open schools and supposed to teach these kids. But over the past few years, what have we learnt? Unra, a lot of the people who work for Unra actually participated in the October 7th one-day Holocaust.

And what is being taught to young Gossens, young impressionable Gossens, is some of those vile anti-Semitism that is leading to the radicalization of an entire generation. That's where our money has been going. Now, I guarantee you, the program purpose that you would find on their website would say nothing about what I've just told you. So I don't trust a program purpose as stated. I need to know where that money is going because I guarantee you that what is being described is not the end goal or the end result of Canada's $4 million investment. And I say $4 million here, but we've been spending money hand over fist for years. Canada is spending abroad.

I've already laid out that I think certain types of spending absolutely appropriate. but we've got the head of UNAID who's urging Canada to reverse cuts in foreign aid Ottawa has pledged to spend 17% lower than in 2022. That's despite Mark Carney's campaign promise

not to cut foreign aid and the government says this is a return to pre-pendent pandemic spending levels. Justin Trudeau blew the lock off the wallet and just started giving out money like oh remember the Joker in 1989's Batman where he's just sending money in the

air, right? He's on the float. He's about to kill everybody in Gotham with the gas or no, turn everybody into the Joker. It became sort of a bit of a meme whenever Trudeau as prime minister would go on a trip. I remember he went on a trip to the Pacific Rim for three days and he gave away a total of a billion dollars. Yeah. Over a billion dollars. And I was like, can you just not go somewhere and shop? Stop shopping. Yeah. Again, you know, we put the credit card away. We postulated that this was an effort by him. to, I don't know, but I think he won the Nobel Prize

and I think he was going to earn it by spending our money. And we had a lot of reaction to that one. A lot of people said, wow, you know what? I think that might be true. Yeah. Well, here's the problem as I see it.

The liberals can keep spending money on ski chelets while we have problems making ends meet in this country. They can keep doing that. But one day, the reaction to this will be the election of a government

that has a completely different set of priorities and they will shut off the taps. That will be a reaction to the profligate spending that we've seen over the past 10 going into 15 years. And so they can either keep doing this and keep spending

when we cannot feed our people when the use of food banks has become chronic. And if anybody thinks it's going to get better over the next few years, you're wrong, it's going to get worse. And when we keep hearing stories like this, the reaction will be somebody getting elected

saying our policy is going to be to turn off all aid until we reach a balanced budget. And we will have no one to blame but ourselves and the most progressive people who will rail against that choice as an election. That is a direct reaction to this sort of spending. Turn it down. I'm not saying turn it all off,

but if you don't rein it in, And I do not believe it's been rained in enough yet. If you do not rain it in, the reaction to your spending will be somebody getting elected saying no more spending until we get our books in order. Mark my words. All right. When we come back, we want to hear from you. How do you think Canada should balance foreign aid with fixing issues back at home? Is it a zero-sum game?

Does somebody have to lose for somebody else to win? Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney show. At Edmonton Cabota, they power Alberta's hardest workers from the farmers who feed the people to the crews who build communities. Whether you're running orange in the field, yard, or job site, the Edmonton Cabota teams here with dependable sales, service, and parts to keep you moving. From compact tractors and RTVs to track loaders and excavators, Cabota delivers performance that works as hard as you do. Because at Edmonton Cabota, they don't just sell machines. They stand behind the people who run them.

are Cabota. You are our family. The holiday season is full of choices. Cranberry sauce or gravy, skip rent, or skip Christmas. I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Murray of the Salvation Army. When poverty gives someone an impossible choice, your donation is their answer. Donate now at Salvationarmy.com. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show, and now it's time to turn the microphone over to you. Give us a call at 416-8-6400 or 1-3-8-2-25 talk. That's 416-8-60-6400 or 1-3-8-2-25 talk. We want to talk about foreign aid and how much is too much in a time where we just don't

have enough money in this country to pay for our bills and to pay, to take care of the citizens who are paying the taxes that are being sent abroad. I am of the opinion that foreign aid is absolutely important. And when you can give, you should give. I don't know if we have a lot of money these days to give to anyone. When you hear about all the issues facing Canadians and all the problems, most of which are self-inflicted, how much is too much? And so that's what we want to hear from you.

And I do want to point out that our unofficial fact checker, a certain Daniel Nicholas Dimitri Mulroney, was listening. and the gentleman who shook my hand and told me about my dad forgiving the debt of his nation that led to the opening of their airport was from Barbados. So Nick, thank you very much for joining and thank you for clarifying and thank you for keeping me on the right side of wrong. Oh, you know what?

I don't, yeah, let me open this up again. And so, yeah, so the question is how much is too much? And Deis Spargala, I did not have my phone thing open. So can you open the first line? oh i've got it open now uh let's here we'll go to frank frank welcome the show good morning ben i think too much is i can't give an exact amount but i i look at it this way the people that built his country especially the baby boomers at those that have reached close to retirement age or have reached that age uh the government just recently uh i think it

was in the summer changed the the issue on cp benefits for those that turn 65 so what they're doing now is each and every year, they're increasing the retirement age up to 67, 68, 69, and you're not going to be entitled to full benefits on CPP until you meet that criteria. So you're taking money away from people that paid into the tax system that is paid into the tax base for the government. And so to me, the fact that you're taking that money away from the people that are entitled to those benefits at the retirement age goes totally contrary to what they're doing right now in terms of foreign aid.

As far as I'm concerned, they should keep the retirement age as it is and not make people suffer down the road because the cost of living for the elderly and those that are retiring is going to be a big problem, as we know. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you very much, Frank. I hadn't heard about those changes. I do know that years ago, the Harper government had successfully negotiated a transition to a later retirement age from 65 to 67, which was supported by all the economic data that

first of all, we're living longer, which means we can work longer and more healthily. And it was going to save so much money by having people work just a little bit longer and have less time on the back end, really. And then that was immediately reversed by not only Justin Trudeau, but by Bill Morno, his finance minister who had written a paper on why Stephen Harper was right and he came in and reversed it. So I thought that was

cheap political theater at the expense of smart policy, but that's just one man's opinion. Let's bring Mark into the conversation. Mark, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hi, Ben, how are you? I'm well. I just said, I spoke to your producer and my suggestion is like we should give foreign aid. I agree with you on this.

But we have to, as Canada, we have to give the money with some, you know, strings attached, just like America is doing with Israel, for example. Like, we can't just give money so we can feel better about ourselves that we're charitable, no. We have to have some benefit coming back to Canada.

Yeah. For example, the military industries in the U.S., the funding that America is giving Israel is basically with the strings that they have to spend all that money back on American military industry. Oh, yeah. 100%. I'm agreeing with you about this nonsense, Mark, that the money that the Americans give Israel

is not, doesn't come back to them by a significant multiple, is a fallacy. It's a fallacy. Every dollar that they... They're sharing technology, the Iron Dome, the now the new laser, you know, interceptors. It's incredible. America wouldn't have that technology without Israel's help. And I appreciate... It pays them dividends.

in it pays them dividends. In the same token, your producer mentioned that the deal that America did with Ukraine, they got mineral rights. Why can't we do the same? I agree. That's very smart. We help your economy. Give us the mineral rights.

All right, Mark. Thank you very much for the call. And look, I keep going back to UNRA, right? I keep going back to the UN agency that's responsible for aid into Gaza. I mean, we spend $25 million a year in recurring payments. we went so far as to commit 90 million from 2019 to 2023 and it was uncovered that the links between Unra and Hamas were dangerously close I mean sleeping in the same bed close how how supporting an agency that supports and emboldens Hamas that educates a generation of young Ghazans indoctrines into conspiracies about the Jews that only makes them want

to fight for the extinction of Israel. How does that make Canada safer? How does that make the world safer? How is that an investment in anything but a more complicated and dangerous world? I don't know. So as far as I'm concerned, that's why I'm dubious and cynical

about a lot of these decisions. Paul, welcome to the show. Hey, Ben. Charity begins at home. There was an article about a month ago from the Fraser Institute that state basically the money Canada has given away in foreign aid in the last 10 years would be no homeless in Canada. They'd all have an apartment or a home of some type. And also, refugees come to Canada. They get hotel rooms. Canadians sleep in the park or in subways.

like charity begins at home. We've got to start looking after Canadians first until our economy turns around and we're actually financially able to help other countries. Yeah, it doesn't feel to me like we have a well-thought-out plan. We've got to take a look at the entire operation. You could argue, Paul, that our refugee, our welcoming of refugees is in and of itself

a form of international aid. You know, giving refuge is... I mean, how is that any different than sending a check abroad? To me, it's the same thing. It seems like Canada's become the welfare ops of the world. We just give everything away

and we don't look after our own. Well, the imagery that I like to lean on because I think it's accurate. It's, you know, we're not welcoming people into a home and just say, hey, come on in. We're welcoming people into an elevator And an elevator only has certain capacity.

And if you put too many people on, you run the risk of the cable snapping and everybody on the inside perishing. And that's, and we haven't, we're living in a world, we're living in a country where a lot of people who cut the checks just think we can keep bringing people on board without any danger that the elevator is going to snap. It's total insanity, then. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's welcome Tim in the conversation. Tim, welcome. Yeah, well, I guess

Dallantis qualifies as foreign aid because they're in the States now. We gave them $15 billion to be dollars. They won't even go to the hearings now to see what it's all about. Oh, right. I missed that last week, but

that was great. That was a, yeah, they couldn't show up. He's giving all this money away to these foreign companies to do business as Canada, but they never do. Some go and solve it.

And you mean to tell me that currently isn't going to have Brookfield built that pipeline that goes in? Again, that's going out of the country. Hey, thank you. very much for the call, Tim. I got time for one more, and so let's welcome Jim. Jim, welcome to the show. I appreciate being on. When you're on an airplane and they give you the little speech at the

front, it says, they say, put your mask on yourself before you put it on others. And we should take care of ourselves, get ourselves out of debt, and then we have more to pay to others. We wouldn't be paying so much in interest. Yeah. And look, if we need to If we need to do a crawl, walk, run sort of thing, how about we go through the line item by item of all the foreign aid and let's look at where it's best served first? Like I said, Unra is the first to go. Light that one on fire.

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