The Ben Mulroney Show - Is Donald Trump dragging Pierre Poilievre down in the polls?

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Trump anchor dragging down Poilievre’s Conservatives fast with Guest: Warren Kinsella, Former Special Advisor to Jean Chretien and CEO of the Daisy Group -Tesla Cybertruck has higher rate of fire fatalities than the Ford Pinto with Guest: Joe Wilkins - Staff Writer, Futurism -Even The Brave Struggle Mental Health Campaign to Support Veterans and War-Affected Communities with Guest: Valeriy Kostyuk, Executive Director of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation 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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It's Ben O'Hara burn in for Ben Mulrooney on this Thursday. You may have seen the polls, I don't know how much you trust the polls, but you may have seen the polls of length that show that what had been a gargantuan conservative lead over the federal liberals has slipped away. Not entirely, they're still on their way to a majority, but it is a slim one and the trends are going the wrong way. It fell about 30% in six weeks if you look at some of the shifting going on. Part of that is the NDP. Support has kind of collapsed quite a bit. The Bloc Québécois aren't doing as well in Quebec.

The Liberals have been surging. And it's odd because you could say part of it was Justin Trudeau resigning or at least announcing his resignation. But Mark Carney is doing really well in these polls, considering the fact that I'm pretty convinced most Canadians don't know much about Mark Carney at all. There's going to be a big Canada First rally over the weekend. Pierre Poliev is holding one in Ottawa,

coincides with Flag Day. But they found themselves for the first time in quite some time, kind of on the back foot. And my next guest thinks there's one person, one person responsible for that, and he's not in Ottawa. He's in Washington or in Florida. Warren Kinsella is a former special advisor to Jean Cretze, CEO of the Daisy Group, and he joins me now.

Warren, thank you. Always a pleasure. Thanks, my friend. This has been an interesting shift. I can't remember seeing something change so fast and we'll see how how how long it holds but you think this is down to the pure poly up as a Donald Trump Rob right now. Yeah, he's got a well, so does the country but yeah, I have to start it at

the start of the year as you pointed out, you know, the Liberal Party of Canada was at 16% support and the Tories were 30 points ahead according to the Angus Reid Institute. Six weeks later, basically according to many polls including Leger who's considered the most accurate federal pollster, they're tied. And when the question becomes, and this is the question now, who do you want to represent Canada in dealing with Donald Trump? Pierre Pauliev loses that debate by a long shot to Mark Carney. And it's extraordinary because Mark Carney has never even held political office. None of us really know anything about him.

No, I think Mark Carney could walk down most Canadian streets and people might recognize He's never even held political office. None of us really know anything about him. No, I think Mark Carney could walk down most Canadian streets, and people might recognize him, maybe, but most probably would. That's what I don't get about what's happened here, and why it is that the Trump administer, the Trump arrival. I mean, it's obvious we know about the 51st state and so on, but why it's been really benefiting a party that's been in power for nearly a decade now with an outgoing Prime Minister state and so on, but why it's been really benefiting a party that's been in power for

nearly a decade now with an outgoing prime minister who's about as unpopular as a prime minister can get? Well, I think the reason why Poliev is losing, it's three P's. So the party, there is a suspicion that Canadians have that about 50% of the Conservative party sympathize with Trump or like him, and that is accurate. There's polling reflecting that. There's policy. So for example, when in the same week that Trump is gutting USAID and destroying foreign

aid from the United States around the world, Poliev has a speech and announces essentially to do the same thing here in Canada. But I think the big thing is him personally. I think Canadians strongly suspect that at the end of the day, he's much more sympathetic to Donald Trump's worldview than in opposition to it. So he really needs to address that. The conservatives, or thousands of them, are gathering in Ottawa this week. And Paul Yev's got a big speech on Saturday to the assembled conservatives. He really needs to do

what Stephen Harper has done and just come out very clearly against Trump and say I'm gonna fight this guy because I think that's the big reason why he's lost so much ground. Yeah I mean I still think the conservatives overall I still think a new broom sweep sweeps clean is a pretty convincing argument in the next election, whenever it may be. But what would you like to see from Pierre Pelliev on Saturday? You mentioned, I mean, Stephen Harper's been unequivocal.

He talked about Canada earlier this week, talked about Canada needing to, he would be willing to allow Canada to suffer, not to be subjugated. And that was about as unequivocal as I've heard from anyone, other than maybe Jean-Claude Zeynep late. I mean, it's the former prime ministers who are outshouting the odds at this point. Yeah, no, that is what he needs to do.

Harper is showing him the way. And I don't think he would be conservative leader if Harper hadn't given him his blessing. It's still the conservative party of Stephen Harper in many respects. So that's what Pauliev needs to do. And he needs to show clearly that he opposes this man and opposes his policy and he's gonna fight it, if up to and including impoverishing the country. Because right now he's left that ground,

he's left that argument entirely to the liberals who have now clawed back from 16 percentage points to being a realistic prospect to being elected for a fourth time. It's extraordinary. I've never seen anything like this in all the years I've been involved in politics. It's just wild, but it's real. And Donald Trump's the reason. It's part of the issue here too, and you alluded to it earlier.

Every party in some way, shape or form is a coalition. And when you're united on something, you do well. And when you're divided on something, you tend to suffer. And for a long time, the conservatives, at least under Pierre Poliak, have been a very united party on a lot of issues. He's managed to avoid many of the landmines that have brought down some of his predecessors. The Trump one's a difficult one. It's a difficult one to navigate.

Yeah. The Trump one's a difficult one. It's a difficult one to navigate. Yeah, and it is difficult because, you know, full disclosure, I've worked for Hillary Clinton, I've worked for Kamala Harris. I was proud to do so both times. A large part of the reason I did so is because I opposed this man. But the one thing I've learned about him is he's predictably unpredictable. You don't know what he's going to do and, you know And all of us are back to where we were four years ago, waking up in the morning and looking at our devices to see what happened overnight.

And so the latest is tariffs on steroids are coming our way. We need leadership in this country who has a plan to deal with that. I actually believe Polly have does to be fair to him. I think he's actually got a pretty good plan to deal with that. I actually believe Paulie does to be fair to him. I think he's actually got a pretty good plan to deal with tariffs. We want to see what's in his soul. You know, we want to see what's in his heart. You know, John Kretzky, when I worked for him, you know, I wrote speeches for him. I always knew how to end every speech. Viva Canada, Viva Canada.

And he loved Canada. And so did Stephen Harper. That's what we need to see from Pierre Poliev instead of all this crap going around saying the country is broken. It's not broken. It's a country that needs improving, but it's the best country in the world. And we don't want to become the 51st state and we want Pierre Poliev to say that and show that he means it. And he hasn't done that yet. Yeah.

I mean, I think it's been for him. He's been so successful at, with the strategy that he means it and he hasn't done that yet. Yeah I mean I think it's been for him he's been so successful with the strategy that he's been employing for so long. The pivot is tough. The pivot is tough. He's a fantastic parliamentarian. He's a very good opposition leader. Switching gears and becoming a sort of uniter in chief is not an easy thing to do. We've seen other many a leader fail at it or at least struggle to make that shift. Yeah, it reminds me of Tom Mulcair, everybody right around saying he's great in Question Period and great in the House of Commons. The House of Commons in Question Period is what

Canadians think is wrong with politics, not what's right, you know. And the other thing is I can't remember the last time I saw Pierre Polyev smile. Like it's a great country and it's full of great people and you got to talk it up and you got to promote it particularly at a time like this when we're under attack and he's not doing that and I think that's one of the reasons why he's falling behind. Yeah we'll see if he does that on Saturday. Mark Carney, I mean there's been some speculation there was some right reporting out this week that the NDP are prepping for an election before that Carney essentially if he wins, will pull the plug and go to the polls. They don't want to see the government fall. They want to dictate this themselves.

Does that ring true to you? Yeah, it does. It didn't. If you'd asked me that two weeks ago, I think that the Carney guys would be trying doing a dirty deal with the NDP, trying to kick the can down the road to September or October. But yeah, they'd be crazy now not to consider taking advantage of this anti-Trump sentiment and pushing for a snap election. Because right now, Poliev is back on his heels and the Liberals are looking like a pretty good option to oppose Donald Trump.

So yeah, things are changing by the day, by the hour, but right now the odds favor the liberals. Yeah, although we all do remember sort of the bumps that Kim Campbell and John Turner had back in the day. Warren, it's always a pleasure. Thank you. Thanks, my friend. What do you think of Elon Musk? What do you think of Tesla Cybertrucks? There are a few on the roads where I am. They're different looking, that's for sure. I can't tell whether they're hideous or kind of cool. I leaned hideous at first, but I'm seeing more of them now as you start to get used to them. They do look impenetrable. They look like tanks. They

look like something you would have seen out of a sci-fi movie or somewhere in some war zone. You know, these big blocks of aluminum and steel. But, but how safe are they? How safe are they? Because there's been some reporting of late looking into the fact that there's been some fires involving cyber trucks, Tesla cyber trucks. Now, this is anecdotal.

So take this with a grain of salt. We're not trying to suggest that these are terrible vehicles, but there seems to be an issue of the approximately 34,000 cyber trucks on the roads. There's been five fire fatalities and that even by historical terms say compared to something like a Ford Pinto is pretty high. Joe Wilkins is a staff writer at Futurism and he joins me now with more on this one. Joe thanks for your time. Yeah absolutely thanks for having me Ben. This has been

an interesting one. I guess there's a lot of talk about the Cybertruck because as vehicles go, it's an odd looking one. Yeah, absolutely. It's pretty unorthodox, to say the least. I mean, it's very angular. It's kind of this hard aluminum shell. It's bizarre. What are your, yeah, what are your thoughts on the deal? Do you like them or not? Uh, you know, I'm kinda, I was in Biblio and on a map first. Um, but then I kind of started to, uh, read about, um, traffic incidents and things involving, um, the cyber truck.

And it seems like, I don't know, maybe some of these people, um, the types of people who can afford them, the types of people who can afford them, the types of people who are driving them, are maybe not so, you know, courteous on the road. And so that kind of started this trek for us to kind of look into the actual, you know, safety statistics. Yeah, interesting point. The interesting point that if you drive a Cybertruck by nature, you're sort of,

you're gonna be a bit of a dominant, domineering person on the road. What did you find then? Because I was interested in this article that I saw and that you wrote about as well, about the fact that there'd been more fires than one would expect, fatal fires in Cybertrucks. Yeah, absolutely.

So far there have been five fire related deaths as you notice, and compared to the four Pinto, which sold about a little over like 3 million units, in total there were 27 fire fatalities across its entire lifespan, which comes out to like a little less than one fatality per 100,000 units, whereas the Cybertruck so far is a little under 15 fire fatalities

per 100,000 units. Wow. Is there any idea of what might be going on with it? Because I know obviously I think in that data was included that incident at the Trump Hotel in Vegas, I think there was sort of a crash involving kids, college kids in California where there may have been alcohol involved. But is there any idea of what could be technically wrong with the vehicle? The data is hard to find, right? Yeah, it's tough to find exactly what the cause of these fires are. But it tends to be, in these couple cases we have so far,

it tends to be that passengers can't really get out. Anyone who's driven a standard Tesla, either the luxury sedan or the luxury SUV model, you know, they know the handles of the Tesla are kind of flimsy. They're maybe just a little bit fragile. They're not quite as intuitive as a standard, you know, bulky handle that most of us

would expect in our vehicles. So you mentioned these three in California. Their cyber truck veered off the road and burst into flames, which investigators think was the result of something to do with the battery. Maybe some part there, some wire got dislodged, and causes lithium battery to spark up, which would be fine in most cases,

in most cars. But in this case, the doors were locked and sealed when the battery went out. So these three, unfortunately weren't able to escape. One other passenger did, he was rescued by a passerby but he escaped with some pretty severe injuries as well which is just not a great sign overall you know. Yeah, yeah I mean how did you sort of come across, I mean this is obviously a story that people are talking about because the vehicle is being talked about but what else did you find when it came to the Cybertruck?

Yeah, so with the Cybertruck, there are also some issues with the self-driving mode. This is kind of a big one for us at Futurism is these self-driving, I guess the self-driving software is sort of unregulated. We don't necessarily know what exactly is behind the hood, you know, so to say. And within Tesla's overall, this autopilot has already been involved in about 52 deaths, including two where full self-driving mode was used. Now on these Cybertrucks, there have already been a number of accidents and injuries related

to self-driving mode. There was one just the other day that was reported where a gentleman was driving down a straight highway and all of a sudden the Cybertruck on self-driving mode decided to throw itself into oncoming traffic thinking that there was a driveway there. So there are some questions about you know what kind of stock where are we introducing on our roads it's unregulated we don't know what's going on there and it's really putting people in danger. Yeah tell me about the unregulated part because I mean I remember back to sort of I mean I'm old enough to remember the Ford Pinto. I remember back to the days of sort of Ralph Nader and car testing and making cars safer. And in fact, they managed to cut down automotive deaths significantly

with, with much tighter regulation and so on. What about this whole new generation of vehicles with that are so software based and so on? What does that look like? I mean, I don't know how much you cover this, but what does it look like for something like a cyber truck, for instance? like? I mean, I don't know how much you cover this, but what does it look like for something like a Cybertruck, for instance? Yeah, it's a great question. And it's unfortunately very hard to dig into, but it seems to be more or less non-existent. These things are, at least in the United States, the NHPFA, which is usually involved in regulating and collecting crash data and independently verifying the safety of vehicles, has not released any information about the Cybertruck.

And Tesla hasn't either. It's all proprietary. They're a private company. Just the fact that the federal government in the United States, at least, isn't really looking into this suggests that we're really just letting these things go. We're not really too worried about what's going on or protecting pedestrians or other drivers. Right. Where to from here then? Because I gather one of the big issues here is that the data is one, hard to find and B, for the time being, inconclusive, right?

Yeah, that's a great question. So ideally, this kind of reporting and these kinds of discussions would kind of spawn a national conversation and then regulators would hopefully look into that. Unfortunately, the state of the United States right now, where the regulators are sort of being ransacked by Elon Musk himself, suggested that might be a long way off, at least until the next administration, if not longer. Joe, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for filling us in on this. Absolutely, Ben. Thanks for having me. Joe Wilkins is a staff writer at Futurism. So

again the data is, it's just not enough data out there to know exactly what's going on, but reports have shown that there have been fatalities, fire related fatalities in Tesla Cybertrucks at a rate that would exceed, if they're all in fact exactly what they say they are, that would exceed what the Pinto had back in the day, if you remember the Ford Pinto and its famous gas tank at the back. As Joe was pointing out, the issue, at least in one of the crashes, was not being able to get out of the car, essentially being trapped inside it. But one would think now that Elon Musk is essentially in charge of government efficiency. I wonder exactly how many people are going to be looking into this. We will soon see as time goes on. But food for thought and certainly something that one hopes

will be looked at a little more in depth. It's been a hair burn in for Ben-Balruni on this Thursday. The third anniversary of the further invasion of Ukraine is in 11 days, 24th of February 2022. I was on the air when it began, when it began. And it has been three years of torment and hell for Ukrainians, their country essentially, an invasion launched to take over the country that they've managed to repel for the past three years. It has left, as you can imagine, an enormous toll on both the population that remained and the population that have left.

Many have come to this country. And so the Canada-Ukraine Foundation is launching a humanitarian appeal, or through the Ukraine humanitarian appeal is proud to announce the launch of its mental health campaign. It's called Even the Brave Struggle, and it's going to provide veterans access to critical support and mental health programs, clearly veterans who are there, which is a big issue as well. I mean the war rages on despite what you may hear in the news the war rages on. Peace is not there yet and may not be, it may not be, it may be a very shaky piece at that.

And there are many who need this kind of help. And it's been launched, of course, at the same time as the Temerty Foundation and the UCC, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress are supporting Team Ukraine at the Invictus Games in Vancouver in Whistler 2025, which basically celebrates those who served and been injured in many different ways. So this all coincides, Romeo Delaire, the Canadian, of course, who knows a lot about trauma and war and so on as part of this as well. Valeri Kostuk is executive director of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. He joins me now. Valeri, thank you for your time.

Thank you for having me. I can't begin without asking you just about your reaction to what we've heard over the past little while about the conversations going on about the war in Ukraine, just your reaction to what you've heard at this point. I mean, as you've highlighted, the war has been, the full-stop, you know, incurring physical injuries, destruction, and so on. So I have to say it's, Ukrainians are exhausted, they need our help to get through this. Currently there's a lot of conversations that are being very, very theoretical, of conversations that are being very, very theoretical and of how this war will continue on or pause or change, let's put it that way. But regardless of what is going to happen in the next

little bit, Ukrainians need our support. We need to continue supporting Ukrainians during this time. And we need to continue standing with them. I mean, we as Canadians know well what it is and are able to mobilize and stand on the side of light. And that's exactly what we need to continue doing regardless of what's coming in the next little while. Yeah. Are you concerned at all about what you've heard about the words that of what's coming in the next little while. Yeah, are you concerned at all about what you've heard about the words that have been emerging from Donald Trump and over the last day or so, just the tone of what, what I worry about is that it's gonna be about a deal,

not about a fair deal. Well, what I really hope is that whatever negotiations are going to be taking place in the next little bit, that they end up allowing Ukraine to rebuild or allowing Ukrainians to rebuild and to allow Ukrainians to be successful and also safe. So that's the sentiment with which I'm personally, and I know a lot of Ukrainians share that sentiment, my hope is that the next steps are going to be beneficial to Ukraine and Ukrainians. And I mean, it's in the, Ukrainians need to have a voice at the table during these negotiations as well. And you know, I hope that whatever comes next is going to be beneficial to the people that have

survived, that have been living through unimaginable horrors for the last 10 years. I mean, that brings us to the even the brave struggle. Tell me a bit about this campaign. I gather it's to help those who suffered through the horrors of war on the front lines in Ukraine. So, so this is even the brave struggle is a campaign that we're launching through our cuff UCC Ukraine humanitarian appeal, which is a program that we've been running for past three years and we've established three weeks before the full-scale invasion started so that we as Canadians are ready to address the humanitarian needs. So we're launching the campaign, even the Brave Struggle, and your listeners can learn more about it on cufoundation.cr website. But it's a program that we're launching to raise funds to support mental health programs

for the Ukrainian veterans and civilians as well for rehabilitation, you know, to aid recovery and reintegration of people that have, you know, incurred either physical or mental injuries, and as well as essential and other essential humanitarian assistance for war-affected communities. So even the BRAVE struggle is all about us saying that it's completely normal to ask for help, especially after incurring all of these injuries despite, you know, and it's an opportunity for us to say that Ukrainians are not alone, that people of Ukraine that need our help are, it's completely fine to ask for help and yet stay brave. You know, asking for help is also part of bravery.

So we have launched this campaign. It will run through April 6th. And your listeners can donate and become part of this movement at cufoundation.ca. We've been supporting mental health programs over the last couple of years that address the needs of civilians, veterans, families, and children.

Because supporting mental health is all about a complex approach. It's about not being able to, it's about not facing, you know, internal challenges that you face mentally alone. It's about being able to ask for help and receiving that assistance. It must be so hard to deliver those. It must be, I mean, given the situation, the ongoing situation, considering it is still a country at war, it must be hard to deliver those services to actually find ways to bring that kind of much needed help and help that will become even more important if and when there's any kind of peace. Deliver it to them now.

Yeah. So here's the thing. I mean, there's a lot of like, we talk to them now. Yeah, so here's the thing. I mean, there's a lot, like we talk about PTSD all the time, but PTSD is about post-trauma after already living through these issues. Ukrainians are living in this now. So they continue every single day to incur constantly these mental health injuries. And these injuries can become deeper, deeper and deeper. So it's about providing support now

so that they're able to endure through these challenges, continue enduring these challenges and also get support that they need afterwards. For example, the investments that we're making right now into Ukrainians will allow them to rebuild and recover after this war is either paused or over. And the thing is, we here in Canada know what, understand all these issues. For example, General Romeo de Lair is a great Canadian advocate for mental health issues incurred in conflict zones. I mean, his story is-

And he's working with you, right? He's working with you. So we are collaborating with him on this campaign to attract attention, to raise attention to the issues that Ukrainians are facing using his personal story on this. So General Roland-Mille Delaire has shared his experience and he has been very open about this and about the mental health injuries that he's incurred in Rwanda during his time. And you know, he has been very vocal about it and yet, and he continues to be a Canadian hero

that has raised the issues, has raised these issues and worked very diligently to address them and he continues to work on these issues, resolving these issues as well. He even went to Ukraine last fall to see everything for his own very eyes. I interviewed him, he told me about his trip there and how impactful it had been. cufoundation.ca is that right, Villerie? cufoundation.ca? Yes, our website is cufoundation.ca where you're able to donate, you're able to read more about this campaign and you're able to take part in the mission of delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine on behalf of Canadians.

Because it's really a Canada-wide effort that we are... I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for explaining what even the Brave Struggle campaign is all about. Thank you so much for having me. Daniel Blanchard is no ordinary thief. His heists are ingenious. His escapes defy belief. And when he sees the dazzling diamond CC Star,

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