The Ben Mulroney Show - Is Jagmeet Singh opening the door to delaying the Federal election until October?

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Is Jagmeet Singh opening the door to delaying the Federal election until October? with Guest: Regan Watts, Founder Fratton Park Inc., former Senior aide to minister of finance Jim Flaherty  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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Sometimes I hate being so... Sometimes I hate having the ability to appear around the corner of history. But it's my burden in life, Canada. And yesterday I was speaking with Opposition House Leader Andrew Shear about the potential of Jagmeet Singh, even though he's ripped up his agreement, he's ripped up his agreement with the Liberals, even though it's gone, it's dead, it's DOA, there's still a chance that he could work with them. And we might not go to the polls until October.

This is what, let's listen to what I had to say. So here's my fear is this becomes some version of a national emergency and the Trudeau government in an effort to get something like this through does a deal with the NDP and says, listen, we're willing to spend a lot of money here and we're gonna need your help. And Jagmeet is able to use that as cover

to vote for this vote in lockstep with the government yet again. And we may not see ourselves go to the polls until October. Yeah, so that was my prediction yesterday. I believe Andrew Scheer said, well, I hope that doesn't happen. And just a few hours later, Jagmeet Singh found himself in front of a microphone.

Here's what he had to say. I'll just start off by the fact that I've spoken with a lot of workers who are deeply worried about what the Trump terrorists might mean. They say, you know, I will sometimes I lay awake at night saying if that terror goes through, do I lose my job? And what's gonna happen to my kids? What's gonna happen to my family?

When we think about the analysis that's out there, if those Trump tariffs come in place, there are hundreds and thousands of Canadian jobs at risk. Think about what that means for those workers, hundreds of thousands of workers, for their families, for those communities. This could be devastating for our country.

So we do need to have a plan in place to support those that are impacted, those businesses, those workers most importantly. I have not had any conversations with other opposition leaders. I think we need to come together to have a discussion about what is the best way forward. I've not had any discussions

with the government related to this. If there is any desire to move forward, the government should call us together, like we did during COVID, and discuss a plan that supports workers. Now he swears he's still going to vote non-confidence, but boy oh boy does it feel like he's opened the door. Opened the door just a little bit to the potential to delay the election. Joining me to discuss is Regan Watts, the founder of Fretton Park, Inc., as well as a former senior aide to the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty. Regan, what say you?

Morning, Ben. I mean, there's so much that can be said. The Conservatives, and I think they're right, use the line that Jagmeet Singh is a sellout and he prefers his life of luxury more than he prefers to do the work of the people. And I think they're onto something with that. The idea that somehow it is appropriate for Jagmeet Singh and the NDP and the liberals to cut backroom deals that envision spending and these aren't my words, these are words that have been leaked to the global mail. The liberals are planning a aid package in response to the trump tariffs that is the size

of the covid package that they released during the pandemic and at least during the pandemic we could debate those ideas and the merits of the public policy in parliament yeah and instead we have Jagmeet Singh and the liberals who are clearly talking behind the scenes, clearly having backroom conversations, and parliament is where this should happen. It is not responsible to suggest a backroom deal like he has suggested. He's saying the opposition parties need to come together with the government. That's not appropriate. What the government should do is recall parliament and put these ideas on the floor of the House of Commons and have them debated.

And because the liberals had parogued, uh, we still have seven weeks from today before that can happen. Uh, and so we're in a bit of a mess, uh, not least of which is induced by Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, but also the Trump terrorists. Yeah. Uh, Regan, about six or eight months ago, I started banging the drum that the liberals, the NDP, and to a certain extent the Bloc Québécois, because they were so far behind

and the polls were playing keep away with your right to hold them to account at the ballot box. And it was the only party that wasn't afraid of the democratic exercise of people going to the polls and voting were the conservatives. But there's an argument that could be made that, hey, listen, it's they they formed a deal. It's it's within the rules. You might not like it, but it is within the rules. What's going on here with the the leadership race with the proroguing

of parliament with this looming looming terror threat that feels like it could be used as some sort of like I said, national emergency to justify some backroom deal feels like the most anti democratic thing that I can remember. Well, it's not only anti democratic, it's a betrayal of Jagmeet Singh to his party members into Canadians. You know, you mentioned six months ago, Ben, you you've seen the writing on the wall. Well, it was eight months ago that, remember, Jagmeet Singh made that grand display of carrying up the agreement with the liberals. So they don't even have a deal, or at least on paper.

This continues to be a bad breakup. I mean, I've had some bad breakups. This is the worst I have ever seen. And he seems to be a glutton for punishment and seems to enjoy being used by the liberals. One thing that I think needs to be raised, not just by you Ben as a media host, but all Canadian media, is what do Mark Carney and Kristofer Friedland think about the idea of pandemic-level spending? What do Mark Carney and Kristofer Friedland think about cutting deals with Jagmeet Singh?

Is it going to be more of the same? I share your view Ben that we're unlikely to go to an election until October. I think Jagmeet Singh is always going to choose his life as leader of the third party and being driven around in his Maserati and the life of luxury that he leads rather than go to an election. But we have a liberal leadership on right now. And in eight weeks, we will have a new prime minister and the two leading front runners for that party have said nothing about what, you know, they might do or not do with the NDP.

And Jagmeet is doing his very best to let them know he, despite being upset with Justin, he's still available and ready to have a conversation and and get into an arrangement. Yeah, it's the absurdity of having an unelected prime minister leading a government that is not sitting in the House of Commons and a third party leader holding the balance of power that could then unleash unprecedented levels of spending that haven't been authorized by a vote in the House of Commons. I can't believe this is a scenario that is not only plausible, but looking increasingly

possible. Well, Ben, Mark Carney, let's just assume for the sake of this argument that Mark Carney becomes the leader of the Liberal Party. And I think that is the likely scenario because you can see just on the basis of the number of cabinet ministers supporting him and not Freeland, you can tell that Krista Freeland wasn't very well liked by her colleagues and her peers. So let's assume Mark Carney is the Prime Minister after this leadership. He has a major choice to make.

Does he do a deal with the NDP and govern for six months or a year and show Canadians what he has as Prime Minister, or does he chart a different course for the Liberal Party? And we know Jagmeet Singh is thirsty for power and thirsty to vote in election. Where is Mark Carney sitting on this? He has not answered a question on whether or not he would enter into a coalition. He has not done a single media availability, which I think is strange because Mark Carney is eminently qualified to manage a G7 economy. He's a very smart man, he's very well educated, and he has very good experience.

But this is politics, and politics is about accountability to the people. Jagmeet Singh has shown that he's willing to not be accountable to the people by doing backroom deals, but where is Mark Kearney on this? And the NDP, they flip and flop like a coin or a dead fish on the beach.

They've received no benefit for helping the liberals none. They remain mired in, you know, the high teams in the polls. They have no money in the bank. So it shouldn't surprise anybody that they're not ready for an election. And so there's some very real serious questions that should be debated on the floor of the House of Commons. And at minimum Mark Carney, Mr. Carney should be should be asked and host a meeting availability at some of these very real questions that you raised. Well, yeah, I gotta say we have been putting out the call daily to

Mark Carney and his team asking if he would come in and answer some questions. Thus far we have been, I don't know, given the runaround. He's very, very busy, we're told, but I respectfully put it out into the universe. I'm manifesting this. We welcome Mr. Carney to come sit down with us on the Ben Mulroney show at any point.

We welcome him and we would ask him good faith questions and hopefully he would give us good faith answers. Reagan, always appreciate the honest conversation. Great to talk to you again. Great to be with you. Thanks, Ben. The White House has said that Donald Trump plans to follow through on Canada-Mexico tariffs on Saturday. And we heard that straight from the horse's mouth. And by horse, I mean the White House press secretary. to follow through on Canada-Mexico tariffs on Saturday.

And we heard that straight from the horse's mouth and by horse, I mean the White House press secretary. What the Mexicans and Canadians have done so far, do you have any comment on whether that has met the bar? What do you want to say on fentanyl? Thank you. I won't get ahead of the president again on advocating to foreign nations on what they should or shouldn't do to get away from these tariffs.

The president has made it very clear again that he expects every nation around this world to cooperate with the repatriation of their citizens and the president has also got specific statements in terms of uh... canada and mexico when it comes to what he expects in terms of border security we have seen a historic level of cooperation for mexico but again as far as i'm still tracking and that was last night talking to the president directly February 1st is still on the books. Well that's just super. That's just super. Okay so that's the

action right? What is then going to be Canada's reaction? Well we got a glimpse of what one province is looking to do and that was from BC Premier David Eby. Here's what he said about what Americans are going to feel if they if they volley that their threat of tariffs against Canada. British Columbia's are strong, they're resilient, they're tough. Canadians are the same. And there's no question we're up against a superpower. And if the president wishes to use the might of the United States to attack

families in Canada with the aim of getting us to agree to be the 51st state, then he's going to do it. And what I can tell him is and what I can tell Americans is that that will only hurt Americans and that will also hurt Canadians. It makes absolutely no sense. These are unjustified tariffs and it may be that the only way for that message to be delivered is for Americans to actually feel the pain and the consequences of this, visited on them by Canadian retaliation against these tariffs.

Yeah, listen, I don't think anybody in Canada feels that we should just roll over and take it and say thank you. Please sir, may I have some more? And so I think there's broad support for retaliatory tariffs. But David Eby suggests that there could be a target, a specific target to these terror, these Canadian tariffs levied on Americans. Not all Americans should be tariffed equally essentially. They're gonna see impacts even if we did nothing. They'll see higher prices but I believe that we can step up that pain, that we can target it to specific Republican districts where there is support for this agenda and get

the attention of folks about how integrated we are. This is like family members fighting. This is long-time friends refusing to talk to each other. It is bizarre. We have so many shared priorities and interests and shared prosperity, but we will not back down just because the bully is more powerful and bigger than us. Canadians have never backed down because of that. And we're certainly not going to change that today. So my producer and I were going back and forth on on the idea of targeting Republican districts.

And I'm of the opinion that it's a very sound strategy, because if there are people in those districts that support this idea of tariffing Canada, and if they feel the pain, they will let their representatives know. And those representatives are closely aligned to Donald Trump, which means they speak to him. And they'll say, Mr.. Trump I'm losing support from my

constituents who supported you because life has now become more expensive for them. We adopted a policy like this the first the first time we had a tariff war with Donald Trump and I supported it then I support it now. I think it makes a lot of sense you got to you got to hit him where it hurts and it hurts where he is supported. I don't think he cares less about losing support in places where he doesn't have any support, like California, than a place like Florida. And so to me, this makes a lot of sense. And I'm glad to highlight the fact that I'm not somebody who just comes on here and rails against the Trudeau Liberals because they're liberals. I rail against them because I don't like their ideas. This is an idea that I like. This is an idea I support. I

also believe that it will be the most effective way to get what we want. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is warning about the unprecedented economic threat posed by these tariffs. Let's listen. We're going to see an unprecedented attack to our families, to our businesses, to our communities. Something that we've never seen in the history of the country, getting economically attacked by the largest country in the world, the most powerful person in the world when it comes to President Trump. And we're going to be there for him. We're going to support the people. We're going to protect the people, protect their jobs,

protect communities, protect businesses, just like we did during the pandemic. But this is going to be more of an impact. The pandemic was natural around the world. This is a man targeting to attack and take every business out of Ontario, out of Canada, and try to bring it to the United States. And I'll do whatever it takes to protect the people of Ontario. Let's not forget that that the backdrop for those comments

is the announcement that the province of Ontario is now into an election campaign. Premier Ford sort of evolved his messaging to justify the election by saying that he needs a mandate to outlast Donald Trump. We need continuous leadership. We don't want this province over the course of a four-year Donald Trump term where he

is very mercurial. He can say one thing in hour one and do something different in an hour two. We need somebody, a consistent hand on the switch. And that is, that evolution makes a lot of sense to me. I still don't know that this election campaign is justified, but it does make a little sense to me, a little more sense to me, I should say. A story that popped up out of Manitoba is garnering some national attention. There is a school board, school division that's pausing. They're going to pause bringing back singing God save the king in classrooms. It was put forth. There

was some pushback by certain groups and now they're pausing the idea in classrooms. It was put forth, there was some pushback by certain groups, and now they're pausing the idea. And the idea was to play it at the end of every school day. And there was pushback from Aboriginal groups and pushback from other groups that think it's inappropriate. I think it's wholly appropriate. I mean, you don't have to do it if you don't want. This doesn't rise to the level of something that I would get's wholly appropriate. I mean, you don't have to do it if you don't want. This doesn't rise to the level of something

that I would get overly passionate about. But in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in the preamble, it reads, whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law. It's right there in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the supremacy of God. So to have a song, I mean, if anyone's taking issue about the division, like keeping God out of schools, what's right there in the Constitution.

So I don't have a problem with that. And if you're an anti-monarchist, sorry, but that's the system under which we live. That's the system that has allowed Canada to become what it is today. If you don't like it, work within the system to change our constitutional monarchy into something else, a republic. Go ahead. But take the world as it is. And the world as it is, it's a country founded on the supremacy of God, and our head of state is the king. So you got a song that marries those two beautifully. And, you know, if this is controversial, then why isn't flying the pride flag controversial? If this is controversial, then why isn't flying the pride flag controversial?

I don't think either one of them is controversial. And again, I don't, neither debate is one that I'm overly passionate about. But one is promoting inclusion and the other is recognition of who we are as a country. I got no problem with either one. So to me, it's a tempest in a teapot. And I think people just need to sort of calm down.

And the world won't, the sky won't fall if you fly the pride flag or sing God Save the King. One man's humble appeal. Extreme Makeover Home Edition at 8. Home that's us! We are so lucky to be a part of this. And Honest Renovation, starring Jessica Alba and Lizzie Mathis at 9. Changing these homes, we can change families. There's no place like it. Home Network, stream on STAC TV.