The Ben Mulroney Show - Is Poilievre shifting strategies? Also, the chicken of the trees in tacos!

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

Guest: Andy Gibbons, Principal at Walgate Advisory, former VP WestJet Guest: Regan Watts, Founder Fratton Park Inc., former senior aide to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty  Guest: Craig Baird, Host of Canadian History Ehx If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Via Rail, love the way. Now it's time for this week in politics, our midweek panel. And for that, we've got our all-stars. Andy Gibbons, principal at Walgate Advisory, former VP at WestJet. And Regan Watts, founder of Fratton Park and former senior aide to finance administering Jim Flaherty. Guys, happy Wednesday. All right. We've got lots of stories to get to today.

But the first is we're coming off of what was a very good convention, I think, for Pierre Poliev. I think a lot of us thought he'd get 80%. I don't think a lot of us thought to get almost 88% of the vote. But I think more importantly, being reported that there's a change in tone, right? There's a more, it's less of a zero-sum game. It's not for me to win, you have to lose. It's let's work the problem together. And today, actually right now, he's scheduled to be meeting with the prime minister

to talk about the things they can work on together. and I got to ask you first. I'm going to go with you, Regan, first. What do you think of this? I don't know if this gets him where he needs to go, but does it put him on the right path? A couple of things, Ben, and it's good to be back with you. First things, first, you know, Mr. Polyev performed well at his convention.

I think that listeners of this show, who, by the way, include my wife and daughter right now, who are driving to go pick up my son, were well informed, and they knew from both Andy and I that Mr. Polyeb was going to do better than 80%. And that was, you know, his result was 87.6 or something. And I think, you know, that was generally speaking where those of us who follow politics as analysts thought he would end up. You know, the change in tone is noted. I think that's driven in part by a couple of things.

One is the public mood and the expectation that Canadians are having that they want their federal leaders and provincial leaders to be working together in the national interest. And so I think Mr. Polyev his shift and his adjustment is in that context. And then secondly, I think Mr. Polyev has figured that maybe it's time to take a slightly different tack. Some of us have been suggesting to him, including myself, privately for, well, at least a year, that this might be a better approach. And I think you're seeing the response in the coverage he's getting and in how people are responding to him. And that's not to say he needs to change who he is. No. But he does need to change and has changed his approach.

I think the meeting today with the prime minister is as much about routine parliamentary business as it is about being proactive and constructive. And, you know, he deserve, Mr. Palliab does deserve credit for taking that approach. And, Andy, I think there's politically, I think, getting ahead of the, what a lot of people are thinking could be an election in May. This is part of that, right? by putting water in their wine and saying, look, we're going to support things that even though they don't go as far as we want them to go, we're going to support them like they did

yesterday with the grocery, the GST rebate and the crime bill. By doing that, by positioning themselves as trying to work within this minority parliament, I think it takes the wind out of the sales of what I've noticed is the rhetoric coming from the liberal party, which is the Tories are obstructionist, which means eventually we're going to have to, this government's going to have to fall so we can get a majority. And so in terms of holding onto the narrative and controlling it, I think this is a step in the right direction for them. I agree.

And, you know, I think they have figured out. Canadians do not want them in the way of anything right now. They believe that the liberal government should have a broad brush to do what's needed. And the moment that the liberals can successfully label him as obstructionist is a, is a, is a terrible day for federal conservatives so i'm really happy about it i'm glad he's on his front foot i'm glad he's the one requesting meetings i'm glad he's the one and saying stating publicly that he will pass things before steve mckin and others get to force him yeah so that's a that is a shift in strategy and a and a welcome one and one we've talked about a lot on this show um about

how needed it was so um i think there's more to do on that but it's a good start and definitely shows that they're reading the same poles we are. Oh, yeah, you can't bake the cake all at once, right? You got to build it. And so, yeah, good first step. Check that box. Yeah, good for a step. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

You know, when Pierre was beaten up on Justin Trudeau, that was good until it wasn't, because they beat him up so much that he left and he was replaced with somebody that at that time, Pierre couldn't beat. So there was too much of a good thing there. And now with the NDP, MPP, and former deputy leader of that party,

of the provincial Ontario NDP, Dolly Begham, who's jumping into Carney's warm embrace and going to be running in the newly vacant seat in Scarborough, Ontario, left by the former chief of police, who's now going to go to the High Commission in London. I wonder whether this idea that they're pulling people from the left,

they're pulling people from the right, It gives credence to the line by Andrew Shear last week that the liberals are unburdened by principle. You don't have to be. Well, but Ben. Well, hold on. I'm just, I'm not, I'm not the only one saying it. Yesterday on CTV, Bob Fife said this is liberal cynicism at its absolute worst. And, and, okay.

So, oh, so I'm just, I'm just, I'm a. positing the question. Is it too much of a good thing? If you're making yourself so available that people from the left and people from the right are coming into your embrace, yes, it could mean that you have a big tent. It could also mean that you don't stand for anything. And you attract people who don't stand for anything. So, Ben, we all know that liberals don't generally speaking have principles. Their principle is about winning elections. And so I actually agree with Mr. Shear. And your father used to say similar things. And so, you know, to be a cynic and to be a conservative, those of us who compete against the liberals in elections, we know that they care about one thing and one thing only, and that is themselves and winning power. That's the cynical take. The less cynical take, if I'm a liberal, is, wow, we're building a big tent and we're attracting people from all political stripes. And I think, you know, it's probably a bit of column A and a bit of column B. But as Andy knows, and he lives in Ottawa, you know, liberals in that town are malleable in just about any direction. And, you know, the number of backflips and change of positions would embarrass.

as my friend Andy Gibbons like to say Nadia come and each. And so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out, but I'll yield the floor to my friend from Ottawa West Nippean. Yeah, I mean, the thing, man, like hands up if you didn't have to Google Holly Begham when you heard this. Yeah. Hands up if you

didn't have to Google her name. Well, she's on the progressive wing of one of the more progressive I'm using that term very kindly because I would say crack full of crackpots. But a more progressive NDP in the country. And so she has found a home in a party

that just welcomed guys who ran for the Conservative Party in the last election. Yeah. You know, breaking news. Liberals attract someone who thinks they can get a better job. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but the point for me is, you know, nobody knew who this woman was prior to this announcement.

And all of a sudden, it's this political stroke of genius and liberal politics at its best. I'm not convinced it's not a nothing burger, to be honest with you. And I think the danger for liberals is becoming a bit too glib and a bit too confident and a bit too cheeky about some of their moves. And I believe Canadians elected this prime minister, not for some broad mandate, but to focus on the issues and get to a very business-like approach.

So when I started liberals really plain politics, I actually don't think of that's a good, a good thing for them, to be honest. And I think it may come back to bite them. But I had never heard of this woman. I don't know if you two had. No, no, I hadn't. I hadn't either.

There's some hurt feelings in the NDP. But also one last point I'll make, and then we'll go to break. Bob Fife continued. I mean, he pointed out that that's the high level stuff, right? the floor crossing thing or the changing for political stripes is the thing that people latch on to.

But what they're not necessarily talking about is there was no nomination process. There was not, they just, they just picked this person and threw them in. And he questioned their, oh, here's the thing, Ben. Political leaders should be given the right to recruit their team.

Yeah. Political leaders in this country deserve the right to pick their team, whether it's Brian Maruni, Mark Carney, Stephen Harper, Pierre Pallev, Jean-Cretchen. It doesn't matter. If you want somebody to run for you, yes, the grassroots, generally speaking, have a say. But if you want to bring somebody into your team, go ahead.

All right, when we come back, we're going to go to Danielle Smith, who is calling out Ottawa, saying, we need some adults in the room. Alberta's got to have a say in selecting some of our judges because what we've been seeing coming out of the judiciary is crazy town. So we'll talk about that next when the Ben Mulroney show continues.

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All right. It's now, but this is the second segment. In the second segment, it's time. for this is the political play of the week political play of the week oregon you're up i'll be very quick because i suspect andy and i agree on this uh my political play of the week is prime minister stephen harper a former prime minister stephen harper um it was nice to see him get his flowers and receive his flowers yesterday when his portrait was unveiled uh but the reason i'm selecting him as a political play of the week is i actually thought his speech was magnificent um you know mr harper

is a government that I served in, working for the wee angry man, James Michael Flaherty from Whitby. And I have a lot of time and respect and affection for Mr. Harper on the basis of my early career. But his speech was nation-building. He had some very thoughtful things to say. And I thought it was the right vision and voice for a perilous time in the country currently to see him talk about Canada and the way he did. And the way he and the Prime Minister, Mr. Carney, got along and had some fun on stage celebrating the fact that democracy will continue to thrive in this country.

And so my play of the week goes to Mr. Harper. I sent him an email congratulating when I heard that the portrait was coming out. Because I remember in 2002 when Dad's portrait was put up, it was a real moment of pride, real, real moment of pride. So I wished him and his family the very best. And I love how they got a little cat in there, too, because I know that they rescued a whole bunch of cats in 24 for years. All right. You're up, my friend, Andy. minds are the same because like reagan i owe a lot of my early career to to the prime minister

uh and i was lucky enough to attend the portrait ceremony yesterday which was very touching and poignant but for me the for all of the reasons regan mentioned you know whether it's residential schools quebec as a nation fiscal prudence national unity you know this was a serious serious prime minister and someone who's the only prime minister in canadian history to take a third party movement and transition them into a governing party which is so notable but it i think it was also an opportunity to reflect because if you look at the way liberals are talking about prime minister harper this week i think it's a reminder to all of us including regan and i when we talk about prime minister justin trudeau is that you know maybe we need to shave dial back the

the criticism a little bit and recognize how hard these jobs are. And you know that more than than Regan and I ever will, uh, Ben. But, you know, I think it's a moment to pause and say, like, these are actually good people that are doing their best in the national interest, almost all the time. And watching liberals retract some of their, and at the time, I mean, people hated. Buddy, I, I, I, listen, the amount, the amount of people, the rat pack from the 80s, the stuff that they said about dad, the, to a person. Every single one of them has come to me in one way, shape, or form and told me, you know, oh, gosh, we were so crazy at the time. We're so young. We're so, we didn't know what we were doing.

Sheila Cobb said it. Nunziata said it. They all, they all, I get it. I get it. I never, I've never taken issue with Justin Trudeau as a person. I've, and I, I know that the job is sort. I have to only take an issue with him as a leader. And, and so I will not, and I don't talk about him now that he's out of office unless he brings himself up. So I, I, I, I, I, I'm not dialing it back on him. I'm absolutely not. I'm not. If anyone's going to do revisionist history on the damage that was done over the past 10 years,

it ain't going to be me. Fair. Fair. But maybe we are entering a new politics in Canada. And whether that's the Trump effect or Carney or Pierre pivoting, maybe the two decades of really hard-nosed partisan politics can be shaved back a little bit in this country. I'll tell you something that I do give him credit for all the time. time is how well he treated my father. My father, because of Justin Trudeau, was the very first

former prime minister of one party to ever speak to the complete caucus of another party. It had never been done before, and they treated him very well. Now, listen, it was absolutely in their self-interest as well. They had no entry points into the new U.S. administration because they'd put all their eggs in the Hillary basket. But I said at the time, I hoped it would usher in a new era in Canadian politics because you have all of this institutional knowledge, all of these connections in one person. And the second a new party comes in, they just shut the door on that person. They don't leverage that person. They never call them. They're out. They're out. Their influence is useless to them. And I think, as you just said, in this moment where it should be

all hands on deck, a guy like Stephen Harper and everyone he knows and every relationship he built should be leveraged in furtherance of the agenda that Mark Carney has before him. And I just realize I've done a lot of talking and Regan has said nothing. Well, no, I gave Harper his flowers as my political play of the week. I was just going to say with respect to the way we are talking about our politics on both this show and in this particular segment, I think we need to remember a couple things. One, we are all Canadians working with our, you know,

those of us who work in politics and around government. with an interest to make the country better. We have different ideas. But I think what you saw with Mr. Harper, and by the way, I do think it's part of Mr. Carney's success is that he's approached his political career as a non-politician. And I think there's a bit of catharsis in the country after the long national nightmare known as Justin Trudeau

in having a different approach. But that's part and parcel of, I think, a growing of the country. And as I've said before on this show, long may it continue. All right, well, let's move on to a story that I think is an important conversation to have. I think a lot of sober-minded, good faith people from all sorts of political stripes should be able to look at our judiciary and appreciate that there is an erosion in trust in this vital aspect of our country. Where just yesterday in the National Post, you know, a crack dealer with nine kids was given a lenient sentence because even though he couldn't prove his first. nation's lineage. The judge just accepted it and then talked about all the all the buzzwords of institutional racism and systematic racism and intergenerational trauma. And for that for those reasons,

we're going to we're going to treat you with kid gloves. And that's one of any number of decisions that we could we could look at that most people would say this is bananas. This is this is cuckoo town. And so the knock on effect has been that. that the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, told the feds the justice minister, Sean Fraser, she wants Alberta to have more say in how we pick judges because she doesn't like the people that are coming down the pike. He said absolutely not. What do you guys think? Andy? Well, look, I'm with her because she, and just to frame this issue a little bit,

let's take bail reform as an example. every premier of this country and their respective attorney generals begged Justin Trudeau and his attorney generals to change bail reform. It was a top issue at First Minister's conferences and they dither, dither, delayed, said no, obstructed, blah, blah, blah. So there's a lot of anger at the way the federal government has been appointing the judiciary and how they've managed these issues, not just by Daniel Smith, who has to manage her own separatist movement now, but by premiers of all colors. So there's that. Look, she has a population that feels that the values of other parts of the country are imposed on her province. I don't think.

I don't think that the judiciary is demonstrating or is giving us an outcrop of any values in this country. These are not values. I don't think any Canadians I have. I'm going to give the last word to Regan you got about a minute 15. Well, look, I'll say a couple of things. One, I'm with Andy and I am 100% percent. behind Premier Smith. I think her letter to the Prime Minister articulated a number of grievances that the West has

towards how Ottawa conducts the nation's business. And judicial appointments are certainly on that list. We've had some really kooky decisions from judges with respect to bail or other decisions over the last 10, 12, 14 years. Land claims. You know, I don't believe, yeah, I don't believe the judiciary is political, but I do believe we have some judges who have some pretty wacky views and they should be interpreting law, not making law. With respect to the outcome, I'm not surprised to hear Sean Fraser, Minister Fraser, pardon me, in his response. That would be a big

Ottawa liberal response that he provided. However, I do think that the Prime Minister has done a lot of work in trying to build bridges with the provinces. So it wouldn't surprise me if we heard in a few months from now that when the Supreme Court Justice appointment is about to be made, that he did call Premier Smith and have a conversation. I don't think what he's asking is unreasonable. And I think the Prime Minister is the kind of person who might look at the situation and say, well, how can we help manage the Federation and turn down the tone and temperature of separation and separatism in Alberta? And he's the kind of guy who'll pick up the phone and call. So we'll see. But that's my take.

Guys, thank you so much. A great conversation today. One of the best we've ever had. Thank you so much. We'll see you next week. Local news is in decline across Canada. And this is bad news for all of us. With less local news, noise, rumors, and misinformation fill the void, and it gets harder to separate truth from fiction. That's why CBC News is putting more journalists in more places across Canada, reporting on the ground from where you live, telling the stories that matter to all of us, because local news is big news. Choose news, not noise. CBC News. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too.

That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. So I am a privileged man. I mean, I used to talk about how fortune I was to be born. I won the genetic lottery. That's what I used to say, right? But then the world told me I had to say I was privileged. And so I'm going to tell you a story.

about my privilege. So I'm not telling you this so that you can then come back at me and say, oh, you with the silver spoon. Okay. I have gone down to Florida enough on vacation that I know when the time of year to go is good and when it's not. And people go down at Christmas every year are missing out on March break, spring break, and even Easter, right? Because those are the times where the weather's going to be fantastic.

Okay. Fantastic. Christmas, or like this time a year, hit or miss. It's hit or miss. You don't know whether you're going to get glorious weather or you're going to get freezing weather. I had one year we went down there for Christmas and we rented a house and it was so cold. It snowed. It snowed.

And Florida's not built for that. Also, when you're on vacation and all you have is shorts and flip flops, you're not built for it. But you know who else is not built for it? iguanas. Iguanas are not built for Florida when the temperature dips below zero degrees Celsius. And what happens is because they're not indigenous to the area. Explain iguanas to people who might not know iguanas. They let are prehistoric crazy lizards.

Hold on. I have to explain iguanas? Apparently, yeah. No, I'm not, no. I told you, I'm not hosting for the lowest common denominator. If one person out there doesn't know what it is, keep up. Google it. You have a compilation of all the world's information in your hand.

Hey, Siri, what's an iguana? I'm not doing that. I'm not playing that game. Aguanas. They're not... They're not... They're not indigenous. Should I explain indigenous?

I mean, if they don't know iguana, they don't know indigenous. So they're not indigenous to the area. They were brought in, they were invasive species. They were brought in, like, I think, kill a predator or some. They're kill another species. And then they ran rampant. And so they've not developed any protection against the cold. and they just fall out, they die and they fall out of the trees.

They freeze and fall. And they're falling like, they're falling like snow. And, yeah, like pine cones. So what do you do with when hundreds and thousands of iguanas are just littering the ground of your Florida town? Well, one Florida man found a solution in the problem. It is currently so cold here in South Florida that iguanas like this one are falling out of the trees. So today we're making iguana tacos. Green iguanas are an invasive species here in South Florida that compete with our native wildlife for resources.

But because they're not from here, they aren't adapted to the cold. So when we get these cold fronts, they become too cold and they fall straight out of the trees. Whenever we have these cold fronts and they start falling down, a lot of people will go out and collect them to help control the number in the population. But they do have the nickname Chicken of the trees because they're absolutely delicious. So rather than let this one go to waste, we're going to make it. gonna make tacos. Chicken of the trees. Okay. So listen, we cut out the whole prepping part because that's gross. He preps them. We'll spare you the noises. And let's just go to answer the question that you all have. Are iguana tacos good? They look good and they smell good, but now it's time to see how

they taste. I'm just going to add a little squeeze of lime to this one. Give it a nice little dip into the sauce and bonapit. Mmm, mm, mm, mm. Now that right there is a Florida man taco. If you can't beat them, eat them. Okay, that's the best line. If you can't beat them, eat them. Um, he also, when he opened it up, he found it had 20 iguana eggs in it, which meant, and by the way, they don't die. I misspoke. They don't die when they, when they, when in the cold, they get stunned and they just freeze and they, they will thaw out. They will thaw out. But, but, but that's, there's an opportunity to get rid of it, like 20 babies were in there. There There would have been 20 more.

There are people who hunt them. Yeah. There are people who, their sole purpose is to go out and hunt these iguanas because they're invasive species. Yeah. Similar to the pythons down in Florida. And this has just made it easy for them. The videos out there of iguanas on in the back of flatbed trucks.

Yeah. And there's like 60, 70, 80 iguanas. Yeah. And they range in size from like those small little tiny one size of your hand to 10, 12 pounds. Huge. Yeah. And so iguana. Because if you're wondering, like, well, how'd they get there?

They were brought to Florida in the 60s, primarily through the exotic pet trade. And someone on Instagram noted that some were also accidental stowaways from Cuba. And they were initially introduced as popular pets. But then a lot of them, I mean, they're not domesticated. Shocker. They fled. I don't want to be in this house. And they left.

And they escaped. And they found warmer climates. They found warmer climates. They found warmer places to breed. and boy did they breed. By the way, this guy with his tacos, he took the 20 eggs and he put it in a blender

with some avocado and some oil and some spices and he made that the sauce. I don't know if I'd want that. Aguana eggs. Yeah, iguana eggs. I don't know. I don't know what an iguana egg tastes. Is this guacamole?

No. Yes, it is. Guantamole. Guantamole. So, yeah, I guess he should have called it that. Iguana moly. Would they crunch? No, I don't know.

I don't, dude, I don't, don't. Don't ask me. I don't want to know that. But I've had exotic meats. Like I've tried kangaroo. I've tried a lot of gamey stuff as well. And when they say something tastes like this or something tastes like that, like emu or ostrich does taste like steak.

It really does. Different texture, but it does. So if he says it tastes like chicken, I'm going to believe him. Chicken of the trees. Chicken of the trees. That is amazing. Come on. How amazing is that?

Yeah. They actually did this thing because, again, they're invasive. And because they're so cold sun, they said, hey, we will get rid of the permits. Yeah. And the Florida Fish and Wildlife said, just go round them up. And over two days, just earlier this week, residents grabbed almost 5,200 of these things. I don't, but I don't know if that's a lot. I have no idea if that's a lot.

that could be like this one was going to have 20 babies. And you think iguanas, I mean, you see that if you go down to anywhere like Cuba or you go Mexico and you see the you see the salamanders. I guess the bigger iguanas, those big huge ones that they're talking about in Florida. Yeah. I guess they are destructive. They erode banks and they eat a lot of the wildlife. They eat a lot of plants that they shouldn't be eating.

Yeah. I mean, look, it's like, listen, people refer to the European settlers in North America as an invasive species. Like there's a, there's a balance in, in an ecosystem. And when you bring in, you introduce a new element, it can throw the whole thing into chaos. That's what happens with these guys here. And it's, I just, but I just, I, I have to say, like, I watching this video, because what he did is he, he deboned it, right?

He deboned the iguana. He kept the skin. I don't know he's doing with the skin. I'm maybe making a wallet. A wallet? Well, what are you going to eat it? Shoes? Yeah, I mean, he didn't have a lot, but...

I guess a wallet? A wallet would be appropriate for the size. Little gloves? But he said he used every part of the iguana, maybe not at the brain, I don't know. But then what he did is, he took the meat and he boiled it, right? He boiled it with onions and spices, and to tenderize it and to give it flavor. And then he pan-fried it and got bits and pieces of it crispy.

It did look like a white meat. It looked more like pork than chicken. So would this be the other other, other white meat? It's the other, other, other white meat. It's the other other, that you may really want to know about before you bite in. I mean, it doesn't look like there's a lot of meat on the bone. Like, if they, if they, I don't know, man, a cold-blooded animal, there's no way the meat is, there's no way the meat's good,

unless maybe how you got to tenderize it like this guy did. But they got those big eyes as well. Pop those eyes out and then... I saw a... And the claws? What do you do with those? I saw a video online yesterday of a Komodo dragon charging at a dude and like these things are scary. Yeah.

They are dinosaurs. They are killer dinosaurs and almost caught them. Almost caught them. I was able to drive away. It was... I've never watched a video on my phone on social media and screamed in fear before. I was fearful of the video. That's how...

area Commoda Dragon is. Yeah. No Bueno. You think about invasive species. What, boars, those wild boars, they're up in Canada. Uh-huh. And they're all over the states. How'd they get here? They've just, they brought them in, and some people brought them in for food, and then they escaped. But Joe Rogan said

that a domesticated pig can become a wild pig in a matter of months. Wow. So, and I don't know. They hunt those from helicopters in Texas. All right. Don't go anywhere, because when we come back, oh, We're having a conversation about one of Canada's favorite burgers.

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Medcan, live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Look, I eat junk food all the time. All the time. I'm not going to pretend I don't. And don't pretend you don't either. And by the way, if you don't eat junk food, why not?

What's wrong with you? It's a great. It's a cheat. It makes you feel good. It's a release valve from the pressure. And a few weeks ago, I was coming home from work, and I saw an A&W. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's exactly what I want.

I want an A&W burger because they spice the meat. There's something about the bread. And they use more ketchup than other people do, I think. And so it's just every now and then, that's what you want. And I'm salivating now. A&W is part of the fabric of this country. We've seen the commercials. But it's not a Canadian company.

It feels like a Canadian company, even though it was founded in the United States. but why does Canada have nearly double the number of locations that the U.S. has? Like, what's the story of A&W in Canada? Well, here we go. I've got the guy who can answer that question. Please welcome to the show Craig Baird, the host of Canadian History X. Thanks for having me. Yeah.

Yeah, so talk to me about A&W and why it thrives in Canada. It was founded in the States and it doesn't have the same success there as it has here. Well, yeah, like you said, it was founded back in about 1922 by Roy Allen and Frank Wright, so that's where we get the A&W from the Allen Wright. And franchises popped up through the United States, but it wasn't until 1956 that the first Canadian A&W restaurant opened in Winnipeg, and then the brand just kind of spread across Canada at that point. And then in 1972, A&W Canada completely split off from the American company, and then the two companies took very different paths.

So the great root bear, which is the mascot of A&W Canada, that actually started in Canada. And the Americans liked it so much, they actually adopted it for their own chain. And then like you said, it just became something that a lot of Canadians would go to through the 1990s. They reintroduced the burger family, the Papa Burger, Grandpa Burger, all of that. Because that have been gone since the 1960s. And even in the United States, you can't get a lot of those burgers that you can in Canada. You also have things like Putin that you could get in Canada, but you can't get in the United States. And A&W actually is one of the most successful, you know, burger fast food brands in Canada.

Only McDonald's actually has more locations in terms of hamburger fast food. And, you know, everybody, yeah, everybody loves A&W. I have won two blocks from my house. It's very hard not to go there on a regular basis. And my first job was actually added A&W. I mean, I only lasted three months, but, you know, it was still my first job. That's amazing. No, but I didn't know that they had separated, the two companies. But where, but I always believe, like before I ever went to an A&W for a burger, I knew of the A&W root beer brand. Like that was in the 7-Eleven by my house.

And so, who owns the A&W brand for the root beer? Well, the root beer was actually started by Roy Allen. He had set up a roadside drink stand where he sold that root beer. And then it's just become kind of part of the brand, both in Canada and the United States. I mean, I have fond memories of my parents taking the big, you know, A&W mugs and putting them in the freezer, getting them nice and cold, and then they take them out and they put their root beer in. And it's just, it's one of the best drinks in the world.

Yeah, and like that, that's one of the selling features there, right? They don't put ice in the drinks because they say we serve it super cold. And so you get, yeah, and a hot day, nothing better. And so you get more, you get more drink than you do if it's full of ice. All right, well, that's, I'm so glad you explain that to us. We just got back from Calgary. And I was really taken aback of remembering my time in Calgary in 1988 when the Olympics were in Canada for the second time. And my dad was prime minister. And that's this week's episode of Canadian History X. It is, yeah. So Canada has been trying to get the Olympics since about 1924,

since more or less they started. From 1932 to 1956, Montreal bid on five Winter Olympics and lost every single time. time and then just switched strategies and went after the Summer Olympics and then we're able to get that in 1976. But when Montreal stopped, Calgary took up that mantle. So Calgary had been on the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, losing both times, then BAMP did on the 1972 Olympics and lost.

But Calgary was finally successful in 1979 with their winning bid for the 1988 Winter Olympics. And this was a huge undertaking. All the infrastructure for the Olympics had to be built from scratch. That included building the Kiska for skiing, the Olympic 7th. Saddle don't for hockey and figure skating, the Olympic Oval for speed skating, and all of these other events. It cost $879 million. It was the most expensive games in history to that

point. We just got to take a second. It was the most expensive games to date, and it cost less than a billion dollars, which in today's terms would probably be like, what, $5 billion or something like that? I think I figured it out. It would be about $2 billion now, but that's still less than half what the Los Angeles games are going

to be costing in 2028. So just kind of perspective there. And then you had to. The fact, I know you're going to get to it, but I want to bring it up because it's such an interesting point that they earned a profit of about $35 million. If I'm not mistaken, 2010 in Vancouver eeked out a profit barely as well. But a lot of games don't turn a profit, do they? No, they don't. So what Calgary did was it actually looked to the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984.

That was very much run like a business, like a corporation. And Calgary did the same, selling sponsorships, you know, corporate donations, things like that. And then like you said, they actually made that $35 million profit versus Montreal's games where it took them 30 years to pay off the get of those games. Yeah. Yeah. So many fun stories about it, like the Torch Relay was the longest in history at that point. 18,000 kilometers. I mean, that's so impressive.

And look, I remember watching Eddie the Eagle Edwards in his attempt to, I don't know, just compete. But the flying fin, if I remember correctly, was the winner that year. He was the one to beat. And there was this house on stilts that was where you could watch the ski jumpers fly by. And the flying fin flew right past us, like an eye level. And Eddie the Eagle Edwards landed about 150 feet before he could get within eyesight of us. So there are so many fun stories that came out of those Olympics.

There are. I mean, you have the Jamaican bobsled team. I think it's the only Olympics that has two movies about it. And, you know, about Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican box. Liz Manley?

And it was just, yeah, the Battle of the Carmans, the Battle of the Bryans? Exactly. Yeah, it was just an amazing Olympics. I mean,

you had the Calgary Tower with the cauldron on top. I mean, I was born in Calgary. So I have many memories of seeing that cauldron burning. And it's just, it was an, amazing time for Canada to really welcome the world. And this was two years after we did the same with Expo 86 in Vancouver.

I was there as well. But the regret, I suppose, is that we were never neither in Montreal nor in Calgary able to win a gold medal for Canada on home soil. That's true. But the Calgary Olympics really changed everything. So from 1924 to 1984, we won 38 medals at the Winter Olympics. and about a third of those were just in hockey. But from 1992 to 2022, Canada won 182 medals,

and it's because of the facilities that were built at Calgary that helped us train Olympic athletes. Well, what we just learned while we were there is I think 85% of the entire Canadian Olympic team lives in the Calgary area to train because of the facilities that were built in 88. Absolutely. So it really did turn us from the nation

that, you know, did well at the Olympics to one that dominated. eliminates the Olympics and in some cases actually wins the most medals. Well, and I was there, so I had to ask the question. I said, look, you're already building a new arena, the Scotia Bank Center or whatever it's called. You've got all sorts of facilities that you can, that are still in use today by peak performers. Like, if they bid again for an Olympics in the next, say, 10, 15 years, I don't know that they would have to do a whole lot of work. Probably not too much because like you said, everything is there.

And that's one thing I bring up in the episode is that everything is already there. We did look at doing the 2026 Olympics, but that failed. But, you know, if the Olympics come back to Calgary and you need somebody to light the cauldron, I'm a hometown boy. Love it, my friend. All right. Thank you so much for joining us. And if people want to find the show, where can they find it?

You can listen to Canadian History X, and that's EHX on all podcast platforms, and it airs every weekend across the course radio network. Thank you so much, my friend. Love strolling down memory. I love it when you tell a story that I can actually remember. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, buddy. Have a great week.

And just a reminder, if you want more BMS, we put out a podcast every day. And you can find even more contact on X, on Instagram, and on YouTube. Intel chain is compromised. New on Showcase. You were hacked. You're telling me it's real. Someone's been watching and listening through you.

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