The Ben Mulroney Show - Kevin O'Leary dishes on if a DOGE could work in Canada to find wasteful spending in Government

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Guest:Kevin O’Leary, Chairman of O’Leary Ventures, Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful 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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of O'Leary Ventures and Shark Tanks, Mr. Wonderful. Kevin, great to have you back on the Ben Mulroney show. Great to be here. Thanks. So let's talk. Let's talk about the tariffs of it all. They are scheduled to come in tomorrow Donald Trump has said big day tomorrow and none of us know what that means

I like to say that you know, he wants every day to end like a cliffhanger from From the his show The The Apprentice and so that's what it feels like, you know The axe hangs but it does not fall if you were a betting man. What would you be betting on tomorrow? hangs but it does not fall. If you were a betting man, what would you be betting on tomorrow? I think there's somewhere between a five and ten percent chance that this whole thing gets punted to April 2nd because there is a report that's going to be produced and issued on April 1st that really details the impact of tariffs on Mexico and Canada. It's not a huge probability, but as we speak, you know, we're in a difficult situation in Canada

because we have no leadership at the federal. And so one of the problems over the last 10 days is this stuff that Trudeau has been putting out. You know, he went to Europe and he poked a bear and a lot of anti-Trump sentiment there. It's true that Trudeau and Trump have a toxic relationship. So it's good when that's gone, but right now all we have at the table are the premiers. They are, as we speak, in Washington with their teams or their teams are dealing directly with their counterparts trying to find out what it takes to get this

at least punted or completely removed. And by the way, nowhere in those discussions is there a discussion of sovereignty. You know, I know the press has gone crazy in Canada with this idea we're changing the name of America, Canada, Canadian, I love all that stuff. But it's kind of irrelevant because sovereignty has never been discussed at the table. What we're talking about here is a lot of what I would call NAFTA 3. And I've said this, we've talked about this every six weeks it seems, there's a huge opportunity here and it's drowned out by the noise that everybody's putting on this, you know, anti-American focus of sovereignty.

We're not selling Canada. That's never been a discussion. But the idea that's on the table, and it's getting pretty clear because you saw what happened over the weekend in Europe, Trump is really concerned about Russia and China teaming up against the United States. And he would like to have some kind of a deal with Canada on the North. That's really what they want. And I think that's coming up in discussions that are occurring right now in Washington. Well, he should he should like the announcement that Pierre Poliev made said,

were I to become prime minister, this is my plan to defend Canada's Arctic sovereignty. But it looks like before he gets a kick at the can, the liberals are going to pick their new leader who will become our prime minister. And it looks like that person gets a kick at the can, the liberals are gonna pick their new leader who will become our prime minister. And it looks like that person right now is Mark Carney. Now, he is a largely, if not completely untested front runner. I gotta wonder, listen, you've been put through the paces of a leadership race, a real leadership race. And because you were running under the banner

of the conservative party, the press was giving it to you, right? They were challenging you, they were testing you. He is not being tested by most of the media in this country. What do you think is gonna happen to a Mark Carney if he's put in front of Pierre Poliev on the debate stage? Well, it'd be up to Carney to decide how quickly to post this election. I mean, if he thinks or his advisors think that getting it on

the road and trying to define himself quickly, which is really hard because Mark Carney may think Canadians know who he is, but the fact is I would bet eight out of 10 have no idea where he is. I think the last poll was 29% of people could not, only 29% of Canadians could identify a picture of him. Yeah, so he's got a huge challenge because he really hasn't been in Canada very long. I mean, this is an unusual situation. He didn't run a process in terms of leadership. Yeah. The liberals were, you can blame Trudeau for that, but they're in a bad place. And so he'll be defined by Pierre. That's, if it's five weeks to an election or two weeks or whatever

it's going to be it could be all the way to October. That will allow Pierre to run around saying this guy's a carbon tax guy. Gerald Butts is in the background. Look what he did to you with Trudeau. I mean it's true most of the policies it turns out as we all learned, I hate to say this but it's true, Trudeau was the idiot king. All of the policy came out of Gerald Butts, who's been hiding in the shadows behind Carney's campaign. Kevin, I wanna jump in because look, in an election campaign, things change for Mark Carney. Right now, whenever he says something,

he does a quick little scrum and then he walks away. In an election campaign, there is an entire team of media that is assigned to each leadership candidate. You cannot escape those questions. And he will have, so whenever he makes a mistake, he just disappears and he lets the press make excuses for him or explain away the lies. That can't happen in an election campaign. And the fact is, he showed that his French was very lacking in the French debate, surprised

a lot of people, disappointed even more who were following him. Part of me thinks he's gonna kick the can down the road and call an election later on, like you said, possibly in October, so he can bone up on his French. He needs votes in Quebec. Without Quebec, I don't know how much support the liberal brand has across the country.

Yeah, that may be his instinct, but I would suggest that's a bad idea. You know, it even even, even if it was a snap election this morning, the divide has been narrowed. I mean, now that Trudeau is gone, and we have a defined leader, or at least, you know, you believe it, so so do I that'll be Carney he will he will get the question is how much of a mandate will conservatives get can they get a majority mandate I don't know if you know that yet but it does I don't think there's any scenario and I'm just speculating here where people it doesn't matter what liberal you put in leadership the brand is painted for a cycle people are tired of what happened to Canada. And if you trot out a Carney or a Freeland, it doesn't matter. They're going to be in purgatory for at least four years as is the opposition leader. Now in Canadian politics,

you never know what's going to happen. But if I were a betting man and I am, it's Carney leading the liberals as a minority minority and in some ways, and I'm a little surprised he's doing it, but look, it's an interesting opportunity for him. That is a job definition of hell because you really have no say in how the, if it's a majority band-aid for concertos, he is just sitting there, it's, oh my goodness, it's hell on earth. But you know, they've got to pay, I would prefer that destiny for freelance. She was horrible. And I wish he could spend purgatory

as the opposition leader, but it looks like it's going to be Carney. And he did it to himself. What can you say? Kevin O'Leary, I've got to ask, Elon Musk is finding wasteful spending with Doge. Is that something you think we could ever replicate here in Canada?

I don't think we have a choice, but to do so. We may not call it that, but you know, we're in trouble too. I mean, the amount of deficit and what's happened in capital leaving the country, policy changes that were policies that were put in place nine years ago that were a mistake and now proven by the economics, economic outcome. You know, I think people, Canadians as well, think about they sit at their kitchen table and they have to doze every day. They're they're constantly saying, well, do we put the kid through, you know, university or what do we do with, you know, our debt or credit card debt and everything else?

There's an intuitive feeling that this is a good idea. We've never scrutinized government that way and I think people want to do it. It would be a popular else. There's an intuitive feeling that this is a good idea. We've never scrutinized government that way and I think people want to do it. It would be a popular mandate in Canada regardless of who gets in. People know that the Canadian government drips with fat and there's a lot of waste and I would think within the provincial systems the same thing. Quebec is a very, look I get to say this, I was born in in Montreal It is the most corrupt government in Canada And I think Canadians and Quebecers would like to see that cleaned up and all the tariffs between our own Provinces that are stupid all of that stuff could be

Examined, you know five billion dollars going from Alberta for Quebec dairy farmers and subsidies Can you imagine how pissed you would be if you're in Albertan? I mean, that's the kind of thing they wanna get rid of. Well, I would be pissed if I had the added sting of being told that under no circumstances will any of your pipelines that take your crude to the East Coast go through the Quebec territory. That's just stupid.

I mean, that hurts the whole country. I mean, that's the kind of stupidity that a Canadian, you know, a beaver does. That would be what you call it. Beaver does. I love it. Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Ventures, Shark Tank's Mr. Wonderful, and a good friend of the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for being here.

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