The Ben Mulroney Show - Listener reaction to the Canadian Election. Mark Carney remains Prime Minister

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Listener reaction to the Canadian Results 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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Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Ben Mulroney Show and greetings from Ottawa. I find myself inside the studios of Jump 106.9. I want to thank everybody here for making me feel at home. And last night was the election. That's why I found myself here. I was at Pierre Poliev's headquarters working with the Global News team as part of Global's coverage of this year's election and what a roller coaster it was from within that room. At the very beginning of the night,

as supporters were pouring into the room at the, I believe it's called the Rogers Center, it used to be the Shaw Center, the early reports coming out of Atlantic Canada had the supporters there very excited because the conservatives overperformed in Atlantic Canada. That was supposed to be a bellwether, a predictor for the rest of the country, which did not materialize. Not to say there weren't a number of surprises. With Pierre Poliev losing his riding right here in Ottawa. Our good friend Greg Brady made a valiant effort to represent the people of Ajax on behalf of the Conservative Party and fell short. There are a number of other key star candidates from a number of parties that did not rise to the occasion and who were told by the voters that it was not their time. But I want to take a moment this morning and echo the sentiment of both Mark Carney and Pierre Poliev to say on this day, it's time to wish both sides a congratulatory tip of

the hat and to say, you know know you fought a good race you put your vision out there and Mark Carney says that he wants to unite Canadians and he wants to govern on behalf of all Canadians and so I feel it's incumbent upon us to give him that shot give him that opportunity I'm not going to start out on the very first day of his mandate, screaming to high heaven because my guy didn't win. I am going to wish him the very best, as I've said before, if he wins, if he succeeds, we win and we all succeed. And so I've got questions, as I had before the election, because a lot of them weren't answered. I am apprehensive because I don't know who he is yet. I don't know what he

wants to do. I don't know. I mean, I thought I understood his values from his book Appropriately Entitled Values. They gave me an image of him that is a little different from the person that we met on the campaign trail. I'm sure it'll be a little different once the disclosure files are opened up and we can see exactly what's in his blind trust, what he's worth. We'll get a better picture of who he is and we'll get a better picture in the throne speech and ultimately a budget. What kind of budget that's gonna be is gonna depend on who he works with because he has been entrusted with a minority government, the third consecutive liberal

minority government. And is he going to curry favor with what's left of the NDP? Is he going to strike a deal with the Bloc? Or is he going to try to shoot for the stars and work with the conservatives on building a some sort of consensus budget? I've never seen that in my lifetime. But if he really wants to govern on behalf of all Canadians, finding a middle ground between what he stands for and what conservative voters voted for

would be a heck of an achievement. Can you imagine if two parties representing over 80% of public will were able to get behind more or less, get behind the federal budget, get behind whatever vision Mark Carney has for defending Canada against Donald Trump's tariffs? It's a very high, lofty goal, probably unachievable. But I think he'd get points for trying. I really do. I think that would be something.

Meanwhile, we've got to ask ourselves the question today, what's going to happen to Pierre Poliev? He didn't win. Some would say that the clock started when he was sitting at 25 percent, when he had a 25 percent, sorry, 25 point lead over the liberals under Justin Trudeau. I don't know that that's necessarily fair, because don't forget, and in the dying days, people were saying 200 seats for the liberals, and by that standard standard they underperformed. But I expected and a lot of people expected the conservatives to pull out a victory, possibly even a majority, and that didn't happen. So

questions will be asked and they will require answers. And Pierre Poliev is the man who's going to have to provide them. And the fact that he did not win his seat does not make his case for sticking around any easier. But there's some pragmatic things that the Tories have to ask themselves. Do we want to throw ourselves back into a protracted leadership race? Do we want to have one of these existential conversations about what we stand for again? have one of these existential conversations about what we stand for again, especially given the fact that the makeup of this next parliament is more of a traditional minority situation, meaning there are no natural allies for the liberals here, and certainly not enough of, not enough NDP for them to call the shots if these

numbers stick around and so this this this parliament could fall in 9 18 24 months do the tories want to find themselves in a one-year race to redefine who they are with a new leader to find themselves in a one-year race to redefine who they are with a new leader when an election could be around the corner. I don't know if they want to do that. I really don't know if they want to do that. If they do, then they're going to have to ask themselves there are a lot of tricky questions that they have to answer if they go down that path. Do we tack more to the center? Although I don't contend, I contend that this conservative party is not the reactionary

right-wing party that a lot of people on the left tarred and feathered it with. Let's also talk about voter turnout. I was expecting 75%. It was 67. From my calculation, that's about the same as 2019 it went down to what 62 in the last But with the high voter turnout over Easter weekend I was expecting an explosion of of votes and the question is who didn't show up if

Past his prologue then the people who did not show up Were the were the youth Why didn't they? If that's the case, why didn't they? Because had they shown up, we could be looking at a different result today. My parents have had a lot of time on their hands lately. At first, it was nice. Hey mom, can you drive me to soccer practice? Sure can. We're having slow cooked ribs for dinner. It was awesome.

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You know, I chose to enter politics because I felt we needed big changes in this country. But big changes guided by strong Canadian values. And those include three values that I want to highlight this evening. Humility. It's Canada after all. Ambition. It's Canada after all.

And unity. It's Canada. I love you. Right back. right back. These are good values. These are Canadian values. Over my long career, I have made many mistakes and I will make more.

But I commit to admitting them openly, to correcting them quickly, and always learning from them. And my message to every Canadian is this. No matter where you live, no matter what language you speak, no matter how you voted, I will always do my best to represent everyone who calls Canada home. That was Prime Minister-elect Mark Carney in his acceptance speech last night. I will take him at his word today that he will govern according to those three values. I have to admit I haven't necessarily seen those values of humility and unity,

specifically in the Liberal Party of late. But today is a new day. Today is the be it's a reset if you will. And so I am going in good faith to accept those words as the truth that Mark Carney sees on the ground today. But I want to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-triple-8-2-2-5 talk. How are you feeling after the election? Are you optimistic for the future? Do you trust Mark Carney to deal with Donald Trump?

These are very, very big questions. They governed so much of the discussion that we had prior to the election. Election is done. Liberals have a minority. The Tories, by most standards, did very well increasing their seat count if the numbers remain the same at 25 by 25 seats. The liberals increased by eight. Meanwhile, the NDP had the worst electoral result in its history with the lowest vote share, the lowest seat share ever. And the lowest number of seats since 1935. That's not a

that's no bueno. That's no bueno. And we'll be discussing where the NDP goes from here later on on the Ben Mulrooney show. But give us a call 416-870-6400. Let's talk. Let's talk to Robert. Robert, welcome to the show. Good morning. The sun does come up. It's a little cloudy this morning, but it did come up. Ben, Paul Eiff has to stay on. He did an amazing job, and he needs to stay on for Canada. And, and Carney is not this nice guy he's trying to portray himself as. He hasn't proved it yet, and it's going to take a long time before I can see any good about him. But I mean, that's just me.

No, well, and listen, Robert... And there's a lot of things that are still not out there. Robert, listen, I think you have every right to be dubious. What we said before stands today. I personally do not believe that Mark Carney has yet been properly vetted in that we still do not know exactly who he is and how he's going to govern. We don't know what his plan for resource development really is because we've heard a lot from different sides. That being said, as I've said before, on this day I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to

accept him at his word. The people spoke. They wanted, they entrusted the Liberal Party with a minority. So let's give him a little leash. Let's give him a little runway. And let's see where he takes us. But thank you so much for your call. Who do we have next?

We've got Mark. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show, Mark. Hi. How you doing, Ben? I'm well, thank you. Thank you. I'll be quick. My wife and I have been married 52 years. We have no children, but we are both separated on liberal and PC.

So we agreed at the start of all this that we agreed to disagree. We were not discussed individually. We vote the way we wanted to vote for whatever reasons. Now we sat down last night and we thought, you know what? Well, okay, it is what it is. We got to work together here. That's how we feel. We've got to combine everything, all the ideas.

There's going to be ups and downs, but we need to work together. And I'm very optimistic. I hope we do. I hope we do because we need to. Our lives are happier thinking that way too. And good for you. And it's an idea worth exploring. As I said before, if this is the greatest threat

that our country has ever faced, the tariff threat by Donald Trump, his attempts to reorganize the world according to his worldview, if it's really that big, and if liberals voted for Mark Carney because they believed it was that big, then surely reaching across the aisle and trying to build some sort of consensus on key files that matter to that crisis with the conservative party, that would mean you would have, at least on certain files,

let's call it a coalition, but I'm not talking about an official coalition between the liberals and the conservatives. If they could find common cause on certain issues that get us through that crisis, that would be a consensus representing over 80% of public will. That is nation building. That is Mark Carney saying he is governing for all Canadians. I'll believe it when I see it, because I've never seen it in my lifetime.

But it's a heck of a goal to strive for. Jason, welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Hi, how are you? Great, thank you. Listen, the last 10 years doesn't get a pass with me. I mean, it puts a really bad 10 years years and it's just got the same party, just maybe a new face, but it's all the same thing. And, and what I was going to say was like, I like you, Ben, but I kind of disagree.

I hope he doesn't succeed in his policies because his policies, if you look in his book there, you know, no pipe one thing. His policies are going to really, really put this country down, I think. And personally, I hope he doesn't succeed because we're going to be paying for this probably for generations. Well, Jason, what I said is we don't actually know who he is yet. So I'm taking him at his word as it relates to what he said last night, the broad strokes. He didn't get into the nitty gritty of it.

And so I don't yet know what kind of prime minister he's going to be. Had Pierre Poliev succeeded in his goal, I knew exactly what kind of prime minister he would be on day one. I can't say that in all honesty about Mark Carney. Now that could be good, that could be bad. I don't know just yet. I'm gonna reserve judgment till he actually does something. And given the structure of this parliament

he has to work with, he can't be the undistilled version of himself that he was in his book values. He just can't. There's too much opposition. He doesn't have the votes. Again, that's assuming that these numbers hold. So he's going to have to reach out to someone at some point on something. And that's going to force him to have to consider what they want and what their priorities are.

But again, like, rather than sit here and chirp about hypotheticals, I'm going to wait and see what he puts in the window. Vince, welcome to the show. Yeah, I just want to start off by saying this election didn't sit right with me. I'm not going to go into the reasons why because you'll just kick me off. But I have a strange suspicion and a feeling that when the numbers settle and the dust settles, the liberals are going to end up with about 167, 168 seats. And conveniently, the NDP will have about four to five seats and they will cross the floor giving the Liberals the majority to do carte blanche, whatever they want and any issues that come up with Carney from his financial disclosures or anything like that

won't matter and he will do whatever he wants with this country for four years and that's pretty much it. Well, listen if if if I had a crystal ball, I'd be making I would be making predictions and get myself very very rich I do not have a crystal ball. I do know that there is a gentleman in Manitoba named Wab Kanu who is the premier there Who could very well be the answer to a lot of what ails this struggling federal NDP. We're going to talk about that later with two people in the know on the left. Let's continue the conversation with Vince. Vince, thanks so much for calling and how do you feel about the election?

Oh, I'm sorry, Raya. Raya, welcome. Raya, are you there? Yeah, I think. Yeah. Hi, can you hear me? Yeah. Hello? Hi, can you hear me? I can, yes, go on. Yeah, I think the only way I can make sense of why the liberals got the votes that they did because the last

couple of years have been quite dreadful. I think it came down to whether people dislike Trump more than they like Pierre, unfortunately, and I think it was too topical in people's

minds. There wasn't anything strong against Trump in the conservative platform, and I think that might have moved undecided platform. I think that might have moved undecided voters away from the financial reasons to vote.

But his speech is quite nice. I'm hoping to take him at face value. But regarding what you said about whether they could work with the conservatives, to be honest, the way Pierre has been going on in the last two years, I think it would be

quite against his talking points to work with them. So I don't see that happening from either side. But I'm going to give him a bit of benefit of the doubt and respect the electorate. Well thank you very much for that. What I was speaking about was on certain key matters as they relate to the tariffs. If the Liberals and the Conservatives could find common cause on one, two, three key issues, not wholesale support by the Conservatives or the Liberals. I would never endorse that. And like I said, I would rather they try and fail

than not try at all. Alright, if you're on the line, don't go anywhere. We've got more of your calls next on the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. We are taking your calls at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. Canadians went to the polls, Canadians voted, and Canadians chose the Liberals for a fourth consecutive mandate, albeit a third consecutive minority. If the numbers hold up, it looks about 168 to 144. The NDP having suffered a cataclysmic meltdown that will cause many to ask, is it even worth it for us to keep going?

Let's welcome Dan to the show. Dan, thanks so much for calling and how are you feeling today? Hey, good morning. Well, it's obviously not the outcome I wanted, but I'm not going to be one of those guys that's saying I'm moving to the States. But I have, as of today, we're seeing Freeland there on the stage, knowing the policies, knowing Carney, we don't know anything about Carney, but we know what his policies promises are. In the

last 10 years, I've become 100% jaded of the Canadian electorate. They just don't seem to care about the issues, the scandals, the, the, they have no clue about the debt, the finances. So I'm setting up right now to move all my finances out of the country and my corporation and any future investments. In light of Trump and everything, I am not investing in this country. I have my parents here and that's why I'm staying here until, until I have to be able to smoke. Well look and thank you for the call Dan. Mark Carney said he needed a mandate. Last night he said he got that mandate. He was very happy and rightly so. He fought a long hard campaign and he was

thrown into the deep end, you know, as somebody who had never run for anything in his life. So what he so what he got, he deserved. And, but he said he was the man for the moment. He said he's the guy who's going to build Canada strong. And so he says he's got the mandate. So let's see him do it. I'm not going to get in his way. I'm going to let him do what he, what he says he needs to do. And then he can be judged on that. I hope that on this first day there is a little magnanimous benevolent respect for the man

who has now been elected as to become our to be our prime minister. But but yeah he said he's the one he's the guy to get it done so now it's time to get to work and get it done and he will be be judged on that. And I think quite quickly, given the fact that this is a minority parliament, and I don't know that he's got the runway that he would have worried to have an unfettered majority to do and say as he pleases Kenny, thanks so much for calling. And how do you feel this morning? I call the real estate agent, putting my house on sale. I put all my friends and family on notice if they

support liberals or voted for liberals Remove me from your contact list. I do not exist. I do not agree with the liberals I'm not living in the same asylum of a country. I'm leaving. I don't know where I'm gonna go. I'm not staying here I disagree completely with everything and I do not trust Mark Carney and the Liberal Party of Canada. Well, I'm sorry. I hope you don't leave. You know, I think we need everyone. We need everybody we have in this country. I would recommend you call back and call my producer George because he's flirting with the idea of moving to Greece, in which case I'm going to end him.

End him, I say. Thanks so much for calling in. Tiffany, what are your thoughts this morning as you see the new lay of the land? I agree with you, Ben. I think everybody's up in their feelings right now, to be very honest with you. I get it. People want change, but we haven't even given him a fair shot. Everybody said they don't want a politician anymore. They don't want a politician anymore. So we didn't get a politician. We got an economist. You understand that kind of understands a little bit more what's going on. But nobody wants to give him a fair shake. Polly has been here for 20 years. His own writing. it's finished. He's not even an MP anymore.

Well, listen, I agreed with you up to that point, but we got to be honest about what happened in his writing. First of all, it's not the same writing that it was that got him elected. With the redistricting that happened, it's a far more urban area than it was before. And he had 91 people on the ballot, 91. That is not an exercise in a healthy democracy. That is a take down effort. That is a coordinated take down effort. And I don't care what anyone says,

that is a perversion of democracy. And something tells me it will never be allowed to happen again. So I am not, I'm not this, that that's not sour grapes. That is a matter of fact. And I'm, I will be respectful where I can. That is a, that is a, that is a situation that demands scrutiny should be examined. And it's shameful. It's absolutely shameful. But yeah, look, um,

people are expecting me to come in here in the morning, all sad and upset and depressed. This is how our system works. Get over yourselves. Now it's time to get to work. I did what I could to get my guy elected. Didn't work. And here we are.

End of story. We move on. We got a country to build. And if this is the guy that the country picked, he'd better do it. He'd better do it. I'd like to say the country will hold him to account. I think we've seen that there's a lot of people in this country that can get over those things a little too quickly for my liking, but it is what it is. Frank, welcome to the show.

Good morning, Ben. I think we need to look at, you know, and I agree with you the way you kind of read everything and looked at it from your perspective. I think we've got to look at it despite the loss to the conservative party last night. There's some positives that come out of that and how Carney won. I think given the many additional votes that the conservatives won, I think we're going to find Carney taking more of a centrist position in how he governs. And if things stay as they are and there's no opportunity or possibility that the liberals can join forces with the NDP or anyone else to bring the government down or to maintain a majority and prevent from bringing the government down, I think you're going to find Carney in a position where he's going to be leading

from a position of vulnerability, which is really a good thing because he's going to be watched very carefully, tested and what he does, and I think he's going to be assessed and evaluated by the opposition and confronted if things don't go down the road and he doesn't succeed with making the economy any better. So having a little bit of vulnerability with the checks and balances is a good thing. Yeah, I agree and I've been saying for the past couple of weeks and you can better. So having a little bit of vulnerability with the checks and balances is a good thing. Yeah, I agree. And I've been saying for the past couple of weeks, and you can you can check with the people I was talking with that obviously, the one thing I wanted more than

anything was a Pierre Poliev majority government. But option two for me as I saw it was exactly this. This is exactly the second option that I would settle for. For Mark Carney to be tested in a circumscribed, limited manner so that people could see exactly what he's capable of, what his instincts are, what his values are in practice with a mandate? What does it look like? And if I'm wrong, we all win. And if I'm right, we go back to the polls, not in four years, maybe in one. So there you go. We got time for the last three calls. Tom, welcome to the show.

Well, Ben, it's a sad day. However, for me, it's been a piece of cake. However, that being said, you know, Mark Carney won the elected riding. So he won the he didn't win for Canada, Canada and vote him. He won for the the most seats in the House of Commons. So that being said, you know, depending on a very tight, tight leash, which they should, and I think it is a step forward for the PCs. However, you know what, be careful for what you wish for. I

think all Ontarians, we have the one the most most amount of writing in the House of Commons. We voted this individual in now. Let's see what he could do for Canada. The only thing I would ask or I would say is respect all of Canada because you know Alberta is strictly blue and there's talks of separating from Canada If Carney were to win, I don't want to see that happen. I don't see any of this great country being separated. But my message to Mark Carney is respect the people from Calgary, Alberta respect what they have and to offer the world and just don't be one sided.

So you're right. And thank you for the call. Thank you for highlighting that we are going to take the temperature of the province of Alberta in a little bit Because later on on the Ben Mulroney show we are joined by Alberta premier Danielle Smith. She's gonna give us her snapshot her assessment and Where she thinks this country goes from here Anthony. Thanks so much for calling in Good morning, Ben and thanks for taking my call. Um, we have as a country I think we have to sit down and really do some soul searching. Who are we as a country?

What are we as a country? We literally voted against Donald Trump who was not on our ballot, right? I know nothing about Mark Hardy. I do not know what he stands for. Whether or not it's Swayed Paulie Everett or Mark Carney, we know nothing about the individual. He got swooped in from a different country

and then voted in by 14 year olds. So who's Mark Carney for one? And why do we vote against Donald Trump in a Canadian election? I'm all about Canadian sovereignty. And for another country to talk about a 51st state, we have to sit down and do a major soul search and say, Hey, are we an activist country? Or are we really are we respecting the task? Well, and thanks so much. The Fear is a hell of a motivator. And they were able to, the liberals were able

to successfully mobilize people on the condition of fear. And it's not a knock on them, it's exactly what they did. I mean, just look at what, even last night in his acceptance speech, Mark Carney repeated what I think is a fiction where he said just a Donald Trump wants to wants to break us so he can take us. I don't believe that's true at all and if it is true it's true in the way a child daydreams about being Superman. It's not something he would actively work on. That being said the

the fear was real and the result is just as real. Jim thanks so much for calling something he would actively work on. That being said, the the fear was real and the result is just as real. Jim, thanks so much for calling the Ben Mulroney show. Yes, good morning. With liberals love winning now. Hopefully now we will get the changes that we're looking for. And just as the previous speaker and yourself were talking about and I've talked about in the past you know it was fear over a whole bloat and I for one I would like to personally thank you Alex and a couple other pundits on your radio station

because the more you spoke about Trump the more vile you spoke about him and and and the dialogue you used it helped us it helped the liberals win because you expended the fear in the public. Thank you so much. I did no such thing. I don't know which Ben Mulroney you're listening to, but I did no such thing. I'm not afraid of Donald Trump.

I don't believe that he, for one second, is trying to take us over. The fear was coming exclusively, exclusively from the left. And I don't know, honestly, I don't know what reality you're living in because I don't harbor those feelings. So I could not express those words, but I do appreciate the call.

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