The Ben Mulroney Show - Living in Toronto -- affordability, dogs and TIFF mania

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

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This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Let's be honest. We've all shared our problems in some pretty funny places, the group chat, your barber, maybe even a stranger on a plane. And, hey, sometimes that helps. But when it comes to stuff like stress, anxiety, or relationships, it makes a big difference to talk to somebody. who's actually trained to help. That's what BetterHelp is all about. They connect you with credentialed professional therapists online. And what makes them stand out is their therapist match commitment.

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Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Mulrooney. That's better, help.com slash Mulrooney. Hey, thanks, son. What do I owe you? Don't worry about it. It's payday. Payday, huh? I bet you it went straight into your bank account and you didn't even check your pay stuff. My what?

Your pay stuff. Back in my day, you had to wait for a physical check. Then you had to go to the bank. Deposit it and wait for it to clear. Your pay really meant something. Payroll was incredibly complex. It's art and the science. It literally keeps the economy moving.

Parole professionals do a lot for us. You know, it's about time we do something for them. How about we ask our leaders to name a day in their honor, a national day to recognize payroll professionals? I got it. This is perfect. Why don't we explain to people just how important the roles are the payroll professionals play in our lives? We can even ask them to sign a petition. We can even ask them to sign a petition to recognize the third Tuesday in September as the National Day to recognize payroll professionals.

Will rally support and bring the payroll party to the nation? A national payroll party? Precisely. Sounds like a plan, you know, just one thing. What's that? I'm choosing the music. What? And I'm sitting in the back seat.

The whole way? The whole way. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show on this Tuesday, September 9th. Thank you so much for joining us here on the show. It means so much to us that you start your day with us. And just for full disclosure, I am not in Toronto right now. If you're just tuning in now, I'm actually in Winnipeg for the next few days. I'm here for some work with B'nai Brith.

B'nai Brith is Canada's oldest anti-hate organization. And we have taken up residence at the Museum for Human Rights here in Winnipeg. As a matter of fact, it's the only national museum that isn't in the Ottawa Gatineau region, the national capital region. It was built here a few years ago. And there's a big event taking place at the museum where I will be in conversation with former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. So that's tomorrow night. And one of two

things is going to happen. We're either going to air some of that conversation for you on Thursday or hopefully fingers crossed will have the Prime Minister join us in conversation. I'm at our sister radio station CJOB and they've been so kind they've given me a great

studio to make my own. I'm staring out at the city right now. It's a beautiful day here. And over the course of this show we're going to be talking about the issues that matter to the people of Winnipeg, the people of Manitoba, but also how those same issues apply across the country. But we've got lots to get to today, including, let's talk about the housing market, shall we? Because it's a sad day. It's a sad day where if you are a

former NHLer, a Hall of Famer, and you cannot get full asking price for your home. So The former Maple Leafs boss, Brendan Shanahan, has sold his home in Rosedale, which is one of the most – the expression is Tony. I don't like the expression, Tony, but it's Tony. The Tony area of town, Rosdale, gorgeous, gorgeous red brick home. I mean, I've seen the pictures of it. I've never been inside it, but just absolutely stunning. And he was asking for just shy of 14 mil, and sadly for him, he got 13. I know. It's a tough pill to swallow. But it does speak to the fact that even in these areas of town where you would expect the people to be impervious to the issues of the day, that yeah, even in a home like that, the buyers are either feeling boldened to low, low value, or they're just fewer bidders, or people just don't have the money they used to. But if you look at the pictures of this home, it is absolutely gorgeous. And it's, um,

uh it's a sign of the times that we are living in so this house just in case you're in case you're interested the next time it comes on the market built at 1898 for a pork baron because toronto and uh if you're if you're if you're thinking oh well listen the ups and downs of the market it is what it is well consider that in 2016 this same house sold for 9.15 million so the fact that in In 10 years, it went up by $4 million. I mean, that's a significant amount of money. And the fact that right now it's sort of on the downslope speaks to where we are in terms of the housing market. Not the only house on the market, though.

I mean, if that's sort of the realm you're living in, then you know that the bridal path in the just, you know, in the Bayview area of Toronto. That's where you have some most beautiful, most immense. I mean, really, that's where the properties are huge. some of the biggest homes. Drake obviously has his home up there. One of the most expensive houses indeed in the country has hit the market. And it is, look, from the outside, it looks like the palace at Versailles. That's what it looks like. It's on High Point Road. And it is listed for 49-950, almost $50 million. This is, this house is insane. And when you look at it on the inside look it's not to my taste it's very yeah it's french revolution right it's very much

that look but it's not it doesn't look like a family home to me like this is what they call french revival style that's what they call it and you look at it and it's impressive it absolutely is impressive but it doesn't exactly have like it doesn't give off vibes of like young kids toddlers running around having fun this looks like the type of place where an old man and an old lady might live. And I don't know how many buyers you're going to have for this, but I mean, there's a hand for every glove, right? So we'll have to wait and see if this one does indeed sell and when it sells, we will let you know. But home selling is below asking.

98% of GTA neighborhoods with at least five sales in August sold for less than the listed price. That is a three-year high. The overall trend is that nearly 80% of GTA homes. sold in August, went for under-asking. That is up from 76% in July and 71% a year ago. High inventory, soft demand, slowing immigration, and interest rate sensitivity are keeping prices down, rare or prime properties may still sell above asking.

Look, I was over at a friend's house, and he also lives in Rosedale, and his house has been on the market for what seems like a couple of, it seems like a month or so, and I asked him, I said, how are things going? He said, terrible. And I said, what do you mean? He's like, most of the people who come by are looky-lose.

Most of the people who come by, I don't have a lot of buyers coming by. I have a lot of agents coming by, and they're not bringing a lot of buyers. And those who are coming are low-balling us to the point that it's insulting. And it really surprised me. I assumed that there were certain neighborhoods like Rosedale, like Forest Hill, where there was just a certain number of buyers that wanted to get into those neighborhoods no matter what. And you would always have one or two buyers that would be fighting against each other, which would drive up the price on any given property.

That is not the case. That is not the case. We are living in a, I remember where the smartest place to put your money in Toronto, in fact, in the country was in Toronto real estate, because it was always going to grow in value. And that is not the case today. That is Toronto. that is Canada in 2025. So it begs the question, how much do you need to make in Toronto to live in Toronto?

And a single person needs approximately, you've got to make between $60,000 and $70,000 annually. This is income that supports renting a modest apartment, covering utilities, transportation, and personal expenses. If you are a family of four, and I'm a family of five, if you're a family of four, you need around $130,000 to $150,000 a year. This range accommodates rent for three-bedroom home, groceries, child care, and other family-related costs. So when you hear political parties refer to the wealthiest among us, and we've heard it before, that drum is banged all the time. It is banged all the time. We're going to ask the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share. You know, that's the thing that we hear.

Who are those people? because according to certain people, a family for making $150,000 a year, that would be them. And those are people who can barely afford to live in a rental in this city and pay the bare minimum. So ask yourself, who's out of touch? Who's out of touch? In Ontario, the Ontario minimum wage is set to increase to $17.60 next month. and look that's back in the day that sounds like a lot of money but is it enough to even afford the price of beef it sounds odd but if you look at the chart that i'm looking at right now

the generally since about 2016 the price of everything the price of wages as a as as it related to farm products vegetables uh grain poultry uh animal products Everything sort of followed a similar trend line. By about 2020, things started going wonky, wonky. And wages consistently went up modestly. But everything else just started. It looked like the market was having a seizure. And everything is higher than wages now.

Every single one of those indices is higher. With beef being at its high point. And I'm talking double the price, more than double the price of what it was in 2017. Heck, more than double the price of what it was in, I mean, we're talking almost 2020. Yeah, 2020 in five years. So anyway, we've got to take a break right now. When we come back, a Toronto nine-year-old is left with stitches and lasting fear after a brutal dog attack in a local park. Why the city is facing a growing concern over off-leash dogs. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney show.

Welcome back. Thank you so much for joining us. I've spent my entire life surrounded by dogs. My very first dog was a dog. My dad's first dog was named Waggy. It's the worst name ever, but he loved Waggy. And the first dog we had as a family was a black lab named Gucci. And the reason we named the dog Gucci, the Goochie,

as we called her, was because when we first got her, apparently, I was too young to know, but she apparently ate my mom's something she had that was from Gucci. And so we loved that name and the Gucci was the best. And from there on, we always had dogs,

especially when we were in Ottawa, we had Winston, we had Oscar, we had Clover, we had Ozzie, we had all sorts of dogs and we loved them very much. And they're man's best friend. There's, right now, Miss Bruce Wayne Mulroney, is in our home and she is a source of joy, the likes of which I cannot describe.

We love our dog. And we as a society love our dogs. But what does it say? What does it say that nearly, there's a nearly 40% uptick in dog attacks in the city of Toronto? Last year, 1,316 dog attacks were reported. That's the ones that were reported. And that's a huge jump from 946 of them in 2021. And so I don't know what this says about how we are choosing to live shoulder to shoulder with each other.

But this really came to a head when a nine-year-old named Riley was mauled by an off-leash dog while playing in a park the night before school started. She got facial gashes that required 10 stitches. And this hits close to home for me because when my brother Nick was nine, that's exactly what happened to him he went up to an older dog just to pet the dog and I think that dog had an old injury that had never properly healed and as he was petting the dog

the dog sort of reacted and grabbed him by the face like right in the face and shook him and threw him away and we as a family stood there dumbfounded because it looked like his face looked like a bowl of spaghetti And the only person who reacted the way he needed us to react was my mom.

She did not miss a beat. She jumped to his aid, wrapped him in a towel, put him under her arm, ran down the road, got into a car, took him to the hospital. And by the grace of God, that dog missed every single nerve ending and every artery, I suppose. and he is now better looking than all of us and he's got full use of all of his facial muscles. But that's not how all of these go. He's also fortunate he didn't experience what Riley is experiencing right now emotional trauma, fearful of dogs, struggling with confidence,

finding it difficult to make new friends at school. It's the beginning of the new school year. And so, like, what do we do with this? Like, this is of great concern. There have been a number of high-profile dog mallings in Toronto, including a severe case in March 2024, left another child with life-altering injuries. And, you know, there are irresponsible dog owners out there. A lot of people say there's no such thing as a dangerous dog. There's only irresponsible dog owners.

And it can be the little things as well as the big things, right? And Mike Droulet, I know that you yourself have an issue with dog owners in your neighborhood? Well, there's issues all over the place. There's people who don't put their dogs on the leash. And, yeah, it is a lot of it is the problem is with the dog owners. It's not the actual dog. People don't train their dogs properly. Yeah.

But, I mean, that's a problem. But it's also those long leashes, those ones. And I know you use one of those. But those ones that go out 15, 20 feet. The accordion ones, the ones that are on a. on a dial, right, so they can be as long or as short as you want them to be. Look, you got to know how to use those, and I use that. I let the dog go 15 feet out when we're the only ones on the street.

But as we get closer to other people, I bring her closer and closer and closer. So by the time we get anywhere close to other people, she is right next to me. Yeah, and I have a problem with those, because if your dog's 15, 20 feet away from you, and you just click it, you've locked the dog in, but you have no way of pulling that dog back in terms of getting it closer to you than that 15, 20 feet. So it can run out in a circle completely around you, 15 feet all the way around, and you have no control over it, where he goes. So there's a danger there.

But this is where the responsibility of the drug, the drug, the dog owner comes in. You have to know who your dog is. And I know my dog. I know exactly what she's going to do in our neighborhood. She's predictable. She's, and so I know when it's okay to do that and when it's not. I also don't want to get in anybody else's space. I know that she jumps up on other people.

That's her one failing. She is so excited when she sees people. She jumps on them. I don't want that to be a problem for somebody else. So I don't let her get anywhere near anybody else. But I want to put the call out to our listeners at 416-870-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk. Have dog owners forgotten that dogs can be dangerous? Has civility been left behind?

What stories do you have about crappy dog owners? Let's start this out with Adam. Adam, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Yeah, so I want to say something that my Polish mother said. She was a farmer. We worked for 2,000 years not to sleep with the animals. We're not starting again now when I wanted a dog. And I really believe that.

I think dog owners are crazy people. They're like gun owners. They all think their dog is perfect in every way. Oh, Adam, Adam. Hold on. Hold on. You're comparing a dog owner to a gun owner. The way they think of.

about their animal. Yep. Okay. Explain? Because whenever they bite, all you ever hear is, oh, it would never happen before, but it happened now. And my dog is never dangerous. And I also think it was the beginning of the downfall when we allowed them back on the TPC because, oh, my dog will never crap here. Yeah, oh, listen, I don't, I don't think dogs belong on the TTC at all. And I think your issue, Adam, is with dumb people. You know, with, like I said, I'm going to tell you,

I, okay. Somebody once asked me why I don't run for political office. And I said, because I don't like dogs. And in this city, people like dogs more than like children. And I'm, I would never get elected. That's, that's basically it is.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, listen, I, I, I get it. There are some, there, listen, in a big enough city, with a big enough data set, you are going to find some really, dumb people. It's as simple as that, right? And our city is as big as they come, and which means you're going to find some really bad dog owners and some irresponsible

people. Yeah. So anyway, Adam, thank you very much for your call. I appreciate it. Let's go over to David. David, thanks so much for calling in. Hello, thank you for taking my call. Yeah. I like to go bike riding. I live in North Brampton, and I go bike riding around the year, the farms area. And I go regularly. But yesterday, on my way back home, I'm riding down the road, and all of a sudden I hear you is barking and I have my headphones on. And I'm looking around and there was a dog right beside me, chasing me. Yeah, that's wrong. Where did the dog come from? Where's the owner? And I'm afraid now to go. I'm thinking about maybe a bear spray or something just in case,

because I don't want to get a bit on the calf while I'm right at the bike. Yeah. Dog owners, they should be leashed. No, no, 100%. That should never happen. Listen, if you are, if you're in a, if you're a, if you're a dog owner and you're taking your dog on a bike path where you know there are going to be bicycles and you know that your dog, well, first of all, the dog should always be on leash. But let's assume for a second that your dog is, you trust your dog. It still doesn't matter.

Anything could set that dog off and you as the bike rider deserve as much peace and to enjoy that as much as possible. I'm going to say goodbye to you. We only have about a minute left, so let's welcome Chantelle to the conversation. Chantelle, you're a dog trainer. Yes, I am. So tell me, what have you seen? People are insane, Ben. Yeah.

They treat their dogs like humans, and your dog is not a human. It's an animal. It has innate desires and needs. It needs to chase. It needs to. You have to keep your dog on leash, and you, You have to, as a dog owner, you have to protect your animal from themselves. Exactly, because you know, if that dog accidentally bites somebody, the law says you put that

dog down. If you love your dog and you want your dog to live out a long and healthy life, you have to protect it against those things. They're going to turn that dog, have it devolve into its baser instincts. Thank you very much. Chantal, thank you to everybody for calling it. Hey, the Toronto International Film Festival's 50th kicked off with stars, protests, and plenty of buzz, but we're the movies themselves worth the hype.

We're going to dig in right now. This show is sponsored by Better Help. Let's be honest. We've all shared our problems in some pretty funny places, the group chat, your barber, maybe even a stranger on a plane. And, hey, sometimes that helps. But when it comes to stuff like stress, anxiety, or relationships, it makes a big difference to talk to somebody who's actually trained to help.

That's what BetterHelp is all about. They connect you with credentialed professional therapists online. And what makes them stand out is their therapist match commitment. After a quick questionnaire, BetterHelp does the hard work of finding someone who fits your needs. Most people get it right the first time. But if it's not a match, you can switch counselors anytime at no extra cost. It's flexible, totally online, and you can hit pause whenever you need to. With over 5 million people supported to date globally, BetterHelp is now a

available in Canada with a network of counselors who have expertise in a wide range of specialties. With a 4.9 out of 5 rating based on over 1.7 million client reviews, BetterHelp makes counseling affordable and convenient, and you can switch counselors at any time for no cost. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Mulrooney. That's better, help.com slash Mulrooney. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime.

That's the powerful backing of Amex. Presale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at amex.ca.com. You are listening to the Ben Mulroney show, and I thank you for that, whether you're listening on the radio, whether you're listening on the IHeart Radio streaming app. You may be listening in podcast form.

You may have found us on social media or on YouTube, wherever you find the show, we really appreciate that you make this show part of your day. And look, I'm in Winnipeg for the next few days. I told you I'm here doing some work. I'll be interviewing former Prime Minister Stephen Harper tomorrow night at the Museum of Human Rights. But if you are in the city of Toronto, there is no escaping the Toronto International Film Festival. It's celebrating its 50th year. It's one of the biggest film festivals in the world.

And it's that moment where Toronto welcomes Hollywood as well as the film industry from around the world and the people show up. You know, it's known as the People's Festival. And one of the reasons it's called that is because it is so accessible to film fans. You know, you look at other festivals where the fans are on the outside looking in. And that's not what this is. It's participation by film fans. You can buy passes to go see as many, movies as you want and it's really a breed apart and it's um it's something that is worth

celebrating warts and all uh i am not participating this year but that that doesn't mean we don't have it covered for you please welcome the happy host of my summer layer sammy unan sammy thank you so much for being here much it's a good break from the festival it's been a lot for the last few days well that's right so i think it started thursday night right so Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. That's a slog. I remember, I remember that marathon. So how are you holding up?

Good. I think I can spell my own name, which is usually a good sign by this time of the festival. Yeah. You know, one of the things that's always great is when they highlight something that isn't necessarily film-related, but it adds to the character. And years ago, there was a production of Godspell in the city of Toronto. And it marked almost a. a stake in the ground and said, this is Toronto, this is who we are, this is the talent that we have here,

because looking back, you see who was part of that production. And it's absolutely incredible. And I guess what, there was a, there was a retrospective, there was an acknowledgement. What did they do? Yeah, so just for people that don't know, the Godspell production you're talking about featured. This is all obviously young Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas later joined their account. Victor Garber. This was like, they were all in their early 20s. Paul Schaefer did the music?

Yeah. And this is like the, and Gilda Radner, of course, as well. But this was the seeding of SETV and S&L. And this is where these guys all got their big break, and they realized they wanted to dedicate themselves to show business and to comedy. And then from there, of course, like I said, we get SEDV and SNL and all the good stuff that we talk about with Canadian comedy. This is like anybody who's serious about Canadian comedy really should check this one out. Yeah. And if you, but there were, were, were there were bomb-sniffing dogs. Is that

true? Yeah, right before the, the, the cinema opened, there was a nice little dog and a canine officer, and they were just kind of going through the cinema, just making sure, because there were some protests earlier in the, well, for the last couple of days, there's been some protest. Yeah, well, look, Sammy, because this is like Godspells. It's a Toronto 70s documentary, the most offensive thing is the fashion. Yeah, but listen, if you believe that film is a reflection of the world we live in, then you know that there are going to be protests and we're living in one of the most heightened political times in my lifetime. And so, you know, you've got yesterday on the Ben Mulroney show, we highlighted that, the documentary about the Israeli, a man

who went to search for his family following the October 7th attacks. And we know that we know the issues that followed for TIF when they rescinded the invitation and then gave it back. And so, yeah, you know that that's going to be part of it. And apparently some pro-Palestinian loyalists have been projecting ads on some buildings. Yeah, it says the ads were saying TIF art washes genocide. So they were, it was part of the, it was a bit frustrating too, because people had, they had locked down the area near the TIF light box. And so there was a DJ there And there was a criterion closet

There was a lot of cool activities There's people painting murals So it's a lot of creativity and a lot of fun And you can go out You go see movies and hang out And so I understand these are significant issues But at the same time Like you said before

This is just one of those fun things in the city Where people just want to get out And they want to see some celebrities They want to see some cool movies And then go home This is like a night out for them You know? Yeah. So I think there's always a time and a place

For these kind of things I don't know if this was necessarily the best chosen time. Oh, I listen, you're not going to get any disagreement for me on that front. So let's talk about the fun. Let's talk about the films. Let's talk about the reason that Hollywood descends on Toronto. What have been some of the highlights? We mentioned Godspell already, and so connected to that one is, of course, the John Candy documentary,

produced by Ryan Reynolds and directed by Colin Hanks. John Candy is having kind of like a mini resurgence, right? Because the Argos are having a John Candy tribute a night on September 13th. That's right. Yeah, he was one of the owners at one point. Yeah, and Paul Myers, he's writing a, he's written a book called John Candy,

A Life and Comedy, that comes out October 7 with an introduction with Dan Aykroyd. But John Candy's documentary just kind of does a retrospective of who he is. We lost him in March 4, 1994. So it's been some time, and I think it's good to kind of go back and recognize him as much as,

Godspell does too in terms of like look at our Canadian comedy roots we we had some giants little giants yeah in terms of contributing to Canadian comedy now Sammy according to the Globe and Mail there have been some big premieres but relatively underwhelming compared to years past yeah I mean because there there are some like a lot of the stuff is going to be coming out on streaming as well I think that's also kind of undercutting some of the momentum of that makes sense like Frankenstein has gotten some buzz and people want to see it Obviously, Del Toro, the director. He's kind of an honorary Trontonian now.

But like Netflix has already said, it's coming out in November. The John Candy documentary, that's already got the trailer out, and it's going to be on Prime Video. You know what I mean? Like, we really know the dates for these things, so sometimes it kind of like, yes, you can go see it and go hang out with Ryan Reynolds. But at the same time, you're like, I don't know if I want to put on pants and you can just stay home a minute, wait for it for Prime Video. Yeah, no, that's true. But one of the reasons TIF has become as important as it is is the way, where it is on the schedule, right? And so these movies that are introduced at TIF, they can begin the Oscar buzz and the Oscar campaigns for certain films and certain actors.

So what are you hearing in terms of who we should be looking out for come award season time? A couple, Eleanor the Great, is Scarletoe Hanson's directorial debut. people are really liking her as a director she seems to have the stones for it so we'll see how that kind of goes another one is a Chrissy starring Sidney Sweeney this is a like a she's plays a boxer so that's another one is a boxer is this one of those films because a lot you know the the award season they really love it when somebody goes through a physical transformation That's exactly why, yeah. So this girl who just was in her own little tempest in a teapot because she was so sexy-selling jeans,

are you saying that she uglies herself up for lack of a better expression? Yeah, exactly right. The Rock does the same thing in the smashing machine, which is another like one-two punch from Tiff, right? Where the Rock Smashing Machine is directed by the same guy who gave us uncut gems with the Adam Sandler performance. Oh, yes, Benny Safi. He's amazing. So that's another one as well. That's like, kind of like got people buzzing and talking about it.

I hear Brendan Fraser is on the tip of people's songs again. I mean, he did well a few years ago with the whale, and now rental family is the name of it? Yeah, correct. He plays a white guy in Japan where you can like rent him for events and weddings, whatever you need, like a nice little token white guy in the corner. Brendan Fraser is your guy so it's got a lot of heart and it's got a lot of emotion

well listen I want to thank you so much are you are you going out again today Sammy yeah I'm going to go check out space cadet by Kid Coala French Canadian kid oh nice it's like a Pixar movie with like no dialogue okay well Sammy if there's anything else

worth talking about I hope you'll come back on the show and report back at the end of the week for sure thanks so much thank you so much that's Sammy Unan he's the happy host of My Summer Lair And he was here with our TIF fix. All right, don't go anywhere because the Ontario liberals look inward and it's not in the meditating sense. We are going to break down what they think are the reasons why they lost the last election.

Next on the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of your Tuesday with us. All right. I think we all remember the last provincial election. It was a snap election called by Doug Ford, who, said that he needed a mandate by the people of Ontario to be able to govern this province in the face of the headwinds that were presented by the Trump administration. And so Bonnie

Cromby, the relatively new leader of the Ontario Liberals, was emboldened and looking forward to making hay out of that election and competing very favorably against the Progressive conservative party, did not leapfrog the NDP as was hoped by many. The progressive conservatives maintained their majority with 80 seats. The new Democrats got 27 seats and maintain the official opposition position. The liberals only got 14 seats. They regained official party status, but only secured 30% of the vote. Their vote was far less efficient than the new Democrats who got far more seats. with a relatively smaller percentage of the vote.

And so according to the bylaws of that party, the liberal party, it was time for a liberal leadership review as well as a post-mortem as to what went wrong in the election. Let's hear from Colin DeMello of Global News on this subject. It's a stinging review of Bonnie Cromby's provincial election campaign, one that determined the leader could not size up to Doug Ford on the issues that matter the to voters. Well, I think they wanted the election to be about health care, and everybody else, including the voters, thought it was about the economy and how to handle Donald Trump. Months after the campaign that delivered Ford a third straight majority, the Ontario Liberal Party

examined what went wrong with its campaign. While the liberals returned to party status with 14 seats in the legislature and Cromby raised millions of dollars, the review found a significant disconnect. Candidates and campaign managers found voters were more focused on affordability and economic uncertainty. Access to family doctors did not align with the issues that resonated the most with voters. It sounds like there wasn't a good ballot box question. Whether or not you have a doctor is pretty important, but not as important as whether or not you're going to be able to buy groceries next week. Yeah, so the Liberal Annual General Meeting is this week in Toronto, and so this is the review that we're just talking about.

It's a 26-page debrief highlighting the problems that the liberals experienced during that SNAP election. And some of the key points are really interesting. They're really eye-opening. So, as they said, a misaligned campaign messaging, the party centered its platform, as you just heard on health care. But the review found that this focus failed to resonate. Voters were more concerned about affordability, economic anxiety.

And I hear that, and it reminds me of some of the issues that have been assigned, some of the responsibility, some of the wrong moves that were assigned to the conservatives in the last federal election. All the things that mattered to people before the last election didn't matter anymore because Donald Trump took all the oxygen out of the room. and the liberals accurately were able to ride that wave back to power. Another problem that they had was a lack of differentiation. The liberals struggled to stand out for both the NDP and the progressive conservatives. They didn't offer voters a strong reason to pick Bonnie or the liberals over the other parties. Apparently, according to this review, they allowed Doug Ford to define the narrative. He was positioned by default as the steady and trusted leader.

despite controversies. The liberals fail to challenge this framing or effectively connect Ford's record to voters' concerns about instability. And look, all of those things, it depends on your perspective, I think, you know. But one thing that you can't argue with is when they say they had disorganization on the ground, right? The review highlighted poor coordination between the central campaign team and local riding campaigns. Bonnie Cromby's provincial tour hampered by last minute changes, lack of local support, insufficient staffing, many candidates felt they were invisible. Those are issues that come from the top, right? Like that's something that's undeniable as far as I'm concerned.

And by the way, nothing, none of this takes away from the fact I've interviewed, I've spent time with Bonnie Cronby. She's a lovely woman. I've got lots of time for Bonnie as a person, and I can't speak to how she runs an organization. But if this is coming from within the party itself, I think you've got to take it at face value. And again, another decision that was apparently made is they didn't spend as much money as they could have. The party raised a lot of money, as you just heard Colin DeMello say. They cleared their debt, which is a big deal. They spent around $12 million, which is short of the $12 to $15 million that they say needed to be competitive across the price.

province. And meanwhile, Doug Ford and his PCs spent $15.3 million. So they really never got their campaign going. I'd love to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk. How do you feel? Did you vote liberal? Were you considering voting liberal, but you were sort of non-plussed by the campaign? You know, I think Bonnie Cromby presented as a great candidate. She's photogenic. She's charismatic. She's a good speaker. What did you think was lacking? Give us a call at 4168-870-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk. I mean, could they have pivoted, right? Like the knock on Pierre Poliev was when the writing was on the wall that Canadians cared about Donald Trump more than anything, even though prior to the campaign, all of these self-inflicted

wounds that were caused by the Liberal Party, they fell by the wayside. Everyone cared about Donald Trump. The liberals were very good at keeping people's eyes focused on him and not on everything else. And the knock, I suppose, on Pierre Poliev was he was unable, unable, maybe unwilling to pivot significantly enough to get those people to see him as that agent of change. And the liberals in Ontario, you could accuse them of doing the same thing. They weren't. weren't able to recognize that what Doug Ford was talking about, that's what Ontarians cared about. And because of that, she was not able to peel away any of their support, not focusing on affordability,

not focusing on, you know, the headwinds that were coming our way from an unfair trade war that was started not by us, but by Donald Trump. And you'll remember, Doug Ford, he wore his emotions on his sleeve. It hurt him personally. that the Americans were casting us in such a negative light. And that might have resonated with voters. That he took things so personally. Like this, I don't think there was another national leader who was as emotional in his expression of disappointment with the Americans as Doug Ford.

And I think that that played to his appeal. But I'd love to hear what you have to think at 416870-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk. Mike Droulet, what do you think? I think you hit the nail on the head. I think they, I don't think the liberals ever got their act going. Obviously, the snap election really surprised them. And they needed more time to organize, more time to really rally and get people to understand what they were about. I mean, they're still reeling from the times from the last liberal government.

They're still suffering from that. And much like what's happening with the Tories right now, there is a lot to be happening. with in that last election. Like, this is, this is where, this is where the challenge is going to be. Do you dump the leader? Oh, we've got a call from Andy. Andy, welcome to the show. Hi, Ben.

How are you? I'm well. What do you think? Do you let's, this just show that the Ontario liberals and Bonnie Crumbia are out of touch with Ontarians and the needs of Ontario. Like, for example, I was listening on the radio, like during the election, people were conservative affordability. The liberals were talking, were.

focusing on health care. Yes, health care is important, but that wasn't the number one factor. The most important thing, people were concerned about affordability, but yet they kept campaigning on health care and things that people didn't, like, sorry to say, you didn't care about. Yeah. Yeah. And that is an issue. You, you as the leader and you as the party get to choose what you're going to talk about. And if you can't identify what matters to people, then do you deserve to win. But again, I'll end on this point. And this is going to be the challenge for both the provincial liberals as well as the federal conservatives. There is a lot to be proud of in that campaign. There are a lot of gains that were made? But are those gains enough to say we're going

to stick with the guy who got us this far, but not as far as we needed to get to, not as far as we expected to get to? Thank you very much for that call. Coming up, let's talk about prairie gold and why canola is so important to Canada's future. This is the Ben Mulroney show. I dare you to pay attention. I dare you to speak up. I dare you to try something new. I dare you to challenge what you think you know. differently.

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