The Ben Mulroney Show - Mark Carney shows Donald Trump he's weak on China

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Mark Carney shows Donald Trump he's weak on China with Guest: Tasha Kheiriddin, Political Analyst, Writer -Liberals gaslighting Canadians on bringing the Carbon Tax down to zero with Guest: David Knight Legg, Political analyst, Advisor in Energy, Security and Economic development 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 back to the Ben Mulroney Show. And as we as a nation deal with Donald Trump and the fallout of quote unquote liberation day and the stock markets plummet and our factories close and we worry about our auto workers and we worry about our economy in general. Let's turn our eyes to China for a moment, because there have been some head scratching moments in this election campaign that really make they they they demand answers to questions that we have

to ask. And the question that I've got is, what's Mark Carney's relationship to China? This is not, I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat here. When he decided he was going to stand by his candidate who openly mused that his conservative opponent should be kidnapped and renditioned to China, and whoever did so would be eligible for a $1 million reward. He stood by this guy, and it was only after the RCMP threatened that they may investigate

that the candidate himself decided to resign. It wasn't even Mark Carney's idea. And there have been stories about Mark Carney's relationship and views on China that have been populating the internet for quite some time. Nothing wrong with those in a vacuum. But in a political campaign, they take on a new dimension. So here to discuss, we're joined by Tasha Carradon. She's a political analyst, as well as a writer. Tasha, welcome back to the show. Oh, thanks, Ben. Nice to be here. So I don't think I'm being unfair. I don't know enough about this man writ large. But on this

one important file, I think I think there are questions that demand answers. I don't believe we'll ever get them by at least not from Mark Carney and or the Liberal Party. But yeah, talk to me about how you see his I don't know, is it a weakness on China? Well, I think there's a vulnerability on China. And I think that stems from a couple things. One is, you know, there's a lot of talk about his association with Brookfield, he's chair of that investment firm for a few years. And Brookfield has made significant investments and has relationships with China as do any major international brokerage would have.

But the difference is here of course is Mark Carney is Prime Minister and he wants to stay Prime Minister. So these kinds of interests then attract a lot more scrutiny. He has been an advocate of a lot of policies such as Net Zero and other things. The Chinese don't embrace that that much, but it's put him in the same space as a lot of people who are very favorable to China, people like Dominic Barton, for example, former Canadian ambassador to China who's had a lot of good things to say about China. We know that in the last 30 years, there's been something the Chinese have done called

elite capture, whereby they basically, you know, cultivate relationships with important people in different countries. You know, Mr. Johnston, David Johnston, the former head of the commission that, you know, basically didn't didn't find anything on China and then got discredited, right. He was also someone who had a good relationship with China. So this is this is a problem that people point to and then when something like this situation Mr. Chang raises its head they say okay is there more there there we don't know but the call on Chang on that candidate was a terrible one.

He should have turfed him right away. Why did those alarm bells not go off? That's the question people are now asking. Well, absolutely. And now every time something comes up, whether it's, you know, things he said years ago, while visiting China, sitting for conferences and comparing the capitalist Western system to the Chinese system and saying that the Chinese actually have some advantages to their system or this something that I read this morning on Black Locks reporter that said, Prime Minister Mark Carney only weeks before seeking

the liberal leadership lobbied Beijing's mayor to quote deepened cooperation according to a Chinese account of a meeting disclosed yesterday by the Epoch Times. Carney lobbied as chair of Brookfield Asset Management, though cabinet at the time had censured China for unfair trade practices that could quote cripple our own industry. Now again, he had a fiduciary duty to the shareholders of Brookfield. I do not begrudge him that, but I see things like this and I keep wondering, like this and I keep wondering what just give me the state of play and we don't get it and I guess for a lot of our listeners for whom this this may go over their head or they may say well why should

I care about that I've got other things to worry about why should this matter to the listeners of the show well it should matter because it matters to the Canada US relationship and beyond the fact that China has intimidated our diaspora for the better part of 30 years, has threatened people like parliamentarian Michael Chung and his family back in Hong Kong and China. Beyond that human rights aspect, there is a very clear sense that Donald Trump's main focus

with his foreign policy is actually is China. The reason he is cozying up to Russia is to pry away that relationship between Russia and China. The reason he is imposing tariffs and massive tariffs mostly on countries in or around China is because he wants to break that manufacturing capacity that China has a dominance that it has in certain areas. His focus is the Arctic because he sees it as vulnerable. China is sending five new icebreakers. They're commissioning five icebreakers.

What ice are they gonna be breaking? Let me ask you Ben, it's the ice in the Arctic, right? So Canada is a vulnerability for the US vis-a-vis China. And if we don't get our act together on that infiltration in our own country, Washington will not be amused. So when you send signals like this, you get noticed and they don't like it. All right, well, from some very serious issues, potential issues, to what I

think is one of the most unserious political campaigns I've seen in a very long time. We got to talk about, talk about Jagmeet Singh here. Like what, what kind of what kind of what kind of show is he running here? I remember in a few, it wasn't last campaign, but sometime before 2015, I mean, he campaigned on Twitch by playing video games with AOC. And I thought, okay, sure. And now he's gone even farther down that crazy road by being interviewed about the ludicrous position of the NDP, the anti-Semitic position of the NDP, the anti-Israeli position, the

anti-democratic position by an OnlyFans porn model. Yeah. I didn't have this on my bingo card for 2025. I really did it. The woman's name is Jessica Wetz, and she has an OnlyFans page with explicit content. I was joking to your producer, I've never spent this much time on OnlyFans because I wanted to see what was this really. Oh boy, I don't know why the NDP didn't do that because she can talk to Jagmeet Singh about serious or more serious issues. You can agree

or disagree as I do with her position 100% But the point is I don't know who thought it was a good idea or she you know to have this individual as spokesperson or a person Connected to the NDP because yeah, if those are the values of the NDP. I don't know I mean, you know people check out only fans, but it's politics man. This is not You know, it's gonna be a porn adjacent, right? Yeah, and but it's politics, man. This is not, you know, it can be porn adjacent, right? Yeah. And look, look, I can't get too, I can't be too hard on her on her career and say she, she can't have opinions. I used to be an entertainment host, right? So I get, I get people have every

right to their opinions. And there are people in places that you would least expect to say some really incisive and insightful things. This is not that, to me, this is akin to the idea that there's no such thing as bad press. This is terrible press. This is awful press. And I'm not even talking about the offensive perspective they have on the only democracy in the Middle East. And by the way, this woman, were she to show up in Israel,

would be thrown off a roof, or not Israel, she'd be protected in Israel. She'd be thrown off a roof by Hamas. But, so who's running the show? Have they given up? Is this, are they just trying to go out in a flame of, not glory, orgy, I suppose. I think they're trying to get attention

from the kids, right? The kids are all right. Jagmeet Singh was the first politician to really make use of TikTok. It didn't help him either. I think he wants to be cooler than thou. I don't think you can see the back of his campaign bus where he's, you know, a sort of muscle pose.

I'm not sure what the flex is because yeah, they're kind of desperate if they think of influencer It's gonna get them attention It better be for the right reasons and this one is for all the wrong reasons including like you said She's basically saying in this video Canada should not do business with Israel That's what conclude. I mean, excuse me like We can go down that rabbit hole a little bit later and explain how that's a practical impossibility

and also hypocritical given how I'm sure that this woman interacts with Israeli products every day of her life and doesn't know it or doesn't wanna know it. But Tasha Keridan, we gotta leave it there, thank you. Thanks so much, Ben. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. I am indeed in Washington.

I'm here for some fun but also some. And my hope is that when I return, I'm going to return with a whole bunch of new friends of the Ben Mulroney Show. People in positions of power here in Washington. Business people, legislators, perhaps people who work in the Trump administration, journalists, all people who may have insights into, you know, the next four years that we are going to be enduring, experiencing possibly one day, eventually benefiting from, and to get it from their perspective. So that is my hope, that is my goal, and I will keep you updated as the weekend goes by. And those updates can come for you in any form.

You can listen to us on the radio, you can listen to us on the iHeartRadio app, or you may find us on Spotify, on Apple Music, or on Amazon Music. Just search up the Ben Mulroney Show and there you shall find it. There's some news that came out yesterday that I thought was so interesting that I thought, you know what, let's talk about that and all the other tech stories that are lining up. Let's not wait till our regular scheduled time to talk to them. Let's bring on Mohit Rajan's, a meteorologist.

Oh, my goodness. I was looking at the wrong part of the schedule. Thank you very much for that. That's what happens when you can't see somebody's eyes and you're working remotely. I was wondering, top of the hour, we do need to talk about Donald Trump. And top of the hour, I just heard on the news that the markets opened to chaos. If you sow chaos, you reap chaos. And so to discuss the world that we're now living in under Donald

Trump, I'm joined now by David Knight leg political analyst, advisor in energy security and economic development. David, I apologize for that terrible intro. Hey, Ben, I'm just I'm just happy I don't have to comment on technology. Let me tell you. Yeah, you must have been wondering what the heck is he asking me about? But no, but but we I am asking a comment on yesterday, how it was rolled out, and and what the markets are saying and, and how we are faring in Canada. Look, I think the faring in Canada. Look, I think the biggest issue in Canada is the markets are looking for political leadership

right now. Everybody knows there's an election going on, but I think Canadians and the markets in general are looking for direction on what's going to happen in the long standing 10 year decade, you know, decade long loss of market confidence in Canada to see if there's some signals that Canada will return to economic sanity on the trade off we've been making on energy and the environment. And, you know, I think that you've seen that the two most popular things the Liberal Party has done in the last month have been take two ideas

from the conservatives and ensure the markets know that they're going to back Canada for capital investment by dropping the capital gains raise they were going to do that of course hit our markets badly and then also that they're going to end this ridiculous carbon tax that was doing nothing for global emissions or the planet and it was holding Canada back. And I think Mark Carney, you know, he should just keep borrowing these these conservative ideas because they're great for the markets. They're great for the country, great for Canadians. And he should drop C69, C48, a host of other things, implement the industrial corridors. Canada has been missing in action from the markets for a long time. That's why our dollar is at 68 cents. And that's why we have been the lowest productive country in the OECD

and G7. And it's time to change that the lowest productive country in the OECD and G seven. And it's time to change that. I think there's an opportunity to do that now. Well, there might have been an opportunity. But you know, Mark Carney, he's deliberate when he speaks, but he's not always clear. He was clear when he said that a liberal governor under Mark Carney will not repeal Bill six C 69 with Jason Kennedy referred to as the no new pipelines law. And he says he's going to protect the environment by not repealing it. He swears he's still going to expand production and create jobs. I don't know how he can square that circle. It to me, it's all very

confusing. Yeah, you can't square that circle. And Canada has been unable to square the circle that Mark Carney has sold the Liberal Party for a decade. You know, he's the origin of the fake and false tradeoff between energy, the economy and environment. It's had a terrible effect in the UK where he was pushing that zero. I'm in the UK right now and there's a host of things that we could talk about with respect to his tenure at the bank here. But I think the critical thing for Canada

is that these things don't square. And I think that when you saw Mark Carney originally say he was gonna impose an industrial tax instead of the household tax, and then a week later had to be at DeFasco telling people whose jobs would be at risk if he did impose an industrial tax, that he backs them. And then after that in Halifax saying we should be using Canadian steel in these ships, you know, you just don't have an industrial policy that can sustain the kind of climate approach that he wants to take.

And I think we need a media and I'm very, by the way, congratulations on a terrific podcast with the future Prime Minister, Paul Yev. terrific podcast with the future prime minister, Paul Yev. And we need a media that's more honest about these things. We haven't had a very good national debate. And we have a media that's compromised by the incentive structure that the Trudeau government put in place. And it's podcasters like you that make a difference in helping people really look at what the issues are in an open way. Well, I'm talking with David Knight Legg, and I thank you

very much for the compliment. So do you think that when when liberal MPs can post on social media and take a victory lap in front of a gas station saying look what we did, we we put more money back in your pockets. Do you think that that speaks to a lack of pushback from the press? Because I'm looking at it and I can't believe the hubris, it's a combination of hubris. And I think it's a belief that they can sell whatever they want to a particular type of voter, they will buy it.

Well, Ben, it's like watching a hockey team score on their own net and then run around celebrating. You know, I love it. As a conservative, I love it. I love seeing my liberal friends celebrate conservative policies as being good for the country, especially after 10 years of telling us we were crazy to oppose them on these issues. Now they're celebrating it and they're hoping that the public will buy what they're selling. The issue is one of ideology and principle. And I think the problem is that Mark Carney has a couple decades of embracing an ideology that's failed.

It's long past due that they changed this, you know, that we're still not shipping Canadian gas to offset the huge emissions coming out of China and India, which we could be doing. We have regulations in Canada that stand in the way of doing something truly meaningful for the environment. That's also a profound commercial opportunity and would be profound for Canada's diplomatic position in the world. And we've stood in our own way, partly because we're just a lucky country and under the liberals who've become far more dependent

on the United States than we needed to be because we haven't built this global access to the rest of the planet. But look, they can take all the conservative policies they want and pass them into law. Go for it. Just keep going. I just wish they wouldn't stop at those two. I hope they keep going with industrial corridors.

I hope they keep going with freer trade. And I think what you're going to see coming out of this, I know you're down in DC now, and I think you'll probably hear a lot about this from some of the people you're meeting with, but there's a very intentional strategy within the current administration at moving through the tariff process into a free trade environment.

That's what the tariffs are meant to implement. And they're also gonna be moving towards the corporate tax cut from 21 to 15. And when that happens, there's going to be a lot of pressure on the Canadian economy and political class to really focus on what it takes to make Canada a more vibrant, productive economy again. And I think that's the debate that I think a lot of Canadians want us to have comparing sort of the the economic, the business

environment, the investment environment in Canada to what exists in the United States, I think the tariffs muddy the water. And I'm wondering whether now that Liberation Day has come and gone, I wonder whether we can go back to having a more honest conversation about, all right, where is somebody going to want to invest their money? Where are they going to want to set up a business? Where are they going to want to set up a business? Where are they going to want to set up a factory? And the Americans seem to be

moving towards a place that is more attractive to those types of things. You bet Ben. And look, I think there's I think that each of the premiers has to ask themselves how high those corporate taxes should be. And I think also the federal government can is a federalist nation. And so the premieres have an important role to play at reducing debt and creating an opportunity, society and economy in the provinces. But federally, it's time for us to create a real vision of what we should do and be in the world. I think that's economic, but I think it's also cultural. I think that Mark Carney's sort of had this strange kind of geriatric elbows up positioning, which

I don't fully understand with respect to the states. But then with respect to China, we've been hands up. There's been virtually no strong conversation with or against China and their canola tariffs, which is a huge $45 billion industry for us. The Paul Chang comments were disgusting and Mark Carney missed the easiest sort of open net on just telling him it was time for him to step down. He did not do the right thing on that front. David, I hope we can continue this conversation at a later date.

Enjoy the UK and we'll talk soon. Yeah, absolutely. Want to transform your space and your Sundays? We'll see you next time. for your chance to win big. Amazing! Ha! Ha! The small details are the difference between winning and losing. Watch and win with Renovation Resort on Home Network.