The Ben Mulroney Show - More Ideological Pageantry from the most woke city in Canada

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Guests and Topics: -More Ideological Pageantry from the most woke city in Canada 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

Are you ready for a life-changing opportunity? BC Cancer is actively hiring for all healthcare roles across all its regional centers in beautiful British Columbia. Join a dedicated team committed to ending cancer for good. And experience the lifestyle you've always dreamed of in stunning BC. We're curing cancer here. Are you in? Apply now at jobs.BCcancer.BC.CA. Greetings everybody. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show on this Thursday, May 29. Thank you so much for starting your day with us. We're getting really close to the weekend. And there's a lot we got to unpack this morning. We woke up last

night, went to bed, and the world was a particular way. Is it related to tariffs? We wake up this morning and it is completely different because a court, a US court made up of three judges, one appointed by Reagan, one appointed by Obama, and one appointed by Trump himself, ruled that Trump abused the 1977

International Emergency Economic Powers Act to apply his tariffs. Specifically, we'll talk about the ones applied to Canada. And because of that, they have said that those tariffs no longer apply. He's got 10 days to comply. Of course, he is going to appeal. But 10 days from now, a great many number of the tariffs that have hit Canada, Mexico, the EU, China, they could all be go the way the dodo bird. And he's typically what happens is Congress has

exclusive domain to tariff unless of course, there's a national emergency, which is what this law is for. He has claimed that the trade deficits that he believes have plagued America constitute a national emergency. So he usurped that power from Congress and has been wreaking havoc on the international economic order with his tariffs.

And the court said that doesn't fly. This is not a national emergency. We've had trade deficits for decades. So by definition, this is not an emergency. You overstepped your bounds. Your tariffs have to come down. Now, so that's obviously any chance we have at repealing these tariffs is a good thing, but let's also not forget

that we have tariffs on aluminum, on steel, and then we also have, we've got Chinese tariffs that have hit our agricultural sector very, very hard. So this concerns me for a number of reasons. One, my fear is that he's going to strong arm his way into getting Congress to give him this power, which will make him far more powerful. I don't know if that's gonna come to pass,

but more pressing and more immediate is what does Trump do next? You know, when he has bad news, he's very good at getting the world to change the channel. And he just has to say something outrageous or do something outrageous. And then we're just talking about that. We follow the bouncing ball wherever it goes

in this Trump administration. He's very, very good at getting us to chase our own tail. And so I don't know what he's gonna do in the face of this. Like, what does he do over the next 10 days as we all focus on what is clearly a failure of his administration. He's been counting on these tariffs to bring in trillions of dollars

all to benefit the American consumer and the American taxpayer. These will go away. A lot of them, and there's some that, like I said, some will still stay on, but a lot of them, if not, most of them are going to evaporate and along with them, the financial boon that he saw as part of this dynamic. So stay tuned, watch this space. I guarantee you he's coming up with something.

He's gonna do something. And he's gonna come back and he's gonna hit hard. I think he called it a coup, even though one of these three judges was appointed by him. So yeah, 10 days to implement the order. And so this time, I guess a week from Monday, we should probably see, we should see that standby. So that's one plan that was scuttled.

Here's another one. We've been talking quite critically of Bill 5 by the Ontario government. This was the bill that was going to unlock the potential of the Ring of Fire. It was gonna a special economic zones that might be, would be able to sidestep municipal bylaws, environmental assessments and the like.

When they got a lot of pushback from the environmental groups as well as first nations, they said, well, no, we're willing to make amendments. We're willing to make amendments. And we're willing to create special indigenous economic zones so we can get buy-in from indigenous groups and indigenous stakeholders. Well, yesterday at committee,

the NDP and the liberals successfully stalled Bill 5. They know they can't stop it with a majority of seats at Queens Park held by the progressive conservative government. It will, it can become law, but they've definitely slowed it down. And they are saying, and Marit Stiles, the leader of the official opposition

is saying, listen, here's what you gotta do. Scrap bill five and come back with something that represents more of buy-in from those groups that are telling you is a problem. So what they do next, I don't know. I mean, I think you can always massage a bill. You can always bring those people in after the fact. I am art styles wants to take this down to the studs. Excuse me, take this down the studs and start again.

So we will have to, again, watch this space. What is the government going to do? This is a, this is central to the identity of this government, right? This is, this was going to help us as a province hedge against what Doug Ford said is the war, economic war with America. As a matter of fact, why don't we listen to the Premier himself? With anything that we do, we always want to collaborate. We always want to be respectful. We always want to follow the Constitution. And that's exactly what we're going to do. Again, the reason we're doing this, we're in an economic war against President Trump. One of the areas that are going to support our province and our entire country as their critical minerals.

It is going to support First Nations communities as well. Quite a few of them want to move forward. They want to create a partnership. As a matter of fact, we already have partnerships going up through Ariland and Martin Falls.

They want to see prosperity in their communities because a lot of these communities are living on diesel. They don't have the proper health care that they need. They don't have the proper healthcare. They want to see prosperity in their communities because a lot of these communities are living on diesel and they don't have the proper health care that they need. They don't have the proper

fresh food and fresh fruit that comes to their communities. We're going to be able to deliver it with partnership and every single speech I've said throughout the election is we can't do this without the partnership of our sanctions communities. Yeah. So I, listen, I subscribe to Doug Ford's view. That's this, the goals of this legislation are laudable and essential for the prosperity of this province. I think it's high time we started developing the resources that we have. And if the ring of fire is, uh, is one of those resources, then we have to get to a place where we can develop them

effectively and optimally in an environmentally conscious way, but in a way also that respects treaties and environmental guardrails. And if this bill can't get us there, then they really do have to take it down to the studs and start again. My hope is Doug Ford and his government

can find a way to thread that needle and bring people on board. Have meaningful consultation. Really listen to what the concerns are and make the appropriate amendments so that this bill, so that we can get to a yes on Bill 5. Because I subscribe to the idea that we got to unlock a whole lot of potential in this country ring

of fire being at pretty close to the top of that list. The My Choice sales event is back at Nissan and the choice is yours. Choose our best selling rogue always ready for adventure or the dynamic centra packed with safety features or the all new boldly redesigned kicks. And now during my choice, you can choose up to $1,500 in Nissan bonus or accessory credit,

or choose three year prepaid maintenance. Hurry into your local Nissan dealer today. $1,500 applies to Sentra and select rogue models when leasing or financing through NCF. Conditions apply. See nissan.ca for details. Welcome back. If you are a regular listener of the show, then you you know that I, I will rely on certain phrases

occasionally, like, don't talk to me like I'm stupid. That dog don't hunt, you can't get there from here. What's another one? Don't piss on my shoulder and tell me it's raining. And a hot dog is not a sandwich. And also the city of Toronto succeeds despite the people running it. That there is when you see what has been achieved in this city and then you go and look at what occupies the time of the leaders of this city. It's amazing that we've ever accomplished anything in this city. Well, this next story, I think proves that point and makes makes it so that that expression actually holds true. The city shelter and support service division is putting

together a new shelter for homeless people in the city, but homeless people, homeless black people, only black people. And as they build this out, they're looking for employees and for people to run it. You don't, if you want to run this thing, or if you want to work there, you don't need any domain expertise. That is not a requirement of the job just so long as you're black. Yeah. Yeah. This is not a story from the onion. This is an actual thing that the city of Toronto is pursuing. And I read some stories about this.

You know, this is an effort to combat anti-black racism, a noble goal, by the way, but not the goal of the homeless shelters. The goal of the homeless shelters is to give shelter to the homeless. You want to combat anti-black racism? Go find another division to do it with. This to me is regressive. It is racist. It is beneath the office of the people

who are coming up with these ideas. It will do nothing to solve homelessness. And it also denies the reality of homelessness, which is a socioeconomic issue. Doesn't matter if you're white, Indian, new to Canada, been here forever, black, yellow, orange, purple, polka dot. If you are homeless, the city has an obligation to help you. And that is not a left idea or a right idea.

It is an empathetic idea that should be championed by everybody. And to start siloing people, adding race to an issue that's already complex is insane to me. So I want to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or one triple 8 225 talk in a city where progressive ideology is rampant. five talk in a city where progressive ideology is rampant. This is probably the dumbest, most ludicrous idea I've heard in a very long time. I mean, how we treat our homeless population in this city is already no bueno. It's not good.

This is adding insult to that insult. Mike, welcome to the show. Good morning. Good morning. I would like someone to get Olivia Chow on the radio on right somebody that and say, what the hell were you thinking? And have her respond. Get her to respond. Yeah, I mean, ridiculous. The invitation to Mayor Chow is always open to come join us on the Ben Mulroney show. I haven't talked to her in a while. And and so I would love to have her on the show and ask her about this.

This is the how many ways could this be challenged? Like human rights, Constitution? Yeah, like this is just something that could be bored in some room in City Hall one day and go, Hey, I got an idea. It's Yeah, it is, again, like these are these pet projects, these social engineering pet projects that occupy the time of the people who should be focused on city-wide solutions to city-wide problems. Like if there is a problem in our shelter system

where they have identified racism towards black people in the shelters, then that is a problem that needs to be addressed citywide. The solution isn't to house only black people in a black homeless shelter. That doesn't solve the problem. That only makes, I believe there's a recipe to making the problem worse. This is small mindedness. It's lack of vision. It is a race baiting. It is identity politics. And like I said, the pendulum around the world is swinging away from identity politics, but not in Toronto. No, no, no, no, no. No, we've jumped into that pool with both feet. We've cannonballed into that pool. It is it is insulting. It should insult everybody.

I would like to hear if you are a black Torontonian, I would love your opinion on this. I think I'm entitled to have my opinion, but yours is probably especially valuable and incisive right now. Scott, welcome to the show. Hi, I don't think it's like, let's put a shoe on the other foot. What if they were saying it was for whites only? Oh, yeah, no, I mean, that's, yeah, of course. We're seeing this more and more and more, you know, like need not apply. If you're a white candidate for a job at like a government office. But Scott, think about how stupid this is. So the, hold on, Scott, the argument is always when, when, when you say something like that, it's like, Oh, but the power dynamic is different.

And that's why you can't just reverse it and flip it and say, well, what if it was white people? We're talking about homeless people here, the most marginalized, the most vulnerable in our society. Does anybody think that a homeless white person has any power over anyone, let alone fellow homeless people of different races in a, in a homeless shelter? This is so stupid, so stupid, that the person who came up with it needs to be bubble wrapped and wear a helmet

every time they go outside the house because I fear for their safety. I genuinely think that the person who came up with this and is championing it was dropped on their head and ate paint chips as a child. Anyway, thank you very much for that, Scott. Who do we have next? We got Dan. Dan, welcome to the show for that, Scott. Who do we have next? We've got Dan.

Dan, welcome to the show. Ben. Yes. I'm for this. I just want to know where to send my white allocated tax dollars to, which account that the city and where I could send my brown tax dollars. Well, yeah.

I mean, Dan, it feels to me like this was come up, this idea was the brainchild of the same people who thought it would be a good idea to have an indigenous specific city, unelected city councilor to deal with indigenous issues. Like shame on the person who came up with that because if that person is dealing with that, what you're saying is you as a city council

have failed to do your job representing everyone in the city, which includes indigenous Torontonians. But you're right, siloing people off by race is nuts, especially when we're dealing with the most vulnerable community, our homeless population. That's what it is, it's our homeless population or our unhoused, call it what you will. But I have never in my life thought to overlay race onto

something as delicate and in need of human connection and empathy as as the homeless issue in our city. Shame on them. It's really pissing me off. George, welcome to the show. Hey, Ben, how are you? Well, you're fired up this morning. fired up this morning. Yeah. Yeah, no, I love it. Listen, I go by one thing. And I've said this a million times, and I never get any disagreement from it. And I hope I won't from you. But if you define yourself by your skin pigmentation, you are a racist, I don't care what color that pigmentation is. Well, I

think I would add a nuance to that. I would add a nuance if if you define yourself by if you leverage it and weaponize it, then yes, but there's like to recognize that you come from a certain background and that you look a certain way is just it is what it is we have eyes right so of course you're gonna exactly exactly no I like your little nuance on that. Thank you. Thank you. Well, George, I appreciate So of course you're gonna do that. Exactly. Exactly. No, I like your little nuance on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, George, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Who we have next Frederick. Frederick, thanks so much for calling in. Hi, Ben. Am I in the line? Yes, you are. Yeah, welcome to the show. I don't understand why we're doing all this identity politics. What happened to marriage based hiring people based on their qualification? Yeah. Because at the end of the

day, like on when it's like a Friday night and Frederick's like deep inside of you, there's no difference because inside we're all the same. Yeah, it doesn't matter on the outside when we're doing like a body slide. It just depends. Like you can't judge. We're all the same inside when we're in each other. Yeah. So that's not the right way to go about it. Thank you for having me. I'm so nervous. No, no, no, Frederick. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. We've got time for a couple more calls before the break. Let's say hi to Joe. Joe, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hey, Ben, how are you? I'm a little I'm a little

miffed this morning. I can see that I just wanted to tell you a quick experience that happened to my wife and my daughter just a couple days ago uh... my my daughter took my a grant and fifteen month old uh... boy to uh... local library to uh... for the kids program and uh... the lady didn't let him go in because he wasn't black i couldn't believe it when my my daughter told me this i said what is what is this city coming to? Yeah, yeah. It's because my son, my grandson was white.

Sorry, you can't come in because it's only for black kids. I cannot believe it. I just wanted to bring that up. No, and then thank you. I mean, I'm sure there are myriad examples like that across the city. This stuff doesn't unite us. This stuff doesn't bring us together.

I mean, are we suffering from a problem of having too much unity in this city? Are we are we are we all rowing in the same direction too much? Is that why we're doing this? Anyway, we're going to continue this conversation after the break. It's a hot topic. And I want to hear what you have to say next on the Ben Mulroney show. What's better than a well marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool.

Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over deliver. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and thank you for listening wherever you find us. You may find us on the radio or on a streaming app. You may find us on the podcast platform of your choice. And now you can find us on YouTube, just search up the Ben Mulroney show or Ben Mulroney show and you can have at it because now we got the cameras

everywhere. And fortunately, unlike in television, I don't have to wear makeup to do this show. Very, very pleased about that. Okay, so we're going back to the conversation we're having before about this city having lost its collective mind, at least at the city, at the government level, deciding that one of the best ways to tackle homelessness in the city is to divide us up by race. And they're going to be opening up a brand new shelter exclusively for black homeless

people run by black people and staffed by black people. Oh, and you don't need to have any experience in the homeless shelter space to work there or run it. You just have to be black. This is insulting. I think it, I just wanted to say I think that it's racial stoking, racial tensions even more. I don't even see any like it's not like we live in a city where it's like Baltimore, where it's a lot more black people involved in the politics. We really don't make up that much of the political landscape when it comes to black politicians or city representatives. I don't see much. So the fact that they're doing this and they're, they're trying to push it through before

they do a whole lot of different things they could do to fix the city and help certain types of people or whatever group they want to focus on. This is, this is what they're doing. They're trying to make white people uncomfortable by doing certain things. And they put, when you put the word black on something and you don't put Nigerian or Jamaican or Irish, like if you put Irish or Scottish, or you just say white and black, now you're making a thing where you're grouping everybody together and you're trying to make it this,

these people versus these people. This color is better than this color. They need help. They don't need help. They can use your tax dollars. And I don't even see anybody of color really pushing this idea. And another thing, if they were to call it the Lincoln Alexander homeless shelter and they just let everybody in, or they did that, it would be a lot less of this. I hear a lot of anger. And people's voices. Well, exactly. And John, thank you very much. You make a good point.

This is one of those things. This is one of those positions that the city is taking that is by definition is creating opposing forces, right? If you are a homeless person in this city and you are not black and you go to this shelter, by definition, you will feel excluded. You'll be told you're not. This is not for you. And I'm sorry when it comes to something as deeply important as human dignity for the people who need it most, our most vulnerable citizens and friends, the Tarantonian who

have fallen on bad times, who need our help for you to say, I'm only gonna help this type of person, shame on you. You are heartless, you are callous, you are a racist, and you should be turfed from office. Carlos, welcome to the show. Hey Ben, good morning. Good morning. You have every right to be upset and furious.

And I am too, to be honest. We live in a multicultural society and Toronto is an example of that. And doing things like this, they have no place in this city, no place. And this people have nothing else to do in office, but to do things like this and increase taxes. That's all, that's all they focus on. I'm separating people, creating all this, uh,

frustration between, uh, different ethnic groups and then races and, and the increased taxes for the city because they mismanaged money. Carlos, thank you very much. Thank you very much, my friend. Yeah. Until you have solved every single problem that you've been hired to solve this, this, this idea should stay in your little notebook. This is something maybe I'll do later on,

but first I'm going to deal with everything else that I have a responsibility to. And by the way, as an elected official, I have a responsibility and a duty to everyone. Everyone you start checking them off, but based on race, you're never going to get anything done. You're never going to help anyone. Welcome to the show. Who do we have now we've got Chelsea, Chelsea, thanks so much for calling in. Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think that I necessarily agree with your opinion. I think that black homelessness is quite different than white homelessness. With all due respect, I'm not homeless, don't wanna be homeless, but I have empathy for people. I'm pretty sure that if you're homeless in the middle of winter in this city,

you're not worried about, you're not worried about, you're not thinking about yourself as a black homeless person. Yes, please. You need to think about the services offered in these shelters, right? So like, if you have like a disproportionate amount of black people in a certain area of Toronto

or something that are homeless, if you get the services that they need in these shelter spaces, like it's just, it's like- So add the services, add the services that they need in these shelter spaces, like it's just like, so add the services, add the services, add the hair products, add the, add the things that are specific to the black experience. Problem solved. Next. Don't you think that those things can be delivered by black people? Well, but then, but you do realize the rabbit hole you're going down. Then we also have to do this for every single cultural community in the city.

And I will remind you, this is, according to the UN, the most multicultural city on the planet. We have more nationalities colliding with each other and living together in this city than any other city on the planet. So you're gonna do black, and then if you do black, you get, well, what about Caribbean blacks versus African blacks? What about French speaking black people versus English speaking black people?

What about you? This is, it is a nonsense, fools errand. Chelsea. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think I agree with you. Well, listen, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm glad you called in. I'm glad we could disagree. And I thank you very much and feel free to call in anytime. Cause I do like hearing opposing in. I'm glad we could disagree. And I thank you very much. And feel free to call in anytime, because I do like hearing opposing views. And yes, the black experience is different. I get that.

I'm not saying it isn't. And I'm not saying that anti-black racism isn't a real thing. I'm saying when you're trying to tackle homelessness in this city, you tackle homelessness, not black homelessness and Guatemalan homelessness and El Salvadorian homelessness. You'll never get anything done. Feel like I've taken crazy pills. That's another line I say a lot.

All right. Well, let's welcome Joseph to the show. Hi, Ben. Hi. Yeah. I guess who determines if you're black enough? If if let's say you're half black, half white, do you think we're awake? Yeah, well, yeah, that's a good question. What happens? Yeah, what happens if, if you come from a mixed background? And like, if there is an issue of racism in these shelters, address the issue in the shelters. Don't the solution isn't to create a new shelter specifically for black people. That's it. That's it. That's idiotic. It's idiotic. Anyway, I do appreciate Joseph. Thank you very much. Let's take Max next. Welcome to show Max. Hey Ben, thanks for taking my call.

I think where I stand on this one and I can only speak for myself is that I grew up in a world where two wrongs don't make a right. And clearly that has shifted to two wrongs apparently do make a right. And like I said, I can't speak for anybody. Two wrongs make a shelter. Yeah, no kidding, man. But anyway, regardless, I just can't make sense of it. There's nothing that I can hear or have to change my perspective that, you know, making the two wrongs do make a right.

You know what I mean? And it's just hard, man. It's hard to make sense of. It's hard to justify. Well, you know what it is, Max? You know what it is Max, there is a certain type of politician. There's a certain type of person with a certain type of worldview that believes that by dividing us, they weaken us. And that allows them to have more control and more say over us on a daily basis. I'll tell you, man, I got my tinfoil hat on pretty tight when it comes to that stuff, Ben.

And I can agree with you more than, you know, man, for sure. So Thank you very much, Max. I appreciate it. Hey tight when it comes to that stuff. And I can agree with you more than you know, man, for sure. So I thank you very much, Max. I appreciate it. Hey, Joe, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. Appreciate it. So I would just want to say, so what about merit? So that means anybody can work there, like you said, a kid can work there. Well, I listen, there are there are, I'm sure there are hoops that they have to jump through. But one of the hoops they do not

have to jump through is having any experience in the space of homeless shelters. And one of the prerequisites is you have to be black. So put those two things together and you tell me. And this has to, and this proves that DEI does not work. So when you have a black guy, say their shelter is full, and now all of a sudden he wants to go to a white shelter. You want to call it a white shelter? Is he going to say now, oh, you're, you're, you're discriminating against me because I'm black. Like, when is this nonsense going to stop? No, no. I mean, I remember years ago when I was on, on entertainment television and there was this big brouhaha that there was a gay actors were saying only gay actors should play gay roles. And in other words, you shouldn't have a straight person playing a gay character.

And I said, OK, but follow that to its logical conclusion. If you believe that only gay actors should play gay roles, then what you're saying is gay actors can only play gay roles because then everybody else starts filling out their slots. Straight people play straight roles, you know, and so on and so on. And that logic is the toxicity that we're talking about here, but for an actual serious issue that demands empathy, leading with your heart, not with your eyes, leading with your heart, not with your skin color.

If you are someone in this city who has to avail yourself of a homeless shelter, think about how dehumanizing that can be. So we're going to further dehumanize you by simply looking at your race. Give me a break. The best high-concept sci-fi rig of her all in the universe is back. What the hell?

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