The Ben Mulroney Show - NYC Socialism still winning!/Some closure for Humboldt survivors?/Political Panel

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

GUEST:  Ryan Straschnitzki  / Former Humboldt Broncos GUEST:   Ian Brodie – University of Calgary / Professor in the Department of Political Science and a Fellow at the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies / senior advisor, new west public affairs Guest: Chris Chapin, Political Commentator, Managing Principal of Upstream Strategy If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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reporting on the ground from where you live, telling the stories that matter to all of us, because local news is big news. Choose news, not noise. CBC News. Today in socialism. I said today in social. Yes, there we go. There's a delay with socialism. Yes. Yes.

I would say put your hand on your heart, but it's socialism. So put your hand in somebody else's pocket. Grab whatever you can and take it. The reason we're playing this today is because things just, ah, things are just perfect, perfect in the Socialist Republic of New York City. Let's listen to a,

young Mamdani supporter when asked, what are you going to do if the 1% who are responsible for paying 40% of the taxes up and leave for Miami or Palm Beach or Austin, Texas? What do you say to this folks who say, well, if you tax millionaires, they're going to leave the city and the top 1% pays 40% of the taxes in the city. So what happens if they leave? What's your response? Well, that's what I would say. It's like we should take their business.

and we run it like for our like the city ourselves so if they take their business to florida you feel like you can't make it keep it i mean they they can't leave the building they can't like just bring their whole entire workforce to florida right they can't bring all of like the resources that they have to like build the business here to florida right that take that's a whole thing and that's where you would even say like if we're building a real movement right to like stop that we'd also like make it illegal for them to like actually like leave right we would find like find them to hell if they're going to try to like abandon their property here right because clearly people do need to work right people do need to like you know make a living so uh i have just heard that this man is in the running

to be um mayor mom donnie's senior aid in business development and and you know people will believe that yeah considering the way things are going i i i don't even know what to do with that that that guy is a product of i mean the american education system i would say i suspect if i could guess he's got a college degree. I bet you he does. Do you know what's terrifying? How many people think just like him? And think that it's... But he's not, like this guy's not thinking. He's just parroting back things.

Yeah. But if, I don't think that that was the point of this citizen journalist who was interviewing him, I think he was just let him hang himself with his own rope. But if, if, even with a little bit of pushback, he would, I know it would happen. with just a little bit of pushback, a little bit of criticism, a little bit of, like, hey, maybe you should self-reflect a little bit, he would have referred to whoever was asking the questions as a right-wing Nazi. Or he would have just started screaming at the top of his lungs. Yeah. But meanwhile, so that's the theoretical, right?

Let's actually look at the practical. What's going on on the ground in New York City, much like a lot of cities in North America. We were hit by a wallop of a winter storm. Lots of snow on the ground there. Manhattan, New York City is dealing with. their own particular brand of it. A lot of snow came down, got very, very cold. Sixteen homeless people froze in the streets.

You heard about that, right? Oh, yeah. Because Mom Donnie wanted to, in an effort to recognize the human dignity of the unhoused, stopped the forced relocation of homeless people to warmer places when it got below zero. And 16 of them died in one, I think one weekend. So good on you, Mayor Mom Donnie. Well done. But anyway, lots of snow, lots of snow.

And a person in New York is taking slight issue with the non-snow removal removal policy of this city. He wants to make this place a socialist. He wants to spread the snow equally. Everyone equally gets the same amount of snow. Yeah. And I've seen a lot of videos that confirm this. So what he's doing, what he's doing, what the people who are. who are in charge of getting rid of the snow are doing,

is they are scooping it up, and then they are laying it down like a carpet all on the road everywhere. So there's a blanket of snow that has been moved at city, at cost to the taxpayer from a pile, which they could pick up and move. No, no, no. Why do that one? All you got to do is sprinkle it all over the roadway.

Do you know what I'm afraid of? We've just given Olivia Chow in the mayor of Toronto, an idea. It's, well, but the guy was like, it's going to be below freezing tonight, which means this is going to turn quite literally into a skating rink. And, but this is,

this is, this is what happens. Like this is, people were warned. And you've seen the six foot tall, uh, garbage piles. Yeah. All down the street filled with rats.

You don't like, you don't give the keys to America's economic engine to a clown. What was it? What was it? line that Will Farrell said about when he was Goulet, Robert Goulet. He's like,

you wouldn't ask a clown to fix a leak in the John, so why are you letting these hooligans tear down the biz? Not bad. Not, thank you very much. Yes. This is a clown, and he's trying to fix a leak in the John. And he can't do it. You've got to hire a plumber. And you had a couple of plumbers on the ballot, but you hired the clown.

Meanwhile, closer to home, here in Ontario, you know, there was a big, big brouhaha, big celebration when we decided that Ontario was going to be at the center of the new EV revolution. And big battery plants were going to be built all over the places. Stalantis, everyone loves Stalantis these days, Stalantis partnered with LG on a massive battery plant. Huge. Huge. Huge. Well, Stalantis is far less bullish on the demand side of the EV market. And so what they've done is they've sold their 49% stake of this Windsor Ontario battery plant to LG, who now controls the whole thing, for a hundred bucks. A drum roll please. For a hundred bucks. Yes, that's how much they,

that's how much they believe in the future. Although they, the, the Premier of Ontario has pointed out that apparently Stalantis will be going to this company to buy the batteries that they need if they decide to do that. Do we see a lot of American companies buying Canadian parts for the auto sector recently?

I can't speak to that. We've seen companies, we've seen like GM lose a shift and all the work go to the United States. So the answer is... Yeah. Well, the plant, apparently employees, about 800 now, although the number's been quoted is

1,300 with a long-term budget of target of 2,500. And Ontario and federal officials say jobs and production are secure. I'm going to wait and see on that. I mean, they're secure today. I don't know if that means secure tomorrow

or the day after that. It does not. And for context, the federal and Ontario government's committed to about $15 billion in performance-based incentive. So I don't think that money's gone out the door yet. And I, I have to be completely candid. When this announcement was made that the Ontario government and the feds were going to be doing this, placing this big bet, I supported it. It hasn't played out.

But Regan Watts said it very well on this show. He said, if you believe that the government every now and then has to place a big bet on something like the future of an industry, then you have to recognize that one of the aspects, the definitional aspects of a bet is they don't always pay off. And that's the thing that gives me comfort. But this is, this is the, this is where we are. This is where we are. We'll have to see, I really do hope that LG is a company of their word unlike Stalantis. And I hope that they are able to build this battery plant out and that it does in fact hire 2,500 people. And that yes, when we finally do get to a place where the EV market is mature and the EV infrastructure that is required for

electrification and to be able to drive from one side of this country to the other in an electric car without worrying that you're going to go through a desert where there is nowhere to plug in your car. Once we get there, hopefully that's when this bet will pay off. We'll have to see. When we come back from the break, we've got a really important conversation. We're speaking with Ryan Strasnitsky. He was a player on the Humboldt Broncos.

That when that bus got hit and so many of those players died, it was like it was a gut punch to the country. It was a gut punch to the country. And a lot of us were pleased that the driver of the truck decided not to plead guilty. He pled guilty so that he could spare the families in that community a long protracted a trial. And now he's back in the news today. We'll tell you why after the break here on the Ben Mulroney Show. Enjoy amazing days for one more week at Metro.

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Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. The words humbled, when you hear that, when you hear Humboldt Broncos, it reminds you of a tragedy in this country that will never be forgotten. it was a you'll remember it was a team of of hockey players who were on a bus at a dangerous intersection and a mack truck plowed into them killing so many injuring so many altering the lives of an entire community forever and and and the knock on effects have been will be remembered

forever and one of those former players joins us now Ryan strachnitsky Ryan welcome to the Srasnitsky, I'm sorry. Ryan, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks for having me. So we're talking about this today because the driver of the truck who was responsible for the death of so many and the injuries of so many and the damage to so many is out of on full parole, has been since 2023. And he petitioned to stay in the country as a refugee. but Canada has rejected his bid, which means he is moving closer to deportation to India. And now, how do you feel about this? Because I remember, Ryan, at the time, a lot of us were as happy as we could be, given the circumstances,

that he had pled guilty, taken responsibility, and saved your community from a protracted emotional trial. So when you think of him, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things, obviously, there's a lot of mixed emotions and, you know, whatever happens now is kind of out of our hands. There's nothing we can do about it, only reacts to the outcome, right? And, you know, obviously he has to live with the rest of his life. And, yeah, I mean, obviously, there's no coming back from that. But as far as opinions, I mean, it's tough to say, right? I mean, obviously, like you mentioned, he took a lot of things away from a lot of people and, you know, myself included.

But, you know what? I mean, over the years, I've learned that, you know, life can just change in an instant. It takes, you know, one mistake and it lives with him the rest of his life. And, you know, there's no animosity on my end. I can't speak for anyone else, but on my end, there's no hatred or anything like that. Has it always been that way for you, right? Have you always been, or did it take you a while to get to that place of peace? Yeah, I think at the start, obviously, you know, the feeling of what could have been and what was lost.

There was maybe a bit of anger at the start, but as I've gotten older and life moves on, and, you know, all of us keep in touch, the teammates, the families, we try to make sure that everyone's doing all right, and we try to take care of each other. I think over the years, those feelings have subsided. and you just start to move forward and not really think about it. You talked earlier about this man who, through, you know, a confluence of circumstances ended up taking so much from so many. What was taken from you for those who don't know?

Yeah, as a result, I suffered a spinal cord injury at the T1 level, which was about an inch away from me either becoming a quadriplegic or paraplegic. So spinal cord injury is a big one, and obviously the loss of my teammates. and coaching staff. And you have, you've been an athlete your whole life. And a sport finds you, right? If you've got sport in your heart and you had hockey in your heart,

sport finds you no matter what happens to you. And you did sledge hockey for a while. And now you've, now you're working on a different sport. Yeah, yeah. So I played sled hockey for about four years, made it towards the national program. And then, yeah, I don't know.

kind of went through this whole shift in mentality and I wanted to try something else. I wanted to push my boundaries and challenge myself. So I switched over to wheelchair basketball in pursuit of the Paralympics that way. So it's been a learning curve for sure. It's not as physical as hockey. So I'm learning the ropes, but I'm enjoying it all the way. One of the things that my producer and I were talking about before the break is sometimes, and hopefully out of tragedy, is born something beautiful.

And the stories of what has come out of the Humboldt tragedy, where 16 people were killed, 13 injured, is so many, the rise of so many charitable foundations and organizations and movements to raise awareness for spinal cord injuries, for road safety, for all sorts of things. When you look at the story of Humboldt and your town, what do you think defines it now? Is it defined by the tragedy or is it defined by the resilience following the tragedy? Definitely the resilience following. I mean, the way the community in the world came together for me and my teammates, I mean, we can't thank everyone enough. I mean, the support is what gave us the hope to continue to move forward.

And I think because of that, you know, I've got to grow up with these guys and, you know, see them develop into amazing individuals, you know, guys starting families, guys working, guys getting into the public speaking industry. Like, it's actually amazing. I'm so, I'm so happy to be, you know, brothers with them. And, you know, it's just, it's one of those things where it wouldn't be possible without the support from around the world. And how's the, how's the humble hockey, how's the humble Broncos doing?

How's their season? I'm not too sure. I know that, you know, I haven't been keeping tabs. but I know that they're always a pretty good organization to play for and be a part of. Wow. I mean, it's just incredible to hear these stories from you. I want to go back to the driver for a moment because, you know what, when it happened and he took that responsibility, I don't know that he necessarily had another play, but he could have, right?

He could have said, not guilty and I'm going to trial. I want my day in court. And he didn't do that. And so I saw him as a as a track. figure, right? But I struggle to understand the argument for him to stay in Canada as a refugee. I don't understand. I think any, when you heard that that, when he was trying to do that, what did you think?

Yeah, I mean, honestly, I just, I didn't try to think about it. As hard as it was, I tried to put myself in his shoes, you know, being in that situation, you know, potentially being deported away from family. I mean, I can understand a little bit where he's coming from. the fact that you, like you mentioned, he owned up to it right away. And like I said, he's going to have to live with that the rest of his life. You know, a lot of the stuff that happens is outside of my control. All I can do is kind of observe and try to see it from his perspective as best I can.

But it's one of those things where, yeah, it's just out of our control. Ryan, did you feel that the sentence that he was given was appropriate? Yeah, like I said, I mean, there's no, what doesn't matter, you know, what I think. Yeah, like it is what it is, right? You know, like I said, he's going to have to suffer the consequences for his actions. And that's, you know, like most humans and people on the planet, right? There's a mistake and it costs people lives.

And then you're just going to have to own up to it. Is there, do you have a sense in the community, though, how people are thinking? I can't imagine that your perspective is, which is admirable, is the perspective of every. one. Yeah, I mean, I can't speak for anyone else. I don't really know the perspective of other family members or community. I've really been on social media a whole lot. Good for you. Good for you. Yeah. I can imagine the mixed responses. So, yeah, I mean, people are entitled to feel a certain way and I completely understand. And it is what it is. Lastly, are you going to be watching the Olympics? Absolutely. Yeah, no, I got a couple of buddies

playing in the Paralympics for sled hockey. Really? I'll be training them on. That's awesome. A couple of buddies. Well, you know, a couple of segments ago, I was speaking with Tyler Turner, who's a Canadian para snowboarder. And he had an accident, and he lost the use of both of his legs below the knee.

And he pivoted from snowboarding to para snowboarding over the course of a couple of years. And we had a similar conversation to what you and I are talking about, about, you know, how, if you've got sport in your heart, then even in... in the face of your body failing you in one way or another, you're going to find your way back to sport. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, these adaptive athletes are so incredible and arguably work harder than some able-bodied athletes.

So it's so amazing to see them, to see all these athletes. I can't wait to watch them and watch them win goals for Canada. Ryan, it's been an honor to speak to you. I've been speaking with Ryan Strasnitsky from former Humboldt Broncos player, but now open to a new chapter in his life. As you make your way through in the wheelchair basketball journey that you're on, you have your site set on the 2028 games.

Please keep us posted because we'd love to cheer you on from our position here behind the mic. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, that was Ryan Streznitsky. What a wonderful man who's come out of such tragedy to become the person that he is. It's not just me this segment,

or the next segment. It's this week in politics, the Friday edition, and I'm joined by Chris Chapin, political commentator and managing principal at upstream strategies. Hello, my friend. Howdy, Ben? And introducing new to the panel, Ian Brody from the University of Calgary professor in the Department of Political Science Fellow at the Center for Military Security and Strategic Studies. Senior advisor, New West Public Affairs. Ian, you're the type of guy that when you hand someone your business card, you have to fold it out three or four times. It's a bit heavy. Good to see you, Ben. Good to see you. Good to see you. Let's jump right in because the story that we started talking about earlier this week was the more conciliatory, more productive tone of the Conservative Party coming out of their convention saying they're willing to work with the liberals on shared principles and where they can work together they are. We saw that in practice with bail reform moving forward. The conservatives made a deal that they supported this bill so long as the anti-hate. bill got shelved for now.

And sounds great. And I look, if you read the article in the Globe and Mail, Ian, it's, there's some headshakingly questionable positions that the liberals took on amendments that the Tories brought forth. And most notably, the, the idea of the principle of restraint, which maybe you can tell people about and it got voted down by the, by the, by the liberals. Yeah, look, I mean, I think we all know if you live in a big city, that the bail reforms of the Trudeau government have been a bit of a mess, that there's a revolving door of people who should be in jail before they go to trial.

It should be held before they're trying to get these people who are released, and then they're arrested again almost as soon as they're released. So there had to be some change. Is this going to be as big a change as you'd get with a conservative government? Of course not, but it's a step in the right direction. And part of making a minority government work here is that Kearney and the Kearney government have put a bit of water in their wine, which is how this has to to work. Right. So we had a bit of chest beating last week. Liberals, oh, we can't get anything

through the conservatives come through their convention. And now we're finally getting back to the way politics is supposed to work. They got behind closed doors and headed deal, which is just the way this is supposed to go. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like the conservatives helped get this done. But, you know, you had Chris Shaping, you had Larry Brock of the conservative saying this is a band-aid solution. It's not, it's not. And I did see, by the way, I saw the argument that's being made by the liberals after the conservative supported the grocery rebate where they said, why are you criticizing it? You supported it. I don't know if that argument flies. No, I think you made a great point. This is how a minority parliament is supposed to work. You know, to Larry Brock, is this what the conservatives

would have brought forward as bail reform? Absolutely not. But, you know, that's not the conservative government in power right now. So I think, you know, I thought this was an encouraging sign coming out of the convention. I, you know, and even more so, frankly, out of Prime Minister Harper's remarks over the last week talking about a bit of unity and had a bit of understanding. I mean, here's a man that led our country through multiple minority parliaments knows a thing or two about striking the balance with the opposition so he can stay in power, but move forward a conservative agenda. And I hope this is a sign of things to come. I think it's something Pierre Pollyev will benefit him in the long run by showing a bit of that conciliatory tone, understanding that, you know,

he didn't get the mandate from the Canadian people to introduce bail reform the way the conservatives would like to. So if this is a first step out of that convention, out of his kind of, you know, slightly changed tone in his remarks. And then I think frankly, the leadership we saw at a Prime Minister Harper this past week celebrating his 20th anniversary of taking power, I think it's a good sign to come for the Conservative Party of Canada. But, but Ian, I think one of the reason, this is a survival mechanism, a survival strategy for the conservatives, because if the polls are to be believed that if we were to go to the polls in say May, the liberals, all things being equal would probably win a majority right now.

So this is about making sure that the narrative about Parliament not working falls flat so that if anyone is not making it work, it's the people who want the election. And it feels to me that the liberals were road testing that argument for a while. and now it feels like the Tories are doing the smart thing and demonstrating their willingness to work, thereby making maybe a spring election a little less likely. Absolutely. I think Pierre Polly have made a good decision here not to fall for the trap, not to give the liberals an excuse

to have an early election. If Carney wants to have an early election, well, that's on him. He's going to have to explain it. You know, he's had a year what really has changed other than his grocery rebate. But then the onus is on him to explain it. On the polls, I want to say, remember, 14 months ago, we were counting towards the Pierre Polyeff massive majority government, 26 points ahead, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Whatever the poll was yesterday, there's a different one today. And as soon as you call that early election, there's an awful lot of governments, including Mr. Harper in 2008, called an early election expecting to soap his majority voters sometimes have a different view. So you can never really count on that. Well, let's move on. to some more business in

Ottawa. The infrastructure minister, Gregor Roberts, confirmed that the feds were cutting $5 billion over 10 years for a key transfer program for municipal transit. So it's set up in 2024 called the Canada Public Transit Fund. It was promised to deliver

$3 billion a year. And he's saying, no, it's going to be a lot less than that now. Does that mean that the end user's going to be paying more? Does that mean that property taxes are going to be going up across this country, Chris? I think it's probably far too early to tell Ben. Like, let's be honest, like property taxes have gone up with or without these kind of funds

from the federal government. Good point. Good point. You know, we've got city halls across this country that have run amok when it comes to fiscal restraint. And so I don't. I think it's, I think it's frankly a very interesting sign from the federal government of restraint. You know, these big infrastructure funds have become, you know, the greatest thing any government

can use because nobody actually knows where the money goes. So for them to come forward and say, actually, we're going to draw this back. There's other things municipalities can access. I personally, maybe it's just selfish and naive and it probably is. I hope this is a sign from the federal government. I'd like to see other provincial governments follow suit saying, you know, municipalities, you need to stop counting on us to come to the table. You guys have budgets that you need to balance yourselves.

Certainly, Ben, you and I see it here in Toronto. There's not a shortage of revenue for the city of Toronto, but, man, can we find ways to spend the money and then go calling for more, right? And so I think drawing back and cutting back some of these, you know, extravagant funds isn't a bad thing if that's the end goal. I'm just with this liberal government, not confident that that's actually what they're trying to do. Yeah, but I think you're probably right. I think I think if a municipal government has displayed fiscal restraint,

then this won't be a big problem. And otherwise, cities like Toronto, for example, are probably going to look at this and say, well, you've taken money away from us. But, Ian, your new mayor, who had the pleasure of meeting last week, week in Calgary, he told me, he said, you know, we've got a, the very few things that a city government should do, we want to do as well as we possibly can. And I said, who, where has this guy been my whole life? I suspect he would find a way to work around this, this announcement

from Republic Transit. Yeah, look, I mean, here in Alberta, here in Calgary, he's got a good example. No sooner it has become mayor. It turns out this, uh, water main that we had for 50 years that blew up two years ago, blew up again. And there seems to have been some cover-up of the engineering studies that said this was a bomb waiting to go off underneath the Trans-Canada Highway and take out half the city's water supply. So let's get back to making sure that the very basics are done well, that the water's going to flow, that the garbage is going to get cleaned up. And we can do some other things later. Yeah, no, it's a – but I just have a feeling that if he heard news that there was less transit money coming from Ottawa, I think his perspective, I don't want to put words in his mouth,

but he feels like the type of politician who would say, you know what, that's fine. We're doing fine here. Well, I do want to say on the transit stuff, keep in mind where this money's going to go. It's going to go to this crazy high-speed rail from Ottawa to Montreal. They're going to expropriate a bunch of farms and take the two-hour commute between Ottawa and California

down to an hour and 30 minutes or whatever. That's where this money's going. Well, listen, I could tell you that back in the day, when we needed, when my dad or my mom needed to get from Ottawa to Montreal or vice versa, the RCMP would put on the, would put the, and they would get there like 70 minutes flat. I'm not advocating for speeding on the highway, unless you have a national emergency. Only if you've got the cops. All right, don't go anywhere because when we come back, we're going to put the question to our panel.

So Jamil Giovanni have gone down to Washington. With Amex platinum, almost every purchase made with your card can be covered with points, including new tastes, new fits, and virtually everything in between. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. When McDonald's partnered with Frank's Redhot, they said they could put that shit on everything. So that's exactly what McDonald's did. They put it on your McChrispy. They put it in your hot honey McNuggets dip.

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I want to talk about Jamil Giovanni making a trip down to Washington in the hope of adding to the conversation and unsticking, or it looks like it's stuck, unsticking the conversations that could eventually lead us to a better place with our American trading partners. And I've heard a lot of hay being made about this. I've heard people thinking it's a great idea

and people not thinking it's a great idea. I find some of the, when I hear some of the criticism coming from conservatives, I wonder if something else is at play. I wonder if when they have an, issue with it, Chris. And I have no opinion in either direction. I think if it can help, if he comes home and some good has come, well, then it's good.

And he comes home and nothing's happened. Well, then it was a waste of everybody's time. But sometimes I hear these criticisms from conservatives. And I wonder whether their issue is with the trip or with Jamil Giovanni. I mean, I think that's probably both, Ben. I think Jamil's a bit of a lightning rod within the conservative movement. I think there's not a lot of middle. ground with Jamil, I think, yeah, they're kind of like them or you hate them. I think it's

interesting. I don't know what to make of the trip. I would say, as somebody who's worked in an opposition leader's office, you know, in the past, if this individual was freelancing, you know, typically you're not long for staying in caucus, you know, and it certainly does not sound like, for many of the comments made publicly by the official opposition that this was a sanctioned trip down for Jamil. He's certainly he's not the trade critic, for example. It's not something, not that he should frankly be down there in the first place. That is something the governing party gets to do because they have the power. The idea of Jamil going, in theory, sounds logical to me. You know, here is an individual, a Canadian in very turbulent trade

times that has a personal relationship with the vice president of the United States. And it doesn't seem like we have very strong relationships at all with the inner circle or around the president of the United States. I mean, it wasn't that long ago. I remember when your father was tasked back in 2016. That's why I think I'm, that's why I think I'm open to the idea. And for context, you know, the liberals threw in with Hillary Clinton to the point that when they were surprised that Donald Trump won the first time around, they had no entry

points, none at all, into his administration. And so they called the only guy they knew who had some sort of relationship with him, which was my dad. And that led to him speaking to their caucus. and sort of being a voice in the renegotiation of NAFTA, which will remember Donald Trump said was the greatest deal of all time until it wasn't. And so I appreciate taking advantage of the institutional knowledge

and connections that exist beyond the control and command of the PMO. And it served us well once. And so that's why I'm like, it might be a good idea. Ian, what do you think? Look, I'm not the Brian Marnie expert on this panel, but if I remember anything about your father running two trade agreements into the United States, he used every tool at his disposal.

I got to think in this case, if he was our prime minister today, he'd see a guy who's got a personal connection to the vice president and say, hey, buddy, get down there and see what you can do. I get that there's all sorts of political considerations here. Some people think he's up to this. Some people think he's up to that. Some people on Carney's benches who are worried he's, you know, what's he going to say and this, that, the other thing, the national trade interest is at risk here.

And insofar as we haven't been able to break this logjam with the Americans, this is worth a try. I think anybody who cared about our most important trade relationship and the thousands of people are being laid off right now because it's gone off the rails is going to say, get down there and do what you can. And God bless them for going. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sort of at that place as well. I mean, this is either the most important thing. There's by the most consequential crisis of our lifetime, which we were told by the prime minister, or it's not. And if it is, then an all hands-on-deck mentality should carry the day. And you're right, Ian, when you look at it that way, this is a guy who texts regularly with the vice president of the United States. And there are communications that you can have in person that don't work over the phone.

And now is not the time to be prideful or to be precious about these relationships. and like we all, I'm a, you know, I voted conservative in the last election. If Mark Carney is responsible for getting us a deal, I will cheer him on. And I won't, it won't be, it won't be partisan. I don't know why the partisanship has to come into it at this point, Chris. I don't disagree with either of you. And I think all three of us probably voted the same way in the last election. I'd say if I was playing devil's advocate, one, you know, Jamil Giovanni is a very partisan member of

or Pauliev's caucus, perhaps one of the most. I mean, he's a guy that's going around on a speaking tour, trying to unite the youth into like a conservative movement a la Charlie Kirk. So I'd get the government side as well. If this was something, and I agree, like if we can tap into this guy and he could actually move the needle, then we should certainly do that. I think there's, you know, unfortunately both by the Carney government's willingness, lack of willingness to actually engage with somebody like Jamil Giovanni.

And Jamil Giovanni's personal partisan beliefs, it just makes it, I think it makes the whole situation a mess. Yeah. And I think we could have done a better job and we should have done a better job. And unfortunately, we haven't done either. And so we find ourselves debating that, you know, multiple times a week on radio since he's gone down there about whether or not this trip was impactful or not. And I would say the only thing, there hasn't been any formal communication back from the United

States. Hopefully that's a good thing. Hopefully this was a productive trip. Yeah. But trips like this typically end in some sort of a communique talking about the engagement. And that just hasn't happened. So frankly, we're left up to Jamil Giovanni's word about what took place in the tweet he put out publicly. And I personally just don't know where to land on that one.

Yeah. I guess where I'm going to land is whatever this trip yielded. And if it was useless and if it was just there for him to raise his profile, then, you know, thanks for wasting our time. but if he comes back and has contributed to this and has helped team Canada, I was told it was team Canada, not team Carney. And if he helped team Canada, then I'm going to celebrate the accomplishment and I'm going to celebrate the contribution. Let's move on to Danielle Smith because a couple of days ago,

she suggested that she's not liking how the judges are writing law. They're writing law. They're not interpreting law. And the way they're interpreting it is Looney Tunes. and I think with each passing day, we get an example of a judge not living in the reality of everyone else. Just yesterday, in Alberta,

there was a story of a former football player who was given a very lenient sentence for a crime that is so awful, a sexual crime on a woman that is so awful that I can't even bring myself to talk about the details. But that's okay. woman who was sexually assaulted by him because he was indigenous. And so your rape means less.

And so this is the kind of craziness that she's asking for a little bit of say in. And she was told thanks but no thanks by Sean Fraser, the justice minister. Ian, with each passing day and with each passing crazy judgment, does the government's position become less? Are they holding less strong cards? Look, we had 10 years of appointments of people, some of whom shouldn't be on the bench because they were worried about some political program rather than the rule of law. And you see this even in Ontario, in Ottawa there, you know, this bike lane is a charter of rights, right?

You can't make some other change to the flow of traffic. I think Daniel Smith's got two issues here. There's Western Canada vacancy coming up in the Supreme Court. And she made the case that if you're looking for somebody who's bilingual, that takes some people off the list that maybe should be on that. I'm open to that conversation. And then we've got a bunch of judges here federally appointed in Alberta who are making these kinds

of sentencing decisions and so forth that just don't have a lot of public support. I think there's a reckoning coming for the judiciary here. Yeah. I think there's going to be a longer term problem here. And if the Supreme Court rules later on this year that the provincial government can't use the notwithstanding clause to undo some of these decisions,

you're going to see see more of these demands to have input into judicial appointments and have judges removed from the bench. Yeah. Chris Chapin, the last 30 seconds to you. No, I couldn't have put it better than Ian. I think we've seen this like the judgment he referenced in Ontario that a judge thought that they could dictate whether or not we removed bike lanes and that it was a, you know,

a constitutional right to have a bike lane. People are getting sick and tired of this. I welcome Danielle Smith to it. I mean, the premier, Premier Ford here spoke and openly about the idea of maybe having elected judges, it's about time we smarten up the judiciary in this country. Ian Brody, Chris Chapin, thanks so much. Have a great weekend. Yeah, you too, Ben. See you, Ben. And just a reminder, if you want more BMS, we put a podcast every day and finding more content on X, Instagram, and YouTube.

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