The Ben Mulroney Show - Our Friday political panel -- would they nominate Trump for 2026 peace prize?

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Guest: Chris Chapin, Political Commentator, Managing Principal of Upstream Strategy Guest: Warren Kinsella, Former Special Advisor to Jean Chretien and CEO of the Daisy Group 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 Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Mulrooney today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com slash Mulruni. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. It's Friday, which means it's time to assemble our, the group of heroes that we bring in each and every week. Chris Chapin from managing principal upstream strategy.

And if I may say, Chris, you look straight out of central casting as the bad guy in every teen movie I've ever seen. I mean, if white privilege had a face. Hey, I'll take that. Good to see it. And Warren Kinsella, welcome to the show, my friend. I was looking forward to this conversation given how much has happened over the course of this week. I knew that you'd have a lot to say. Let's jump right in.

And, Warren, we're going to come to you first. It looks like Israel. It looks like we're following the script that Donald Trump has written. Israel has ratified the agreement. And as we are talking, they are beginning to draw down. on the ground in Gaza, which is supposed to give time to Hamas to get their act together and find all of the hostages that remain from their murderous a day two years ago. Optimistic, please, what, what do you think?

Well, you guys know me, and you know this is really, really hard for me to say this. Oh, boy. I give, get clip and save this sucker. I give lots of credit to Donald Trump for this moment. I did not think he was capable of it. I did not think this moment would arrive. But here we are. So so far, so far, that's me, knock you on wood.

So far, so good. So the Israeli cabinet announced earlier in the morning, this morning, but in Jerusalem time. The pullback, so it's the first pullback, then there's going to be a second, there's going to be a third. And so now Hamas, which is a homicidal cult, is supposedly going to release within 72 hours,

hostages living and dead, and an exchange is going to receive hundreds of terrorists who have been in Israeli prisons. So I guess the, you know, all good news that the war looks like it's stopping. It looks like the hostages are coming home. The thing I worry about Ben and Chris is Hamas. Hamas has not indicated its willingness to lay down their arms and disband themselves. And that is one of the main requirements of President Trump. And we haven't heard anything about that one yet. Yeah. So Chris, it looks like they would

take the word straight from Warren Concella's mouth. If this thing keeps going, it looks like there will be a ceasefire. It looks like the war could end. Has anybody told the protesters on this side of the ocean? Because it seems to me like they still think that this thing's going on. Yeah, no, there was a

litany. I got stuck in traffic the other day, Ben, because they can't apparently read the news, but I can't say I'm overly surprised if that's who you're supporting in this conflict. But, you know, I hope it comes to an end. I guess there's just part of me

that maybe it's disbelief for just distrust in Hamas that I'm not sure I can see a world where this ever stops. It never has stopped. But I do agree with Warren. I think the president deserves an incredible amount of thanks and congratulations for it. I will say if there is one strength that President Trump has had in his now second term in office, but even over the first term, is he has been very strong on foreign relations in the Middle East. I mean, you know, I thought he did a very good job in his first term as president, you know, trying to calm things in the Middle East and keep things calm. And this quickly into this, like, he was handed this mess from President Biden. I thought, you know, that was something the former president was very weak

on, partially because of the divide within his own party in the United States on this issue. But full kudos to the president on finally putting this, hopefully putting this mess to that. Yeah, Warren, it seems like the reason he's. one of the reasons he's been successful is that people are surprised by it because there was this assumption that in order for a Western leader to be successful at brokering anything in the Middle East, you had to appear as if you were sort of, you weren't on one side or the other. And he is fully committed to the longstanding partnership between the United States and Israel. And despite firmly being on their side, he has been able to go with.

in there and I don't know throw America's weight around I'm not quite sure what it is but I think people believe that if people run afoul of him in this situation there will be consequences and I don't know that you would have believed that had this same thing come from Joe Biden I agree with you as you know I was I spoke at a vigil on October 7th vigil earlier this week and I was talking to some Jewish Canadian friends and they said you know we know Warren you don't like Donald Trump because he's a little bit crazy, but this is maybe an instance where his craziness works, you know, where Hamas clearly believed that he was capable of wiping them out in a way that Bush and Biden and anybody else never would. That's number one. Number two, I, you know,

when did this thing start to come together really rapidly? And I know it's popular for people to condemn Netanya who strike against Hamas' leadership in, in Don't. Ohio a few weeks ago. I was not one of them. I supported it. You know, Qatar supports extremism and terrorism around the world financially. I thought it was the right thing to do. That's when the deal really started to come together. So I think it was a combination of they were afraid of what Trump would do. Yeah. But they were also afraid of what Israel would do. And that's when the pressure from surrounding Arab states, really was brought to bear on Hamas to accept a deal. And Chris, that's where I keep coming back to. I keep coming back to the fact that unlike in years

past. We've got a lot of people who are skeptical, a lot of people who've gone down this road before. Warren, you've been following this as closely as anybody for years. And there are a lot of people saying, I'll believe it when I see it, but the wheels always come off because at some point, as we said, you know, the Hamas will show its true colors or something like that. But I have to wonder, and it's the optimist in me, whether sort of the fact that there is so much buy-in for this plan from neighboring Arab states could pressure be brought to the fire starter of it all, the Qataris, to tell them, like, you got, you got to stop now, man. We have a chance here to bring peace and we're not going to let you muck it up.

And I don't know enough about the dynamics to know whether that's even a realistic hope. I think, I think we will get a ceasefire, Ben, a long lasting peace in the Middle East. I don't know if that never truly exists. I mean, we saw just this week, I believe it was, you know, the IRGC was caught smuggling weapons. into Gaza, you know, and I have no doubts that there will be those amongst the Hamas leadership that look to just, you know, if they've been forced into this position, regroup, rearm, and try this again. I, you know, it just feels like the evergreen problem that's plagued the Middle East. And I, you know, I think the U.S. is weight. And I think war makes a great point about the strike

in Doha sending a message. And I think a very strong one because the U.S., you know, they might have made Netanyahu apologize, but it didn't come without what felt like a certain backing, saying, we're not really opposed to what they did. And they'll do it again and we'll back them if they need to. So I hope you're right as the optimist. I think the pessimist in me thinks it's just only a matter of time before these terrorists, this terrorist organization tries to terrorize Israel once again. Well, if let's live in a world where this piece holds in one way another for a significant amount of time. Warren, will you sign the petition demanding that Donald Trump get the Nobel Peace Prize next year? Well, it's a little late.

Venezuela. No, next year. Next year. No, I don't. You know, it's about peace. This is a guy who just named the Department of Defense, the Department of War. I don't believe he believes in peace. But in this case, he put, he is a dealmaker. I mean, you know, he famously wrote a book, the art of the deal. His dealmaking skills have worked in this case. But no, I do not favor him getting the Nobel Prize. I think there's much more deserving people like Ben Moroni, for example. Oh, my God.

Yes. Please. Listen, I go back. I go back to the founding Chris of the Nobel Peace Prize. It was founded by the guy who invented dynamite. and he accidentally read his obituary and he was referred to as the merchant of death and didn't want that known about him anymore and so he reinvented himself in the form of a of a peace guy who knows maybe that's what Donald Trump's doing maybe he doesn't want to

be known for all the other stuff he wants to be known for peace Chris I'll give you the last word you got about 30 seconds well maybe Ben I you know I like I said his reinvention is possible it's he's got a good record on peace in the Middle East you know that it's hard to give him credit for a lot of things but uh and you know the one thing that doesn't get spoken of a lot but it's it really does seem to be his son-in-law Jared Kushner seemed to be uh you know he was the broker behind this the first go round and it seems to be part of the brokerage the second go around all right well guys uh thank you so much don't go anywhere much more with our intrepid team here at this week in politics when we come back Canada Post looks like they're going to be slowing down on their strike does anybody care anymore. That's coming up next on the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and welcome back to Chris and Warren for this week in politics, our Friday edition. Guys, the Canada post strike still going on, but it does seem like a little bit of self-awareness has infected the worker's side of this equation because I think they're realizing that nobody, well, people care, but they care because they care

because it impacts them, and they're figuring out workarounds. And so the bargaining position that they thought or hope they had is not as strong as it was to the point now that the workers and the union are going to come back to work in sort of what they're going to do rotating strikes, right? So some of this mail is going to move. Chris, if you were advising both sides on this, what would you say? Get back to work. I think the union, you know, the union especially, I think,'s out to lunch on this, Ben. You know, you're in a bit of a dying industry in home mail delivery. You know, I found myself, I checked the mailbox the other day and forgot why there was no mail in it.

Because, you know, I forgot the strike was going on because that's how little of importance I get by home mail anymore. And I don't believe I'm alone, certainly not in my generation of Canadians that really could care less. And, you know, if a tree falls in the woods, does anybody notice if they're not around? I really think the union really needs to get serious about its longevity as a union in its negotiations with Canada Post. Because I think it's a dying industry. I think it's past its time. And so, you know, even I saw some of the responses and some of the stories the union said, we don't even believe you're talking to real members of ours.

It's like, you know, you're questioning reporters, making up what fake sources. Like this union is out to lunch and if they don't get serious quickly, they're just going to continue to lose, you know, any public support and negotiating in a dying industry without public support is pretty difficult. Yeah. And Warren, I want to be clear. I am not trying to be glib about people's jobs. I'm not trying to be cavalier with it. But, you know, we are in the Canada Post like so many other industries before it and like so many industries that will come after, it is in a transitional moment. And that transition is going to. require some really tough choices. And in this negotiation, they're like, we want job support for everybody who works at job security, for everybody who works here. We want to make sure there's no,

we don't move away from full-time positions. We want to make sure that the pensions are stronger. We want to make sure that. And like, what world are you living in? The cab drivers and the bookstore owners had no such guarantees when the internet came for their jobs and apps ate the taxis for lunch. That's what this is.

That's this moment. it but it's that is you know this intransigent inflexible approach that cup w has had and i say that you know full disclosure i was lawyer to cup w and i've advised management so i've seen both sides it worked for cup w for years because we were also dependent upon the postal service then along comes Amazon and along comes these delivery services, UPS and so on, that stole business from Canada Post. Canada Post responded by purchasing Perilator, but it wasn't enough. And so people are using email more now to communicate and send and receive bills and so on. And, you know, packages are being stolen by the package delivery people. So the union, like this is their second

major strike in a year and it was a huge mistake the first one was a mistake this one's an even bigger mistake because the prime minister at the end of the day is right you know when he was asked about this new strike it's a wildcat strike um he said look they're losing 10 million dollars a day 10 million dollars a day it's not sustainable and i know like i guarantee you guys in a year's time when everybody's having to use community mailboxes yeah people are going to to be seriously unhappy. People have been getting mail at their homes. They're going to be really unhappy. They're not getting that anymore. But I don't think the government has any choice. And I think the union, you know, needed to wake up to that. It looks like they're starting

to. You know, lastly, we'll end with this story. And it's with Mark Carney, our prime minister, because he made an announcement on essentially the Canada that we need to build for the 21st century and moving forward, the Canada that is going to have the fact. growing economy in the G7 and all these grand ambitions that carried the liberal party back to power. It's going to require a half a million workers by 2030 to build all the infrastructure. And so, and even more by 2050. And there are already people asking like, where are we going to get these workers? Are we going to, are we going to go the easy route and bring them from abroad? or can we do the hard work and put these, like, fill up our trade schools today

so that Canadians who are here can get those very good paying jobs that will have tremendous knock-on effects for the rest of the country. My fear, though, Chris, is we are going to default to the easy, and we are going to default to, all right, let's just bring in a whole bunch of foreign workers. And this grand opportunity is going to be, is going to pass us by. I think you're right, Ben. I think that absolutely will be the default position. I think it's the impossible position as well, though.

I think we've tried claiming that we're going to bring in skilled workers from abroad, you know, over the last several years in Canada. Immigration skyrocketed. And we haven't been bringing in skilled workers. You know, if anything, it's been the exact opposite. It's been a lot of low-skilled workers from different countries around the world, you know, often to fill warehousing jobs and things that don't require much skill at all. And so I think there's a real challenge for us is there are just, there's not 500,000

electricians just sitting around the world waiting for Canada to go find them and bring them to the country, right? There's not 500,000 carpenters just waiting, wondering why they haven't gotten, you know, a plane ticket to Toronto to build a condo. We have to train those workers too. And so we need to find people with the right skill set. I think we certainly have tons of Canadians here in this country. And I think there's some governments that are doing a great job trying to, trying to upskill

and train the workforce of tomorrow but we've known this has been a problem for a long time in this country that we've been lacking that skill set and skilled trades and it seems like if we think that there's just a magical country that we can find a bunch of skilled workers

from that are going to come to Canada tomorrow I think Mark Carney is going to be sadly mistaken. Warren, if you were a betting man how would you bet this plays out? Because I love the end goal of where we want to get to. I love this massive employment plan that's going to, that's going to build the country that we're all going to take advantage in the future that's going to dominate around the world.

But getting there is the problem. And the Canadian way of getting there typically underperforms. Well, you know, the Canadian economy is in decline. Like, we are in some trouble. It's slow, but it's exactly what the economist predicted is the impact of tariffs, the impact of protectionism. it's starting to take a bite out of our economy. So the prime minister is chasing Trump in Washington. And, you know, there's an Angus readout this morning saying most Canadians now,

or an increasing number of Canadians, no longer believe that Carney is going to deliver. You know, dropping elbows hasn't worked. But like this is a super complex question. You've got language. You've got immigration policy in the mix here. Like, you know, for example, Gen Z, the polling will show in Canada. in the United States and Europe, a lot of Gen Z don't want those jobs, right? And so all of us have got friends who run restaurants or small businesses, and they'll tell

you, yeah, I've had the shingle out. And the only people I can get are people who are newcomers to Canada. So there's a whole mix of issues here. But that's why I'm asking you to solve this in a minute and a half more. Yeah, no, I think it's going to be a pretty tough one. But, you know, it looks like there's a consensus at the moment politically. that the foreign worker thing didn't work. But I suspect, Ben, you're right.

I suspect we're going to start crawling it back because we need people to fill those jobs to keep the economy going in a situation where the economy is faltering. What I don't understand, Chris, and I'll give this to you the last, only about a minute left, but these are the good paying jobs.

These are great paying jobs, right? This is not retail. These are skilled labor jobs that will take care of a family forever. And the, so I'm, to me, it's a marketing issue, right? So you've got to sell people on these jobs. And they're the, and, and students will flock. You got about 15 seconds, my friend.

We just need to create a TikTok dance on how to, you know, wire a house. Yeah. We'll have the problem solved. Oh, there you go. Hey, gentlemen, uh, one sentence each. What are you thankful for this year? Uh, Warren, go first. Um, I'm thankful for living in what I still consider to be

the best country in the world. Chris Chapin, you're next. I'll go with the health of my family. I love both of those. Hey, happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Yeah, you see best. Happy Thanksgiving. With most Subaru models, all-wheel drive comes standard.

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