The Ben Mulroney Show - Our political panel weighs in on Tumbler Ridge/Iran/Gordie Howe Bridge

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Guest: Warren Kinsella, Former Special Advisor to Jean Chretien and CEO of the Daisy Group -  Guest: Regan Watts, Founder Fratton Park Inc., former senior aide to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty  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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I wish I could just take this all away. I've lived through my entire life. I would never thought. I've always said that this is the best place to live and to raise my kids. And now I have kids that don't want to go to school, don't want to leave the house. I mean, it was my friends and kids that I played hockey with

came on my street and grew up with. You know, I never, like, it's tumbar, like, just doesn't feel real. A very difficult day for the nation this morning. Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumblr Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you. Canada stands by you. We are continuing our coverage of the shooting in Tumblr Ridge, British Columbia, that has thus far claimed the lives of eight innocents,

including the shoot, plus the shooter, and nearly 30 others wounded. by that shooter. Welcome back to the show and thank you and welcome back to Warren Kinsella, former special advisor to Jean-Cretzian, CEO of the Daisy Group. It's been a long time, my friend. Welcome back. Thanks, my friend. And Regan Watts, founder of Fratton Park

and senior aide to finance minister Jim Flaherty. It's been a week, but welcome back. Thanks, Ben. Good good. Listen, there's been, I have to credit where credit is due. I believe the prime minister struck the perfect tone of sadness and grief, but

also leadership. I thought in the House of Commons, he doubled down on that. And that, that strength and that sadness was echoed by Pierre Poliiev, as well as the other leaders who stood to have their voices heard on this matter. But, you know, there's precision matters. And what I believe, I don't believe we got that from the RCMP. And what I mean, and Warren, I want to be clear, I am never going to be accused of throwing kerosene on this fire, right? I'm not doing that, but questions have to be asked. And identifying the shooter as a woman full stop is what they did and only once asked by the press, but wasn't the person trans.

They said, well, you didn't ask. So now that you're asking, yes, we'll tell you the person was trans. That only matters insofar as the vast majority upwards of 95% of mass shootings are are conducted are done by men and the journey of a trans person is not the journey of a biological woman and therefore those things matter to the conversation and because we didn't get that from them it it rubs me the wrong way i don't know if it matters to the conversation um you know the definitive work that was done more than 20 years ago in this country by a Canadian, Professor Elliot Leighton at Memorial University wrote a book about serial killers

and mass killers, like we've experienced in Tumblr Ridge, called Hunting Humans. It's been gone through multiple reprints and has been expanded. And what Leighton found, and what all the research has found, is in all of these cases, 85% of them are male. The vast majority of them come from the working class. There's never been an aristocratic serial killer. They tend to be kind of dull-witted, and they tend to be overwhelmingly heterosexual.

And they're propelled into these acts of horrific violence by class considerations. They feel like they've been cheated by society. They come from broken families. They aren't very successful with girls. And they lash out, and they project their failures onto their victim. So, you know, those, and I've already seen it this afternoon and this morning trying to project their personal agenda onto the shooter in this case, their politics. And I say, well, guys, if that's what you're going to do, then why don't we deny heterosexual males from the working class access to weapons to guns? because they're the ones who are killing more people than anybody else in these situations.

So it's like everybody put away your personal agenda and just do what the prime minister and Mr. Poliava done and engage in some mourning for the people of this terrible, terrible crime. Regan, as a dad, I'm sure that you were gutted the way I was. You know, when I dropped my daughter off at school today, it did not feel the way it normally does, knowing what happened in Tumblr Ridge. What are your thoughts today? Yeah, I mean, I think I actually agree with Warren's point that I'll say it a slightly different way. I think the specifics and the details are not for us to debate and discuss today.

You know, political ideology can be in political battle can be set aside at this time. You know, as a father who takes his kids to school every day, it's one of the great joys of my life is that I take my kids to school and pick them up. You know, my heartaches for children who were murdered and maimed and teachers who were killed and family members of the shooter who were killed and the people who are fighting for their lives right now.

You know, the response from federal and provincial leaders has been the best of Canada. I thought the Prime Minister was remarkable. I thought Mr. Poliav, Mr. Davies, statements were equally exceptional. And I think, you know, Premier Smith's response in working with Premier Eby to help airlift victims from, you know, BC to Alberta hospitals,

you know, showed the best of this country. You know, I think Warren would agree that, you know, there's lots of challenges that we have in this country that we need. to fix and address and I think addressing in particular the issues that affect males that lead them to these types of behaviors and decisions is certainly one of the things that we need to tackle as a country but you know paraphrase President Clinton you know nothing that is wrong with Canada there's nothing wrong with Canada that

cannot be fixed with what is right about Canada and I think we need to take a moment and and as a country come together, mourn, and I thought the prime minister's call to have the flag at half mass was entirely appropriate. And, you know, we'll address these issues in the weeks and months ahead. But it is a period today that, you know, as somebody who drops his kids off at school,

but the way it works is you drop your kids off and they come home at the end of the day. And there are families who will be irrequivably, shattered because of what happened. And then the other thing, Ben, and I think it's worth noting, and I believe it was King Charles, who talked about this in his remarks or his tweet online, which is that, you know, this is a very small community. Every single person in this community is going to know somebody who was touched by this.

And Tumblr Ridge will now be known around the world as a place where something tragic has happened and not for the for the for the positives of the joy that that community has, I'm sure, but for a tragic event. And, you know, I know we're all thinking about those who've been impacted by this senseless act of just brutal violence. Well, listen, we've got a lot to get to in our next segment. I'm going to set it up right now. And I don't know if I sent you this story, but hopefully you already have some opinions on it. And if you don't, you'll have the break to figure them out. watching or seeing a tweet today that the UN Secretary General congratulated the Iranian state

on the anniversary of the revolution 47 years ago. While that regime is murdering its own people, I had to check. I had to check to make sure it was real. because I said that surely, surely this man is not this stupid. And it turns out it was real. And I don't know if there's ever been an example of, I mean, for people who, for people who want to disband the UN, that's a pretty good, that's a pretty good example of why. And Warren, maybe I'll give you like 30 seconds to just give me your high level thoughts on that.

we can discuss on the other side of the break. Yeah, no, it's awful. And I think a lot of people were wondering, could this possibly be true? Because it was reported first through the Iranian state-controlled media. But like you say, it was true. And it's madness. This is one of the leading abusers of human rights in the world.

They've been incredibly linked to the murder of 30,000 of their citizens earlier this month. And they shouldn't be contradulated for anything by anybody. All right. Well, we're going to keep talking about that as well as the bridge to somewhere and what it means here in Canada. Don't go anywhere. The Ben Mulroney Show continues after the break. Welcome back to the... Enjoy amazing days for one more week at Metro.

Save big on selected varieties of Nestle Real Dairy Ice Cream for only $497 each. And lean ground beef value packs just 544 per pound. Only till February 11th. Shop in store or online at metro.ca. Ben Mulroney's show and welcome back to Warren Kinsella and Regan Watts. Regan, your thoughts on this head-shakingly grotesque statement by the UN Secretary General congratulating Iran on the anniversary of one of the most repressive revolutions in the history of civilization? Well, I don't want to belabor the point. I agree completely with Warren, the Secretary General of the United Nations congratulating.

the Islamic Republic of Iran is absolutely insane and yet another proof point for those who are critics of the United Nations and I would add myself to that list that it is an organization that is well past its best before date and is in dire need of new leadership if it wants to remain relevant. All right, let's move on to something that I suppose we can look at with the, you know, it's a lighter tone, but it's equally significant for us as a country.

the soon to be opened Gordy Howe Bridge paid for entirely by Canada and built with both Canadian and American expertise and workers as well as Canadian American steel, Canadian and American concrete. Mark Donald Trump in 2017 loved it. Not so much yesterday. And I felt that both Mark Carney and Premier, the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford acquitted themselves. honorably in dealing and stick handling what could have been a big deal and I think I wonder whether we've turned the page on it Warren are we done dealing with this tempest in a teapot or is there more to come on this file

who knows I mean you know here we go again right and in order for all of us to remain same whether it's the good people of Windsor every Canadian or every citizen of the world outside of the United States my advice is always, don't pay any attention to what Trump says, pay attention to what he does. Yeah.

And in this case, as you pointed out correctly, Canada paid for the construction of this bridge. Yeah. The beneficiary of it will be Canada, but also the United States of America, Michigan. And, you know, all of the American governors who are affected by this, whether the Republican or Democrat are on side with the Canadian. position. So I guess we should see how it plays out. But I mean, this is, you know, this happens every day. There's always some new outrage, some new bit of madness coming from this lunatic. And I think the way the prime minister handled it and the way our leaders have handled it, like Premier Ford, as you say, is the right way. Don't, don't lose your cool right away.

Just see how it plays out. Because, you know, a lot of the time, what he says he's going to do, he doesn't. Yeah. But Regan, from what we know, a lot of us were sitting and saying, how could this have happened? Like, what happened that allowed him to say such a, such falsehoods about, about this bridge and and who controls it and what's going to come

across it? And it occurred to, I mean, we found out yesterday that Matthew Maroon, the son of the former owner, who now is in possession of it, had a conversation with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, who then got into the president's ear. Now, if I'm the president and I was just

dressed down with fact after fact after fact, I'm going back to Lutnik and say, what did you just send me in there with? You just sent me in there with garbage. You made me look like a fool. Yeah, I mean, look, this is, this, you know, in the, in the realms of parliamentary history, Howard Lutnik has not had a very good week now, has he? He breathes the president on, on the issue in Windsor, in Detroit, with some incorrect facts. And the president looked like a fool. He also had some issues with respect to earlier comments he made about whether he did or did not attend Jeffrey Epstein's Island. Yeah. Not a good week for Lutnik.

No, and look, he's probably the worst commerce secretary in my lifetime. I don't know Warren's because of another, but he is not very good at his job. And everyone who deals with Washington knows that, you know, you have to work with Scott Besant and Marco Rubio instead of working with Lutnik because they seem to be the rational folks inside that administration. not to say they're pushovers, but they're the ones who see more clearly on these issues. The issue with respect to the Gordyhow Bridge, and I have to say, Ben, I thought personally the Gordyhow name was interesting, but I would have preferred to be called Mulroney Reagan Crossing, given that your father and the Prime Minister or President Reagan were the fathers of the modern Kennedy U.S. relationship, but that's a whole other segment.

The fact is we did pay for it. We did finance it. American workers and American products went into building that bridge. And we did so because the Maroon family control the American. Ambassador Bridge. And if anybody who's ever driven to Windsor and then over Detroit knows, it's kind of crazy to think that one family controls that main artery. And so this is an issue of national security interest for Canada and the United States. It's an issue of economic interest. And so good on the Prime Minister, who continues to show his leadership in diffusing the situation, as well as Premier Ford for the work that he did.

And not for nothing, guys, but this bridge is equipped with all sorts of of technology that will make it harder for people to get things across the border that aren't supposed to get across the border. This is all the stuff that Donald Trump railed against when he got back into office. He said Canada didn't take a border security seriously. This bridge allows us, at least at this junction, at that junction point, to take border security very seriously. It's a head scratcher. But I do want to move on to a story that surprise me when a conservative MP from New Brunswick, Mike Dawson posted a letter to his Facebook where he asked the clerk of the house

to, quote, make the necessary arrangements so that he doesn't take advantage of a salary increase that's come in his way. And I wonder what you think. Is that a position of a principal or is it showmanship? Warren, what do you make of it? I'm laughing because I'm an old guy. I'm older than the two of you. And I remember when I work for Prime Minister Critschia,

and we won the election in 93, and we came in, and we had one of our newbie ministers, that he would not be using the ministerial limousine. And the reaction, I don't know what the reaction was externally. I don't know if he benefited from it. I doubt that he did. But I'll tell you what the reaction was internally. I had a lot of ministers expressing to me, that son of a bitch.

So this is, you know, I hate the cliche about virtue of signaling, but this is virtue signaling. I guarantee you that there are conservative members of parliament who have heard this and said, that guy has just made my life more complicated and more difficult. The best way to handle this is keep quiet about it. And, you know, because the recommendation of it, the salary increase is done by an arm's-length panel that is in no way partisan. And I believe that these people, all of them, liberal, conservative and some new Democrats, actually work for what they are paid. Yeah. And they deserve it for the most part.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Regan, I got to think, I got to think that, yeah, there's a lot of members of the Tory caucus who are now being asked questions. Hey, your colleague's not taking the money. Are you taking it? And if so, why? And so the cost to the caucus is greater than the savings of this one man. Well, I'll remind Warren with one other example is that is in 1993,

when he and the Liberal Party won a majority government, there was this group called the Reform Party of Canada who made hay about campaign against the fat cat gold-plated tensions in Ottawa. And, you know, the performative nonsense from the Reform Party was eventually found out for the hypocrisy that it was because many of those who got elected, I think, in fact, all of them who got elected at the Reform Party banner in 1993, then took their parliamentary pensions. And so, you know, there is nothing more greasy than a federal politician or any politician of that matter making a statement like this, like the one made by our friend from New Brunswick. And, you know, my expectation is that Mr. Dawson will eventually take that pay increase. And I'll just go one step further. And I'm sure you'll both agree as well as the listeners right now.

We should want well-paid politicians because at some point we want good people to enter into public life. And there's not enough people who are independently wealthy in this country who can just work for free. And so having people who are paid properly for the work they do on behalf of Canadians and their constituents is a good thing. And if Mr. Dawson doesn't think he deserves the pay rate, and I'm sure Warren and I can find a couple of charities that he can donate the difference to and make a difference in people's lives and live with the salary he's getting now. Warren Concella, Regan Watts. Thank you so much for joining me on this heavy day.

Glad to have had a few laughs with you along the way. Thanks so much. You might invest in mutual funds, but you're really invested in sunbathing somewhere in the Mediterranean. With a Scotia Bank advisor who understands your future goals, invest in what you're really invested in. Speak to an advisor today. Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think.