The Ben Mulroney Show - Parks Canada puts idea of Mount Mulroney on ice

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

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The fact that Parks Canada in 2024 had a board meeting where they changed the rules making it so that my dad would be the first prime minister to be subjected to the new rules, meaning that you have to, we don't have to wait 25 years after his death before Parks Canada will honor him. Right?

He's still a figure of national importance, but great, just like every other prime minister. However, because they need to wait under these new rules, nothing can happen in terms of honoring him for 25 years. And any way you can, cut this. This is a boneheaded decision. They sent us a letter in the mail over email to sort of explain their decision, that they had a spirited debate about all of this. And I don't care that they had a spirited debate. I care that this decision was made. What do you

have to wait on, Parks Canada? What do you have to wait on? He stopped. being prime minister in 1993 is now 2025. You want to wait another 25 years after that. This country is 150 years old. You want to wait over 50 years before you can determine the value or the importance of the work my dad did. How obtuse are you? How foreign is the concept of what he's done that you have to wait 50 years? More than 50 years. What don't you get that the entire country got with a stamp, with a state funeral, with moments of silence that popped up spontaneously at hockey games, with people waiting in line for two days in Ottawa, two days in Montreal,

with the world and the leaders of the world standing up to talk about how important he was? And let's put that aside for a moment. Let's talk about his impact on the Parks Network of Canada. That's your job. This is your lane. In the history of Canada, no prime minister extended the National Parks Network more than Brian Mulroney to the tune of four national parks a year for each of his terms. Eight in total.

Nobody has done that. On top of his environmental accomplishments, which are head and shoulders above any other prime minister. You need 25 more years? You need 25 more years on that. A little context for you. Pierre Trudeau was laid to rest on October 3rd, 2000. A grand total of 24 hours later, the liberal government announced that the highest peak in Canada,

Mount Logan, was going to be renamed Mount Trudeau. You know how to problem with that? Historians who said, hey, buddy, guy. Logan was an important geologist, a surveyor. Without him, we wouldn't know a whole lot about the interior of this country. And so they backed down. There's apparently a mountain range called the Premier Mountain Range that was reserved to name after prime ministers.

The government of the day blew past any checks and balances because they want to honor him the day after he was put in the ground. But with my dad, we have to wait 55 years after he stopped being prime minister. this is nonsense. It reminds me, I was on a road trip once with my best friend. The radio wasn't working. We were traveling between Ottawa and Los Angeles. The radio wasn't working. And so we had to figure out how to pass the time. And we were having a debate over what was more likely, a deep impact scenario or a Godzilla scenario, because both of those movies had been out. And we got so excited about it that we started speeding. We were stopped by the cops. He asked us why we were. We were speeding. We told them. You know what he told us? That was a dumb debate, boys.

Slow down. And so I will say this to them, to the board at Parks Canada. This was a dumb debate. Speed up. This is a terrible debate. And the fact that you change the rules right before my dad, that way you were able to tell us in a letter, oh, we observed all the rules. What do you have to wait on? What aren't you getting?

And I'll finish on this. I'll finish on this. My dad has went on the record at every opportunity to say that without the contribution of my mother, without her by his side, without his, her counsel, without her measured point of view, without her enthusiasm, without her buy-in, without her commitment, my father would never have been prime minister. without my mother, my father never would have risen higher than to be the most successful senior partner at his law firm. My dad does not become prime minister without my mother. You want to honor my mother, then you make sure she's alive when you honor my father. 25 years from now, I don't know that my mother is around.

25 years from now, I don't know if I'm around. I don't know if my sister's around. You want to show respect to my father. you show respect to my mother and you have guaranteed with this dumbfoundingly stupid decision that she will not be there on the day that he would be honored and the work that he put into Parks Canada and the importance of the environment for him as a prime minister. You should be honoring him today. This is, I, I'm trying not to take offense to it, but I don't know this board.

I don't know these four people who made this decision. I've been told that they're deeply political. I'll let other people decide that. But this is a layup for you. Change your decision. Change it now because this is dumbfoundingly stupid. And that the letter that you wrote to us was confusing. And I know I'm putting myself in a tricky position

because at some point we're going to need these people. people and I may have insulted them, but you have insulted me. You've insulted my mother. You've insulted my father. And I take deep offense to this. I'll let my family be more diplomatic than I. That is not my job and it is not my temperament. This is a shameful decision by Parks Canada. And if you don't know the importance of Brian Mulroney today, you never will. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. I was on a little bit of a soapbox. before the break, talking about what I think is a tone-death, dumbfoundingly dumb decision by the Parks Canada Board. They've decided that they have a new rule in place that they need to wait

25 years after the death of any prime minister before any prime minister can be honored as a national historic person. Oh, and they put that new rule in place right before having to make a decision on my father. And the rationale is that it allows for a balanced percentage. and enough published materials to assess any prime minister's achievements and or failures. We're now joined by the man who broke this story, Tom Korski from Blacklock's reporter. Tom, thank you so much for being here. And thanks for, thanks for really amping up my family group chat this weekend. No, not at all.

Thank you, Ben. That board, yeah, they're legendary. Historic sites and monuments board? Oh, sure. So talk to me. I don't know who's on this. this board. It's four people, right? Four people populate this board? There are rotating appointees. They're supposed to represent all provinces and territories,

but they are political appointees. Very many of these appointees are not historians, and they have never published any peer-reviewed research. But they are appointed by a cabinet minister, who is also not a historian and has never published any peer-reviewed research. then they they did this because they thought they would get away with it this was in a secret meeting their board minutes are never made public and there was an assumption i think it's safe to say that they were going to settle a score and if anybody down the line said wait a wait a minute what about prime minister mulrooney they were going to say our hands are tied right there's a rule and rarely do you see in black and white in minutes as

they produced here, where that was exactly right. They were confronted with the situation. First meeting they had in Quebec City four months after Prime Minister Brian Mulrooney's passing, and they decided, no, we have to settle this score, but we need some cover, and they came up with this cockamamie policy. Well, you know, I pointed out, you know, a lot of people are referencing the seven months between the passing of Pierre Trudeau and his honoring, but it wasn't seven months. Had the liberals had their way, he was to be honored the day after his state funeral.

he was laid to rest on the third and on the fourth, Jean-Cretzian stood up and announced that Mount Logan the highest peak in Canada, the second highest peak in North America, was to be renamed Mount Trudeau. And it was only after pushback from Western leaders, including Ralph Klein,

as well as historians pointing out who this Logan was and how important he was to geological surveying in Canada, was that pushed back. So had they had their own way, he would be honored the day after. There was no question of his of his historical significance

or waiting for historians to determine his value. This is not, from what I can gather, why are they even weighing into the historical significance? To me, that's not their lane. Oh, Ben, this is key. Six years ago in 2019, there was a minister in charge of the historic sites at Monument Sparta.

Her name was Catherine McKenna. She sent down quite a famous directive to the board. That was called the 2019 Framework on History and Commemoration. What did it say? It said, from here on in, you are to review all past, future, and present designations of historic people and events. From the perspective of colonialism, racism, and patriarchy, very subjective terms. Can you hear my eyes rolling, by the way? Can you hear it?

The board got the message, Ben. And the message was, the party in power wants us to review 158 years of history for all of Canada from the perspective of that party. So when they're confronted with the obvious designation for Prime Minister Mulroney, they, of course, would not apply colonialism, racism, or patriarchy, but they got the message that we can settle a political score and ride our little hobby horse, which is what they did. Even if I looked to Parks Canada as a harbinger to tell me about someone's historical significance, which I don't, I would look to them for sort of acknowledgement of any prime minister's impact on the natural world and the parks system. And on both those fronts, my dad comes out head and shoulders over any prime minister.

In terms of greenest prime minister, he wins. And in terms of adding more parks to the national park system than any, he wins. I don't understand why they don't just play in their own little sandbox and respect that. Ben, if you ask the farmers or the mill workers in my hometown, what about Brian Mulroney? They would say, oh, I remember the Mulroney years. He was this larger-than-life character who dominated the Canadian scene for a decade and achieved international prominence in the twilight of the Cold War, to which the historic sites and monuments board replies. Anyway, don't forget who's calling the shots around here. I have a friend from Saskatchew and he spent

a winter in Ottawa. He said, what would you think of the place? He said, it's a little bit like Regina, only smaller, if you get my meaning. That's the historic sites and monuments board. Well, I pointed out before the break, and I'm glad to be able to repeat it now. If they really wanted to honor my father, they would honor my mother because my dad said, without her, he doesn't become prime minister. And this new, this new 25, arbitrary 25 year rule, all but ensures that when they ultimately get around to doing what they should do immediately, my mom will not be there to be part of that ceremony. That's what they're guaranteeing right now. so they can talk about and they sent us a letter as a family we look forward to working with your family most of us won't be around anymore when you're around you've given yourselves the right to

acknowledge him and so to me that is something that cannot be lost in this i'll also point out i don't know how how terrible you need to be at history if you need to wait not only 25 years after his passing but over 30 years after he was prime minister and given how young our country is I find that entirely unacceptable. But, I mean, I don't want to be cynical here, but I don't think it's possible to be too cynical. You know, when they're getting rid of the 25-year rule, when a former liberal prime minister passes away.

Of course. Let's be frank. I mean, and then there's not going to be a policy, and there's not going to be that you're, when you point out the conditions, by the way, this is stupefying. These are the little people on this board. Exactly right.

You're going to wait a quarter century. And then you're going to weigh the successes and the failures. You know, in the old center block, it's under renovation right now, where the members used to come in through the Commons foyer, to head into the House of Commons, a pretty prominent place. There was a portrait of a prime minister named John Abbott. No one remembers him, one of the 19th century prime ministers. He was in office for about a year and a half, didn't want the job,

didn't do anything. He was a lobbyist for the railroad. He spent his entire premiership playing chess in the Senate lounge. He gets a painting in the lobby of the House of Commons because he served and his peers had confidence in him at a moment in time. And that's still not good enough for the historic sites and monuments board, let alone two terms. Yeah, no, two terms, eight national parks. accomplishments on biodiversity, acid rain. I mean, hey, if you're out there in a national park right now

and you're enjoying one of Canada's lakes, you can thank my dad because with acid rain, the entire lake turns into a puddle. So again, to me, this is, I keep using the word dumbfounding because I can't explain it without saying what you've said, Tom, which is this is a deeply, entirely and cynically political move. And I don't understand why they would do it, given how, what a positive way his life ended in with the entire country coming together in an entirely positive and productive way. And to turn this into a political thing now is cheap, it's demeaning, and it's beneath anybody who should be working for Canada.

Tom, I'm going to have to leave it there. But again, I thank you for the work you did. Hopefully this puts a little pressure on them and shames them into doing something right on this file. But thank you very much, my friend. Thank you, Ben. Hey, how's it going? Amazing. I just finished paying off all my debt with the help of the Credit Counseling Society.

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