The Ben Mulroney Show - Planes, Strains and Bravado Ordeals

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

On today's episode of 'The Ben Mulroney Show,' Ben welcomes Flavio Volpe, president of the Toronto-based Auto Parts Manufacturers' Association. They discuss President Trump's latest target: Canada's prized Bombardier. 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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it's like having your own coach. Whatever your favorite game, we have your playbook. Ozone, well played. Discover free sports tips, casino games and poker guides at Ozone.net. And Donald Trump, you never know what he's going to do from one moment to the next. It feels like he's got a depth of knowledge that is about an inch deep and a mile wide. It feels like he has an opinion on everything and not a whole lot of knowledge on those things. And I don't say that to be disrespectful.

I'm not looking to sling arrows at anyone, especially somebody who can cause as much damage as that president can to our economy. So we've hit back with our counter tariffs. That happened at 1201. There's also talk that we are working on some sort of new alliance with the European Union. You know, I'm used about this months ago where I suggested based on the signals that our prime minister was thrown out there, that he maybe had some grand designs on joining the European Union. He said that Canada is the most European of the countries that aren't in Europe. And he said he felt European.

Every time he's in Europe, he says he feels like he's at home. He used to have two passports beyond his Canadian one that were. Well, one was the UK and one was Ireland. So he's got some Europe. He had some Europe in his passports. I think he got rid of him. And now we hear that he's not bringing back Parliament, but he will be in attendance at the European Parliament

for their state of the union address. And he's going to be giving some sort of announcement or some big speech there. A lot of people think it'll be the bookend to the Davos speech. Okay. Now, there is one thing preventing Canada from fully joining the European Union. and that's the constitution of the EU that says only countries that are in Europe can join the EU. But funny thing about written documents is they can be amended.

And I don't know that anybody voted for that. I don't think anybody was asked if that was something we wanted to do. A rapprochement to the second biggest voting bloc in a trading block in the world is never a bad idea. But Canada has been stifled over the past 10 years by red tape and overregulation and joining full-fledged membership to the EU would add to that regulatory burden. I am not an expert, so don't ask me to go deep in that in the way that I just accused Donald Trump of being a neophyte.

But there is quite burdensome regulation in that area of the world. And I think we need less of it, not more of it. Those are just my two cents. what else did he do oh he shared a map on his truth social of new mexico that he has renamed at least in jest as new america which is just so dumb and this is what i'm talking about this is this is he he's ginning up emotion uh because he doesn't have a whole lot else to play this fundamentally i think is one of his biggest issues in that he uh he cannot make a case to the public, the voting public,

who will be holding him to account for the last two years at the ballot box, at the midterms. He cannot make the case that Canada is a bad faith actor. He says it. He can't point to anything. He says, well, you abuse him. You know, you signed a deal with us

eight years ago or ten years ago where he said it was the greatest deal of all time. So he cannot create the conditions that will convince enough. Americans that going to war with Canada makes any sense. So he has to play on a motion. And now this, as we are going tit for tat with them, it looks like Donald Trump is threatening to ban one of the biggest aerospace companies in the world and one of Canada's crown jewels

in terms of our aerospace industry, Bombardier, from selling any of their jets in the U.S. And, oh, we've got, fortunately, we've got Flavio Volpe. the president of the Toronto-based auto parts manufacturers association with us. Flavio, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Ben. I'm so glad you're here. So, listen, they've, this, Bombardias put out a statement. And this is a no-brainer, right?

Everybody knows this. They have employees all over the world, and they employ tons of people in the States. And this is, this is known. Donald Trump knows this. So talk to me about what you think is at play here. and talk to me about what you think is at stake here. Well, that's a great way to split the hair because it's the right way. What's that play?

I think we all have to at some point start to accept what our eyes and ears are telling us and that the president may or may not be being strategic here. He might just be losing it. And it's important. I mean, this isn't to insult them. I think you just watch the way that he behaves online at 3 in the morning. And the things that he does, no American strategist would say that that's good for their industries or their trade results. And that makes him a very difficult person to deal with, to negotiate with, to future plan together with.

And yet, we're on this continent together. We cannot remove ourselves from this continent. Your discussion about what the prime minister is attempting to do with other regions, including the EU, are very important. But for those of us who are in businesses that have big, heavy goods in low margins at high volumes, you can't dream about the EU. You've got to dream about Indiana in Alabama, in New York. So we have to somehow find a way for that America that we've all planned and worked with, at least since the end of the Second World War, understands that what the president is doing is not putting a wall between countries.

He's putting a wall down the middle of one economy. And he is, like on the Bombardier play, the engines, on the global 7,500 are made in Indiana. The engines on the Challenger come from Arizona. There's about $8 million of the avionics in the Montreal Assembly that comes from some of the 2,800 U.S. suppliers there. Well, as he said, as Bombardier said, they've got workers in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois, Delaware,

California, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey, as well as direct employment presence in more than 20 states, and they create tens of thousands of U.S. jobs to the company's growing American footprint. And then with the supply chain, it's made of approximately 2,800 American companies across 47 states, spending $2.5 billion a year with suppliers.

I look at that. He must have that evidence. But I guess he's willing to torch those jobs, what, because he's mad at Mark Carney? Yeah. Look, you could take Bombardier, say, Ford Motor Company, or say General Motors, or say, Belantis, Chrysler, Dodge. He's doing the same thing in the auto sector.

Where he's advanced this notion with Bombardiers, now he went from picking on a product class, so his first tariffs last year, Liberation Day, products on all cars coming from around the world or all steel coming from around the world. Then he took another step up, and he said, on his 338 tariffs of last month, He said, actually, I'm just going to pick on Canada.

Yeah. So these products in Canada. And now he's taking it up another notch. I'm just going to pick on Bombardier. Well, he's picking on Bombardier probably because of this, for some of the same reasons that he picked on the Ambassador Bridge. And the Ambassador Bridge, the Maroon family that owned the bridge gave some money and Lutnik got involved.

And who knows who at Gulfstream showed up and talked to the boss about the Bombardier. Well, Gulfstream has got Canadian suppliers. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what are we doing? Yeah. It's, but it does show that if he wants to, and if he's petty enough, he can, he can take a hammer to one of our most storied companies in this country and not even bad at eye. And that is the most frightening aspect of this. Flavio, would you come back soon? Because I would love to go through more of this trade war chapter and verse with you. anytime happy to you know that. Thank you.