The Ben Mulroney Show - Premier Danielle Smith says it's time for Canada to start working with Alberta

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Premier Danielle Smith says it's time for Canada to start working with Alberta -Taking a historical look at the Mohawk Steelworkers with Guest: Craig Baird, Host of Canadian History Ehx If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome back to The Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us on The Chorus Talk Network. Or you may find us in podcast form. If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, if you listen to us on Amazon or Spotify, all you got to do is search for Ben Mulroney or The Ben Mulroney Show. And there you find us. We've got a lot of pieces of content that we drop over the course of the day. So enjoy it at your leisure and at your pleasure. This is

a big, big day here at The Ben Mulroney Show. Pierre Poliev is going to be joining us in about a half an hour for a long form interview where we're going to talk. We're going to talk about a number of things, most notably a speech that he gave here in Toronto. We're gonna dig into some of the key points that he brought up in terms of how to deal with Donald Trump with the looming tariffs, not just today, but in the future.

And we're gonna ask him about, I think the questions that you have on your mind. If there are question marks in your mind about who Pierre Poliev is and what kind of candidate does he want to build those are the questions that I'm gonna have him answer he right here on the Ben Mulroney show and tomorrow I will be hosting this show from Washington DC I'm gonna be down there I love that music I'm gonna be down there for four days and over the

course of those four days I'm gonna have the opportunity to meet a number of key politicians, business leaders, and as well as the Canadian ambassador to Washington DC, where I'm gonna just try to get a lay of the land as to how we're seen south of the border. How is Canada seen? What about Donald Trump's tariffs? Who agrees with Donald Trump and his policy

on turning Canada into public enemy number one? And the goal is going to be to return home with a number of people that we can call on to talk about this issue, which is not going away anytime soon. And even if it does, Donald Trump will be sitting opposite whoever is our Prime Minister for the next four years. And so I would very much like to have those people come onto the Ben Mulroney show and give us the take from Washington, DC. One of the people who may be prime minister again is Mark Carney and how he sees this country is in it. Well, it's in question.

I think and I don't think that's an unfair statement to make. He has talked about the national importance of resource development, expanding our trade, building out our pipelines, and yet when asked by a journalist yesterday if he will repeal the Liberals anti-pipeline Bill C-69, here's what he had to say. We do not plan to repeal Bill 69 to answer your question directly. What we have said and made very clear 10 days ago, formally with the First Minister's meeting, is that we will move for projects of national interest to remove duplication in terms of

environmental assessments and other approvals. And we will follow, as the federal government, the principle of one project, one approval to move forward from that. So what's essential is to work at this time of crisis to come together as a nation, all levels of government, to focus on those projects that are going to make material differences to our country, to Canadian workers and to our future, and work closely together. Yeah, I don't know what that means. I'm sorry. I think I'm a pretty smart guy and I can't make heads or tails of that.

Bill C-69 is the no new pipelines law. It is. It's designed to keep what we've got in the ground in the ground. That's what it is. If you don't get rid of it, it's a heck of a lot harder to build than we need it to be. This country needs it to be easier to build. First step in doing that is repealing that law. And one person who left her meeting with him

a little while ago, with the belief that he was going to do something like that was Danielle Smith of Alberta. She said she doesn't know where he stands on these things because he'll say one thing in the East and another to the West. He'll say one thing in English and another in French. And so there's not a whole lot of clarity there. And I got, I am more confused by that answer than I am prior to him answering the question. And Danielle Smith, I believe whether you like her or not, speaks with clarity and her belief that if you're

talking you're winning. You're in the conversation, you're still in the fight if you are having conversations. And she's been getting a lot of pushback for her, the way she has been prosecuting this war against the tariffs. But she said, look, I still believe that the way I'm doing it is part of Team Canada. Here's what she had to say. When we started off, it was agreed by all the premiers that we would work our contacts so that we would talk to every single individual elected member of office and incoming member of the administration, including influencers and podcasters, to do everything we possibly can to ward off tariffs, delay tariffs, or get them cancelled altogether. And so I've just continued in that strategy, and I'm going to continue in that strategy.

I would say that when I, my most recent trip to speak with Ben Shapiro, he is the second largest listened to podcaster in the United States. He's got an audience in all his platforms of 25 million. We had a very constructive conversation where I talked about the integration of our economies on everything from oil and gas in Alberta to critical minerals in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and all of our all of our provinces and territories, cars from Ontario, uranium from Saskatchewan.

And that to me is what the Team Canada approach is. Every single province has a vital, important relationship with the US that has mutual benefit. Does anybody think that Donald Trump pays attention to what the opinion of the New York Times is or the Wall Street, the Washington Post? No, he cares what Ben Shapiro has to say. He cares about those podcasters that matter to him.

He cares about what his advisors tell him and his advisors listen to Ben Shapiro. I don't understand why this is so hard for certain people to grasp. That if you are, if the conversation continues, then the game is not over. And Danielle Smith is exhausting every single conversation, doing everything she can to get those who talk to the president

to understand Canada. And look, it's either going to work or it's not, but you can't say she isn't trying. Another accusation leveled at Danielle Smith, and I would say unfairly, is that there are critics who are claiming that she is entertaining the idea of Alberta independence. It was recently talked about that she's going to convene a panel after this next election

to ask Albertans what matters to them, including where they stand on the issue of separation. Again, communicating with people, trying to figure out what's making them tick, what matters to them. And here's what she had to say about that. I love Canada, and I want Canada to work. I've been on Team Canada from the beginning. It's part of the reason why I've been relentlessly going to the United States and trying to advocate for all of our industries, for all of Canada, in every venue I possibly can. But I'm also Premier of Alberta. And quite frankly, at some point, Canada has to start working for Alberta. And it's not right now. We have a number of policies that came in

over the last 10 years that have been damaging to Alberta prosperity. It's been damaging to our freedom as a province. And if they persist, it is going to continue a dysfunctional relationship that harms Alberta. So I put forward the nine major policies that I think have to be repealed after the next election. Unfortunately, the current prime minister, despite what he said to me privately when he was here, has now gone public saying he supports export taxes, he supports Bill C-69, he supports emissions caps. That is moving in the wrong direction. Yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with her saying that, look, there is a feeling

in this province that could lead to a movement towards separation. And I'm telling you that what you need to do is address these nine points in order to stave it off. If you don't, that that resentment will turn into a movement. And I'm sorry, but that's not on her. If she's telling you, I'm reading the tea leaves and it's not looking good, if you pursue these policies that have been what we feel are against the benefit of to Alberta and to Albertans, then if you're gonna pursue those, then consequences will follow.

There's nothing wrong with giving someone the lay of the land. And I have to say, I'm gonna trust Danielle Smith's take on Alberta more than, you know, Mark Carney at this point. And so I don't think there's, I don't have a problem with that. I know that there are some people who are determined to shoehorn anybody they disagree with into the box

of being a traitor or not on Team Canada, or not wanting the best for Canada. And they do not care how disparaging they are towards that person and their reputation. And look, I think those are the people who aren't on Team Canada. Those who look at somebody they disagree with and call them a traitor, you're the one who's not on Team Canada. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and this is one of my favorite segments of

the week. You can always find it on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music. It's a chance for us as, well me as the host and us as a community here at the Ben Mulroney Show to learn a little bit more about this country. The more we know about our history, the more we know where we came from, the more sense and confidence we can have moving forward. And there is no better person to help shepherd us through what is sadly unknown history for too many of us. I count myself in that group, by the way, than Craig Baird, the host of Canadian history X. Craig, welcome to the show.

No, thanks for having me again. Okay, so we've talked about a few elections in the past. Let's today we're going to talk about the 1900 election, the first election of the 20th century. Give us the lay of the land and what were some of the highlights? What were some of the knock on effects? of the highlights? What were some of the knock-on effects? Well, the 1900 election came along four years after Sir Wilfrid Laurier had won the 1896 election. So he was just beginning his 15 continuous years as prime minister, which is the longest continuous stretch for any prime minister in history. And probably the biggest, two biggest things were the Manitoba schools question, which was a really big issue in the 1896 election, but he was able to reach an agreement with the Manitoba government in order to allow separate, not allow separate schools, but allow religious instruction under certain criteria within Manitoba.

And then the other thing that was happening was the Boer War, and there was the issue of whether, you know, Canadian troops should be sent to South Africa to fight. And in the end, a thousand Canadian volunteers were sent to fight, and Laurier didn't really have to make a decision on that. But the election was kind of a low-key election compared to the 1896 election. Sir Charles Tupper was leading the Conservatives at the time. And going into the election, not really much changed. The liberals won a few more seats than they had in 1896. The conservatives lost a few seats. But this would

actually be the last election for Sir Charles Tupper, who gets a lot of flak for being a prime minister who only served for 68 days, which is the shortest amount of time in Canadian history. But he was instrumental in getting Nova Scotia to join Confederation. He had spent decades in parliament and when he died in 1915, he was actually the last surviving father of Confederation from that time. Yeah. No, that, that to me was the part that really

stuck with me, you know, in all the previous elections, there was this, there were the vestiges of the, the early days of Canada and for him to pass in 1915, it feels like a turning point in the evolution of us as a country. Oh, absolutely. And then when he leaves as leader in 1901, he succeeded by Robert Borden,

who then helps return the Conservative Party to power in 1911 and serves throughout the First World War era until 1920. You know, we talk a lot about today's politics in 1911 and serves throughout the First World War era until 1920. We talk a lot about today's politics and how the Liberal Party of Canada is such a successful political brand and they've been in power for most of our history. But Sir John A. was a conservative. At what point did that paradigm shift? At what point did the option,

the default option in Canada become the Liberal Party? I would say actually in 1896 because what happened in 1896 with Sir Wilfrid Laurier coming to power and then he serves until his death in 1919 but he set it up to have a successor and that would be William Lyon Mackenzie King who then serves as Liberal leader until 1948 and he had chosen Louis Saint Laurent as his successor, and then Louis Saint Laurent chooses Lester B. Pearson and Lester B. Pearson chooses Pierre Trudeau. And so for decades, you have kind of this system in place where you always have somebody coming in to take over the party. And that creates kind of this, like you said, the liberal party, more or less ruling for most of the 20th century, except for certain pockets in various decades.

Well, let's, let's talk about something that I didn't even see coming when, when you sent it our way. You know, most people don't like talking about the attributes of one commu cultural community over another, they, they find them to be culturally stereotypical, unless of course, those things are a positive. And we're going to be talking about sort of a group known for efficiency and skill, and that's the Mohawk Steelworkers of the Kanawake Reserve, and how they pretty much help build the skylines of North America. Yeah, if you look at New York City skylines, pretty much every single building probably has

the fingerprints of the Mohawk steelworkers who really kind of, they proved themselves for their skill, for how efficient they were. And there is this misconception where people say, oh, they didn't have the fear of heights. Well, they did. And what they say is we had the fear of heights, we just managed it better than a lot of other people. And that really helped set them apart from a lot of other steelworkers through the 20th century and into the 21st. And it's also, you know, the from the 1920s and 1970s, you had they were actually living in neighborhoods like in Brooklyn, there was a community of them there. Yeah, there was. So what would happen is a lot would actually make the commute from Quebec all the way down to New York city, but some would actually live

in Brooklyn in a neighborhood that became known for, for having the Mohawk from Canada. They had Canadian products and things like that. And that allowed them to work on a variety of, uh, construction products or projects, but the, the Mohawk were also able to come and go through the Canadian border and the US border with ease because of the Jay Treaty that was signed in 1794 that allowed the Indigenous to

come and go over the border without restrictions. So it really allowed them to work on a variety of projects in the United States through the 20th century. And of course, it wasn't easy work, it was dangerous work and not without tragedy. There was some loss of life a number of times. There was and even recently, I think about 20 years ago there was one who one Mohawk worker who died working on a bridge, but probably the most famous example is the Quebec Bridge that collapsed in 1907 and killed about 75 people and among the dead were 33 Mohawk steelworkers. So it was a very tragic day for the Mohawk and the women on the Mo- on the reserve actually

decreed that from that point on family groups couldn't work together on the same project because so many families have been decimated by that terrible tragedy. Well, let's listen to a clip of Mohawk steelworkers from Canadian History X. All skyscrapers first started with the frame made up of steel columns beams and girders. A riveting gang would fasten them together. First a heater would fire up and heat up the rivets in a small forge. Then he would toss them to the sticker in who caught them with a glove or metal can and place them in a hole in either girder or beam. Then the buckler up braced the rivet using a dolly bar while the riveter used a pneumonic

hammer to mushroom the rivet's stem and secure the steel frame. They did this without safety equipment, hundreds of feet in the air. Only their respect for the danger kept them from making unfortunate mistakes. And when you're performing a red-hot rivet ballet far above the sidewalk, you want the best people on the job. Enter the Mohawk Skywalkers. I've got to ask, what is the genesis of the Mohawk nation getting involved in steelwork? It actually came down to the Victoria Bridge that crosses the river at Montreal. And what happened was the Mohawk were actually delivering stone from the quarry and they

came to the bridge in about the 1850s and they saw the work being done on it and became very intrigued by that. So they actually went onto the bridge and kind of just climbed up to get better looks at what was happening. And the foreman at the bridge was so impressed with this, he actually offered several positions to actually work on the bridge. And then this created this generational tradition where fathers would teach sons and sons would teach their sons continuing for 150 years to get them to have this job that was extremely well-paying, but also consistent.

So it was a really good way for fathers to pass onto their sons, steady employment. Well, and that's, that's a universal aspect of the job that you extremely well paying but also consistent. So it was a really good way for fathers to pass on to their sons steady employment. Well and that's that's a universal aspect of the trades like there there are a lot of fathers who teach their sons and and and and so they carry on those traditions. Is it still a tradition that is carried on today? Absolutely. Now obviously the technology has changed quite a bit and a lot of the Mohawk steelworkers form their own companies rather than working for other people. But Mohawk steelworkers were working on One World Trade Center, you

know, just recently and they were the same ones whose fathers had worked on the World Trade Center and those fathers had worked on the Empire State Building. So it definitely continues to this day and they can be found working on projects throughout North America. It is a fascinating part of our history. I can't tell you, Craig, and I say this every week, I hope I don't sound like a broken record, but it just blows my mind how all these incredible

stories that you're able to find that I know most of our listeners do not know. And it truly enriches my experience by talking to you. I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your day. I know how busy you are, but it really is probably one of the most valuable segments that we do because it's just these are the stories that should bind us together. Absolutely, and I really appreciate that. And, you know, sharing Canadian history is what I love and being able to share these

kinds of stories is something that definitely fills me with joy. Really quickly, Craig, how can people find the show? You can listen to Canadian History X on all podcast platforms or you can listen to it on the Chorus Radio Network every weekend. Just check your local listings. Want to transform your space and your Sundays? and we'll see you next time. Watch and win for your chance to win big. Amazing! Ha! Ha! The small details are the difference between winning and losing.

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