The Ben Mulroney Show - Snap, Crackle, Pop - B.C.'s Snap Election, The Crackle of Anticipation of Parliament and the Pop of our PM's UN Remarks

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

In this segment from This Week in Politics on "The Ben Mulroney Show," Ben and his political panel, Regan Watts and Andy Gibbons, discuss the current political landscape in Canada. They discuss B.C.'s snap election, the return of MPs to Parliament and Prime Minister Mark Carney speaking before the UN. 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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Discover free sports tips, casino games, and poker guides at OZoon.net. Before the break, we had a great conversation with an MP from British Columbia who gave us his take. And it's a pretty sizable takedown of David Eby and his opportunistic and I think anti-democratic desire to, kill the conservatives and fight them at their weakest because he doesn't have a really good hand to play, right? He can't run on the economy. He can't run on it. So he's made up a fiction that this is about the existential threat of Donald Trump. And there will be people in the comments who are going to charge at me and say, well, that's what Doug Ford did. Well, Doug Ford called an early election so that he could have stability over the course of the Donald Trump years. It's true.

And he got it. But he came in, he did it before the tariffs came in. And so it's not exactly the same thing because Doug Ford was a guy who was actually cheering on Donald Trump to win. And then Donald Trump comes out and says Canada is the enemy. And I'm looking at you auto industry in Ontario. And he was particularly worried about the economy of his province. and I think it was entirely justified. He also had three, the other two parties, three parties were doing just fine with the leaders that they had at the time.

David Eby looked at the polls. A few months ago, they were neck and neck tied in the polls. Today, depending on the poll, he's either up by nine, ten or nine or ten, or as low as four. But you got to strike while the iron's hot, even if it means breaking your own fixed. election date law, even if it means big footing all over municipal elections, which if history is any indicator, you are going to see suppression of the vote for the municipal elections. And also, you are denying the conservative party the two years that it had on the clock to rebuild itself and offer itself up as an alternative to you.

So that's three anti-democratic strikes right there. And are they, we got the guys? Okay, Regan is joining us. Regan Watts is joining us on the phone. Regan, thank you so much. He's the founder of Fratton Park and former senior aide to finance minister Jim Flaherty. Regan, I can absolutely appreciate the political reasons for making this decision. But the, it's, it's not, it's dirty.

He's doing the people dirty. Well, look, Ben, and bonjour, monchum, migwitch, good to be with you, as always. I understand your point about understanding the political logic. I'm not sure there is political logic. I think the time to campaign against President Trump was when the Premier of Ontario and the prime minister last year went to the election, to the, to the election. to campaign, given the context and the news cycle and everything, I think, you know, the BC Premier is a day laid in a dollar short when it comes to this particular issue.

I think British Columbians, there's any number of issues that are facing that province. And I think British Columbians are an intelligent group of voters. And even though the left coast is a bit wacky and their politics are different than the rest of Canada. They have issues there that the government is not dealt with, which is why the NDP were so far back under the previous polling that you had mentioned. They were trailing before Carrie Lynn Finley came in and decided to burn the house down known as the BC Conservative Party. And so I think, you know, I have to say, Ben, and I may regret saying this on the air, there's just something that tells me that the Premier may have miscalculated in terms of calling

this election. It looks crass. It's opportunistic. It's. It's an election that nobody's been clamoring for or asking for. And it looks very, very self-interested. And so I'm not sure that the BCNDP are not going to pay a price for this because BC voters are fair-minded and they will see this election for what it is, which is the premier trying to take advantage of what was perceived as a material weakness. I'm not sure it's there. I want to bring Andy Gibbons into the conversation, principal at Walgate Advisory, former VP at WestJet. Look, I also think Andy that the unintended consequence here is the stricand effect.

Had this election not been called, nobody would really be looking at the interim leader, who I'm pretty sure they're just going to keep now, in Lorne Dirkson. And I didn't know anything about Lauren Dirkson, but he got in front of a press conference, and that made national news. And at first blush, like the cut of his jib. And that's, yeah, there you go. Yeah, I mean, he didn't fall on his face. Yeah, yeah.

So that's a start. What's curious to me, Ben, is the premier is the premier's choice of Trump. Yeah. He has great material here. I mean, he can easily say, if we have to wait for a conservative to get their act together, we'll never have an election. I mean, he's got lots of things to say about why now, why not waiting, this is the moment. So the Trump thing is really surprising to me in terms of this first. message out of the gate and he felt a little bit flat.

And I'm sure they debated this really heavily. Yeah. But they better pull their socks up. I thought it was a flat launch. Yeah. And conservatives are cornered and there's nothing like trauma to fix things. Yeah. So this could become really interesting, really quick.

Well, Regan talked to me about the dynamics because the knock on effect of the implosion of the conservative party has been the emboldening of the other center-right parties. So is this a case where these, you know, even if they get their act together, they're going to split that center, center right vote? Or can they, are the conservatives in British Columbia capable of anticipating that problem and working together, perhaps doing some sort of center right coalition where they don't run against each other? Well, you know, I may have missed it, but I do believe that there has been some consolidation of the center right vote in. BC, the Center BC folks and the BC Conservatives, I believe are talking, I don't know if it's collaboration, but they are talking about how they could possibly work together.

And so, you know, for me, though, and the choice in the BC election is pretty straightforward, which is, you know, if you're in favor of the fentanyl fold, as you see in the downtown Lower East Side, or the heroin happy dance, which you also see, or, or coffee. of living and affordable housing and affordability, which is a major issue out there, if you care about those things and you think BC is on the wrong track, then you have an option, which is the BC Conservative Party and who are the only party you can form government. If you think BC is being well governed and you like the idea that you're the home that

you have and you've covered this issue on your show before, Ben, the court ruling, If you think it's okay to buy a house only for a court to overturn your own personal property, right? You have a choice, and that's Premier Eby. I just think that the issues are so consequential. I couldn't agree more with Andy about how the premier is miscalculated around campaign against Trump. You know, the dynamics being what they are, I think the issues are really going to play a factor here in people looking at the premier in why he called an election now because he has not justified the reason for the campaign. It didn't even sound like he believed the reasons that he's.

was putting forth. But I think he's looking back to six years ago when John Horgan did the exact same thing and came out with the result he wanted. He's hoping for that. But I think there's a real chance unless he can convince people that all the stuff that Reagan just said doesn't matter. There's a real chance that he will emulate Justin Trudeau, who thought that he could get a majority by throwing us into an election during COVID. And instead, I think, eeked out, what, three more seats at a cost of almost a billion dollars to the taxpayer. So, I don't know. This is really interesting.

Andy, this is really, really interesting. It's super interesting. And I mean, you have to make the election about your opponent. We all know whoever the election is about loses. Yeah. So David Eadie has to make it about the conservatives, their caucus, Maple Maga, prehistoric views. all these things the left say about conservative candidates, they have to do that, not Donald Trump, you know.

But they don't even know that's the thing. They don't know, they're learning on the fly about the interim leader who's now probably sort of been foisted into the permanent leader. So they can define who they are. They have a fresh start. Carolyn Finley's gone. They can say, we have a new vision. And you don't even know what it is yet, sir.

So you can't tell us what we are and what we're not. It's going to be very interesting. All right, we're going to take, We're going to, when we're back, we are going to talk about what happened in Ottawa at the return of parliament. Mark Carney is going to be in New York this week at the U.N. Conservatives have trouble in Brantford. So we're going to discuss that next with Andy and Regan. Parliament's sitting again, and I'm pretty sure that means our prime minister went to New York. Andy Gibbons, what are your thoughts on the early days of parliament being back in session?

Big test for the Carney government. We had climate seniors in front of the prime minister's office this morning getting arrested. We've got Avi Lewis, who's got some life breathed into him on airports and other issues. And we've got the House leader's big, beautiful bill that a lot of people don't like. So I think this is the first kind of major legislative tests for them since they've been elected. And these are natural supporters of them that are upset. So let's watch this very carefully. And how much pressure they can take.

Tells me, though, that I should, I should give it a good hard look. I mean, if the Green Party has a problem with it, and if Avi Lewis has a problem with it, maybe, maybe I'm going to like it. And I did Regan see one report that this is, this is the beginning of the end of the majority of Justin Trudeau's policies and his vision for this country. Yeah. I mean, there's a, you know, there's a couple of things that I think are worth flagging there. But to start, you, I think, nailed the prime minister's political challenge, which is he has to, as a liberal prime minister, undo all of the toxicity that was part of the long national nightmare known as Justin Trudeau, his 10 years in power.

He's going to undo all that toxicity while showing some progressive bent to keep liberal support. orders in line, but also do the right things to move the economy forward, which is the progressive conservative side of what he's been doing. And I think Andy's right that this is the first major real legislative test for the prime minister. However, he said something yesterday in New York, which, you know, reminded me, Ben, of your father, which is, you know, he believes he has a mandate to make big changes. And he does. And so, you know, good on the prime minister for using his political capital. He's not leaving it in the bank, or as the tin foil hats on YouTube would say, leaving it in Brookfield. He's actually spending the political capital he's earned.

And I think he's spending it in a direction that centrist and center-right voters can appreciate. It's not going to move at the speed that they would want it to move, but it's moving in the direction they would want to move. Very much so. But where I would disagree with Andy that this is a big sort of a big part of his challenge is, you know, we still have an inept, docile, flascus, leader the opposition who cannot seem to get out of his own way. And despite the, despite the challenges around the world, the conservative party still is struggling to get its message heard in Ottawa. Well, Andy, I don't know that the issue is going to come from Pierre Polio.

I think it might come from the unions because part of this big bill, this piece of legislation, is really asking Canada to circumscribe the right to strike during this time of build baby build? Well, the union has done such a good job, Ben, you just use their words. The bill, what the bill does is it allows for alternative dispute mechanisms to avoid strike or lockout. And let's go back to CNNCP striking simultaneously and shutting down Canada's largest port. I mean, it's as cold and crass as this.

If we don't have labor stability, we don't have trade reliability. The end. So, Andy, let me just jump in and ask a follow-up. We were talking about political capital. Could the prime minister, should the prime minister use some of his political heft to get in a room with uniform, get in the room with the heavy hitters on that side and say, listen, guys, you're like, I'm asking you take one for the team here. Take one for Team Canada here.

We will get you on the other side of this crisis. But for the time being, I need you to fall in line because we need to. to build this stuff right now. And if we don't, we're not going to have the money to keep all of your union members in the jobs that have allowed them to have the lives they have. Well, how many union jobs are going to be created by Carney if he's successful, right? I mean, I think that's the argument with them. And the other argument is you had your way for 10 years.

Yeah. And her economy was in the sewer. Yeah. So, you know, maybe it's time to try a different track, but also just appeal to the national moment. Everyone has to put a little water in their wine here. Yeah. Labor, other groups, AFN.

This isn't a moment where everybody gets everything, but it is a moment where we all have to work together. Yeah, so we can set the table. They have to appeal to that. We've got to set the table so that there's more to eat afterwards. Right now we got scraps. Justin left us with scraps. We got to go and we go work together so that we can have a feast at some point soon.

Regan, you know the prime minister. I don't know him. Is that skill in his wheelhouse? Can he bring people behind closed doors and have the conversation, Andy, I know we're just talking about? Well, I think he's proven that he can bend for two reasons. One, you're seeing less vitriol out of stakeholders that under Trudeau would have, you know, well, they would have stormed the beaches of Ottawa and made their views known if Trudeau government

had brought these types of changes in. So, yeah, I think he has this in him. The other thing I'll say is, I think he has it in it because you saw on the margins of the investment summit that took place last week, huge announcements from major financial institutions in Canada that said they're committing billions of dollars to new investments. You know, Royal Bank didn't wake up and say,

we're going to put a billion five into Canadian investments on their own volition. The prime minister sat down with these people and said, look, you need to step up your game and to invest more in Canada. to take more risk. And so he absolutely has that muscle. It's instinctive to him, but it's also been part of his career. You know, he's not going to get everything right, but so far, and the public are with him, and these stakeholders are seeing this. Like, you know, the only person more popular than Mark Carney these days is Jesus. And, you know, like, and we haven't reached Christmas yet. So we'll see. It'll be a, it'll be a fight at Christmas if the Prime Minister has a good

fall to see who's more popular. But, you know, he's got the will of the country with him and the, and the support. And so he needs to, and he's using that. The stakeholders are seeing this, which is why they're falling in line, generally speaking, even if there's a few on the outliers who are not happy. If he is able to use his considerable political capital to move the needle on those things, then that, I have to say, that is a Brian Mulroney thing he would do. Dad always said, if you retire from politics and they want to throw you a ticker tape parade, then you didn't do enough. So, now, Andy, let's go to New York because Mark Carney as a. He's, he's got, it's, it's circled on his calendar, man. Every year the General Assembly, he's got to be there.

I don't know why, but it's like his Oscars, I suppose. What's going on at the UN that Canada has to be there? I mean, it's the United Nations General Assembly. You know, that's a command performance for every leader. And just the number of bilateral, Regan knows this better because he served the foreign minister when Harper is in power. I mean, the number of requests that Stephen Harper used to get when he used to go to the United Nations General Assembly.

He'd even like the UN. Yeah. So it's less about the UN and it's more about what you can do when everyone's in town. That's where business is done. There you go. That's where business is done. My dad also said, you've got to learn something new every day and I just learned something new. That's the value of the UN.

The side deals, the side meetings. It's not the UN property. It has also been the value of the Ben Mulroney Show, which delivers insights that listeners and viewers can't get anywhere else in Canada. And Regan, last, we only have about a minute left. So give me the sense of what's going on in Brantford. It's self-induced drama in the conservative party, isn't it? Well, it just goes to show that Mr. Palliev and his team still can't quite shoot straight

or draw a straight line with a ruler. You have a by-election that's coming up that's been called because he had a member decide to step down. That is Larry Brock, Mr. Brock and his predecessor, Phil McCleman, both endorsed another candidate who they felt was worth. of holding the riding. Brantford's an interesting community because it's a very localized election. And people in Ottawa's in the conservative side seem to forget that that writing was held federally and provincially for the better part of 50 years before Phil McCormann, the great Phil McCleman, won that writing back in 2008.

And what happened was Mr. Polyev went against what it appears local wishes and appointed an unpopular mayor to carry the party's banner in that writing. We'll see what happens in a general election, but there's a lot of unhappy people And normally appointing a mayor as your candidate in a riding like that is a good idea. But when the retiring member and his predecessor get up at the quote-unquote rally where this guy was announced and walk out. That was quite dramatic. It's not good. And, you know, this is the final act, I believe, and we're in the second scene of the final act of the Shakespearean tragedy known as Mr. Polyev's leadership complete with his own Lady Macbeth.

And we'll see how things shake out, but it's not good. Andy Gibbons, Regan Wants. Love our chats every week. Let's do it again. Nigwitz, my friend, Ben. Thank you.