The Ben Mulroney Show - The Jays soar and Ward 25 goes to the polls for by-election

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

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It is Monday, September 29th. The Blue Jays did it. They made it. They did not make it easy, but they made it indeed winning the American League East title for the first time in 10 years. And, yeah, they certainly when they say, as baseball fans that you get your money's worth,

they made every single second count up until the very end of the regular season, beating Tampa Bay 13-5, seventh division title in the team's 49-year history. And so my producer, I love his notes in this. I'm just going to read you his notes because he wanted to make sure

this is how he told the story. Alejandro Kirk, one of the slowest players in the league who got thrown out on a single to right field last week hit two homers. You don't have to run fast when you do that. But that's true. It is true. That's just wisdom.

It's perspective. It's perspective. But also, he made a during the lead up to the show, he was talking about how they were sitting there with a 5-1 lead and he thought to himself, well, that's a comfortable lead only to watch that go to 5-4. And he

suggested that he had jinxed them. And I know that a lot of people think that sometimes. Oh, I got to zip it. Don't don't, don't jinx them. Don't jinx them. Knock on wood. Knock on wood. Don't jinx them.

Just think about what you're saying there. Think about how much power one would have to have with their thoughts to alter the outcome of any external activity. Okay? That is mutant level power. That is X-Men level power. That is godlike power And I refuse to ascribe that level of power To anyone, especially my producer

Especially Mike Drolet Even though he does look like Professor X There you go Yes, well I'll tell you, you know If I had that power, the things I would jinx in this world Think about it If you had that power Would you be wasting it on a baseball game?

Yes, I would Well unless you were betting on that game Well, I mean, I don't bet Back to the Future 2 style, right? That's the only way to do it. I mean, Biff had the right plan there, I think. Go back with the almanac and bet on all the games and then build a casino. That's what you do.

Yeah. Or get, go back in time and buy stock in Apple or Yahoo! Exactly. Not Yahoo, man. Well, for a while. For a while. Google. Yeah.

Anyway, let's listen to a little bit of Blue Jays manager, John Schneider, about how he believes the team built this champion, this, this, this, this pennant winning team that's a 20 win turnaround from last year to this year all right and it's because of every single one of you guys here you guys are unbelievable you're selfless i say it all the time and i said the sky's not falling and guess what it didn't all right you guys kept going about it you did it the right way some people said we did it the hard way but we did it our way Although I have a question, where the heck were they during that speech? They were in their...

That's not the locker room. Yeah, they were in the walker room. No, no. It looks like a club, a nightclub. It looked like it. They turned the locker room into a nightclub. Their locker room is amazing down there. Yeah.

But they put in the crystal ball, but they cover up all the lockers so they don't get covered in champagne. It looked like a dance floor. And it looked like there was a DJ booth. Oh, yeah. They had everything. but typically when I'm used to seeing the lights on like I know what I know what it looks like when a team you know wins wins a division and they have the champagne and they all wear the ski goggles now because they don't want to get in their eyes like I've seen that before we've all seen it yeah that didn't look like any version of that I've ever seen before no considering yeah you usually see it's sort of a wider picture that was really a strange look it was I've never seen that but I like that they're doing things differently if in fact that was different for the sake of being different so yeah I'm very, very, very, very happy with that. But I've said this before, you know, anybody who is, who is, you know, ragging on the Blue Jays as they made it hard on themselves all the way to the end, I want to point out, and we've, yeah, we want to share this with you that they weren't supposed to win anything this year, according to the experts and the big brains and the people who get actually get paid for their, for their depth of knowledge and their experience and their perspective that they can bring to any sort of.

of conversation on sport. They all got it wrong at the beginning of this year. And so let's play this first piece of audio from Clutch Time Dad. This is a team that I could see winning 100 games, but I could also see them losing 100 games. And that's a weird thing to look at. And that is the Toronto Blue Jays. So don't come at me, Toronto fans.

That's just what I'm seeing, you know, on the outside. looking in. Okay. Hey, we just saw on on television that, I mean, everybody at City Hall is wearing Blue Jays gear right now. At bandwagon is, it's big enough for everybody for sure. And I, actually, I like this flag that they just put up. There's no wind, so you can't really see it. It says want it all. It says want it all. I like that. Remember we had that conversation a few weeks ago, a few months ago, about the own the podium initiative to win at

the 2010 Olympics. And the people were pushing back against that thing. That's not a very Canadian thing. Instead of own the podium, it should be on the podium, which is a pathetic thing. No. No, you should want, you should want it all. You should always want to win. And so I like that. I like that. Yes, go for everything.

I like it. Be selfish. Go get the whole thing. But back to these predictions, nobody predicted. Yeah, nobody predicted that. Here's that TikTok BJ prediction from Stephen Russell. This team always disappoint. I don't think they're off or pitching is good enough to make them a true playoff team.

Yeah, simple. Look at that. They say it was such conviction. Basically, he said they suck. Yeah, they suck. Bleacher report said that they were going to be in last place with 78, the average, about 78 wins. CBS sports experts, four of them predicted last, two of them predicted fourth.

MLB.com said, put them in the fifth tier of, possible successes. And the title was, time comes for all of us, two teams staring directly at the end of an era, maybe, the Astros and the Blue Jays. How'd the Astros do? They did not make the playoffs.

They were just edged out. Okay. And MLB also suggested Baltimore could have the worst. Oh, Baltimore could get to the World Series. And they finished last. They finished last. And Milwaukee was going to have one of the worst records in the league

and they have the best record in Major League Baseball. So, yeah. So it's all these experts saying this is what's going to happen. Well, it reminds me of money ball, right? It reminds me of money ball where people, when you reinforce sort of

people's theories long enough, then those theories become fact. Oh, he's got, he's a five-tool player. Oh, he's got a sweet swing. He's got X and one. Like all that stuff. And Moneyball

sort of threw it in the toilet. it and said, you know, you're not looking at the right numbers. So the question for me, do you get the same feeling around the city as you did around? Remember 2015, 16, when the Jays were, they had that resurgence and they had the best team in the league and everybody was, everybody picked them to win. Sports Illustrated said they were going to win the World Series. Yeah. And then, but everybody in the city was wearing blue.

Yeah. To get that sense now, I don't, I don't really don't get the sense that the city is really I don't feel it. I don't feel it yet. But again, this is, we're not in the. the playoffs haven't started yet. I definitely feel like there's an excitement. I definitely feel like there's an excitement.

I think they put a great product on the field. The field itself is the best field that they've ever played on. I mean, the fact that in their second season in a single-purpose baseball field, they've never had that before. It's always been multi-purpose. And my other question would be to the players, would you be worried after that celebration yesterday,

when you go out there and play next Saturday, because that's when their game is. Are you worried that the field is going to smell like booze because of all the champagne and beer that they spill? That's a problem you want, man. That is a problem you want. Because it's an astroturf, right? Yeah, so as a reminder,

the Jay's play on Saturday against the winner of Boston and New York. I love that. I love that Toronto has to sit there and wait. But hopefully the time that they wait does keep some sharp. Keep some sharp. Congratulations to the Blue Jays. Congratulations to, yeah, the team and the fans and everybody who believed in them on day one. And the bandwagon.

You know, the bandwagon as well. Is this the cleansing tonic that we as a city need? For example, look, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. But let's live in a way. world where we get everything we want and the blue jays win then that's a there will be a parade that's a parade that is a clogging of our arteries that i can get behind okay that will be a oh i can't go down young and blower okay no problem it's not the type of closure that will make my blood boil but i want to hear from you a 416 870 600 or one triple eight two two five talk how does this

compare to other times. I didn't live here in the championship years. I was here 10 years ago and it definitely felt like at this moment, it felt like a little more heightened. I felt that like people were a little more excited. Not to take anything away from what's going on right now, but I just remember, I don't know, this expectation of this excitement. And maybe people are just a little more reticent to commit commit emotionally right now I think so

I mean disappointment leads to yeah taking it easy right I mean absolutely it leads to retic I don't know

leave fans they seem to want to be disappointed every single year hey let's start with Dawn Don thank you so much for Colin we appreciate it Hey Ben good morning

listen you know what I think you were talking earlier but the Jay's the statisticians and everybody counted them out right out of the gate. I think the

stat that no algorithm or statistician can keep track of, to me, they just simply looked like they were having fun this year. There was no pressure and maybe that was the difference. There was no expectations. They just got out there and they were just playing baseball.

Yeah. And that's what my group and I noticed when the few games we went to and the few we watched on TV, they simply looked like they were having fun. And I think that made a big difference. Now, how much fun was it to be a

spectator at those games? How is the experience of going to a baseball game there compared to, say, a few years ago? Because it feels to me like it's a great baseball watching experience now. You know what? It is. We've actually started taking our grandsons

to Junior J games. And it is a really good show. You know, the boys are too young to really persevere through all nine innings, but there's enough going on that, you know, you go for a walk in the concourse and whatnot play a few games with them, and then back to a game for, back to the baseball for an inning or two, and then more food, the Jays haven't figured out. Now, were you ever there for Looney Dog Day?

Yeah, if you saw the size of me, you know I was. I love it. Hey, Don, thank you very much. All the best to you. Sure. I love that. Yeah, so years ago, you know the game of the bat flip game? So I was hosting a charity event at a hotel here in Toronto called the Shangri-La,

which at the time 10 years ago was one of the newest hotels, five-star, and I was the host of a charity event that was being hosted there. And because they planned these charity events months out, sometimes even a year out, they had no idea that it would coincide with that playoff game. And a lot of their big donors were kind of upset that they were going to miss the game. Like, what are we going to do? How are we going to square that circle? These people love the Jays and they, but they want to support this event.

And we found a way during this five-star event to play the Jays game during the charity event. We ended up creating what I was calling the most high-end sports bar in, in the world and people were able to enjoy this event we hit the key points of the event we raised a lot of money and people were able to watch the entirety of the game they missed nothing

and the game was only the event was only extended by about 15 minutes due to that because we cut all the stuff we didn't need and it was the perfect hybrid of charity and sports and watching a sports game was fantastic hey I think we got time here

Sebastian welcome to the show Good morning, Ben. How you doing? I'm doing very well. Happy Monday to you. Hey, what do you think about Coach of the Year for Snyder? I think he's got to be in the mix, right? Who else did what he did?

Well, I just heard that Milwaukee had the best record, so he might get as a coach there, but Snyder's got to be up there, man. He's been good all year. Absolutely. To guardments. Yeah, absolutely. So what do you think? How do you think the city is taking to this potential playoff run?

Well, I love the city of Toronto. I really do. I've got two beautiful kids I've raised. We've been to many over the years. I was 16 when they won it. So it's good for the city. Let's just keep up the good positivity. That's what we need, man.

Yeah, we do, right? And we need something that the entire city can get behind, right? We spend so much time siloing ourselves away from each other and identifying the things that keep us from communing together and bonding together. This is one of those things that we can all, we should all be able to rally around. That's it. Touch them all, Joe. Let's go for another one.

I love it. Hey, thanks, Sebastian. I appreciate it. Touch them all, Joe. I like that point. It is something that everybody can rally around because we're always conflicted with politics and with the way the city's run, with things going on, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's always conflict.

This is something we should be able to rally. Look, the mayor just was standing out there and everyone was wearing their Blue Jays gear. and I was looking at the screen and there was no part of me that was thinking politics when I saw that. No part of me. I didn't see her,

I don't think she was wearing a jersey. I think she was wearing, yeah, no, I think she was wearing the really ugly one, the black one. Oh, God. You know, with the weird cityscape. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, I get it.

The more different, the more uniforms you have, the more merch you can sell. But there have been some bad looks over the years. There have been. That cityscape one, that night design. They, in the Rogers Center, they actually have a store specifically for that.

It's gross. It's terrible. They've grown on me a little bit. Not even a little bit. I'll tell you what did grow on me was going back to this logo. There was a time where I thought, like, enough. You're pointing to the traditional blue with the blue jays across the front. There was a while that I just didn't, I was not a big fan of it.

And again, you know, like we talked about last week, we were talking about logos last week and how the retro logos and the CBC, that old CBC logo only became something people wanted to wear when they got rid of it, right? And I only started missing this when they went to the ugly logos in the like early 2000s. The ones I'm happy about, the baby blues. I love the baby blue that they brought those. The powder blue just is, I think is just fantastic. But I'm not going to get any jersey with a name on the back because you never know how long someone's going to be there. I want to jinx it. Oh, again with the jinxing.

Well, no. I've got a jersey that I'm wearing right now, right? It says Lori, for Brett Laurie, he was a Canadian player. Yeah. I thought he was going to be a superstar and then injuries derailed his career and nothing came with it. So I'm like, oh, should I go get a new jersey? My wife won't let me.

She's like, no, you're going to. You're going to jinx you and your X-Men level powers. And you're going to do it to whoever else. I see. I see. Yeah. It makes sense, right? Have you ever seen a Blue Jay in the wild? I have them in my backyard

They're huge They're badass We have a bird feeder With a camera Do you really? Yeah It was one of those Father's Day gifts

Is it is it And we have Cardinals And Blue Jays Going and fighting over the food Cardinals I've seen a lot of Cardinals Yeah but we have actually Blue Jays now

Cardinals are badass too Yeah But I did I not realize Blue Jays were as big and badass as they are They're aggressive Yeah Very aggressive

Big big fan Hey just not for nothing Here we should point out that the Blue Jays payroll, 218.5 million. Milwaukee Brewer is $114 million. So those are the two best teams in the AL. The Dodgers highest payroll at $265 million in the NL. The New York Mets, oh no, sorry, the New York Mets are the highest at $341 million. And they didn't make the playoffs. So it's not just about how much money you spend is what you do with the money that you spend. All right. Up next, the Scarborough City Council's by election.

stuck up on us. I said this all before. We're talking about why it matters next on the Ben Mulmerney show. you're buying souvenirs with pesos in Puerto Vallarta or sending euros to a loved one in Paris, you know you're getting a fair exchange rate with no extra markups. Be smart. Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise.

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Conditions apply. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrudey show. It's by election day. Listen, if I had the chance to vote once a week on something that was important, I would jump at that chance. I know how special it is to vote. I know how lucky we are to live in a place where the institutions that we depend on us and our public will to be expressed in order to determine whether they go left or they go right. And unfortunately, at the city level, there's not enough buy-in, not nearly enough buy-in when it comes to decisions being made at the municipal level, even less so when it's a by-election. If you are listening and you live in the Scarborough Rouge Park area and there's a by-election today and you're sitting around saying maybe I shouldn't vote, I don't know if I'm going to vote, come on.

It is your duty to have your voice heard. And so we're joined now by Daniel Tate from Integrity T.O. We're going to be talking about this by-election. Thank you so much for being on. Happy Monday. I love your hat. Thank you. I'm like a regular now. Yeah, I know.

Okay. So give us a lay of the land of what is going on in that area. We know that Jennifer Keyes met, no, McKelvie, Jen McElvey, I'm sorry. I actually had lunch with her in her, in that area a while ago before she ran federally. And a lovely woman, she stepped away because she felt that she could help in a different way. She's now federally sitting with the liberals. So tell me about that riding, that riding. Tell me about that ward. Yeah, so it's Ward 25, Scarborough Rouge Park.

It's the most easterly ward in our city. It's literally right at the border of Pickering. And it's a very diverse ward, a very large Chinese population, a large Tamil population, and others. And, yeah, they're going to the polls today because McKelby left her seat. And so whoever wins today will become city counselor until next year's general election. Yeah. Okay. And so from what I've read, there are a lot of people on the ballot. Yeah, there's about, I think, 15 or 15 or 20 people on the ballot. So it's a crowded field. Okay. What do people need to know about – last time you were here,

here we were talking about questions people should be asking for anybody looking for their vote municipally. What are important to the people in that riding? I don't you say riding. Ward. Well, I think traffic management, transportation planning is a huge issue. People in Scarborough often have a very tough time getting around. They have, you know, the transit options aren't great for them.

And we also see in that ward in particular, there's a lot of bus only red lanes, which is squeezing drivers. People have reported to me just on social media that the drive on morning side, for example, is a lot longer for drivers. Yeah. Because by virtue of these red bus only lanes. So that's a big issue. Taxes, of course, is another big issue. You know, taxpayers are paying more and more and more. And even in places like Scarborough, they don't feel like they're getting the value for their tax dollar. Can I tell you, like right outside this building, they put in one of those red bike bus lanes and it's fine you can paint paint the ground whatever color you want but if you're going to do that i would very much like it if it came with i don't know some sort of informational

material so i could understand what this change is that you've now brought to the roadway it never happens ever they do that and they stop short of ever informing me okay what am i allowed to do what if i'm on the left of that and i want to get to the right am i allowed going across i don't know, they make these changes and do nothing to inform the public about the changes. That's right. And the other problem is a lot of people are observing these red bus lanes and they're empty for long stretches of time, 10, 15 minutes, you don't see a bus go by. So if you're a driver or anybody else for that matter, you're trying to reconcile, why can I not drive in this lane and I'm only seeing a bus every like 10 to 50 minutes?

Now, if they're going to increase the efficiency of buses and buses are going to be rapid like every two, three minutes, fine. There's an argument there. people aren't seeing that. No, people aren't seeing that. And again, not aware of what my role, responsibility, and rights are in that moment. And it happens all the time. You know, you and I have talked about it before that they put the countdown clocks in for people at major intersections. And they didn't inform pedestrians that when that hand starts flashing, it means you no longer have access. You don't know how I have priority, which means if you're not already walking on the street, drivers have priority to be able to take rights and lefts.

And instead, they think I can walk until I see a zero. And what does that do? That causes congestion. Had they spent, who knows how much money on giving people that information, traffic would be flowing a heck of a lot easier today in this city. Yeah, there's just, there's so much inefficiency in this city with, with regards to transportation. I think the, uh, transportation services division at city hall, another audit, not just a financial audit, but like a philosophy, educational audit. What are they doing? People who follow you on social media saw that you were at a Chris Moyes informational meeting. Town Hall. Tell me what that was about. Yeah, so we showed up at the town hall because anybody who lives in Toronto Center, Ward 13, is not happy with the current state of affairs.

We're not happy with our city counselor, Mr. Moise, the right honorable. Counselor, Mr. Moise. And so I showed up with a lot of other constituents, and we asked him the hard questions. One of the main issues was harm reduction. He's one of the biggest vocal advocates and champions of this harm reduction doctrine. And a lot of people were questioning him on that. And then the police were there as well. And, of course, crime and public safety were top of mind. Yeah, he definitely was more diplomatic with you in that moment than he was.

Yeah, he didn't resort to insults. No, he didn't call you. a racist, and he didn't say he doesn't know you and doesn't want to know you. Maybe he's learning. Yeah, well, maybe he knows that those clips stick around. But he did say that he follows the science. Has anybody ever asked him what science he's following? Yeah, like, first off, that's a cop out, number one.

We've heard that before. Follow the science. Well, elaborate on the science. Give us the numbers. Show us the studies, the journals. He failed to do that as well. So, you know, just saying follow the science, we're not going to buy that. No, he, well, I think it's incumbent upon somebody who's seeking your office.

If they say I follow the science, then they need to tell you what science they're following. Because that's a buzzword with no meaning behind it. Yeah, people are starting to really question this harm reduction dogma because you just leave your house and take a look outside. How can you really believe that handing out more needles and meth pipes is somehow reducing harm or improving public safety? and community well-being. Like, it's obviously not. Well, you know, and I think last time you were here, we spoke before the break that, you know,

you and I have our perspectives. We don't necessarily embody the perspective of everyone in this city, nor should we. However, you know, I think groups like Integrity TO can in good faith contribute, I think, to the next election, you know, the larger election where you guys could put together and I would invite other groups

to do their very, version of this, put together a list of like three, four, five questions that every citizen should ask of anybody running for office municipally. And then whatever answers they give, very tough questions, very specific questions, should then inform whether or not that person votes for them. And that way it's free for anybody to decide. It depends. Those answers could be different for every person and they could sway them in one way or another. But I think it's incumbent about on groups like yourselves to help inform people that way. Empower people with the right questions ask.

When someone knocks on their door, they say, here are the five questions I have for you, answer them all, or you don't get my vote. That's exactly right. That's spot on. And that's something we want to do. And that's something that the electorate needs. People need to wake up, be more informed,

be engaged citizens, and know where all the candidates stand. And in fact, I'll take it a step further. I think hopefully if all things go well next fall, we can even host debates. Yeah. We can have Integrity, T.O. hosted debates in every ward. Interesting. That's a, that'd be cool. Yeah, that would be, yeah, that'd be very, very interesting.

Although I suspect there are a number of people running who would not, who would not feel they would be given a fair shake. What do you say to those people? We'll give a fair shake. We'll ask the, you know, general questions, answer however you feel. Yeah. You know. Why do you think we don't have the buy-in municipally in terms of voters showing up at the polls

that we should? Why do you and I care about this more than most people? Well, I think maybe previously things were stable, things were generally safe and clean, life was decent enough that people could kind of keep their heads in the sand. Yeah. But we're not in that position anymore. We're in a position where even people who were not typically active or outspoken with regards to politics are leaving their house. They're like, wow, this city is in an utter state of disrepair. We're going to have to get more active. Daniel Tate from Integrity, T.O. As always, we appreciate your time, man. Thank you, Ben. All right. Take care. Culinary Quest.

It tastes like fear, anxiety, all at the same time, but delicious. Only one will be crowned. It's tough. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Two minutes! Yeah! Top Chef Canada. New season.

October 14th on Flavor Network. Stream on Stack TV.