The Ben Mulroney Show - The Liberals love that they get to campaign against Donald Trump,

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

Guests and Topics: -The Liberals love that they get to campaign against Donald Trump with Guest: Michael Barrett, Conservative MP  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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And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. Want to thank you for listening to us on all podcast platforms, wherever you find us on Apple, on Amazon, or on Spotify podcast platforms, wherever you find us, on Apple, on Amazon, or on Spotify, we say thank you. And of course, if you're listening on the Chorus Radio Network or on the iHerat Radio app, thank you very much. I've got some personal news that I want

to start this segment with. I have recently joined as an ambassador for B'nai B'rith Canada. And B'nai B'rith Canada is celebrating its 150th anniversary. It is the oldest organization in the country promoting human rights. And I am very pleased to help them in this 150th year on all manner of hosting events and highlighting the important work that they do. Just a few days ago, they brought back their Benet-Breath media awards,

and I emceed that ceremony where we highlighted the great work that is being done by a number of Toronto journalists. And so I'm really hoping that through this position, I can help raise awareness, mobilize Canadians, and help B'nai B'rith champion initiatives that drive real change. They welcome me to the family then, and I say to them, thank you so much.

I really look forward to working with you in the future. Meanwhile, there are a few polls out there that are suggesting that for the first time in nearly two years, the liberals are beating the conservatives in national voting intention. According to Ipsos, the liberals are sitting at 38 percent and the progressive conservatives are sitting at 36 percent. And some pundits, I think, have been chomping at the bit, just waiting for numbers like this to say, ah, their vote has collapsed. It's the greatest political electoral collapse

in modern Canadian politics. I mean, it's a number. It's a number and it sounds official, but I wouldn't put too much credence in this. We've had Anthony Kosh on the show who reminded people that when John Turner took over from a flailing, long in the tooth liberal government led by

Pierre Elliott Trudeau, he experienced a massive bump in the polls. And it took an election campaign, specifically one debate in particular, for the Tory leader to upend that dynamic and win the largest majority in Canadian political history. Hold on, I cannot remember who that was. Oh, Brian Mulrooney, there we go.

Sorry, my bad. Yeah, so the elections matter. Election campaigns matter. And right now, this is a performative leadership debate that's happening on the liberal side. They're making it as easy and as lovey-dovey and nobody, nobody, I mean, nobody is actually attacking the front runner.

Nobody is. I mean, you'll remember in the French debate when Mark Carney clearly misspoke because his French is what most liberals should say, unacceptably poor, but he misspoke and said that he agreed with Hamas. Anybody else would have taken issue with that. Anybody else would have, if not capitalized because of the misspeak, capitalized because of the poor French. Nobody did that, least of all, Christia Freeland. She helped him.

She helped him get back on track. That's not how you run a leadership race. You try to win. And nobody is trying to win except for Mark Carney. And so of course, they're gonna be buoyed by the lovey-dovey love-in that is this performative, it's a coronation. And the media is not challenging him either.

The media, well, we'll see later on today if he does get challenged because yesterday during the debate he pointed out, he made a statement about Brookfield, the company that he chaired, claiming that they've moved their offices and he had nothing to do with that decision. Well, there's now proof that he's gonna say he misspoke. Others will say he lied, he outright lied. And the person who is breaking that story

is gonna be joining us in the next segment, Michael Barrett, conservative MP, who said that Carney was chair of Brookfield's board when they unanimously voted to move their headquarters out of Canada to New York City. And he's got the proof. He's got the receipts. So we're going to be joined by Michael in the next segment. Let's move on to the tariffs. Oh, I mean, it's, it is such a shell game with Donald Trump. You never know what he's coming for, how he's going to come for you, or the reason he's going to be coming for you. And what he says on one day is could be meaningless the next.

The White House yesterday clarified that when Trump, you remember earlier this week, Trump said, no, the tariffs are going ahead as scheduled because with very, very bad deals, very bad deals, whoever signed those deals, as an idiot, worst deals ever, I don't fault the Canadians for signing those deals, I fault the guy who signed the deals in the United States.

Well, he was the guy who signed the deals. But now the White House is clarifying that he's not necessarily referring to those 25% tariffs that are, they are a Canada killer, right? They are like, they're that asteroid that could hit earth. That's how bad those tariffs could be. No, they are talking, the White House clarified, almost walked back those statements where he said

that we're going ahead with those. He's talking about reciprocal tariffs. That if you guys, if you as a country have tariffs in place that protect your industry over the potential of us coming in and competing, then we're talking about those reciprocal tariffs. So think the dairy industry and supply management. If we've got those in place here,

he's going to hit back with reciprocal tariffs. That's what he's talking about. I think the dairy industry and supply management, if we've got those in place here, he's gonna hit back with reciprocal tariffs. That's what he's talking about. Now, do we believe that that's genuinely what Donald Trump was thinking? I have no idea. Anybody who gets in front of a microphone and tells you what Donald Trump is thinking

or what his motivation is, or what his end game ever is, is lying to you. The man's, I can't even imagine, I would love to see an artist rendering what they think goes on in Donald Trump's mind. Because I believe he's unique in the political world, where he doesn't know what he's gonna say

from moment to moment, which means he has no long-term plans. That's not necessarily a good or bad thing, it's not a judgment call on my part. It's just my assessment. And yeah, so if the White House is to be believed, and listen, if I'm a betting man, I'm gonna bet on his staff telling us a more honest version of what we can expect

than Donald Trump for the reasons I just mentioned. They're the ones who have to plan. They're the ones who have to plan. They're the ones who have to plan for the consequences of the words that he says and the actions that he takes. They're the ones who have to explain them later on. So I think that if they say, no, no, we're not talking about the full blown 25% tariffs. We're talking about reciprocal tariffs

on goods that already exist, on industries that you're already trying to protect, which could be a good thing. But again, who knows? Who knows? Donald Trump went on the offensive again with his version of a reality that isn't quite real, talking about why he wants to revive the Keystone XL pipeline he did that again yesterday but then he went off on our country so it's true thank you Brian it's true a lot of people in Canada liking becoming our beautiful cherished 50 first state they'll have to pay much lower taxes they'll have the ultimate security you know they don't

pay very much for security right now because they rely on us, which is really unfair to us. They make cars that we could make and they send it back into the United States. They make a lot of things, including the sending of oil and everything. We don't need their oil. We don't need their lumber. Yeah, you said that before, sir. You said that before and something tells me that when you get those reports back from your cabinet, you know, when the Department of the Interior tells you that, yeah, you know, we could probably, we probably have all the lumber that we need here, but in order for us to get the businesses up and running, that's going to take us 10 years. And yeah, we probably have enough gas and oil, but you would have to increase fracking by 150% today

in order to get that done. I mean, I'm making these numbers up, but there's, I get the goal of wanting to be energy self-sufficient, but you're only not energy self-sufficient if you don't have a good relationship with us. Right? If you have a positive relationship with Canada, then you can view us as part of your ecosystem.

It's only if you view us as an enemy do you not have energy self-sufficiency. So anyway, that's all I have to say about that. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. And ever since I took on this job and ever since Donald Trump threatened to kill our economy, tank our economy with 25% tariffs, I have sat in front of this microphone, screaming till I'm blue in the face, confused,

wondering what was taken so long from the liberals? What was the justification for dragging us into this protracted liberal leadership race, not giving Canadians what they so wanted and so deserved and what we needed as a country, which was a national election to give any party, any party a mandate to negotiate from a position of authority and strength.

What was taking so long? And then while the parliament was prorogued, it seemed like they were dragging their feet. The Ontario government's going down, the Alberta government's going down, the BC government's going down, talking to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Where was our prime minister?

Why was any of that happening? And I didn't know what to make of it until I saw the liberal leadership debate. This is exactly where they want us to be. They want us to be just in this sweet spot where they're the ones who can rescue us. That's my theory I'm operating under. And so to give us his take on that and many other things is conservative MP Michael Barrett. Michael, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me on, Ben. What do you think of my theory? This is exactly what they wanted. Only the liberals can come rescue us at this point.

It's clear that they've been focused on their internal party politics instead of putting Canada first. And the motives for that are anybody's guess. But think about Michael, Michael, think about, we're not talking about the carbon. They look how quickly they were able to pivot away from the carbon tax, their signature issue, the economy killing carbon tax.

It hasn't done anything to save the planet. They've they've all jettisoned that. Oh, that doesn't matter anymore. Now we're all focused on Donald Trump. And look how much the look how much and they're not getting a whole lot of pushback pushback for that. This is this is what the liberals have been doing for the last nine years pitting people against each other so that you forget that you're hungry or that you're you're out of

work or forget that you can't afford to put gas in your car or to heat your home. And so they're always looking for a distraction because they've created economic misery in Canada. And what they should have been doing, as you said, is squarely focusing on the issue that's in front of Canada. And we've said, of course, we've wanted an election, calling for a carbon tax election for some time, but the House of Commons should be open so that we can put forward measures past a response plan that actually puts Canada first. Meanwhile, so that's what most Canadians want. What the Liberal Party wants is a smooth path for Mark Carney to assume the role of Liberal leader and ultimately our Prime Minister. That's what

they want. And he didn't have a particularly good French debate because his French was so poor. A lot of people have glossed over that. And now we find ourselves after the English language debate. How do you think he did yesterday? Well, the the post debate performance is something that that we should we should talk about and what his responses were to to reporters. But I mean, look, Marconi said that Canada's economy is weak and that it's been weakened over the last five years.

But I have some big news for for your listeners. Yes, please. Mark. Mark Carney's been an economic adviser to to Justin Trudeau for the past five years. Canada's economy is weak. He weakened it. I thought that the biggest bombshell or the thing that I was going to take a great issue with the most was when he said, Pierre Poliev worships Donald Trump. I was like, you don't have any facts to back that up. That's a complete lie, a complete misrepresentation. Turns out wasn't the biggest lie of the night.

No, and, and it, but the biggest lie of the night reveals who the biggest Trump supporter is. And that's Mark Carney. Mark Carney got up in front of the microphones after the debate and he said that when brookfield asset management the company that he was chairman of when they moved they decided to move their headquarters uh... from canada to donald trump's hometown of new york city that he wasn't the chair anymore well

uh... he resigned his chair january fifteenth the dis they announced the move on October 31st. And Mark Carney, I released a letter this morning that's signed by Mark Carney dated December the 1st, days after Donald Trump said that he would impose tariffs on Canadians and Canadian companies, unjustified tariffs. Mark Carney said, our board decided unanimously to move our headquarters to New York City. And he was asking for all shareholders to support their unanimous decision to move the Canadian headquarters to Donald Trump's hometown.

Okay, so yeah, so this is a terrible look for somebody who says he's gonna stand up for Canada. Wouldn't it be great if the House of Commons were sitting in the Liberal Party could take these questions? Well, this is exactly it. It's all by design. and the Liberal Party could take these questions? Well, this is exactly it. It's all by design and they're spinning their lies.

And we have the proof that the biggest supporter of Donald Trump was the guy who said that he's going to be the one to stand up to him. Donald Trump wasn't even the president yet, Ben. And here we have Mark Carney saying, oh, yes, sir, Mr. President. You know why? Because it's going to pad his pockets and it's going to pad the pockets of his Bay Street and now his Wall Street friends.

Well, we know that this is gonna take off on Twitter. I wonder, I have watched the mainstream media in this country give Mark Carney a fairly easy path here. Not a lot of pushback when he says X, Y and Z. And there are not a lot of levers we can pull in terms of accountability. He's not in a position of power. And so I'm not quite sure what people can do except for what you've done, but I'll be very curious to watch the next phase of this. Does this turn into the scandal it should?

Will he be held accountable? And whatever he answers, will that be enough for people? Well, we've been saying he needs to disclose his financial interests, his potential conflicts of interest, and that's more important now than ever because he's demonstrated himself to be a liar, which is a strong thing to say, but it's proven now. And this is so important before he assumes the role

of prime minister if he wins this liberal leadership contest. Well, yeah, and you know, any justification that he would give in this moment is not on brand for him. If he says he misremembered, no, no, no, no, you're a details guy. You're the guy who puts the deals together. You don't forget things. You can't be, you're not Justin Trudeau who you'll forgive me if I don't think about monetary policy guy. You are the guy who thinks about those things. You can't be, you're not Justin Trudeau who you'll forgive me if I don't think about monetary policy guy. You are the guy who thinks about those things. So

any excuse he gives just won't be on brand with the person Mark Carney is trying to sell to Canadians. Well that's right. He said last night that he was a hands-on guy and so he's into the details. He knew exactly what he was doing and he was trying to avoid responsibility, accountability. He's trying to have his cake and eat it too. He's looking to get himself and his friends in a position where they can get richer without having to be accountable to Canadians who he's asking to support him as he becomes, you know, as he moves forward in this liberal leadership race and potentially could become the prime minister without facing the, you know know a general election. Let's go back to what he said when he said that Pierre

Poliev worships Donald Trump. What did you think when you said that? I took offense to that because I felt I'm smart enough to hear the speeches, hear about the policies and listen to Pierre Poliev and based on my assessment that that's the farthest thing from the truth. But what do you hear as somebody who's walking shoulder to shoulder with Pierre Poliev going into an election campaign ultimately? It's dishonest and it's bad faith. It's dirty politics. When we know that Pierre Poliev has said that, of course, Canada is a proud, sovereign country, will never be the 51st state, country will never be the 51st state has put forward a plan that would peer polyph has put forward a plan that would strengthen Canada in the in the face of

these unjustified and unjust threats from from Donald Trump and and has you know is a strong leader for Canada and you juxtapose that against what we know about Mark Carney and you know it's it's anyone who thought that Mark Carney was, you know, the new hope and that it was a different kind of politics. It's, it's the exact same thing that we've seen with the liberals for the last nine years. This guy really is just like Justin Trump. And, you know, I've got to say, just as a point of interest, you know, any criticism of Pierre that he's, he's all about slogans. I don't think I've ever seen a leader of the opposition who's not even in an election campaign put as many policy initiatives

in the window at this point prior to election than Pierre has. Yeah, and it's funny, Ben, because in spite of all of the economic vandalism from the Liberals over the last nine years, the policies that Pierre puts forward, the Liberals are now stealing them. He's put forward detailed plans, whether it's on taking the tax off new homes, the Liberals have stolen that idea. The same thing is true for eliminating the carbon tax or so many other things, tying funding for cities like for transit to the number of homes they're getting built. The liberals are stealing these ideas. So they can't say he's not putting forward policies, while at the same time stealing the very policies

that are quite popular with Canadians that Pierre Pauli is putting forward. Michael Barrett, conservative MP, thank you so much for joining us. This was your first time on the Ben Mulroney Show. Here's hoping it's not the last. Hey, thanks for having me on. This is Carry the Fire. I'm your host, Lisa LaFlamme.

Carry the Fire, a podcast by the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation featuring inspiring personal stories about what happens when world-leading doctors, nurses, researchers and their patients come together to ignite breakthroughs. Carry the Fire launches Monday January 27th wherever you get your podcasts.