The Ben Mulroney Show - The sexiest man alive, Toronto Transit faux pas and more taxes? MORE???

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

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Tuesday, November 4th. I am Ben Mulroney, host of the Ben Mulroney show. Of course, I'm joined each and every day by by Intrepid producer Mike Adrolet. Good morning, Mike. Intrepid. Every day I'll take that. And the man who does all the dials and switches and tubes over there?

I don't know. I'm not quite sure what you're doing. Is Dave Spargal. He's our technical producer welcome, my friend. I can see the Jay's hat has been removed and the Buffalo Sabers hat is now on. Yeah, it's just the Sabers hat was on top. Okay. And I was in a rush that I was like, okay, whatever. I gotcha.

But Jay's hat should return tomorrow. Okay. When was the last time tubes were used in radio stations and TV stations? I don't know. This is like Yeah. 90s? I don't know. I was just imagining. I was imagining tubes. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, I think something's wrong with your mic there.

Jolet. Yeah, so fix that because we're about to have a conversation about something of the utmost importance. And that is that People Magazine has named its sexiest man of the year. And the man who was named is Jeremy Bailey. He's a good-looking guy. I can say that. He's a good-looking guy. I saw him. First time I really saw this guy was in Jurassic World this summer. And he played a good doctor. And I thought to myself, he was very bookish and very nervous all the time. And I was like, yeah, I mean, like he's, he's good looking in an unhealthy way. And there's no way that guy that good looking is that bookish. But he's a good actor. He's one of those names that you hear and you go, okay, who is he? Like, you mentioned that to me this morning.

Yeah. Well, he's on Bridgerton, which is apparently a thing. And it's not my, my cup of tea. But people seem to like it. And he's apparently the first openly gay man to be given the title. Let's actually listen to Let's actually listen to because this was announced on the Tonight Show So let's listen to a little bit of that People's sexiest man alive

Jonathan Bailey In 2025 you just think I'm sort of thrilled that People magazine Have invited someone in to bestow this honor on someone who can really cherish the value of a sexy man Yes Yeah there you go

Good job Listen I want to live in a world where we can have fun I really do. I would just like for somebody to explain the rules to me. Because I'm not quite sure. I remember as a kid, the thing that I liked the most, the women have their people sexiest man alive. I had my swimsuit issue, Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

I loved the swimsuit. It was my favorite time a year. The first time I saw Elle McPherson at a bathing suit, that was a special feeling. A special feeling. And you remember. It was a special feeling. But you remember also that when they had all, like all the supermodels,

They had Kathy Ireland. She was on the cover one year. But they were all in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, uh, the, uh, the magazine. And you had, um, the one who was in the, uh, the Guns and Roses video. And, uh, Carol Alt was in it. Like, they had everybody. And it was, uh, it was Christmas. It was the Super Bowl.

It was, it was fireworks, uh, and, and, um, and happiness and everything a teenage boy wanted. And then we're told, no, we can't have that. anymore. And so I just want to know what the rules are. And not for nothing, when I was at another show, I was struck by how some of the women I worked with, and let's be honest, I worked with almost exclusively women, the comments that they would make and get away with as it related to the objectification of men just casually in passing versus, like, I would have been either hauled into HR or I would have been viewed as a sex pest for saying, similar things about the women's stars that we talked about.

And one person in particular had an unhealthy obsession with the Korean boy band, BTS. And she was older than me. I think she was about 50 at the time. If I had had at 50 said things that I heard her say about a girl band in their 20s, I mean, I would have been put on a registry And so I just want to know what the rules are Just let me know what the rules are

So we can all have fun The rules are fluid Just like everything in these days is fluid By the way, I think I said Jeremy Bailey It's Jonathan Bailey, it's Jonathan Bailey That's how little I know about this guy But anyway, no, I'm happy And he's like he's a good looking guy

And we should be able to look at things That we think are attractive Like we like pretty buildings And we like sunsets and we like So why can't we see what we want to see? in terms of the physical appearance of other people. Again, just tell me what the rules are. Now, that being said, in my mind,

the guy who is the guy, as far as like the sexiest man alive, it was George Clooney. And I was on the Oscar red carpet once, where he was nominated for multiple awards, I think it was for good night and good luck. So he was nominated as director, as producer, he got all sorts of nominations that night.

He had also been awarded second. man alive for the second time. And so he walks on to the red carpet. And he's got a beautiful woman on his arm. This is before he, this is before he locked it down and became a husband and a father. And he was the eternal bachelor, living out every, every young man's dream of just having another beautiful woman on his arm at every one of these award shows. He seemed like he was really living it up. And I asked him, when he came to stop, I said, What do you prefer multiple Oscar nominations or multiple runs as people's sexiest man alive? And he smirked and he said, look, when you get nominated for Oscars,

all of a sudden you have a lot more control over your career. You can work when you want and you can work with whom you want. You don't have to just do the jobs because they're the ones that are offered. You can create those opportunities for yourself. so it's about control and it's about determining the path of your career that every actor wants

and then he pauses he says but sexiest man alive that'll get you laid oh god yeah and then he walked off and it was just that George Costanza moment you leave on a high point I have to believe he's right

because he knew of which he spoke and so I'm I subscribe to that I think that's pretty much a given. Yeah. It's like pretty much the most obvious thing in the world. Yeah, who else was on the sexiest?

They do it other days. Last year was John Krasinski. Yep. Yeah. And they're saying that the person who gets it, it's not just based on looks. I mean, because it's really subjective. Well, there's also, yeah, there's the sexiest man alive that he's at the pinnacle. And then they have all these like subsets, I think, from what I understand.

But other people. Yeah, other people are like sexiest new dad in sports. I mean, that's a niche. There's a new dad in sports. That's Christian McCaffrey. He plays for the San Francisco 49er running back, yeah. And then you got the sexiest cat dad. That's a great category.

That's hilarious. Well, that's Dave Franco. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. It's not Dave Spars Gallagall. You have a cat. I was runner-up. But, I mean, you should have, like, you know, sexiest dad bod. Come on, you should have some of those.

You know what? that's not a bad one. I don't see why they wouldn't. I mean, if dad bod, that's a thing, right? Like, there are women who are attracted to the dad bought, and that's great. And they should maybe have one of those guys. But like, wouldn't Leo DiCaprio win that every year?

Yeah. So, kind of like, yeah, maybe not. Yeah, but yet he somehow is always dating somebody 25 years or younger on, and he's always on a yacht. He's always, yeah, for such a green, for such a green warrior, He's always on private yachts and jails.

One rule for the, one rule for me. Anyway, we've got lots of serious stuff to get to in this show, which is why we kind of wanted to start out. We want to back into it with some fun. But like I said, I want us to live in a world where we can have and enjoy pretty things. Whatever pretty means to you. Just explain the rules to me

because I do not want to run afoul of them. Despite how loud and obnoxious I can be on this show, I really don't like offending people. Yeah. And I really hate that everything is based on, just based on looks. I mean, there's different categories and people have different. Sure, but you know what, but we, there used to be a time where, you know, stating that you liked someone for, who looked what you would say is prototypically pretty, that never was a problem. It seems that in certain circumstances, it's a problem.

I just, like I said, I want. There are certain people who are pretty on the outside, terrible on the inside. Oh, God, yeah, but sometimes, sometimes that's enough. Yeah. All right. Don't go anywhere because up next, what the TTC is saying now about the World Series fiasco. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show, and we're talking about the added insult to the injury of losing game seven

when so many people in the downtown core were trying to get to all points beyond said core by using the services that they pay for with their taxes, specifically TTC and Metro Links. And the game went late, and a lot of people, tens of thousands of people, were turned to, maybe it wasn't tens of thousands. I don't know what the number was, but it was a lot of taxpayers and people

who had spent money downtown, who just wanted to get home, and they were told, sorry, trains are gone. It's done for the night. We had countless people calling in to say that they had to take Uber, And there were no Uber's, they have to walk. And there are people, we have video of angry Jay's fans who show up at the station before 1am.

And some poor Schmoe who works at the TTC says, sorry, the last train is, we're done. The last train was at 1.30. It's like, it's not 1 o'clock yet. And so trying to figure out what happened was, is so it doesn't happen again, it's priority number one. It makes people even more frustrated when the person in charge looks at that scenario, hears those complaints, should feel the anger of the taxpayers to whom he is responsible, and says, nothing to see here. We did everything right.

And that was the initial reaction from TTC chair, Jamal Myers. Let's listen to his initial reaction. No one was left stranded by the TTC. I can't comment on the service provided by other transit agencies, but no one, to my knowledge, was left stranded by the TTC. We ran our service the way we had planned and the service went well. Okay, so this is the tip of the sword. This is where the buck is supposed to stop.

I don't work at the TTC. That's not my job. My job is not to field complaints. My job is not to worry about the people, the customers of the TTC. And yet, that information came to me willingly just by virtue of social media and being an empathetic human being. Okay. So that's what you hear from the boss.

Okay. And then, and then the backtracking starts, doesn't it? Because you'll remember the tweet that I referred to as if it were a person, I would want to punch it in the face. There's the rhyming tweet that said something like, hey, don't forget, the game's running late, but transit won't wait. That's something you want to punch. You stand by that punching thing?

Yeah, of course I do. I like that imagery. I've been told I have a punchable face. So I get, and I get it. I do have a punchable face. People send us messages like that, yeah. I used to make jokes when I would give speeches that I used to have. I was that I had, I won most punchable face five years in a row in Canada.

But then Trump got elected and his sons took over the top of the list. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Look at Donnie. And don't tell me. It's just not a, it's not, it's a punchable face.

Okay, so that's the tweet. And at that point, that's when board chair, Jamal Myers, called it an erroneous tweet that caused confusion. And then said no one was stranded, extra trains, and overnight buses did run until 2 a.m. Now, MetroLinks did have a similar problem, and they were under fire too. But apparently they took accountability.

They said it was a communications issue and an apologized. And then the head of the T. Mandeep Lali, he did apologize, and we've got some audio of that. I hear the frustration in terms of coming through for customers. And for anyone that was delayed, yes, I apologize, I'm accountable. I take that on board. No skirt around the issues there. If there's issues with TTCs in terms of communication, I take it on board.

I will address it and make sure it doesn't occur again. Okay, so that's something that people would want to hear. Let's go back to the TTC chair, Jamal Myers. of this has happened. The MetroLinks has apologized. Lolly has apologized. And let's now go back to the guy who said we did everything right. He was on the Alex Pearson show yesterday. Let's see if he had a change of heart. We apologize for the miscommunications and the inaccurate information. That was 100% on the TTC and we've owned it. And we are currently investigating to figure out exactly how that happened. But again, part of my motion is looking at making sure that

this type of miscommunication never happens again because, as you said, a lot of things could have gone wrong just based on the crowd size. Okay, what would happen? What changed? And you, miscommunication, can we also investigate how you, the day after this cascading failure, you had no idea, like you were able to go in front of a camera and say no one was stranded to my knowledge? If you didn't have the knowledge of it,

then I humbly suggest you're not the right person for the job. Like I said, it's not my job. It's not my producer's job. It's not anybody's job here to do that. And yet we were fully apprised of the situation. Explain to me how this, why weren't you awoken in the middle of the night? Isn't this your job? Why wasn't someone calling you saying,

we have a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed? Not only did you not address it, You pretended it didn't happen. And I don't think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill here. This is a real issue. And if you're the head of the TTC chair and you, the day after, can look with a straight face into a camera and say, there was no problem.

I sincerely think you may want to find something else to do because I don't think you're well suited for the job that you have. That's all I'll say about that. Let's turn to some positive news, positive news for one person, not for Mike Droulet. My producer was convinced that he was going to be the winner of the Blue Jays 50-50, which, if I'm not mistaken, given how much it grew, was the biggest single prize in, I don't know if it's Canadian sports history

or North American sports history? I think it's North American 50-50 draw history. Okay, so $25 million, right? That's what the winner was slated to take home. And the way it was announced is the person was going to get a phone call from Joe Carter himself. The legendary Blue Jay. The legendary. I don't have to say that.

But you kind of do. No, if I do, then you don't know anything about a Blue Jays 50-50. And you see, my disappointment comes from this. Do you know how many people I told I was going to be expecting the call from Joe Carter? I know you were manifesting. You were manifesting. And then it doesn't happen. Now I show, I come up and I'm like, you don't believe anything I'm going to say.

I tried to manifest. Yeah. Well, it did happen for. a gentleman in Oshua. And his name is Eric, not Eric, Eric, Eric, A-R-I-C. And he won the biggest, the biggest 50-50 in history, $25 million, $10,057 bucks. That's better than a lot of max on some weeks.

Well, that's just phenomenal. That's phenomenal. And that's, you know, this one guy, I think he's okay with how the entire, Even if, even if he was bawling his eyes out after the loss, even if he was stranded downtown, he's feeling pretty good today. But also, Juno else is feeling good, the Jay's Care Foundation. Yes. Because they get the $25 million as well, and they do a lot of good in the community. So that's fantastic.

So he's a millionaire. There could be another millionaire that we'll be talking about soon. and that's this woman who was arrested for run around like slashing people's tires or something with a knife. And there's this video of a police cruiser that showed up to assist the cops who were in the process of tasing her. She was on the ground and the car, the cruiser, ran over her. Now, the story I had originally heard was it ran over her legs. According to Toronto Police Association, they are aware that this happened, that she was being, she was armed with knives causing damage to nearby vehicles. She was tased. A struggle ensued.

They say, thankfully, our members were not seriously injured. The woman did not sustain any injuries from the police vehicle and was taken to hospital for taser deployment. She was charged with weapons, charged with weapons dangerous and four counts of mischief under $5,000. A lawyer out there may very well decide that she has owed money for the harm or fear that that's not supposed to happen. If you watch the video, originally the vehicle was not put in park and just rolled towards her. But then a cop got in the car to start it and it rolled even more. No, I completely, listen, it's not supposed to happen. Will this lead to a lawsuit?

We'll have to see. And if that happens and the police have to pay out a lawsuit, well, that's going to result in higher insurance charges. which means we as the taxpayer on the hook for that. After the break, I'm going to tell you where Olivia Chow is going to try to find that money, and you're not going to like it. Let's face it, finding your next favorite podcast can be tough, but that's about to change. Curious cast discovery is the destination for award-winning, podcasts from true crime and history like crime beat, documentaries like Stop, Rewind, The Lost

Boy, music with Uncharted, and even the paranormal, like Dead Man's Curse, all 100% ad-free for less than the price of a coffee. Curious cast discovery. Available now on Apple Podcasts for just $4 a month. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show, and if you listen to the show yesterday, then you heard me complaining that this city keeps giving. itself mulligans. Every time it screws up, oh, it'll never happen again. And what it is, it's a series of mulligans on different files, never forgetting that it's the same city screwing up. We pay for pools. The pools weren't open because it was too hot. We pay for snow removal. The snow wasn't removed because there was too much snow. We pay for the TTC. TTC wasn't

there when people needed it yesterday. In each case, we're going to learn from it. Okay, how about you learn once so it never happens again? So there's a lot of money being spent and we're not getting what we expect back for it. So when I hear that there is a quiet campaign to float a municipal sales tax by Olivia Chow, I get, it goes from frustration to anger. Let's see if we can temper that anger with a little knowledge and a little information. And somebody who knows far more about the line items of a budget than I is our next guest, Anthony Fury.

He's a columnist, activist. He ran for mayor. He knows this city and he knows what's going on. Anthony, welcome. Hey, Ben, bad news. There's no tempering the anger. I think they'll just be more at the end of this segment. Okay. So I put the lay on the land out. So give us the lay line. Let's assume that our listeners are learning about this for the first time. So tell us what we need to know. So the municipal sales tax is a bad idea that just won't go away. It's an idea that's been

floated here and there over the years and Olivia Chow has brought it back with a vengeance. So I campaigned against it in the last election. It wasn't one of the main issues because it wasn't close to coming into effect. But it periodically showed up in staff reports when they say, how can we get new revenue? And bureaucrats rarely say, well, we can actually go back and we can revise the budget and find savings. They say, oh, we can take more from the people. So this tax has been floated, a municipal sales tax, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a third level of tax.

We have provincial and federal sales taxes, which have been amalgamated in the HST, but it's still two taxes. And then we would have a third, a municipal sales tax that applies to, depending on how they figure out the details, probably like the other taxes, on all goods and services done within the city of Toronto. Now, Olivia Chow talked about doing it when she first got into office. There was pushback, and also the province declined to say whether or not they would give her the power to bring it in, because it's a provincially allowed thing under the municipalities act. Now that is coming back during the budget. consultation process that's going on right now.

So the Toronto budget will come out in a few months and they're doing consultations right now where they could choose to do many things during the consultations, including talking people about, you know, what are your priorities because we're going to make some tough choices. But instead of doing that, they are pushing for the municipal sales tax in these consultations and surveys. And the way you described it is there are there, you, you're saying that they're asking leading questions because they want people to, they essentially,

want to turn this around on on the taxpayer and say you know what we asked you questions and you told us you wanted this so we're going to go ahead and try to get this for you and that's so yeah go ahead there's an online survey right now it's just wrapped up but it was through the month of october where they ask people their thoughts on the budget and to your point all the questions are very leading municipal sales tax is not anything anybody's talking about or anybody wants and yet there are questions multiple choice questions in here which float the municipal sales tax, but don't even give you an option to say, no, I don't want this darn thing.

Like, I had to go into the other box and basically put, you know, over my head body, absolutely not. Whereas what the questions say are things like, well, which level of government should be helping us bring in the municipal sales tax, the provincial or federal, which is a weird question because only the provincial can do it. But it still puts you in this psychological position where you're like, oh, okay, I guess what's the best way to bring in this tax? It's okay.

Hey, you're going to get punched. Do you want to get punched in the face or in the groin? No, exactly. And there are not questions. There could be a question that says, would you rather a line-by-line budget review or a municipal sales tax come in? Let's assume we can generate, you know, $250 million from either of those two things.

Yeah. And by the way, that's a figure that's kind of close to what they've said some generation would do, like, they want to bring in parking levies everywhere. They say 300 million. They don't give an either or on that. They basically funnel you into that. And here's where the plot thickens and gets a little odd. There are follow-up questions, say, what sort of resources can we provide to you for you to

become an activist for this measure? And you're like, what? They thought I was giving my views on the budget. Now they want to enlist us in an army of pro sales tax activists. Exactly. So this is kind of the talk. the tone and the agenda that's being pushed at City Hall right now

when it comes to talking about the budget. Okay, so is it very concerning? Yeah, so Anthony, let me ask, because it does seem like a lot of stuff would have to happen for this to become a reality. However, I don't know that there are a whole lot of people out there who want this to even be

a focus of anybody's attention. I always say, you know, time is binary. And for every second that Olivia Chow or city staff are focused on this, that's a second. They're not focused on the issues that actually matter to Toronto. Now, you are somebody who has been, you've been on the front lines of campaigns.

You're one of these people who does believe in, in the power of the individual in municipal politics. It feels to me that I've been watching a lot of videos online, it feels to me that regular citizens, regular everyday people who normally don't have time for municipal politics because they are too busy living their lives. They are too busy going to work and paying their taxes and being upstanding. citizens. They don't have time to be active, actively participants in, in municipal politics. And I'm talking just going out and voting, right? They don't have time for it, which is why we see

so many, we see, you know, a far lower participation in elections than we should. It feels to me like we are at a tipping point where those average everyday citizens feel activated. And it feels to me like we are going to have more participation from the mushy middle than we typically have. And something like this could push people over the edge. Absolutely well said. People are getting in the game more bent for sure. I hear from them all the time. They say I've never thought of myself as a political person. But what I say to them is you may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you. And if you leave a vacuum out there where your ideas are not at the table and your advocacy are not at the table, someone else is filling that vacuum. And

maybe they're moving the needle in the wrong direction in a way that you don't support. So get in there, claim your space, take your space, and take it back from people who are sending things in a bad direction. Because I do believe that Olivia Chow in Progress, Toronto, and people in those circles, they are exploiting that very situation that you put out there, that there is a low engagement. We need to get more people in the game. Yeah. And a lot of people say it's apathy.

It's not apathy in a lot of cases. In a lot of cases, it's these are the people who are keeping the city afloat. These are the people that have the businesses, that have the jobs. These are the people where you come for your pound of flesh from these people. The people have time to protest and be and clog up our streets and chant and scream and make life unlivable. They don't have the jobs that are the engine of the economy of this city. So it's a it's you're getting on both ends. You're allowing you're allowing those.

who don't have any skin in the game to dictate how much of your money the city is going to take. And it feels like it's a little different. And I'll say one last thing, Anthony, I'm old enough to remember the political price that my dad paid for the goods and services tax, which was a good tax. And it has served us well to get us out of the debt and the deficits that were endemic of, well, now both Trudeau governments. but I remember how angry people were over that. So if she goes down this path, even if it doesn't ever become fully realized, I think it'll stick to her and it'll stick to anyone of her political ilk.

And I just, I view this like there's a risk here for her. No, absolutely. She could lose an election over this. And while there's a few of us out there who I'm sure would love to run an election with this being a referendum question, I would much prefer the city to just be better governed. I would prefer her to stop talking about this right here right now because we don't need it and there are much better ways to responsibly manage the city coffers.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, listen, again, thank you for laying it out. I don't know that everybody listening to this show was even aware that this was on the radar. It should be new taxes should always be expected when you have a city staff that are so enthusiastic about this sort of thing as well as a mayor and many members of city council who do not see that we have a we don't have a revenue problem at city hall we have a spending

problem and i thank you for highlighting it my friend have a great day ben thank you sir okay so what would you rather have property tax hike sales tax hike or maybe neither we want to hear from you next right here on the ben mulrooney show welcome back to the ben mulrooney show and you our listeners are as much part of the show as I am. So now it's time to turn the microphone over to you at 416-8-6-4-100-1-2-2-5 talk. We want to hear from you about this idea that's being floated in this pre-municipal budget period of maybe it's time for us to have a municipal sales tax on every good and service sold within the border of the GTA. I think it's a terrible idea, but I want to hear from you. So let's start with George.

George, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Happy Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, good morning, Ben. Well, I mean, they're telling you to pick your poison. You're going to die regardless, one slower or one's faster. Are you asking me to pick one? Is that your initial question? I'm asking, however you want to answer it, it's a conversation.

You know, it's like, is this a straw that's going to break the camel's back? Is this going to be the thing that activates the mushy middle? Is this going to be the thing that gets every day, everyday Torontoians who are too busy leading their lives, too busy paying their taxes, too busy trying to take care of their kids and grow the economy and grow their family and protect their kids. Is this going to be the thing that gets them off the couch or gets them, gets them activated to participate and do something that we need to do, which is restore sanity to City Hall? No, it's not. I'll tell you why. Because you said these people have, you know,

What is it going to take? When, when, and they don't want to go out and get involved in politics. When you're chasing the Blue Jays three nights in a row dropping thousands, when you're going to Taylor Swift dropping thousands, they'll run out and celebrate and support a sports team. But when it comes to their livelihood, no one wants to do anything. There's no stupid politicians. There's only stupid voters.

Politicians react on our actions. And when they see stupidity, they're going to slam you. They're going to bend you over the barrel. and stick that tax stick right up where you know where I went about to get to this. Yeah. So, listen. It's up to the people. You want to run and chase the lease.

Go chase the lease. And let the property tax go up and your bills go up and your sales tax go up. George, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I hope he's wrong, though. Let's see if anyone agrees with him or agrees with me. Joe, welcome to the show. Hey, Ben.

Hey. I kind of agree with George. I think people have to make choices. And I read Anthony Fury's article a few days. days ago. And the first thing I thought of was, well, if the city of Toronto is going to pass this tax, I'm definitely getting my shopping, my gas, et cetera, et cetera, north of steals. And if you remember during COVID, Yorkdale was shut down around Christmas time. Everybody went up to Vaughn Mills and did their shopping there. Oh, yeah. And you know what? You make a good,

on principle, Joe, on principle, I would not pay this tax. I would go elsewhere. I would leave the city. I have for all my groceries and anything of any big purchases, I would absolutely take time. I would do my grocery shops in bulk once a week. I'd get the heck out of the city. I would not give them a dime that I do not believe they're entitled to. And I think, yeah. And who would hurt businesses in Toronto? And that's the problem. Well, yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. No, no. This is the, the amount of headwinds that small businesses have been facing in this city and you are going to tack on another, another tax on them. What the hell is wrong with you. Like it's, this is the least business friendly move you could make. And let's,

let's be honest. This is a, this is a cash grab from a, a, a government, a municipal government that is addicted, addicted to spending. And I get that they have headwinds themselves. I get that we have, we have a refugee crisis and they, they've sort of been left in the lurch. But then do everything you must first, go line by line through the city budget and see what we can live without. What are the core services that people depend on? And let's get rid of all the stuff we do not need to be doing. Do that first before you try to come back for another pound of flesh because I'm telling you, I am out of flesh. And so is everybody else in this city. And what happens when people are out of flesh? They start getting creative with how they can avoid paying

those taxes. And you are going to find yourself with a shortfall in terms of your projections. It's happen before it'll happen again. Ben, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Lots of talk. Canadians, we're not going to do anything. You don't think so? You're going to increase taxes. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, that's, listen, I'm

I've, it's, you're, you would be, you're not. I'm a bad guy, Ben. No, no, I'm not saying. I'm, I'm, I can see the argument. I can see why you would say that. I just, I feel it in myself that I'm, that I'm feeling a rise in frustration. I have to believe it's, happening in others. Now, what happens with that frustration is the question that we're trying to

we're trying to answer here. But thank you, Ben, for the call. Oh, yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Wait. Sorry, I just, that was in response to your comments because I'm that guy that goes to city council, fights the fight, talks to my counselor. They're all socialist. They have an agenda. They will pass the tax because they don't see it. They don't understand it. But however, you had, was it Brad, the counselor on? And one thing that has to be repeated, they're not doing it. They're not doing it. You have your role to remind your listeners. We've had in the last 15 years, a second land transfer tax added.

That's like 50 to 100 grand on the average car house. Record housing development charges from 18 grand to 200 grand per house. Parking fees on every side street in Toronto. Paying for public swimming pools that used to be free. Paying for the gym that used to be free. what other taxes? Oh, the record water and sewage increases or garbage increases.

We have tax over tax, over tax, over tax. So we have a record revenue. We have record condos that had been built for 20 years, houses. We have so much revenue, new people, yet we're a billion and a half in debt and don't blame refugee crisis. The border should be shut

until we could pay for ourselves. Yeah, well, thank you very much for that. All right. We're going to go to Max. Max, you've got a prediction for us. Thank you morning. I have a very strong prediction that I feel is going to come true. In roughly 10 years, and it's going to happen in Blue Cities first, that's my guess.

Mamdani, if he wins, this is going to be a prime example after he runs that city into the ground. We are going to see someone rise up, either in the venture capitalist or private business side, and be like, I will take over, I will correct this city, I will correct every spend, every mismanagement, every waste, and I will take a massive fee at the end of this and mark my words, people are going to go up in arms, unions are going to go crazy, whatever, you know, taxpayer money shouldn't be going to fund private equity. They are going to correct whatever city that is allowed into first, and cities across cities are going to follow suit after. And look, Liz, I don't know if I agree with you that there's going to be a reaction.

Something's going to happen. I don't know if that will be the exact. thing but all these progressives who view anyone to their right as alt-right or a fascist or a Nazi wait and see what happens like you're not going to like the next iteration of the cup is about to overflow yeah and whatever whatever they don't like about a brad bradford or a john tory wait and see what happens if we have another four years of olivia chow i promise you the next the next candidate on the right you're not going to like him at all or her at all. That person is going to espouse some ideas. They're even more to that person's right because that's the reaction.

When you go socialist, you get somebody who's even, the pendulum doesn't stop in the middle. And the farther you pull it to the left, the farther right it swings. It's a natural occurrence. And I thank you for your call. Jamie, let's take your, you'll take your call. Thank you. We appreciate it. How are you doing, Ben?

Go ahead, my friend. And you've got about 30 seconds. By the way, happy anniversary. I'm the guy with the same anniversary as you. Anyway, I live two blocks above steel. Do you think I will shop below steel? No, she does it? No, of course not.

They're not thinking this through, just like they didn't think it through when they put the land transfer tax on them, and then through all these fees, additional municipal fees and regulations, making it so unattractive to buy a house that now, so whatever they are expecting with the land transfer tax has dried up as well.

I want to thank you very much. Great conversation. We're going to keep it going. but I did want to let you know that tomorrow morning you got to wake up with Greg Brady because he's going to be joined by Anwar Knight. He's the founder of the Hold School's Accountable Parent Network. I heard him on Greg's show last week.

He's going to be talking about his investigative series exposing the growing crisis of violence, of cover-ups and the lack of transparency in Ontario's publicly funded schools. It's a series that is more than reporting. It is a movement for accountability, for safety, and for real change in our publicly funded education system. That's going to be at 6.50, tomorrow morning on Toronto today with Greg Brady.

And I tell you, Anwar Knight has his own personal story as to why he's doing this. When you hear that, it's compelling. dark secrets from his past in a language he no longer understands, but a lost cassette will reveal the ugly truth. From Curious Cast and Blanchard House comes a cross-continental Odyssey to recover a stolen past. This is Stop Rewind, The Lost Boy, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.