The Ben Mulroney Show - The Week That Was Political Panel

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Ben is joined by Mark Norris, Former Alberta Minister of Economic Development and Chris Chapin, Political Commentator, Managing Principal of Upstream Strategy. Canada's Supreme Court annuls a federal election result, which is bad news for PM Mark Carney's Liberals. But fortunately, the Prime Minister can take solace in the fine dining offered by in-flight catering. And will Alberta annex itself? 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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Mark, welcome to the show. Hello, Ben. Happy Family Day. Happy Family Day. And a veteran, a workhorse, a war horse, Chris Chapin, political commentator and managing principal at Upstream Strategy. Chris, welcome. Always a pleasure, Ben. All right.

I need to get your lay of the land, your take on, yeah, I'm really, I'm really, read the tea leaves for me. And it seems to change every single week about whether or not we're going to have a spring election. But the numbers for Mark Carney are not great. Like we had the floor crossers, but now he's lost a number of his MPs who are now going into the diplomatic corps. And the Supreme Court of Candidates just invalidated a federal liberal candidate's one vote victory. So there's going to have to be another by-election there. So he does not have, he's not within a stone's throw of a majority.

And then when you couple that, Mark with the language of obstructionism that we're hearing from Mark Carney and his ministers, that the Tories are being obstructionists. I think they even blamed the Tories for the tanking loony. I don't know how that's possible, but they did. And so if they're road testing these arguments and they aren't getting any closer to manufacturing a. majority. And the polls suggest they could win a majority. Doesn't that mean it's likely we're going to go to the polls in May? Yes. Yes, it does, Ben. And I'll tell you if I'm Carney, and I'm looking at Polyev trying desperately to gain traction as the nice Polyev, as the thoughtful Polyev, as the not the pit bull, and not working. His own MPs still questioning his leadership. Now, granted, he did well in Calgary,

but that was a pretty partisan crowd, I'm thinking I probably would risk it. And the worst case scenario is you end up like Justin Trudeau did in 215 or 218 or whatever was with the same result. So yes, I am feeling, especially reading the tea leaves, that that is a very large possibility. Chris Chapin, are we more or less likely today to be heading to the polls in May than we were last week?

Chris, you there? Yep, I'm here, sorry, then. That's okay. No, I don't think it makes a huge difference. I don't think this elections Canada, the Supreme Court decision makes that big of a difference. I mean, you're talking one seat. I believe Mark Carney's had a de facto majority.

As long as the NDP is in a tailspin and until they get a leader that might pull them out of that tailspin, I don't think he has to worry about getting anything through the House of Commons. It's more his own greed, right? It's does the Liberal Party want to put all its chips in the middle of the table and go for it? And I understand the argument for, I've certainly heard the rumors that there are a lot of people pushing the prime minister to do just that. I just think there is one slightly orange tinged hair man south of the border that is the ultimate wild card.

And I don't know whether I'd risk my political fortunes on the risk. You have, I think Mark Carney can probably govern for another three years with the way he has it. You know, there'll be some by-elections. He might be able to pick up that majority to do it in a world where, I mean, we've joked. talked about it last week on Air Ben, who knows what he said to Jamil Giovanni or whether he said anything at all. But like, this is a guy that met with an opposition member, apparently, of the conservative government. Like, who knows what could happen during an election campaign? And the one thing we do know about the Tories, you can criticize Polly have all you want, they're going to have a

massive war chest. They always do. Yeah. And you go into an election cycle where they're going to spend $150 million. That's one heck of a gamble. Yeah. So we started this by about the Supreme Court. And last or a couple of weeks ago, I was on a podcast and somebody asked me, like, what's the most concerning thing about, like, that should be on everybody's radar? And I sort of thought for a second. I said, I said, I think it's what's going on with our judiciary. And that was before a Hamilton judge said that the sex registry is unconstitutional. That is before a man who wants both a penis and a vagina is going to be getting the funding for that medical. transition. That was a judge okayed that. And we've seen the boneheaded decisions on a land

claims. We have seen judge after judge after judge give lenient sentences to violent criminals because of unproven systemic racism. This is what are we supposed to do with a judiciary that feels like it's operating in a reality that none of us live in, Mark? Well, Ben, I am with you in the sense that when I was elected, a democracy is based on one man, one vote, and it's a very special thing. And I had a lot of talks with judges back then saying, well, we went into the theory of how you're appointed, we should just pick the best and brightest in society and make them politicians. And to a man or a woman, they said, oh, no, no, that's not a good idea. And I said, well, then how do we govern the decisions you're making? Well, we go through vetting and we have all these experiences.

But the judges that are saying things now that you just referenced, and many more, seem to have lost the plot completely. And so I'm in a complete agreement with you, but I don't know that you can go get them elected. That's a different scenario altogether. But it really is shocking. The one that got me was the bike lanes in Toronto. It's unconstitutional to talk about our bike lanes.

People have a charter right to bike lanes. even though the premier ran on this promise to fix them. He got a crushing majority. He got a mandate from the people. And a judge said, yeah, sorry, that's not going to happen. Yeah, Chris, like I'm not suggesting we have, I don't, I wouldn't even know what to do to solve this problem. If I had the power to do it. I have no idea.

But something does have to change. it does Ben and i'll tell you you know the what needs to change is we need a conservative government in ottawa the reason these these courts are stacked the way they are and have been for so long is because of you know the liberal being in power for a decade and and they stacked the courts and and this is the this is the outcome yeah i i mean if i if i have to get on on this radio station on this microphone and tell people another story of a judge who decided that uh the violent rape of a woman is less violent. It's less of a crime because the person was of a particular background. I mean, I don't think, I don't think her pain is lessened because the person

wasn't white. And yet, that's what we're, that's what we're dealing with. But you know, every time, every time that happens, it softens the blow for the next time. And the first time you hear, you go, what the hell was that all about? And the next time it's like, oh, yeah. And people become numb to it. So I agree with. Chris, you know, there's got to be a wholesale change. Whether probably is a guy or not, we might not agree with Chris, but, but I totally agree that it's got to be a full-scale change in Ottawa. No doubt about that.

And look, and not for nothing, but there's, it's a very sophisticated network that's been created by, by the left where I get on the radio and I express outrage on these things. And now, I'm called a rage baiter. No, the rage should be reserved for the woman who was raped and didn't get justice. And if you can't... Absolutely. And so it's...

But the game is rigged in a lot of ways. To protect who? To protect what? To protect why? I have no idea. All right. We are going to talk about Mark Carney and the other federal leaders attending a vigil in Tumblr Ridge. Let's talk about it very quickly here.

I was very pleased with the prime minister. The tone he struck immediately the tone in the House of Commons by everyone. this was a moment of non-partisanship, not bipartisanship, it's non-partisanship. And very proud of our politicians that day, Chris. Yeah, I was too, Ben. I think it speaks volumes to the fact that these kind of tragedies happen so irregularly in our country.

And it's something to be very thankful for. We don't, you know, you look at when these kind of things happen south of the border. And the first thing is, you know, transgender this or gun control that. It was a reminder that I think we're a little bit more humane here and we kept the focus on the victims and the tragedy that occurred. And I think we all deserve, you know, our politicians deserve a pat on the back because it would have been very easy in this day and age to go one way or the other on this issue and turn it partisan, turn it political. And to each of the leader's credit, none of them did. There will be time for that later. I suspect.

I suspect that will happen at some point. but thus far they've all acquitted themselves honorably. All right, we're going to take a break. And when we come back, Alberta separatists step up efforts to leave Canada after meeting with Donald Trump's officials. We're going to talk about what that means going forward. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show.

And we got to talk about, I guess we got to talk about Mark Carney's high-flying food bill. 94 Gs for in-flight catering on one trip. I'm of two minds, guys. Um, on one hand, uh, I don't like the nickel and diming that we do for, uh, for our politicians. I think that's how you get a 24 Sussex that, uh, is unlivable. But on the other hand, that's a lot of money. Like it is. And when Bev Oda had to resign because she spent, what, 15 bucks on a, on a orange juice in a hotel in London. That's how much it costs. Uh, I don't like this one rule for the one rule for me. Chris, we'll start with you. I,

I agree with you, Ben. I remember back working on the hill when that took place with Bev Oda and the Orange Juice scandal. And you think back to all the scandals since then, it's almost laughable that somebody resigned over that, even if maybe they should have at the time. I mean, I agree, though, on the flip side, the nickel and diamond way, I hate that we don't have 24 Sussex anymore. I think it's a national embarrassment that we've never put the money up to renovate it. And it's stories like this that are why. I think, I'm curious what the menu was. Like, what does $300,000 get you on a flight?

Like if Mark Carney's, you know, they've got, you know, Mother of Pearl Spoons eating caviar. It's a different story than a bunch of, you know, frozen chicken wrap. But the irony, yeah, the irony mark is that this is, we are living in a time. We're not living in a time of plenty. We really aren't. And so, you know, leading by example could be a good thing, you know, and I get that our prime minister has to take these trips. I think they're, you know, they could be, you could do some of them over Zoom, maybe. but at a time where people are using food banks chronically,

this is not a good look. Oh, 100%. And this has a bigger effect than people might think. You know, people don't understand we're giving $2 billion to Ukraine. They do understand when Allison Redford took a $17,000 flight. You know, that's a year of college. So people can relate to that number far better and say, what an actual God's name could you have spent that money on other than the kind of meals we can only dream of once a year.

So this does have the effect. But I do agree, Ben. The fact is he has to travel. Just do it reasonably. Go to Pizza 73 and bring a bunch of pizzas on for $500. Yeah. You know, what's wrong with this guy? Well, yeah, I suspect he's probably not the one.

He's not the one that's saying go get me beef tenderloin. But there's somebody on his team that thinks, this is an appropriate expenditure. And that's a problem. That's a problem. It's not a good look. It sends a bad message. It's not leading by example.

And you're right. Look, you could go to, you could go to loblaws and get like one of those sushi trays. For 20, 25 bucks, you know? And it's good sushi. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I hope, listen, I'm, this is a, this is a teachable moment, as Justin Trudeau like to say. Yeah, absolutely. We all have something to learn every time he makes a mistake. But in this case, I really do hope that the prime minister shows us that he's a different kind of politician. And he says, I don't like this look. This is not what we're going to be doing.

I don't want headlines like this. So we're not doing this anymore. That's what I'd like to see happen here. I don't know, Ben. I'll bet you a $25 sushi tray that it doesn't happen. All right. Let's move. I just think it's indefensible.

Yeah. Well, let's go to what some people are saying is indefensible. defensible and I was a little more judicious about it. The news that the people on the Alberta separatist side have had meetings with the Donald Trump administration. And I heard a lot of people, Mark's talk, calling it treason. And I said, well, hold on. I don't know what the conversations were.

And until I do, I can't say whether it was treason or good planning. And I'll state again for those people who need to hear it. if I have to, if this thing becomes a crisis, I'll get on a plane myself and I'll pay my way to Alberta and I will plead the case for Canada on my own dime in small, in bars and on stages across Alberta if I have to. That being said, these are people with a democratic right and checking the temperature of our biggest trading partner

is just good business, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, so I see this quite a bit differently than the national media. The fact is, born and raised, Albert, I serve my province, I love it.

You should come out more often. We're really good people. We're like that goofy uncle that shows up at the wedding, but we watched what's happening in Quebec for decades, and there's one in three, maybe one and four, that sort of consider we'd be better off out of Canada,

but when people, high-browed people say, it's seditious, it's treasonous, they're the ones who are actually throwing gas on the fire, because I say, hang on, my constitutional right is the same as somebody in Valdoor, Quebec. So why, why, what's, where's the double standard?

And most Albertans do not want to separate. That's just a fact. And the polls hold that out. But when people tell us we're deplorable, knuckle-draggers, Neanderthals, then people go, hang on. No, no, don't like that. Don't like that at all, Ben. Yeah, and I think, I think on this show, I had a conversation with somebody, and they

tried to try to say, well, because when, when Quebec was trying to separate, they met with every government. Then Bill Clinton told them, we're going to take our lead from Canada. So if Canada tells us that you're saying. But they went and had those conversations. I'm now, I was told by somebody on this show,

well, the difference is one is an elected government and the other is just a group of rabble rousers. I don't know that that is a distinction that matters when we're talking about these things. I think it is, Ben. Oh, yeah, Chris, go ahead. I think it is, Ben.

And like I, there's a huge difference between the government of Quebec, you know, having conversations with the United States or other national governments in that time. Then it is a bunch of unelected folks that, you know, I mean, listen, we've established, you know, Jamil Giovanni's proven normal diplomatic channels don't exist with the United States of America anymore. You know, people can go down there and apparently meet with senior ranking U.S. officials, even though that's not how diplomacy is supposed to work. Yeah. That said, I will agree with what a lot of Mark said. I mean, like, you know, it's, that's how you got Trump in the first place. he had Hillary Clinton calling, you know, the Trump electorate a basket of deplorables. Like, there's something to be said about talking down to people.

But the idea that, you know, this group of folks that just are upset with politics, it's, it's not that different than the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. These folks were not elected. They did not have a mandate. The idea that the United States, anybody in any high-ranking official office is entertaining a conversation with them is kind of ludicrous. Yeah, well, yeah. But if you look at the polls,

there's only, you look at the level of support for separatism in Quebec versus the level of support for separatism in Alberta. They're almost neck and neck. I think there's a difference of two percentage points between the difference between Quebec and Alberta. So it's something that needs to be respected so that we can maybe tap down on it. I'm just, I'm trying to figure out where the treason is here. Like I get everything you just said, Chris, makes a lot of sense. But look, if their goal is to separate, then they, probably have goals to form a government at some point. So I don't know what to say. Like they're planning for the future. It's not a future I want.

No, I don't want to jump on my fellow Alberts, but I've gone to a few of those meetings. It's a lot of gray hair. It's a lot of anger. It's not a hopeful proposition. And Alberta is a great place. It's a hopeful proposition. But there were former prime ministers who understood Alberta and high tie dry-doll boat, including placing the second in command, a guy named Dodd Nazakowski.

And Albertans got that signal right to their core. They understood that Mazz was the prime minister's guy in Western Canada. God bless him. Trudeau, the last one, not the first half with, the second half with, went out of his way to say, we just don't care. And people came over and asked for oil and gas. He said, there's no business case for it. So, of course, Albertans are going to be up in arms.

But if there's a statesman that shows up and says, we want to talk about your issues, that separatist thing goes down. in playing. I think you're right. We only have about a minute and change left. So a very quick question. Do you think that Canada could end these Olympics without a single gold medal? Well, we've got hockey still, I guess. So with besides hockey. Chris? No, no. We're going to, we're going to win a couple, Ben. But it's definitely been a bit of a disappointment so far. But it's, it's incredibly, incredibly difficult to win a gold medal with the

Olympics. And we were fortunate that stretch during, especially the 2010 Olympics, when we won as many as we did. Yeah. Well, yeah. Mark, what say you? Are you hopeful? I have a personal collection. My brother-in-law's peer looters who won gold at Maginot and was a world-sled box. Yes. There we go. Yeah, no. Yeah, the good side of the family, as they call it. If Euker were a sport, we'd win gold all day long, but Canada men's hockey for sure, that, that to me is a given. And I'm still holding out hope for some. I'm still holding out a whole percent. some of the sledding sports. Well, Mark Norris and Chris Chapin, thank you both for join us.

Have a great Family Day weekend. You too, Ben. God bless you, Ben. Our intel chain is compromised. New on Showcase. You were hacked. You're telling me it's real. Someone's been watching and listening through you.

Simulio. We can either attempt to remove what's in your brain or we keep back open. Melissa Barrera. We need to use you to find them and destroy them. Tell me why you chose me. We either save them. mission or save his life. The Copenhagen test.

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