The Ben Mulroney Show - There's no question about it. The media is stacking the deck for Mark Carney

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Guests and Topics: -There's no question about it. The media is stacking the deck for Mark Carney -Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Screwed Up Everything All At Once with Guest: Tristin Hopper, Columnist and reporter at National Post, Author of the new Book Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Screwed Up Everything All At Once 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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unwrap the early days of your favorite hockey stars with tins new retrospective rookies hockey cards featuring exclusive n.h.l. and p.w. h.l. players and retired legends collect them all only attends at participating restaurants in canada for a limited time. We made it to Friday, everyone. Welcome to the Ben Mulrooney show. Thanks for listening. I want to say hello to everybody in London, everybody in Toronto and everyone who listens in points beyond.

And so today is the final day that we're going to be talking about this week in politics. We'll have a whole weekend to recap on Monday. A big story that came out yesterday was Robert Fife of the Globe and Mail wrote a terrific article as he almost always does about the dubious connections between the questions rather that need to be answered between the Liberal Party and China. And so we all remember the story of a couple of weeks ago where there was some terrible things that were said by a Liberal candidate in Ontario.

And everybody, everybody to a person who knows anything about anything said, the right thing to do is for the Liberal Party to turf this guy, get rid of him now, condemn his shameful words that he had towards his opponent in this election, and denounce the Chinese Communist Party and move on. Four days went by, Mark Carney said nothing. And then when he finally did say something, he did the exact opposite.

It's a teachable moment because I think I think he liked when that worked out so well for Justin Trudeau. And when his his his problems became our problems, and we could all learn from them teachable moment. And I'm sticking by my man because he learned his lesson. head scratching moment made us all ask some really important questions that have not been answered. But anyway, he was replaced by another guy. He was replaced by another guy. And this other guy has connections to a very pro-communist party of China organization. He's on a deep tie and it turns out Mark Carney met with these guys. And so that was the gist of the article. And he was asked about this yesterday

and here's what he had to say. Hi, Nijadam Elise, Globe and Mail. My colleagues have a story today about a liberal candidate's relations with China-friendly groups in a meeting that you also held with a pro-Beijing group. My question is, why did you meet with this pro-Beijing group, Jiangsu Commerce Council of Canada, and is the party okay with the fact that liberal candidate Peter Yan has been so close with the Chinese consulate and China-friendly groups, given the public and

Korean-to-foreign interference, says that this is a tactic China uses to exert influence. Okay. Well, I'm sorry, but you can't believe everything you read in the Globe and Mail. So in your question, and I guess in the article in question, you said I had a meeting with whatever your term was, a Beijing group. I've never heard of this group. Okay? Never heard of this group. Certainly didn't have a set-up meeting with Beijing group. I've never heard of this group, okay? Never heard of this group.

Certainly didn't have a set up meeting with this group. Full stop, so check your sources before you write, things like that. Okay, wait, the conversation was not about whether or not you had a organized meeting with them. It was that you met with them. And taking on Bob Fife and the Globe and Mail isn't a good idea, because it's deja vu all

over again, 2254 days apart. Let's listen to… Oh, yeah, let's go ahead. The allegations in the Globe story this morning are false. Okay, well, I'm sorry, but you can't believe everything you read in the Globe and Mail full stop. So, check your sources before you write things like that. You'll remember that years ago,

the SNC-Lavalin affair that saw Jodie Wilson-Raybould turf from cabinet, it was reported in the Globe and Mail by Robert Fife. Justin Trudeau comes out and says, it's false. And he F'd around and found out that you don't do that because Bob Fife is gonna hunt until he shows that he is an honorable journalist who does a very good work on behalf of Canadians and sure enough today the pictures of

this meeting were printed in the Globe and Mail. So he says he's never heard of it and then again that's not the point though you may not you can claim you meeting were printed in the Globe and Mail. So he says he's never heard of it. And then again that's not the point. You may not, you can claim you never had a meeting, but you had a meeting. There are the pictures. So Robert Fife was on the CBC and he weighed in on the comments as well as why this matters. Well first of all we never said that there was a meeting. We said that this organization met him and according to their website, they had an in-depth discussion.

That's the story. And which, by the way, that wasn't the focus of the story. The focus of the story is on the liberal candidate in the writing that was replaced by another liberal candidate. I think it's Etobicoke North. I know it's a... Union, Markham. Markham.

Markham Union. Markham Union. Markham Union. Sorry. My apologies. And this man named Peter Yen is a former deputy police chief. We checked him out and he is being connected to Beijing-friendly organizations, including this organization who met with Mr. Carney. They are...

They echo and repeat the lines of the Chinese Communist Party. The other groups that Mr. Yan met with were the Chinese Free Nations, which talks about annexation of Taiwan. This stuff should matter to people. And we were talking about it when the Paul Chang story was still a story. There are a lot of questions that have not been answered as to how Mark Carney sees Canada in a world where we have to deal with China and the Chinese Communist Party. And every time he comes into a into a moment where a Carney China dynamic is is presents itself. More questions come up. And I, I will not sitting here telling you that I think that there is a nefarious relationship between Mark Carney and China. What I am telling you is I don't know that there isn't one.

And none of us do because he has been so opaque in his communications with us. As I told you the last time we talked about this, my producer and I went went online, we can't find a single public comment by Mark Carney that is negative towards China and the Communist Party. We can't find one. If there is one, I invite you to send it into us. And when he had the opportunity after the WeChat, it wasn't a scandal, but the WeChat story where we found out that a WeChat group that communicates with the Chinese diaspora here in Canada that is linked to the Chinese Communist Party was saying glowing things about Mark Carney.

He had the opportunity to say, I reject any help from the Chinese. I do not want the help of a totalitarian regime that abuses human rights, that abuses trade relationships, that murders Canadian citizens. He didn't say that. He had the opportunity to say it. He didn't say it. Why didn't he say it? He won't tell us. So this is important. This is important, especially given the fact that if he believes our relationship with America

is effectively over and he said as much two days ago, well then who are we going to work with? Are we just working with Europe? I'm pretty sure if you're telling us that America is no longer our friend, we gotta look to the other superpower, Mr. Carney.

And what is your relationship with China? What is your relationship? Tell us what your holdings are. Tell us how much money you have invested in Chinese companies. You won't tell us that. And those things matter. And if you don't tell us,

is there's nothing wrong with assuming the worst I'm sorry. You don't get the benefit of the doubt. We don't know you yet, sir We don't know you you even told us I only got here a few weeks ago and you chuckled about that Okay, so I don't trust people. I don't know I certainly don't I'm not gonna let someone I don't know watch my house for a weekend and yet we're supposed to let a guy we don't know know watch my house for a weekend and yet we're supposed to let a guy we don't know lead us through what he says is the biggest crisis of our lifetime. I'm sorry sir you gotta give us more than that. I'm open to to accepting what you have to say but you have to say it. Anyway. Breaking news coming in from bet 365 where every nail biting overtime win. Anyway. Hockey to baseball, whatever the moment. It's never ordinary at Bet 365.

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How's that? A little bigger. Ahem. The Ford It's a Big Deal event. Nice. Now the offer? Lease a 2025 Escape Active all-wheel drive from 198 bi-weekly at 1.99% APR for 36 months with $27.55 down. Wow that's like $99 a week. Yeah it's a big deal. The Ford it's a big deal event. Visit your Toronto area Ford store or Ford.ca today. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and another day, another example that the CBC can't hide its bias.

We're going to talk about one story in particular in a moment, but I was during the commercial break, I was on my Twitter feed and there's a guy I follow, it's the CBC Watcher of Twitter, and he pointed out that they did an entire story on this convention in Toronto, the Canada Strong and Free Group. I think it's the old Manning Institute, they changed the name. And the insinuation is it's a far-right group,

and they speak in nefarious tones. Do you remember a single story, anytime Canada 2020, which is a progressive think tank, has a meeting or anytime the organization, a left-leaning organization gets together and has a meeting and brings people together to have conversation. Have they ever done a hit piece on those guys? No, it's just when you know, people on the right side of the spectrum get together and talk about their

vision for the country and do so, you know, as as everybody should be able to. So, so that's one thing. And you can go find that online. But this is very stark. And I want to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. So both Mark Carney's platform and Pierre Polio's platform on crime and how to address crime have come out. And listen, all things being equal, I do not think that the liberal government has a leg

to stand on claiming they can fight crime when you see what's happened on our streets over the past 10 years. But anyway, they both claim they have the solution. Here are the headlines describing those plans on the CBC website. So, Pierre Poliev's plan. Poliev tries to draw voter attention to violent crime as Trump concerns Dominic. Here's Mark Carney's. Carney announces sweeping plan to crack down on crime, strengthen the border. So, the guy who's leading the party that has led to an epidemic of violent crime in this country that is being backed by all the people that voted for those laws that make it harder

for us to arrest criminals and when we do to keep them in jail and when we do give them sentences reflective of the pain that they cause society. He has a plan to crack down on crime and strengthen our border. But Pierre Poliev, who, by the way, is amassing so many endorsements from police associations across the country, Poliev tries to draw voter attention to violent crime as Trump concern dominates. They downplay Pierre's announcement and wedge a Donald Trump mention in there. Meanwhile, for Mark Carney, they call it a sweeping plan to crack down and strengthen. And let's also remember if you don't want to give extra funding to the CBC, you are not a good Canadian. So I want to hear from you. 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. Is this just noise to you now?

Do you just assume that everything you read on the CBC website is, it's geared towards one thing and one thing only, the CBC keeping their jobs. I hate to be cynical, but I don't even really fault them for it, they wanna keep their jobs and Mark Carney's essentially offering everybody, the entire organization a 10% bump in pay. And their budget of $1.4 billion, he wants to add 150 million to it next year alone.

And I you look at this, and it's just it's clear you cannot, you can't tell me that there isn't a plan. There isn't a plan by the CBC. And, you know, I think I think I don't care, but I think I'm engaged enough in the political process that these slants don't affect me. But there are a lot of people out there for whom this could affect how they see things.

Dan, welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. What do you think? Thanks, Ben. Always a great show. You know, I don't know how Carney's commitment to increase the funding for the CBC is not a conflict of interest and why it's not being looked at by the Ethics Commission. I mean it's clearly, clearly biased. I mean we know that but that kind of commitment you think

we've in violation of some kind of the, you know, some of the rules. Yeah, and you know, I take your point and I feel that way as well, but part of me thinks, part of me thinks this is of Pierre Poliev's doing. He's the one who has been talking about defunding the CBC for years, right? So he's the one who put the CBC on as a ballot question. So it's only fair that Mark Carney would respond with his own vision for the CBC and he's chosen to throw more money at at a an organization that is increasingly irrelevant. What do you think about that? You know, it's a good point, but I still think that, you know, the the Ethics Commissioner has to look into how the CBC is actually doing the reporting and it's clearly so biased in so many ways

the other night on one of the broadcasts when they were having a political panel on there was a comment by one of the one of the panelists that that a poly of has been very short and you know in dealing with the, and has kept the press at bay, and has really managed the press, I guess, in a way that was not resonating well with the press. And there's nothing about how Carney has been treating the press, in terms of being short with them, and the conduct.

So it's clearly biased. And I don't think the ethics commissioner has the, I don't think that's part of their mandate. I think they have an ombudsman at the CBC who's supposed to look into those things, but I don't I don't know how effective that is Dan, thank you so much for joining the conversation and let's bring Jim in to add to it. Welcome, Jim How are you? I'm well That's good The whole media system in this country is a joke

They're... They've... And I'm going to use it. I'm an older guy. I'm late 50s. I used Facebook for many years. All of my social. To get my news across. And since they've done that,

I don't like Twitter. So because of that, the real news, well I'm going to company real news using face book other than that by rock-clay uh... people are seeing any other viewers type from what the national media they're putting out uh... people my age they're not going out to look you know i need to do the end and other places to find that information

so unfortunately what a lot of global people do and seniors, you know, who really don't have much of a dog in the fight anymore. Yeah. Because we're coming to retirement stage. We just, oh, well, because we don't get the real information anymore. Because the national media don't provide it to us. I listen, I'm I'm I've said many times on this show, Pierre Poliev has earned my vote. I pay attention, I think he's earned my vote

and a chance to right the ship. But I do think that he's made a strategic mistake by not allowing the press to travel with him. I think he's missed out on an opportunity to get his story out there to those those voters that he needs to the, you know, the older voters in Canada, but that's a discussion for another time. Jim, thanks so much. Chris, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hey, Ben, how's it going? It's going I'm going well. Happy Friday to you. Happy Friday. They're always remaking movies, they should remake the Manchurian

candidate starring Mark Carney. It's really hard if it was the other way around. If the conservative leader owed a quarter of a billion dollars to China, this would be all over the news. And it's insane that we aren't working to mend our relationship with the states, which is literally we share share the border. Oh, yeah. We're always talking about being green and the carbon footprint and everything. Why would we work on trade relations with China, who probably build the coal plant today, use the slave labor, and doesn't have the similar interests

that we share in our country? Yeah. And listen, Chris, I'm going to, I'll say it myself. I think, I think Mark Carney is sowing a little bit of chaos. He's going to his rallies, and he's telling people that America wants to take us over, all while then presenting as the adult in the room who wants to normalize relations with America

and our largest trading partner. You can't have it both ways. You can't go out there and sow fear and then come out and say, hey, everybody needs to remain calm. I'm going to take care of this. Come on, man. Like, I wish everybody saw saw things my way. But, but he's he's he's being quite masterful at, at helping to sow the chaos, tell people to get fire them up,

put them in a tizzy. And, and then come back in and say, I'm gonna I'm gonna fix this guys I'm gonna turn down turn down the temperature. We've got people waiting on the line Christina you're gonna be next right after the break don't go anywhere more of your calls on this as we continue The Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to The Ben Mulroney Show and I want to thank everybody for patiently waiting on the line we're talking bias at the CBC it is as plain as the nose on your face when you look at the headlines on the CBC website comparing the headlines that detail the plans from both the conservatives and the liberals on their plans to address and

tackle violent crime. One is glowing and one suggests it's a wedge issue. Poliev tries to draw voter attention to violent crime as Trump concerns dominate. Meanwhile, Carney announces sweeping plan to crack down on crime, strengthen the border. I mean, come on, guys. I hate when people throw out do better, but do better. I don't think they want to. I think they think this is their job. So, Christina, you've been waiting patiently on the line. Thank you so much. What do you have to say?

I have a lot to say. I'm so glad you're talking about this. I have been a fan of Pierre Puey-Leves since his Harper days. I watch committee. I watch question period. I attended three local meetings he's had in the Niagara region in the last three years. I guess the last one would be the rally in Stony Creek. Pierre's messaging has been consistent since the beginning. His platform is solid. Carney's platform is Trump. He's got his globalist ideas in the background. They're never going to go away. CBC plays interference for Carney every day. As much as it pains me, I tune in a couple times a day just to see what the ticker is saying underneath. And CBC is playing interference for Mark Carney.

David Cochran should be ashamed of himself. His performances the last couple of weeks have been embarrassing. I saw him on with Loris Waller and he was ridiculous in his responses. He never acknowledges a Carney gasp. There's always an excuse. You'll never see any issues about China and Carney on CBC. They don't want their demographics to see that. Christina, someone said on my Twitter feed,

if a conservative were to say, Pierre Poliak's suit is blue, Mark, David Cochran would say, well, to be fair, we have seen him a time or two wearing a gray suit. Okay. To be fair, oh my gosh, you know, just because you preface it with a lie, it doesn't make what you're saying afterwards. What he's saying isn't necessarily wrong, but it's just not, it's diluting the accuracy of what the person was actually saying. But Christina, first of all, thank you for being such an engaged person. You seem to be paying attention to politics in a way that I wish

everybody was. And I'm not suggesting everybody should think the way I do, but everyone should want to be engaged the way Christina is engaged. So thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And welcome to the show, Dave. My honor, Ben, I'm 62 years old, been around a bit. I'm not seeing this divide between the older and the young as opposed to that. No one in my circles, very few are voting liberal. However, to the topic, thank God no one watches the CBC.

Yeah, well, nobody, it's true, nobody is tuning in. I think 5% of Canadians tune in, but we see their clips on social media. They're very good. Their social media strategy is very good. I don't know how much money they make off of it, and I'm sure they have a team of 150 people working around the clock to get it out there, but what they say does get to Canadians, just not on the CBC. Yes, they are good at that stuff, I agree.

This is a dangerous thing when you have your government funding your media, and not just the CBC folks, the Canada Media Fund, I believe CTV draws off that a lot of number of players, newspapers, radio stations draw out, this is a reminiscence of the start of a communist or socialist media. It's a very dangerous thing we have here. People have to I think

people are starting to recognize this that the media is not is compromised. Let's put it that way. Oh, and look, I think there are elements that disappoint me for sure, Dave. I think that the most effective way to buttress against that in this election campaign is for people to be like you and like Christina, our previous caller, to be as engaged as possible, to learn as much as you can so that when

you do see these headlines, they don't sway you the way they are probably intended to sway you. Thanks so much for the contribution, Dave. I really appreciate it. Sam, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hey there, Ben Sam from Fort Myers, Hamilton. Okay. So then, you know, I was never biased before I watched power and politics. And I watched the national at night. All of a

sudden, Carney says he's going to infuse more money into the CBC. And I see the complete turnaround. I watched the national last night with Rosemary Barton and Althea, Andrew, and Chantel. And I couldn't believe the bias switching totally 100% to the liberals. And I'm like, holy, it looks like I'll be watching global national. Hey, thank you, Sam.

Really appreciate it. And welcome to the show. Let's see, who do we have? We've got Jeff. Jeff, thank you, Sam. Really appreciate it. And welcome to the show. Let's see. Who do we have? We've got Jeff. Jeff, what do you think? CBC? Is is is there bias just baked in and you just take it for what it is now? I've said this for years. I'm talking about years. The problem we have in Canada is that we have this divided media, where they're liberal media and conservative media. If you listen to talk radio anywhere in this province, it's right-wing.

And more people listen to you than listen to the CBC. And talk radio is the most biased with- Well, I'm a talk show host, though. I'm paid to have opinions. I am not here to convey the sort of the direct information. My job is to do exactly that. Here was the problem with that. If you say something or you get a guest

on that says something that's politically worthy, then all the media pick it up. You may be a talk show host, and you get to spew your impressions about whatever. When you bring a guest on, that's a political activist or political figure, and that person says something, then that gets picked up

and regurgitated around the country. But isn't that what's supposed to happen? I mean, if I have Pierre Poliev sitting opposite me, and I ask him a question about crime, and he gives me his take on crime, and then the press picks that up, what's wrong with that? I am not saying that there's anything wrong with it, but you are saying you're just a talk show host. No, you're not just a talk show host. And more people listen to radio, I'm telling you, more people listen to your radio station and the other big

radio station in Ontario. I listen to it all the time. And I can tell you, you guys have more influence. I know. But I mean, I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying. And by the way, I did not say I'm just a talk show host. I said I am a talk show host. But I'm struggling to understand because I'm agreeing with you on everything you say. We're all playing our we're all playing our I mean, I'm playing my role as honestly as I can.

What I'm what I'm suggesting, Jeff, is that the CBC is not playing their role as honestly as they can. But yes, I agree with you that the CBC is a liberal slant. But what balances out the CBC if we have the goal? Wait, hold on, let me Jeff, I'm enjoying this back and forth. Are you are you saying that the CBC needs to be biased because I have my bias and more? I'm saying that we need by unbiased media. But we can't get

that because when a liberal wants to be crop up, he goes to the CBC or to the star. When a conservative wants to be propped up, they go to the talk radio or they go to the national post. And that has been the divide ever since I came to this country 30 years ago. Hey, Jeff, I wanna thank you very much. I love when you call in.

I love going back and forth with you. I take issue with the idea that they have to go to the CBC because they won't get a fair shake here. That is not true. We're working diligently. I hope we get Mark Carney to sit down with us. If Mark Carney were to sit down with me, I would give him the same space and respect

that I gave to Pierre Pellet. I would not interrupt him. If I asked him a question, I would wait for him to answer the question before I followed up. And then that information would then get disseminated just as the Pierre Poliev one was. The excuse that he can't come to talk radio because I'm biased? Absolutely not. Everyone knows my bias. Everyone has a bias. The difference is I own mine. I'm biased? Absolutely not. Everyone knows my bias. Every everyone has a bias. The difference is I'm I own mine. I'm honest about mine. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and we are going to move

our focus away from issues of national importance to the local level. And I was a student of history. I got a history degree in university and I studied World War Two. And I was a student of history. I got a history degree in university and I studied World War II and I was fascinated with the Nazis last stand at Stalingrad. And that was really the death rattle of the military campaign. And that followed what followed was eventually their capitulation and them waving the white flag, but not after all the damage that they did.

And I've often said that sort of the, to use someone else's mind, the woke mind virus is on its last legs, but if it has a last stand, if it has a Stalingrad, it will happen in Canada and the capital city of that will be Toronto. And we're seeing it exhibit itself in the TDSB, the Toronto District School Board,

that is going out of its way, according to Mark Johnson in the National Post, going out of its way to erase Canadian history. Mark Johnson is the founder of saveourhistory.ca and he pointed out that there is this insane push that the TDSB is going through to rename schools in Toronto to erase the names of Sir John A. As well as Henry Dundas and Edgerton Ryerson.

As you know, obviously, that Ryerson University is no more. It's Toronto Metropolitan University. Dundas Square is no more. It's Sankofa Square. And the man who envisioned Canada, the man who helped build it into something that could grow into what it is today. Yeah, they don't want his name around anymore either. And it turns out in the process of doing this, they consulted with a grand total of zero historians to make sure that they had their facts straight before proceeding with this cancellation. And so he writes a great piece in the National Post,

and I want to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225. Talk. Is this the most Toronto way of doing things? Light on information and high on performative woke theatre? I mean, this is, this is nonsense. But if I sent my kids to their TDSB school for a history test, I would have them learn history before taking the test.

And now the adults that are running the TDSB have decided to embark on a historical revision without consulting historians. These are people who were great leaders, but flawed men, which you can say about any great leader from any point in history, great leader, flawed men, let's examine the entirety of their legacy, the entirety of their life, and judge them on that. And let's not judge them as people love to do today, on our social values, on the check marks that we require from people today. Because if you do that, then future generations

are going to judge you on their values, and you will be deemed a racist, a misogynist, a sexist, or any number, or whatever, whatever their values are of that day. And these were great men who did great things and also have a lot to answer for. How hard is this? How hard is this? But of course, part of sort of the woke issue is, well, we don't want people to be triggered.

You know what? History shouldn't trigger you. History shouldn't trigger you. And if it does, you have issues that need to be triggered. You know what? History shouldn't trigger you. History shouldn't trigger you. And if it does, you have issues that need to be addressed elsewhere. And I don't have time for this. And these things are not free. Renaming a school is not free. It costs money. We don't have any money in this city. We don't have enough money for these nonsense, nonsense, pageantry, the performance, the theater of showing people how, how compassionate we are and inclusive we are. We don't have the

money for it. You want to take this stuff on later when we have money? Fine. I want you to take the money that you were going to spend on this and spend it on the kids. And the fact that this story's coming out means you are miseducating kids. Chris, welcome to the show. And I was taught in high school by one of the best history teachers. Sadly, he passed away, but his thing that stuck with me is that if you forget history or erase history,

it is bound to repeat itself. And in this case, we are erasing our path and it might not be roses and daisies, but it's the blood and sweat that our country, our nation went through. And we must remember it in order to remember how we got here, how our country became the greatest country ever is because we had to go through those struggles until you race it and even still cover up Sir John A. MacDonald and it's kind of crazy that the statues our history is being erased and it is bound to repeat itself.

I know who do we uphold who who do we celebrate then if if everybody's worst moment is the defining aspect of who they are. Like, show me one person in history who doesn't have a strike against them. Yeah, I agree. And for that one bad thing, sir, Don, they don't there's about 1000 good things we can name. And in this world, we're taught nobody is perfect. And times were different. So the mentality and mindset that we had back then, even going through history books,

the tech and everything, everybody now is smarter than the next person, right? Because we got a hole in our hand. Hey, thank you so much for calling and have a great day and a great weekend. All right, Kevin, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Yeah, I've been Yeah, I probably a lot of other people would say the same thing. Henry Dundas was the guy who pushed through the slavery abolition. He was an abolitionist. And his bill went through. Yeah. It's partly because of him that slavery was abolished. And but that's that see that's the problem people have though. Oh no but he wasn't he didn't want to abolish it fast enough. He asked he proposed an incremental change as

opposed to doing it all at once. Because he knew that in order to get people there, to get this past the goal line, they had to do it slowly because there were some people who were gun-shy. It's nonsense! It is a lie to suggest that he was anything but an abolitionist. People who say that he should be cancelled are either idiots or or liars. Exactly, because they did it the way that if it was done so quickly, it would have had slavery for longer than actually happened. Correct.

So he's right on their side. He should be their hero. That's one of the problems with sort of the activist left is they are so filled with self-righteous indignation and so comfortable in the belief that they are right, that they are willing to take natural allies and turn them into enemies. People who would normally subscribe to their belief and want to work with them, they don't need them. They're not pure enough. We're going to do it on our own. And if it means canceling all those people, we will do it.

Thank you so much for your call, Kevin. We got time for maybe a couple more. Joey, welcome. How are you? I'm doing well today. Excellent. So I was part of a couple of people. You had a Daniel Tate on with you the other day and so we

I went with him and we gave deputations when they renamed Dundas Square to St. Kofa Square and we brought up the fact that I did that St. Kofa is a word from a country Ghana that still has slavery and they sacrificed 10 year old girls to fetish priests and gourd perks the counsellor the level of indignation that i would suggest such a thing yeah i interrupted me which he's not allowed to do and then of course chris moys the other self-righteous city council dirtbag called daniel tater racist yes he did because we dared to bring up the fact that these that we're renaming a place in Toronto. We brought up hey why not Oscar Peterson? He's black Jackie Shane. Trans black singer we brought up those.

They wouldn't hear of it because it's because Chris Moyes wanted another Sankofa. He already has a park in his ward that's called Sankofa Park. Hey hey. Freaking break. Joey thank you very much. I got time for real quick. Ray I only have a few seconds for you, so give me your point. Yeah, John A. MacDonald, he's being vilified for a lie. They always talk about mass graves. There are no mass graves in Canada. Why are we attacking the father of Canada because of a lie? Because it helps push their narrative. If they can take, if they can get rid of him, then they can replace him with someone who someone they want with values that more reflect

who they are. Thank you to everybody. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. There's a lot of people in this country feel like Canada on the big things and the little things haven't gotten it right and it makes it makes us sad it makes us angry it makes us frustrated well our next guest has found a way to look at what some politicians call a lost decade and and find a way to make us chuckle about it and in a lot of cases laugh pretty pretty damn hard I want to welcome to the show yet again but for a different reason, Tristan Hopper, columnist and reporter at the National Post and the author of the new book

with the best title ever, Don't Be Canada, How One Country Screwed Up Everything All At Once. Tristan, welcome back to the show and congratulations. Thanks for having me. Thank you. It takes great skill to take these things that make us cry and look at them in a way and talk about them in a way that makes us, I mean, it's so sad, you gotta laugh, I guess. That's just the way I talk. I thought this, I didn't think this was a humor book. I was just writing about things, but yeah,

I've been hearing that from other people saying, these are things I knew, seeing them all in one place. And yeah, it would have been a depressing read. I actually think it's a hopeful read because you can get to the end of it. Once it can feel overwhelming because anybody who's lived in Canada, they're like, you know, I remember when you could ride the bus

without crack smoke or I could afford things and stuff. And what I was trying to do is break down why these things happen. And once you can sort of get into the origin story of it, you're like, well, okay, well, these are solvable problems. These are not, so I think at the end, yeah, it's somewhat depressing, but you'll say, this can be a great country.

It is a great country. Tristan, fill me with hope then, because when I sit in this chair and speak to my audience and we talk about the housing crisis, for example, or no, let's take the crisis at our hospitals, right? It's multiple levels of stakeholders, multiple levels of government, and intersections of various crises that makes it.

So I look at a situation like that, I was like, there is no magic bullet. There is like, in order for this thing to get saved and work the way it used to, it feels like I've got to take it down to the studs, and how long is that going to take? So tell me why, what's the reason to be hopeful? It all starts with Canadians sort of coming, I mean, a lot of the criticism of this book is,

people are saying, well, you know, this is, why are you, as a Canadian, criticizing Canada? You know, you shouldn't speak badly about this country. We are unified, we're a great country. You know, member of Mr. Dressup, this is fantastic. But I think it all starts with, you have to acknowledge that you have a problem and that's been happening to thousands,

if not millions of Canadians over the past few years. One unifying theme that I found with all of these problems, which is everything from use in Asia, sorry, medical assistance and dying, to healthcare shortages, to housing crisis, is just this. And I quote sort of non-Canadians in this book who have dealt in Canada, and they say it is shocking how much Canadians are just convinced that their system works, everything is well run, people can be trusted, there's nothing wrong with it, data cores, you don't even need to be critical. We're more like that ISA even then, you know, these supposedly high trust societies

like the Netherlands, Switzerland, etc. So I think, you know, you mentioned healthcare. A lot of Canadians are just, oh, we have the greatest system in the world, no need to change, any type of reform is obscene. And then something happens to them, and they realize there's a three day wait in the emergency room. And only then, when it's too late, do they realize there's a problem. Yeah, I absolutely agree. And to criticize, sometimes in this country, you get a lot of pushback from entrenched interests. But you said, at the beginning of this, you said, if you go back and understand how it started and why it started, then you can appreciate

that there is a path forward. So how did this start? I remember 2014- Yeah, because these are all things we did to ourselves. It's not like, we ran out of, okay, go on. Well, I was just gonna say, because 2014, the international press was singing the praise of Canada's wealthiest middle class in the world.

We don't even have a middle class anymore and those that we have can't afford a house. What inspired this book is that I worked at the National Post since 2011. One of the things I do is I regularly look at the international press to see what they're saying about Canada. When I started this job, it was stories like that. Whenever Canada was mentioned overseas, it was wealthiest middle class, they've got more income mobility than the Americans. So the American dream is actually more true in Canada than it is in the United States. If you want to run an immigration system, the gold standard is Canada run a points-based immigration system. There's no sort of mainstream anti-immigration sentiment because of that. Whenever Canada was mentioned, if at all, it was usually, you know, if you're

trying to do X, Canada does the best version of it. Now it's not. I started to write this book because in the past five years, I've noticed the opposite. Countries, when they're looking at implementing their own medical assistance and dying system, they're saying, oh, well, whatever we do, let's do the opposite of Canada. Or if we're looking at harm reduction, we should take heart that Canada went all in on harm reduction and it has not gone well for them. So there's a bunch of areas in which we've gone further

than, and I was quite surprised that we went further than anybody else. I thought there was always gonna be a European country that was nuttier than us. No, no, no, they think we're nuts now. And that's quite a recent phenomenon. Well, the irony on harm reduction and is in British Columbia, for example,

they went to the Portuguese model of harm reduction. And the reason ours didn't work is because we didn't complete the circle. We went half, We legalized everything, but we didn't give this the state the pathway to then deal with it outside of the criminal justice system. Oh, yeah, that part always got in Portugal would tell us that I mean, there would be conferences where Portuguese drug official would say, Oh, we do criminalize, but we crack

down really hard. Yeah. On drug dealers. And if you were caught with drugs, you were sort of it's not compelled treatment, but you were sort of pushed into treatment. Yeah. And they were like, do not just do decriminalization, please repeat that back to me. And we didn't listen. And if it feels it feels to me as somebody who watches the announcements and the new programs that are unveiled and how everything that governments announce about how they're going to do this new program

is going to solve the problem. We've banned almost every single gun in this country, and yet gun violence is at an all-time high. Anytime we put it up, we're going to build homes. There's a new program to build homes, and housing slows. To me, we're really good at the announcement and very bad at the execution. Which we didn't use to be the case. I mean, this is why it's so tragic is, again, Canada used to be pretty good at sort of

evidence based policy, the gold standard being the 1990s when we dealt with our debt crisis. To this day, when other countries are looking at debt crisis, they're saying, oh, Canada did it better than anyone else. Yeah. You know, just evidence, broad-based, you know, practical, common sense.

And yeah, a going theme across this book is that just pursuing bad policies and then when they immediately start to go wrong, doubling down on that policy. And often, I mean, again, this comes up in the harm reduction chapter, the issue of diversion. So safer supply, which was where you would prescribe recreational opioids to addicts on the notion that they would get off black market supply. Well, what happened is you would just get the opioids, sell them and then buy more. So now you've got the you've got the double problem. Yeah, you've got they've

got more money for drugs that can kill them. And then you've got all of these government opioids, which are pretty strong hydromorphone, flooding the black market super cheap. And then that's getting teens hooked on it. So when the first stories about diversion came up, largely in the National Post, health authority said it wasn't happening. And the reason was they just weren't keeping data on it. The only data point they were keeping, this is in the book, is that they weren't finding safer supply in the bodies of overdose victims. And it's like, okay, well, that's one data point. Are you tracking, you know, if it's showing up on Reddit, like go onto Reddit, search safer supply, and they'll be like, our guy Dilley is for Dan. Yeah, safer supply, or, or, you know, check addictions rates at high schools. Nothing. It was just, they're not showing

up in the bodies of people who have died. That's, it's not a problem. I only got a minute left, but where did it come from where the people with that we're supposed to trust on issues like that, all the letters behind their name, they were the ones pushing back and saying don't believe your eyes don't believe yours don't believe the death. This works. I don't know where that came from. But Canada has been more susceptible to them than anyone else because we were such a well run country. And we developed that level of trust. So I think when a whole bunch of bad ideas came, there was no checks, there was no criticism. We just sort of let it in with the doors open. And it was able to sort of capture institutions much faster than anyone else, including the United States. We're gonna have to leave it there, my friend. You're out of town, right? Yeah, the book is called Don't Be Canada, how one country screwed up everything all at once. It's an ambitious book. It is a great read. When's it out?

Oh, it came out Tuesday. Congratulations, my friend, Tristan Hopper. Hope to have you back on the show soon. There's no limit to how far criminals will go to cover their tracks, but investigators will go even further to uncover the truth. I'm Nancy Hicks, a senior crime reporter for Global News.

This season on Crime Beat, I'll take you from the crime scene to the courtroom and inside some of Canada's most high-profile cases and some you've likely never heard of before. Search for and listen to Crime Beat on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.