The Ben Mulroney Show - This week in politics - The projects Carney wants to start first

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

 Chris Chapin, Political Commentator, Managing Principal of Upstream Strategy -  Warren Kinsella, Former Special Advisor to Jean Chretien and CEO of the Daisy Group   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 Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And one of the reasons people tune in to this show is because we have some of the best political minds joining us over the course of the week for this week in politics panel. This is the Friday edition. So please welcome Chris Chapin, political commentator managing principle of upstream strategy. In a moment, we'll be joined by Warren Kinsella, former special. advisor to Jean Crezsche and CEO of the Daisy Group. We'll get to warn in just a moment, but Chris, let's talk about the lightning speed with which the Americans, the justice system went out there and found who they believed to be the assassin who felled Charlie Kirk at the age of 31 on the campus of University of Western

Utah just a couple of days ago. This didn't surprise me when you're on a first name basis with the director of the FBI. stuff's going to move pretty fast. Yeah, absolutely, Ben. And I think, you know, to, I would say to the FBI's credit, there was, there was a lot of political pressure. There was a lot of media pressure on Cash Patel, you know. There were a lot of people that didn't think he was qualified to be the FBI director.

I mean, maybe the jury's still out on that, but, you know, Twitter was a buzz early on that he was making a mockery of this investigation because he wasn't being transparent enough or he was being too transparent, depending on whether you thought his Twitter activity he was appropriate or not. They found this guy in 33 hours in the south, you know, west corner of Utah. They kept things quiet. They did things by, you know, what it seems by the book. And they found their man and brought him to justice.

And I think the one thing that, you know, I mean, obviously he's just a suspect at this point, but they did so safely. You know, this wasn't the firefight that it was for the Sunaya brothers. When you think of the manhunt back to the Boston bombing, they went out. They did what they were supposed to do. They brought in the public as they saw fit. and ultimately they got their guy. And Warren Kinsella, one of the reasons I'm more sure about this suspect being the guy

than I might otherwise be is because he was turned in by his father, which must have been the most difficult phone call that father has ever had to make. Yeah, and the same thing happened with the Unabomber's brother turned him in many years ago. So, yeah, I mean, I guess the one of the good things about in the age of social, media these stories go everywhere pretty fast charlie kirk story has been one of the biggest stories in the world in past 48 hours so and when they got that footage of the shooter um running across the roof of the building and you know could identify his shoes and clothing and whatnot um i thought okay they're close but you know um cash patel and his his leadership team at the fbi uh screwed up

initially and there was a lot of anger in the white house how so how did they how did he because he because they said they had the guy yesterday all right and then they didn't he had to walk it back he made a mistake and you don't say you've got the guy when you don't so he looked like an idiot and so you know the but i mean that's the consequence of the trump errors right they've let go a lot of there's a one former fbi i've worked with uh recently and she was saying that's that, you know, they've let, in Utah, in particular, they've let go some experts who deal with these domestic terrorism situations. So that's what we're talking about.

And it makes it harder to find the bad guys. So, but anyway, they, uh, we've got a suspect, an alleged, um, you know, murderer. And, uh, that's good. And, you know, to all those people out there who are, uh, celebrating Charlie Kurt's murder, uh, shame on you. And, um, you're going to get. found out. And there's some people learning a hard lesson about celebrating murder this morning. I mean, and look, we can make it about that. I think there's just a more general

sort of rule of thumb that people should live by, which is not every thought you have needs to be shared on social media. If you live by that, by that, you're going to, fewer people are going to get in trouble. Hey, if you're celebrating in your heart, okay, be that person. But you don't have to let the world know. I don't understand this immediate, I, I, I've got to be the first person to comment, and I have to have the hottest take. It's the hottest take leads to the quickest takedowns. And we don't even have to talk about that anymore

because we've got a lot to get to, including the first major projects have been identified as part of Mark Carney's massive, ambitious plan to name and build these projects of national importance. And I wonder, Chris, before we get into that, can you, I hope you know, because I don't have the details, but what is involved, what is the, if something is named a project of national importance,

what does it mean in terms of how quickly these things get built or why this project would be treated differently than others that aren't on the list? Well, from my understanding, Ben, it goes back to Bill C5 in the legislative session at Parliament right after Mark Carney was elected, that very short session where they passed Bill C5. And the point of that, similar to what the provincial government

did here in Ontario, was speed up the ability for approvals for these projects. So the ones named by the Prime Minister for these special projects, as I guess we'll call them, are certainly exempt and are going to face a lot less scrutiny from a regulatory and approval perspective than they typically otherwise would have been. So, I mean, you know, on one hand, I suppose it's a good thing. You know, getting projects done faster is something this country desperately needs. I think on the other hand, I'm quite disappointed to see just how small this list was. I think we've been on air talking about this before that, you know, I'm not sure the point of putting.

out and really telegraphing that they were going to put out this major projects list because I think it set them up for failure. I think it set them up to make it seem like they were really going to put something really big in the window. And I mean, if Darlington's, you know, SMRs are part of the big projects, I mean, that's a big deal here in Ontario, but that's something the provincial government's been working on for several years now. So it just really didn't feel to me like it hit the mark in terms of this transformative economic

infrastructure projects that we thought of, you know, and thinking high speed rail from Windsor to Quebec. I'm thinking, you know, pipelines from the East Coast to the West Coast. And to be fair, listen, and Chris, to be fair, those things may be in the often. We were told this is the first tranche. And Warren, look, when I saw this list, I was like, well, these are big projects. These are going to employ a lot of people. This is going to spur a lot of economic activity. That's great. But the fact that this is happening in, as the Prime Minister said, in tranches, it does, and this is my, honestly, my only criticism of this process is it doesn't square with the narrative of the lightning speed with which we were going to

accomplish things. We're going to build faster than we ever have since the Second World War. That's really my only criticism. I was talking to Jason Kenney yesterday about the fact that there's no pipeline dot, dot, dot, yet. And even he was like, you know, it's, that's okay. It could be coming. We'll have to see. But what do you think of this process and the results thus far? Well, I kind of rolled my eyes when I saw the list. I was meaner than you. It was like to me it was like the deja vu list it's like okay high speed rail heard that before more lNG heard that before darlington heard that pipeline heard that you know what i mean yeah so it's like don't tell me what you're gonna do do it but exactly exactly i thought at this point that's that's what

we would be seeing we would see more action not more talk but you know like knock me over with a feather when i see daniel smith saying she's happy with something ottawa did it's like holy crap i'm gonna buy a 649 ticket because I've never heard this before. So, you know, maybe, maybe it's for real. Maybe she knows something I don't. But, you know, we've, like, how many times, Ben, have we seen high-speed rail from a government? Yeah. Like, I know. Yeah. Two million. Like so, I'm from Missouri. Show me. But I've got to wonder whether, look, the House is not sitting yet. The new parliament has not started, which means, you know, offering up the, uh, pipeline as a major project right now until there's a repealing of certain previous Trudeau era

legislations is sort of a non-starter. So maybe they're waiting to make some big flourish, dramatic rescinding of the no new tankers law and the emissions cap before making that announcement. I mean, they are good at theatrics. They started very strong with the stroke of the pen elimination of the consumer facing carbon tax. That could be it, Chris. Yeah, it certainly could be, Ben. I mean, you're spot on, that nobody does politics in this country better than certainly

Trudeau Liberals did for the last 10 years. So maybe this is the old bait and switch. Just get us all commentating on how they haven't done enough. To Warren's point, maybe something was promised to Danielle Smith. And there's a reason she's all happy and ready to work with the prime minister because, you know, a couple months ago she was ready to leave the succession movement out of the country. So I think there's certainly a chance here that that's exactly what's how. happening. I just think a bizarre tactic for me when it feels like there's so much pressure on

the federal government to really deliver some sort of national leadership against the administration south of the border that in the absence of that, I feel like I'm left wanting. And maybe that's just premature. Maybe that's going to come in the fall legislative session. Maybe like you said, it's going to require the repealing of a couple pieces of legislation before they come out with that kind of an announcement. But right now it feels like it's coming up. short. All right, Chris, thank you very much for that. Warren, don't go anywhere when we come back. Conservatives are going to introduce bail reform

at the top of the next parliamentary session. We'll talk about that next. This show is sponsored by Better Help. Let's be honest. We've all shared our problems in some pretty funny places, the group chat, your barber, maybe even a stranger on a plane. And, hey, sometimes that helps. But when

it comes to stuff like stress, anxiety, or relationships, it makes a big difference to talk to somebody who's actually trained to help. That's what BetterHelp is all about. They connect you with credentialed professional therapists online. And what makes them stand out is their therapist match commitment. After a quick questionnaire, BetterHelp does the hard work of finding someone who fits your needs. Most people get it right the first time, but if it's not a match, you can switch counselors anytime at no extra cost. It's flexible, totally online, and you can hit pause whenever you need to. With over 5 million people supported to date globally, BetterHelp

is now available in Canada with a network of counselors who have expertise in a wide range of specialties. With a 4.9 out of 5 rating based on over 1.7 million client reviews, BetterHelp makes counseling affordable and convenient, and you can switch counselors at any time for no cost. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Mulrooney. That's BetterHELP.com slash Mulruni. With MX Platinum, access to exclusive MX pre-sale tickets can score you a spot track. So being a fan for life

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I'm very pleased to have as my co-pilots for the next segment, Chris Chapin and Warren. Kinsella, guys, thanks so much for sticking around. I think we're all waiting with bated breath for this new session of Parliament to start what, 11 a.m.? Or is 10 a.m. on September 15th. lot of changes. We got a new prime minister, a new government, and a leader of the opposition

representing a new riding. And Pierre Poliyev has promised that the conservatives are going to introduce a bill on bail reform. And I wonder, Chris, what you think of this is, is it about the messaging how they put this forward? Because this should be something. This should be a policy that the liberals want to take from. from the Conservatives? Yeah, I think, Ben, it's, I think it's a smart tack for Pierre and the Conservatives. I think the last election showed that right now it's very hard to beat the liberals on economic terms.

I think it's very hard to out-trump and out-tariff talk, the Prime Minister. And so pivoting to something that's always been a bread-and-butter issue for the Conservative Party of Canada is quite smart. And I think there's also a vulnerability there for the Prime Minister, because you know, we've seen a raft of crime over the summer through the spring, you know, it certainly seems like it's not going to slow down heading into the fall. And Mark Carney was quite vocal and bizarrely went out of his way, you know, in the spring to talk about his desire to bring forward stricter bail reform in the fall, even though

they could have done it in the last legislative sitting. Yeah. They chose to, you know, let this sit over the summer. The issue has not gone away by any means. I think the public appetite to see change on bail reform has skyrocketed. And so I think it's a unique opportunity for the conservatives. I think it's going to be very interesting to see, to your point, what do the liberals, what does Prime Minister Carney do to try to steal this issue back from the conservatives?

Because I think if they spend the fall talking about bail reform and that the liberals and the federal government aren't going far enough and that the conservatives want them to go further, I think it opens up a real opportunity for Pierre to kind of pivot back and get himself back up in the polls. Well, and Warren, I think, but so much of it, in my opinion, is how this is presented by, the conservative leader. And what I mean by that is, you know, there are a lot of people who may not have voted for the liberals in the last election, but now that they're in charge, there is so much at stake that we absolutely need them to succeed. And so if Pierre comes out and says, please, steal this from us, you're so weak on crime, we want you to steal this. That's not a really attractive value prop. But if they say, this is important to Canadians, we've been talking to them,

And we know that this is important to you. We know that this matters to you. So please, we want to work in collaboration with you to get this done. That's a different way to message it. And it allows the conservatives to come off as magnanimous and being part of the solution at a time where if you're voting, if you're challenging the government, it can be made to be said about you that you are betting against Canada. think yeah that's one way coming at it i'd come at it differently if i was pauliev's guys the thing to understand about the criminal justice and criminal justice reform is all levels of government play in it

it's not just the federal government so the federal government's responsibility is that basically the writing and the amendment of the criminal code and the bail rules that are within there the provinces fund the administration of justice. You know, the prosecutors and the judges who apply those rules and then the municipalities pay for the police forces. So all of them are in the mix. What I would be doing if I was Polyeb was focusing all my attention on Carney because we've seen, God knows Carney is all for stealing Polyev's ideas. He's done it on carbon tax and capital gains and defense spending, you name it. He's going to steal it here. If I was Polyeb looking for some limelight and God knows he needs it, because his numbers aren't very good.

As I would say, here's what the feds can do, but I'm going to use my sway with provincial premiers who he needs to develop a better relationship with anyway, the conservative, to say spend more. Because if you're a judge, the big problem they've got just very quickly is a lot of the reason why these bad guys are getting back on the street is we've got nowhere to put them. Because we're not properly funding justice,

Like, we need an ability to be able to jail people if we're serious about jailing them for serious crimes. And that's not happening because the provinces aren't properly funding justice. So that's what I would do if I were poliov. Chris, if you had the ear of the leader of the opposition and he was asking you, what do I need to do in these first few days in the House of Commons, where I was really known as an effective, you know, I manhandled Trudeau pretty, much any time I spoke to him. That's not what he needs to do now. What would you tell him about how to reintroduce himself all while maintaining authenticity about who he is? Yeah, it's a very good

question, Ben. I had a couple thoughts. One, you can't reinvent yourself. You know, Pierre Pauly has been in the public eye for over two decades. Pierre is who he is. My advice would be, you know, taking a sports analogy is if you're a pitcher, you're facing a different batter now. You know, Mark Carney is not Justin Trudeau. As much as you want to compare their policies, they are complete opposite politicians. And so you've got to recognize that not only are you up against somebody else and somebody different,

the public views this guy far, far differently than they view Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau was so disliked. And there were so many questions about his qualifications to be prime minister amongst a huge portion of the electorate. Those questions don't exist about Mark Carney, for example. And so the way in which you approach him in the House of Commons, the way in which you talk about him in the media needs to change because you can't poke fun of him the same way you could about Justin Trudeau. You're attacking somebody differently. And so I think that is the main takeaway is don't try to change who you are.

You have been successful because of your natural, born, political instincts and your ability to communicate. But you've got to recognize you're going up against a different opponent now. Warren, we're in an interesting time where I don't think there's anybody who wants to go. back to the polls anytime soon. The liberals do not have complete control over this parliament. They don't have a majority. I don't believe the NDP are ready to have an election. I don't think that Tories want to have an election. So if you're the leader of the opposition, are you playing a long game here? Are you seating the ground

with anticipation that you've got road ahead of you? Or are you do you have to be prepared that there could be an election at any day? Well, I agree with Chris. Like, you know, the fundamentals of Pollyette. are set but like it's in polyev's interest to cool it and like for sure you know i've heard a million times though he's great in question period he's great in committee like who cares so was thomas malcare and where is he now he's a pundit like the rest of us he's being don't knock it man this is fun yeah and congratulations on the show by the way thank thank you very much great and so but like who cares right you know you know

your average voter thinks question period is what's wrong with the system, not what's great about it. So that's why, you know, Pollya being good at that. Oh. And so kind of kinder, that's what he's going to do. Yeah. Chris, we only have, we just have a short period of time left. What about the NDP here?

Like, I know that we're essentially in a two-party system right now. What do they have to do to, I don't know, I steal a little bit of oxygen? I mean, it's so tough, Ben. You have a leadership race. Is that enough? Yeah, I mean, get your house in orders the first step. You know, hopefully you can find somebody that can, you know, be a spokesperson.

I mean, here's what I think they need to do. They need to find somebody, whether that's inside that very small caucus or, you know, within this leadership race, that can be a spokesperson for progressive values on the left of the political spectrum in this country. and go after Mark Carney every time he tries to pivot to the center right and try to peel back those voters because if you don't do that and I think unfortunately we've already seen them get so so down the rabbit hole on these you know that the quotas for who can buy a membership you know these identity politic nonsense that put them in this place in the first place

they need to get back to be in the voice of you know organized labor in this country they need to get back to be in the voice of you know low income families yeah you know want to hand up. And until they do that, best of luck. Well, yeah, and I don't think they've gotten that memo yet. You've got the rabble rouser Eve Engler, who's rather than focusing on workers' rights and making their lives better, he's focused on trying to get me removed from the job of hosting West Block before I've even hosted it. Before you even start. There you go. A gentleman, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Have a wonderful weekend. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks, guys. Take care more.

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