The Ben Mulroney Show - Toronto's faux-progressives are getting tiring/sports betting changes

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

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Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. I want to thank you so much for joining us. It is Wednesday, November 12th. We made it to the middle of the week. And I want to thank you for joining us and participating in helping this show. We have yet to celebrate our first anniversary. I believe the first anniversary of this show is coming up in a couple of weeks on November 25th. And I'm not even going to be here. I'm going to be in Israel. So, but because the show, the show requires it. And I'm looking forward to it. Don't ask me about anniversaries. My wife, you know what, forget them all the time. Never remember the dates. My intrepid producer, Mike Droulet.

Hello there, sir. Good morning. So yesterday, yes, I think when you took a great deal of pride in putting together what I thought was a really good remembrance day show. I thought we did some things and shared some stories. It might have been a little different than you might have heard elsewhere. But, you know, I think everybody that's part of this show was hoping that what would come across is that we need to, in that moment and on that day, respect and remember our brave men and

women who have sacrificed or have put their lives on the line for this country. That's what our focus should be. And yet the city of Toronto, she keeps demonstrating that they just on so many different things, just don't get it. They don't get it. Let's put you in one of those moments that, you know, before the bell told at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month, before the moment of silence and the solemn notes of the last post, Aretha Philip, chief of protocol and external relations of the city of Toronto, handed the podium microphone to two air cadets to deliver the land acknowledgement and the ancestral acknowledgments. Let's listen.

We acknowledge the land we are meeting on as our traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the credit, the Inishinawa, the Chippewa, the Hohna Shone, and the Wendat people. We acknowledge all treaty peoples, including those who came here as settlers as migrants, either in this generation or in generations past. And those who came here involuntarily, particularly those brought to these lands as a result of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery. I mean, come on.

This is the day, the one day, the one moment that should be reserved. exclusively to thank those who died to give us this country. And we can't take that moment and give it the respect it deserves without lumping in land acknowledgements and some sort of ancestral acknowledgement for the transatlantic slave trade, keeping in mind that we have days, weeks, and months reserve for black history. Month and other, God knows what else we've got. We've got orange shirt day where we are solemn in that moment.

Black History Month gets our attention. This deserves its own moment and everybody else. And by the way, there are members of First Nations who have and continue to defend this country with honor. There are black Canadians who for years have traditions within their own families and communities of putting on the uniform to defend this country. That's part of this. They are part of this. And again, not for nothing. I can't, I can't believe I have to say this. Canada became a country in 1867, 33 years after slavery was abolished. Was there slavery in British North America? Yes.

Was Canada ever a slave-holding nation? No. And I'm tired. I'm so very tired of this country trying to pad its progressive resume by ascribing ills to itself that we were not responsible for. George Floyd was a problem that happened in the United States stemming from their history, their institutions, their demographics. And yet when it happened there, we felt we needed to take responsibility for it as well. Are there problems that need to be addressed with policing and certain communities? Absolutely. But the problems of France are not mine and the problems of Germany are not mine.

And the problems of Brazil and Russia are not mine. And I have enough problems that I feel need highlighting in this country that we really do need to address without having to import problems that other countries are responsible for. I have never lived. No Canadian has ever lived in a country that had slavery as a policy. Never. Do we have issues that need to be dealt with to make sure that we build the fairest, most equitable country in the world?

Yes. But please, for the love of God, in that moment, when we are trying to honor our fallen, can we not for one day remind ourselves that we have issues with First Nations and that there was a transatlantic slave trade? Can we please?

Is this too much to ask? Like, I get it. We all get it. You are progressive and you want to remind everybody that there are ills that were perpetrated. I get it. I get it.

I'm here. here for it. But not in that moment. In that moment, show these people and their memories, the respect that they deserve without stealing and hog in the spotlight. Stop patting our resume as progressives. In that moment, we are Canadian and we are here because of the sacrifice of those men and women. They deserve that moment to themselves. That's it. If you you can't get that, if you don't understand the importance of that moment, if you don't understand the importance of those people and their sacrifice, if you feel in that moment, you also have to bring other issues to the four. You don't belong in a position of power.

That's it. That's my rant. Mike Droulet? It's accurate. It's accurate. But think about the veterans, right? Think about all those veterans that all the Senate tafts across the country. It's not just in Ottawa. It's every small town. All these small towns have these beautiful cenotaphs and these veterans and there's few. And we, it's like 3,600 left over from the Second World War. That's it. But we have all these ones from the Gulf War plus Afghanistan most recently. And the things that they went through, the things that they saw changed them. Yeah. And they deserve that moment to be able to remember, for us to be remembered that they sacrificed a lot. They sacrificed,

even if you might not see it, there's like an invisible sort of disability there. They have all suffered. Yeah. And continue to suffer every day after leaving the service years and decades earlier. They still carry with them the burden of responsibility that our country put on them. They didn't wake up one day and say, hey, I want to go storm Normandy. They went because they answered the call of a nation. They answered, they felt duty bound to do so.

Can we not for just one moment, one day a year, make it about them instead of making about you and your progressive ideals? It doesn't matter. This is not a hot take. This is not a hot take. War is hell. Absolutely hell. I saw people break down. I saw the toughest soldiers break down because they couldn't handle what was going.

They couldn't tell who the enemy was in Afghanistan. They couldn't. They didn't know when. something was going to happen. It was just tension, anxiety, and constant day after day that they're there. And they were there for nine-month tours, even longer.

Yeah. And then they come back home and they're expected to just blend into society and do it. Get back to it. Get back to it. They deserve far better than this from people who clearly have lost the plot. The fact that this was

not addressed, the fact that at City Hall, they said, you know what? We'll do it after we'll do it after or like at this point let's just send or how about they just send themselves an email send yourself an email because we know that that's in the header of all of your freaking emails or that i'm sorry the signature of your emails these land acknowledgements and what's the other one called african ancestral african and central ancestral ancestral acknowledgement this is this is nonsense this is juvenile this is beneath you this is it's not because they believe that they're right.

Yeah. Shame on you for taking this moment away from them. Shame on you for taking even one second away from these men and women who deserve far better than you in that moment. You brought shame to yourselves by disrespecting them. It's awful. It's awful. And I hope to God this never happens again.

They deserve so much better than that. All right. Moving on, your neighborhood is pristine. Businesses are flourishing. But that lineup, oh, that terrible lineup, get out of here, nimbism at its finest. That's next on the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. But we really felt it was incumbent upon us to slap down that poor, boorish behavior,

selfish behavior by the progressives at City Hall who felt that they could horn in on a moment that should have been reserved exclusively for our men and women in uniform. So that was to start the show. But now I want to welcome in the team that makes the Ben Mulroney show possible. Amy Siegel, how are you?

I'm good. I'm good. I'm well. My intrepid producer, Mike Droulet. Good morning. Yes, indeed. And Dave Spargala, they're behind the board. Nice to see you as well. You too. Okay, so my aunt, Ivana, I know she's listening right now. I'm going to get a text from her during this. So my Aunt Evina and I like to every now and then get together and go sample of food that we just hear is fantastic. And last, early, early summer, late spring, I think, we decided to try pizza, pizzeria Badialli, which is, for those of you who want to go,

181 Dovercourt. Don't give out the address. Northwest of Queen and Ozington. Everyone knows where it is. Well, now they know, now more people know. I want you to go there. So I was quite taken even before we sat down. I stood at the intersection, in the intersection, and I did a 360 and I was like, this is the most beautiful, like there's nothing ugly to look at here. It's such a beautiful, like a movie set, but that intersection looked like a movie set. Anyway, we walked into this beautiful pizzeria where you stand in line, you order, and you walk out. And there was a line to get in, maybe 10 people that were sort of cordoned off and following the line

nicely and then we sat down and we ate and then we um and then we left and but this this pizzeria is so popular as a matter of fact it's so popular that they've done a collaboration with miss vikis and you can get a miss vikis body ali flavored chip gross yeah okay you we're going to get to you in a sec because you represent the perspective that we want to talk about right now uh so this is a this is something people who are coming from far and wide to try this pizza that because of social media is getting attention far beyond the confines of the GTA and that's sort of the power of social media it makes for food tourism makes for this one of the reasons Ottawa has better restaurants now than they did when I grew up there

because the word gets out that there's a great restaurant there and people will go they'll take time out of their lives to go try that restaurant and so um so badi ali is one of those one of those places and it's putting Toronto on the map as a as a pizza destination and and even on even uh and I my aunt we recognize like that we just had a great moment together And I think about it often. Every time I hear Badiallis, I think about that moment. And there's real value in that. And I think I'm a fan of this sort of thing.

But there are people out there for whom this is the reason to get off the couch and go to city council and talk about the – In French, we say, we call it the – the circumstance nefast, like the bad knock-on effects of something like this. Let's listen to the urban hellscape that a pizzeria Badioli is causing for the residents of the area. I wouldn't want to live next door to wait. But definitely pizza Bidali is a huge issue, and it's been an issue for the church across the street. They've had to block off their stairs because of garbage issues, and there's lineups down the block. And it's definitely had adverse impacts on the neighbors that live close by. And that's exactly an example of a destination business that not only attracts,

people from Toronto, but internationally. My goodness. Okay. Well, hold on. Hold on. I just, I need to, I need to take a moment and I need to tell this woman that my heart goes out to you. My heart goes out to you that, that, that there are people coming into your neighborhood,

hungry for pizza. We need a little violin. Eating, eating pizza and leaving. And when they leave, they, it's, I'm so, so very sorry that, look, you know what, I'm actually done with the comedy part and I'm gonna say this seriously and then I want to talk to you Amy because you live in the area

I do but let me just say this if this is the issue for you if you are not dealing with drug addicts and homelessness and violence if you're not dealing with crazy noise at three in the morning if you're not dealing with

the shuttering of shops if you're not dealing with, you know, infrastructure issues. If you're not dealing with any of that stuff, but you're dealing with this, you are the single luckiest Torontonian on the planet. Consider yourself lucky.

Also, not for nothing. If you don't want to live next to a pizza shop, move to the country. I don't know to tell you. Okay. This place has been zoned clearly. Let me talk. So Amy, my producer,

works, lives in the area. And she, I think, would find common cause with this lucky lady. I would never go to the extension. she's gone to and report this. But imagine, and I do live in the area, and I, and, uh, the lineups are insane. Ten people you said when you went, has tripled, quadrupled at least. Do we have the sound of a smallest violin playing?

No, no, no, I'm just saying, imagine, you know, and you're, like you said, it's a gorgeous neighborhood. You don't, you don't want to move. Yeah. But imagine you lived there and there was just a lineup of people standing outside your house four hours every single day. It's kind of weird. I don't think it's worth...

I also live inside a food bank. So I'm like... I'm like walled in. Okay, so what I've seen is the lineup goes down one particular street that doesn't... I mean, there are houses eventually down there? No, no, there's houses all around.

Across the street, there's a condo. Okay. And then there's houses right beside it on either side. Look, outside. of my house, I'm two blocks in from a major intersection. And depending on the time of day, there are cars lined up trying to take a left or a right or go straight because that light isn't very long. And so when people are dropping off their kids or certain times a day,

there's a lot of cars. I don't know what to tell you. Like, that's just part of where I live. If I lived a block in even farther, I would not have any issues. I mean, but it's part of living in a city. Of course. And these are not, again, these are not the worst miscreants in the city. They are people who are hungry for a slice of pizza. They're hipsters. They're hipsters, which tell me if I'm wrong, but I suspect they're quiet, they're kind of jaded, they're ironic in everything they do.

But they're also wearing tukes? And they're wearing tukes and jaunty scarves and frameless glasses. They look like me. So like, okay, so they're just standing there. I mean, they're not, it's just... Okay, and if there's garbage, if there's garbage, that's a solvable problem. I just, I think

that the solution is that body alleys should move to a bigger place. where people can actually like sit down and then they can make more money and okay but then what happens if because that's zoned for commercial use right it's a yeah okay so what if it gets replaced by something else a consumption site no no no no no listen we don't have to go down that path but what what happened oh we're talking about that later in the show but what happens if instead of body ali's you get an a and w or like a fast food joint where the smell of the french fries what wafts through the neighborhood all the time.

You want to smell like French fries all the time? All the time? What if it's open 24-7? What if it's a big company that's able to push through to the city that they want to be open 24-7? They want to start fries 24-7. I don't think that that zone would allow it. My point is it could be so much worse. Hold on a second, because I live in the East End.

And where I live in the East End, there's nowhere to walk to. There's no places, restaurants that are these cool little places that, you know, the East End, The West End, where I live, no, there is nothing great around me. Hey, this is his lived experience. It's a lot of... You don't deny his lived experience. There's a lot of things.

There's a lot of stuff like that. There's nothing where I live in the East York, where it's easily accessible to really wonderful food. That portion of West End Toronto is teeming with amazing things. On Ossington, bang, bang, ice cream. Yeah, fine. Lineups in the winter. Lineups in the winter.

It's crazy. It's so stupid. Who lines up for ice cream? I don't get it. But just don't get it. Listen, we are living in a time where our restaurants, we're living in a time where our restaurants and where our entrepreneurial class is head wins all the time. Here's a success story that is putting Toronto on the map. And the clientele, like I said, they're quiet, they're not, they just stand there. They probably take way too many pictures of their food. I've been there, but they take pictures of their food. It could be so much worse for. for that neighborhood. So to that woman again, like count your blessings that this is the issue that got you off the couch because I could be, I mean,

later on the show, we are going to be talking about some problems that a lot of other people in the city would kill to have a problem like Badiallis. Kill to have a problem with Badiallis. Yes, last word to you, Amy Siegel.

Can I just bring up your aunt's name because it's not often. Evena? Evena. Yes. We should bring Evena back. Oh, even I would love to come on. I'm sure.

I mean her name. I love that name. Some people say Ivana, but she's an Ivana. All right. Thank you very much to all of you. By the way, Pizzeria Badialli. 181-Dovercourt, northwest of Queen in Ozington. Guys, I thank you for existing, and I cherish the memory.

Up next, how micro-bedding is making sports leagues nervous. Everyone remembers the high that we were all feeling during the World Series and it did not end the way people in Toronto wanted it to end. But I think I could speak for a lot of sports fans that it was a magical end to the season. And I think Major League Baseball was so happy with what they witnessed with the over 50 million people watching in three countries. It became an international event that I think we'll be talking about for years. years, and I think Major League Baseball probably wanted to hold onto that high as long as they could. Sadly, it didn't last. It didn't last by any stretch of the imagination because just a few days ago, two members of the Cleveland Guardians, Emmanuel Class A and Luis Ortiz, pitchers for

Cleveland, were caught having essentially fixed games in order to win parlay bets, right? You're shaking your head. Ringing pitches. Rigging pitches. Well, yeah, but that's still fixing a game. Yeah. But rigging pitches for these side bets, these micro bets that you can make on tiny little aspects of a baseball game. And as somebody who doesn't gamble, this whole concept is very, very new to me. And so, you know, we want to talk about the state of play for legal gambling in Canada. What's good, what's working, what's not working.

And how can we get to a place where it is safe and responsible and make. a whole lot of money for a whole lot of people in a legal fashion. Please welcome to the show, the president and CEO of Canadian Gaming Association, Paul Burns. Paul, thanks so much for joining us on the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you for having me. So in a lot of ways, Paul, this is where I want to level set, is we're still in the early days of this, of betting, online betting, legal betting on sports in a lot of ways. And so I don't think anybody could, I don't think we could expect to get everything right out of the gate. but this highlights a pretty wrong aspect of gambling.

Would you agree? Well, it's disappointing in so many ways because I think when everybody, you know, there's a strong integrity system built in behind. That's why we're finding out about a lot of these things to start. But really what I think, an underestimation that comes with professional athletes willing to participate in these kinds of activities given the opportunities they have

not only been the salaries but the privilege of earning their way into these positions on these teams is not easy it takes a lot of hard work and lifetime of work for a lot of these guys and to think about these things in that context is disappointing and I think it was an underestimation in some in my opinion on the level of which athletes would do these kinds of things Professional athletes effed around and Major League Baseball showed them exactly what the reaction was going to be and that reaction was far beyond the punishment that they received. Major League Baseball is capping micro bets on single pitches at 200 bucks banning them from parleyes after these guys were charged with taking bribes and manipulating games. And so according to the information we have, the rule affects 98% of U.S. sportsbooks and Ontario operators.

And so are you happy with this change? Is this a needed tweak or is this, are you disappointed that people couldn't play within the rules and now everybody is going to lose out? Well, I think it is as much disappointing, but understanding that if you have to make the changes, it's the right thing to do. And it's unfortunate.

But the reality is the leagues ultimately, it's their product. And the partnership that sports books have with the leagues in organizations, you know, they're important and the request comes from the leagues. It's hard for the industry to ignore those. And in fact, in working with them and often define ways to make sure that integrity can be even enhanced and maintained through all of this. So, no, it's unfortunate, but when the leagues are dictating this, it's very important that

everybody respond to that because it is their product at the end of that. the day. And I want us to drill down for our listeners who don't know sort of what exactly a micro bet is. What is a prop bet? What is a parlay? This is all language that a lot of people don't understand.

Yeah. So prop bets and often are done or micro bets as they're called for the same thing. It really comes down to it often centered around player performance or an activity within a game. So players assist on over, under on points for, or yardage gain in an NFL, points in an NBA game, who's going to get a point in an NHL game.

And then you can have both some can be teams, some can be player related. And can I ask, you know, when we hear microbet, my brain immediately goes to small bet. but it does the micro it appears from what you're saying it has nothing to do with the amount that you used to be able to bet it had to do with the sort of the microcosm in that one moment that you're betting on you're betting on an activity within a game yeah and within a moment so you can bet on the outcome of an entire game or you can bet on activities within that game and have have we gotten a sense with this with this limitation a cap of 200 bucks on micro bets on single pitches, do we have a sense of how much potential revenue could be lost to

the, you know, generally speaking to legal gambling? I haven't heard a number particularly at this point. In fact, I don't think that's, you know, it's not something that's probably top of mind for the sports books at this point in time. It's about, you know, maintaining integrity and trust. So, and I've got to ask, but what has been the reaction within your interest? the colleagues that you've talked to to this scandal keeping in mind that this is the these these these scandals seem to be affecting sports the sport by sport we had the problem with the NBA there have been issues with UFC athletes I mean it's only a matter of time before some

somebody in the NFL or the NHL uh getting trouble as well they already have oh they have it's literally touched every league um Shane Pinto um was suspended for 40 games half a season last year by the NHL because it was found he had an account that was betting on hockey. Wow. Now, it found out it wasn't him because he was letting somebody else use his account. Right.

There's the first NFL player to be suspended was, I think, two years ago or more. He tweeted his bet out what he had placed a bet on. And it costs some $11 million. Well, you know, that's that social Darwinism at its best. If you're going to be that stupid, then if you're going to make it that easy to catch you, then that's on you. But let's, let's finish. That's the issue is that the fact

is that what everybody needs to understand is that Jonte Porter's activities in Toronto were caught through a sports book in Colorado and Denver. Yeah. And the state of Colorado's gaming control and the sportsbook operator where bets were being placed through flagged it. And because One, sports books are required to, under regulatory controls, there's sort of what they call, you know, there's players or customers that are, you know, need to be heightened risk profile because of what they do. Yeah. So sportsbooks would do profiles on all customers, whoever has accounts. Right. Players like account holders that happen to be professional athletes involved in sport and others get even more scrutiny.

Yeah. And the fact is that then when you tie in betting patterns and other things that may or may not involve them, those also get triggered because if on a betting on a pitch and someone's laying down lots of money that gets outside sort of what would be typical pattern, it gets flag. And this is, I have to, I only have a minute left and I just want to just get you on the record in terms of is it feels to me like what we're witnessing here are people sort of testing the fence. and what the industry is looking at is, like, do we have the appropriate safety checks in place to catch these cheaters when it happens? Do you think that the level of oversight to catch these types of outliers

is appropriate and is adequate or does more need to be done? And if you can give me an answer to about 15 seconds, please. Yes, there is enough oversight because this proves actually the systems are working. Yeah, yeah. Because the players are getting caught and working with law enforcement and the gaming industry works

with state and provincial gaming regulators and law enforcement on a regular basis and yes, it is working and this is why people need to educate themselves to stop doing these kinds of things because you're going to get caught. You're going to get caught and you're going to ruin it for everybody else

who has the right to enjoy these things responsibly. Paul Burns, the president, CEO of Canadian Gaming Association. Thank you very much for joining us. I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. With most Subaru models, all-wheel drive comes standard.

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