The Ben Mulroney Show - Trump trumped the democrats, again/Juno nominees composing in cartel land

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

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This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. This is the Ben Mulroney show, and last night, depending on how much you pay attention,

the state of the union was appointment television. Some people need to watch that live, and it is made very easy for people to watch live because it is obviously on all the major networks, and it is on all the cable networks. And then, of course, if you're somebody, you can watch it on YouTube. And then, of course, if you are not somebody

who can do that or wants to do that, you can always watch it later, or you can watch little bits and pieces on social media over the course of the next day. But early reports are in that over 35, almost 37 million people, as matter of fact, watched some portion of that live, yesterday. You can imagine 100 million impressions over the first 24 hours. That's probably

in the realm of the possible. Was President Trump humble at the state of the union? No. Was he boastful? Yes. Those are not hot takes. He turned the state of the union into a partisan rally, blasting Democrats, boasting about a golden age of America, and breaking sharply with traditional sober tones that the presidents usually adopt. Let's be honest. These things used to be about setting the table for what's to come. And yes, there have always been elements of partisanship.

But over the past few administrations, I've got just going to lay this at the feet of Donald Trump. over the last few administrations, that tone, that partisanship has been turned up. And we'll talk about that in a moment. But let's talk about, you know, there's a lot of ways of saying this. I'm going to say this in the most polite way possible. This speech demonstrated that, like everyone, Donald Trump contains multitudes. There was the fun Trump hosting Team USA.

But I just want to tell you that the members of this great, hockey squad, will be very happy to hear based on their vote and my vote, and in this case, my vote was more important, that I will soon be presenting Connor with our highest civilian honor, which we will be given and which has been given to many athletes over the years. But when I say many, not too many, like 12, it's called the highest civilian honor in our country, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. So that was the fun, Trump. Then there's also the Trump,

you know, the one that drops hints? He speaks where he can threaten, but not necessarily threaten. Some terrible people. They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles

that will soon reach the United States of America. After midnight hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program in a particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start all over again. Yes, that was him talking about Iran as the buildup in the region by the U.S. military is an unprecedented since the last Gulf War. And yet the axe hangs, as they say, but it, it. does not fall. Then there is the Trump that lashes out. This is the Trump that we as Canadians

here quite often. But he directed it specifically at his opponents in Congress, the Democrats. These people are crazy. I'm telling you. They're crazy. Amazing. We're lucky we have a country. With people like this, Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the of time, didn't we have? And in case that's not the example that lands with you, we've got another one where he lashes out this time

about Democrats and elections. Why would anybody not one voter ID? One reason, because they want to cheat. There's only one reason. They make up all excuses. They say it's racist. They come up with things. You almost say, what imagination

they have. They want to cheat. They have cheated. And they're policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat and we're going to stop it. That voice that you hear chirping in the distance, that was Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. And look, lots of these clips are making the rounds on social media, but none more so viral than when the president stood in front of all of Congress, the joint sitting of both houses, and said, I want to say all legislators to join me in reaffirming that the primary role of government, and everybody here, is to serve the interests of the people of this country and not illegal aliens.

Stand if you agree. And what followed was every single Republicans standing and applauding for what felt like an exceptionally longstanding ovation. and the Democrats sitting on their hands. To the Democrats, I will say, you're done messed up. You done messed up. Because what you need to realize and what everybody probably knows

but isn't always articulated is there are some advantages that come from being the leader. In Canada, the leader can, oh, I don't know, ask somebody to resign their seat in the House of Commons because there is a diplomatic posting for them somewhere. Or you get to take a fun trip to India and Australia and then stop in Tokyo on the way home, even though a few weeks earlier you had said that you were not going to be running because

you want to spend more time with your family. There is also the, for example, the prime minister traveling around the world and the party, the Liberal Party, making, taking videos of all of this, everything associated with being a leader, hobnobbing with other leaders, speaking at summits, all that stuff that only a prime minister can do makes them look like a prime minister. These are the advantages of being in office. One of the advantages of being president, one of the many advantages of being president, is you have the entire country's attention once a year for the state of the union. It is your show. It is your parade. It is your parade.

It is your circus. It is your world and everybody else is just living in it. So when the president asks a question, anybody who agrees that your job should be to stand for the American people and not illegal aliens? I can't believe I have to say this because some of the people in Congress are pretty smart. He's expecting you to sit there. That's what he wants. You literally did exactly what he wanted.

What's he going to do with that? That footage, he's going to use it. He's going to leverage it. You gave him exactly what he wanted. And so had you asked me, had I known what the speech was going to be, even if I didn't know what the speech was going to be, I would have said, this is his show. You are like a marionette.

Like a marionette, he pulled your strings. And you danced for him exactly as he wanted. So my recommendation to them would have been when he says, if you agree with me, stand, I would have told my entire caucus to stand and turn my back to him. We stand for the people, but we do not in any way respect you, sir.

That's what I would have done. I would have messed with his visual because that's what he's a very visual president. You gave him exactly what he wanted. And 36 million people saw it live, but 10% of the American population, I'm thinking that represents probably 20% of eligible voters.

And that was live. Imagine how many people saw it on social media. Saw you sit there and the symbolism is, because people don't have time for nuance in a 30 second clip. They saw you prioritizing illegal aliens over the American people. That may very well not be true. But it doesn't matter because you literally played the game by his rules. I think that was a huge miss by the,

And look, the Democrats are probably going to make gains. Probably make big gains in the in the in the in the in the in the, off season are off year elections of midterms. But they're supposed to. But that was an unforced error by you guys. And yeah, live and learn. Big trouble. Put the call out before the break asking you what did you think of the state of the

union? And I highlighted one key moment, which is the most viral moment of the night where the Democrats essentially fell into a trap laid by Donald Trump by not standing when he asked everybody to stand if they stood with the American people. Ian, welcome to the show. Where are you calling from? North York. Well, thank you for calling. What did you think of last night? It's kind of astounding how they debate every single time. And you know, it's coming. You know, if they were fish, you know, the fish species would go out of, you know,

go a stink because they'd bite every hook that came into the water. Yeah. You know, I remember when Ron Federman was running for the Senate, and I thought, man, you're voting for this guy. He's recovering from a stroke. He can barely speak. But he's the saneest one of the bunch. Yeah.

You know, I wish there was an isolation camera on him last night just to see him shaking his head going, my God, you did it again. And all it would have taken. You not realize you're on camera? Yeah, Ian, all it would have taken was one of the, like, Like I said, I like my idea. Stand up and turn around. Yes, we stand with the American people, but not the way you're doing it, sir.

That would have been a great symbol for them. I'm not saying which one is right and which one's wrong. It's not my country. I don't have, I don't need to take a position. But, you know, they should have, they should have, all it would have taken is one of them in the front to do that. And they all would have followed. All of them.

And he would have been in a sour mood for the rest of that speech. I really think now someone's going to come out with a bull. book that proves Trump Arrangement Syndrome is real. Yeah, listen, I don't know if it's something. I heard someone on the radio once. I think, I think I was in Miami. And I was listening to Brad Smith, who's a host at 640, Toronto. And he was having a conversation about Trump derangement syndrome with a doctor who said,

it's not an actual medical condition, but it's got a lot of commonalities with other mental illnesses. Ian, thanks so much for the call. Let's go to Leslie in Red Deer. Welcome to the show. How are you doing, Ben? I'm good, I'm good. Yeah, listen, I think they are so blinded sometimes by their, I don't know if it's hatred,

annoyance, jealousy, maybe a combination of all of them of Donald Trump, that they often can't see their own, like what would benefit them the most in those moments? Did you mean the Democrats? Yeah. Well, I don't support Democrats. I support Trump, so I kind of like what he did. Yeah, no, listen. I'm not taking a position either way.

You know, frankly, that I always say a speech is only a speech until you do something with it. And he, but he knew what he was, like, that speech is his to leverage, right? It's his speech. It's his moment. And they're just sitting there watching it. And he asked them to do something in a moment. And rather than ask themselves, well, like, why is he asking us that?

And if we sit here, we're going to give him exactly what he wants. If we stand, he's going to be able to use against us. So what's our other option? Because we can't, those are two things that he wants. So what can we do that he doesn't want? Like what I want to express is that I watched the entire thing. And Donald Trump does know how to put on a show. Yep.

And he does, he does love his country. You can just tell. And I think we need more of that in Canada. But I've given up on Canada because I support Alberta, independence. Okay. But we're with, and 90% of our trade is with the U.S., so me as an Albertan has to support the Americans.

Well, look, my hope is between, listen, it's your right to feel that way. I'm sorry you do. I hope that before that referendum happens, people like myself, I've said myself, I'm going to if I have to, I'm going to pay my way to Alberta to make the case for Canada on

my own dime. We'd love to have you come out then. Yeah, well, I'd love to be, I listen, I love my time in Alberta. But I want to thank you so much for calling Leslie. I really do call in any time. I appreciate time, Ben. Have a good day. Take care. Yes, and we will have more fulsome conversations on the Alberta independence movement at some point.

I've had some people on the show who poo-poo it and but you know, you can't, I mean, if 20% of the people, and I think it's, it's whatever the, I was talking with a pollster who said that the numbers for Alberta independence are very, very similar to the ones for Quebec independence. And frankly, if you care about Canada, you shouldn't care about why people feel alienated. You shouldn't care if it's about money versus about culture.

If somebody feels alienated, they feel alienated. The end result will be the same. They get enough people and they're going to leave. So, yeah, I would pay attention to that. Let's go to Lisa. Lisa, welcome. You're calling from outside Edmonton. Hello, how are you, Ben?

I'm great. I'm great. Thanks for calling. Thanks for having me. I love your show. Thank you very much. I just wanted to say that I don't really think. people should care as much about Donald Trump as they do, or what he says or how he says it.

I don't, listen, I don't agree with half of what he says or how he says it. Oh, my gosh, I wish we had somebody that would fight for Canadians the way he fights and loves for his country. I think it's something we could really use here. Listen, I've said before, I think that there is a certain type of politician that has been able to leverage anti-Americanism in this country, and they dress it up as Canadian nationalism. those two things are not the same. Canadian nationalism is wanting to make this country the strongest, most prosperous country in the world

where no one wants for anything, where everyone who is here, new Canadians, refugees, even those with people with mental health disorders, everyone's needs are taking care of either by themselves because it's the freest country in the world or by the state

where we have built out the most robust social safety net on the planet. That is pro-Canadianism. Anti-Americanism is to bash Austin Matthews, the captain of the Maple Leafs, who's American, who showed up at the State of the Union. That doesn't help anybody. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I thank you for the call, Lisa. Thank you very much.

Let's go to Frank. Frank, welcome. Hey, Ben. How are you? I'm good. I'm great, actually. Actually, you know, he was kind of hysterical and comical the way he conducted himself. I think he could compete with Jay Leno in terms of some of the things he was saying.

I think what he was trying to do is to change the narrative to the opposite side, that he's well known right now the way the Democrats are pushing it, is a man for the wealthy and the rich, supporting the rich. So I think he was trying to appeal to the common person, the victim of crime, the top-notch athlete with the goalie, and he probably recognizes himself that the common person loves sports, loves to see a Cinderella story to victims of crime. and I think by changing or using that narrative, he's trying to kind of reconfigure himself in the eyes of the public.

Maybe, maybe. I think, I think Frank, I think he knows that his unfettered access to power is, is limited. The window is closing because these midterms are coming. And traditionally, the House and whoever has the presidency, that party tends to lose ground in the midterms. it's not a judgment on the president it's a judgment on two years of government and they have to hold somebody accountable and they hold the president accountable so they i think he knows that he's going to lose some ground whether he loses a house one of the one of the houses of the congress is i don't know yet uh and so i think he wants to do as much as he can over the next few months before those elections limit his abilities and um and and he's and he's a master of symbolism right he's a master of Bites. Oh, yeah. And he got that last night.

You got what he won last night. Frank, thank you so much for the call. Let's go to, we got time for one more. Let's go to Cameron. Welcome, Cameron. How are you? I'm good. Listen, I'm a member of the Iranian Canadian community.

We came out two weeks ago. Yes, he did. Half a million of us. We are super proud Canadian. Super, super patrious. You can say anything about us in that sense. But I'll tell you something. We smell ideology and cult from my

miles out, miles out. And when I see those Democrats, when I see our own liberals, I smell danger and ideology. These people are so, at times are so radicalized. It doesn't matter what you do for the country. That policy doesn't matter. Their ideology matters. It doesn't matter what Trump is going to say or Peary is going to say. They are stuck like a cult to their ideology. Yeah, Cameron, we'll end on this, but I saw a social media post. It was brilliant. It was a young woman who went onto a college campus in the United States asking students what they thought of the state of the union address, except she asked them what they thought of it the day before the state of the union. And every single one of those progressive kids on those campuses said it was a

terrible speech. The day before the speech. Ideology. Don't let facts get in the way of hating Donald Trump and his agenda. Cameron, thank you so much. And I stand with your community, my friend. All right, when we come back, we've got, oh, an incredible story. What happens to musicians who compose all the time, and they find themselves smack dab in the middle of all the violence in Mexico over the weekend? What does that do to the creative process? We're going to talk to two Juno-nominated Canadians when we come back. If you'd had told you'd said now, perhaps the fear that I felt the rest of cards I've been dealt.

would never convene. You're listening to the Ben Mulroney show. Wow. I'm sorry. I've just got to say this again. I said this yesterday that the anniversary of my dad's passing is coming up this weekend. And that music, that was my dad's jam. He would have loved that. And that music comes from Canadian vocalist Katie George and composer Mark Lamacher. And the reason we're talking to them today is because they recently found themselves like so many Canadians down in Mexico during the violence over the weekend. And let's welcome to the show today. Katie, Mark, thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having us. Yes, thank you.

So you were down in a, tell me what the name of the town was, because I don't want to mispronounce it. We're in Ahihik, which is about an hour outside of Guadalajara in Halisco. I look at pictures of this town online. It is a stunningly beautiful town. It's really cute. It's a lovely, lovely place. We're very happy here. And you were there for a music festival, yes?

Yes, we're still here. We performed last night for the Northern Lights Festival de Febrero, which is a chamber music festival that also has a bit of jazz, which is where we come in. Yeah. It looks like a great. You always picture people going to Mexico and they go to the big resort towns. That looks like a beautiful, sleepy, picturesque, straight out of a movie, a seaside town. That's exactly basically what it is.

Yeah, it's lovely here. But from what I understand, the violence that broke out when the cartel decided to take on the National Guard and go, you know, go full on urban warfare in Porta Vajarte. It wasn't limited to Puerto Vareta. There were skirmishes in a few places around the region. How close was the violence to where you are? Well, while Ahi'i'iq was not really affected at all, we couldn't use the highway. The roads were blocked. We were about 65 kilometers away from Topalpa, which is where the operation took place initially.

And we're about an hour outside of Guadalajara where there was quite a lot of blockades and that kind of thing. But in Ahi, I think people just, we played it all very, very safe. Everybody just stayed inside. And so although we were sort of near the violence, nothing happened in Ahiq. at all. And that's great to know now, but in the moment, nobody knew what was going to happen. And nobody knew if this was the beginning of something bigger or if it was going to spread across the countryside and in that province or not. So I try to put myself in that position. You know, if I was in Puerto Vallarta with my kids, I think I would have had a moment of dread and fear. And then just a general

sense of malaise would have overcome me waiting for, you know, a worst case scenario, hoping it wouldn't happen, but doing my best to prepare for what would happen if, you know, marauding gangs showed up at the swim up pool, for example. What was your, at any point, did, did, talk to me about your emotional journey? Well, for me, I mean, how can I put this? I take a sort of emotional lead from those around me, especially in this town, who have lived here either their entire lives or a great part of their lives, and also the expatriated Canadians and Americans who live here, who showed a tremendous amount of grace actually in the face of this. So the general attitude was sheltering in place wouldn't hurt. And so that's essentially what we did. And to see the entire town take the same action and the whole place shut down entirely,

in a way that actually made things feel a little bit less paranoia-inducing. Because at least then you knew that the likelihood that something even worse could escalate, although, of course, theoretically possible, it just didn't feel like the panic just wasn't there. So you had a bunch of expats and musicians from all points who showed up in this small town. And you're saying the residents who have lived in an environment where, yeah, there happen to be cartels. You took your emotional cues from these people who probably had seen a thing or two in the past. Absolutely. Even in the morning, our host came down to the Caseta that we're staying with on their

property. And she said, there's been a little bit of narco activity. So we're just going to stay inside today. And she's very, very calm about it. And then, of course, I'm looking at the news and I'm like, this is a little bit more than a bit of narco activity. But her and her husband were very calm. And we spent the day with them. We were practicing on the piano that they have in their house. They made us a really lovely dinner. And we watched a movie together. And would, so there are a lot of the stories today of Canadians who are looking to change their plans, people who had, who had trips planned in the next few weeks and months to Mexico. And a lot of Canadians are saying, you know what, just to be safe, I may go somewhere else.

Would you, if you had an opportunity to go back down to that town, would you have any issues or questions or second thoughts? No, I don't think so. I mean, we've been doing this festival for the last few years. and I'm hoping we'll get invited back to do it again next year. So I don't feel unsafe here. I think, you know, using common sense is always a good thing to do. And you don't want to, like, walk around on the highway with a big sign saying, you know, like, shoot me. So nobody's doing that here.

I honestly, I think that a lot of people, like, everything returned back to normal today. Like, we're just having tacos for lunch. We just got, I just got her. Oh, you're having tacos in Mexico. Oh, I'm so jealous. Oh. No, and they're like, they're incredible. And we got to spend it. We got to spend a second in this. What are in there, what are you in it? What's in the tacos? Well, I got the tacos asada, which is, you know, like beef and with the cilantro and onions and like a squeeze of lime.

Just simple. All these overstuffed, all these people overstuff in their tacos. Like what, what? What? You don't know. Simple three ingredients. No more. Exactly. And it's funny. Some of the locals here have said if a taco. comes on one of those like silver looking like double you shaped things that they're not going to eat them because they're not going to be authentic. Whereas like the tortillas here are just exceptional. They're completely freshly made like right before you have the taco. It's yeah, it's amazing.

I'm drooling right now. Well, listen, let's, I want to start, I want to start the conversation with you now, but we're going to carry it on over the break. I want to talk about the fact that I think the most fascinating part of this story is is that you've been writing music through all of this. You've been composing and you've been building, building out music. I want to talk to you about your process and what kind of music have you been writing

compared to what you write in a time of, you know, when there isn't a little narco skirmish happening around you. So, Mark, before the break, we got about two minutes. How do you guys typically make music, write music? Well, actually, you know, we were thinking about this the other day. someone had asked those, we don't have a single point of entry. So, for instance, on that album that you played a segment of, there were songs where I had old voice memos of random melodies from five, six years ago that I thought maybe we could work on together. There were other things that

Katie and I sat down and wrote the whole song in situ together. There's a song that Katie wrote in entirely. It sort of changes, actually. We were doing a concert last night. We performed a song with an arrangement that I wrote. It's a song that her and I wrote together starting in the Denver airport out of boredom, and it became this sort of fun little Baccawreck influenced Basanova number. But it really depends on the mood. I mean, it's funny. It isn't a regiment. It isn't a regiment thing where say she writes a lyric and then I work on. But I think what you're saying is, is you're always on. You're always receiving in information and your output is creative.

And so, which is going to lead beautifully into the conversation I want to have next segment. What happens when some of those inputs are fear and negativity and, you know, the possibility of lost life, as we heard, 25 people. were killed by the cartels just a few kilometers away. So we are going to continue our conversation with Katie George and Mark

Lamacher right after the break. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney shot. You drink out of crystal. I drink out of polyethylene. But that doesn't matter to you, to me.

This is the Ben Mulroney. show. You have been enjoying the musical stylings of Katie George and Mark Lamacher. They are currently nominated for a vocal jazz album of the year at the 26 Juneau Awards for Katie George with strings arranged and conducted by Mark Lamacher. Congratulations on the nomination, guys. Thank you. Thank you. And I believe that's the first song I have ever heard that rhymes polyethylene with anything. Thank you. Yeah, I'm very proud of that one. You should be. It's a great word. It is. That's wonderful. And Mark, I'm hearing your accent, and it doesn't sound like you're from Calgary.

Well, the fact, that is where I was born. Oh, you were. No one can kick me out. Oh, well, listen, I want to thank you so much for sticking around for those who are just joining us. Katie and Mark have been in Mexico, and they were a stone's throw from some of the, from some of the violence that erupted over the weekend. and performing in a beautiful town at a beautiful festival.

And we've been having a conversation about where inspiration comes from and the music that comes from it. And so before the break, you know, you sort of stated that there's no process. But that also means that you're always open, right? You're always receiving an information. And then the output is the music. And so I hear you've been writing since you've been down there. What has been coming out?

Well, we found this sort of little idea while we were doing a sound check. And so we went to the piano a couple days later at the place where we're staying. And we started writing a whole melody to it. And we're just kind of like ruminating on that right now before I find some lyrical ideas. And we figure out a bridge. But sometimes the process is like immediate. Like there's been songs that we've written really, really quickly, like in just the span of about an hour or two. And then there's somewhere we start on it.

and then we wait maybe like a couple weeks or even a month and then come back to it later and then write the whole song. But even some of the songs on our album were written here at this place last year, which is kind of interesting. Like the song I've been kicking myself, we wrote at the piano at our host's place. If you spend enough time in a place like Mexico, does the culture start informing the musical choices you make? I suppose to some extent there is a sublimity.

kind of influence that occurs. I don't mean to throw this to Katie, but I might say that song on this latest album, Sight to Behold, makes very explicit references to Ahihig. Yes. Lyrically, it's easier than musically to incorporate certain things, especially when the music that we hear on the streets is typically like Banda music, which is not exactly the style that we do as vocal jazz orchestral musicians.

But although it's wonderful. We love it. We love it. We love it. But the song that I wrote the lyrics to cite to behold, that one is talking about the cobblestone streets and the scent of fresh jasmine and like being on a lakeside locale, which is very explicitly about here. And I wrote about here. Whereas there's other songs on the album that are, you know, about heartbreak and things like that or like calling off a wedding. You know, so there's all different kinds of inspiration. But it definitely like being in Ahihik has been inspiring to a lot of the things that we have written. So you said you've got a lot of things in voice notes and ideas. Is everything, is all of that stuff valuable? Like if you wake up in the middle of the nightmark and you've got a melody in your head

and you, I don't know, find a way to hum it into your phone, do all of those things ultimately become songs or are some of them, you know, dead ends, but you have to go down that dead end to then find a song ultimately? That is a very interesting question. For me, the thing I do is I keep notebooks full of, like with music notation notebooks. And I have scraps of these things going back 15, 20 years, where I can still remember, you know, some fragment in one of them that I'm desperate to try to do something with. I can't promise it always works out. When we're in the midst of like working on a deadline or something.

Yeah, that's going to be my question. Does desperation breed good music? Well, case in point this past weekend, right before the violence occurred, there was another concert Katie was singing on. I had to write an arrangement in 24 hours for her to sing with the orchestra. And I didn't really sleep. So to add to your point, it was like not so much waking up in the middle of the night as much as remaining awake during the middle of it. Well, let's talk about the Juno's. I know a thing or two, at least about the red carpets.

I covered a number of them over the years. What's it like to receive that sort of acclaim to be nominated for a juno? Well, I mean, it's a huge honor. And I mean, this is our second nomination as a duo. Our first nomination was when the juniors were in Halifax. We didn't win. But the other three that I've been nominated for, I have won. So I think this is my fifth consecutive juno's.

So it's, it's always. It's always a lot of fun to be able to go to the event and to see friends and to make new connections. And this year it's in Hamilton, which is a lot of fun. We're playing for Juno Fest there. So we have a duo set. But the red carpets, as you mentioned, they're a lot of fun. Yes. If I were still doing that, I would ask you, who were you wearing?

Oh, well, I always wear vintage. So mine are typically handmade pieces from the 50s and 60s. I am not shocked. That's very on brand, Katie, George. It really is. But Mark is wearing Harry Rosen. That's a wonderful Canadian brand as well. So I remember the first year that we covered the Juno's in Hamilton.

And the only problem of doing it there, the city was very excited. They had a big street festival of the course of the week leading up because, you know, judo fest is an entire week. But the problem was is that all of the sort of after parties, after the Junos, everybody just got in their cars and they did their after parties in Toronto. and the city that was expecting sort of that very, that very important button at the end of it where the, you know, 10, 15, 20 industry parties that would take over a restaurant or take over something even bigger. All of that went away. And I do hope that this year, the city of Hamilton can enjoy

all of what the Junos have to offer because proximity to Toronto shouldn't always benefit Toronto. We were saying the same thing. I think we're a part of the music counts after party. We're going to go to that, which we're very excited for. And as far as I know, that's in Hamilton. Good, good. And what other plans do you have? Any more festivals this year?

We've got a lot of different touring coming up. We'll be spending a lot of time in the United States. I think I'm going to Korea in November. We've got some great Canadian dates, lots of stuff like all over, all over the place. How does your music translate in a place like South Korea? Well, I don't know yet, but I think I have a presence there. A wonderful friend of mine who's a great pianist and singer Maria Kim is bringing me over. But I've sung arrangements that Mark has done in Finland and they've done really well.

I've sung in Saudi Arabia and the arrangements went over wonderfully in Japan. People loved our Christmas arrangements when we were there last year for Christmas. It's kind of interesting, even in concerts here where most of the audience is English, they go over well, but I've done concerts in Mexico City where it's a mostly a Spanish-speaking audience, and they still love the songs. I think good music is good music. And I know Mark and I listen to a lot of classical music, and a lot of that doesn't even have words. And it's just wonderful music. So, a last couple of questions for you. Can you rhyme anything with either cartel or El Mencho?

Oh, who, who, who, who, not till we're back in Canada. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. Hey, to the both of you, I say thank you very much. Please be safe. beautiful music. You have a new fan in me, that's for sure. Congratulations on the Juno nomination. Enjoy that entire event. Well-deserved success. And I look forward to talking to you again soon. Likewise. Thank you very much. Thank you. That was Katie George and Mark Lamacher, both nominated for a Juno this year, which are happening in Hamilton, Ontario. And I'm so glad we're closing with this music. What wonderful music. This winter on global. Have you ever told a lie?

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