The Ben Mulroney Show - Vegas in Niagara? What would it take? And Toronto City Council spinning its wheels

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

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Santa gets cookies. You get Rhesus. Nothing else is Rhesus. You are listening to the Ben Mulroney show. Happy Wednesday. We made it to the top of the week. I choose to view Wednesday as the top of the week. I'm not going to lie. I woke up today thinking it was Thursday, but it is not. It is the 17th of December, 2025. Wednesday, the 17th of December.

Thank you so much for joining us. It's a little warm outside today, warmer. Happy to feel that. Maybe some of the snow will go away. But every single day, been waking up and so cold that I can't roll down my windows when I get to the office to sort of press the button to let me in. that's how cold it's been. Very happy that we're getting a little bit more mild temperatures today. I want to welcome everybody who makes this show possible to what we like to call our little breakfast club in the morning. Amy Siegel, our video producer. How are you? I'm good. I thought it was Thursday. Mike, our intrepid producer. How are you feeling? I'm feeling good. I thought it was Tuesday. I can't hear you.

Oh, there we go. I thought it was Tuesday. There we go. You thought it was Tuesday. No, I just think she thought it was Thursday. No, I knew it was Wednesday. And Joy here as a special featured guest for the next few days. I am good. Thank you so much for having me. Well, listen, I want you all to know. I've been getting a lot of people asking me what's going on with my hair. I haven't had a chance to get a haircut. I will be getting a haircut after the show today.

Oh, hallelujah. No more hats. Yeah, I know. I mean, you can see. There you go. It is what it is. It's a lot of flow in the back. Yeah, a little bit of flow.

A lot of too much flow. I'm not a big flow fan. It's just a lot of, a lot of, it just does stuff that it has a mind of its own. Even when it's short, it has a mind of its own. I don't know what I'm going to get every day. And so, anyway, a haircut coming. Haircut coming. It's the end of the year, guys.

And so there's a list as there is at the end of... There's a list for everything. But this, right now, we're going to focus on the list of top Toronto names. It says here, you said 2024, but I suspect you're at 2025. Yes. Specific to Toronto. Yes, baby names. Baby names in the city of Toronto.

And the top baby names, well, this shouldn't surprise anybody. And this is, this is a benign statement, but it shouldn't surprise anybody because the numbers are Muhammad searched a number one for baby boy, baby boy, baby boys born in Toronto 2025, jumping from fourth place in 2023, overtaking Noah. Noah, very, very popular names. Here's the top 10, Noah, Liam, Adam, Ethan, Lucas, Theodore, Alexander, Ibrahim, and Levi. So the names have changed. They've changed. I mean, you think about 30, 40 years ago, it was always just very.

John. John, Brian, Michael, Alan. are John and Brian, and they are the only two John's and Brian's in their class. Remember how a few years ago it's like Archer and Hunter and all those names? Apple. Yeah, they're very trendy names. Brian and John are unique these days. But nobody names their kids that anymore.

You have to be so careful if you pick a trendy name because you think, oh, great, huh? It's so cool. But you have to realize, I know you're caught up in the baby moment, but you have to realize that five, ten years down the road, there's going to be a hundred of them around like too many archers you name your kid archer when everybody's naming their kid archer and there's been five archers in your school yeah too many yeah yeah and no disrespect people can call their kid whatever they want um and eventually those kids will leave those schools and they'll go and they won't be they'll they'll be one one of one but it when they're in the school then hell you're archer s and archer m and archer d

i don't know why i'm focusing on poor little archer but i mean there used to be a lot of like at Gordes and Andrews and Michaels. I mean, at one point, I remember how many Michaels are there? So many Michaels. Too many. You don't see it in the top ten anymore. And tell us about your middle name, my friend. Well, yeah, because I was, for the first two weeks of my life, I was Erling.

Excuse me? Yeah, my name was Erling. Like, there's the footballer who plays for Manchester City, the Norwegian, Erling Hollande. Well, I was named after my grandfather, Erling Jorgensen, who escaped the Nazi occupation in the Second World War of Norway, came over to Canada. And yeah, so I was named. But my dad had a crazy friend named Earl. And he said, you know what?

I don't want people to call him Earl. I just can't. No, no, no. Make it his middle name. So then they change it to Michael. Now, yesterday I went for a meeting at Earls. There you go. But the Earls, by the way, in the Manulife Center, I don't know if you guys have been there.

Yeah, I've been there. It is amazing. It's lovely. Kudos to the Earl's people. I don't know who's in charge there. but that Earls is the best-looking restaurant in that space, you know, the fast, casual sort of thing. It is the best-looking restaurant I've ever seen in that space.

There's Santa Fe salad with black and chicken. Oh, hello. I highly recommend the pork dumplings. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God, they're good. So good. But the staff there is lovely. The food was great.

The atmosphere is fantastic. Not a plug for, well, it's a plug for Earls, but not for any other reasons. except I'm so impressed every time I go in there. Well done, Earl's people. Really, seriously, well done. I mean, they hire like beautiful people.

Well, that was really my point. My point was the whole experience is fantastic. Yeah. The whole experience, whatever you're doing there, guys, keep it up. That's a fantastic restaurant. And what a great,

just such a stylish looking restaurant. I was really quite impressed. Okay, let's go back to these names, by the way. Girls' names. We did the boys' names. Emma edged out Olivia, which to me feel like interchangeable. name. Yeah, same same. Emma edged out Olivia for top spot. Mia, Ava, Amelia, Isabella, Chloe,

Wow. Emily, and then various spellings of Sophia. All of those are the same name. It's all the same name. Mia, Sophia. So where do these come from? Where do these trends come from? I don't know. Is it because there's some celebrity or some person that sort of stands out and then people like, hey, let's do that? Yeah, maybe. Now, my daughter's name is Isabel Veronica. And Isabelle's written, I-S-A-B-E-L. It's Isabel Veronica, but because of her initials, we call her Ivy, which we kind of, yeah, we think that's cute. Well, I always loved Ivy, but we didn't want that to be her name.

Why? Which is because, poison Ivy, I don't know. But we loved Ivy. We loved Ivy as a nickname. We're like, well, we love Isabelle and Jess's mom's name is Veronica. So if we do Isabelle Veronica, then we can have that nickname baked in. Cute. Yeah, so that's what we went with.

Now, province-wide, across Ontario, Noah and Olivia remain the most popular names for the sixth and 16th consecutive years respectively. Olivia has been the number one girl's name across the province. 16, 16 straight years. And Noah for six. Someone needs to dislodge that name. Olivia needs to get burned.

Yeah. You know what, but Olivia. How is that? But my aunt's name, my aunt's name was Olive. I love the name, Olive. Her name was Olive June. And so we always used to joke, all of June and parts of July.

By the way, Noah and Olivia also national. Not on just Ontario. Canada followed the same pattern with Noah and Olivia Olivia. Yeah. Leading baby names nationwide. Yeah. What's the short for Noah? Noah.

Noah. What? I don't know. I'm just asking. Noah. Noah's, I mean, I know it's...

No. I know it's true. Well, you've got a friend, Noah. I do have a friend named Noah. He's playing this Friday at Massey Hall. No, no, no. Maybe no, no, no. No. I've got a good friend of mine.

A friend of mine's brother's name is Noah. And he was always just Noah. Noah. Yeah, Noah. I mean, very biblical. The Levi's biblical. What else he got in there? What are the names of the chipmunks?

Alvin, Simon. So we got Theodore's on the list. Simon's a good name. Simon's a great name. Well, you know, my name is Simon. And I like to do drawings. Well, you know, it's like there is a way to do these names. You have to be very careful.

You have to look at the initials. the initials you have to think about because kids are nasty you got to think about whether or not kids will take that name and turn it around so my my one of my favorite s and l skits ever was a conversation just like this about what you're going to name your baby and one guy at that at the table keeps giving people reasons not to name their kids something and he because he finds that nickname that would be hurtful and it keeps getting it starts out normal and it gets more and more outrageous and they don't understand why

and then the doorbell rings and the guy goes to answer the door and there's a FedEx guy there he says yeah I've got a package for Mr. Asswipe he goes it's Auswebe it's French yeah well can I say that I was that guy in my friend's group because I was the one who was always able to find

the you know the double entendre the sort of the So you were the bully? No I was absolutely not but I was I guess I just had that the mind to be able to to go there and go, you know what? Watch out. The initials are going to spell this.

But yeah, it feels like that's what a bully. You're literally defining. You can't have the initials, STD. What are you crazy? No, it's not going to work. Bullying. You're so mean. No, I don't do it.

I mean, things don't change. Oh, no, I was not, I was not a bully. I was a small kid. I was the one who got bullied. Right. Wait, so you were a small kid with hair. And now you're a ginormous human being with no hair. Yeah.

Funny. You called people as to the turning tables have turned. I was the kid that got bullied, so I was very much against bullying. No, no, no, no, no. I don't either. I don't either. No, it's true. I grew quickly.

All right, listen, we got lots to get to, including we really want to talk about what does the future hold for Niagara Falls. Big, big plans for the future, but how do they get there? We'll be discussing that next. Right here on the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. And a couple of days ago, the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford made a massive announcement in terms of the ambitions that his government has for the transformation of the Niagara Falls region.

They want 25 million visitors a year. Premier Doug Ford unveiled the destination Niagara. strategy to boost Ontario tourism amid the U.S. trade war and the plans include all sorts of things. Now, none of these, these are pie in the sky ideas, that observation wheel, more casinos in improved infrastructure. And the mayor himself, Mayor Diodati, was on with Greg Brady just a little while. Was it yesterday? Yeah, yesterday. And here's what he had to say about this vision for the future. You've got Fallsview Casino right now, Casino Niagara, a smaller one close to Clifton Hill and across the border, obviously,

some slight competition with the Seneca and Niagara Resort and Casino. When all is said and done, how many casinos would be in Niagara Falls? Well, you know, they're talking about potentially there can end up being five to seven at the end. That could be 10 years out. But the part that's going to be really key to this is what do they bring to the table? And what I mean by that, we don't have any five-star hotels. And we're hearing some amazing proposals.

I had to sign some NDAs, but some of the best aspects that Vegas has put out, there, major attractions. I mean, some things like it could be indoor ski resorts, indoor skiing top golf. There's a lot of really cool, fun things that they want to be part of the offering in Niagara Falls. Yeah. And look, when you start hearing that, it starts coming into focus for me. I don't know how you feel, Mike, but like the way I look at is what does, who does Vegas, who does Niagara Falls cater to today? And how do you get to a point where you double the annual visitors from 13 million to 25 million. And I, my, my interpretation of it is you have to start offering things that Vegas doesn't current, that Niagara Falls doesn't currently have, meaning

a at least one five star offering where, you know, like, really a place where has one of those restaurants that only exists in the, in London or New York or Paris or or Vegas. Yeah. And all those experiences that, that you've come to expect from Vegas. Plus other things. Right, you're never going to have, in my opinion, you're never going to have a major league sports there. However, you could have sports destinations that make it so that the sports fan wants to spend one extra day in Niagara Falls. So we were talking like a real...

Think about how Las Vegas has changed over the years. Yeah. Because it was a family destination for a while. They started losing, so they were like, oh, let's change it. They tried to make it a family destination. They had a, you know, they brought in a big pirate ship and all that stuff. New York, New York, New York, but you walk around Vegas, it's just everything is huge there, right? And you're like, okay, there's really not a lot to do.

So then they changed it and they've read, they've adjusted over the years to become a destination for huge events. Yeah, experiences and huge events. And that's where Niagara Falls, I think, could do its own version of that. Yeah, for sure. Look, we've been talking about marine land being on its last legs and how everyone just wants to turn the page on the sorry history of that place. but that is a huge tract of land that is just ripe for redevelopment as a world-class amusement park that could put Canada's Wonderland to shame. Yeah.

Right? And so you've got that. And then you could have, like I said, real sports, right? The real sports bar that we have here in Toronto. When that thing opened, it opened like an atom bomb. It's full every night. If you don't have tickets to a Maple Leaf's game or Raptors game, you are spending a ton of money in there enjoying sports in a way that you can't at other sports. You could build something like that there.

You could build what I've been describing, the chasm, C-O-S-M. If you haven't seen this thing, this is a new way to enjoy sports and film and group activities. It's an immersive video experience, kind of similar to the sphere, but on a much more manageable level. So you put all of these things together. Yeah, you put a Ferris wheel, one of those world-class Ferris wheels like the London I or what they have in Miami or Dubai.

You put one of those there as well. Now all of a sudden you start, you start piecing together sort of a list of activities that I wouldn't go to Niagara Falls for more than an afternoon today. And all of a sudden with these possibilities, now it's maybe a date weekend. Now it's maybe a weekend with the whole family. Now it's maybe three or four days, right? And that's how you build this out. What's Niagara Falls had? I mean, Niagara Falls has a lot.

It's got Clifton Hill, which isn't for everyone. you can go under the falls and the maid of the mist that's kind of cool they have the jet boat I think they have some bungee jumping but it's

look you know it's been the same stuff for a long time when I think Niagara Falls today I think I think a fun a fun afternoon

with my kids capped off with a meal at chilies that's that no but chilies hey don't disparage chilies they've got their

baby back baby back baby back ribs yeah no but my point is that's the level that I view Niagara Falls at today. Now, I'm sure there are other high-end

experience. But when I think Niagara Falls and the reasons to go there, that's what I think. There's the Dino Park. There's the Maiden of the Mist. And we buy some chotchkes on Clifton Hill. And then we go home after we enjoy some baby back ribs at Chili's. If you want me to go back

for other reasons, you've got to give me other reasons to go back. The danger is this, is that they build it out in such a way that it becomes Atlantic City, as opposed to Vegas, what Vegas is now. You have to do it right.

Atlantic City, it's a lot of people who are much older. It's subdued. It doesn't have the same feel as Vegas. Vegas had to redefine itself, had to invest a crazy amount of money. Will they get the investors? There is a huge pull in that area in terms of population, including from the United

States, because Buffalo doesn't have the money or it doesn't have the attractions. Western New York. And that's the thing, because it does feel like Doug Ford's government isn't suggesting that they're going to be investing the money, which I'm so glad to hear. This is something that is ripe for private investment, right?

And so what the government can do is what they've been talking about doing, which is infrastructure upgrades, extending the Niagara District Airport runway, twinning the Garden City Skyway, expanding the QEW, improving Go Transit access. All that happens if you build it,

then that happens. Yeah, yeah. And so to me, this is the right way to do it. Tell everybody, Niagara Falls is open for business. We are taking your bids. We want to hear what you've got. And so long as whoever makes those decisions recognizes that you've got to pick spots in all the quadrants, the family-friendly stuff, the outdoor stuff, the experiential indoor stuff, something for the gambler,

something for the sports enthusiast, something for the thrill seekers. You touch on all those things and give world-class versions of those. Something's for the foodies, right? Not just one restaurant, but a series of restaurants so you can keep going back, right? You do those things, and yes, I don't think it's a stretch to think that you can get 25 million visitors a year, hopefully in, let's call it a decade. And let's not forget, in the interim, you're building it out. Those are construction jobs.

Those are high-paying jobs. That is, there's a lot of infrastructure work. That is putting the province to work. All of that sounds really good to me. I think they also have to figure out a way to make it easier. to see the falls because tourism is big there. Yeah. And but it is, there's only, there's only a small stretch where you get a really great view.

Well, that's, it's, it's at times 20 people. A version of the London eye. Why not? Yeah. I mean, I know that when, they do have a, they do have a, they do have one of those there. Yeah, but I'm talking about, but one of the most, like the London eye, each one of those pods, you can actually have a dinner party in one of those pods. You can have 20 people for dinner in, in the pod.

And you can, like, there's all sorts of things. There's no bathroom in the pod, though. Well, hold it, man. You couldn't hold it. I could hold it. No. I do this show. I can hold it.

I can hold it. No, but this is all very exciting stuff. But in the next, in our next segment, we do want to hear from you. What do you think is doable? What do you think the risks are? How do you think, is this an overly ambitious plan? Is this a fool's errand? Do you want to see some private public partnerships?

What do you think is lacking in Niagara Falls? Or do you think everything is hunky-dory in Niagara Falls? And if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 13 million people attending the falls every year is just enough. I personally think bigger is always better when it comes to a tourist destination. And Jim Diodati, the mayor, is somebody who cares deeply about that area. And I don't think he would ever do anything that would harm the town that he loves so much. so let's hear from you 416 870-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk what does niagara have to do to make this work we want to hear from you no idea is too wild the ben mulrini show back after this

Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindness community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at canadaswunderland.com. Canada can be a global leader in reducing the harm caused by smoking, but it requires actionable steps. Now is the time to modernize Canadian laws

so that adult smokers have information and access to better alternatives. By doing so, we can create lasting change. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you smoke, quit. If you don't quit, change. Visit unsmoked.ca. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Doug Ford wants to double the number of tourists in Niagara Falls from 13 million to 25 million.

How do we get from here to there? That is the question I'm posing to you, the listeners of the Ben Mulroney Show, 4168-7-0-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk. No idea is too off the wall. We're going to start with Adam. Adam, happy Wednesday. Yeah, so his idea is completely stupid because he's pretending that we have the, we, have the weather of Las Vegas. The reason people go to Las Vegas isn't

just because it's so wonderful. It's because in the middle of the winter, you escape the winter. They tried this in Atlantic City, and it was complete failure. Listen, the weather can be prohibitive unless you think, unless you, I mean, I'm willing to live in a world

where we can be smarter than just say, oh, the weather sucks. You can do indoor activities in a way that look. I can tell you've never been in the tourist industry. Because Yes, but I have been a tourist. No, no, no. But I can tell you, and you work on it,

is that Canadian women would rather cut their left arm off than give up a warm vacation. It's always guys. That's why there are seven male skiers to every female skier. Oh, yeah. Okay, sure. Game this out with me. What if a huge casino came in and got a six-month residency from Adele?

then no one would come. No, no, okay. It would be the, okay. So, okay, so you've worked in tourism. I've worked in pop culture. I can tell, allow me to school you. Adele could be performing in a toilet and women would be waiting around the corner

to hear her sing. So with all due respect, I deferred to you on the tourism. Defer to me on this. Thank you very much, Adam. You have a great day. Let's go with Arthur. Arthur, how are you, sir? And good morning to you, sir.

Hey, good morning to you. So what do you think? My say is you've got to make it more unique than anywhere else. You can gamble anywhere in the world, you know, restaurants come and go, basically. But you have to, the falls is unique. Yeah. So you have to maybe offer barrels down the falls, tightroops across the falls. And anything, you know, specific to the falls that makes it so unique.

Yeah, I agree. People want to do it. Arthur, you're calling us from Columbia? That's right. How are you hearing us in Columbia right now? It's called the Internet. And what's going on to Columbia? You know, we do still have the Internet for now.

But tell me, what's in Columbia? Why are you there? Well, first of all, I'm here for vacation because I had a certain airline ticket that I had to expire at the end of December. Oh, I think we'll, Arthur, thank you very, I think we lost Arthur, but thank you very much. What a wonderful treat to have heard from Arthur from Columbia. I hope you have a wonderful vacation, Arthur, wherever you are. Give us a call 4168-8-6400-1-3-2-25 talk. Listen, we heard from somebody off the top who said it's a terrible idea because of the weather.

Let me know what you think of that. He could be right. I think that there are things that defy weather, and there's plenty of indoor activities that regardless of the weather will drive people to any destination. But you let me know. Steve, welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Ben, how are you?

I'm wealthy. I'm wealthy. Big G plumber here. Well, welcome back. You know what, it is a good idea. And I like that thing you said about Adele. However, it's just going to make it untouchable for the average family. Because right now, I was there last year for a hockey tournament for two days.

Yeah. And my God, that was it expensive. Well, but this is what I was saying, Steve, is there's an opportunity if, as they build this out, they recognize that they have to hit so many different sweet spots. Like, it's not about having one high-end cassettes. It's not about just having, you know, a new, really cool Ferris wheel. It's not about one thing. It's about all the things so that so that you have a, so you have a world-class family-friendly,

budget-friendly option. You have a high-end one where the high rollers can come in or somebody who's used to traveling to New York and Paris and London, think to themselves, this is a place worthy of my time and my money. You know, if you can do all of those things, then. And then I think you have a shot of getting there. I hear that, Ben. But as ghetto as it is right now, it's going to be, it's very expensive as it is.

I know guys I gamble and they cross the border. They go to the buffalo side. They get free hotel. They get free food. They gamble. Yeah, well, correct me if I'm wrong. And this is something I don't know. But you tell me, from what I understand, all that comping stuff that Vegas is famous for,

I don't even know if that's allowed here. Is that allowed here? I know somebody who does get, they get like special discets when they go to the hotel. They'll call them up and say, hey, we'll give it to you for 40 bucks tonight. Come on in. Yeah. I think that happens here on, I don't know if it's my gosh, your card that you get. Yeah.

You get some kind of points. I don't know exactly how it works, but it's something like that. Gotcha. I just think that it's a great idea, but like I said, it's going to get. Well, the devil's in the details, right? The devil's in the details. But I believe if they start with that. intention. And if they don't lose focus on what we're just talking about here, making sure that

everyone has a reason to go. Because that's how you get to $25 million. You don't get there by only catering to the ultra rich. You don't get there by just catering to families. Don't get there by just catering to the sports fan or the or the or the or the the the the gambling officiado. You have to find a way to cater to all of them and give them something tomorrow that currently does not exist. Thank you very much for the call, my friend. Who do we have now? We got Frank. Frank, welcome to the show. How do we make, how do we double attendance in Niagara Falls? Well, that's a great question. What I think is as long as the province has done its marketing research and there's a recognition that there's a demand for that high level kind of

entertainment, I think they're going in the right direction. Secondly, that part of Canada around the GTA right now is in a big crisis regarding the automotive sector. So there really is a loss of confidence in the economy and people are not going to be buying. Just, just by initiating and starting this construction project, you're going to stimulate the economy. People that get paid in these high labor jobs are going to continue to purchase cars, homes, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a positive domino effect that could come out of this. Just by virtue of the fact that this is a big project, people are going to be working,

there's going to be investments made, and it could prevent the crippling of our economy to a greater extent, just by virtue of the fact there's going to be thousands of people employed. Yeah. I love that. I love that as we build it out, and this is obviously an ideal pie in the sky, best case scenario. But yes, you're going to spur employment and you're going to spur economic activity. The excitement will build. And you know how it works in this area. That we will be covering the growth of Niagara Falls on a daily basis on blogs and on news, you know, across news properties in newspapers and the like. so that when those properties actually open, they're going to open with such a grand anticipation that if they nail it,

if they stick the landing, they will have people showing up for a long time to come. Thank you so much for the call. Let's go to Sarah. Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi, Ben. I love your show. Thanks so much for all your topic.

Well, thank you very much. I just wanted to add to the conversation. When you first discussed this, I lit up because, you know, I am a huge fan of growing Niagara. I used to go there with my husband and my kids all the time. But three nights became two nights. Two nights became one night.

And now one night is becoming zero nights because I have no interest in going there anymore. Yeah. I mean, you've probably done all the things you want to do there. And, you know, for me, I remember, like, when my kids were a little younger, we would do Great Wolf Lodge for a night. We'd show up, we'd spend the night. And that was the extent of the, if we were, if we felt like it, we may drive closer to the falls and do an activity

before going home. But that's been the extent of it for us. And, you know, like I said, marine land is just sitting there and it's sad and it's pathetic and it's a terrible, it's got a terrible history. If we could wipe the slate clean and on those grounds build a world-class

amusement park. And for those who say the weather doesn't allow for it, well, there's plenty of places in the north, you know, in Ohio and New York State that have those. Yeah. Ben, I also think they should focus on a little bit higher and like I'd like a four seasons or a Ritz Carlton because honestly I can't stand those hotels like the Hilton and all of those I can't stand those places anymore like I said so long as they cater to

everyone in recognizing that you don't know why someone wants to go there so give everybody a reason hey thank you so much exactly thank you Malcolm sorry sorry about that say goodbye Malcolm in about 15 seconds tell me your thoughts oh yeah you took my idea about the amusement parking I would think maybe like a Disney North, something big. I always, I like to say on the spectrum between Ontario, Ontario Place and Disney World, you want to be closer to Disney World. But thank you, Malcolm, and I'm sorry that we didn't get to chat longer. Please call back another time.

Thank you to everybody. Look, I think this is doable if it's done with intention and it's done deliberately and it's done responsibly. We can build up Niagara Falls to be something that has only existed in people's dreams. All right, up next, Toronto City Council is set to take its Christmas break. What are the last pieces of business they're trying to get off the docket? We'll talk about that next. This is the Ben Mulroney Show.

Thank you very much, Mr. Voiceman, for reminding me that, yes, in fact, the Ben Mulroney Show marches on, and we appreciate you joining us on this. journey. All right, it's the end of the year, which means we are getting to the end of the legislative season at City Hall. And there are a few things that are on the docket as they close the book on 2025. And one of the issues that they're going to be focusing on is a proposed crackdown on e-scooters and e-bikes. Toronto counselor John Burnside wants police to have the power to impound those scooters and bikes when riders are caught using sidewalks. is that the biggest problem with e-bikes we had the firefighters come out what a month ago to say there's a massive huge danger with these bikes when their batteries exploding we've seen fires in condos well i mean i think it's it's part of a larger problem which we'll talk about look the safety concerns city officials police medical researchers say sidewalk riding east scooters and e-bikes have become more common and pose risks to pedestrians okay i take that as fact e-bikes are closely tied to food delivery work

and sometimes they will take shortcuts, which includes behaving as if they are pedestrians. I find sometimes they are in bike lanes where they do not belong. A lot of them are not supposed to be there because of the speed with which they run. There's a legal gap. E- scooters are already illegal

on the Toronto streets and sidewalks, but the police currently lack authority to seize them. I don't understand why. If they're illegal, you can seize. I don't get that. It's one of those things where it's illegal because there's, remember how many, bylaws we had. There's like

since Toronto was enacted, like 100,000 like that. 100,000 bylaws. We don't have one that can allow police to seize an illegal vehicle. It doesn't make any sense to me. And so look, the Mayor Chow says she's open to the idea. So they'll look at it. And staff may study the proposal and report back early next year. In typical

fashion, like that's what this stuff is. Here's the problem as I see it. Because this is a terrible Toronto trend, which is we allow things to take route. We allow people to get used to doing certain things. And we don't ever correct it into and I've talked about it with pedestrians and how they feel they have an unfettered right of forward progress when a light turns green. And they don't ever stop. And we've never corrected them. This is somewhat, I mean, it's somewhat similar, but to the AI issue. AI, it started going

crazy going, growing, growing, we didn't have any rules for its growth. Nothing. And we sort of let it go. And we're like, oh, let's see where it goes. And now they're trying to put... And what are you going to do? The same thing with this. Yeah. You have all these people on scooters riding around.

They don't have licenses. They don't follow the rules of the road. They just sort of meander about. We all know it. I almost got hit by one on the sidewalk right in front of our building last one. Yeah. And they're silent because they're electric. And sometimes they decide that they are pedestrian.

Other times they feel it there. They can be on the road like a car. And other times they feel... Here's another problem that I have. Have you noticed this? on streets where you're on where there is no bike lane. And they scoot up right next to you. Yeah, I'm sorry, that's not a lane.

If there was a bike lane there, you could do that. But this is my lane, and if you're behaving like a vehicle on the road, you wait behind me. And then if they get right in front of you, it's very difficult to pass because you obviously don't want to clip them. Yeah, no, exactly. Like, I have a real problem with that. I'm sorry. Yeah, I hate that too. If there's a bike lane, you can do whatever you want in your lane.

And I am not allowed anywhere near that lane. and you will punch me, you'll kick my car if I'm in your lane. So why do you feel you have the right to scoot past me when you know you don't have a lane? You do not have access, you do not have a right. We did hear during when the Blue Jays were in the playoffs and Americans were coming over to the games and also during the summer for various concerts,

we heard from so many people saying, and what's the deal with you in the scooters? What's the deal with the city in the scooters? They're nuts. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it has become something that, we're becoming known for, and people are noticing. And when you have the added sort of Torontoism of deploying new rules of the road

without informing people what those rules are, like those new red bus lanes. Which, yeah, the bus lanes, and they've heard they just put them down a few weeks ago. The new red bus lanes, I'm sorry, no one has explained to me what the rules are on those red bus lanes. I know it's red, and I'm supposed to think that means stop, which means I can't go in it. But you have never city of Toronto explained in any way. way. You've no communications plan explaining to people like me who use these roads, who pay for these roads that I can't use that lane. And they're already starting to peel. Yeah, of course they are. Of course. I mean, this is, it's the most Toronto thing ever. Lay down a whole bunch of paint and not tell anybody what they are. And then, and then I'm sure, ticket people when they break the rule that you didn't tell them was a rule. Yeah. So, so all of that is, I like that John Burnside's at least trying something here. Yeah. But then again, this speaks to leadership in this city. Yeah.

Well, how about more leadership? Like, the embarrassment that was the launch of the long-awaited Finch LRT only to discover that it travels at a snail's pace, slower than an e-bike or an e-scooter or a person with a walker. And now, and so the question is, can we speed this thing up? A guy actually ran a race against one of them just a couple of days ago. He did it in 18 minutes faster. Oh, come.

But, I mean, he was running. I mean, I'm not going to be able to do it that much faster. So apparently city council had to vote to speed up the train. It's a vote for that. How is that? Why do you need to put that to a vote? Because by saying you're putting it to a vote, you're willing to have it voted down.

Nope, I want it slow. Yeah, no. You're literally, that is to me, of all the nonsense, this is one of those things where the mayor should just say, speed this mofo up, right? Now, I have heard that she wants to put forth this idea of, of a priority signaling for this, these, these trains. That's the big thing.

But that should, that, that should have happened in the, in the years of developing this. Yeah. And the, what, in the 15 years it's taken to build this? Yeah, like, why that wasn't, uh, standard on day one speaks to like, who's, who's tending to the shop? Who's planning these things? It makes no sense to me. It seems that's to be one of those things.

So a priority signals. Oh, no, no, let's not talk about that. Yeah. Let's not, it's not important. It won't affect the time at it at all. But we've seen videos of these things stuck in an intersection because cars are turning in front of it. Now, Mayor Chow defended the cautious rollout

saying lower speeds and frequencies were intended to avoid launch problems seen in other cities. Well, they're talking about Ottawa. Yeah. And, well, Ottawa was a worst case scenario. Ottawa was a disaster. And they had, I mean, the wheels were breaking on them. It was a mess.

But that was like two years ago, right? Yeah. Okay, I'm sorry. that justification doesn't fly to me because what happens what should happen is you see the disaster of Ottawa they do they I'm sure did their own post-mortem on where the failures were and then you incorporate those failures into the solutions that you bring to bear on the Finch LRT meaning by the time you open the Finch LRT you are Ottawa proofed so they're saying though what they're saying by this they're saying the cautious rollout they're saying oh yeah you know what we don't know

if it's going to be a disaster like Ottawa how could you not know how could you not know No, you learn from Ottawa. What happened there? What were the failures of Ottawa? How do we then learn from that, mitigate for that, plan to push back against that so that when we open the Finch LRT, when we open the Eglinton LRT, as I said, they are Ottawa-proofed. We have ensured that that cannot happen here because we've had two years to plan for it. I don't want to put your blood pressure up anymore, but let me ask you this question here.

All right? Let me pose this question. So they had to vote for this, right, to speed up the train. What is another thing that they did not vote on at city council? Oh, Sankofa Square. Yeah, that was just a given. Wait, I want to see the smoke out of your ears. Everybody wanted that.

Of course, we wanted, of course, we wanted to name the most popular meeting place in the city for a place that nobody's ever been where I think 16 people in the city are from Ghana. But by all means, let's name it something absolutely culturally meaningless to the city of Toronto. The FIFA World Cup, though. Ghana's playing here. Mark my words, if this city doesn't host the biggest Ghana party ever in Sankofa Square for the team. Hell, we should set up Bedouin tents there. And the Ghana team should be living like kings in Sankofa Square.

That should be where they hang their hats the entire time. We should be Ghana City at Sankofa Square. My God. I told you. Can I tell you. I can't believe it. I actually find myself calling at Sankofa Square now, almost out of spite, which is I always said I would still call it Young Dunn. dash square uh oh i you got your way you got your way chris moyes well done you got in my head

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