The Ben Mulroney Show - Wednesday Political Panel/Backwards anti-semitism training?

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Guest: Andy Gibbons, Principal at Walgate Advisory, former VP WestJet Guest: Regan Watts, Founder Fratton Park Inc., former senior aide to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty GUEST: Gili Zemer /  Jewish parent  Guest: Craig Baird, Host of Canadian History Ehx If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. All right, it's time to kick off this hour with Ben Mulroney and his backup band, known as Andy and Regan, for this week in politics. Welcome, guys. Thanks so much for being here. Hi, Ben, missed you. Bigwich. Good to be with you, my friend. It was, listen, it was a tough pill to swallow that Canada did. did not live up to our expectations, or most people's expectations, in those Winter Olympics. I had a conversation yesterday with the CEO of Own the Podium, and there will be a time to figure out how best to support those athletes moving forward. But the Americans had a great run. The Americans ended their Olympics the way we had hoped we would with an Olympic gold in

men's hockey. And the timing was such that it was fortuitous that they were invited to and accepted an invitation to appear at the State of the Union last night. And their goalie will be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a whole big to do. The fact that Austin Matthews, as an American who won gold, but also the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, attended, shook the hand of the president, did a wave, flyby, if you will, in Congress, and then left, That is a bridge too far for a great many Canadians slash Toronto Maple Leaf fans who are excoriating him for even for having the temerity to shake the hand of Donald Trump. I've said it recently. There's a big difference, Andy, between being pro-Canada and being anti-American.

And far too many Canadians think that's the same thing. I'm with you here. I would note, Ben, that when Austin Matthews won the gold medal on Sunday, it was the Toronto Maple Leafs that put out a tweet that had a big, blue heart that said our captain and they were so proud of him that he won the gold and i thought that was that was peculiar i don't know why everyone is so surprised americans celebrating as americans with the president of america like breaking news i don't it's like we get this glimpse into this we get this glimpse into the fact that not all americans completely detest their president and everyone's shocked but as if they thought everyone hated him but showing up there

is a recognition of your accomplishment. It doesn't necessarily have a bear. It doesn't, like, you're not showing up and saying, I stand with Donald Trump. You're showing up as somebody who just did something great for your country. And Brad Smith, who is a host here on the radio station 640, Toronto, who was at one point a professional athlete, said this morning, he's like, I don't agree with Mark Carney on most things.

But if I was still in sport and I had done something on behalf of my country, and the leader of my country wanted to celebrate me. He said, not only would I show up, I would shake that man's hand. I'd look him in the eye and it would be one of the great moments of my life and I would tell that story for the rest of my life. Why is this something Regan that people can't get? Well, look, a couple things.

As the resident Maple Leaf fan in this segment, I have endured pain and suffering as a Leaf fan for my entire life. That Austin Matthews won a gold medal is, you know, congratulations to him in the United States. United States, both the men and the U.S. women, they played great hockey and they are worthy winners. I don't want to dissect the hockey game, but I think Brad is right in the sense that if the leader of your country wants to honor you, you show up. I'll say something, though, Ben, and this is something your father used to say publicly and privately, which is, you know, Canadians and their

contempt for the United States and the insecurities, you know, how silly can we be? It's one thing to be somebody who doesn't agree with President Trump and his policies, but it's quite another for leaf fans and hockey fans to be up in arms that the captain of the u.s men's national hockey team that won their first gold medal since 1980 uh went to the white house and was acknowledged by the president like i'm sorry but we as a country we need to grow up and be a little more secure in ourselves and as a leaf fan um look i i hope it leads to greater things for austin matthews i don't believe it will i think the leaves will continue to suffer but this is a political show not a sports show so that's that's for another time but um good on him for

receiving the president or the president receiving him and his teammates at the White House. And if Canada wins gold medals in major events, I hope the prime minister and expect that the prime minister who, you know, Mr. Carney is a sports fan, will do the same for Canadian athletes who also succeed. Yeah, absolutely. First, what we got to do is invest a little more than $100 million a year into both sports. And the amount of infrastructure that is lacking in the development of those sports is, it's stark. So we got to decide, is this important?

I think it's vital, not just for pride internationally, but I think it's an important thing for national unity. I think to have us. Ben, it is, I was just going to say, I totally agree. It is amazing to me that Canada is as successful as it is in the sports where we excel, that we win as many medals as we do because we don't fund them the way they should be funded. And this is not because Mark Carney is a bad person or Justin Trudeau is a bad person, though the long national nightmare did not fund Olympic-level athletes at the 5.

at the level they should be. But successive prime ministers have not done a good enough job. And look, we are a G7 country and a G20 country. And for reasons of national pride alone, we should fund whatever it takes for Canadians to dominate the podium. We have outstanding athletes among the best in the world, but they need the support and the resources that can help them reach their best and be at their peak so they can bring national pride to the country.

When we, at a time right now, how good would it have felt if we had won more Olympic medals in Milan? But we fell short in a few areas. And funding is a big part of that equation. And the government of Canada has an obligation to step up, in my view, to fund these athletes. Yeah. All right. Well, this next topic, I suspect, is going to carry over into the next segment.

But let's talk state of the union. And we saw the various, I don't want to say personalities of Donald Trump, but the various styles and perspectives of him. We saw him joking around. We saw him, Donald Trump, the fabulous, just sort of exaggerating, making things up. His view on tariffs, though, I thought was a really interesting one. You know, he was dressed down, not just by Congress a few weeks ago, but by the Supreme Court more recently. And he is, he still has it in his head that the tariffs, A, are paid by the other countries.

And B, that they are a boon to the economy, even though most economists say that they have contributed to the high cost of living that is pernicious. in the states. Andy, like, do you see, what's it going to take to get the president to just take his foot off the gas on these tariffs just a little bit? I don't think he can take his foot off the gas unless the economic numbers really get worse than they are. He did have a few really good months of growth that way surpassed expectations. He had a GDP number.

There was 4% one month. I think it would have to really greater for him to fall down. I think when you look at the speech last night, the highlight for me was around his words, not mine, illegal aliens. Well, yeah. And really framing that for Democrats. Like, if you believe with my statement, stand up or sit down and they refused to. He laid a trap for them and they fell right into it. 100%.

Regan, I was saying if they had had, if the Trump Duranagement Syndrome could have been turned down from 11 to 10, one of them would have stood up and turned around to say, yes, we support the American people, but we do not support how you're doing, Mr. President. And if somebody in the front had done that, everybody would have stood up and he would not have gotten the moment that he is going to leverage forever. I agree with you, Ben, and I will say this, Democrats in the United States are like liberals in this country. They only care about one thing, which is themselves and getting elected.

And it should surprise no one that when the president called on all members of Congress and Senate who were in the House to stand up, if they were there, to serve the American people, and I'm paraphrasing, that the Democrats did not stand up. They took a moment that could have been a total layup and turned it into a campaign ad. That'll be repeated ad nauseum. And the president is no, you know, he can be a bit goofy at times,

but he's a shrewd operator, as are his team. And they set a trap and the Democrats fell right into it. Shocking to me. But, you know, it's just another day in the life of the Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill. All right. Well, we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, we've got a number of things to talk about.

Pierre Poliyev has a big U.S. Canada speech in Toronto tomorrow. Is he hoping that this could be his Davos moment? We're also going to talk about Matt Jenneru, who is, he's off on a world tour. He's off on a world tour. I suspect his family isn't with him. And health care for asylum seekers. We spent a billion dollars last year on, or we will be spending a billion dollars a year on that. Is this going to be a defyield?

defining battle between conservatives and the liberals moving forward. Don't go anywhere. The Ben Mulrudeau continues from coast to coast to coast on the Chorus Radio Network. I don't know why we're starting with smooth criminal as we're about about Pierre Polio. Santiago, what are you insinuating with that music? Welcome back to the show. Andy and Regan, welcome.

Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for being here. All right. Let's talk Pierre Poliev. That's a little bit of, again. Let's talk Pierre Poliev. He's got a big speech he's giving tomorrow. The topic is Canada.

US. This could, I don't know that anything's make or break these days. But Regan, what are your thoughts? What do you think this, what do you think the, what do you think the leader of the opposition has to do with this speech to make a dent and to sort of change the dynamic of how people see him and how people see the conservatives? Well, so I think with Mr. Poliyev, there's a few thoughts that I have. first is, you know, 14 months or so after President Trump was sworn into office,

it's nice that Mr. Polly have finally got around to talking about Canada, U.S. and how he would lead in this context. That's the first thing. The second thing is it's a strange topic for him to discuss because he's never been outside the country, much less to the United States, as a leader of the opposition. So being able to speak credibly about the most important economic relationship this country has, while having not actually left the country as leader or even gone to Washington to have conversations,

I don't think sets him up very well credibly. He had Jamil Giovanni, that buffoon last week or two weeks ago, went to Washington and was actually in the White House and then came back and told Canadians it was all our fault. You know, Jamil Giovanni got some great meetings in D.C. Is Pierre going to have anything to say about that? I'm not sure. Mr. Pollyav has a real challenge at a time when the Prime Minister is displaying professional competence

and managerial grace, Mr. Palliev continues to display neither. And, you know, this is an important issue that he's a little late to the party on. I'm glad he's at least having something to say. But, you know, if I was advising him and if you were to listen to my advice, what I would say to him and his team is that he should announce during his speech that he is going to do a U.S. tour or engage with U.S. lawmakers. At least he can say at that point that he's doing something in his capacity as leader of the opposition

to engage on the files. But he hasn't done that. And so for me, it's better late than never, but it's still not a great place for him to be. And it's entirely self-inflicted. Well, let's assume for a moment that this is the first step in a long path to gaining credibility on the file. I don't know if there's a better way to say it. So, Andy, if this is the first important step in getting there, what does he, what should he, what should he say? because there is this, I think, unfair belief by a great many Canadians

that the Conservative Party of Canada is the Canadian satellite office of the MAGA movement. I think he has to do a few things tomorrow. Number one, there's what Pierre Pahliav's plan is for Canada-U.S. relations. And by the way, Ben, he's calling it a vision speech, not a speech, not a commentary, a vision speech. So I think he has to establish what his vision is, but more importantly, who is behind his vision and what has informed his vision. So think of the notable conservatives, people in your family, Rana Ambrose, James Moore. There's conservatives across this country with all kinds of credibility on the American question. Is he leveraging them?

Does he have their support? Who does he speak for when he launches this vision? That's going to be very important for me in terms of watching it tomorrow. And I think he needs number two. I think he needs to tell the truth. The truth is that most of the problems in this country predate Donald Trump. And I think he should take a page out of the Harper speech

in Ottawa, which is, yeah, we have feelings, but kind of screw your feelings. We have to get on with this work. And I'd like to see him, like Regan says. I'd like to see him encourage engagement with Americans. Not Donald Trump, not JD Vance, not all these villain characters the Canadians seem to detest, but get to America and talk to Americans about our nation and our

country. So those are the things I'm watching for tomorrow. I think it is a big speech for him, and he's telling people it's a big speech for him by calling it a vision speech. So let's see how he does. All right. Well, let's move to everyone's favorite most recent floor crosser, Matt Jenneru. For those who don't remember, he was a conservative who decided that he didn't want anything to do with the floor crossing skirmish of the past of last year. I said he was. going to resign and spend time with his family. He promptly stopped showing up for work. He was going to donate his paycheck to a charity. And then the Davos speech made him realize that he's colorblind and what he thought was blue was actually red. And now he's working for the liberals.

And there are some who think that he's now on this trip with our prime minister on the other side of the world that's going to eventually take him to Australia and Tokyo and a few other places. And some people are wondering whether that's a gift that was offered to him. We've been told it's not, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck. Look, I don't know, Ben, I think that's a bit unfair on Mr. Jenneroo. As the only person on this panel who's actually done government travel, I can assure you it is not nearly as glamorous as the opposition would like you to think it is. It's long flights. It's lots of time in hotels and in government buildings.

I don't believe he'll be hanging out in the gardens in Kyoto or in the outback in Australia or going to Taj Mahal in India on a tourist mission. I mean, this is serious work. This is why we elect politicians. So I think it's a bit foolish to think that he was, you know, he crossed the floor and endured the abuse that he received, which was despicable, by the way, in the Conservative Party and how members of parliament and conservative influencers were talking about him. Yeah, it was gross.

And it was beyond the pale. If anybody thinks that Matt Jenneru crossed the floor because he got a trip to Asia, I think they should have or pass me a drink of whatever they're having because it's just not credible and not even in this galaxy. No, listen, I don't care either way. I don't care either way. I just think that taking this trip, having justified a stepping down because you want to spend more time with his family. I mean, I gave crap to Anita Anand when she said she was going to do that. but then when the poll numbers started going up, all of a sudden, she'd spent enough time with her family.

And so, and taking his trip, you can mail him for that. Yeah, that's all I'm saying. I don't care about it. Of course, the spoils of war go to the government. And if the government has these things to dole out, great. I mean, you know, if I don't know that Bill Blair would have necessarily resigned when he did if there wasn't a cushy position for him waiting in London. And so these are these are, these are levers that the government can pull out. I'm not begrudging the government that ability. I'm just saying his his credibility and why he left in the first place is it was already on thin ice and it's even thinner now. But that was the question, Ben, the question was he induced? And he wasn't induced by a jet lag trip to Australia.

I'm sorry, he wasn't. Bill Blair might have been induced by going to London, but being a high commissioner is different than being tired. Annie, your thoughts. I mean, Matt Jenneru is not above criticism. I'm sorry. And by the way, Regan, tourism missions are real work, just to correct you. But he, look, he's not above criticism. And I, and fair play to you, Ben. You did criticize Anand for the same thing. And he should have that too. I just think the trip is a nothing burger story, honestly, like breaking news, MP takes a nice trip with the prime minister. Whatever.

Yeah. Let's move on from Matt Jenner. Honestly. Yeah. Absolutely. It's hard work. I know it's hard work. There are times I never saw. I didn't see my dad for months. I know it's hard work. I think we can all agree that they will be eating very well on the plane. If past, if past catering is, is anything to believe,

they will be dining just fine on the plate. Okay, let's move on. Has Pierre Pollyev found that issue? He posted a video last week, really trying to carve out a difference and some daylight between his position and the liberals on, on the state of play,

as it relates to health care for people who essentially have not yet paid into the system. And I can tell that he's on to something because the pushback that he's getting from the left online is significant. It's significant. When I hear that, it tells me this could be a fault line on which the parties will be judged. Andy, we'll go to you and then real quick, 45 seconds each. Well, lost in this story was the fact that Daniel Smith approved a series of referendum questions this fall in Alberta, along with similar lines. Should Alberta introduce a user fee for, you know, claimants or unprocessed, you know, refugees and so on. So she has a series of questions. She's asked her citizens about in the fall.

And then Pierre had this video. I don't think it's some great political stroke of genius this video, because, because I think if you care about these issues, you're already a Polia voter. So I'm not sure what the motivation was here. Legitimate issue, they're trying to lead on immigration. We've talked about this on the show 100 times. We've given flowers to Michelle Remple-Garner.

So I think it's consistent with that, but I don't see it as some new thing that's gonna unlock something new. If anything, I think it's to preserve some votes in places like Alberta and Saskatoon some of these western cities given these polls last week because those are communities that really pull used to loose used to pull very conservative on these issues and maybe aren't any i don't think it's a new a new grand venture i think it's

scoring up some some loose voters you know guys i apologize i was i wasn't watching the clock regan i'm sorry that i i'll get to you first next time i apologize guys thank you for another great conversation and we'll be back right after this on the ben moller nisham one of the most popular segments that we've ever posted posted to social media was when the BC Teachers Union decided someone, a teacher wrote up a paper where they were going to take kids as young as six out into the forest and queer the natural world and explain that, hey kids, see those clouds up there? Well, that's proof that gender isn't binary. Okay. And I asked to what end, to what end are you doing that? And of course

it was a rhetorical question. I know what the answer is. And I think I'm seeing something similar here with the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. So they are going to bring in an organization to educate executives on anti-Semitism. Great idea, right? Except they've chosen a group called Independent Jewish Voices. And independent Jewish voices, if you look just at the numbers, is a fringe group. They represent a small sliver of Jews. And they are an ideological minority. And their views

are widely regarded as out of step with the community. And they say credible anti-Semitism education, the Canadian Jewish Labor Committee is saying that credible anti-Semitism education must reflect mainstream Jewish experience. And so today we're talking with Gilly Zemmer. She is a parent. He's got three kids, two are in the TDSB, and the third has been taken out of the Toronto District School Board Schools. Gilly, welcome to the show. Hi, Ben. Thank you. So first question, why did you take one of your kids out of the TDSB? Well, for the obvious reason.

We are big supporters of the public education, but we were seeing in the last couple of years that there's an ideological move in the TDSB. and I am afraid that my children will be targeted in having to face anti-Israel and anti-Zionist hate from teachers and students. And we didn't want to risk our child growing up, feeling like his identities under attack or needs to be hidden. And that's really the environment for Jewish families in the schools today. I don't know a whole lot about the independent Jewish voices.

I've gone to their website and the videos that they have are very peaceful. and Zen and their tone. But, you know, by their own admission, they represent approximately 2,000 members, which is 0.5% of Canada's Jewish community. What I know about them is they claim that Israel is an apartheid state, that Israel committed a genocide. And so if I had to make a guess, Gilly,

I would even put money down. And I'm not a betting man. But I would guess that they would make the case that before teaching, people what anti-Semitism is, they would say, well, here's what it's not. And they would try to make the case that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. I reject that entirely. But something tells me that that would be a line that they would try to feed to these executives. Absolutely. This fringe advocacy group does not represent the plurality of the Jewish community or Jewish families in Ontario or Canada. They're openly, like you said, anti-Zymist and anti-Israel. They actively work to demonize, delegitimize, and decouple, and this is key.

They want to decouple Israel from our Jewish identity. They don't represent my family or the majority of Jewish families in our country. And what's worse is that they actually openly and actively reject the IRA definition of anti-Semitism, which is the most widely accepted definition of anti-Semitism worldwide. What are they trying to pull a bait and switch with? What do they want to make the definition of anti-Semitism? They want to rewrite history. They want to rewrite the story of the Jewish people.

They want to decouple it from Israel. And that's, and you know, and the thing is that this is Echfo, right? Exactly. I don't want to make this all, I don't want to make it all about the independent Jewish voices because that's their one player here. But like a vampire, they have to be invited into the house. And it's the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario that invited them into the house. And so what does it say to you that of all the different Jewish organizations out there,

of all the Jewish groups, they found one that represents less than 1% of the Jewish people and that by most people standards, they are out of step with the priority. of the Jewish and the values of the Jewish community. What does it tell you that they picked this specific group? It tells me that HFO is ideologically driven. It's decided to hire the organization that openly rejects our country's own adopted definition of anti-Semitism for the purpose of training their members on anti-Semitism.

That's telling us they're completely out of line with what the Jewish is. community and our consensus is of our identity. Yeah. Right? It is trying to delegitimize and to sever our connection to the ancestral homeland of Israel. And that is not how you combat anti-Semitism. That's redefining Jewish identity and rewriting our history. There's another word for it, Guilla.

There's another word for it. Bad faith. This is a bad faith moved by Edvo. It's bad faith. Absolutely. And look, go on, Gilly. Hundreds of elementary school parents expressed their concerns directly to EDFO to the executive. We wrote letters.

We made phone calls and our concerns have been completely ignored. The training is moving forward without any meaningful transparency or engagement with Jewish families or established Jewish organizations. And, yeah, like you said, it's completely disregarding our concerns. and it erodes our trust, our confidence, and our sense of safety. Biggilly, it feels to me. Education. It feels to me like the Ministry of Education would have something to say about this. Because if, and for our listeners across the country who aren't familiar with the politics of it,

the Minister of Education has taken the extraordinary step, essentially disbanding the school boards in a number of places who have either been financially, irresponsible, or ideologically so. And it feels to me like the Minister of Education would want, this would be just more evidence in that case against these people whose sole purpose should be educate our kids and support the teachers in that goal. Absolutely.

This is a clear example of, I mean, the ministry has an easy case here. Yeah, yeah. IJV rejects the IRA definition. The federal government supports the IRA definition. It's a very easy case to say, like, this is not a group that's aligned with our Canadian policies. And why would you bring it into the largest educator union in the country? You know, EDFO is supposed to foster inclusion and safety for all students in the schools.

But promoting this ideology is going to do the exact, opposite, we already see rising hate incidents against Jewish students and our eroding sense of belonging in the schools. Right? We already see this happening. And this is just going to further that narrative. Look, when people say, as I guarantee you, that's going to be part of it, anti-Zionism is not anti-Israel, anti-Jew, to which I would say, if you were to say, hey, listen, I like Pakistanis. I just don't think Pakistan should exist. That would be racist.

And saying, I like Jews, Jews are fine. I just don't think Israel has a right to exist. Never mind the fact that there are, you know, two dozen ethno states that surround it, many of which are openly hostile, not just to the state of Israel, but the people inside it. That to me is a, it's a bad faith. it is, it disregards fact.

And if you are in the, if you are in an arena where your job is to teach the people who run the people who teach, right? That's it. Now, it's all about education. And if you are going to begin with a false premise and a bad faith position, I'm sorry, you've lost the argument. Gilly Zemmer, thank you so much for being here. Class is in session. Ladies and gentlemen, sit down, put your phones away, because it's time for the professor, Craig Baird, the host of Canadian History X to drop some knowledge on the country.

Craig, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks for having me. So some people know the name Danny Gallivans, not all. Why don't you give us a little lesson as to who Danny Gallivan is? Well, Danny Gallivan was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia in 1917, and kind of a cool fact. He was a very gifted athlete and especially good at pitching. And he was even invited to try out for the New York Giants,

but he injured his arm prior to training camp. So was never able to kind of pursue that major league baseball career. But that loss, I think, was Canada's gain because after. Sorry. I'm glad you said that because some people are going to say, when I heard you say that, I wasn't paying attention to the timeline. And when you said New York Giants, I just assumed football. I forgot that back in the day, the San Francisco Giants played in New York.

That's right. Yeah, in the late 1940s and everything. So 1938 was when he tried out for them. And eventually he would work in a steel plant. He would teach high school algebra and Latin, but found his way to doing the play-by-play for the local junior hockey team and was actually scouted by a producer from Hockey Night in Canada and asked to fill in for a sick announcer in 1950. And then two years later, he starts his three-decade-long career with Hockey Night in Canada. He primarily called Montreal Canadiens games, but everybody who listened to him knows him for what were called his gallivanisms. This included saves.

Well, we've got some here. Let's listen to some of them. A bullet jet driving at center in on the Ranger defense. Getting sad. He may pass or shoot. He drives one. Listen, what you just said is, you know, he was, he was plying his craft, you know, somewhere in the middle of nowhere and a hockey night in Canada. Exactly.

Or someone heard him and offered him a shot to fill in. And that began a 30-year career. It's sort of what Oprah said about luck. It's a, you know, preparation that meets opportunity. And if you don't have those two things, you're never going to have luck. Absolutely. And that's exactly what it was luck. And he was just very good at it.

And like you heard there, he had a variety of phrases from the saves that were scintillating and larseness. He described saves as being kicked out with his pad with a rapier like fashion. But his most famous sayings were dipsy doodle, caninating drives, and of course, the Savardian spinorama. And a professor actually wrote to him and said that caninating was not a word. and Galvan wrote back and said, well, now it is. It is now. And like I said, every word is made up. Every word is made up. So when people say that's a made up word, it just hasn't caught on it.

And every year, the different dictionaries create a new word or take a word that's been used and put in the dictionary. So I'm glad to hear that he's being remembered today by you. But this week's episode of Canadian History Acts is about Percy Williams. Yeah, Percy Williams is kind of somebody who's not as well known today, but He started racing in athletics in high school and under the guidance of a janitor turned coach, Bob Granger, he became one of the best runners in Vancouver. But what he's most known for is the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam where he won gold in the 100 meters and the 200 meters and he became a national hero, but nobody expected him to win gold.

So there actually was a delay in the ceremony because they had to go and get the Canadian flag, which at the time was the red ensign as well as get the anthem queued up because nobody was expecting this Canadian to win. And he's one of only eight sprinters to actually win double gold in those events. And then in 1930, he won gold at the British Empire Games in Hamilton. But during that race, he stepped in the soft part of the track and injured his leg. And his running was never the same again. And he retired after failing to make the final in the 1932 Olympics.

And then he spent the rest of his life just kind of living quietly with his mother, working in insurance. In the 1960s, he gave his medals to the BC Sports Hall of Fame. And those were unfortunately stolen in 1980 and never found. And then after the death of his mother, he was dealing with severe arthritis, and he unfortunately did end his own life in 1982. But today, a school is named for him, and a statue honors him outside of BC Place. And back in 1972, he was actually chosen as Canada's greatest Olympian. Obviously, he'd be probably a little bit down on a list now.

But back then, he was well liked for the accomplishment he had at the Olympics. All right, well, let's listen to a clip of this week's episode of Canadian History X focusing on Percy Williams. From July 29th to 30th, Percy Williams had ran in four races to win the 100 meters gold. Now on July 31st, he was preparing to run again and double the distance. In his first heat of the 200 meters, Percy won with a time of 22.6 seconds. In the quarterfinals, he finished second for the first time, 0.2 seconds behind Helmut Corning of Germany. But he qualified for the semifinal, which he won with a time of 22 seconds. In the finals, he was joined by fellow Canadian John Fitzpatrick at the start.

line. The Americans who typically dominated the event only had Jackson Schultz representing them. This time, there were no false starts. As soon as the gun went off, time slowed down for Percy as he burst out of the starting blocks. He had won the 100 meters and proved he was the fastest man in the world. Now he was going to show that that win was no fluke. 21.8 seconds. That is how long it took for Percy to make it to the finish line and into the history books. He became the first non-American to take double Olympic gold in the 100 and 200 meters. It's a feat no Canadian has ever done before or since. You know, as we look back at these last Olympics and a lot to be proud of in the efforts

made by our athletes, one thing that is coming into stark relief, Craig, is that we have not invested enough to ensure that as a nation we have the success that I think most Canadians want. What I also feel is that's really sad about that story is here was a man. And granted, it was a different time. It was absolutely a different time. Canada was younger almost 100 years ago. But I don't believe that Olympic gold or Olympic greatness should necessarily be the high point of anyone's life.

It should be the high point that allows you the possibility to have a great life beyond the Olympics. And to hear this story of this man who did so much only to fall on tough times and eventually take his life, that to me is the great tragedy. Absolutely. It is quite a tragic story. And he was quite bitter later in life because of how he was treated after the high point of the Olympic gold. Yeah.

And I get it. Back then, we as a country didn't necessarily feel we had to fund the sports or have a support network. and even if we could have, we didn't have, we didn't know what we didn't know, but we do know those things today. And, you know, I just, as we look, as we look inward after these last Olympics, I do hope that that is something that we think of. Like, these people gave us so much, they gave us these memories that will carry with us forever. How do we honor them beyond a party when they get home? How do we allow them to take that single-minded focus on that one thing

and allow them to translate it into something else beyond competitive sports so that they can have so that so that they so that the last chapter of their life is as fulfilling for them as that chapter. Absolutely. They should be celebrated long after that high point as somebody who made Canada proud. So what are you working on now? What's coming down the pike? Right now we just released the episode coming up about the crazy Canucks,

which was a fun episode. I actually got to interview Ken Read about that. And now I'm just working on my Alberta-themed episodes that will be happening in March about John Ware and the Hillcrest Mining Disaster and a bunch of other cool stories that are really interesting coming up. What was Ed Podvinsky, Crazy Canuck?

Steve Podborski. That's crazy. Okay, gotcha. Gotcha, okay. Because Ed Pod was a skier as well. Yeah, and he was at my brother's bachelor. sort party. He knew how to turn it up to 11. So tell me about the Alberta-themed episodes. Well, the Alberta-themed episodes are going to be releasing in March. And so I'm looking at the

March West, the incredible Frank slide, then John Ware. And then I'm actually going to look at Leduc number one, which kind of created Alberta's pretty much entire economy in terms of oil. And then the Hillcrest mine disaster, which remains the worst mining disaster in Canadian history. and it's quite a tragic story about over 100 men died in that. And it's not as well known as, say, the Spring Hill disasters that happened in the 1950s. I mean, you say not as well known as the Spring Hill disasters, I think I can speak on behalf of all of our listeners. That's not well known to us either. So I thank you for coming on each and every week and highlighting all this really important Canadian history for us.

How can people find the show? You can find the show on all podcast platforms. It's Canadian History X. Just search for EHX. and then it also airs every weekend on the Chorus Radio Network. Craig Baird, thank you very much, my friend. Thanks for having me. My name is Mickey Fox.

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