The Ben Mulroney Show - Why are our politicians bypassing Canadian Media for American networks?

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

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It's Greg Brady in for Ben Mulrooney for the first hour of the show. Nine to ten o'clock. Ben's got you covered 10 o'clock until noon and a good chunk of the prior three and a half hours. Oh my God, is that, I'm just reading off the teleprompter. Is that how long that previous show was? The good chunk of it was documenting in essence, how I think someday we'll look and we'll actually, as mad as

I am, I don't like my presence in Canada being threatened. I don't like our sovereignty being challenged. I don't even like, I don't like crap talk on a good day, let alone a bad day when I'm snappy and irritable. But Donald Trump with all that stuff'm snappy and irritable. But Donald Trump with all that stuff is snappy and irritable. And yet, and yet, I will document this, he showed he's a master bluffer. He showed he's a masterful negotiator. And he showed that the combined qualities, not about intellect, playing cards isn't about intellect.

Having a good hand and hiding it or keeping it close to the vest is not, that does not make you a smarter or more well-educated or worldly person. But Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford can't play at the Trump card table. Don't try it next time. Trump's going to promise more tariffs. He's gonna say, we're not looking for a concession. We're looking for something that is, in essence, payment out for something that we're concerned about.

We give this, you receive that. What's it gonna be? And if we just end up taking Trump at his word, if we take him at his word and this is what he wants, who would be against any of the following policies? We're going to actually vet people that will arrive in Canada so that there aren't terror threats like the one in Toronto in the summer. There were multiple ones in Ontario in the last six months, but who's even counting? Because you don't see a lot of Doug Ford or the mayor of Toronto or the prime minister stepping up and complaining about it. We're going to secure our ports and check more cargo coming into and leaving the country. How many times have you heard about a stolen car out of the GTA? It's

just you go to bed at night, shut the lights down, everything's cool, you're set for that alarm clock the next morning, your car's not in your driveway, or you've heard about it or you it's been a friend or a friend of a friend or relative. Tons of times. People call our shows all the time that have had two cars stolen in the last 12-14 months. Madness is raining right now in that department. So maybe securing our ports and checking more cargo, leaving that port of Montreal. I mean, it's in Mississauga, it's in the port of Montreal the next morning. It's in Richmond Hill, it's in the port of

Montreal the next morning. And how do you know? Your GPS tells you so. You put Apple Air tags in it and you can see exactly where your car is. So what have we secured our ports, vetted people coming into the country? I'm a huge proponent of legal immigration as a former immigrant to the United States of America for a decade. We tighten up the border. Everybody's now admitting we should have. So then you're further off. Your follow up question should be how long did you know that we needed to

tighten up the border for and what took you so long? And we also shut down all this illegal fentanyl production, which again, massively understated, underreported, and undervalued as a data point. It's not everything. And of course, we're not Mexico. We don't have murderous cartels roaming the streets. We couldn't make a mini-series about it on Netflix, but it is an issue. It's a serious issue, and it's a lot more now is being made of it. If Trudeau really thought there wouldn't be a problem, why give in to Trump, besides the fact that their economy is 12 and a half times bigger? Now, obviously, there was a first call yesterday morning and a second call with Donald Trump so as much as I would make the case it looks like Justin Trudeau made the deal that he just had to make. You're gonna have to capitulate. I said

it earlier you're in a fight with a gorilla give him a banana don't try and hit him over the head with the stick you found on the ground give him the banana maybe he likes the banana more than ripping your arms off and clubbing you to death with them. Maybe. If you're Doug Ford, boy do you look awfully silly. Slamming Elon Musk, poop talking Elon Musk, you break up with him, you tear up the deal and then you got to borrow Jagmeet Singh's scotch tape and tape the Starlink internet

deal back together in Northern Ontario. Like how foolish does that look? But there obviously was movement and we're all breathing a sigh of relief. Why? Because a trade war and a tariff war with Trump and America seems like the dumbest thing a country could do. Mexico didn't even try. They were like, yeah, we know we got some problems. What do you want?

That's a smart president there. Why don't we send Trudeau and Trump to Mexico, let them run Mexico the next six months, or Trudeau and Ford, and we bring up Mexico's pretty awesome president. Do you think we'll be better off or worse off in six months? She's pretty open and bold about what she's going to do on that front. Here's Public Safety Minister for the country David McGinty asked what changed between that first and second call with Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau yesterday. What changed though or what transpired from the first call this morning to the second call this afternoon to then the public statement from the Prime Minister? I think that it's fair to say that the President was apprised more directly with many facts

around the work that we've actually done on the border. He's much more aware now of the investment we've made, how far we've come. These new elements are building on some of the things we've already begun, for example, this question of a joint North American strike force is something we've been negotiating for some time, bringing it forward. So I think what we've got now is a situation where we've got negotiating for some time, bringing it forward.

So I think what we've got now is a situation where we've got some work to do over the next 30 days to get this right. And you know, the president expressed concerns, we listened. But we're working now jointly, hand in hand, especially when it comes to this scourge and this tragedy surrounding Fentanyl. Oh, it's a scourge and a tragedy. I mean, I saw rightly so the Conservative Party of Canada leader, Pierre Poliev, document 50,000 deaths in our communities and in our cities. When you drive anywhere, it doesn't matter. I can go east to west. I mean, I'm in Ajax, Oshawa to the east. I can keep going whippy, whippies to my east, Pickering, Rouge Hill, Scarborough. I can take the GO Train Lakeshore east and I could get off practically anywhere, including

Scarborough and including East Toronto. And I'll find somebody that is bent over sideways because they've just smoked fentanyl. It's going to be fascinating. Also, one thing worth noting, and I will note it it is it's going to be quite fascinating to see what happens when a fentanyl czar is brought in to rid the streets of this horrific drug and the mayor of Toronto Olivia Chow is on record as being for the smoking and possession of fentanyl in public places and decriminalizing all hard drugs like fentanyl

and decriminalizing all hard drugs like fentanyl. Worth noting, the feds did reject Toronto's application to make the city more like a scene out of The Last of Us on HBO, coming back soon in season two, on a daily basis. I mean, thank heavens the federal government had some sanity at the last minute and decided that activists like Olivia Chow and Dr. Eileen DeVilla wouldn't get their way on this front. I would love for anybody to ask that question the next time Justin Trudeau and Olivia Chow

are at a joint announcement about oodles of taxpayer dollars being spent somewhere. The other thing McGinty said yesterday that I thought was prominent is suddenly, out of nowhere, cartels, Mexican drug cartels are now terrorist organizations. I'll let him explain that. You are also agreeing to list cartels as terrorists. This question is in no way a defense of the cartels but what is the justification for listing them as a terrorist entity because that has been a high bar in this country. There's been resistance to do it with Iran and other groups for a long time. Why a quick acceptance of that and how do you justify it in law doing that to the cartels?

Not a quick acceptance, something that we've been considering for some time. You have to look at the nature of the activities of cartels and the similarities that they share with terrorist groups. So we took a long hard look at what they're doing, how they're doing it, the scourge that they've become, how vicious they can be, and we've made a tough decision. And this decision is we've got to move forward

and give our law enforcement folks more access to powers, extraordinary powers, not granted easily because we want to knit this in its bud. Like specific cartels? Will you name specific cartels? We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there. This is again in the next 30 days. But if you've been working on it for quite some time and it's not quick acceptance there should be more details.

Well there is. There is. But we're going to wait until we have a better more opportune moment to share more details. Okay that of course from CBC with David Cochran and Canada took forever and a day and a half to list Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity. They were begging and pleading and it probably took the nine months of rallies and marches that were scaring the bejabbers out of Jewish people and the rest of us to make that happen because they're heavily involved in that process. On the way back, something really frustrating. And I don't think it's just a media problem.

I think it's us trying to be, trying to be a conduit to your needs on this front. And a lot of great texts in, including an argument, I'm gonna read it word for word, as to why Justin Trudeau's the best person served, the best possible option right now, to deal with Donald Trump the rest of the way. That's next on the Ben Mulroney Show.

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Alex Pearson will have tons to say. We were covering this tariff issue like a blanket yesterday on Alex's show and on John Oakley's show at 3 o'clock. So very eager to hear their reaction. I mean, it was happening in real time really on John's show. Halfway through we get this word that everybody's saved through the benevolence of the great God Donald Trump. He's decided to give Canada bequeath us another 30 days of non 25 percent tariffs. I hope there's some

lessons learned. We've talked about it already this morning. Pierre Poliev putting together a phenomenal video long before all this happened. A six-minute video on why inter-provincial trade is far more necessary. And it is. It's absolutely something we need to do a little more of. And I get this text message, 416-870-6400. I'm so thankful to Donald Trump for what he accomplished for Canada yesterday. I can't wait for him to reveal to us who the spies in our government are.

I don't know that you'll get that. You can wish for it. But I'm not 100% sure that that is particularly transfiring. Hi, Greg. Resecuring the ports and vetting immigrants. Where have we heard this before? Pierre Poliev's been saying that's what he'll do for the last year and there will be big pressure on a Poliev government to do just that. Get this, we got schooled and beaten soundly at the negotiation table. Question is are we going to learn from this or are we bound

to repeat the same mistakes? This country and province can't run on autopilot. We need exceptionally strong visionaries and leaders to usher the country forward, or we will be the 51st state at some point. I know that gives some people the chills. It doesn't to me, but I don't like the fraying of a Canada USA relationship. I don't like that one bit. How will the next prime minister, who isn't the person I just mentioned, Mr. Poliev, barring something very strange, the next prime minister is almost certainly Mark Carney. And what do you know about Mark Carney?

Well, you know, a little bit about Mark Carney, who ran the bank of Canada. He ran the bank of England. I saw him yesterday, like basically introduced on CNN as in essence, like a Canadian representative. And I'm like, isn't he just a private citizen? Like isn't Mark Carney simply a private citizen right now of Canada? Is he a government employee? That'd be nice to know. What's he getting paid?

Also nice to know. I mean, you hear rumors that Carney's been on the payroll of the federal government for a long, long time and was even advising them back on COVID. As Heath Ledger's The Joker said in The Dark Knight, if you're good at something, never do it for free. Carney's good at that financial advice. I doubt he's doing it for free then or now. But he hasn't answered a lot of questions from Canadian media. Like, I don't know what you consider a lot is. How about any? Yeah, there's been the odd chance where somebody's been able to corner him in a scrum, but very rarely.

So Canadian politicians, you're noticing this trend are doing more American media than Canadian media. And I defended him going on Jon Stewart because I thought soft launch and he'll eventually pivot into answering hard questions from people. No, it hasn't happened. I was wrong about that. Right that it was a good idea for Reach and expanding out that first time? Wrong on the sense of him doing it.

Here's Jake Tapper on CNN asking Mark Carney how he defines being Canadian. Well, I think there's many differences between our two great nations. One of them is that Canada, look, Canada is a mosaic, the US is a melting pot. Canada puts greater weight on social services, on health care, protecting each other. Canada has different ties. We have deep, deep ties with the United Kingdom, through the Commonwealth, we have deep ties through Europe. We have a different approach to international relations. with the United Kingdom, through the Commonwealth, we have deep ties through Europe. We have a different approach to international relations. We're not the superpower.

We're looking to support it. So we are quite different, but look, we love America. We love Americans. This is, as I say, one of the greatest relationships in the world. So I got it partly wrong. That's Mark Carney on CNN with Jake Tapper. He was described by Tapper as a quote Canadian official. I

don't even know what that means. He hasn't been elected. He's not in Parliament. He isn't the Prime Minister yet. He's going to be. He's going to be. And he gets asked a question. I don't have no problem with the question and that's actually a really good answer. He's not a Canadian official. What do you mean official? Is he a like NHL ref? Is he doing the Canucks Predators game on Thursday night? No, he's not a Canadian official. But I want to know how you feel about this trend.

You are seeing this, right? Doug Ford was on four American television networks yesterday. I'd love to get him on Toronto Today with Greg Brady. I'd love to hear him on with Alex Pearson this afternoon. It's a no-go so far. Now, I will make the case, 416-870-6400, you can call 888-225-TALK. You're seeing this trend.

Don't make this just about Carney. I think he's being slick and being smart, but he's running what we call a front-runner campaign. And what that is, you're way ahead in the polls, you don't need to do any more than the minimum. Now, who's leading in the polls strongly and goes on a lot of radio and TV? Pierre Poliev does.

Say what you will, but he does. But generally speaking, you only tend to hear from people who are non-incumbents, and you only tend to hear from people regularly who want-incumbents and you only tend to hear from people regularly who want something somebody else has. And yes, Poliev does want to be the next prime minister. We can get Jagmeet Singh on. In Quebec, you could get the Bloc Québécois leader on.

But Carney's doing what Olivia Chow did here in Toronto with one-on-one interviews. He's doing what Doug Ford did in the 22 election and is kind of doing again, doing just the media he wants. Do you think in America they're asking him about health care or education or 19-hour hospital wait times? I doubt it. Not at all. The fact that, do you think Jake Tapper would ask Doug Ford, why is your province so far behind on housing targets that your own province sent? Nah.

What about that Elon Musk thing? 416-870-6400 is the phone number. I want to know if that rattles you. I don't think that's a media inside baseball thing. And if you're going to call out Carney for it because you've had it with Justin Trudeau, you don't necessarily like the liberals. I get it. He's a he's a bureaucrat. He's a paid advisor right now to the federal government.

And you want to know what the story is. What does he believe in? What are his standards? What does he think about mass immigration? What does he think about interprovincial trade and whether we should increase it? What's he think about Trump? We're getting none of that right now from our own media and no matter what you think all of us try and get answers not just to make something interesting or or sustain a career but

there is an element of public service okay like it or love it you you're listening to the show right now you consume media. Tom thanks for the phone call it's on the Ben Mulroney show you You go right ahead. Thank you. To sum it up, a dear family friend worked for the World Bank, right in Scotland, out of Scotland. And when I asked, I said, this Kearney, like, what are your thoughts? He is not doing Canadian media because he will be exposed in his mind and my friend in mind as well. What will he be exposed as? I'm just curious. Okay, he is exceedingly woke and left. He has more left wing, his political view than the NDP.

He wants to tie economics with the environment and oil sands would be basically, you know, he has no use for them. And he, that's his sort of vision from what I could ascertain from this, this chap that, uh, is heavily involved in politics, the SMB party in Scotland, as well as I say, along

with the world bank. And this is, that's why he scares the bejesus out of me. He does not want people to know in Canada quite yet, just how woke he is as well along the lines of he is going to have an exceedingly difficult time in going from what he's done with the World Bank or sorry with the Bank of England, Bank of Canada into politics. Yeah, I wonder about that. Tom, thanks for that. And thanks for that

expertise given, you know, the you know, the landscape really well. We'll break here, take more calls on this 416-870-6400. It's fine. Like he's going to win the leadership. Is he just going to hide when he's 20 points behind the polls when there's an actual election? Does he think there's, you know, just drips and drabs for the next five or six months? If we're really going to wait this out until October for an election? I have my own theory on that. I'll give that to you on the way back. It's Greg Brady in for Ben Mulroney. Up till 10 o'clock. Ben's got you in the chair 10 to 12 It's really difficult for a candidate to come in who is saddled with the policies

But let's say oh boy, let's say just just just throw it out I'm trying to preserve the relationship A wild hypothetical. Let's say the candidate wasn't part of the government. Let's say the candidate did have a lot of economic experience. Let's say the candidate did deal with crises. Let's say the candidate had a plan to deal with the challenges in the here and now. You sneaky. You're running as an outsider.

I am an outsider. That's from... Wow. sneaky you're running as an outsider I am an outsider that's from the Daily Show now three weeks ago in one day 22 days ago Mark Carney went on the Daily Show and basically laid it out I'm gonna run for the Liberal leadership without saying so and then of course he announced it officially a couple days later there'd be a lot of questions for Mark Carney that we have we asked you on the Ben Mulroney show and by the way Ben is in at 10 o'clock this morning.

It's just Greg Brady pinch hitting for this particular hour. But let's face it, we'd have a lot of questions for Carney just about what we've seen, what we see in our streets, some of those kitchen table issues that we talk about. We don't know a lot for a guy that is absolutely getting a lot of credit for, oh, he's gonna be really experienced with economic policy. I mean, we're pushing the finance minister aside for the last four and a half years and most people that know

Christopher E. Lin and work tightly with Christopher E. Lin and the Liberal Cabinet are like, nope, Carney's my guy. Men are, women are, Ontarians are, Quebecers are, but he hasn't talked to us. And I want to know how that's landing for you. And again, don't just say, well, it's them, not us. It's not just Mark Carney doing it. Doug Ford's on American TV all the time. To some extent, Daniel Smith is.

But I think Smith does make herself a ton more available. Our former colleague, our pal Roy Green, Daniel Smith would go on his show all the time, all the time. Devel Morrison was hosting on the weekend and is our Toronto This Weekend host as well. She did some great stuff Sunday on this Tear of Front with Anthony Fury and joins us now. And just driving by listening to your favorite radio station and you wanted to weigh in. So you go right ahead. Yeah, I did. You know, your comments about them appearing on US networks. I think one of the reasons why they keep appearing on US networks is because it's bigger bang for their buck. Every single Canadian network and radio

station will cover them after one interview on the CNN and MSNBC's of the world versus them actually having to go to station to station to station. But I also think it's part of their sort of marketing or PR plan where they sort of do the US networks first before they take take this sort of the deep dive into all of the Canadian network. I think you're right and the tariffs I mean correct me if I'm wrong you've seen as well just take our provincial election you've seen Doug Ford and I'm not saying it's the wrong thing to do politically it's probably the right thing as you say and I actually think with a bit of a vacuum of leadership

and not a lot of appearances from the prime minister or any of his cabinet from December through early January, I think Doug Ford picked up the slack. Now, do some of the points get repetitive? Absolutely. But that's because we're consuming this. And as you said, we're playing those clips back ad nauseam. So I think you're right.

It does work. I mean, unfortunately, Doug Ford called an election. I don't think that he was doing everything else right. Yeah. Except for calling an election during this time, which is going to cost all the taxpayers a lot of money. So that's a little disappointing. He was going down a good path before until he called an election. I thought, you know, the ad that was just played during the break about this is about his job, not yours. And we know Justin Trudeau did this in the middle of the pandemic. Totally.

Called an election because it's about his job, not ours. So unfortunately with politicians, we are still dealing with this ego of, they care more about staying in power than they do helping us. Well, and the liberals aren't calling parliament back during what people are considering an existential economic crisis,

which was the Trump tariffs. I mean, if you won't call it back for that, what would make you call it back? I guess nothing. Aliens invading maybe, that's it. Because if you don't call it back, you get to stay in power. And this is all about people staying in power.

That's literally all they care about. Devel Morrison, as the audience will point out, fantastic points. You made them quicker than Greg Brady, more salient than Greg Brady. Thank you. Game, set, and match. That's Devel Morrison calling in. Point being made as well, Ford also gets coverage that I think we concur the opposition leaders can't get. Will we put the opposition leaders on and offer Doug Ford the same opportunity? Sure we will. You've heard Bonnie Cromby on this station, you've heard Marge Stiles on this station. Again, Doug Ford's high, riding high in the polls. We had a cabinet minister of his, David Piccini, on Toronto Today this morning. Minister of Immigration and Labor,

kind of an important platform right now. But Bonnie Cromby can't get on CNN and Marge Stiles can't get on Fox News Mart Styles can't get on Fox News. They can't right now. They wish they could. They cannot as of this moment right now. Ken, thanks for the phone call. You're on the Ben Mulroney show and you go ahead.

Good morning. How are you? Great. Thank you. Well, I agree. If they're going to go on media, let's work on the media, let Carney go on on media, in television, US television, what have you. But I haven't heard the actual issues being talked about. Trump

is saying, well, Canada, you're to blame for whatever's coming across the board that's doing harm to the US. And granted, he has a point with that, but he's not owning up to the fact that there's issues with his border agents so when i go across to Windsor, Sarnia, whatever uh i met with an American guard yes so isn't there an issue with the American guards letting in the unwanted into their country that's the issue so yes we need to help yes we need to be an ally and we'll still stand by them. But we're not to blame for these things because one minute he wants us to be the 51st state. The next minute, well, we don't need Canada. Well, let's shut off the electricity during a major event like the Super Bowl and see how much you need.

No, that's exactly a fantastic point. And that's why I mean, I played a clip earlier today of Doug Ford saying you know hopefully hopefully cooler heads prevail and I'm thinking the cooler heads that said they'd shut American Energy off weeks ago the cooler heads that just ripped up the Elon Musk contract and taped it back together or you know glue use glue rubber cement whatever that stuff was we sniffed in fifth grade to get through the afternoon before phys ed Mary thanks very much for the phone call I want to get you on before we break. Thanks for the call to the Ben Mulroney Show and you go ahead.

Hi, I just wanted to say that it's just a thing that these Canadian politicians are going on American networks and can't face Canadian media and get grilled by Canadian media and answer to Canadians. They feel that they can go there and pontificate and be stars, but they can't come locally and answer our questions. But I think that this is a perspective that showcases how weak the Canadian media atmosphere is and that these Canadians love American media. They consume it. We do. We do, don't we? Yes.

And yeah, and there's a, let me, I'll let you finish. There's an element of exactly what you say playing out in real time here, because as I said, the Jake Tappers and Aaron Burnett and Brett Baer's, they're not going to ask Doug Ford about 16 hour wait times in an emergency room or how bad our school kids testing are. But to the same extent, Justin Trudeau goes on Stephen Colbert's show, and it's a yuckfest. And when he says something, oh Canada's got a

very strong economy, Colbert's not researched enough or you know in the battle to say, wait a minute Prime Minister that's not true. And so a lot of stuff, listen, a lot of stuff slips past even us on the best of days and goes unchallenged, but these guys basically have, you know, a soapbox and they don't get challenged on American TV. Yes, that's exactly how Canadians continue to fail. We continue to be misinformed because of what is happening. And I hope that what Trump is doing is putting off the scales off of Canadians eyes. Stop loving your little neighbor over there that wants to gut you, okay? This goes for the media, this goes for the bankers and Mark Carney's little, you

know, running as an insider, outsider thing that he's doing, okay? He's not elected, he doesn't represent us, he goes to the Americans and talks about us. He can't save Canadian media, okay? You got it. You got it. And by the way, it'd be the easiest thing in the universe today if I had Doug Ford on American television and I saw him his histrionics about Elon Musk and basically calling him Trump's like he didn't call him little buddy but he called him a buddy and casting basically characters versions on Elon Musk when he rips up the deal in the morning then all of a sudden there isn't a big pronouncement

and thunder foot of the deal going back, this Starlink satellite deal. I'd play the clip of him ripping Elon Musk on American TV and go, well, which is it? Like, you cast character expiritions on the richest man on the planet and said, this is why I'm not doing business with him. And just because the tariffs were pulled,

you go right back to doing business with him? Doesn't sound like it takes much to change your mind. If you lived through the COVID pandemic, you'd know that's true about Doug Ford. All right, lots more on the way back. This is the Ben Mulroney Show in 640 Toronto. We're taking calls, and some of you have really responded to the topic quite obviously.

I want to get to something else that's a little bit existential, and that's the booing of the Canadian national anthem and subsequently the American national anthem in just a little bit. I want to wrap on that. The Raptors are at home tonight against the New York Knicks. I have a bad feeling about it. I don't care about the game and the result itself, more the reaction and how viral these things can now go that they didn't go 21 years ago when this started to crop up. And it was a weird memory for me to remember that we used to boo the national anthems of each other's

countries back in 2003 when the U.S. went into Iraq. I mean, like, of all things. But we asked you about Canadian politicians doing American media, like, endlessly and not doing Canadian media. And if that sounds like I'm not a big, hey, Canadian media unite. We all have different jobs. We all have different perspectives. We all go, oh, that guy does something so brilliant. I'd never be able to do that. And then we're all like, how'd that guy get a job?

We often land in the middle on that front. But you can get pretty envious when someone else gets a scoop that you don't. I get that. Cam, thanks very much for waiting through the break. You're on the Ben Mulroney Show with Greg Brady this time. Go ahead. Yeah, I think our politicians did excellent on the American programs that I did.

The thing with Trump is Trump is sitting at a poker table. He's played his two aces. We shot back with an ace to retaliate. The booing of the anthem? Yes, I think Americans need to know. Americans weren't really concerned about it over the weekend on the major networks. But when they woke up one Monday morning, they saw the stock market falling and then were explained, okay, what is actually happening here with Trump.

I think we played it marvelously. This is not over. Trump got it through quickly in the beginning because he called a national emergency for what, 42 pounds of fentanyl, making it across the border? Nobody's mentioned the guns that are arriving from the states here.

Nobody's mentioning Rockford Road where the governor of New York said, well, the Canadian border is just up there. Go try there. No, all of that is true. I think you make some great points. Here's not necessarily pushing back, but I'd say you're right. Tariffs weren't going to be popular in the Republican Party. Like you tariff too hard for too long.

As you pointed out with the stock market, your own supporters will start to grumble a little bit. Just like, not dissimilar to the grumbling some of the liberals finally had when they're like Justin Trudeau, man, you're killing me on this carbon tax when I go out to an event or I go to the doorstep. It's super unpopular to the point where now all these candidates have said, yeah, we're dumping it. But let me make the case that I also think we accelerated the situation by matching tariffs and then pulling their products from our shelves. And I guess it's easy to say they started it,

but we are dealing with like, we're just men, you and me, and we're getting into a ring with a 500 pound gorilla. They have 13 times the size of an economy, and they have a guy in the ring who likes to fight dirty. We're not going to win that fight. So killing him with kindness might be better than accelerating the trade war. They just wanted to have a conversation about us fixing some things. That's not what they're doing here. Trump wants to go out for global markets and he changed his tune. He could have done done a different way under the Constitution through the House and through the Senate he chose

not to do that he had chose to do it immediately so he wouldn't have to put that to a vote if he'd only has the votes he has the votes he controls Congress and he controls the Senate and you know I mean I mean in in the House and in the Senate I don't think if anybody he analyzed it you'd have to do it another way under the American constitution, which he's already told us, if you listen to him, he didn't wanna wait until April 1st when everybody would examine what is actually the tariffs,

how they would affect American, American business, the automotive markets, everything. He wanted it now. It's Greenland, it's the UE, UE, EU. Yeah. Okay. He's got a plan. So we sit, we have to sit at the poker table, but let him play his cards. He's got two aces. We've got one, but Canada is sitting with the Royal flush here. That the oil that we send only comes from four places and we're one of them,

actually three places. If you take out Iran. So it's explaining to the American public how important Canada is to the United States. No, I get you. I get you and I want to get one or two more in. You're not wrong about our importance when it comes to energy production and distribution and he's lying about the trade. He's lying about subsidizing Canada. That's called a trade deficit and the deficit is a lot more tangible to being equal when you carve out oil.

But I'll tell you again, what he campaigned on, he said, we're going to secure our borders, not one border, borders. And he said, we're going to reduce fentanyl. It's a scourge. You just heard the prime minister describe it as a scourge. He doesn't do that very often. Why did he do that yesterday? Because Trudeau and Ford don't talk about fentanyl very often and they sure don't talk about human trafficking. Why don't they?

Simply put, people would say, wait a minute, now you're talking about human trafficking. That's the first time you've mentioned it a long time. How long did you know this was an issue? Okay, again, there's an easy, we could draw a lot of parallel lines between Trudeau and Ford. Like again, I've got neighbors who loathed Justin Trudeau and adored Doug Ford. I've got neighbors who aren't so hot on Ford and yet still are basically gonna vote for Mark Carney because they just won't vote for Pierre Poliev and I want to get those two people together and go you guys are rooting for the same dude. One's a premier, one's a prime minister and they have been in lockstep

on every single dramatic policy. They both love themselves a crisis so they can put on the cape and act like they're saving us. And they saw this opportunity here. And Donald Trump said, give me what I want and give me it now and you don't belong at the same card table with me. And I'm sorry, that's what ended up happening. And our country might end up being safer for it. I want to give you this from Jonathan Marchessault. If you don't know who he is, he's an NHL player, plays with Nashville. But last night at a game with Ottawa and Nashville, the Canadian national anthem was booed.

We gave you some viral audio yesterday of the national anthem being booed at an LA Clippers-Toronto Raptors game on Sunday. I don't like this, two wrongs don't make a right, but here's Marcheseau, and I think he puts this really, really well for how a Canadian player living in Nashville Tennessee would feel about this. Nothing should be said for any anthems. I mean honestly it's it's the anthem is not made for make political views it's made for respecting the veterans in

countries and I think that's that's something that we everybody like same thing in Canada that they booed the US and I think at the end of the day, we're respecting the veterans and the people that defend our countries and it's bigger than just trying to deal with a little, I mean, just trying to give a shot to the other country. I think people need to think a little further about that. I think that's a good response. I think that's a mature perspective on this front. That would hurt me as a Canadian player playing in the U.S. to hear people boo O Canada when

I'm here and they're my home fans as well. That's a big distinction from down the road at Scotiabank Arena from our place here at Corski and people who are going to boo the national anthem tonight of the United States. The vast majority of players that play for the Jays, play for the Raptors, and obviously a few of the star Maple Leafs are American born. They're not going to like that very much. I'm not saying that's the difference between staying as a free agent or extending a contract or an endorsement deal or anything like that, but it's just, it serves no purpose whatsoever.

Dave Bradley's got your 10 o'clock news. Ben Mulrooney in the chair between 10 and noon. Thanks so much for giving me some time and me keeping you company, you keeping me company for the last hour. I'll see you tomorrow morning at 9 and of course at 530 on Toronto Today. from around the world. We are here in Jerusalem. We just heard the siren. For many people, the worst days of this disaster are still to come. Told by the best journalists in the country. I'm Donna Friesen in Berlin. Just keep your head down.

He's away, he's away. Go, go, go. Watch Cannava's number one national newscast. A rail strike could cost this one southern Alberta farm as much as a million dollars. The award winning Global National with Donna Friesen.