The Ben Mulroney Show - Young men overwhelmingly becoming more Conservative, not just politically

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Young men overwhelmingly becoming more Conservative, not just politically -Antisemitism has gotten out of Control with Guest: Selina Robinson, Former senior minister in British Columbia If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let's start on the right foot. Look, Kevin O'Leary, who has been the, I guess, a Trump whisperer for the better part of three or four months now, has, I think, very accurately described that dealing with Donald Trump is knowing the difference between the signal and the noise. And I'm gonna run through the weekend that was with Donald Trump, and you can decide on your own whether what we're talking about is signal or noise. I woke up today and came into the office and I was quite surprised by this first story.

Donald Trump, we know has some, I mean, to call his tariffs a strategy is a stretch I think. I don't see rhyme or reason to them with the pausing and the reversals and the reciprocals and the carve outs and the holdouts. It doesn't really feel like he's got a plan and he does what he can until the market pushes back. And so when I woke up and I saw that he is ordering a 100 percent tariff on all movies produced abroad I think to myself,

huh? And so he's very upset that so many movies are being shot in Canada and in the UK and around the world. He doesn't like that one bit. And so those movies, I mean, is it shooting locations? Or is it where the production office is? Because Disney moved Marvel's production office from Atlanta to the UK recently. And that's going to be a problem for Disney.

Already today, Disney stock, Netflix stock, I believe Warner Brothers stock, have all taken a massive hit. And I don't know what the point is here. I, I, I, I, he wants, yes, I know what the point is. He wants to bring production back to America. But define production to me, because Mission Impossible, for example, has been shot in every country in the world,

every one, with the exception of probably Canada. But there's, you can't make that movie without having the world as your backdrop. Harry Potter movies, they gotta be made in the UK. What about all the period pieces that are shot in London? What about movies that have to look like they take place in the 1600s? You gotta shoot those in Central Europe. What about the next live action Lion King?

You're not gonna shoot that in Atlanta. So I don't know that this one has been thought out. But then again, as I said off the top, I don't know that any of them have been thought out. And if the barometer for his success is the stock market, what's it say that he is really, he's putting some of the biggest companies at risk in terms of their valuation and Does but does he care about Disney does he care about Warner Brothers does he care about Paramount like I don't know that he does so we'll we'll have to see and I Mean is he gonna chart is he gonna put a tariff on a small independent film that happened to be shot in, I don't know, Malaysia? Like, why?

That's not going to help bring movie production back to the States. That was a movie by a Malaysian shot in Malaysia for Malaysian audiences, and maybe they want to crack the American market. Anyway, so that's one. And meanwhile, he drew a lot of criticism over the weekend. He uses AI a lot. He uses AI to have pictures drawn of Donald Trump in heroic poses and doing things that he hasn't done in real life. And while the Catholic Church is reeling from the death of the pope and looking to elect the next pontiff, he made a joke that he thought he'd be a great pope.

And that's one thing, because that is on its face just funny. But then he drew a lot of criticism because he had an AI image of himself as the Pope. And look, for a lot of Catholics, that's insulting. That's pejorative. They're reeling. They are devastated from the loss of the Pope, and they still don't have a new leader. And I wonder if he, I don't know, had an AI image of himself as the Prophet Muhammad, but I'm pretty sure there'd be a fatwa on his head. So I think that was just,

I think that was insulting to Catholics. I'm a Catholic. It doesn't insult me. But I can appreciate why some would take deep offense to that. It is their faith. It is their faith that is being mocked. And when I say, when I say it's mocked, It's because of comments like this in 2015, when Donald Trump was asked about his favorite Bible verse.

Here's what he had to say back then. You mentioned the Bible, you've been talking about how it's your favorite book, and you said, I think last night in Iowa, some people are surprised that you say that. I'm wondering what one or two of your most favorite Bible verses are and why. I wouldn't want to get into it

because to me that's very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible, it's very personal. So I don't want to get into verses. There's no verses. I wouldn't want to get into it because to me that's very personal. You know when I talk about the Bible it's very personal so I don't want to get into verses. There's no verse that means a lot to you that you think about or cite? The Bible means a lot to me but I don't want to get into specifics. Even to cite a verse that you like? No, I don't want to do that. Old Testament guy or New Testament guy? Probably equal. I think it's just an incredible, the whole Bible is an incredible. I joke very much so. They always hold up the art of the day. I think it's just an incredible, the whole Bible is an incredible, I joke very much so. They always hold up the art of the deal. I say my second favorite book of all time. But I just think the Bible is just something very special. Yeah, okay. Like, like it's not criticizing him to say he's never read the Bible. I mean,

he might have since 2015. But and so, I mean, you remember the outrage when Madonna had her video for like a prayer and Catholics were outraged because of the iconography that she felt like that she was co-opting and sexualizing and they took great umbrage to that. This is kind of like that because he is a man of little faith, I believe, except to have a little bit of a probably God complex. I mean, look, you could argue that divine providence saved him from a bullet on the campaign trail. And so that might give him a sense of like, I've been ordained by God to be here and lead America. But that doesn't mean that he is the personification of faith.

So I can see why Catholics would be upset. I don't know that you're ever gonna get an apology for it. I'm sure Catholics will move on. I think they've got bigger fish to fry. But in that moment, I could see why they were upset. Absolutely. Meanwhile, Donald Trump gave a speech. I gave a speech.

He gave an interview to NBC news where he was asked by the reporter. When, at what point does the economy become the Trump economy? When does it become the Trump economy? When does it become the Trump economy? It partially is right now. And I really mean this. I think the good parts of the Trump economy and the bad parts of the Biden economy, because he's done a terrible job. He did a terrible job on everything from his auto pen, which I'm sure he knew nothing about some of the things he was supposedly

signing. But sir, you acknowledge when you announced your tariffs, for example, the stock market dropped, it's been volatile, it has since gone up. It is, but now it's going up. Do you take responsibility for that? Look at today. Yeah, do you take responsibility when it drops?

Ultimately, I take responsibility for everything, but I've only just been here for a little more than three months. It's a heads I win, tails I lose sort of situation. And that's the I guess that's the game. That's the tough thing about interviewing him. You know, I've said before, I would love to be able to sit down with Donald Trump and have an interview with him, but I don't know how you conduct that. That would be a real challenge.

And if all of that isn't crazy enough, Donald Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz as a prison. I'm going to go on record and say that's noise versus signal. I mean, if he did reopen it as a prison, I mean, you've got a sequel for The Rock right there. Welcome to The Rock. Hi, I'm Donna Friesen from Global National. Life moves fast these days and we want to make it even easier for you to get the news you need.

That's why you can now get Global National every day as a podcast. The biggest stories of the day with analysis from award-winning global news journalists. New episodes drop every day, so take this as your personal invitation to join us on the Global National Podcast. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favourite podcasts. There is a new piece in the Toronto Star entitled, What's the Manosphere? Inside the online world of misogyny that's targeting boys and young men. And look, there is a very real community of young men who are skewing conservative.

Either conservative writ large, conservative party. That has been the direction of young men for quite some time. But like with so many movements, they become something different from where they began. And I reject the Toronto Stars thesis, which is that the Manosphere is all about misogyny and Andrew Tate, you know, there's a 2023 study

that found 84% of boys aged 13 to 15 are familiar with Tate, who is, and that one quarter of them agreed with his views. I don't know that that's necessarily the case anymore. I think that Andrew Tate, for all of his ills, and he's a wretched human being from what I understand, just a terrible, toxic human being, not every boy or man listened to him because of his worldview,

but they latched onto him because unlike what society was doing, he was offering them a path to empowerment, a path of self-worth, a chance to look in the mirror and say, I'm part of the solution, not part of the problem. And in my humble opinion, we have been living in a world where schools, leaders, the media have been saying that, have been telling young boys and men that the thing that makes them men,

the thing that makes them men, the thing that makes them masculine, is the problem that society has to overcome in order for us to become a better version of ourselves. We are the stumbling block that is preventing society from growing. And that's why we have to peel away the idea of men as providers, men promoting, you know, wanting to take on the responsibility of a family and the financial burden that comes

with it. All of those things are to be peeled away from what we normally view as being a man. And when you do that enough, be it implicitly or explicitly, that is going to have negative knock-on effects, and ultimately those people are gonna go find their tribe, where they are valued. There is a podcast where the guest

summed it up, I think, actually quite beautifully and in such a sad way. I had a teenage boy, I still have one, but he's 18 now. I watched them be pushed farther and farther right by their schools. You suck. All of your instincts are bad.

These girls are amazing. Look at you. You're pathetic. Be less masculine and more attractive. You're just barking at them constantly. They're not moving right. They're moving out of your stupid way. You've given them what?

Nothing. Nothing. One of my son's friends died recently by his own hand. And I don't know what kind of pressures he was put under. But I watched those kids go through this pressure cooker created by this crazy parasitized left-wing education. Get away from our sons. I could not have put that better myself. I agree with everything he said. And now I want to hear from you. Give us a call here on the show. What is happening that is attracting young men to conservatism? Is it a pushback against society that has vilified, like I said, the instincts, the aspects of what make young men, men? I contend that it's true. And I can already hear certain parts of the internet coming at me saying, oh, woe is me, we're taking down the patriarchy.

Like that, that you're, you are proving my point because you've created a false reality where there is no place in society for men to be men because the second that they espouse those traditional things that make men men, that's toxic, that's toxic. You are perpetuating the patriarchy. It's all nonsense and And everybody deserves respect.

And there are certain innate traits that do not need to be tamped down. They need men of an older generation to teach men of a younger generation that those things are not bad. They are, you need to leverage them in the most positive ways and then you will have a great life.

Eddie, welcome to the show. Sorry about that. Eddie. There we go. I'm coming for you, Eddie. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? I'm well, thanks. Look, here's the fact of the matter. Since the beginning of time and even today, men are expected to maintain their role in society, which is provider we have to pay the bill on on a date I've done it all the time and women for some reason in the last 100 years have decided okay we'll be men when it benefits us will behave in the way of men like be boss babes and all this stuff and then we want to be feminine and we want to be women as well we don't want to pay the bill when it

when it comes after dinner. You can't have it both ways. You can't. We are walking the straight and narrow since the beginning of time, and women have decided to change their role in society whenever it benefits them. Well, yeah, Eddie, thank you very much. I don't think it's binary. I don't think that, you know, I think women being having the choice to to do and be the people they want to be is absolutely fair. But the flip side has to be true as well. Men need to have that same right to be the people they want to be. And if a woman wants to lean in to her feminine qualities, and if she wants to be what the internet's calling a tradwife, then let her be a tradwife. And if she wants to be a boss babe, let her be a boss babe. We seem to celebrate one, but

not the other. So it's when a woman espouses those instincts that used to be traditionally viewed as male, that is to be celebrated. But when a man now wants to do that, that is toxic. That's the patriarchy at work. That's keeping your boot on the neck of the women. You can't have it both ways. And I want women to have the choice,

but I also want if men have decided they wanna be the way their dad was and their grandfather was, that is fine too. And it should not be open to criticism, because if you're criticizing it, then now we're getting into social engineering that I am not down with one bit. Darrell, welcome to the show.

Good morning, Ben, how are you doing today? I'm well, thank you. Good. What I'm hearing is a lot of excuses being made for, I don't like to use the term toxic masculinity, but I can't for the life of me think of a better term to use. What we have is a whole generation, well, for several generations now,

who were told that they were all kings and princes and that they could be anything they wanted to be when they grow up and the world is a lot more harsh than that and we've got a whole lot of entitled men who are angry at the easiest thing they can be angry at, the women in their lives. they can be angry at their the women in their lives. Oh, I don't know. Go ahead. over talk to you. But what they want is what they want. And they don't understand whether they're male or female, a lot of this younger generation expect to get whatever the heck they want in their lives. And when they don't, they take it out on the easiest target they can. Well, I mean, that's, I think that's a,

I mean, that's your opinion. I think it's an overly simplified view to suggest that men have been told that they are kings. Absolutely not. Men are told you are providers. Men are told you have the responsibility and the burden of caring for your family. If your wife wants to work, she can, you must work.

And most men, the most dangerous jobs in the world are done by men predominantly. They are the builders. They are...oh, we're done with that. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. We want to end this show with your voice. We want you to give us a call and we're talking about the movement of young men towards either the conservative party or the conservative movement writ large. And there are some who I think unfairly or inaccurately ascribe that motivation to the manosphere, you know, the online world of misogyny targeting young men and young boys. I think two things can be true at once.

Some young boys can be attracted to that sort of toxicity, and there are men who have felt alienated and are looking for somebody to speak to their values and their value. And my sense, my two cents, and I want to hear from you, you can give us a call. My sense is that for far too long, the very essence of what makes a man a man has been demonized and vilified. We have been living in a world where we have been told

that those values and what makes us men, those things that we have been taught, are definitional of us. We are providers. There's bravery involved. You know them all. All of those things need to be peeled away from who you are because those things are toxic and those things are Obstacles for society to get past those things are keeping women down those things are are creating an unfair world for anyone who is not a man and Therefore you need to stop being that version of masculinity in order for the world to be the a better version of itself. Never mind the fact that on the other side of the

equation everybody there is told you are fantastic just the way you are. You are perfect just the way you are. But when it comes to men and young boys in particular, everything about what makes you a boy, what makes you a man is wrong. Somebody needs to make that make sense to me. So when those boys are told for years that everything about them is the problem, they will gravitate to people who tell them there's nothing wrong with you.

Because that's human nature. There is nothing wrong with you. That's why everybody on the other side of that supposed equation is where they are because they heard from people who said there is nothing wrong with you, that everything about you is perfect and that you can be anything you want to be. And boys feel the exact same thing. Let's welcome Justin to the show. Justin, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you sir. I totally agree. I'm liberal. I've moved towards the concern. Only because, you know, the liberal values used to speak to the better parts of ourselves. And yet now they tend to speak towards blame and accusation as a

person of color myself. It moved away from me quite quickly out of nowhere to the point where all men were all of a sudden the, for lack of a better term, the enemy. Yeah. When really and truly men do a lot for society. I'm a single mother. You know, I was raised by a single mother. I have nothing but respect for women.

I think women have very strong qualities and I think men have strong qualities too. And the fact that we can't share those qualities and confidence makes a lot of men feel lost and dejected. And then there are people like Jordan Peterson, who maybe I don't agree with every single thing he says, but he tries to speak to the part of being a man that speaks to responsibility and accountability. I think those are the strongest traits men tend to have. Well, I agree with you. I agree with you on all those fronts, and thank you very much for sharing that.

I think you're absolutely right. And look, all I'm saying is on, if women and the LGBTQ community can be told to celebrate who they are no matter who they are, no matter what they believe, everything about them is perfect, then now do the boys, now do the boys. And they won't do that. And I'm sorry, that is not how I'm playing the game.

It's not happening. But thank you so much for your call, Justin. Let's welcome George to the show. George, thanks so much for calling into the Ben Mulroney Show. Great topic. I know you've been talking about Andrew Tate. Well, his message is spot on. Maybe people don't like his delivery of it. Oh, yeah. Well, listen, he's I don't listen. From what I've seen about Andrew Tate, he's a he's a cretin. He's a he's a

I'm wondering why people gravitate to him. Yeah. But my point was, as conservatives, traditionalists, let's call it, we sat back for over a decade, maybe 15 years now, while we watched the government, the system, the people who got hired to destroy boys and being masculine and being proud of who they are. But there's the other side of the coin. The people who can celebrate everything else are the ones who destroy the man, the value of the man, because they can't exist if man exists. This is a huge problem. And the problem with conservatives, because we were too scared to be called all these names under the woke umbrella. We were scared. Now we see our kids' mental minds, 25-year-olds, 30-year-olds

destroyed because of what they went through. And now we're trying to fight, it's too late. Well yeah. We lost that battle. And look, this notion of toxic masculinity is nonsense. It's nonsense. When you, with a big enough data set, you are going to find bad apples. You are going to find misogynists and racists. You pick a with if your data set is every man alive then yeah you're gonna have some bad apples in there and to suggest that every man who espouses a

traditional view of masculinity because you've got a dickhead, excuse my language, you've got a misogynist or a racist in there. That is definitional of masculinity. Now you're talking to me like I'm an idiot. And as I've said in my personal lived experience, which means you can't take it away from me because it's my truth, I have experienced far more toxic behavior from women than I ever have from men.

I have seen some of the most despotic, disgusting behavior that has been targeted at me and other women, gleefully at other women, by women. And I do not suggest that every woman is toxic or that femininity is toxic, but for some reason the worst aspects of the worst men must exist in every man. I'm sorry, I don't play that. Mike, welcome to the show. Oh, did I do something wrong? Mike, you still there? You know you got me, Ben.

Yeah. You know, you just echoed exactly what I've been thinking is that when the entire gender are lumped into a group based on the behavior of a few individuals, and I'm not suggesting there's only just a a few i'm sure there are a lot but if there's a lot of people there's billions of men that you're gonna have a lot of bad people in their huge you sure are but that the choice to did you know what the door to be

misogynistically overbearing and and and detrimentally behavior behaving as a man toward a woman that's a choice of the individual. Yeah, yeah. And my personal lived experience, as you have your lived experience, my wife deserted my family when my children were babies, I raised my daughters on my own. God love you, man.

You can see the backlash that come, well, they're 21 and 24 now, and two of the best people that I know. Yeah, God love you. That's awesome. Thank you. And you should have seen the backlash I took. Well, why'd you take backlash? awesome. Thank you. And you should have seen the backlash I took.

Well, why'd you take backlash? I am the father of father of daughters. Little girls shouldn't be left in the care of a man. Well, then blame the woman who left. Right? How's that? There you go. That's a pretty easy pushback as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, bringing up with the mom, when you see her, let me know, because I don't know where she is. Well, neither do they, and neither do we. Yeah, bring it up with the mom. When you see her, let me know, because I don't know where she is. Well, neither do they, and neither do we. Yeah, and I wouldn't suggest that because your wife left, that every woman is going to abandon their family. That would be a nonsensical thing to suggest.

But for some reason, for 10 years, it was drilled into our kids, inculcated into our young boys that- Drill it down a level deeper, Ben. My career was in mental health and I ended up doing very well where I worked and I ended up being the administrator of a psychiatric facility. Every other person living there, looking after

45 individual people that were challenged, full-time needs, they were all, the whole staff, RPNs, RNs, cleaning people, people that worked in the kitchen, all my employees were female. Never once in 27 years did I ever have a grievance brought against me or a concern about the way I dealt with my staff. I had people standing in line to help me with days off with my kids when I needed them because I treated them like individuals, like people. There was no misogyny. There was no, oh, you're a woman, you can't do this, or I'm a man, or I'll do this differently or better. No, we're all there. We're all people. We're all working together. Yeah. And why can't we just all be valued on the same footing? Mike, I'm so glad that you called

in. There was so much that I'm going to carry with me over the course of the rest of the day because of that call. Thank you very much. Great, great day for Talk Radio, Ben. And thanks again for joining us today. much. Great, great days for Talk Radio, Ben. And thanks again for joining us today. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney show. And if you know anything about me, you know that I don't have a lot of time for conversations with anti-Semites. I think that we're living in a time where anti-Semitism in Canada is no longer exceptional. It has been normalized. It is something that people just say, oh, it is what it is.

Despite politicians saying this is not who we are, sadly, increasingly, this is who we are. And it is incumbent upon people like myself to call it out when I see it, to push back when it is offered up, and to do everything I can to remind the world that there was a time where Canada was a far more, it was a far better version of itself than it is today, especially on our treatment of Jews and our fellow Canadians who

are of the Jewish faith. I'm joined now by a former minister in the British Columbia government, Selena Robinson, who is in Toronto, who at an event yesterday at the Truth Be Told event, describing her experiences with anti-Semitism in government. Selena, welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you for having me on, Ben. So what was the event like yesterday? Thank you for having me on Ben. So what was what was the event like yesterday? So after I was fired from cabinet by David Eby, I was, of course, devastated because I had described

Palestine pre Israel, pre modern state Palestine as a crappy piece of land with nothing on it. They couldn't grow an economy and there was outrage, certainly on social media channels. I remember that outrage. I remember it well, yes. So I wrote a book about the experience and I wrote a book about that detailed the double standard by which I was judged. I had colleagues who had engaged in anti-Semitic comment, insulted the Jewish community time and time and time again.

And my job as the Jew in the crew, the Jew in David Eby's government, was the mediator. I would try to make sure that people understood why they said what they said was anti-Semitic, try to heal, try to educate, and that was acceptable for me to have that role. But I was treated differently. I was treated very differently, which is the double standard of antisemitism that we see so often right now. And I was fired.

And I wound up leaving the party because this was no longer, it no longer felt like my party that fought for peace, that fought for justice, that treated people equally. I was being judged by a different standard because I was a Jew. And so I wrote a book about it called Truth Be Told. And I've been traveling around, talking to groups,

Jewish, non-Jewish groups as well. I'm going to rotary clubs, I've been going to church groups. And talking about what the impact has been like, trying to educate people that being Jewish is more than a faith. We are a people, we are a nation that has survived for thousands of years and that we are being treated very harshly right now.

It's very, very frightening. I see what's happening here in Toronto and it's horrifying. Well, yes, I mean, I saw just a few days ago, yet again, protesters have been entering Jewish neighborhoods saying the most vile, disgusting, barbaric things, shouting people down in the communities where they're supposed to feel safe. And when a Jewish member of that community deigns to push back and counter protest, those

people are told by the police either stop, remove yourself from this position, you're antagonizing these people, or we're going to arrest you. And in some cases, they have been arrested. That to me is is such a disgusting version of the double standard that you're talking about. Again, it's the double standard. So I, again, I think that you opened up this segment by talking about normalization and that's what it feels like. Our campuses are not safe places for our Jewish students and when I was the Minister of Post-Secondary Education, I told all of our university presidents, there's 25 of them in British Columbia, and I said, I expect you to enforce your policies.

You have harassment policies. You have safety policies. And I'm not just talking about physical safety, emotional and spiritual safety, social safety. These are elements of safety for all students. How is it that we're okay? That Jewish students are terrorized. They're terrorized on campus. They're afraid. And all you can do is saying, that's not who we are. Oh, to me, I've got to tell you so yeah when I hear a politician say that's not who we are that to me Is the Canadian version of when a politician in the United States says thoughts and prayers following exactly following a gun attack

Exactly, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And we are not we are not seeing courageous leadership After I was fired from cabinet. I stayed on as an MLA. I thought, okay, I'm a government MLA. How can I use my role as a Jew, as the Jew and the crew of our government? I thought, okay, I'm well connected with the Jewish community. I committed to reaching out to the Arab Muslim community. I said I would do that.

And so I went to the premier and I said, listen listen I'm reaching out to the Muslim Arab community in British Columbia I think as a government can't we just bring the Jewish community in the Arab Muslim community together to talk about the pain I don't want to suggest that there isn't pain in the Arab Muslim community right now What's happening in Gaza is horrible. People are dying war is terrible We can we talk about how hard it is right now to be here and to see what's happening there? To be afraid for our family, for our friends? And I was told that that work is just too political. And when my premier told me that, I thought my work here is done. This is not why I signed

up to be in government. So, Lena, let me ask you a question. What do you make then, and perhaps you see it as a good thing, that in the last federal election, there were over 300 candidates from across a number of parties that signed what was called the Palestinian platform. And some of the points that they were espousing were quite ludicrous. the continued funding of the terrorist group UNRWA, as well as demanding the recognition of a Palestinian state without any preconditions for Hamas. To me, that's a bridge too far, twice over. But 93% of the candidates who supported this platform did not get elected. Is that a sign of something good?

Well, I hope so. I hope that Canadians recognize that that's it was ridiculous. It was a ridiculous platform. No, they didn't. They didn't call for hostages. It's like really, you're not going to call for the 59 people who are still hostages. I went to the Nova Festival. I want to urge all of your listeners. It's here in Toronto till early June. Please go. I went yesterday. Yes, the NOAA Festival experience. Yeah. People need to see what happened. That's not to say, again, I think Israel, their government has some work to do. There's, you know, it's not a perfect country by any means. Neither is Canada. Neither like there ain't one. There ain't one in the world to do.

There isn't a single perfect country in the world. Yes. Exactly. And so I, you know, I, I, I, there's work, there's work for that government in particular. I'm not a fan of the, their current government, but I do think that people need to remember what happened on October 7th, 2023, how this particular element of a conflict has continued. There are hostages and those people who signed on, they were not talking about peace, Ben. They were not talking about peace. That is not going to deliver peace. And that's the part that frustrates me about New Democrats right now in this moment.

They are not advocating for peace. They are not doing the work of peace. And I think those are the conversations we have to be having. Yeah. Well, yeah, who's right? Who's wrong? Well, yes, it's not good. So we only have about a minute and a half left.

But you know, what do you make of the crossroads of the federal NDP finding themselves below the threshold for official party status. In my humble opinion, as someone who is not a member of that party, it feels like they were overly consumed by the struggles in Gaza versus the struggles of the working people of Canada. And it was so and I don't know what they do next. Well, in 2021, I saw their convention and they are obsessed with Israel.

There is an obsession. I called them out on it. I've reached out to Jagmeet over the years to say your obsession is problematic because why are you so obsessed with this one country, the one Jewish country, when there's so much other challenge with Iran, with North Korea, with China, with Russia?

There's a lot of other challenging nations. But they lost sight, they lost the plot. From my perspective as a former New Democrat, but still a progressive, poverty is the number one issue, affordability is the number one issue. And they got consumed by other things, by identity politics, which I think have a role to play, but not, they're so vociferous about it, but really they lost the plot. It's poverty, poverty, poverty, folks. That's where we should be focusing.

That's where it's going to make a difference in people's lives. All right. Selena Robbins, the former senior minister in British Columbia. The book is Truth Be Told. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your voice. Thank you. And the book's available on Amazon and Audible.

Wonderful. Thank you very much. All right. Bye-bye. Take care. Bye bye. and look for the codeword during the show. Then enter at homenetwork.ca slash watch and win for your chance to win big. Amazing! The small details are the difference between winning and losing.

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