Ben Mulroney, host of the nationally syndicated talk show joins the show to talk about what he would do if he were Prime Minister, and why he thinks the Tories should go all in on reducing taxes and spending.
00:00:00.000Welcome to The Candice Malcolm Show. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the
00:00:06.780Canadian Taxpayers Federation, filling in for Candice this week. Thank you for making us a
00:00:11.160part of your day. If you haven't done so yet, make sure you like and subscribe this video
00:00:15.420and share it with your friends who need a healthy dose of red pills. Okay,
00:00:19.500lots on the show for you today, and I'm pretty excited about today's guest. We're going to be
00:00:24.720speaking with national talk show host Ben Mulroney. Now, you might be thinking to yourself,
00:00:31.160isn't he that guy from eTalk that does all the red carpet interviews? Yes, he was, and if you were
00:00:36.180into the celebrity scene, it was a pretty cool gig, but he actually has the big talk radio station now.
00:00:43.380He has his own show. It's broadcast all the way out in Vancouver, all the way back into downtown Toronto,
00:00:48.840and I was seeing some folks online. They're calling him Based Ben now. Why? Because he's
00:00:54.720speaking out quite forcefully on things like government spending and crime. So I often see
00:01:01.780talk radio as the bridge between what we're doing here at Juno News, what we do at the Canadian
00:01:07.660Taxpayers Federation, what other independent media organizations are doing. Talk radio has always
00:01:14.040been that kind of bridge between indie media and what the normies are doing over on mainstream media,
00:01:20.880the MSM. So I've always thought it was important to at least listen to a few of the folks who are in
00:01:27.080talk radio. Ben Mulroney is one of those talk show hosts. So we're super happy to be presenting him
00:01:32.480today. So why are we talking to him? Because of course, the House of Commons is going to be back up and
00:01:38.640running next week. So right now I can just picture it in downtown Ottawa. Staffers are buzzing. They're
00:01:45.120cleaning up their offices because the boss is coming back. They're getting their briefing papers
00:01:49.200ready. They're getting raring to go for a fall session of Parliament. They're getting ready for
00:01:54.420the House of Commons, question period, committees, all of the fun stuff because the circus is going
00:01:59.360to come back into town. And it was interesting. We got a little bit of a sneak peek. We've seen
00:02:04.260Conservative leader Pierre Polyev now that he's secured his seat in Battle River Crowfoot. We've seen him
00:02:09.600on camera much more often the past few days. And he was in Brampton, Ontario just a few minutes ago
00:02:15.680making his announcement about what his government would do if he were a Prime Minister when it comes
00:02:21.880to things like purchasing houses and taxes. Listen to this. Axe the federal sales tax for all homebuyers,
00:02:31.440not just first-time homebuyers and for homes up to $1.3 million.
00:02:36.000Two, axe the capital gains tax on any monies reinvested in homebuilding. So if a business or
00:02:46.020an individual sells an asset, they enjoy a capital gain, but they reinvested in homebuilding,
00:02:51.180there should be no capital gains tax. This will cause a building boom right across the country.
00:02:58.080So once again, that was Conservative Party leader and leader of the opposition Pierre Polyev,
00:03:02.780who is in Brampton, Ontario, making what I would call a re-announcement from his earlier election
00:03:07.860platform, reiterating that his party would reduce taxes on the purchasing and the sales of homes.
00:03:15.640Now, interestingly, I have noticed a bit of a tone change coming from Polyev when it comes to the size
00:03:21.320of government. So what role will the size of the bureaucracy play once the House of Commons comes back
00:03:27.960in? Because of course, now his riding is no longer right next to the capital. It's out here in Alberta,
00:03:35.220and it's about as dark blue as you can get. So will the Conservatives start going hammer and tong
00:03:41.460after the size and cost of government? We at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation certainly hope so,
00:03:48.000because we'll put it this way. If the bureaucracy had stayed in line with the growth of the Canadian
00:03:55.380population, meaning if bureaucrats hadn't just ballooned under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
00:04:01.260if it had kept pace with population growth, we'd be saving $7 billion a year. Yeah, it's an astonishing
00:04:10.980amount of money. Speaking of astonishing and accountability, crime. Crime is definitely going
00:04:17.220to be one of those big factors that not just the opposition party are going to be raising. I've
00:04:22.120noticed now in the mainstream media, people are talking about it an awful lot more because we've
00:04:26.940got some pretty awful headlines coming out of places like Ontario and frankly, in other locations across
00:04:32.880Canada, which raises the issue of accountability. Really, who does the buck stop with? If we keep on
00:04:39.140hearing about repeat offenders and catch and release and a huge cost to the justice system, but it's the
00:04:45.480same characters that are doing these things over and over again, who ultimately is responsible for making
00:04:52.140those changes. Now for anyone who wants to hear about what's actually happening on the ground and how
00:04:58.260people are feeling, I would strongly recommend tuning in to local talk radio when you can, because then you get
00:05:05.400first person accounts, and you get a really good ear for how people are feeling on the ground. Are they concerned about
00:05:13.920things like super high taxes? Are they concerned about the ballooning bloated cost of government? And most
00:05:20.040importantly, for our next interview, are they concerned about crime? And how can an average person actually get
00:05:28.060accountability when it comes to things like crime and justice? Let's find out. Joining me now is Ben Mulrooney. Ben Mulrooney is a
00:05:37.760national radio host with the Chorus Radio Network. I have been tuning in to his show quite regularly.
00:05:43.880And Ben, when I miss it, I really love catching up on the podcast on the weekends.
00:05:48.500Ben Mulrooney Yeah, well, that's how media is these days, right? You got to find people where they are. And so we're on the radio or a podcast, we're on streaming apps, we're on social media, we're on YouTube.
00:05:57.880You got to find people wherever they are.
00:05:59.880Yeah, big time. All right. So one of the main reasons I like listening to your show, and I also like listening to people like Brian Lilly and Alex Pearson, because you guys kind of give us a conduit between what I would call this form of media, like indie media, right? Independent media, and the normies over at mainstream media.
00:06:18.540So talk radio is that bridge between those two worlds. And you talk to people who are on the ground. I hear people calling into your show about experiences they have. You've been teeing off lately a lot on crime, things like home invasions. Why is that, man?
00:06:33.800Well, first of all, let me just say kudos to the people at Chorus Radio. I've been doing this for not very long, almost a year on this show. And not a single time have I ever been asked to say something or if I've said anything, has it been challenged by the powers that be I've been given unfettered right to say whatever's on my mind. And I'm very, very grateful to be able to play in this sandbox. Why is well, listen, in my entire life, I've never, I've never seen this level of crime.
00:07:03.780In Canada. I mean, there was, I remember back when I was on entertainment television, I, I sat with Michael Moore at the, at the Toronto International Film Festival. He was premiering bowling for Columbine. And he was trying to point out how peaceful Canada was compared to the United States, because we didn't have as many guns. And one of the things that he contended was that Torontonians didn't lock their doors. And to prove that he literally just walked into somebody's house. I pointed out that I didn't think that was true because I locked my door, but he didn't want to hear that. But that was a stereotype that we were all more than happy to imagine.
00:07:33.780embrace back in the day. I don't know a single person that doesn't lock their door. If people could afford the bollards to protect their car, they have done so. And, and we are, we're, we're, we're living in a time where it does not feel safe.
00:07:48.780Whether or not that's an accurate representation, because there are people who push back on me saying, oh, crime is down. Okay. I don't care if crime is down. Relative to the way it was 20 years ago, crime is up.
00:07:59.780And people are panicked and people are scared and people are looking at their neighbors as if they might, they might have ill will in their heart.
00:08:08.780And that is not how we used to do things. And so I'm not, I I've been accused of rage farming. I think in the world we're living in a little bit of rage is worth it.
00:08:17.780If you are not rageful against what has happened to the country, then, then you're part of the problem.
00:08:22.780I wanted to play a clip here because it really rang bells across Canada and you've, I'm sure you've heard it many times. It is from the York region and it's a police officer saying what you should do if someone breaks into your home. Let's listen.
00:08:36.780In the unlikely event that you find yourself the victim of a home invasion, we are urging citizens not to take matters into their own hands.
00:08:44.780While we don't want homeowners to feel power powerless, we urge you to call 911 and do everything you can to keep yourself and loved ones safe until police arrive and be the best witness possible.
00:08:56.780This could mean locking yourself in a room away from the perpetrators, hiding, fleeing the home, but don't engage unless absolutely necessary.
00:09:05.780When we have a weekend like we just had, it's easy to understand our community is feeling unsafe.
00:09:11.780But let me say this once again, this does remain a safe place to live and our service is doing everything possible to investigate these crimes and to maintain public safety.
00:09:22.780So Ben, you and I have been in the arena for quite a while. We know what's going on here, I think.
00:09:28.780Who do we hold accountable? Because we get emails all the time too, even at the Taxpayers Federation of like, what is with these same repeat offenders over and over?
00:09:35.780Where does the buck stop? Because this is the government and it is about accountability. Where does the buck stop?
00:09:40.780Well, look, a couple of things. First, I've got to say that anytime somebody puts on a uniform to protect their community, I have a lot of respect for them.
00:09:48.780So I have a lot of respect for that police chief, just like I do the men and women in uniform who go out each and every day and put themselves on the line to make sure that I can live the life that I want to lead.
00:09:59.780The police are not the problem. They've never been the problem. They're the same police force they were 20 years ago.
00:10:04.780It's the laws on the books that they are asked to enforce or the interpretation of the laws that are already on the books.
00:10:10.780For example, a lot of people pushed back on me and said, oh, well, if you've got a problem with how people protect their homes, blame Stephen Harper in 2013.
00:10:17.780He was the one who put the law on the books as it is today, except it's interpreted differently than it was.
00:10:23.780And so that is one of the problems. On top of that, we are not living in Canada of 2013.
00:10:28.780We have a completely different demographic. We have the people committing these crimes.
00:10:33.780Possibly some of them weren't here back then. And so, yeah, there are forces at play that did not exist back then.
00:10:39.780Look, my biggest problem with something like that is it denies the human experience to ask you to keep your composure in your home.
00:10:49.780Look, if I'm walking down the street and somebody shows up with a knife and says, give me your wallet.
00:10:53.780Yeah, take my wallet. That doesn't matter as much as my life. That makes sense.
00:10:57.780You come into my home in the middle of the night. I do not know what I'm liable to do. I have no idea.
00:11:03.780You have crossed the threshold into the one place I treat as my safe place in the world.
00:11:08.780I've earned it. I've paid for it. It's mine.
00:11:10.780And so that's why I'm a proponent of at least exploring the idea of this CASEL legislation that Pierre Poliev is putting forth because it recognizes human nature.
00:11:20.780It not only does it do that, but it makes the criminal reevaluate their calculus. Right now, of course, they're going to come into your house because they know you don't have a gun.
00:11:31.780They know you can't defend yourself. And if you defend yourself too strongly, you're going to be able to you get to be the victim.
00:11:37.780And so, of course, they're going to want to leverage that situation to squeeze as much ill-gotten gain out of this possible.
00:11:44.780But if the calculus changes and they walk in and they know that they might not walk out, well, all of a sudden the risk profile changes and maybe they stop doing that.
00:11:53.780So I like exploring that as a possibility. Where does the where does the buck stop?
00:11:58.780It stops with it stops with, you know, this this social engineering that we have been enjoying as a nation for the better part of a decade.
00:12:06.780This this nonsense that we have to be looking at the underlying root causes of crime and criminals. I'm done with that. I'm tired of that.
00:12:14.780People are doing crimes because they want to be doing crimes and they are infringing on the rights of everyday law abiding citizens.
00:12:20.780And until the government in Ottawa decides that they're going to do something about that, it's not going to change.
00:12:26.780I think some of the onus has to be put on the provinces as well, specifically in in in Ontario. We don't have enough jail space.
00:12:33.780So so of course you're going to be letting people out for crimes where they should be spending the night in jail.
00:12:38.780So we need we need absolutely more jails built in the province of Ontario.
00:12:42.780But if I have to, I mean, in order of reports goes feds, province and then everybody else.
00:12:48.780I'm going to do a little bit of journalism inside baseball here, but it's for a good reason.
00:12:53.780So when I was finishing J school at the end of the 1990s, we had so many court reporters back then, Ben.
00:12:59.780It was you'd know just from your experience, too. And like full disclosure, Ben and I worked together and many moons ago back at different corporations.
00:13:06.780And so back then the court was so often covered that if you would sit at the front benches, there was little plaques in front of it for all the major news outlets like Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, BCTV.
00:13:18.780This is back from my Vancouver days. And it was just standard operating procedure that if you were the court reporter, you would just walk into the court, run your finger down, check the docket, find out what the criminal code infraction accusation was, cover the case every single day.
00:13:33.780And it wasn't just some high profile biker case that you heard about from other media. No, it was your job to sit there and cover court, naming judges, listing rap sheets, listing the sentencing.
00:13:46.780I was at Canada Strong and Free Conference over the weekend, and one of my old colleagues was talking about perhaps starting something like a court watch where we have court reporters again.
00:13:57.780It would have to be independent. And then you start naming like respectfully and properly, but in a journalistic fashion, you start naming these judges more often.
00:14:06.780And you start listing the rap sheets of some of these perpetrators. Do you think that would be a good mechanism of accountability for people?
00:14:14.780Well, I mean, it's a slippery slope into going from the responsibility that you would definitely bring to that to the less responsible naming and shaming with the purpose of shaming.
00:14:25.780Your point of doing it would be to affect change. There are others out there who would abuse of that and they would do it specifically with the point of putting a target on certain people's backs.
00:14:35.780So in principle, in theory, it sounds like a good idea. I think it would have to be really well established amongst, as you said, the independent media to make sure that there were guardrails in place, because I certainly would never want to be part of something that started really well and then eventually just turned into a mob.
00:14:52.780But listen, it's a noble goal. And I do think these things cannot exist without consequence.
00:15:02.780I mean, letting somebody out that, you know, has been a repeat offender and they've done it four or five, six times and then the seventh time they do it, somebody dies.
00:15:12.780Well, the writing was on the wall. The person told you who they were and you had you had the possibility you could have pulled at levers that would have at least limited their their freedom to the point that they couldn't do that thing that they just did.
00:15:25.780And so, yeah, if something like that happens, I don't know that it's a net negative to start. Look, you got to watch the watchers.
00:15:35.780You do. You do. And it's about accountability. I wanted to shift gears slightly. And that is the House of Commons is coming back.
00:15:42.780The circus is coming back to town. You've got a lot of experience living in Ottawa, living in this environment.
00:15:48.780Do you think crime is going to be one of the top issues? Do you think we're going to fall back to affordability?
00:15:53.780Because I'm shocked every I'm sure you read the same report, the MNP report, where they ask people, like, how are you doing financially?
00:16:00.780And Ben, it's always around 50 percent of people are within 200 bucks every month of not being able to make basic bill payments. It's wild.
00:16:08.780Yeah. Well, look, I'm not I I promised my listeners that I wasn't going to prosecute the previous the last election.
00:16:15.780I'm not going to be in spoke. They made their decision. I personally thought it was the wrong decision. But but I've I've I've now moved on to the the here and now.
00:16:22.780That being said, I think a lot of people are viewing the fear of Donald Trump as something that is receding.
00:16:28.780And therefore, all of those things that were important to them before the specter of the big bad orange man was raised, those things are rising in importance again.
00:16:37.780And so I think in a lot of ways we are reestablishing what was important and what is now important again.
00:16:45.780So I think those things that that were of benefit to Pierre Polyev at a time where he didn't need it and he needed it during the election, those are becoming important again.
00:16:54.780So as the leader of the opposition, I have no doubt that he is going to be beating that drum, hopefully differently, hopefully with in a way to show people that he's learnt from the loss.
00:17:04.780But I think affordability, crime absolutely are two things that are going to be things that he's going to try to highlight.
00:17:11.780And if the and this government in an attempt to demonstrate that they are the agent of change, even though they are the agent of change for a government that they are essentially of the same government.
00:17:23.780I think it would be incumbent upon them to take immediate steps on these things.
00:17:28.780And look, we've got a prime minister who's been more than willing to cast aside defining aspects of this previous government.
00:17:35.780One that is this important crime is should should be a no brainer layup.
00:17:41.780I can't help it. I have to ask you a couple of palace intrigue questions.
00:17:45.780Sure. So we saw we saw Mark Carney, who I will remind people, like literally wrote a book about how much he loves carbon taxes.
00:17:52.780Credit where it's due, he got rid of the consumer carbon tax.
00:17:56.780That's why gas is about 20 cents cheaper per litre.
00:17:58.780Now, we know he's cooking up a big industrial one, but as of right now, he did get rid of it.
00:18:02.780And he's climbing out of the EV mandate tree, like slowly, but he's doing it.
00:18:08.780So I got to ask you, I'm watching it pretty closely.
00:18:11.780Do you see a split happening between the Stefan Gibos?
00:18:15.780Like I would ban all of them if I possibly could and keep all oil in the ground.
00:18:19.780And what Mark Carney is at least shaping up to be of more of a blue Tory.
00:19:43.780I think Mark Carney is made by I think Mark Carney is.
00:19:46.780I mean, think about how many how many MPs were going to retire to spend time with family only to come back because his coattails were as long as they were.
00:19:54.780And he's he's still enjoying a significant honeymoon period.
00:20:05.780Is he a Trudeau? No, but he's creating his own mythos.
00:20:08.780And the liberals love creating a mythos around people.
00:20:10.780They tried to do it with Ignatieff. That didn't work.
00:20:13.780But it seems to be working very, very well with Mark Carney.
00:20:15.780And to be fair, he he's got the biggest brain in the room and he does seem to be working at a pace.
00:20:22.780Look, I don't know about you, Chris, but I do not envy anyone in a position of power right now, given how many intersecting crises we have and they have to deal with.
00:20:31.780I mean, you can't you can't deal with affordability without dealing with the Chinese tariffs.
00:20:37.780You can't deal with crime without dealing with immigration and so on and so on.
00:20:41.780I have I'm glad I don't have that job because I have no idea how one would approach it.
00:20:46.780He does seem to be approaching it by doing a lot of the front loading his his schedule with with prep work so that he can then give us something later on.
00:20:57.780At least that's the optimist in me speaking.
00:21:00.780But no, I don't think he owes anybody anything.
00:21:02.780And I think whatever he wants to do, he's going to be able to do.
00:21:17.780I you I don't know if you want to say on the air, but you've got a big interview lined up and then you're also you're going to be doing the TV spot for a bit.
00:21:23.780Yes. So I'm in I'm in Winnipeg right now because I'm here as part of my my work with B'nai B'rith Canada.
00:21:29.780I'm a national ambassador and there have they're celebrating their 150th anniversary.
00:21:34.780They're having a gala at the Museum of Human Rights.
00:21:36.780And the guest of honor is Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
00:21:39.780We're going to be in conversation on stage tomorrow night.
00:21:42.780And one of two things is going to happen.
00:21:43.780I might be able to bring parts of that conversation to the listeners of the Ben Mulroney show on Thursday.
00:21:49.780Or if I'm lucky, I'm going to have the prime minister in studio for a separate conversation.
00:21:55.780And on Sunday, people who tune in regularly to West Block, the number one political conversation show on television, they are going to have a new host, at least temporarily.
00:22:06.780Mercedes Stevenson is off on that leave.
00:22:09.780And so the caretaker role falls to one Ben Mulroney.
00:22:12.780And I'm very, very proud and very humbled and very excited.
00:22:16.780And as I said a little bit earlier today, to those people who think that I only have one speed and they think that, oh, the Ben Mulroney from the Ben Mulroney show can't host that show.
00:22:26.780I say the person you are at the party on Saturday night is not the person you are in church on Sunday.
00:22:31.780And so same person, completely different space, completely different role.
00:22:37.780So I have every intention of honoring that and making sure I hand it back to Mercedes in better shape than I found it.
00:22:43.780You know, what you said at the outset, and I just have to say about giving free reign at Chorus Radio, I think that really matters because I spent a long time in mainstream media.
00:22:54.780And to put it nicely, there's some trust issues now.
00:22:57.780There's major trust issues now for especially folks who are watching this show.
00:23:01.780And that's again, why I find talk radio shows really good, because I think it's building that bridge back.
00:23:08.780And so good on you for taking on head on some of these really hard topics and good on your employer for handing you the reins for a major TV show.
00:24:31.780Let me know in the comments what you thought about that interview.
00:24:33.780Let me know if you would like to have Ben get back as a guest.
00:24:37.780And most importantly, this is where your hero conversations like this.
00:24:42.780OK, it isn't very often, frankly, that you'll get one of kind of the stars of a mainstream media to come speak directly to independent media.
00:24:49.780So I see a bit of a crack of light in the door here.
00:24:54.780Do you want more conversations happening like this?
00:24:56.780Let me know in the comments and head on over to Juno news because you're going to have conversations here that you can't find anywhere else.
00:25:04.780Be sure to like and subscribe to this and let all your friends know.