Arlene Dickinson

Most say yes.

And then I get this wonderful cadre of people who bring everything from, you know, Arlene Dickinson talking about Canada's position in business today.

and just watching her as a thought leader in this country, you know, to Lars.

Well, you're talking about Joanie from Finland, but also I'm going to reach out to my friend Lars in Denmark to talk around NATO issues in Greenland.

Arlene Dickinson, thank you so much for being here with us.

Pleasure.

Okay, mom of four, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, marketing guru.

They are in the crosshairs, and we know small business is hugely important to the economy.

And joining us tomorrow, or this morning, I should say, is Arlene Dickinson, one of Canada's most prominent business leaders and media personalities, longstanding investor on CBC's Dragon's Den.

Arlene, good morning.

How much of your brain power is being used to figure this all out and think about this these days?

So I think there's hope and I think there's always an opportunity to pivot and there's always a way forward.

Okay.

Arlene Dickinson joining us this morning here on AM 800 and CTV Windsor.

What is your advice to small and medium-sized business owners right now as we deal with this, we go through with this? I mean, you know, judging from what's going on in the U.S.

You know, you're not going to get the courage from the business community.

And it's why Arlene Dickinson started off our conversation last week by thanking me for taking the stand I'm taking as, you know, as a business person in this moment.

So, you know, I don't think that we're going to see the leadership from there.

But I do appreciate that the line is laying down with the lamb.

And that's very, very destabilizing.

Arlene Dickinson, when she was on the pod, said that, you know, any small business owner who exports to the U.S. is waking up in the middle of the night with sweats.

I mean, so I'm... empathetic as a business owner to business owners feeling like we have to maintain this robust relationship with the U.S. because that's where their bread and butter is.

I get it.

Yeah.

Like, since I've seen you guys, I was telling Gene Valitis this on the radio the other day, uh, 'cause he always promotes the show, and I'm like, "Gene, like, we weren't in a war when I talked to these guys before." So why don't we just start there? 'Cause there's not just the trade war, uh, which of course is a bigger war than just trade and tariffs like Arlene Dickinson said earlier this week, but also it's six months to the day of the start of the war in Iran, that little excursion that was supposed to last 72 hours or whatever, right? So guys, crazy, crazy times.

Uh, let's start with you, Keith, as we always do, and we're gonna get into Ford, 'cause I gotta tell you, if I have to have one more day of watching Ford use this trade war as a freaking life raft for his ratings, I'm gonna lose my fucking mind.

[laughs]

... financial results, way higher than expectation.

I put out a Financial Times article you're referencing earlier, um, that we're doing far better than expected.

Florida, there's a new story coming out about how trips to Florida have dropped even further by Canadians, so the boycott is, is freaking rolling, right? Um, and Carney's, as somebody said when, uh, when Arlene Dickinson was talking too about Carney, it's like, you know, she's, she's championing the sharpest knife in the drawer.

There's nothing wrong with that.

If you haven't checked that out, people, please do.

And the day before, we had in Arlene Dickinson, of course, as a business leader to talk about the ramifications for small business.

So there's tons to talk about, Bob.

Your expertise, of course, is in communications, and I wanted you on as well, sir, because you've lived in the United States.

Carney already made an impact at Davos, and a lot of the media coverage I'm hearing from the US and around the world is saying that this speech that Carney gave after they walked away from the table late Friday night, the speech he gave on the Saturday, people are comparing to Davos in terms of that clarity, that leadership, that vision.

It's very purposeful.

I have used the language when I was speaking with Arlene Dickinson, that Carney was able to communicate competence, confidence at the same time, right? And with clarity.

And when you can do that, you give people a sense of they can, not relax, but they will follow you.

I appreciate the invite to come back.

Well, I had booked you because when I was talking to Arlene Dickinson yesterday, which feels like a lifetime ago, uh, she mentioned that the US talking points on the Sunday shows were, you know, saying that Canada was the bad guy as usual, and grievance, grievance, grievance.

But one thing in particular that she said really struck out to me, and I thought, "Well, I gotta get Michael on to combat this bullshit right away." Uh, so let's have a look at the clip.

Uh, I'm listening to a lot of the senators and the, you know, the politicians in the US talk now, you know, with clear talking points that they've been given by their handlers, you know, saying that, you know, we're getting the ...

Um, it, it would be the, uh, dest- destruction of both countries economically and militarily.

Uh, it's unsustainable.

Well, certainly Arlene Dickinson made the point about how we have an inelastic [laughs] economic relationship.

We both need each other.