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The U.S. midterm elections on November 3 are the first big chance for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to rewire the way the United States works, with dozens of endorsed candidates eager to seize on the unpopularity of President Donald Trump and Republicans. But if you’re exasperated by the disruption and instability of Trump, these radicals promise to be much worse, as Brian discusses w...

Twenty-five years ago they rewired the province’s political thinking with their landmark “Alberta Agenda,” aka the “firewall” letter: a manifesto for the premier to assert sovereignty within a systemically inequitable federation. Days after Alberta’s referendum on some of the same issues they raised — but also going drastically further in considering separation — Brian speaks with letter-writers T...

Even as our prime minister seeks favour and greater bonds with Beijing, the communist regime continues to threaten to invade the free, democratic and economically vital republic of Taiwan, putting to the test where Canada’s values truly lie. Brian speaks with George Takach, author of the new book Inspired by Taiwan: Why Supporting Taiwan Matters for Democracy. He makes the case for why standing wi...

Frances Widdowson was fired from her tenured professorship at a Calgary university after criticizing Black Lives Matter. She has been arrested on other campuses when she tried to engage students in debates about residential schools. Now she’s suing one university for $3 million, alleging it defamed her by accusing her of spreading hate and disinformation. She tells Brian she won’t be stopped becau...

It’s another announcement from Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. And it’s about the same West Coast pipeline they’ve announced before. This time it’s been designated a project of “national interest.” Still undetermined is whether it’s of interest to investors and shippers. Joining Brian are Chris Varcoe, Postmedia’s western business columnist, and Lorne Gunter, politic...

If you’ve got a majority government with two years left and an unpopular record to defend, calling a snap election might not seem like a great idea. But it did to B.C. Premier David Eby. Brian is joined by B.C. politics columnists Vaughn Palmer (Vancouver Sun) and Les Leyne (Victoria Times-Colonist) to try to find method in Eby’s seeming madness. They consider his scheme to pounce on his rivals’ d...

There’s no such thing as “associate membership” in the European Union and nobody knows what it means, but Prime Minister Mark Carney’s proposal for it has proven to be a dazzling distraction as he flounders in a trade war with the U.S. Brian talks this week with Anand Menon, an EU studies specialist based in England, and Carlo Dade, international policy director at the University of Calgary’s Scho...

It’s a tough time to be a federal Tory. The polls are demoralizing. Some MPs are quitting and some are going rogue. And the worse things get for Canada, the more voters seem to support the Liberals. As Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre prepares for a caucus retreat this week, Brian spoke with Ian Brodie, former chief of staff to Stephen Harper, and Ginny Roth, who helped run Poilievre’s leaders...

Postmedia’s Political Hack team Tasha Kheiriddin and Stuart Thomson join Brian to assess the political spin contest over the collapse of U.S.-Canada trade talks. Despite economic damage, they discuss why neither side has an incentive to make a deal. Prime Minister Mark Carney just crushed three byelections, securing his majority and grinding down the Conservatives — and there are several more comi...

Things that divide us cannot possibly unite us. That much would seem obvious, but as Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard tells Brian, society has for decades now prioritized hyper-individualism and promoted multiculturalism over communitarianism. And that has been eroding western civilization. Beauregard discusses his new book, Anti-Civilization: The Collapse of Society and the Case for the Common Good....

Trust in legacy journalism is plummeting, and after years working inside the CBC, Tara Henley has a good idea why. The author of the new book, The Trust Spiral: Why the Media Needs Objectivity, discusses with Brian how broad-mindedness in newsrooms was ruined by the emergence of an urban and elite class of group-thinking journalists combined with a revenue crisis that discouraged the risk of nonco...

Detractors like to say that House of Commons decorum has never been worse than it is today, but don’t be so sure. Charlie Feldman is author of the new book, Unparliamentary: Tales from Canada’s Colourful Unparliamentary Past. He joins Brian to recount stories of foul-mouthed, rowdy, drunken and altogether misbehaving MPs and senators from all the way back to Confederation right up to Justin Trudea...

Civilizations die from suicide, not murder, as a famous historian once said. And Canada’s in the process of administering MAID on itself, says author and professor Gad Saad. He discusses his new bestselling book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind, with Brian. And he explains the fatal flaw of excessive empathy — and how Canada is rapidly succumbing to it. Radical values imposed by our institution...

British politics has become a farce, with Andy Burnham now the United Kingdom’s seventh prime minister in a decade. And no one knows what he really stands for or if he’ll even outlast the last six, as Daniel Hannan, head of the Institute of Economic Affairs and independent member of the House of Lords, tells Brian. They discuss the reason why so many prime ministers keep falling, and what the new...

As unit commander in the largest homicide squad in the country, Hank Idsinga has seen more than most people would ever want to. He discusses with Brian what it’s really like in blue, the many things that are done right, and the many things done wrong, including the recent exposé of corruption by some Toronto officers. The author of the new book The High Road: Confessions of a Homicide Co...

The Red Cross, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and more — they’re treated by governments and the media as neutral humanitarians working for everyone’s rights and welfare. But as Danielle Haas tells Brian, a new investigation by her organization EiGHT found them rife with bias, particularly against Jews and Israel. It uncovered charities refusing to acknow...

Two new pipeline plans and an enormous $13-billion Meta data centre have been announced for Alberta in just the last few days. Brett Wilson, the veteran Calgary-based investor, joins Brian to explain the potential of the province to boom after just a slight loosening of the anti-development chokehold Ottawa had Alberta in for a decade with Justin Trudeau and Steven Guilbeault running the Liberals....

Balancing protection for kids online while ensuring free speech and privacy for everyone else isn’t easy, which is why Ottawa has muffed it so many times, leaving Canada decades behind other countries in monitoring the harmful excesses of social media algorithms. With Bill C-34, the new Safe Social Media Act, the government just maybe has something workable, as Emily Laidlaw, Canada Research Chair...

As Liberal MPs moan anonymously that Prime Minister Mark Carney is a mean boss, his defenders say it’s just high performance expectations (unlike the last leader’s). But, as our Political Hack panel looks back on the parliamentary sitting just ended, they question Carney’s own performance: his damage to Canada-U.S. trade negotiations; broken promises on affordability; and a disgraceful bailout for...

President Donald Trump’s deal with Iran is seen as a total capitulation to the Islamic Republic, and most of all in Israel, which fought alongside the Americans. Brian speaks with Eylon Levy, former Israeli government spokesman, and Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli intelligence officer now with the Atlantic Council. Levy explains how the deal allows Tehran to drive a wedge between Washington an...

Tech firms and civil libertarians are sounding the alarm about “lawful access” legislation the Liberals seem hellbent on passing before summer. They warn that the backdoor it would create to access people’s encrypted internet communications puts us all at risk and makes it impossible for secure platforms to operate in Canada. Security officials say it’s necessary to keep up with the online crimina...

A prime minister walks into a synagogue for an antisemitism speech and makes things worse. It’s not a joke, as our three guests all agree. Because Mark Carney and his government fear landing on the wrong side of Muslim leaders and their voting blocs, they say, his lecture on preserving Canadian tolerance refused to acknowledge why it’s so endangered: radicals who so rabidly hate Israel that they’r...

What happens when you invite the migrants of the world, as former prime minister Justin Trudeau did, to flood into Canada? You end up with an avalanche of false refugee claims, bad actors gaming the system to stall deportations, and Ottawa spending nearly $1 billion a year to provide gold-plated health plans for tens of thousands of people who shouldn’t even be here. Immigration lawyer and policy...

After a brutal decade under Justin Trudeau’s draconian anti-development policies, there’s real optimism in the western oilpatch again. Paul Colborne, CEO of Calgary-based Surge Energy, tells Brian why he’s convinced Prime Minister Mark Carney is serious about boosting oil production, including with more pipelines, and why investors are clamouring to get in on it. He explains why he even sees benef...

The growing sense about Mark Carney in Washington is that maybe he doesn’t actually want trade peace, as Tracy Moran, National Post correspondent in the U.S. capital, tells Brian. The prime minister’s “waiting game” tactic is out of runway: Talks have dried up and there’s not enough time now to head off the July 1 deadline when President Donald Trump gets to revise, or worse, declare an end to the...