The Strategists

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips dive into Alberta's electoral boundaries fiasco and Thomas Lukaszuk's musings about starting a new provincial political party. Is the UCP's handpicked boundaries panel engineering an electoral advantage, and is the real gerrymander hiding in plain sight? Does Alberta really need another political party, or is Lukaszuk building a Party of One? And has...

Recorded live in Calgary, Stephen Carter, Shannon Phillips and Leah Ward dissect the aftermath of Alberta's referendum, the successes and failures of the No to the Nine campaign, and Danielle Smith's increasingly frantic efforts to change the channel. Did the referendum results actually weaken Smith's political position? Who emerged as the real winners and losers? And how many times ca...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips unpack David Eby calling an early election, and how he may have permanently added his name to the Canadian political dictionary. Can the BC NDP rebuild, or has the political landscape fundamentally changed? With Donald Trump and Mark Carney still circling a trade deal, is Canada better off making a deal now or waiting for the Americans to blink? And is Stephen C...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips dissect David Eby’s snap election gamble in British Columbia and Danielle Smith’s search for new enemies after Alberta’s referendum. Was calling the election Eby’s original sin? Why have some political parties become so obsessed with costed platforms and looking serious that they've forgotten how to actually win elections? And will Stephen survive being held...

Live from Edmonton, six days before Alberta’s referendum, Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips game out the final stretch of the campaign. With ten questions on the ballot and campaigns scrambling for every last vote, they break down what the final days could mean for Danielle Smith and Alberta’s future. Can Mark Carney tip the scales for No to the Nine? Will voters actually read the questions, or...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips dive into an emergency episode after Prime Minister Mark Carney explicitly endorses “No to the Nine,” just days before Alberta's referendum. Will Carney's endorsement give the No to the Nine movement a final boost? With more than a million ballots already cast, has he arrived too late to make a difference? And has Mark Carney just made Stephen Carter the...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down the final week of Alberta’s referendum campaign, the conflicting polling on the nine questions, and whether persuasion or voter turnout will decide the outcome. Can the No to the Nine campaign overcome the wording of the questions themselves? Did Mark Carney and the federalists do enough to defend Canada, or does Shannon's referendum report card t...

Stephen Carter and Zain Velji break down the final two weeks of Alberta’s referendum campaign, whether Danielle Smith is on the defensive, and why the separatist movement may already be looking toward the next referendum. What happens to Alberta separatism if the referendum loses? Is another referendum already part of the plan? And at 38% name recognition, when does Stephen Carter just admit he’s...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down British Columbia’s suddenly competitive election and what David Eby and the BC Conservatives need to do over the next month. Can the Conservatives win by focusing on affordability and simply staying sane? Is Alberta’s referendum one move away from breaking open? And how much is Carter going to be able to say if he keeps saving all the good stuff for t...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips dive into Alberta’s referendum fight and the political chaos engulfing British Columbia. Is Danielle Smith trying to use the nine referendum questions to contain separatism, or simply keep it alive? Should David Eby call an early election while the BC Conservatives are in free fall, or would that risk repeating Jim Prentice’s biggest mistake? And is the most com...

Shannon Phillips and Conspiracy Zain dive into the Alberta NDP’s surprise Calgary-Shaw victory, what it says about the UCP’s vulnerability in Calgary, and whether the result changes the political calculus heading into the referendum. Is there really no such thing as a safe Conservative seat in Calgary anymore? Does this win give Naheed Nenshi a new opening, or just tempt the NDP to learn the wrong...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down Alberta’s new $4 million referendum advertising campaign, what the government’s creative says about its polling, and whether a massive spending advantage can actually overcome a muddled message. Does the government’s softer language on immigration reveal a strategic vulnerability? Can the opposition turn a David-versus-Goliath funding gap into an adva...

Shannon Phillips and Leah Ward dive into Elections Alberta’s referendum headaches, the growing pressure around the province’s special-ballot process, and whether the agency is actually resourced to pull off one of the biggest votes in Canadian history. Is Elections Alberta undermining confidence in the referendum by mishandling basic details? At what point does an election agency have to pull the...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips rank the people, politicians, and campaigners on Alberta’s stay-in-Canada side. Who is actually moving votes? Are the BC Conservatives about to split themselves into two parties? And has Carter replaced AFL tipping with referendum power rankings? Zain Velji, as always, picks the questions and keeps everybody in line. Join our Patreon for ad-free episodes, bonus...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down Mark Carney’s response after Canada walks away from a trade deal with the United States, and what comes next when the relationship shifts from negotiation to trade war. Was this the exact moment Carney was hired for? How does Canada fight back? And can a great view really make up for the worst VRBO laundry room in Squamish? Zain Velji, as always, pick...

Shannon Phillips and Zain Velji talk about what the Alberta NDP should actually be doing this summer, from candidate recruitment and Calgary-Shaw to the referendum and rural opposition to AI data centres. Should the NDP run directly against separatism in Calgary-Shaw? Can listening to angry rural voters turn a local issue into an electoral opportunity? And how does Stephen Carter have time for an...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips talk about what happens when the strategist becomes the spokesperson, whether the political backroom still exists, and why Carter is discovering that dealing with the public may be the hardest part of running a campaign. Then they dig into the strange out-of-province donations flowing to the Alberta Republican Party and the loopholes that could allow even more m...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down the increasingly crowded campaign to keep Alberta in Canada and ask whether anyone has the money or the nerve to run the air war the referendum may require. Then they strategize what the federal government, the NDP, organized labour and the various pro-Canada campaigns should actually be doing with just weeks left to reach voters. Can Canadian flags b...

Be it resolved that the Minister of Podcasts, Stephen Carter, together with the Chair of Oral Questions, Zain Velji, do hereby call this sitting of The Ministry of Podcasts to order, notwithstanding an abandoned first recording, an unexplained middle finger, and Zain Velji arriving without sufficient battery life or advance knowledge of his own schedule. Be it further resolved that the House shall...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down the ways Mark Carney’s extended political honeymoon could finally come to an end, from a weakening economy and progressive defections to Liberal insider culture and the arrival of a shinier opponent. What happens if voters stop believing there is no deal to be made with Donald Trump and start blaming Carney for failing to make one? Can economic progre...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down the emerging fight between moneyed interests and economic populists in the Democratic Party, and ask whether progressive candidates need broader coalitions, better slogans or simply better abs. Then they turn to Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats, Mark Carney’s restrained response and the premiers volunteering to play attack dog. Can economic populi...

Stephen Carter and Zain Velji break down the politics of being seen, from Naheed Nenshi’s controversial Stampede photo with the Israeli ambassador to the staffers whose job is to keep politicians out of pictures they will later regret. Can a good body person save a leader from a bad photo op? Is Mark Carney’s new PMO structure a real change or just corporate jargon? And how much of an episode can...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down the latest referendum fundraising numbers and ask why conservative federalists seem to be getting out-organized by the separatists. Then they strategize what Corb Lund’s Water Not Coal campaign should do after its petition failed validation by Elections Alberta. Can the stay-in-Canada side turn scattered efforts into a real coalition? Should Water Not...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips break down Alberta’s increasingly murky referendum campaign, from the rules governing signs and fundraising to the power of writing questions designed to produce a preferred answer. What happens when everyone seems to be playing by a different set of rules? Can ordinary Albertans turn Stampede into amateur lobbying hour? And will Stephen Carter remember his best...

Stephen Carter and Shannon Phillips dive into Alberta’s referendum campaigns, the NDP’s struggle to turn a pro-Canada message into partisan advantage, and the growing conservative pile-on against Calgary Mayor Jeremy Farkas over Stampede concert noise. Should party money ever be spent without asking people to vote for the party? Has Farkas become one of Alberta’s most effective opposition voices?...