Craft Politics

Bill C-39 passed second reading in the House of Commons 296 to 26, with Liberals and Conservatives voting together. Outside Parliament, almost nobody likes it. The Canadian Labour Congress says it gives Ottawa the broadest strike-intervention power in the G7. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce says it ties Ottawa's hands, because a minister could only step in after a strike has started. Robin Guy ma...

Andy Burnham has passed 100 days as Prime Minister. Every poll taken in October had Labour first, Reform is down to 20 percent with YouGov, and last week's Budget polled as the fairest since 2021. Then his Chancellor said on the radio, "We had a referendum. We're out," three days after Burnham said he'd like Britain back in the EU in his lifetime. So we brought back Simon Hart: Rishi Sunak's Chief...

Five weeks ago, Sean Speer was on the show to help us pick through what was left of the B.C. Conservatives after Kerry-Lynne Findlay quit. Two days later, David Eby called an election two years early. On Saturday the Conservatives won 63 of 93 seats, their first win in their own right since 1928, under an interim leader who has never sat in cabinet. So we brought in Todd Stone, who has. Todd was B...

Eight months ago Dave Cournoyer told us the pro-Canada side in Alberta had no leader, no campaign, and no ground game. It became our most-listened-to episode ever. On Monday that side won three to one, so Dave is back — solo host this week, both of us nursing colds — to explain how, and why the Premier's week got harder after the result. Dave has covered Alberta politics for twenty years at Davebe...

Six weeks ago Ginny Roth told us there’s a magic button in Canadian politics: press “Trump” and watch your numbers move. Carney pressed it. Doug Ford pressed it. Then Quebec shrugged, and B.C. seems to be shrugging too. So we opened a beer to work out what changed, among other things. No guest this week. This is the first “At the Bar”: the two of us catching up on six interviews and one B.C. IPA,...

Six months ago we had Rudy Husny on to ask whether Christine Fréchette could pull off a Mark Carney-style win in Quebec. The answer arrived Monday night: zero seats, down from ninety, and the premier lost her own riding. Rudy's first words on the result: "Kim Campbell can sleep better tonight." So we got him back on three hours of sleep and a lot of Coca-Cola. Rudy was a senior adviser in the Harp...

Graham is POLITICO's senior trade reporter in London, and he covers Britain's trade relationships with Europe, the United States, and Canada. Last month he co-wrote the piece arguing that Carney's middle powers alliance arrived before the middle powers were ready. Days later, Europe sent an invitation. What we got into: Warm words and trade flows. Graham on why Strasbourg was a political signal, a...

Sean is editor-at-large at The Hub, was Stephen Harper's senior economic adviser, and is one of the more prolific policy writers in the country. He also spent the last month arguing a position most of Canada had decided was closed. What we got into: The deal in the parallel universe. Sean's read of what was on the table on August 21: tariff-free access for 85 to 90 percent of Canadian exports, at...

Two crypto billionaires gave Reform UK £72 million in 36 hours, more than every British party combined raised in all of 2025. All of it legal, for now. This week on Craft Politics: Sam Coates, Deputy Political Editor of Sky News and co-host of Politics at Sam and Anne's, joins Joseph Lavoie and Andrew Percy to answer what £72 million actually buys in British politics, and whether Labour can make R...

Reform UK is having the best year of its life. Official opposition in Wales. Seventeen seats in Scotland. Over 1,400 councillors. And yet Middle England still hasn't climbed aboard. This week on Craft Politics: Darren Grimes, Reform UK councillor, deputy leader of Durham County Council, and one of GB News's most recognisable voices, joins Joseph Lavoie and Andrew Percy to answer what Reform actual...

Ten days ago Ginny Roth posted a thread arguing that Canadians need to stop being shocked by Donald Trump and start making hard choices from a weak hand. Jason Kenney replied, accusing her of "craven cynicism masquerading as hard-headed realism." And now the Canadian right is having it out, complete with name-calling (Maple MAGA? Really?) So we brought Ginny on to make the argument herself. Ginny...

Ten years ago, everyone who was supposed to know — the British government, the Bank of England, the IMF, half the world's economists, even President Obama — said Leave couldn't win. Then a campaign with no party, no machine, and almost no money beat all of them. We're not here to relitigate Brexit. We want to know how you actually pull that off. So I brought in Nick Varley, who ran the ground camp...

We're trying a new episode format, so let us know what you think of it. We didn't have time to record a full show, we have as a short and snappy take on this week's by-election results in the UK and what it means for Keir Starmer's future.

A week ago, the Henry Nowak case was the story dominating the news agenda. Then Belfast caught fire — literally — and two separate stories became one. Percy and Joseph work through how a murder in Southampton and a knife attack in Northern Ireland became one national tinderbox. What we got into: This week's number: minus six. Nigel Farage's net approval on his handling of the Nowak case — the wors...

Over the weekend the BC Conservatives picked the candidate the smart money had written off — and half the commentariat instantly called it a gift to the NDP. We're not convinced. A party that went from a rounding error to Official Opposition in a single election just told us exactly what kind of party it wants to be. What we got into: The recession nobody can feel. Two negative quarters, a textboo...

Last week, we recorded with Evan Menzies about the brewing Alberta referendum — and within hours of us hitting publish, Premier Smith unveiled the actual ballot question. So we're back at it. It's also the first outing of the revamped format — a number, a postbag question, the deep dive, and last orders. Tell us what you make of it. What we got into: - The 7-point question. New Angus Reid polling...

In February, Dave Cournoyer told us Alberta was sliding toward a separation referendum the pro-Canada side wasn't ready to fight. Three months later, the referendum is both stalled and very much alive — a court has locked the separatist petition in a drawer, and the government's backup plan collapsed when it announced a result before the vote happened. So we brought in Evan Menzies — Crestview Str...

Sixty episodes ago, James Wharton came on the show with a Labour government struggling to find its sea legs. 15 months later, Keir Starmer is fighting for his job. So we brought James back. Lord Wharton of Yarm — former Conservative MP for Stockton South, the kind of Red Wall seat Reform now eats for breakfast. What we got into: Why Starmer probably survives the week. The would-be regicides aren't...

For forty years, the Conservative Party owned cost of living. Not anymore — and Kyla Ronellenfitsch has the polling to prove it. This week on Craft Politics: pollster and data scientist Kyla Ronellenfitsch joins Joseph Lavoie to answer whether the CPC has quietly lost its forty-year brand on the economy, with new data showing Mark Carney's Liberals now lead Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives on mana...

We brought in Rudy Husny — former senior advisor to Ed Fast at International Trade, two-time federal Conservative candidate in Outremont, 2020 Conservative leadership contender, and one of the most thoughtful federal Conservative voices on Quebec politics — to make sense of what has happened in the last 10 weeks. What we got into: Why the CAQ is inching back. New premier Christine Fréchette is qui...

Carney has his majority — 174 seats after sweeping all three by-elections. First time a Canadian minority has become a majority through floor-crossings and by-elections. But the bigger story is the Conservative collapse underneath: worst by-election losses in a decade, per Eric Grenier at The Writ. The last time results looked this bad? 2014 — the year before Harper lost. We dig into what the majo...

Everyone has a story about winning, and almost none of them hold up. First up, the Iran ceasefire. After nearly six weeks of Operation Epic Fury, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week pause in the fighting — announced on Truth Social less than two hours before Trump's own deadline, the one where he threatened to send Iran "back to the stone ages." Both sides declared total victory. The problem is t...

Last night, President Trump addressed the nation for the first time since launching Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28. Joseph and Andrew break down a speech that offered no new information, no clear exit strategy, and no plan for the Strait of Hormuz — 32 days into a war that's sent gas prices past $4 a gallon and oil past $100 a barrel. They cover Trump's complete inversion of the s...

Avi Lewis won the federal NDP leadership on the first ballot in Winnipeg with 56% of the vote. He's a documentary filmmaker, former CBC and Al Jazeera host, co-creator of the Leap Manifesto, and — as Andrew helpfully notes — a complete loon politically, though surely a lovely chap. His platform: nationalize groceries, nationalize telecoms, build a million public homes, do banking through Canada Po...

Tim Kiladze is a financial reporter and columnist at the Globe and Mail. His recent long-form feature — "Out of nowhere, Canada became poorer than Alabama" — went viral with over five million views on X and triggered a debate about Canadian competitiveness. Tim joined us to walk through what he actually found on the ground in Alabama, why the piece touched a nerve, and what Canada and the UK shoul...