- Will Justin Trudeau take his own 'walk in the snow'?
Friday, July 12th 2024
A winter hike was the way his father, then prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, decided he was through with politics and would not run again. Inflation was high, Canadians were struggling and he was deeply unpopular and likely to lose the next election. Sound familiar?
After a devatstating loss in a byelection that was thought to be a safe win last month, the calls for Trudeau to follow his father's footsteps are getting louder, including from some in his own party. Will he heed them? Wy does he want to stay? Who might replace him if he goes? Our guest today just wrote a biography of Trudeau and will try to take us inside the party, and Trudeau's thinking.
GUEST: Stephen Maher, author of The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau
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- Is America on the brink of political collapse? Should Biden bow out?
Thursday, July 11th 2024
Political collapse is an order of magnitude different than, say, "a trouble democracy" or even "a hard right government". It means the end of democracy, a massive reordering of what life in that nation—and when that nation is America, by extension, the world—looks like.
This is a conversation that's very difficult to have. It's hard to wrap your mind around it, especially for those of us who have lives, and families and jobs and not a lot of time to ruminate on the future of democracy. But if it isn't our job to confront it, surely it's the job of our leaders, or politicians who hope to avert the worst-case scenario. Are they talking about it? Preparing for it? What exactly would political collapse look like in America and elsewhere? And would we recognize it before it's too late?
GUEST: David Moscrop, author of Too Dumb For Democracy
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- Alice Munro's tarnished legacy and the evolution of MeToo
Wednesday, July 10th 2024
Learning that legendary Canadian writer Alice Munro was complicit in ignoring the sexual abuse of her daughter by her husband has shocked the country and forced us all to grapple with the progress we have—and haven't—made since the #MeToo movement went viral in 2017.
In an essay for The Toronto Star, Andrea Robin Skinner detailed how her mother ignored her reports of abuse by her stepfather, even when he acknowledged it in writing. It's not the only high-profile literary sex abuse scandal of the past week, either. How has the public grappled with the news? And seven years on, are we getting better at believing victims, and understanding just how common this type of situation is?
GUEST: Julie Lalonde, speaker and educator, women's rights advocate, author of Resilience Is Futile
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- An LCBO strike, and Ontario's long, strange history of booze policy
Tuesday, July 9th 2024
Ontario's liquor distribution workers are on strike for the first time in their history. The reason? The government's plan to open up places like corner stores for beer, wine and mixed cooler sales. It's the latest chapter in a strange history of alcohol policy in the province that dates back to prohibition.
The LCBO brings in billions in revenue each year for the government, but Premier Doug Ford has long pushed for more convenience in alcohol retail. Meanwhile, the rest of the country wonders why the province needed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars just to make beer in corner stores possible. Today, a look inside this fight, and many others Ontario has had over drink, over the years.
GUEST: Richard Southern, Queen's Park reporter, CityNews
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- How Canada's asylum system completely collapsed
Monday, July 8th 2024
Eight years ago, the Prime Minister was welcoming Syrian refugees to Canada at the airport, to international acclaim. Canada was viewed as one of the world leaders in accepting asylum claimants from war-torn or dangerous countries. We were good at it.
Last year, asylum seekers were camped out in the streets, begging for a spot in shelters. They sat on months-long waitlists for basic documents that would allow them to work. There is no space in shelters, and we're cramming them into hotels. Safe to say there are no smiles from the Prime Minister or happy headlines. How did our system come crashing down so quickly?
GUEST: Jordan Michael Smith, writing in Maclean's
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