The Liberals may have shut down Parliament, but Canada’s issues aren’t on pause. In this podcast roundup of political news (Jan 24-30, 2025), veteran strategist Sean Schnell and I press play on a whole mess of news:
The CBC has a new boss, and she has some thoughts: The incoming CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation plans on launching a national tour to discuss the Conservative plan to defund the CBC. Meanwhile, the CBC is still busy defunding itself. We discuss how communications and media have changed using an example that’s close to our own hearts and what that means for legacy media, no matter who’s in government.
Foreign Election Interference: Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue released her Commission’s final report on foreign election interference this week. While Hogue said she found no evidence that Members of Parliament acted as “traitors,” the report raises serious questions about the federal Liberal government’s failures to protect Canada. Hogue made dozens of recommendations, including some to address concerns about federal leadership races, which the Liberal party is currently in the middle of and will result in the next Prime Minister of Canada.
Liberal Leadership Drama: The Liberal’s carbon tax is set to dramatically increase on April 1, 2025. Some of frontrunner Mark Carney’s campaign advisors once again suggested he would support this move, but rumours say he’s going to announce a plan to change it (but probably make it worse). He also gained endorsements from most of Trudeau’s cabinet, which led to further comparisons to the nearly identical composition of Carney’s team vis a vis Trudeau’s. One of those Ministers also got a bit “handsy” with a female Conservative MP while she was on live TV. Meanwhile, also-ran candidate Karina Gould carries on with an odd narrative about the government she’s been a part of for a decade.
Pierre Poilievre’s Tariff Plan: The Conservative Party’s leader outlined details of his plan to counter potential U.S. tariffs, including targeted retaliatory measures designed to minimize the impact on Canadians while maximizing economic pressure on the Americans, emergency tax cuts, reducing interprovincial trade barriers, and expanding energy infrastructure. Poilievre’s announcement comes after days of more scattered press conferences from the federal Liberals and after Poilievre previously called for Parliament to return to address America’s concerns about Canada’s border security.
Singh signals he’ll prop up the Liberals when Parliament resumes in March: For those wanting a spring election, don’t hold your breath. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh signaled he might once again prop up the Liberals and delay a federal election. Singh had an abysmal week, and we broke it down for you.
Poilievre on Deportations: Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre committed to deporting people who are in Canada on permit or a visa but who “carry out violence or hate crimes on our soil.” Meanwhile, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May tried to stop the deportation of Zain Haq, a 24-year-old Pakistani national who was arrested multiple times in B.C. and had violated the terms of his visa.
Other stories:
We close with big news in Artificial Intelligence this week and discuss what the release of DeepSeek might mean for Canada.
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