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Updated 2025-10-29
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Updated 2019-11-07
True Crime

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3D AGO

The Conservatives’ plan to outflank Carney in a snap election

Brian Lilley was live on the floor of the Conservative convention in Calgary, where the party gave emphatic support to keeping Pierre Poilievre as leader — and expectations were high for the Liberal government to call an election this spring. While there, Brian spoke with longtime Conservative MPs Michelle Rempel-Garner and Chris Warkentin about why they think Prime Minister Mark Carney is more vulnerable at the ballot box than he might think. He talks to campaign manager Steve Outhouse about the strategy when an election comes; and Gary Keller, a veteran of the Conservative organization, about what could be giving Carney second thoughts. He also chats with Jamil Jivani about the party’s changing image among voters, especially younger ones. (Recorded January 31, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

3d ago

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47 min
JAN 26

Fighting with Trump is a Liberal strategy for a fresh election

The bromance between Donald Trump and Mark Carney is over. The president is back to jeering at the prime minister after Carney’s “hegemon” speech in Switzerland. And Liberals are back in their election comfort zone, acting as defenders of Canada against American hostility, as Brian discusses with Stuart Thomson and Tasha Kheiriddin, hosts of Postmedia’s Political Hack newsletter. It worked so well for Carney last election, they say this could be just the thing for Carney to call an election to try for a majority. But what about damage to Canada? They get into the advantages and risks, and the problem for Conservatives, who are still trying to regroup from the last time they got flattened by this drama. (Recorded January 23, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 26

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55 min
JAN 19

The activist class is conspicuously quiet about Iran

Untold numbers of people demanding basic human rights have been killed by a corrupt, bigoted regime, but in the West there are no tent cities on campuses or raucous marches. As Iranian-Canadian human-rights lawyers Payam Akhavan and Kaveh Sharooz tell Brian, Western leaders, and even U.S. President Donald Trump, are proving largely ineffectual at helping the people of Iran. For now, the regime still seems to have the upper hand against a populace mostly abandoned by the international community. And while this is much wider and deeper than previous uprisings in Iran, it could end just as tragically — or worse. (Recorded January 15, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 19

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49 min
JAN 12

What Venezuelans say about Trump’s incursion isn’t what we’ve been told

Emilio Figueredo and Freddy Guevara understand better than any western analyst the Venezuelan reality, the regime of dictator Nicolas Maduro, and the aftermath of his capture by President Donald Trump. Figueredo, editor of independent Venezuelan news outlet Analitica, talks to Brian from Caracas and explains what it’s like there now, why Maduro was foiled by his reliance on Cuba, and why Trump needed to leave the Bolivarian regime in power — for now. Guevara, an exiled opposition politician once imprisoned by Maduro, tells Brian about support among Venezuelans for the military operation and why foreign complaints about Trump violating international law carry little weight there. Both describe Venezuelans’ hopes as higher than they’ve been in a long time, although freedom hasn’t come yet. (Recorded January 8, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 12

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59 min
JAN 5

How the CBC lost its purpose

Canada once had a public broadcaster in the true sense of the word. Now we have a behemoth we pay nearly $1.5 billion a year for that almost nobody watches and doesn’t come close to serving its original purpose, as David Cayley tells Brian. Cayley, author of the new book, The CBC, was a producer there for decades. He says even the news division it prides itself on proved its inability to serve the public during the COVID pandemic, when it consciously chose to promote government narratives, blacklisted dissenting scientists and failed to ask basic questions. Amid stark audience polarization and an unprecedented media revolution, Cayley explains why the CBC needs a total rethink if it’s going to justify its continued existence. (Recorded November 27, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 5

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45 min
2025-11-10

Mark Carney shoots blanks, again

He promised a historic budget. He warned of big sacrifices. He said he had a vision. But what Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered was not much more than a big-spending, big-government Trudeau-style plan, with a bit less hostility to business and some long-overdue military funding, as Tasha Kheiriddin and Stuart Thomson, curators of Postmedia’s Political Hack politics newsletter, discuss with Brian. They look at some of the odder budget choices and at the rough reception the plan has gotten from some corners. They also consider Carney’s lack of progress on other promises. And they discuss the floor-crossing frenzy that (so far) seems to have fizzled out with a single defector from the Conservatives — and why it played out the way it did. (Recorded November 7, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2025-11-10

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48 min
2025-12-01

No Western country seriously wants Ukraine to win

The Trump administration has been lambasted for its proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war given its generosity to Moscow — yet Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he’s willing to build from it. As Matthew Bondy discusses with Brian, Kyiv has few options but to encourage America to step in and end the brutal, nearly four-year war, despite the deal’s insulting terms and the White House’s apparent warmth toward Russia. That’s because Ukraine isn’t winning, and Europe, Canada and other purported supporters keep offering more lip service than meaningful help. Bondy, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, tells Brian if Western countries won’t stop a barbarous but weak Russia, it raises the question of whether they care to defend western civilization at all. (Recorded November 28, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2025-12-01

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44 min
2025-12-08

Say hello to pro-pipeline First Nations in B.C.

Listen to the premier of B.C., or the CBC, or the Association of First Nations and you’d think that Indigenous groups on the West Coast are determined to stop a new oil pipeline from Alberta. As MP Ellis Ross, former chief councillor of the Haisla Nation near Kitimat, tells Brian, a lot of First Nations are open to the opportunity for resource development to help them break dependency on Ottawa and find prosperity for their people. He also talks about how U.S. anti-oil groups are exploiting First Nations by offering them much-needed funding in exchange for backing their activist campaigns — like the widely quoted “Coastal First Nations” group that doesn’t even represent the area’s First Nations. (Recorded December 5, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2025-12-08

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39 min
2025-11-24

Liberals are playing silly games with the military again

Canada’s reputation for politically driven flip-flopping over important military purchases is getting bad, especially given Ottawa’s plans to dramatically beef up our forces. But here we go again: the Liberals, after cancelling the purchase of the F-35 next-generation fighter jet, then reversing years later, are considering cancelling again to spite a U.S. president who will be gone in 2028. Brian talks with David Bercuson, director of the University of Calgary’s Centre for Military and Strategic Studies and Alan Williams, former assistant deputy minister of materiel at the Department of National Defence. They discuss why the F-35 was picked in the first place (and then picked again) and how short-term politics is corrupting a momentous decision that could have grave consequences in a more dangerous world. (Recorded November 21, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2025-11-24

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54 min
2025-11-17

Conservatives lived through this same party drama before and emerged victorious

The federal Conservatives were still licking their wounds from the Liberals’ recent minority election victory when they were rocked by a stunning and dispiriting floor-crossing. And they failed to stop the government from passing its budget by a razor-thin margin. That was 20 years ago, as Ian Brodie, former chief of staff to prime minister Stephen Harper, reflects on with Brian. And it looked a lot like what Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are going through today. Back then, it took less than a year before the government fell and Harper’s Conservatives won their first of three election victories. Brodie explains what lessons Poilievre and his team can learn from that time, and why Conservatives shouldn’t be too shaken by their recent troubles. (Recorded November 14, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2025-11-17

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51 min

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