The Paul Wells Show Antica Productions

Is the commission into foreign election interference asking the wrong question about China? That’s what journalist Jonathan Manthorpe thinks. He argues the real issue is that for decades Canada has failed to confront China’s efforts to control Canadians of Chinese heritage and influence Canadian institutions. 
 
He wrote a book about it, Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada. It was originally published in 2019, but it’s now been updated to take into account everything that’s happened since, right up to the Foreign Interference Commission 

Jason Kenney is back on the show. The former Alberta Premier and Conservative MP offers a mea culpa for his time as Defence Minister, takes issue with a former guest’s views on the war in Ukraine, and tells the story of a young Pierre Poilievre. 

Canada’s healthcare system is facing some serious problems, and failing many Canadians, but former health minister Dr. Jane Philpott thinks it can be fixed. In her new book, Health for All, she shares her vision for a radical reset to how we think about and  organize healthcare.
Dr. Philpott spoke to Paul at the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

What does the Trudeau government have to show after eight years in power? Reporter Justin Ling makes the case that the government is deeply dysfunctional on a wide range of issues, and that the Prime Minister is in denial about it. Ling brought those claims to an interview with Justin Trudeau himself. He shares the highlights of that interview with us. 

You can read Justin Ling’s profile of Justin Trudeau in The Walrus. 

A few years ago, the government drastically increased their immigration targets, leading to record levels of immigration into Canada. But recently, they’ve decided to temper those numbers, among concerns that such high immigration is exacerbating housing shortages. Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, talks about why the government made that decision.

COVID-19 exposed some serious weaknesses in Canada’s public institutions. So what have our governments learned? There has been no official attempt to answer that question thoroughly across the country. So two think tanks decided to take it on. They invited experts including politicians, senior public servants, Indigenous leaders and others, to get together and talk about what happened during the pandemic. The Institute for Research on Public Policy and the Institute on Governance released a new report about what they learned.
The IRPP’s President and CEO Jennifer Ditchburn and Charles Breton, who runs the IRPP’s Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, join Paul to talk about it.