Elbows Up

These might feel like unprecedented times, with the US President dropping his latest annexation proposal on Canada's election day—but in truth, we have been here before. Sort of. 

While the chaotic, bullying approach of the current administration may be unique, Canada's faced threats of tariffs leading to financial ruin and eventual annexation before. And we survived. We've faced down America on a few occasions without blinking, and...

The past five years have featured one global upheaval after another, so it's no surprise every Canadian's nerves were a little frayed even before Donald Trump began to talk about annexing Canada. But now that the Prime Minister has said the relationship is "over", and since the White House has refused when given the opportunity to back off the 51st state rhetoric, we think it's a good time to try to process this new reality.

Our gue...

If you've seen American television discussing Canada's response to the Trump administration's trade war and annexation rhetoric, you've probably seen Charlie Angus. The longtime NDP MP (who chose to step down this year rather than seek reelection) has been the face of Canada's defiance to many Americans—and especially to his fellow Canadians. Angus has been meeting thousands of his fellow citizens at events around the country, enco...

Have you seen a lot of Maple Leaf stickers and signs in your grocery store lately? Maybe even next to products you know are sold by American companies that are "prepared in Canada"? Wondering what that actually means? 

There are any number of designations that can be placed on food products, but only a couple of them are specific and actually mean a food item was what we would think of as truly "made" or "produced" in Canada. In a m...

From intelligence services to border control to the military and everything in between, Canada has designed its national security infrastructure to work in concert with the United States, not in opposition to it. It's now clear this could be a really big problem. This episode is about how Canada can stand on its own two feet and plan to protect ourselves.

First, Jordan and Laura examine just how many Americans now see Canada as "unf...

Whenever the prospect of "51st state" is mentioned, many Canadians wonder what would happen if it really came to that. Others wonder what they'd do in that situation? How could they help? Could they really fight for their country? 

The easiest way to be ready should anything—emergencies, natural disasters and, yes, a hostile neighbour—threaten Canadians is to join the country's reserve forces. But many Canadians don't understand tha...

A stated objective of President Trump's trade war is to cause Canada economic pain, in an apparent effort to bully Canada into becoming the 51st state. That strategy assumes there is a level of financial hardship at which Canadian resolve will weaken. The tactic is designed to cost the country—and more importantly, every person in it—money, in lost jobs, lost sales, higher prices and in many other ways.

So far, Canada stands strong....

Basically everything Canadians send digitally, even just to one another, runs through huge American tech companies—Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, and dozens more. We've never had to worry about that. Now we do. So what are we going to do about it?

On an individual and national level, we need to get serious about protecting our digital infrastructure. The good news is that it's a lot easier for this country to win a technological ...

Countries like Sweden and Finland, that live near a hostile power, have made huge investments in civil defence, preparing their citizens to respond to any emergency, from an environmental catastrophe to foreign interference and even invasion.

Canada has done this in the past as well, just not for decades. What would a modern Canadian Civil Defence Corps look like? 

Host Jordan Heath-Rawlings and producer Laura Palmer speak with Peter...