The Paikin Podcast

Steve goes back to school. In this case to a Canadian Studies class at Harvard where he interviewed Justice Rosalie Abella about her early life, being born in a displaced persons camp in post-WWII Europe in 1946, how she knew at a very young age she wanted to be a lawyer, the difference between the Supreme Courts in Canada and the United States, originalism versus a “living tree” interpretation of constitutions, and how we should u...

Former MP and Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole joins Janice Stein to discuss the historically huge increase in military spending from last week’s budget, what we should focus spending it on, whether we should buy submarines or drones, why we need a Made-in-Canada approach, if we should take the 51st state rhetoric seriously, if we are on the precipice of war with either Russia or China, how to assert our sovereignty in the Ar...

Avi Lewis joins Steve to discuss his NDP leadership bid, why he wants to be the leader of a party that 94% of Canadian voters rejected in the last election, the decline of the NDP since Jack Layton, how Trudeau passed the NDP on the left, if Jagmeet Singh was a good leader, and why the NDP needs to return to its roots as a “working-class” party. 

They also get into if the party focussed too much on identity politics, why the populis...

Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson join Steve to discuss their new book, Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk, how the country is in the middle of the greatest political crisis it has ever faced, the rising anger young people feel about housing prices and gig jobs, Trudeau’s failures as a prime minister, and how he destroyed the Canadian consensus on immigration. They also discuss the growing regional tensions i...

Trump’s 20-point peace plan includes disarming Hamas, an international stabilization force, and an apolitical Palestinian transitional government. Could it work? 

Hussein Ibish, contributor to The Atlantic, joins Janice Stein to discuss the state of the deal, why Hamas accepted it, how Netanyahu was forced into it, why Hamas never actually wanted to govern Gaza, if the plan offers a viable long term plan for Gaza’s future, and if on...

Some guests need no introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, Martin Short. 

Steve and Martin Short discuss what it’s like being a proud Canadian in America today, Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air, if there is increasingly a cost to be paid for making jokes about the wrong people in America, and Mark Carney’s "elbows up" commercial with Mike Myers. Then, a deep dive into Short’s comedy career, his experience on Jo...

“Pierre Poilievre is dismantling the principled, serious and credible Conservative Party,” wrote Dimitri Soudas, former director of communications and senior advisor under Stephen Harper. Are the knives out?

The Everything Political panel with former MPs Martha Hall Findlay and Tony Clement discuss Soudas’s piece, the growing rift in the Conservative Party, if Harper greenlit the piece, Poilievre’s accusation of an RCMP cover-up for...

Canadians are just a few weeks away from learning what Prime Minister Mark Carney has in mind when it comes to defence spending. Will Canada ramp up its investments? Will we meet our NATO commitments?  And what should we invest in? New American-made F-35 fighter planes? New ice breakers for the Arctic? Joining the Golden Dome defense system?

Wesley Warks joins Janice Stein in this episode of World on Edge to discuss the st...

David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data, joins the Everything Political panel with former MPs Martha Hall Findlay and Tony Clement to discuss how Canadian voters are split between wanting a disruptor that will change things versus a reassuring and calming father figure and how that split played out in the last election. Then, a look at the looming federal budget, if Carney has properly prepared Canadians for what is to come, and Pierre P...

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer joins the pod for a live recording to discuss Canadian-American relations, ending the “tariff madness,” the rise of political violence, Trump’s claim “the radicals on the left are the problem,’ where the Democrats go from here, Ezra Klein’s concerns about “left wing pessimism,” and the possibility of the Detroit Tigers meeting the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS.

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Conservative Party MP Shuv Majumdar joins Janice Stein to debate Canada’s decision to recognize the state of Palestine, what exactly this entails, and what happens next. Then, a look at Trump's and Netanyahu's remarks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. And, as the UN turns 80 years old, is it still relevant in the world today? Or are we witnessing the end of the United Nations as we know it?

Foll...

Journalist Justin Ling joins Steve to discuss his book “The 51st State Votes,” how Trump turned Canada’s 45th general election on its head, Pierre Poilievre’s “campaign malpractice,” whether Canada can survive as Trump's economic punching bag, and how Mark Carney’s “elbows up” approach is going today. Then they consider Chrystia Freeland’s exit from cabinet and what an increasingly unstable and chaotic America means for Canada...

On this episode of “Everything Political,” Steve Paikin and former MPs Martha Hall Findlay and Tony Clement discuss the fallout from the Charlie Kirk assassination, the rise of political violence, free speech in America, Jimmy Kimmel, Chrystia Freeland’s exit from cabinet, and Carney’s trip to Mexico. 

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For decades Brian Stewart was Canada’s eyes on the world – from Nicaragua and the Gulf War to his reporting on the Ethiopian famine which led to international action and the creation of the Live Aid concerts. He joins Steve to discuss his four decades of reporting in warzones, why he “thrived on working in an endless vortex of crises,” the personal costs of bearing witness to history, and the state of the world today. 

Fol...

Michael Ignatieff joins Janice Stein to discuss the murder of Charlie Kirk, if it could lead to increased political violence and even civil war, the rise of authoritarianism worldwide, the state of democracy in Canada, and if we are prepared for an unstable and chaotic America. 

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Barry Avrich’s October 7th documentary, The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, was disinvited from TIFF, then reinstated – and just won the festival’s People’s Choice Documentary Award. Avrich joins Steve to discuss what exactly happened, why it was pulled, how he doesn’t think he made a political film about the war in Gaza, the dangers of censorship and protesting art, and how a film about a family rescuing their children and g...

Author JDM Stewart joins Steve to discuss his book "The Prime Ministers," how to teach kids history, reconciling the past with the present, and if the pendulum is swinging the other way on the "history wars." And from Macdonald to Laurier to Carney we get into the prime ministers who were transformational, merely "transactional," and irrelevant in Canada's history. 

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On this episode of “Everything Political,” Steve Paikin and former MPs Martha Hall Findlay and Tony Clement remember Ken Dryden, his political career, and how he wasn’t in Parliament “to play politics.” Then, a look at Carney’s cabinet retreat and the Ontario government’s plan to get rid of school trustees. 

Special guest Jill Promoli, a trustee with the Peel District School Board, joins to make the case for elected school...

Is it authoritarianism yet? Many may be asking this question about America, but Jeffrey Kopstein thinks we should be asking a different one. 

He joins Steve and Janice Stein to discuss his book "The Assault on the State,” if Trump is turning America into a “family business,” the global shift from the rule of law to the rule of men, how Trump and Viktor Orban and Benjamin Netanyahu are following in Putin’s footsteps, a...