Front Burner

Canada has entered a “technical recession,” leading to fingerpointing in the House of Commons and Donald Trump renewing his calls to make Canada the 51st state.

Many economists are disputing that this is a recession at all. But whatever you call it, the economy is weak right now. It was weak before the trade war and it’s been made weaker by the tariffs, the threats and the uncertainty.

So how deep is this ditch that we are in...

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is planting his federalist flag, wading into the Alberta separatism debate and making the case for a major new nation building project in his province. Today we speak to the former journalist, and first ever First Nations provincial Premier about keeping the country together, the need for stronger tech regulations and Indigenous consultation.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.c...

At Donald Trump’s election victory event in 2024, he was flanked on stage by a collection of family, senior staff, and Ultimate Fighting Championship president and CEO, Dana White. 

The UFC has, in many ways, functioned as the sporting arm of the MAGA movement. Fighters and the organization itself have pledged incredible support to Trump, and the President has become a ringside fixture at fights. This union is set to culmin...

Negotiations for an end to the war in Iran took a baffling turn last Monday when U.S. President Donlad Trump declared via social media that he would be willing to end the war in exchange for a number of countries in the Middle East and South Asia joining the Abraham Accords.

The Accords are a series of diplomatic agreements that normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states. They were originally touted as a Trump fore...

What happens when a human becomes intimately enmeshed with a chatbot? From people who’ve married their bots or who grieve their loved ones with the help of AI, host Victoria Hetherington (author of The Friend Machine) dives into the stories of the people who have invited these digital avatars into their hearts, minds, and even beds. And asks what do we gain and what do we stand to lose? Our intimacy, our resilience, even our grasp ...

CBC parliamentary reporters Aaron Wherry and Catharine Tunney are back to talk about the big political stories of the week including: Prime Minister Mark Carney losing high-profile MP Steven Guilbeault over climate policies, digital surveillance blowback from Bill C-22, and how Carney will handle Alberta separatism.

Correction (June 1, 2026): A previous version of this episode said part of Bill C-22 would give authorities warran...

There’s an old adage from the days of the Watergate scandal: “follow the money.” And in Donald Trump’s second term as President of the United States, these words remain incredibly relevant.

From foreign investments, to real estate, cryptocurrency, personal stock trades, taxpayer settlement funds, personal gifts, and presidential pardons the news environment has been flooded with reports about the ways in which critics say Donald...

Western Premiers gathered in Kananskis, Alberta this week to discuss shared issues like trade, defense and energy projects. But another topic overshadowed the meetings: Alberta separatism. 

Late last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the province will hold a referendum on the prospect of independence in the fall. But rather than a straight question about leaving Canada, the referendum will ask Albertans whether...

As we inch closer to the July 1st CUSMA review deadline, there still aren’t any formal trade talks between Canada and the U.S. planned. The government says there are informal talks happening at different levels. 

Other recent developments aren’t great. U.S. officials have blasted a substantial hike in what big streamers have to pay into Canadian content, and they’ve suspended a joint defense board that’s been around for 80 ...

In a major escalation of its months long “maximum pressure” campaign, the United States announced it has indicted Raúl Castro, former president of Cuba, over the downing of two planes flown by a group of Cuban exiles targeting the regime in 1996.

It was a move officials within the Trump administration had been signalling would happen after the director of the CIA met with Cuban officials in Havana. 

We speak to Peter Kor...

Prime Minister Mark Carney has condemned what he described as the “abominable treatment” of flotilla activists detained by Israeli authorities.

His statement came after the release of a video showing activists from around the world blindfolded, restrained, and forced face-down on the ground as Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the detention site.

Up to a dozen Canadians were among those detained, acc...

Earlier this month, 30 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the Trump administration with a remarkable request: to publicly acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East. But unlike other nuclear powers, Israel has never officially acknowledged its arsenal.

That nuclear policy is known, in Hebrew, as “amimut” or opacity. And for decades the Unit...

Late last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced a new energy agreement that paves the way for a new pipeline to the West Coast. It includes an industrial carbon pricing deal, and is contingent on the approval of the Pathways project— a proposed carbon capture, utilization and storage facility.

The agreement was panned by environmentalists who said, among other things, that the Liberals are...

Alberta premier Danielle Smith is calling a court ruling “antidemocratic” after judge struck down the petition which hoped to trigger a separatist referendum this fall. 

The ruling came in part because it found that the province failed to consult with First Nations whose treaty rights would be affected by a vote to separate. Still, separatist groups and the province are appealing the decision and looking to forge ahead.

...

In The Cult Queen of Canada from CBC’s Uncover, a tiny Saskatchewan town faces a surreal crisis when a cult leader calling herself “The Queen of Canada” occupies an abandoned school. As neighbours turn on each other, a retired teacher leads resistance in a story about what happens when online extremism spills into the real world. Hosted by Rachel Browne.

Crime. Investigation. Revelation. Uncover brings you explosive, high-calibe...

The ceasefire in Iran has been in place for five weeks, with no clear end in sight to the war. The latest peace negotiations fell apart, with U.S. President Trump saying that the ceasefire is on “life support.” So what happens now? What kind of pain will Iran be able to tolerate? And how can the U.S. get itself out of this quagmire?

The Economist’s Middle East correspondent Gregg Carlstrom joins us to discuss the latest.

For ...

Today on the show, the President of Princeton University, Christopher Eisgruber, joins us. 

He makes a defense of the role of post secondary institutions at a time when they are at the centre of a culture war and the target of an incredibly hostile White House that casts universities and professors as the enemy.

He discusses the limits of free speech, his views on civility, artificial intelligence and more.

For transc...

President Trump arrives in Beijing today for a high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He’s bringing with him a long list of tech and business titans like Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg.

There’s a lot on the line.

The two countries have been embroiled in a tit-for-tat trade war for years – which escalated last year after Trump’s Liberation day tariffs. They came to a truce in the fal...

As part of its Spring economic update, the federal government revealed that it’s considering privatizing the country’s airports. The Prime Minister says it could free up money to fund other major projects and improve air travel for Canadians.

But a number of critics have come out against the idea. One of them is veteran journalist and activist Linda McQuaig, author of ‘The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing...