The Line Podcast

In today’s episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on February 20th, 2026, Jen Gerson regretfully informs Matt Gurney that the province of Alberta is, politically speaking, on fire. (Matt thinks she meant politically speaking.) Matt is suitably alarmed. Jen walks him through her concerns in detail, reading direct quotes from recent statements that do little to reassure either of them. Matt responds with what he considers sage advice from the deepest, darkest corner of Laurentian Canada — fully aware of how warmly that kind of guidance is usually received in Alberta.From there, the hosts pivot south of the border. Donald Trump, following up on similar remarks once made by Barack Obama, is now talking about aliens. The Line, as longtime listeners know, enjoys a good alien discussion. But both hosts wonder whether this sudden extraterrestrial enthusiasm might be serving as a distraction from more terrestrial problems, including renewed attention on the Epstein files, signs of growing anti-Trump organization within the Republican Party, and a significant loss at the Supreme Court of the United States, where a six-to-three majority struck down the president’s tariffs.Finally, a quick check-in on developments at home. Matt and Jen touch on floor crossing, Jamil Jivani’s trip to Washington, and Matt’s mixed feelings about Canada’s new defence industrial strategy — grateful that it exists, concerned about how it will unfold.All this and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.YouTube:Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode with Jen Gerson spoke with Paul Hughes in Kharkiv, on his experiences as a Canadian volunteer in Ukraine’s ongoing defence against Russia’s invasion.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

Today on On The Line, host Jen Gerson sits down with longtime friend and Calgarian Paul Hughes, who left his comfortable life in Alberta to help in Ukraine at the outbreak of war four years ago.Hughes, joined early on by his son Mac, has witnessed both the extraordinary courage and the relentless heartbreak of the Ukrainian people. His son was seriously injured. Hughes himself was kidnapped by Russian forces. And even now, speaking to Gerson from a darkened apartment in Kharkiv, he describes living under regular bombardment, air raid sirens, and the aftermath of assaults that have left whole neighbourhoods without electricity or heat.This episode of On The Line is brought to you by the Forest Products Association of Canada. In a volatile world, Canada has to focus on what we can control right here at home. Prime Minister Carney says a country that can’t build itself has few options. The forest products sector provides the literal building blocks for our country — from the lumber and wood products to build new homes and infrastructure; to pulp and paper for household and business use; to the renewable power we need to support energy security.We’re already a global trade success story, and we’re ready to do more to build a resilient, self-reliant country.It’s time to focus on Canada’s domestic strengths. Learn more at www.fpac.ca.The conversation is unflinching about the toll of war — physical, emotional, and moral — but it also explores why Hughes remains. He reflects on what years on the ground have taught him about resilience, civic duty, and what happens when a country’s sovereignty is tested by force.They also turn the lens back home. Hughes shares how his experience in Ukraine has shaped the way he thinks about the separatist tensions now brewing in Alberta, and what Canadians may be taking for granted about the fragility of national unity.Note: CBC Radio recently profiled Hughes’ experience with the Russians in an article referenced in this episode: “300 missions in, this Canadian volunteer says he’ll stay in Ukraine until he’s asked to leave.”As always, like and subscribe.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In today’s episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on February 13th, 2026, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson open with a look at Donald Trump leaning hard into his Art of the Deal approach to pressure Canada over the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Neither host is impressed, and neither thinks the tactic is likely to succeed. They also discuss the threat to pull out of the CUSMA trade agreement and suggest that Trump may eventually discover that constant escalation dulls the impact of his own threats. That said, they do offer appropriate gratitude to the six Republicans who joined Democrats in the House to vote against tariffs on Canada. Six out of 218. How reassuring.From there, the conversation turns to the recent tragic mass shooting in Canada. Both hosts are troubled by the familiar rush to judgment that follows these events, but also by the reluctance in some quarters to discuss facts that are plainly relevant. They argue that the shooter being trans is as important to understand as if the shooter were an incel, a white supremacist, or inspired by the Islamic State. These are not taboos; they are data points. If the goal is to understand the roots of violent crime, then nothing material to motive or ideology should be off limits.Finally, Matt and Jen spend a few minutes contemplating the alternate universe in which Calgary is currently hosting the Winter Olympics. They wonder what that might have meant for Alberta’s mood and for Canadian identity more broadly. Unfortunately, both hosts confirm that they are stuck in this timeline with the rest of you. And they aren’t happy about it.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.YouTube:Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode with Jen Gerson and Stéphane Dion, author of the Clarity Act.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

Today on On The Line, host Jen Gerson speaks with Stéphane Dion — noted federalist, former Liberal Party leader, academic, and diplomat — about what secession from Canada actually entails as separatist sentiment gains renewed attention in Alberta.As the architect of the Clarity Act, Dion brings a unique perspective to the debate, walking through the legal, political, and practical realities of what separation would really mean. Jen presses him on a question that comes up often in these discussions: why does Canada appear to have a kind of national suicide pill embedded in its own legislation?From there, the conversation broadens into a more philosophical discussion about federalism, national unity, and what the promise of Canada still offers to people who live and work in Alberta. It’s a sober, clear-eyed look at secession not as a slogan or protest gesture, but as a serious and consequential act — and at why Dion believes the Canadian project remains worth defending.As always, like and subscribe.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on February 6th, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson begin with another close look at separatist pressures in Alberta and the political forces forming around them. Jen spends considerable time unpacking how the various players are organizing and aligning, and both hosts admit they’re surprised the federalist side isn’t better coordinated. That said, they do have a few thoughts about who could step in to do that work, if anyone is willing to take it on.From there, the conversation turns to the 20th anniversary of the election of Stephen Harper. Both Matt and Jen reflect on how early they were in their careers at the time, assuming they’d even started yet. They discuss Harper’s legacy and the conservative movement he shaped, noting that in some ways the party has remained adrift since his departure (though that might be changing a bit). At the same time, they point out that Harper has been sending unusually clear signals, by his own standards, about his views on current political events — including a striking and heartfelt declaration in favour of a strong, united Canada.Finally, the hosts take a quick look at recent developments in the crypto space. Jen approaches the topic from a political angle, while Matt looks at it through a more sociological lens. Whether it’s Bitcoin, AI tools, or the next new technological obsession, both agree there’s always room for responsible and productive use. The problems start when disaffected people wrap their entire identities around these tools and turn them into substitutes for meaning.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. YouTube (Video goes live in 30 minutes):Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode with Matt Gurney and Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

Today on On The Line, Matt Gurney is joined by Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, for an extended, wide-ranging conversation recorded in the library of the Royal Canadian Military Institute in downtown Toronto. The discussion ranges across geopolitics, the state of the world, the state of Canada’s navy, what’s going right for the fleet, and what still needs to improve.First, a correction from your host. During the conversation, Matt incorrectly stated at several points that Canada intends to procure 15 new submarines. Admiral Topshee was too kind to interrupt him during the recording, but the correct number is 12. That mistake was entirely Matt’s, and he regrets the error.With that out of the way, the conversation spans the globe. Admiral Topshee discusses what’s happening in Europe with Russia and Ukraine, and in the Pacific, where growing Chinese power and influence is challenging long-held assumptions about global security. There’s also extensive discussion of the Arctic, why it matters, and what is changing there. Procurement comes up as well — shipyards, new ships for the fleet, and what it will actually cost to deliver on plans that now enjoy broad political support.They also spend time on what Canada itself needs to sustain a much larger navy and armed forces. Do we have enough bases? Enough reservists? Are people being enrolled into the navy quickly enough? And how, realistically, could Canada expand its forces rapidly in a time of war?It’s a long, free-ranging conversation about geopolitics, the evolution of warfare, and the future of the Royal Canadian Navy. Check it out today on On The Line. And special thanks to the Royal Canadian Military Institute for hosting this recording of the podcast. As always, like and subscribe.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on January 30, 2026, one of your hosts starts with a literal public safety announcement. Line editor Gurney was the victim of attempted identity theft this week (like he doesn’t have enough going on) and some Line readers may have received bizarre messages claiming to be from me. They weren’t! He promises!From there, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson start with a sharp and unsparing look at Alberta separatism. Jen is in no mood for half measures, especially when it comes to Premier Danielle Smith’s refusal to firmly commit herself. As she sees it, people who style themselves as free speech warriors don’t get to hide behind mealy-mouthed statements when it actually matters. She also takes direct aim at what she calls the loser energy of the separatist movement itself. Matt agrees, adding that many of the separatists he encounters remind him of the gun-ban obsessives or bike-lane warriors in other parts of the country — people whose entire identities are wrapped up in a single cause, and who spend enormous amounts of time constructing elaborate arguments to justify what is, in reality, an emotional state. Both hosts close the segment by wishing, once again, that Canada had a serious and functional ability to monitor foreign interference, because if this movement grows, they strongly suspect outside actors will be eager to help it along.Later, the conversation turns to the Conservative Party of Canada, which is gathering in Calgary to review Pierre Poilievre’s leadership. There’s no obvious threat to him, but Matt argues the party has wasted the last nine months pretending the election result was a fluke, largely because that fantasy spared them from having to make difficult decisions. Unfortunately for the Conservatives, the facts haven’t changed. If anything, the hosts note that Mark Carney is settling into the job better than expected. He still makes the occasional rookie mistake, but overall he’s performing competently and growing into the role. That leaves the CPC with a real problem: it now needs a credible plan to defeat a capable Liberal government while also navigating the chaos of a disruptive Trump presidency.Finally, the hosts circle back to the China deal they didn’t have time to fully address last week. Matt says he’s listened carefully to both the boosters and the critics, and has come to an inconvenient conclusion: he agrees with all of them. The deal contains real opportunities and real risks, and Canada may not be ready for what comes next. As both hosts note, we are entering a geopolitical era where being wealthy and strategically important can make a country a very attractive target, especially when caught between competing hostile powers. It’s a position many other countries have experienced before. Maybe, they suggest, it’s time Canada started asking the Poles or the Israelis for advice.Enjoy all this and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out at ReadTheLine.ca, and as always, like and subscribe.YouTube (Video goes live in 30 minutes):Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode with Jen Gerson speaks with Gregory Jack from Ipsos about some new polling on the actual level of separatist sentiment in Alberta.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

This week on On The Line, host Jen Gerson sits down with Gregory Jack, senior vice president of public affairs at Ipsos, to talk about separatist sentiment in Alberta and Quebec — and what it actually means.Ipsos has just released an in-depth survey examining support for separation in both provinces. As in previous polling, about 30 per cent of Albertans say they would vote to leave Canada. But Jack explains why that topline number can be misleading. His team went a step further than most previous surveys, stress-testing separatist sentiment by attaching real-world consequences to the idea, such as the loss of a Canadian passport.When respondents were forced to grapple with those trade-offs, support for separation dropped by roughly half. The results suggest that a sizeable share of self-described separatists are less committed to independence than they are frustrated with Ottawa — angry, alienated, but not necessarily eager to form a new country.That matters, because separation is no longer a purely theoretical debate. Alberta separatists are currently moving ahead with a petition process that could eventually lead to a provincial referendum. And south of the border, American commentators have begun weighing in, confidently asserting that Albertans would jump at the chance to join the United States — a claim Jack methodically fact-checks.It’s a grounded, data-driven conversation about grievance, identity, and how easily political frustration can be mistaken for genuine separatist resolve.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In today’s episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on January 23rd, 2026, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson are finally reunited after Matt’s long absence. Matt briefly explains where he’s been (you can see his full statement here) and thanks The Line’s audience for their patience and support before the conversation turns to the biggest stories of the week. As Jen notes, it’s a perfect moment for Matt to be back. With sudden, serious talk about insurgency, warfare, geopolitical conflict, guns, emergency preparedness, and civil defence, all the subjects Matt has been nerding out about for decades have abruptly become relevant. She jokes that it would have been a shame for him to miss this moment, especially as the Canadian military has quietly been gaming out insurgency and resistance scenarios in the unlikely but no-longer-unthinkable event of a U.S. invasion. Matt, unsurprisingly, has a few thoughts.From there, the hosts turn to Mark Carney’s speech in Davos. Jen argues it was really aimed at a European audience and may have doubled as a victory lap. Matt agrees, but adds that Washington was clearly part of the intended audience as well. Still, both hosts think the most important audience is here at home. Everyone seems to agree that major changes are coming and that major changes are needed. The open question is who is going to start proposing them, especially the ones that will be politically painful.Finally, Matt and Jen dig into comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggesting Alberta wants to join the United States. Jen is skeptical. Matt, meanwhile, wonders how nice it would be if Canada had a reliable way of noticing when large amounts of foreign money were flowing into the country to influence domestic politics. It’s a pity, really, that we haven’t already spent years seriously debating foreign interference in Canadian democracy.In any case, your hosts are happy to be back together. Enjoy all this and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out at ReadTheLine.ca, and as always, like and subscribe.YouTube (Video goes live in 30 minutes):Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode with Jen Gerson talking to Chris Ragan, economics professor and founding director of McGill University's Max Bell School of Public Policy, about what the hell is happening down south with the Federal Reserve.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

The world is burning, and so we don't blame anyone for missing another piece of really bad news. Jerome Powell, the head of the U.S. federal reserve, is being threatened by criminal indictments in connection with recent testimony about an expensive office renovation. Powell has come right out and said the threats are nothing more than an attempt to put external pressure on the fed to lower the interest rates, which might temporarily goose the economy for Donald Trump heading into the midterms. In this episode of On The Line, host Jen Gerson sits down with economics professor and founding director of the McGill School of Public Policy Chris Ragan. They get right into the weeds, explaining who Powell is, why he matters, and what economic implications might be of a much less independent fed. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

Breaking news: Canada agrees to cut its tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products — and Ontario premier Doug Ford is positively pissed.In this week’s show, host Jen Gerson sat down with The Line Alberta’s Rob Breakenridge to tape a live episode at the Saskatchewan Crops Forum. It was recorded in front of a live audience in Saskatoon on Wednesday, and what a topical moment to be chatting with the agriculture sector! As the pair gabbed, agriculture really was one of the top issues of the day. Mark Carney and a delegation of ministers were just setting off on what now appears to be a successful trip to thaw relations between Canada and China. Meanwhile, news that Canada will reduce its tariffs on EVs in exchange for a more favorable export market for agricultural products came as Canadian-American relations continue to fray.Oh, and then the two Calgarians lamented the city’s ongoing water restrictions, and the city’s report outlining its failures. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

Today on On The Line, host Jen Gerson is joined by Heather Exner-Pirot, Director of Energy, Natural Resources, and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, for a wide-ranging conversation about geopolitics, energy, and whether the sky is really falling.Exner-Pirot does her level best to check some of Gerson’s winter blues as they work through the implications of the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. It’s grim news for Venezuela, and the conversation reflects growing evidence that Washington’s actions are being driven by a mix of greed, urgency, and a remarkably thin after-plan. Every passing hour seems to underline how little thought has gone into what comes next.But while Gerson is deeply skeptical about American competence and intentions, Exner-Pirot is far less alarmed about what this episode means for Canada — particularly for Canadian energy and resource industries. In some respects, she’s even optimistic, arguing that U.S. policy has a tendency to swing hard before snapping back toward something more pragmatic once reality intrudes. Canada, she suggests, may ultimately benefit from that correction.Gerson isn’t convinced, and she pushes hard on whether this faith in eventual American course-correction is warranted, or simply a comforting story Canadians tell themselves. It’s a sharp, good-faith disagreement about risk, realism, and how much trust Canada can afford to place in its closest ally during a period of global instability.As always, we’ll leave it to you to decide who’s right.With this episode, The Line’s podcasts are back for 2026. Hope you didn’t miss us too much, and don’t miss an episode. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of 'On The Line Podcast,' hosts Jen Gerson and Andrew Potter discuss trade, immigration, and the attempts to "Globalize the Intifada." Firstly, on the trade file, US trade rep Jamieson Greer has issued a list of grievances. The Americans are villainously committed to giving Canadians more options for eggs, chicken, and dairy. StatsCan shows a dramatic drop in immigration as the LIberals reign in a system gone pear shaped. And lastly, what do the young think "Globalize the Intifada" really means? KeywordsUS trade demands, supply-managed dairy, Canadian immigration, anti-Semitism, collective responsibility, national identity, global conflicts, multicultural society, Jen Gerson, Andrew PotterChapters00:00:00 US Trade Demands and Implications00:00:00 Immigration Policy Challenges00:00:01 Rising Anti-Semitism and Collective Responsibility Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

Today On The Line, host Jen Gerson talks to Brandon Forsyth, long time book buyer at Indigo. They chat about the hottest books heading into the Christmas season which, if you're anything like us, you are absolutely not yet prepared for. He's a list of kids' books, fiction, and non-fiction for the readers in your life. (Note, no, we at The Line are not taking any cuts for any of the books suggested. We just like books and reading. And if your family is like ours, books are pretty much what you all give to one another anyway.) Books mentioned: Don’t Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson, illustrated by Dan Santat https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/dont-trust-fish/9780593616673.htmlInvestiGators by John Patrick Green https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/investigators/9781250219954.htmlImpossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/impossible-creatures---indigo-exclusive-edition/9781774888957.htmlThe Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-poisoned-king---indigo-exclusive-edition/9781774888964.html The Secret Of Secrets by Dan Brown https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-secret-of-secrets-a-novel/9780385546898.htmlWild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/wild-dark-shore-reeses-book-club-pick-a-novel/9781250827951.htmlHeated Rivalry by Rachel Reid https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/heated-rivalry-now-streaming-on-crave-and-hbo-max/9781335534637.html The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-wealthy-barber-2025-indigo-exclusive-the-fully-updated-all-time-canadian-classic/9781068975004.htmlWhat A Ride by Andrew Podnieks https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/what-a-ride-the-thrilling-toronto-blue-jays-of-2025/9781552673973.htmlBook Of Lives by Margaret Atwood https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/book-of-lives-a-memoir-of-sorts/9780771096433.htmlThe Prime Ministers by JRM Stewart https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-prime-ministers-canadas-leaders-and-the-nation-they-shaped/9781998365777.html Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In Today's The Line Podcast, recorded Dec. 12, 2025, host Jen Gerson is joined by special guest Andrew Potter to discuss this country's culture of complacency. We were once a nation that put its engineering achievements -- such as the Syncrude oil sands on a stamp. Now, the very idea that we should strive to be a culture that builds things, grows, and prospers has been sublimated by a culture that prizes symbolic action and good intentions over good outcomes. They talk about the curious case of B.C. passing laws that then have an effect on laws. Seven years ago, the province implemented DRIPA, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People drafted by the U.N. -- despite concerns that the law would be used to undermine B.C.'s own legislation. The law was essentially null in force, a symbolic gesture, the province's NDP government assured at the time. Until, of course, it wasn't. Oops. Lastly, they discuss the future of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who just lost another MP to floor crossing. Will the leader be able to survive if the Liberals chip away at enough of the Conservative caucus to form a majority? And, perhaps more importantly, is Pierre Poilievre a winner? #Canada #Politics #JenGerson #AndrewPotter #PierrePoilievre #MarkCarney #Liberals #JustinTrudeau #DRIPA Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of On The Line, host Matt Gurney is joined by Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Global Public Affairs. Darrell and Matt have both just returned from the Halifax International Security Forum, where Darrell presented a major new global survey to policymakers, military leaders, and security experts from around the world. Matt and Darrell walk through the findings and what they reveal about how people are thinking about security in 2025.The survey spans tens of thousands of respondents across dozens of countries, capturing public attitudes on personal safety, geopolitical risk, great-power tensions, cyber threats, and the fragility of the international order. Darrell explains which fears are rising, which regions are most anxious, and why public confidence in institutions continues to erode. He and Matt also discuss where the public is ahead of political leaders, where it may be misinformed, and what this means for democracies trying to navigate an increasingly unstable world.The conversation turns to why global anxiety is becoming a kind of background condition, what the survey suggests about Canada’s place in the world, and how governments should respond when citizens see danger everywhere but trust almost no one to handle it. They also talk about the challenge Donald Trump poses to Canada — especially because he’s asked some fair questions for which we don’t have good answers.Oh, and also — if you enjoy this, you’ll enjoy Darrell’s new book. Check it out!New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube (video goes live in 30 minutes):Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on December 5th, 2025, hosts Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson open with the newly released U.S. foreign policy document, and they’re not exactly thrilled.They agree it’s an accurate reflection of how the White House sees the world — uncomfortably accurate, in fact. They’ve been flagging many of these issues for months, hoping Canadians and Canadian policymakers would start paying attention. Now the White House has packaged all of it into one tidy, unsettling summary.Some of what the document lays out is simply true, and Canadian and other allied politicians, especially on the left, have ignored those realities at their peril. Some of it is debatable, or at least worth taking seriously. And some of it is outright nuts, pulled straight from the conspiratorial anxieties of America’s far-right social media ecosystem. But whether reasonable, arguable, or deranged, it is now official White House policy — and the rest of us are going to have to learn to live with it.From there, the conversation turns to how Canadians are, or aren’t, learning to live with it. There is still very little evidence that anyone here grasps the scale of the threat or the urgency involved. Jen introduces a new theory: Canada as a nation is increasingly resembling the federal New Democrats — and that’s not good news for anyone. She also says that at a moment we desperately need to be pulling together, we’re instead getting set to fight another series of sovereignty referendums and a fresh pipeline war. She has concerns, is all.Oh, and also. Katy Perry!All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.YouTube (Video goes live in 30 minutes):Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson spoke with Toronto writer Phoebe Maltz Bovy, who has just completed her new book The Last Straight Woman. Together, they dive headfirst into what Phoebe jokingly calls “the Discourse” — the current state of heterosexuality in a post-#MeToo, post-dating-app world.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of On The Line, host Jen Gerson sits down with Toronto writer Phoebe Maltz Bovy, who has just completed her new book The Last Straight Woman. Together, they dive headfirst into what Phoebe jokingly calls “the Discourse” — the current state of heterosexuality in a post-#MeToo, post-dating-app world.Jen and Phoebe dig into everything from sexual harassment and “cosplay oppression” to the growing social anxiety around age gaps, modern marriage norms, the romanticization/stigmatization (depending on who’s talking) of single motherhood, and why it has somehow become borderline embarrassing for straight women to simply be straight women. No subject is off-limits in this conversation, and Phoebe brings both sharp analysis and a sense of humour to the sometimes-chaotic landscape of contemporary gender and dating politics.You can keep up with Phoebe Maltz Bovy’s work through her writing online and in her upcoming book The Last Straight Woman.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube (video goes live in 30 minutes):Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on November 28th, 2025, your hosts start with the biggest story of the week before veering off into a surprisingly long but very entertaining tangent about seafood and the possible unsustainability of our entire civilization. Trust us, it’s a good one.They do eventually get to the Memorandum of Understanding signed this week between Ottawa and Alberta. Both hosts agree it ended up being a solid week for Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. They also wonder whether it somehow turned into a good week for Steven Guilbeault, who is now out of Carney’s cabinet. Did Guilbeault’s decision to walk away mark the moment more Liberals finally realized the Trudeau era is really, truly over? Matt also notes that Carney can’t keep offering everyone carrots; sooner or later, someone is going to need to get the stick. And he names the province he thinks should be made example of ... to encourage the others, of course.From there, the conversation shifts to Matt’s recent trip to the Halifax International Security Forum. He’s working on a series of columns about it that will begin rolling out soon, but he shares a few early stories — all circling the theme of America having ghosted the world, and how some Americans, bless them, still think this is something they can fix quickly after a midterm or the next election. Matt isn’t convinced.He also has a few thoughts about the relative cleanliness of some Canadian cities he has visited lately. Halifax, you’re looking good.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Like and subscribe, and check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca.YouTube:Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson had a sit-down chat with Ross Douthat, a columnist with the New York Times who was in Ottawa this week to deliver the inaugural Ian Shugart Lecture, hosted by Christian think tank Cardus. (Jen was also at the conference.) Jen presses Ross on his now-infamous column from earlier this year arguing that Canada should “join Empire America” — and why he thinks that idea was worth advancing. Gerson and Douthat dig into why that column hit such a nerve, what Ross was actually arguing, and how Canadians misunderstand both American politics and themselves. They explore the themes behind his Ottawa lecture, including the shifting religious and political landscape in the United States, and how those shifts ripple north of the border.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of On The Line, host Jen Gerson sits down with Ross Douthat, a columnist with the New York Times who was in Ottawa this week to deliver the inaugural Ian Shugart Lecture, hosted by Christian think tank Cardus. Jen presses Ross on his now-infamous column from earlier this year arguing that Canada should “join Empire America” — and why he thinks that idea was worth advancing.Gerson and Douthat dig into why that column hit such a nerve, what Ross was actually arguing, and how Canadians misunderstand both American politics and themselves. They explore the themes behind his Ottawa lecture, including the shifting religious and political landscape in the United States, and how those shifts ripple north of the border.The conversation then turns to the rise of Christian nationalism. What does this movement really represent? Why is it gaining traction? And what do Canadians — especially those who comment on American politics — get right, and very likely wrong, about its causes and its future?You can find more of Ross Douthat’s work in the New York Times, on the podcast The Argument, and in his books, including The Decadent Society.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube (video goes live in 30 minutes):Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on November 21st, 2025, both of your hosts are on the road, and both of them bring stories and observations from where they’re visiting.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.First up, Jen Gerson joins us from Ottawa, where she’s at the Cardus conference talking about issues of faith and values in Canadian public life. Your hosts get into a long conversation about what “values” actually mean in a Canadian context, how they show up (or don’t) in public policy, and where we might look to find them.They also talk a bit about fighter jets, but that’s neither here nor there.From there, the episode shifts into a deeper discussion about immigration. The Conservatives have rolled out some proposals that both your hosts think are reasonable, but the larger conversation becomes one about national identity. What is Canada’s sales proposition, and what are we asking new Canadians to adopt as part of becoming Canadian? There’s a lot to unpack, including a few shared worries.Last up, Matt Gurney dives into an interesting — and overdue — development in Canadian health care. And yes, it ties right back into the values theme, making this a rare three-segment through line.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Like and subscribe, and check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney chatted with Dan Seljak about issues where the left and right can come together to save our cities, and also with John Wright, about a Canadian war hero whose story you’ve probably never heard.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of On The Line, Matt Gurney welcomes two very different guests for two very different conversations — and both of them are well worth your time.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.The episode opens with a wide-ranging chat with Dan Seljak, who joins Matt to unpack an issue that somehow turned into a strangely complicated political fight in Toronto. The whole thing should have been simple: should the city allow small retail outlets inside residential neighbourhoods? Most of us grew up with corner stores, coffee shops, and little walk-in places woven into the communities around us. But Toronto’s own governance rules have made these kinds of businesses nearly impossible to open, and the city has been steadily losing the ones it still has. Dan set out originally to save one small store that committed the terrible sin of … selling coffee to customers. What followed was an unexpectedly intense battle to protect all the remaining shops and to make space for new ones. Dan talks about how he found himself pulled into the fight, what it revealed about the way cities make decisions, and why something so basic became so hard. He and Matt dig into a bigger question, too: how did urban governance in Canada become so tangled that even the simple things are impossible to achieve? This isn’t a left-right issue — there’s a surprising amount of agreement across political lines — and yet nothing gets done. How did we box ourselves into this, and how do we get out?You can read more from Dan, and keep up with his work, at Another Glass Box.After Dan, John Wright joins the show. John is a long-time friend of The Line and has been involved in a campaign to raise public awareness about a once-celebrated Canadian military hero who has almost disappeared from our national memory. He and Matt pick up the thread from last week’s discussion about Remembrance Day on The Line Podcast, exploring why these stories fade and why they matter. John also shares a quick update on his own professional world — and it’s worth sticking around for. For more information about John’s new venture, go here. To learn more about the RCAF Foundation, go here.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube (video goes live in 30 minutes):Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded one day early on November 13th, 2025 — and yes, your hosts are aware they’re tempting the wrath of the news gods every time they do that — Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson dive into the story that continues to reverberate this week: what happens when MPs decide to leave their party?This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.Jen makes a spirited defence of crossing the floor. Matt agrees, in part, but notes that whatever the theoretical ideal of voting for the candidate over the party might be, the reality is that we’re stuck with the voters we have, and they tend to vote for the party first and the candidate second.They also discuss, as an interesting counterexample, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who isn’t having any difficulty criticizing his own party from within it. He’s obviously not thrilled about being dropped from cabinet, but it’s noteworthy how comfortable certain disaffected voices seem to be operating inside both the Conservative and Liberal caucuses. They don’t know if that tells us more about the parties or about the individual MPs involved, but it’s interesting.Lastly, they turn to November 11th, collective memory, obligation, and the limits of lived experience when it comes to learning from history. It’s a more intimate and reflective discussion than usual, but one they think you’ll enjoy. And they’d love to hear from you in the comments: what was Remembrance Day like in your community this year? Matt was struck by how quiet it felt in Toronto, and he’s hoping that was just because of the very early blast of lousy winter weather that has befallen the Centre of the Universe.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Like and subscribe, and check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson spoke with Matt Spoke of Project Ontario on their efforts to start a new, more conservative alternative to Doug Ford.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

This week on On The Line, Jen Gerson sits down with entrepreneur and policy advocate Matt Spoke to talk about Project Ontario — a new movement of small-c conservatives who say Doug Ford’s government has lost its way. Spoke argues that after more than seven years in power, Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are governing like Liberals: spending more than ever, doling out billions in corporate subsidies, and failing to fix core problems in housing, health care, and education.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.The conversation dives into the numbers — sluggish growth, stalled housing starts, and a province now leading the country in corporate handouts. Spoke explains why Ontario’s policy choices are driving people out of the province, why school boards have drifted toward activism instead of academics, and how competition and parental choice could push the system back toward better outcomes.The pair close with a look at Ford’s enduring popularity and whether it can last. Is this a call for the premier to course-correct — or the beginning of a broader conservative renewal in Ontario? Tune in for a candid, numbers-driven look at what’s gone wrong, and what might come next. To learn more about Matt’s project, go to ProjectOntario.ca.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube (video goes live in 30 minutes): Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on November 7, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson react to a remarkably busy week in Canadian politics.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.They start with the Mark Carney government. Matt’s self-imposed six-month grace period for judging the new prime minister has expired, and he’s ready to weigh in: better than Trudeau, but not good enough for the moment. Jen is slightly more patient but, somehow, even sharper in her take — especially when it comes to Carney’s recent apology to Donald Trump, which she finds baffling and unnecessary. And enraging.This episode is also brought to you by CPA Ontario. There’s a saying: “Keep it simple,” and what’s true for life is true for taxes. And while this week’s historic federal budget introduced some much-needed tax measures to help spur investment and innovation, there is still more work to be done to make Canada’s tax system less complex, and more competitive.Just ask a CPA. In a recent survey, 84 per cent of Ontario CPAs said Canada’s tax system is overly complex. They know how complexity drains resources from productive activity, and how high tax rates discourage investment and entrepreneurship, the very things Canada needs. Consider the numbers: real GDP per capita has barely grown in seven years and investment per worker in Canada is less than half that of the U.S.Complexity has a cost, and Canadians are paying it. Our sponsor, CPA Ontario, the regulator of over 105,000 Chartered Professional Accountants, has released a report putting forward 20 bold, practical recommendations to reform Canada’s tax system, and simplify the Income Tax Act. The 2025 Budget was a step forward — but more reform is needed to grow the economy, create jobs, and raise living standards.Learn more at cpaontario.ca/taxreformThen attention turns to the Conservatives, where Pierre Poilievre’s week has gone from bad to worse. Two MPs have walked away, and the question now is whether this is an isolated hiccup or the start of a real leadership problem. Matt and Jen point out that without the wind of inevitable victory at his back, Poilievre will need to rely on charm and political skill — qualities not generally considered his strong suit.The episode wraps with a wide-ranging discussion on what “woke” and “feminism” actually mean in 2025, and how those words have evolved. Jen is workshopping a new column on the topic, and Matt is clearly looking forward to reading it.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney spoke with Alberta-based lawyer and law professor Peter Sankoff about whether people who are non-citizens of Canada should have their immigration status factored into sentencing if they are convicted of a crime.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by e

In this episode of On The Line, host Matt Gurney sits down with Peter Sankoff, a Alberta-based criminal defence lawyer and law professor, to talk about one of the country’s more heated current debates: should non-citizens receive legal leniency in criminal cases to avoid disrupting their immigration status?This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.For context, recent cases have seen judges issue lighter sentences, or defence lawyers argue for them, so that a non-citizen resident of Canada wouldn’t face deportation. These decisions have sparked controversy and political backlash. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner has even tabled a private member’s bill that would prevent judges from taking immigration status into account when handing down sentences.Matt supported the proposal on Twitter; Peter disagreed. After a spirited exchange online, Peter remarked that the issue was better suited to long-form discussion than social media — so Matt invited him on the show. Together they dig into the controversy itself, why Peter believes judicial discretion is essential and already well-established, and also, moral and fair. Matt points out what he thinks are inconsistencies and blind spots in that argument — the kind that can come from being too close to an issue.But while they disagree on specifics, both men share a broader concern: that public faith in the justice system is eroding, and not without reason. Peter offers some ideas for how the system could regain public trust.You can learn more about Peter’s work at Sankoff Criminal Law and his educational platform Criminal Defence Essentials, or find him on LinkedIn.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube (video is live, enjoy!:Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on October 31, 2025 — spooky! — your hosts take on the big political issues in Canada today, including, God help us, the prospect of a federal election. They don’t think it’s likely, but they do think it’s possible.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.After that, they turn to the latest turbulence in U.S.–Canada relations. It’s been another difficult week. Both hosts hope the situation might finally knock some sense into our political leaders — though Matt Gurney warns Jen Gerson that Canadians may be almost immune to having sense knocked into them.This episode is also brought to you by CPA Ontario. If you’re looking for a good scare this Halloween, you should check out Canada’s economic numbers. Our GPD per capita is down, our business investment is down and so is our labour productivity. But if there is one thing Chartered Professional Accountants understand, it’s numbers.Tax Reform for Growth in Canada, a recent report from our CPA Ontario, puts forward 20 pro-growth recommendations from CPAs and experts on reforming Canada’s tax system to make our economy more competitive.For example? Canada gets 37 per cent of its total government revenue from individual taxes, 13 per cent higher than peer countries on average. Meanwhile, 22 per cent of Canada’s total tax revenue is from consumption taxes like the GST, while other peer countries average 32 per cent. This means that Canada relies too heavily on the types of taxes that hurt economic growth the most.Eighty eight per cent of CPAs believe reforming our tax system is important. With the federal budget just days away, Canada can’t be afraid to take bold action. Visit cpaontario.ca/taxreform to learn more.Finally, Jen gets everyone caught up on the fallout from Alberta’s recent teachers’ strike and notes that Danielle Smith took an awfully big swing to bring it to an end. We’ll see how that works out for her.All that and more in this week’s episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out at ReadTheLine.ca.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson spoke with Dr. André Gagné, a theology professor at Concordia University and author of American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times, for an analysis of the religious statements of Peter Thiel — the Palantir CEO, multi-billionaire, and deeply influential figure in both Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s orbit.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of On The Line, host Jen Gerson is joined by Dr. André Gagné, a theology professor at Concordia University and author of American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times.Together, they dive into the curious case of Peter Thiel — the Palantir CEO, multi-billionaire, and deeply influential figure in both Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s orbit. Thiel has recently been on a tear, warning that anti-AI activists, Greta Thunberg, and just about anyone who disagrees with him politically are aligned with “the anti-Christ.”This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.So what exactly does that mean? What is the anti-Christ, Biblically speaking? Are Thiel’s warnings remotely theologically sound — or is something else going on here? Jen and Dr. Gagné unpack the religious, political, and cultural forces shaping the modern Evangelical movement in America, and why it’s increasingly blending faith, conspiracy, and power.All that and more, today On The Line.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:(Spotify is having problems tonight, it seems, but the link is here. Sorry about that! Not on our end!)Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on October 24, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson can’t help but respond to the breaking news of the day. God help us all.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.Donald Trump has suspended all trade negotiations with Canada, claiming that ads taken out by Doug Ford’s Ontario government are unfair and dishonest. Matt and Jen don’t really buy that. If Trump wants a deal, he’ll get one — and if he wants to blow one up, he’ll find an excuse. So they don’t take his stated reason particularly seriously. What they do take seriously is Doug Ford’s role in this mess. Matt has some tough words for what he thinks Ford’s motivation really is, while Jen offers a partial defence.From there, they turn to Mark Carney’s big speech this week. Matt sums it up with both the good news and the bad — though, as he puts it, the really bad news is how much of the good news is actually bad news. You’ll just have to listen to the segment to understand why.Finally, there’s an update from Alberta. Jen recaps who she thinks came out ahead — and who didn’t — in the teachers’ strike. She also takes note of Alberta’s recent municipal elections, focusing on one particular result that caught her attention. Calgary’s newly elected mayor gives her a theory on how genuinely populist politicians might start finding their way back to normalcy.All this and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson spoke with former Canadian ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici about the prospect of peace in the Middle East … and why Israelis are grateful to Donald Trump.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of On The Line, Jen Gerson is joined by Vivian Bercovici, Canada’s former ambassador to Israel, appointed by Stephen Harper. Together they unpack the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — what it really means, how it came together, and why it’s unlikely to last. This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.Bercovici draws on her experience in the region to explain the political and military calculations behind the truce, the competing pressures on both sides, and the role of foreign actors trying to claim credit for peace that may already be fraying at the edges.They also turn to Donald Trump, whose fingerprints — however controversial — are still visible in the diplomatic architecture that made this moment possible. Bercovici offers a blunt assessment of the former president’s approach to the Middle East, contrasting his transactional style with the vaguer moral posturing of his successors. The conversation veers from analysis to personal insight, as Gerson presses on whether the current ceasefire is a genuine diplomatic breakthrough or just another pause before the next round of violence.And for our Canadian listeners (and that’s most of you!), there’s a sharp reality check. Prime Minister Mark Carney made sure to appear for the photo op in Egypt, but his actual influence on events was effectively nil. Bercovici and Gerson explore what that absence says about Canada’s diminishing credibility abroad — and what it means when our leaders seem more interested in being seen as global players than in actually playing a role.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on October 17, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson start off with a quick recap of Alberta’s teacher strike — and the feedback Jen has been getting since last week’s show. Matt mentions something else they’ve been getting. Notes of thanks from struggling parents.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.From there, they head to the Middle East. Well, not literally, but you know what we mean. They talk about the limited optimism they feel now that the fighting has largely stopped, the genuine relief at the hostages being home, and why Gaza likely needs to be occupied by a stabilization force for decades. Canada’s influence? Let’s just say it was minimal. Matt even suggests it might have been negative — that we may have actually made things slightly worse. Not a great chapter in our diplomatic history, but probably not one where we could have expected much better. They also wonder if Carney appreciates what will be asked of Canada in exchange for letting our PM be on the stage.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.Then the conversation shifts back to domestic politics — sort of. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is tweeting about Nazis again. It’s not that he’s totally wrong, but his grasp of the history seems to hover at the level of someone who’s skimmed a bit about interwar Europe … or, maybe, he knows exactly what he’s doing and just wants to troll everyone for the donations. That seems to be how politics works these days.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. For more, check us out at ReadTheLine.ca.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney spoke with Gregory Jack of Ipsos Canada on what issues Canadians care about, which issues they stopped caring about (ahem), and why our immigration consensus is looking a wee bit shaky.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter. Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

This week on On The Line, Matt Gurney is joined by Gregory Jack, senior vice president of public affairs at Ipsos Canada, for a conversation about the issues that are animating — and dividing — Canadians today.This episode of the On The Line is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.They start with an extended discussion guided by new polling data that captures what Canadians are currently worried about. Concerns about Donald Trump and the U.S.-Canada relationship remain, but they’ve faded. Cost of living issues, public safety, crime, and the eternal favourite — healthcare — are back at the top of the agenda. But the polling also shows that Trump has a knack for shooting back to the top of the list whenever he has one of his more remarkable moments talking about Canada.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.From there, Matt and Greg dive into immigration — a topic they deliberately avoided earlier in the show so they could focus on it here. Matt had a hunch, based on what he’s been seeing and hearing out there, and asked Greg to pull some numbers to see if it held up. Stay tuned. You won’t want to miss this one.A note for our audience: this episode was recorded early because of the Thanksgiving long weekend, so we avoided anything we thought might be vulnerable to breaking news developments. Don’t blame us if something wild happens! We did our part to be responsible and not jinx anyone.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded before the Thanksgiving long weekend on October 10, 2025, your hosts Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson put forward something of an unusual episode.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.They start with a quick recap of some of the big political stories of the week. Mark Carney’s trip to Washington is at the top of the list — how it went, what it means, and why, even though they don’t have much criticism to offer, both Matt and Jen think time might not be on his side.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.From there, the podcast takes a different turn. In a long and emotional conversation, Matt and Jen talk about the ongoing Alberta teachers’ strike. They start with the logistics — how Jen and her family are coping — but the conversation quickly deepens into why she’s so angry and frustrated with everyone involved. She doesn’t go into detail about her family’s situation for privacy reasons, but what she says will likely resonate with thousands of parents who are just trying to do right by their kids in a system that refuses to make hard decisions because it would be politically incorrect to do so. The result? We are abandoning kids, and wasting their potential, because of adults who don’t want to ever admit that they were wrong about anything.It’s a different kind of segment — we admit it’s not our usual content. But we think it’s worth your time. And we suspect a lot of parents out there have been waiting to hear someone finally say it.Please enjoy, if that’s the word, this unusual episode of The Line Podcast. Like and subscribe and all the rest. And just as a programming note, since it’s the long weekend, we won’t be publishing a dispatch. So we’ll talk to you next week. Happy Thanksgiving to all!YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson interviews Tony Keller of the Globe and Mail about his upcoming book on how Canada broke its immigration system, and how it can start to fix it. Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon. Happy Thanksgiving! The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

This week on On The Line, host Jen Gerson has Globe and Mail columnist Tony Keller to discuss his new short book, Borderline Chaos: How Canada got Immigration Right, and Then Wrong.This episode of the On The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.They discuss the pan-partisan immigration consensus; why the federal Liberal government began to ratchet up immigration numbers; the impact on social services and social cohesion; and what the country needs to be doing to fix what we broke.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.Tony Keller is a long-time Globe columnist whose work can be seen here. He is this year’s Max Bell School of Public Policy lecturer, and will be travelling across the country to talk about these issues in coming weeks.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on October 3, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson dive right into the top stories of the week — and a few other ones, too.They start in Alberta, where Matt argues that Premier Danielle Smith has set a pipeline trap for the federal government and her neighbours in B.C. — and he says that with admiration. Jen agrees, but also notes how wearying it is to live in a province where recycling old grievances has become a stand-in for actual governance. Matt points out that many Albertans have long since insisted they need to be more like Quebec … and, well, they’re succeeding. Unfortunately, Alberta is turning into Quebec in all the worst ways.This episode of The Line Podcast is also brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canadian forestry supports 200,000 workers, generates $87 billion in annual revenue, contributes $21 billion annually to our nation’s economy, and provides the products we need to build homes and drive economic growth. While trade barriers from the U.S. are siphoning jobs and investment away, Canada’s own approval processes and regulations are preventing critical projects that both prevent wildfires and boost our economic self-reliance.We can and should have programs that expand domestic wood use, advance biomass use and pulp market opportunities, and cut red tape and regulatory barriers. The government of Canada has a clear opportunity to stand up for Canadian forestry at a time of growing global uncertainty. We need real action that puts Canadians first — supporting employees and their families, securing stability for our businesses, and protecting the long-term potential of our sector and its people. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.From there, the conversation shifts east to Toronto Metropolitan University (yes, formerly Ryerson), where there’s some drama in the progressive camp. A group of students is suing the school both for making them look anti-Semitic and for not being progressive enough, despite promising it would be. As you might imagine, Matt and Jen have some fun with that one.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.Last but not least, Matt shares — with absolute delight — another gem of Canadian military procurement excellence. But behind the humour, he offers a more serious warning: Canada is drifting toward a two-tier system of governance, and the irony is that it’s the Liberals who are making that happen.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. For more, check us out at ReadTheLine.ca.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney had a long chat about law enforcement, public confidence in policing and public safety overall with Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Association.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter. Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

This week on On The Line, Matt Gurney is joined by Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Association, for a frank conversation about the state of law and order in Canada’s biggest city — and beyond.They start with morale inside the force, the kinds of work officers are being asked to do, and the kinds of work no one ever wants to do again. They also talk about ways to prevent people from entering the criminal justice system in the first place.This episode is brought to you by Universities Canada. Canada’s prosperity is built on people with ideas — researchers, scholars and students and the universities that support them in shaping our future. Budget 2025 is an opportunity to advance that momentum. Global uncertainty and shifting geopolitics have made this vision even more urgent. A vibrant Canadian research ecosystem is essential — one that generates made-in-Canada solutions, retains top talent and preserves our technological independence in critical fields.Federal grants and scholarships must be safeguarded. Because this isn’t just about campuses. It’s about made-in-Canada solutions for our economy, our health care system and our national security. Supporting researchers today secures the talent pipeline and innovation we need for a stronger Canada.Learn more at univcan.ca.From there, the discussion shifts to eroding public confidence in law and order — a trend that’s driving some Canadians to arm themselves or hire private security firms to patrol wealthy neighbourhoods. Bail reform inevitably comes up, as does sentencing, and the challenge of deterring young offenders from doing the dirty work of organized crime groups that see underage recruits as an asset.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.And, because it’s Matt, the episode wraps with a look at the federal government’s gun confiscation plans. Clayton doesn’t like them any more than Matt does, and he isn’t convinced Ottawa can actually make the program work if it ever goes forward.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on Sept. 26, 2025, Jen and Matt start off by digging into the reckless and needless fight Mark Carney and his attorney general, Sean Fraser, have decided to pick with the Constitution. Jen has some strong words about the notwithstanding clause, while Matt has some blunt advice for the guy who just destroyed Canada’s multi-decade immigration consensus: maybe don’t bring your special brand of talent to the highest law of the land next.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Universities Canada. From cancer treatments and clean water technologies to quantum computing and AI, university research is driving discoveries that change lives. These breakthroughs start in Canadian university labs, but their impact is felt in every community. Universities carry out nearly 40 per cent of Canada’s research and development, generating more than $55 billion in economic impact each year. Every dollar invested returns benefits for Canadians: new treatments, stronger industries, and thriving communities. But research requires sustained federal support. Without it, Canada risks losing talent and ideas abroad. To learn more, visit Univcan.ca.From there, they turn to Washington. U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra made an interesting comment about what the Trump administration’s next pressure point on Canada will be. It’s a predictable one, but it could hurt. Jen also flags a news story out of D.C. that seems to have left even people who usually rush to dismiss Trump-related criticism as alarmism feeling uneasy.This episode of The Line Podcast is also brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canadian forestry supports 200,000 workers, generates $87 billion in annual revenue, contributes $21 billion annually to our nation’s economy, and provides the products we need to build homes and drive economic growth. While trade barriers from the U.S. are siphoning jobs and investment away, Canada’s own approval processes and regulations are preventing critical projects that both prevent wildfires and boost our economic self-reliance.We can and should have programs that expand domestic wood use, advance biomass use and pulp market opportunities, and cut red tape and regulatory barriers. The government of Canada has a clear opportunity to stand up for Canadian forestry at a time of growing global uncertainty. We need real action that puts Canadians first — supporting employees and their families, securing stability for our businesses, and protecting the long-term potential of our sector and its people. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.Finally, Matt makes the case for why they may need to accelerate their timelines on the Carney government. He’s driving over political landmines a lot faster than his predecessor did, and that can catch up with a leader in a hurry.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out and like and subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca and follow us on YouTube or your favourite podcast app. New episodes drop every Friday. And also! Help The Line grow. Share us with a friend, or two. Spread the word.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson sits down with Philip Ball, one of the world’s most respected science writers, for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of modern science and the art of explaining it.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. P

This week on On The Line, Jen Gerson sits down with Philip Ball, one of the world’s most respected science writers, for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of modern science and the art of explaining it. Ball reflects on his journey from laboratory scientist to science communicator, and what it means to challenge old assumptions about the world around us.This episode is brought to you by Universities Canada. From cancer treatments and clean water technologies to quantum computing and AI, university research is driving discoveries that change lives. These breakthroughs start in Canadian university labs, but their impact is felt in every community. Universities carry out nearly 40 per cent of Canada’s research and development, generating more than $55 billion in economic impact each year. Every dollar invested returns benefits for Canadians: new treatments, stronger industries, and thriving communities. But research requires sustained federal support. Without it, Canada risks losing talent and ideas abroad. To learn more, visit Univcan.ca.Gerson and Ball talk about how the science many of us learned in high school is being reconsidered — from the Big Bang to the origins of life — and how even the most fundamental ideas are far less settled than they once seemed. Along the way, the discussion touches on the mysteries of consciousness, the shifting relationship between science and culture, the role of critics in keeping the field honest, and the challenge of making complicated ideas understandable without losing their meaning.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.It’s an engaging conversation about curiosity, humility, and why the pursuit of knowledge never really ends.New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter. Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this week's episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on Sept. 19, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson open with Canadian federal politics. Mark Carney is clearly cleaning house. We talk about why Chrystia Freeland may actually be entering her best years as a political force, share a laugh about our backstory with Canada’s new ambassador to the UN, and ask whether Carney will use by-elections or the Senate to get his people in.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Universities Canada. Across Canada, university campuses are more than classrooms – they’re community hubs. From gyms and pools, to theatres, health clinics and labs, campus spaces welcome everyone. Whether it’s a hockey tournament, daycare, or a summer camp, investing in campuses means investing in the communities we share. But years of underfunding have left a $17 billion maintenance backlog, with one in three campus infrastructure projects now critical or near-critical. Campus infrastructure is community infrastructure. To keep building communities, the federal government must make campus infrastructure eligible in federal programs. To learn more, visit UnivCan.ca.They then turn south, where the fallout of the Charlie Kirk assassination lingers. Jen has some tough words for people you’d normally think of as her allies, and Matt lays out the conditions under which he’ll take anyone’s views on these matters seriously. They also touch on the Jimmy Kimmel situation.This episode of The Line Podcast is also brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canadian forestry supports 200,000 workers, generates $87 billion in annual revenue, contributes $21 billion annually to our nation's economy, and provides the products we need to build homes and drive economic growth. While trade barriers from the U.S. are siphoning jobs and investment away, Canada’s own approval processes and regulations are preventing critical projects that both prevent wildfires and boost our economic self-reliance.We can and should have programs that expand domestic wood use, advance biomass use and pulp market opportunities, and cut red tape and regulatory barriers. The government of Canada has a clear opportunity to stand up for Canadian forestry at a time of growing global uncertainty. We need real action that puts Canadians first — supporting employees and their families, securing stability for our businesses, and protecting the long-term potential of our sector and its people. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.Finally, Matt turns the tables and asks Jen about her recent trips to other spiritual realms. If you’ve read her piece on her visit to the Monroe Institute, this segment will make sense — and if you enjoyed that article, you’ll get some extra value from hearing her describe it in her own words.This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out and like and subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca and follow us on YouTube or your favourite podcast app. New episodes drop every Friday. And also! Help The Line grow. Share us with a friend, or two. Spread the word.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney speaks with P.J. Fournier of 338Canada.com and 338Canada.ca about the latest polls, and Jamie Carroll of Carroll & Co. Consulting, who comes on to Liberalsplain of the latest news.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The L

This week on On the Line, Matt is joined by two familiar voices. First up, P.J. Fournier from 338Canada.com and 338Canada.ca drops in with a quick update. He’s been tracking the polls as Parliament gets back to work, and his verdict is that not much has shifted since the election. Still, he lays out the opportunities and headaches facing Mark Carney and the Liberals, Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives, and what's left of the NDP as it tries to figure out what exactly it wants to be ... and what leader will help get them there.This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Universities Canada. Across Canada, university campuses are more than classrooms – they’re community hubs. From gyms and pools, to theatres, health clinics and labs, campus spaces welcome everyone. Whether it’s a hockey tournament, daycare, or a summer camp, investing in campuses means investing in the communities we share. But years of underfunding have left a $17 billion maintenance backlog, with one in three campus infrastructure projects now critical or near-critical. Campus infrastructure is community infrastructure. To keep building communities, the federal government must make campus infrastructure eligible in federal programs. To learn more, visit UnivCan.ca.After that, Matt is joined by a friend of the show, Jamie Carroll of Carroll & Co. Consulting. You’ll remember him from our anti-panel during the campaign, and this time he sticks around for a longer chat about what’s happening inside Liberal circles. Why is the caucus already grumbling? What’s keeping Mark Carney awake at night? And why does poor Michael Sabia seem to have been left with a to-do list that might as well include stopping a Russian offensive in eastern Europe all by himself?We’re (mostly) joking about that last part, but it’s fair to say it’s been a strange few weeks, hasn't it?This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter. Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on Sept. 12th, 2025, Rob Breakenridge joins Matt from Calgary, filling in for Jen Gerson, who is on assignment out of town. The two men acknowledge — but deliberately steer away from — the emerging details of the rapidly unfolding Charlie Kirk assassination investigation. Instead, they focus on the bigger picture: the mood, the vibes, and why so many people on both sides of the border seem to be bracing for some kind of civil conflict against a vaguely defined “them.” Neither is certain how Canada, or the United States, can pull back from this trajectory. Or if people really even want to.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Universities Canada. Canada has promised millions of new homes, shorter waits in health care and stronger defence. But promises don’t design and engineer roads, staff clinics or secure networks — people do. That’s why we need a clear, coordinated system to attract and retain the world’s best talent, while creating more opportunities for Canadians. The best and brightest should always see Canadian universities as their first choice. It's time to put talent at the centre of Canada’s priorities. The path forward starts with training people — and Canada’s world-class universities are ready to lead the way.To learn more, visit Univcan.ca.After that, they turn to issues closer to home. The Carney government has officially launched its Major Projects Office and revealed the first programs slated for elevation. Rob breaks down what’s on the agenda and why, despite the office not explicitly mentioning a pipeline, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has responded positively. Matt, meanwhile, shares the part of the announcement he found oddly amusing — but also despair-inducing — in the way it revealed deeper national challenges. Both men agree that it might be better to just fix the problems with approvals, rather than creating a new, special unit that gives a few chosen projections the efficient treatment, while everything else suffers. Matt quips that this is Canadian health-care-style thinking applied to permit approvals. Should go fine.This episode of The Line Podcast is also brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canadian forestry supports 200,000 workers, generates $87 billion in annual revenue, contributes $21 billion annually to our nation's economy, and provides the products we need to build homes and drive economic growth. While trade barriers from the U.S. are siphoning jobs and investment away, Canada’s own approval processes and regulations are preventing critical projects that both prevent wildfires and boost our economic self-reliance.We can and should have programs that expand domestic wood use, advance biomass use and pulp market opportunities, and cut red tape and regulatory barriers. The government of Canada has a clear opportunity to stand up for Canadian forestry at a time of growing global uncertainty. We need real action that puts Canadians first — supporting employees and their families, securing stability for our businesses, and protecting the long-term potential of our sector and its people. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.Finally, Matt and Rob interview each other about their latest Line columns. Rob walks listeners through his piece on Alberta’s book ban that badly backfired, while Matt explains why he thinks Canadians are rightfully losing faith in their own safety — and why that needs to change if Canada is to avoid sliding down the same dangerous path already visible in the United States.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out and like and subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca and follow us on YouTube or your favourite podcast app. New episodes drop every Friday. And also! Help The Line grow. Share us with a friend, or two. Spread the word.YouTube:Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney interviews the Globe and Mail’s Stephanie Levitz about the latest in Ottawa.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Li

In this week’s episode of On The Line, Matt Gurney is joined by Stephanie Levitz from Ottawa. Steph is a senior reporter in the Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau. They break down the wave of Liberal announcements last week — and why the government will struggle mightily to turn promises into reality.This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Universities Canada. Canada has promised millions of new homes, shorter waits in health care and stronger defence. But promises don’t design and engineer roads, staff clinics or secure networks — people do. That’s why we need a clear, coordinated system to attract and retain the world’s best talent, while creating more opportunities for Canadians. The best and brightest should always see Canadian universities as their first choice. It's time to put talent at the centre of Canada’s priorities. The path forward starts with training people — and Canada’s world-class universities are ready to lead the way.To learn more, visit Univcan.ca.Then they turn to the Conservatives: Pierre Poilievre’s new self-defence and home defence plan is well timed, especially when contrasted with the Liberals’ clumsy response. But the party is also deliberately testing the waters on temporary foreign workers. Matt and Stephanie dig into how a modern Western conservative party can navigate the line between legitimate criticism of a specific policy and sliding into anti-immigrant hysteria — and why, so far, Canada's Conservatives have mostly avoided that trap.Finally, a brief check-in on the NDP … which doesn’t take long.Oh, and a lot of Ghostbusters references that go right over Steph's head. Matt couldn't help himself. They just ... popped in there.Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 7:00 Eastern and 5:00 Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.A brief programming note: It’s been six months since we launched our On The Line podcast. It has been a huge success, and we wanted to thank our audience here for helping make that so. While the podcast was just getting off the ground, we made a point of promoting it twice every Tuesday — we had a post announcing the audio release in the morning, and a second post in the evening, when the video went live. Now that the podcast has its feet under it, we’ll be consolidating On The Line’s releases into a single evening post — like this one. The audio will still release in the mornings, so follow us on your favourite podcasting app, but the main post will now be Tuesday evenings. Tuesday mornings will be again devoted to the publication of written articles.So, for audio or for print, do what we always ask you to do — like and subscribe!(We’ll stop with this note in a few weeks. But in the meantime, help us out! Share our stuff!)The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter. Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on Sept. 5, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson talk about the sudden flurry of announcements from Prime Minister Mark Carney. Matt wonders if any of these promises will actually lead to results, while Jen says her 100-day countdown for Carney begins now. Matt also points out an amusing way the current PM reminds him of his predecessor.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Universities Canada. Canada has promised millions of new homes, shorter waits in health care and stronger defence. But promises don’t design and engineer roads, staff clinics or secure networks — people do. That’s why we need a clear, coordinated system to attract and retain the world’s best talent, while creating more opportunities for Canadians. The best and brightest should always see Canadian universities as their first choice. It's time to put talent at the centre of Canada’s priorities. The path forward starts with training people — and Canada’s world-class universities are ready to lead the way.To learn more, visit Univcan.ca.Next, the conversation shifts to law and order. A recent quote from a senior police official in the GTA has sparked outrage, and with good reason. While both Matt and Jen can imagine a very narrow context in which the chief’s point might hold, they agree he was mostly wrong — and with a spate of terrible crimes in southern Ontario in recent days, his timing could not have been worse.PLEASE NOTE: Chief MacSween issued a statement while this episode was being edited. You can read it here.This episode of The Line Podcast is also brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canadian forestry supports 200,000 workers, generates $87 billion in annual revenue, contributes $21 billion annually to our nation's economy, and provides the products we need to build homes and drive economic growth. While trade barriers from the U.S. are siphoning jobs and investment away, Canada’s own approval processes and regulations are preventing critical projects that both prevent wildfires and boost our economic self-reliance.We can and should have programs that expand domestic wood use, advance biomass use and pulp market opportunities, and cut red tape and regulatory barriers. The government of Canada has a clear opportunity to stand up for Canadian forestry at a time of growing global uncertainty. We need real action that puts Canadians first — supporting employees and their families, securing stability for our businesses, and protecting the long-term potential of our sector and its people. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.The hosts next turn to Kevin Roberts, who had been invited to address the Carney cabinet. The man’s deep ties to the far right of U.S. politics make him a lightning rod, and it’s no surprise he was controversial. Still, Matt and Jen argue Canada might have been better off if Carney had actually heard him out.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out and like and subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca and follow us on YouTube or your favourite podcast app. New episodes drop every Friday. And also! Help The Line grow. Share us with a friend, or two. Spread the word.YouTube:Video goes live at 5:30 pm Eastern, 3:30 pm Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson is joined by former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk for a wide-ranging conversation about Alberta politics, national unity, and his latest political campaign.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter. Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this week’s episode of On The Line, Jen Gerson is joined by former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk for a wide-ranging conversation about Alberta politics, national unity, and his latest political campaign.Lukaszuk is now spearheading Forever Canadian — Keep Alberta in Canada, a petition designed to get ahead of Alberta separatists by putting the issue on the table before they can. He explains why he believes forcing the question early is the best way to blunt momentum for separation and why he’s confident Albertans will choose to stay in Confederation when given the chance.The discussion also turns to his years in government, the lessons he took from his time as deputy premier, and the challenges of working inside the always-turbulent world of Alberta politics. Lukaszuk doesn’t shy away from reflecting on his sometimes combative relationship with Premier Danielle Smith, offering candid assessments of her leadership style and the choices she’s making as Alberta’s political climate grows more polarized.Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 6:30 Eastern and 4:30 Mountain.(Note for video viewers: Lucaszuk’s video feed dropped out near the end of the chat, so our apologies for that technical glitch. Jen’s video is fine and audio is fine for both throughout.)Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.A brief programming note: It’s been six months since we launched our On The Line podcast. It has been a huge success, and we wanted to thank our audience here for helping make that so. While the podcast was just getting off the ground, we made a point of promoting it twice every Tuesday — we had a post announcing the audio release in the morning, and a second post in the evening, when the video went live. Now that the podcast has its feet under it, we’ll be consolidating On The Line’s releases into a single evening post — like this one. The audio will still release in the mornings, so follow us on your favourite podcasting app, but the main post will now be Tuesday evenings. Tuesday mornings will be again devoted to the publication of written articles.So, for audio or for print, do what we always ask you to do — like and subscribe!The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter. Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on August 29th, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson talk about the sad end of summer — and shamelessly try to squeeze some clicks out of recent celebrity news.They start off with the return of politics. Carney is striking the right tone, with a new major projects office and a European trip under his belt, but whether the country actually gets its act together is still an open question. Jen explains why she always hated Trudeau’s “business case” comments, while Matt points out that any national leader who leans too hard on that phrase risks being asked what the business case for the whole country is. And guess what? That's what's happening!This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canadian forestry supports 200,000 workers, generates $87 billion in annual revenue, contributes $21 billion annually to our nation's economy, and provides the products we need to build homes and drive economic growth. While trade barriers from the U.S. are siphoning jobs and investment away, Canada’s own approval processes and regulations are preventing critical projects that both prevent wildfires and boost our economic self-reliance.We can and should have programs that expand domestic wood use, advance biomass use and pulp market opportunities, and cut red tape and regulatory barriers. The government of Canada has a clear opportunity to stand up for Canadian forestry at a time of growing global uncertainty. We need real action that puts Canadians first — supporting employees and their families, securing stability for our businesses, and protecting the long-term potential of our sector and its people. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.The conversation then turns to the specter of authoritarianism — or even fascism — in the United States. Matt talks about an essay from a generally reasonable U.S. writer who now asserts the U.S. has tipped past the point of no return. Matt isn’t fully convinced, but both your hosts agree there are some really unpleasant signals that America is heading down a path to the bad place. They know full well that many here won't agree, so they suggest a test for the viewers and listeners: write down your own personal “red line.” When would you decide things have gone too far, that this isn’t the America you knew? Send your notes to us with the subject line "My Red Line" and we’ll look back at them in a year.This episode of The Line Podcast is also brought to you by Airbnb. Canada needs to take real action on bringing housing costs down — but experts agree that regulating short-term rentals like Airbnb is nothing more than a distraction. This makes sense when you consider two key statistics: Canada needs 5.8 million homes to reach affordability by 2030, and Airbnbs account for only 0.6 per cent of Canada’s overall housing stock. The closer you look, the clearer it gets that Canada needs bold action that addresses the entire housing market, not just 0.6 per cent of it. Additionally, regulating short-term rentals would limit the productive role that Airbnbs play in helping Canadians get by. Did you know that 47 per cent of Airbnb hosts in Canada report that income from hosting has helped them stay in their homes? To learn more about how Airbnb is helping, not hurting, Canada’s economy, visit Airbnb.ca/closerlook.In the final stretch, Alberta’s battles over book banning take centre stage. Passive-aggressive librarians may have found a way to box in the provincial government. Jen cheers them on, while Matt closes by posing a pretty existential question — one that gets a surprising answer from Jen.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out and like and subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca and follow us on YouTube or your favourite podcast app. New episodes drop every Friday. And also! Help The Line grow. Share us with a friend, or two. Spread the word.YouTube:Video goes live at 7:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney spoke with Christopher Nardi from the National Post’s parliamentary bureau about what’s coming up this fall, and also, Ian Runkle, lawyer and YouTuber, on self-defence in Canada.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook

This week on On The Line, Matt Gurney is joined by two guests for two very different conversations.First up is Christopher Nardi, a parliamentary reporter at the National Post’s Ottawa bureau, and an old friend of Matt’s. They talk about the end of the summer — yes, sadly it’s true — and what we’ve seen so far from the Carney government. Chris offers some hope that there might be more going on than has met the eye, but he’s also a realist about the challenges the new government is going to face. The two also touch on the Conservatives, and why that party is glad to have its leader back in the House, before musing about the future — if any — of the federal NDP. They aren’t writing the New Democrats off entirely, but making it back from here will be a steep climb.This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Airbnb. Canada needs to take real action on bringing housing costs down — but experts agree that regulating short-term rentals like Airbnb is nothing more than a distraction. This makes sense when you consider two key statistics: Canada needs 5.8 million homes to reach affordability by 2030, and Airbnbs account for only 0.6 per cent of Canada’s overall housing stock. The closer you look, the clearer it gets that Canada needs bold action that addresses the entire housing market, not just 0.6 per cent of it.Additionally, regulating short-term rentals would limit the productive role that Airbnbs play in helping Canadians get by. Did you know that 47 per cent of Airbnb hosts in Canada report that income from hosting has helped them stay in their homes? To learn more about how Airbnb is helping, not hurting, Canada’s economy, visit Airbnb.ca/closerlook.After that, Matt is joined by Ian Runkle, a lawyer with expertise in firearms law and self-defence, and also the voice behind the YouTube channel Runkle of the Bailey. The conversation is all about, as they say, "just the facts." What is the law on self-defense in Canada? What can you do, and what can’t you do? Why did an attempt by the Harper government to make the law better for people defending themselves actually end up making things worse in some ways? And if Ian had the chance, how would he fix it? As it turns out, he and Matt are thinking along very similar lines.This episode is also brought to you by the Métis Nation of Ontario. It's Penetanguishene, 1840. More than a decade after relocating from Drummond Island, a group of Métis families signed their names to paper. Their petition was simple: recognize us and our rights. The answer was a policy formally excluding Métis communities from recognition, denying their existence for generations. But the petitions did not stop. From Penetanguishene to Sault Ste. Marie, Fort Frances and north to Moose Factory, Métis in Ontario insisted they are a distinct Indigenous people, with their own history, identity, and rights. That fight has carried forward into self-government agreements with Canada. Today, the Métis Nation of Ontario is a recognized Métis government, with the authority to build its own laws, institutions, and future. What began as a petition nearly two centuries ago lives on in the work of the MNO today, ensuring that Métis rights are recognized for generations to come. To learn more, visit OntarioMetisFacts.com.Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter. Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on Aug. 22, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson have lots to talk about. And carefully avoid confessing to any crimes.The show opens with breaking news: Canada is dropping many — though not all — of its retaliatory tariffs against the United States. Matt and Jen agree the economic impact is limited, but the political optics could be rough for a prime minister who built a reputation on opposing Washington. This leads naturally into a discussion about when it’s fair to start judging Mark Carney’s performance. Jen presses Matt on what Canadians could reasonably have expected by now; Matt, in turn, asks her how long she’s willing to wait before demanding results.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canadian forestry supports 200,000 workers, generates $87 billion in annual revenue, contributes $21 billion annually to our nation's economy, and provides the products we need to build homes and drive economic growth. While trade barriers from the U.S. are siphoning jobs and investment away, Canada’s own approval processes and regulations are preventing critical projects that both prevent wildfires and boost our economic self-reliance.We can and should have programs that expand domestic wood use, advance biomass use and pulp market opportunities, and cut red tape and regulatory barriers. The government of Canada has a clear opportunity to stand up for Canadian forestry at a time of growing global uncertainty. We need real action that puts Canadians first — supporting employees and their families, securing stability for our businesses, and protecting the long-term potential of our sector and its people. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.Next, the hosts turn to a controversial story out of Lindsay, Ontario, where a man has been charged after using a knife against a home invader. With key details still missing, both Matt and Jen caution against rushing to judgment, but they stress that Canadians need stronger protections for people defending themselves. They stop short of calling for U.S.-style “castle laws,” but argue that Canada must do much better in balancing the scales between citizens and criminals. They share a few stories of their own experiences. Very carefully share them.This episode is also brought to you by Airbnb. To solve the housing crisis, Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2030. And while some think short-term rentals like Airbnb are taking homes away, that's just not the case. Because — according to Statistics Canada — the number of Airbnbs that could be converted into long-term homes amounts to only 0.6 per cent of Canada’s housing stock.How can you solve the problem when you're focused on less than one per cent of the housing market?To learn more, visit Airbnb.ca/closerlook.Finally, the episode closes with a quick take on Pierre Poilievre’s victory in a new Alberta riding. What does it mean? What doesn’t it mean? And why are so many people working overtime to spin this into a seismic event? Matt and Jen break down the hype and the reality, and they don’t mind pointing out who looks silly in the process.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out and like and subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca and follow us on YouTube or your favourite podcast app. New episodes drop every Friday. And also! Help The Line grow. Share us with a friend, or two. Spread the word.YouTube:Video goes live at 5:45 pm Eastern, 3:45 pm Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson interviewed Karen Valis, writer and artificial intelligence expert, on the evolving role of AI engineers, the limitations and capabilities of AI, and the ethical considerations surrounding its use.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In this episode of On The Line, Jen Gerson speaks with Karin Valis, a Berlin-based machine learning engineer and writer behind Mercurial Minutes. Together, they explore the complex and sometimes unsettling ways artificial intelligence intersects with human cognition, creativity, and mental health.This episode of On the Line is brought to you by Airbnb. As we’ve discussed many times before, it’s no secret that Canada is in a housing crisis. Some think that one way we can solve it is by regulating short-term rentals like Airbnb. But the closer you look, the clearer it gets: that’s simply not the case. According to Statistics Canada, the number of Airbnbs that could be converted into long-term homes amounts to only 0.6 per cent of Canada’s housing stock. Something that has been clear for a long time is that tackling affordability will require big and bold action that addresses all of the housing market, not just 0.6 per cent of it. To learn more, visit Airbnb.ca/closerlook.They talk about how the role of AI engineers is shifting and what that means for the future. They get into the way we lean on machines to do our thinking for us — and what that does to our own brains. There’s a lively back-and-forth about whether AI companionship helps or hurts us, and what happens when we start to depend on it too much. Karin also explains how these systems reflect our own behaviour back at us, often in surprising ways, and why the ethical questions are only getting harder.This episode of On The Line is also brought to you by the Métis Nation of Ontario. It's Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, 1993. A father and son — Steve and Roddy Powley — went hunting moose without a tag. What followed was more than a trial. For a decade, their entire community stood accused — told they didn’t exist, told they had no rights. In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. In R. v. Powley, Métis rights were fully recognized in law — rights rooted in history, culture, and community in Ontario.Today, on those same lands where Métis once farmed river lots and were pushed aside, a new chapter has begun. The old Central United Church has been reclaimed as the Powley Institute — a Métis-led centre for education, culture, and truth. Here, the stories once silenced will be told and the lessons of Powley will endure: justice follows when you stand firm in the truth of your history. To learn more, visit OntarioMetisFacts.com.Of particular interest to many, we suspect, you’ll also hear a thoughtful take on where AI is headed — not as something alien or futuristic, but as a mirror of ourselves, raising tough questions about how we adapt to the tools we’ve built. And also on the ethical issues that will inevitably arise — and it is inevitable — when AI and increasingly life-like robots are combined. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

This episode of The Line Podcast was recorded Friday, August 15th, with Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson — newly back from her vacation.We start off with a look at how the Toronto International Film Festival has managed to completely beclown itself in an utterly avoidable controversy over the airing of a film depicting one family's nightmarish experience during the October 7th attacks. TIFF eventually gave way and did the right thing — but only after waiting long enough to damage its own credibility and, tragically, worsen antisemitism. Matt also has some strong words for those who see creeping fascism everywhere except in the surging hate directed at Canadian Jews.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Unsmoke Canada. Canada can be a global leader in reducing the harm caused by smoking, but it requires actionable steps, including giving adult smokers the information they need to choose potentially less harmful alternatives. Learn more at Unsmoke.ca.In our second segment, we dig into a report from the U.S. State Department that levels some sharp criticisms at Canada. Jen goes through what's in the report and points out that there are some honest truths Canadians should take seriously — but it’s also amateurish, lacking nuance, and, coming from the Trump administration, not exactly a credible assessment.This episode of The Line Podcast is also brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canadian forestry supports 200,000 workers, generates $87 billion in annual revenue, contributes $21 billion annually to our nation's economy, and provides the products we need to build homes and drive economic growth. While trade barriers from the U.S. are siphoning jobs and investment away, Canada’s own approval processes and regulations are preventing critical projects that both prevent wildfires and boost our economic self-reliance.We can and should have programs that expand domestic wood use, advance biomass use and pulp market opportunities, and cut red tape and regulatory barriers. The government of Canada has a clear opportunity to stand up for Canadian forestry at a time of growing global uncertainty. We need real action that puts Canadians first — supporting employees and their families, securing stability for our businesses, and protecting the long-term potential of our sector and its people. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.We wrap up on a more philosophical note. As Jen noted in a column published this week, The Line has just hit its fifth anniversary. We talk about how it all started, what our lives and the world looked like back then, what’s changed since, and why The Line now needs to pivot — both to fend off attacks from the right and to begin repairing some of the social damage our politicians caused during COVID, damage they’ve neither apologized for nor made any effort to fix.This episode is also brought to you by Airbnb. To solve the housing crisis, Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2030. And while some think short-term rentals like Airbnb are taking homes away, that's just not the case. Because — according to Statistics Canada — the number of Airbnbs that could be converted into long-term homes amounts to only 0.6 per cent of Canada’s housing stock.How can you solve the problem when you're focused on less than one per cent of the housing market?To learn more, visit Airbnb.ca/closerlook.Check us out and like and subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca and follow us on YouTube or your favourite podcast app. New episodes drop every Friday. And also! HelpThe Linegrow. Share us with a friend, or two. Spread the word.YouTube:Video goes live at 6 pm Eastern, 4 pm Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney talks forest fires with retired firefighter Denys Prevost and social media with Line contributor (and many other things) Andrew MacDougall.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon. The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

This episode of On The Line with host Matt Gurney has two conversations worth your time.First up, Matt speaks with Denys Prevost, a retired firefighter with nearly 40 years of service in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Denys walks us through what’s been happening in Nova Scotia’s forests, how and why these fires can spread so quickly, and — most importantly — what homeowners and property owners can actually do to protect themselves.This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Airbnb. To solve the housing crisis, Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2030. And while some think short-term rentals like Airbnb are taking homes away, that's just not the case. Because — according to Statistics Canada — the number of Airbnbs that could be converted into long-term homes amounts to only 0.6 per cent of Canada’s housing stock.How can you solve the problem when you're focused on less than one per cent of the housing market?To learn more, visit Airbnb.ca/closerlook.Then, Matt connects with Andrew MacDougall, director at Trafalgar Strategy in London and former director of communications to prime minister Stephen Harper. Andrew recently wrote a policy paper for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and a supporting op-ed for The Line, making the case that social media should be something we pay for — because only then can we break the addiction and dismantle the toxic business models propping up these companies. They also get into Andrew’s time in politics, watching social media evolve from a niche comms tool to the entire battlefield.This episode of On The Line is also brought to you by the Métis Nation of Ontario. Twenty-two years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada made history. In R v. Powley, the existence of a rights-bearing Métis community in Ontario was affirmed. The next year, Ontario signed a harvesting agreement recognizing the Métis. Since then, governments have invested significantly in Métis people in Ontario. For better health care, education and training, jobs, housing, and for programs that protect the environment and keep Métis language, culture, and communities alive.Now, some would take that away. They would erase those hard-won rights, and undo more than twenty years of progress. But the law and history are clear. The Métis aren’t going anywhere. To learn more, visit OntarioMétisFacts.com.Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]. Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe