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.

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.

In this episode of On The Line, host Jen Gerson is joined by Andre Gagne, a theology professor at Concordia University, and author of American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times.

This episode of On The Line 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.

They speak about Palantir CEO and multi-billionaire Peter Thiel -- an influential figure both in Silicon Valley, and in the Donald Trump administration -- who has recently gone on a tear warning about how anti-AI activists, Greta Thunberg, and anyone who is opposed to him politically, are aligned with the "anti-christ." What is the anti-christ? And are Thiel's warnings Biblically apt? What is going on with the Evangelical movement in America today? We get into all of it today On The Line.

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.

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.

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.

Fun stuff. For more fun stuff, check us out at ReadTheLine.ca.

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.

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 ofThe 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.

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!

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. 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.

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.

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 trap — 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.

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.

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.