This episode offers sharp insights into how Ottawa is preparing for its toughest test yet.

Canada's lawmakers will be returning to the House next week in what promises to be a high-stakes fall sitting of Parliament. They will be welcomed by tariff shocks, fiscal pressure and a sharpened opposition.

The audio briefing dives into:

1. Machinery of government required for new marquee agencies like the Building Canada Homes initiative and the Major Projects Office.
2. Canada’s new top bureaucrat, Michael Sabia, and what his no-nonsense style means for a faster, leaner public service.
3. The re-entry of Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre to Question Period.

Yaroslav Baran and Heather Bakken dissect Baran's latest opinion piece, 'A Fall of Contradictions, Focus and Discipline', in the Hill Times.

Mark Carney's government will table a long-awaited budget that must reconcile a paradox: the need for fiscal restraint alongside investment imperatives. The prime minister has the ultimate balancing act with deep cost-cutting across government while simultaneously rolling out tens of billions in new spending from emergency bailouts for steel, aluminum, and canola to massive long-term defence investments aimed at meeting NATO’s spending target.

For anyone tracking Canada’s domestic politics, trade wars with the U.S., or the shifting global order, this is a seven-minute investment you won't regret.