Change My Mind

Do you feel like your cellphone, internet or cable bill keeps climbing without explanation? Do you ever wonder how much of what you’re paying for you actually need?

For many Canadians, those services, particularly internet connection or a cellular phone, are essential. Yet Canada's telecom market is dominated by a small handful of major companies, raising important questions about competition, consumer choice and the value we receive for our money.

On this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda sits down with Peter Nowak, award-winning journalist and bestselling author. Peter is also the editor and publisher of Do Not Pass Go, which is self-described as a “survival guide to our monopolized times”. Having covered the telecom sector and later worked within it, Peter brings an important perspective that goes beyond the usual complaints about expensive phone bills.

Together, Lynda and Peter explore the forces shaping Canada's telecom industry. They examine how market concentration, mergers, wholesale access and government regulation have shaped competition, along with the potential for recent regulatory changes to create more meaningful alternatives. The conversation also considers the substantial costs of building and maintaining reliable networks across a country as vast as Canada.

The discussion moves from the bigger picture to practical advice consumers can use right now. Peter shares strategies for getting better value, including avoiding unnecessary contracts and bundled services, knowing when to switch providers and navigating the complaints process when customer service falls short.

Ultimately, this is a conversation about the balance between a sustainable telecom industry and a competitive market that delivers real value for consumers. It offers a closer look at how the system works, where change may be possible and what Canadians can do to make more informed choices.

Change My Mind is built on curiosity, thoughtful conversation and a willingness to consider different perspectives.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.

If this conversation sparked interest and got you thinking, take a moment to rate or review Change My Mind, and if you know someone who would enjoy talking it through, share the episode with them.

We make a choice. We mark a ballot. We know how to vote.

Once we cast that vote, we start thinking about what it might mean. Will the candidate we chose win? Which party will form government? What will the result mean for our community, province or country? What we might think about less is the system that turns those individual choices into political representation. 

With municipal and provincial elections coming up in B.C., it’s a timely opportunity to step back from the campaigns and consider how we elect the people who represent us. 

On this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda Steele speaks with political scientist, professor and author Dennis Pilon, one of Canada’s leading experts on democratic reform and voting systems. Together, they explore electoral reform issues, with a deep dive into proportional representation. 

Canada uses the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system, but it is not the only way to elect representatives. Different electoral systems have different implications for voters, political parties and governments. 

What do we want an electoral system to do? Should it prioritize local representation, proportionality, stable governments or more choice for voters? This conversation looks beyond the familiar mechanics of casting a ballot to consider what we expect from the system itself, and what changing it could mean.

Lynda came into this conversation with her own view of Canada's electoral system. By the end, she was looking at some of those assumptions a little differently. What changed? We invite you to listen and find out.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.

If this conversation made you think, take a moment to rate or review Change My Mind. And if you know someone who would enjoy talking it through, share the episode with them.

Canada is having a complicated moment. The country is experiencing increasingly destructive wildfires, extreme heat, floods and drought, while at same time pushing ahead with plans for more oil pipelines and LNG development.

So what do we do with that contradiction?

On this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda Steele sits down with award winning author and journalist John Vaillant, whose book Fire Weather takes readers inside the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. John is well known for his work exploring what happens when a changing climate collides with an economy built around fossil fuels.

This isn't a conversation focused on whether pipelines are good or bad. It's about something much harder to untangle.

Canada depends heavily on its natural resources. Oil and gas generate jobs, exports and government revenue. Also, global demand for fossil fuels does not appear to be dwindling anytime soon.  At the same time, the climate is changing and the costs are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

That’s where Lynda and John dig in.  Together, they explore what happens when those two realities collide. Can Canada continue to benefit from its fossil fuel economy while seriously addressing the climate crisis? Can we expand production and still make meaningful progress toward lower emissions? Can resource wealth help pay for the transition, or does continued expansion make that transition harder?

There are no easy answers. There are competing interests, real economic consequences and increasingly visible environmental ones. This is a conversation about the choices Canada is making now and what those choices could mean for the country today, tomorrow and into the future.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.

Enjoyed this episode? Please like, rate, and review on your favorite platform to help others find the show!

Disagreement is part of everyday life. We disagree about politics, public health, immigration, climate change, foreign affairs and increasingly, just about everything else. Even family dinners and workplace conversations can become battlegrounds.

The problem isn't disagreement itself. In fact, democracies depend on it. The problem is what happens when disagreement hardens into polarization. When the person on the other side stops being someone we disagree with and starts becoming someone we fear, dismiss or even hate.

On this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda Steele sits down with conflict resolution and engagement expert Dr. Aftab Erfan to explore why we are so quick to see the world as “us versus them” and what we can actually do about it.

Together, they discuss moments many of us recognize, such as when a family member’s comments cross a line or small frustrations build quietly with a friend until emotions explode. The conversation also explores the role of social media, fear-based messaging, misinformation, as well as who benefits when people remain divided.

Dr. Erfan, who is the Executive Director of SFU Centre for Dialogue, also offers practical tools for navigating disagreement in our everyday lives. Whether you're dealing with family conflict, workplace tension or someone whose views seem completely opposite to your own, she has insights to share.

At the heart of the conversation is this simple idea: you don't have to change someone's mind to have a meaningful conversation, but you might just understand them a little better.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.

Enjoyed this episode? Please like, rate, and review on your favorite platform to help others find the show!

AI is moving faster than most of us can process. While it promises breakthroughs in everything from healthcare to productivity, there’s increasing unease about what happens when the technology moves faster than our ability to understand or control it.

Lynda Steele, the host of Change My Mind, has mixed feelings about AI. She can see the enormous potential, but she’s also worried about deepfakes, teen safety, data centres and whether the guardrails we need are coming too late. There’s also this important question: are we comfortable leaving so much of our future in the hands of a small number of powerful tech companies and their leaders?

To help make sense of it all, Lynda talks with technology expert Amber Mac. A bestselling author, entrepreneur, guest lecturer and well-known podcaster, Amber has spent more than two decades helping people understand how emerging technology is changing our lives.

Together, they break down what AI is actually doing right now, what happens when we stop checking its work, AI literacy and why the pace of this technological revolution is so different from what we experienced with the internet. 

They also explore AI’s potential to transform healthcare, including a deeply personal story from Amber that shows what can happen when this technology catches something missed by humans. 

So, are we moving too fast? Can we find the balance between embracing what AI can do and making sure we’re still in control of where it takes us? This is a conversation about the risks, the possibilities and the choices we still have to make about AI, without the hype and without the panic.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.

Enjoyed this episode? Please like, rate, and review on your favorite platform to help others find the show!

Many of us grew up trusting the media. It was a pillar of democracy, a source of information and a way to understand the world around us. Today, that trust is being tested like never before. Why? And more importantly, what does the future of journalism look like?

In this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda Steele is joined by award-winning journalist and communications leader Jennifer Burke for an honest conversation about the seismic shifts transforming Canadian media.

Journalism was once widely seen as a cornerstone of public life, holding power to account, informing citizens and helping communities make sense of the issues shaping their lives. Today, local newsrooms are disappearing, traditional business models are under pressure and more Canadians are getting their news from social media, influencers and algorithms.

So what happened?

Lynda and Jennifer draw on decades of experience to explore how digital platforms disrupted the economics of journalism, why AI and misinformation are accelerating the spread of false information and what it will take to rebuild credibility in an increasingly polarized, algorithm-driven world. This isn't just a conversation about what's been lost. It's about understanding the forces reshaping journalism and whether there is still a path forward.

At its heart, this episode isn't just about lamenting the decline of journalism, it’s about understanding the pressures that are reshaping it and whether there is still a path to strengthen it. Because when newsrooms disappear, when algorithms shape what we see and when misinformation moves faster than reporting, journalism is left under extraordinary strain financially, politically and culturally.

No spin. No polarizing debate. Just talking it through.

For generations, Canadians have viewed the United States as our closest ally, largest trading partner and trusted neighbour. But in the wake of President Donald Trump's increasingly confrontational approach to Canada, including tariffs and annexation rhetoric, many are asking a question that once seemed unimaginable:Can our relationship ever be the same?

In this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda Steele is joined by Eric Miller, an international trade and foreign policy expert, who spent years working on Canada–U.S. relations, including serving as the first representative of Canada’s Department of Industry in Washington, D.C.

Together, Lynda and Eric unpack what has changed between the two countries, why the relationship has shifted so dramatically and whether the damage is temporary or signals a more fundamental change.

This thoughtful conversation explores the forces driving today's tensions, from trade and tariffs to sovereignty, diplomacy and public sentiment. It examines why the United States has taken its current approach, how Canada is responding and what the future may hold for the relationship. Can trust be rebuilt? What would it take to restore confidence? If the relationship has changed for good, what does that mean for Canada's future?

At its heart, this episode is about more than politics or policy. It’s about how we understand a changing relationship with a country that has shaped Canada’s economy and identity for generations.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.

What does it mean to be conservative in Canada today? Is the political movement still defined by fiscal responsibility and limited government, or has it evolved into something else?

In this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda Steele sits down with Brian Lee Crowley, founder of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, to explore the issue through the lens of a longtime conservative public policy thinker.

Together, they discuss how conservatism has changed and what those changes could mean for Canadian politics. They also examine the forces shaping today's movement, from regional tensions to political polarization to the growing influence of cultural issues.

Rather than asking whether these changes are good or bad, the conversation explores why many Canadians, including some longtime conservatives, feel uncertain about what conservatism stands for today. It considers how the movement is balancing tradition with transformation, and what its evolution may mean for the country's future.

As always, Change My Mind isn't about winning an argument. It's about asking better questions, listening with curiosity and considering different perspectives before deciding where you stand.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.

The FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet. But for host cities, it's about far more than what happens on the pitch.

Hosting a global event of this scale comes with enormous public investment, high expectations and no shortage of debate. Is it money well spent? Or could those dollars be better used elsewhere?

In this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda Steele is joined by veteran sports broadcaster, Don Taylor, to explore whether mega-events like the World Cup are still worth it in an era of housing shortages, affordability pressures and competing public priorities.

Together, they examine the promises that accompany events like FIFA 2026, including tourism, global exposure and civic pride. They also dive into  concerns about rising costs, public risk and who ultimately benefits.

Drawing on decades of experience covering sports, Don also offers a perspective that extends beyond economics. He shares why he thinks major sporting events have the power to unite communities, inspire the next generation and create moments people remember for years, even decades. Despite all the controversy and complexity, there’s still something undeniably powerful about watching a city and a country rally around the same moment.

This episode isn't about choosing between celebration and skepticism. It's about exploring whether both can exist at the same time, and whether the value of hosting a global event can be measured by more than a balance sheet.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.

Social media was supposed to bring us together.

Instead, many people now describe it as exhausting, divisive but also impossible to escape.

In this episode of Change My Mind, Lynda Steele examines her own complicated relationship with social media and asks a question that feels increasingly relevant: is staying online still worth it?

Joined by technology analyst and journalist Carmi Levy, the conversation explores how social media evolved from a tool for connection into an ecosystem driven by algorithms, outrage and engagement at all costs.

Together, they discuss misinformation, online harassment, the decline of civil discourse and whether today's platforms are capable of becoming healthier spaces. They also wrestle with a more personal question: at what point does participation become complicity?

For Carmi, the answer is sobering. Despite making his living covering technology and digital culture, he says he would likely leave social media behind if his work didn't require him to be there.

Lynda begins the episode frustrated with what social media has become. But after exploring the issue from every angle, will the conversation change her mind?

The discussion doesn't seek easy answers. Instead, it explores the trade-offs, the benefits and the growing costs of life online.

No debate. No winning. Just talking it through.