Two new pipeline plans and an enormous $13-billion Meta data centre have been announced for Alberta in just the last few days. Brett Wilson, the veteran Calgary-based investor, joins Brian to explain the potential of the province to boom after just a slight loosening of the anti-development chokehold Ottawa had Alberta in for a decade with Justin Trudeau and Steven Guilbeault running the Liberals. Several other major projects are coming, too, Wilson says, and the customary controversies, protests and complaints just aren’t happening like they used to. But he says there are too many obstructive Trudeau policies still on the books that Prime Minister Mark Carney needs to undo for Alberta, and Canada, to reach their full potential. (Recorded July 9, 2026)

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Balancing protection for kids online while ensuring free speech and privacy for everyone else isn’t easy, which is why Ottawa has muffed it so many times, leaving Canada decades behind other countries in monitoring the harmful excesses of social media algorithms. With Bill C-34, the new Safe Social Media Act, the government just maybe has something workable, as Emily Laidlaw, Canada Research Chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary, tells Brian. She explains the strengths and potential weaknesses of the legislation, how far it will go in protecting people from harm, concerns about the new “digital regulator,” and whether the government is now going to force us all to scan our IDs and carefully watch what we say online. (Recorded June 25, 2026)

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As Liberal MPs moan anonymously that Prime Minister Mark Carney is a mean boss, his defenders say it’s just high performance expectations (unlike the last leader’s). But, as our Political Hack panel looks back on the parliamentary sitting just ended, they question Carney’s own performance: his damage to Canada-U.S. trade negotiations; broken promises on affordability; and a disgraceful bailout for B.C. condo speculators. Meanwhile, his fundraiser for 24 Sussex risks turning into another sleazy Liberal donation grift. Yet Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre seems unable to dent lofty Liberal popularity numbers, and the NDP isn’t helping. Brian discusses it all with hosts of Postmedia’s exclusive Political Hack newsletter, Stuart Thomson, parliamentary bureau chief, and Tasha Kheiriddin, national columnist. (Recorded June 26, 2026)

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President Donald Trump’s deal with Iran is seen as a total capitulation to the Islamic Republic, and most of all in Israel, which fought alongside the Americans. Brian speaks with Eylon Levy, former Israeli government spokesman, and Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli intelligence officer now with the Atlantic Council. Levy explains how the deal allows Tehran to drive a wedge between Washington and Jerusalem, just as America’s historic support for the Jewish state wanes — perhaps permanently. Citrinowicz analyzes why the joint U.S.-Israeli operation was ill-conceived from the start and why it’s ending badly, and warns that Israel’s ongoing battle to curb threats from Iran and its proxies may now only serve to further alienate the White House. (Recorded June 18 and 19, 2026)

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Tech firms and civil libertarians are sounding the alarm about “lawful access” legislation the Liberals seem hellbent on passing before summer. They warn that the backdoor it would create to access people’s encrypted internet communications puts us all at risk and makes it impossible for secure platforms to operate in Canada. Security officials say it’s necessary to keep up with the online criminals they lack modern tools to catch. Former national security adviser to the prime minister, Richard Fadden, tells Brian why Bill C-22 strikes a reasonable balance and the fears of serious privacy violations are unwarranted. Natalie Campbell, senior director at the Internet Society, explains why the dangers are real, and even graver than most people realize. (Recorded June 11 and 12, 2026) 

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A prime minister walks into a synagogue for an antisemitism speech and makes things worse. It’s not a joke, as our three guests all agree. Because Mark Carney and his government fear landing on the wrong side of Muslim leaders and their voting blocs, they say, his lecture on preserving Canadian tolerance refused to acknowledge why it’s so endangered: radicals who so rabidly hate Israel that they’re destroying Canadian values with their violent attacks against Jews. Brian is joined by Talia Klein Leighton, of Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, Amir Epstein, of the Jewish activist group Tafsik, and activist Ariella Kimmel. They explain the shock in their community after Carney’s speech and how more Jews say they now realize the Liberals are not their friends. (Recorded June 5, 2026)

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What happens when you invite the migrants of the world, as former prime minister Justin Trudeau did, to flood into Canada? You end up with an avalanche of false refugee claims, bad actors gaming the system to stall deportations, and Ottawa spending nearly $1 billion a year to provide gold-plated health plans for tens of thousands of people who shouldn’t even be here. Immigration lawyer and policy specialist Richard Kurland details for Brian the unmistakable abuse that some people are using to stay in Canada, despite not being eligible to settle here. And he explains how Trudeau’s wholesale wreckage of our once excellent screening, hearing and deportation system has made it easier than ever for them to keep doing it. (Recorded May 27, 2026)

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After a brutal decade under Justin Trudeau’s draconian anti-development policies, there’s real optimism in the western oilpatch again. Paul Colborne, CEO of Calgary-based Surge Energy, tells Brian why he’s convinced Prime Minister Mark Carney is serious about boosting oil production, including with more pipelines, and why investors are clamouring to get in on it. He explains why he even sees benefit to the carbon-tax and emissions-sequestering conditions in Carney’s memorandum of understanding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. And why he doesn’t believe B.C., First Nations or some anti-oil Liberal MPs will stand in the prime minister’s way of using resources to get us out of the disastrous, money-printing economic dead end the last prime minister left behind. (Recorded May 22, 2026)

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The growing sense about Mark Carney in Washington is that maybe he doesn’t actually want trade peace, as Tracy Moran, National Post correspondent in the U.S. capital, tells Brian. The prime minister’s “waiting game” tactic is out of runway: Talks have dried up and there’s not enough time now to head off the July 1 deadline when President Donald Trump gets to revise, or worse, declare an end to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement. Troublingly, Carney has managed to aggravate the Trump camp with continuous provocations, and the American public is souring on Canada. Meanwhile, she says, the White House is preparing tariffs that, this time, could be far more punishing than previous ones—with no more carve outs for CUSMA goods. (Recorded May 14, 2026)

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If you haven’t been paying attention to the Alberta separatism movement, you really should. It’s been making huge and rapid strides, with significant support and evidently enough momentum to trigger an independence referendum this year. To find out what’s driving the movement, Brian talks to Keith Wilson, an Alberta constitutional lawyer and leading voice for secession. Wilson explains why he thinks there is no future for the province as part of Canada — regardless of who’s in charge in Ottawa — because Confederation will always be a bad deal for Albertans compared to what they could achieve on their own. And he explains why he believes most of his fellow Albertans will soon come around to seeing that, too. (Recorded May 7, 2026)

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