First episode of a two-part look at Canada’s economy and the opportunity to thrive in a new world order. With CUSMA being renegotiated at the moment, Stephen Marche reviews Canada’s trade relationship with the United States and explores what some consider the drawbacks of economic efficiency: making convenient trade deals for short term gain.

Economist Dan Ciuriak makes the case for doing away with the country’s automotive industry, while Flavio Volpe (President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers'​ Association) strongly disagrees. And Australian economist Huw McKay describes how his country abandoned car manufacturing and developed robust trading relationships within the Pacific Rim. 

Featuring (in order of appearance): Paula Ambra, Dan Ciuriak, Flavio Volpe, Huw McKay

Visit our website—gloves-off.ca—for more research behind the issues including a chart illustrating how Canada’s trade exports are diversifying beyond the United States and Canada's automotive sector value-add problem.

Follow us on YouTube where you can watch our aftershow Cross Check that drops each Thursday with Vass Bednar and Jon Shell

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If a middle powers alliance could create a third pole of power to offset China and the United States, what would that look like in practical terms? What kind of alliance would enable Canada and other middle powers to thrive in a new world order? Host Stephen Marche catches up on Carney’s latest alliance-building moves with former Canadian Diplomat Colin Robertson, and learns from Anthony Dworkin of the European Council on Foreign Relations about how the EU has leaned on strategies like a trade bazooka and a unified defence strategy in Greenland. 

Featuring (in order of appearance): Ukaleq Slettemark, Colin Robertson and Anthony Dworkin

Visit our website—gloves-off.ca—for more research behind the issues including an interactive map outlining the number of international agreements Canada has made since Carney took office and a explanation of variable geometry, both from the Canadian Shield Institute.

Follow us on YouTube where you can watch our aftershow Cross Check that drops each Thursday with Vass Bednar and Jon Shell

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A clear eyed assessment of Mark Carney’s vision of middle powers creating a third pole of power, providing alternatives to a fraying reliance on the United States. Since his famous speech at Davos, he has been travelling the world meeting with likeminded politicians to shore up support. But the reception to his idea has raised doubts in Canada. Host Stephen Marche hears bipartisan caution from former Canadian Foreign Ministers Peter MacKay and John Manley, while former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull echoes a chorus of approval heard among many global leaders.

Subscribe & follow us on YouTube where you can watch our aftershow Cross Check with Vass Bednar and Jon Shell Thursday.

Also visit our website—gloves-off.ca—for more research behind the issues from the Canadian Shield Institute including its Glossary of Trade War Jargon and U.S. Policy Timeline

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Gloves Off is about the threat to Canada’s sovereignty and how the country can thrive in the new world disorder. Because it’s not just about surviving as a nation. It’s about winning. Hosted by journalist and author Stephen Marche.

The Gloves come off Canada Day, 2026. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on YouTube where you can watch our aftershow Cross Check with Vass Bednar and Jon Shell.

Also visit our website—gloves-off.ca —for more research behind the issues from the Canadian Shield Institute.

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In this extended interview, Margaret Atwood joins Stephen Marche for a wide-ranging, sharp, and often darkly funny conversation on what we can learn from the past when Canadian sovereignty has been threatened by America; how this moment is exceptional; what we might expect in the future. From draft dodgers to free trade, red bonnets to AI servers, Atwood weighs in on where we are—and where we might be headed. Atwood brings sharp insight and surprising optimism to a moment of national reckoning.

A must-listen on sovereignty, survival, and what Canada needs to protect itself from the storm next door. 

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Over the past seven episodes, we’ve tracked Canada’s shocking, painful, and necessary awakening. The threat from America is no longer theoretical—it’s here, it’s real, and we’re not ready.

But something else is happening too. Canadians are responding. Travel boycotts. A rise in patriotism. A new spirit of sovereignty. Because our old relationship with America is over. Our final question to close the series: What does the new normal look like?

In this episode, Stephen Marche speaks with two people who have seen the future from different angles: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and autocracy expert, Anne Applebaum, and legendary author, Margaret Atwood. Together, they help us sketch out the “new normal”—a world caught between democracy and authoritarianism, and where Canada fits into this new world order.

This is an episode about what’s at stake, what can be built, and why we can’t go back.

Featuring (in order of appearance): Anne Applebaum, Margaret Atwood

Watch an extended version of Stephen's interview with Margaret Atwood on YouTube August 19th.

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In 2013, a Russian journalist walked into a St. Petersburg startup looking for a job. What he found was the frontline of a new kind of war—an information war fought not with bullets but with online chaos.

Today, those tactics have gone global. Online disinformation floods our social feeds, shapes our politics, and fractures our societies. Authoritarian states are waging an invisible war against democracies like Canada, and we’re dangerously unprepared.

Stephen Marche speaks with University of Waterloo's Bessma Momani and Taiwanese fact-checking pioneer Billion Lee to ask the hard questions: How can we stop losing the information war? Do we even stand a chance?

Featuring (in order of appearance): Andrei Soshnikov, Bessma Momani & Billion Lee

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What if we end up in the nightmare scenario: America invades Canada and our military isn't strong enough to resist. Canada gets annexed by force. How do we fight back? What would a Canadian insurgency look like?  

Stephen Marche explores the unthinkable: a military occupation of Canada and the resistance that would surely follow. He speaks with International Security scholar, Aisha Ahmad. We also meet former IRA member, Breige Brownlee, to understand how ordinary people become freedom fighters—and why the most powerful armies in the world can't stop them. 

It’s not fiction if the threat is detectable...

Featuring (in order of appearance): Breige Brownlee, Aisha Ahmad

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For most countries, the military is key to national identity. But Canada's identity has been tied to military contributions to the global order and peacekeeping. Now that's all changed. The world is heating. The North is thawing. The South is melting. How do we defend Canada and not get overtaken?

Stephen Marche heads to the Arctic with Canadian Ranger Neil Kigutaq and speaks with Retired Major General Scott Clancy and Finnish security expert Matti Pesu about how Canada can build up its military and what a whole-of-society defence approach looks like. With military apathy at home and growing instability abroad, it’s time to ask: What will it take for Canadians to finally take our defence seriously? 

Featuring (in order of appearance): MCpl Neil Kigutaq, Major General (ret) Scott Clancy & Matti Pesu

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Living next to a dangerous country is new to us but many countries bordering authoritarian states have a lot of experience. Ukraine has lived in the shadow of a monster its entire existence. What can they teach us?

Ukrainian refugee Viktoriia recalls fleeing war-torn Kherson—offering a sobering reminder of how quickly peace can vanish. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander Vindman and war correspondent Tim Mak unpack what Ukraine got right, what they missed, and what Canada can learn from their ongoing war with Russia. Can we recognize the warning signs of annexation and authoritarianism? Or will we look away—until it’s too late?

Featuring (in order of appearance): Viktoriia, Alexander Vindman & Tim Mak

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