Sage

Alberta voted decisively to stay in Canada. Stéphane Dion and Janet Annesley welcome the result. But both view the referendum a “sad exercise”?

Former Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and Alberta energy and public affairs adviser Janet Annesley join hosts Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg in back-to-back conversations about what the vote exposed and what comes next. Can Ottawa address long-held grievances without rewarding separatist blackmail? Could separatists lose the referendum but still take over the United Conservative Party - and what happens then? And can Alberta channel its ambitions into a bigger role in leading Canada?

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A pay raise feels earned. Higher prices feel like something being taken away. When incomes fail to keep pace, the consequences reach well beyond the household budget.

Former B.C. cabinet secretary Don Wright joins host Edward Greenspon to explore how stagnant living standards undermine public confidence and feed the discontent reshaping politics in Canada, the United States and other democracies. Even through Trump’s threats and the trade war, Canadians’ affordability concerns have remained front and centre.

With the U.S. midterms approaching, Sage examines how Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war have compounded the squeeze on Americans—and how voters’ frustration could change the political equation on both sides of the border.

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Canada is preparing to spend far more on defence, reopening some uncomfortable questions about how we protect ourselves. Why do we buy military equipment once a generation, then wait for it to fall apart before replacing it? Has our love of peacekeeping become an excuse to neglect defence? And how reliable are allied supply lines when everyone needs the same ammunition?

Former deputy minister of national defence Jody Thomas and former deputy minister of foreign affairs Senator Peter Harder join host Allan Gregg to unpack what rebuilding Canada’s security will demand. Listen in to why allies will replenish their own forces first, why Thomas would direct almost all defence infrastructure spending to the Arctic, and why Canada needs diplomatic expertise in countries that haven’t yet become priorities.

The conversation is about sovereignty: whether Canada can turn a bigger defence budget into the ability to protect its territory, keep its forces supplied, and exercise greater influence in an increasingly uncertain world.

Canada is heading into a revealing political month: elections in B.C. and Quebec, and an Alberta referendum that has revived familiar anxieties about national unity. But the deeper story may not be whether the country is breaking apart. It may be whether the federation itself is being renegotiated.

Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa Bureau Chief for the Toronto Star, and Darrell Bricker, Global CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, join hosts Allan Gregg and Edward Greenspon to unpack a volatile moment in Canadian politics: why Trump and Carney have frozen normal partisan lines, why Alberta’s separatist question may be less important than the other questions on the ballot, why Quebec could elect a sovereigntist government without a separatist majority, and why B.C.’s election may test the limits of Team Canada politics.

The result is a conversation about power: who holds it, who feels excluded from it, and how much longer national unity can be sustained by crisis politics alone.

Opposition to Bill C‑39 has been portrayed as a battle between new investment and environmental protection and between collective bargaining rights and warding off strikes in essential economic services. But its most consequential changes may be the ones attracting the least attention.

Unlike previous reforms under the Harper and Trudeau governments, the legislation reaches right into the permitting machinery that kicks in after a project receives its initial approval. Securing these permits under the Fisheries Act, the Navigable Waters Act and the Species at Risk Act can add years to wait times. Not only will permitting fall into the government’s single-window, one-year timeline, ministers are being directed “to consider technical, economic and practical feasibility when establishing, adding or amending conditions.” That means environmental consequences will have to be weighed against economic consequences - the first use of a proportionality test.

Former federal and provincial deputy ministers Michael Keenan and Don Wright join hosts Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg to examine the ambition—and the risks—inside Bill C‑39. They discuss everything from little-noticed micro changes with big effects to the possible impacts on employment and wages. They wonder if wage inflation may push project costs into the stratosphere or whether it actually constitutes a backdoor strategy to raise living standards. Oh yes, and an interesting digression into the B.C. election.

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Trillions(!) of dollars came to Toronto last week—or at least the people who manage it did. Some 300 executives managing $120 trillion(!) in assets gathered for the federal government’s “inaugural” investment summit, where Canada sought to reintroduce itself to global capital and make the case that it can be that trusted supplier everyone is seeking.

Turning interest into investment will require more than an appealing pitch, convivial surroundings and the speedy tax write-downs the government has proposed. Before investors pony up, as we hear on this week’s Sage Podcast, they will also want assurance of cost stability, quicker regulatory approvals, and confidence that changes in government won’t mean changes in policy. Canada, meanwhile, must decide how much public money it is prepared to put at risk and how it will structure that support. You may recall a trio of discussion papers published in the Spring. Well be prepared for their comeback.

Hosts Allan Gregg and Edward Greenspon are joined by David Dodge, Martha Hall Findlay and Miville Tremblay to assess the summit, the government’s new “productivity mega-deduction,” the proposed Canada Strong Fund and the prospect of bringing private capital into Canadian airports.

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Canada and the United States appear trapped in a cycle of tariffs and counter-tariffs. But the Trump administration’s response this week to Canadian retaliation was more modest than feared. Does that signal an effort to contain the conflict — or is it merely a lull before the next storm?

Meanwhile, the heavy hitters of global capital gather this week in Toronto to chew on 167 possible investments – a major test of Canada’s attractiveness as a place to do business in the unfolding world order.

Senator and former federal deputy minister Peter Harder, Canada-U.S. relationship expert Scotty Greenwood, and former Bank of Canada and La Caisse executive Miville Tremblay join hosts Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg to tackle all this and more – will the U.S. midterm elections weaken Trump’s hand or make him more unpredictable, how the trade war is shaping the Quebec election, and what it still takes to become more investible?

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Canada has spent more than half a century talking about diversifying its trade. Donald Trump’s assault on the Canada-U.S. economic relationship has made the old “Third Option” newly urgent – but the numbers remain sobering. Modelling discussed in this episode suggests that even a successful push would replace less than half the economic activity Canada could lose if CUSMA disappeared.

Senator Peter Boehm and former B.C. cabinet secretary Don Wright join hosts Allan Gregg and Edward Greenspon to ask where Canada should place its bets—and what it must build to get there. They weigh the promise of Europe and the Indo-Pacific, the risks of China, the future of autos and energy, and the ports, pipelines, railways and trade corridors needed to turn agreements into actual trade.

Diversification is essential, but it will take years. To smooth the transition to greater self-reliance, Canada must ironically preserve as much access to the U.S. market as possible.

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Canada and the United States have gone over the tariff cliff. Was walking away really the only acceptable choice? Now can Canada retaliate without doing ourselves harm or alienating those American businesses and consumers who may be its best allies? And, will emergency support help vulnerable firms adapt—or merely preserve an economic set-up that may never return? Perhaps most importantly, can Team Canada hold together and what are the implications of division?

Senator Peter Harder, former Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay and former Newfoundland and Labrador finance minister Cathy Bennett join host Allan Gregg to examine why the negotiations failed and what Canada should do next. They discuss the immediate threat to small and medium-sized businesses, the political calculation behind Canada’s response, the risks of using energy as leverage and the opportunity to turn a painful rupture into a more resilient, diversified and investable Canadian economy.

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At what may be a make-or-break moment in the trade talks, Canada must decide how much it is willing to concede in exchange for greater economic stability. Would Ottawa accept some tariffs in return for more predictability on steel, aluminum and autos? How will Mexico and deeply integrated North American supply chains shape the outcome? And if the talks fail, should Canada walk away, retaliate, pursue a legal challenge or wait for the U.S. midterm elections?

Canada-U.S. relations expert and former U.S. diplomat Scotty Greenwood, and Senator Peter Harder, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Senator Peter Boehm, former Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, join host Allan Gregg to discuss what Canada might gain, what it may have to give up and whether an agreement would provide a platform for moving forward—or merely another pause in an increasingly adversarial relationship.

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