Sage

With President Donald Trump’s August 19 tariff deadline just days away, Canadian negotiators have remained in Washington trying to avert a show-stopping escalation in the trade war. But despite the rightful attention, these are not yet CUSMA renegotiations. They are a narrower — and increasingly urgent — battle over steel, aluminum, autos, alcohol, dairy and other irritants.

Will Trump delay the new tariffs while talks continue? Does Canada have more leverage than generally thought? And if the deadline passes without an agreement and perhaps with new tariffs, should Canada continue trying to grind it out, walk away or retaliate?

Andrei Sulzenko, a principal negotiator of the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement, Marta Morgan, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Senator Peter Harder, also a former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, join host Allan Gregg to discuss Canada’s options at the tariff cliff—and why the real CUSMA negotiations may be better left for later.

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Canada’s universal healthcare system remains a major social and economic asset. But years of tightly controlling costs have also left it with too few beds, too little resilience, burned-out health professionals and patients rationed through wait times. We may have made health care financially sustainable, but is it still sustainable from the perspective of the people who depend on it?

Sage contributors Peter Nicholson and Peter Wallace join host Allan Gregg to debate why reform has proved so difficult and what should come next. Can expanding the responsibilities of nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals improve access? Would private investment provide a much-needed safety valve—or merely siphon workers and easier cases out of the public system? And can AI and Canada’s vast stores of health data finally help spread better practices across hospitals and provinces?

Canadians need to reckon with growing wildfire footprints, including more frantic evacuations, more community destruction, and smoke infesting urban areas and even crossing international borders. As wildfires dominate the headlines, Sage explores the decades of misguided fire suppression practices, the complications from climate change, and the policy solutions available to resilient societies to both manage and combat the blazes,

Kelsey Winter, Executive Director at the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, and JP Gladu, an Anishinaabe leader from northwest Ontario educated as a forester, join Sage hosts Allan Gregg and Edward Greenspon to answer these questions and offer some surprising perspectives.

Please listen now on the podcast provider of your choice. And please subscribe to Sage and share with your network.

The affordability crisis goes well beyond the monthly inflation rate. It’s about cost of living, for sure, but also low productivity, stagnant wages, and wounded spirits. On the latest episode of the Sage Podcast, former Newfoundland and Labrador Finance Minister, Cathy Bennett and former B.C. Cabinet Secretary Don Wright join hosts Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg to talk over this unfolding economic, social, and political tragedy, and the staying power of rebate and subsidy responses. While governments need to focus on geopolitical threats, they risk long-term generational unrest if they don’t also get with the program on affordability.

Listen today to this essential discussion, and let your network know that Sage is digging into these big, hairy issues.

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Six months after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s landmark Davos speech turned him into an international “rock star,” how well is the vision managing contact with reality?

Janice Stein, Founding Director at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and trade and global-governance expert John Hancock join host Edward Greenspon to assess how the Davos vision is doing and probe its inherent contradictions and still-untapped potential. Can middle powers really work together—or is that idea actually “close to fantasy?” The conversation criss-crosses the globe, with stopovers in Washington, Beijing, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo, Seoul, Kyiv, Moscow, and back to Ottawa.

We hear that we’re living in a world in which controlling chokepoints - the Strait of Hormuz, critical mineral processing, semiconductors, AI, etc. - confers real power. Where’s Canada’s leverage? How do we get more? Where do our interests really lie?

Listen to a stimulating and scintillating conversation. If you enjoy the discussion - and you will - please share it with your friends and colleagues.

NATO’s leaders left Turkey declaring unity—but did the alliance emerge stronger, or simply avoid disaster? As allies commit to historic defence spending and Canada embarks on its biggest military procurement in history, is the country finally becoming a serious defence player? And has Ukraine gone from needing NATO to becoming indispensable to its future? Sage contributors Kerry Buck, Canada’s former ambassador to the alliance, and Senator Peter Harder join host Edward Greenspon to unpack what the summit achieved, what it left unsaid, and what Canada’s growing defence commitments mean for the future of the alliance.

In case you missed it, check out last week’s Sage Podcast, when Kerry Buck was joined by former Deputy Minister of National Defence and National Security Advisor Jody Thomas to discuss expectations ahead of the leaders’ summit in Turkey.

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As NATO leaders gather for their annual summit, attention will be on defence production and procurement as a unifying theme. The North Atlantic alliance is managing not just Donald Trump’s erraticism but also massive changes in the nature of warfare as well as the enormous economic impacts on members of conflict far from its borders.

Two Sage regulars, former Canadian Ambassador to NATO Kerry Buck and former National Security Advisor and Deputy Minister of Defence Jody Thomas, tell host Edward Greenspon that Canada comes to the table more committed and more appreciated than in decades. They argue that Canada’s greatest contribution lies in doubling down on our software strengths while the next step toward a 3.5% spending target needs to place greater emphasis on NATO’s role in defending the Arctic.

Nuclear power is back at the centre of Canada’s energy debate. AI is driving huge new demand for electricity, governments are racing to build, and Canada may have a rare advantage: CANDU technology, uranium, skilled workers, and decades of nuclear know-how. But can Canada turn that head start into a global industry? Can the public be brought along? And can nuclear become not just a source of power, but a nation-building project? Listen as nuclear experts Rick Anderson and Michelle Leslie join hosts Allan Gregg and Edward Greenspon to answer these questions and more!

The G7 was built for a different world, but this year’s gathering showed it’s far from dead yet. Fifty years on, it still tries to manage the biggest global risks: China, Ukraine, Iran, AI, critical minerals and “the boss” in the room, Donald Trump. Is the summit still a serious tool of global governance — or just simply an opportunity for keeping disruption from spinning out of control? Sage’s own Peter Harder, Marta Morgan and Miville Tremblay join host Allan Gregg to tackle these questions and more. Listen now!

Canada is putting policies in place to build at maximum speed. These Indigenous leaders, advisors to the Major Projects Office, tell hosts Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg too much speed could put the project at risk. That’s the $500-billion question: can Canada move quickly without alienating Indigenous rights holders? How? Are we on track?

Tune in!