You read that title right! It's not click-bait (not e n t i r e l y clickbait, that is).   

With Poilievre promising to fire the Governor of the central bank, use the notwithstanding clause to violate the constitutional rights of prisoners all while supporting illegal blockades and attempts to overthrow the legitimate government of Canada, we couldn't stay on the sidelines any longer. Skippy must be stopped, and on this, the twelfth episode of the Speech from the Throne podcasts, your hosts Jacob and Liam explain just how far they'll go to stop him.

After a sleeper of an election start, the leaders of Ontario's four major political parties gathered for yet another sleeper of an election debate. Fighting off their urge to slumber, Jacob and Liam dissect the message discipline (or lack thereof) for each of the four candidates, grasping at any straws they can find to explain why Del Duca and Horwath cannot seem to break through the impenetrable Ford wall. 

This campaign might be a snooze, but by gods, your hosts are determined to make sure this conversation won't be!

The final tally was a nail-biter: 51% to 49%, but the dead-even split was just enough to tip Kenney off the ledge. Now, the only question remaining is whether the UPC will follow its now former leader to another self-engineered disaster? Is the right in shambles with no one left to pick it up? Liam and Jacob try to chart a path all while making out the growing storms in their way. 

Utterly captivated and transfixed by SFTT’s previous Conservative Leadership Debate takedown, the podcast listeners of Canada anxiously await a sequel, a sequel Liam and Jacob are only too eager to deliver! After a demoralizing, catastrophic first unofficial debate, the Tories a theme all their own for this latest gongshow: totalitarian absurdism. 

Afraid of candidates talking over one another? Let's just shup them up entirely! Too many personal attacks? We'll use the triste trombone as a half-hearted censor. And that's not even mentioning Pierre's questionable reading materials... Your intrepid hosts discuss the debate that was, as well as glimpse at the debate that could have been, if only Brown or Charest had had the gumption to make it so. 

Meeting (minus a certain Patrick Brown) for their first, unofficial debate of the Conservative Leadership Race, CPC hopefuls accused one another of either not loving the Freedom Convoy enough or believing mainstream media too much. The one guy trying to pull the race towards some semblance of sanity? Yeah, he also worked with Huawei (and PP won't dare let you forget it!).

With 33 days until the June 2nd Ontario election, the clock is ticking for Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca and NDP stalwart Andrea Horwath to capture the public's imagination. With another PC mandate seemingly unavoidable, Jacob and Liam uncover what exactly went wrong for Ford's opposition as well as dream up the policy and tactical decisions which could put the Grits and Dippers back into contention. 

Are Red-Blue switchers the key to a Liberal comeback or do the anti-PC forces need to coalesce and work in tandem against a common foe? Should the opposition just sit around and shut up, waiting for Dougie to put his foot in his mouth? And whatever happened to the vaunted Buck-a-Beer strategy anyway? The SFTT regulars crack open a cold one and get down to finding answers. 

What the hell is going in Quebec?

For generations before the Quiet Revolution, Quebec found itself the backwater of Canada, a lonely fortress of poverty and ignorance. Since the 1960's, however, la belle province has opened up significantly to the outside world, with Quebecois culture making seismic impacts in arts and entertainment. But will this trend continue? Will Legault, Duhaime and perhaps even farther right elements in Quebecois politics and society force the province back towards its isolationism of the past? Does a growing intolerance towards ethnic and religious outsiders overseas in France bode poorly for the future of minorities in Quebec? Special guests Chris Curtis and Anaïs Elboujdaïni will discuss in our most heated episode yet! 

Chris Curtis is an independent journalist based in Montreal and founder of the online newsite the Rover. You can check it out here: https://rover.substack.com/

Anaïs Elboujdaïni is a reporter with the Francophone network Noovo. See her most recent coverage of the papal apology to indigenous Canadians at: https://www.noovo.info/nouvelle/vatican-le-pape-rencontre-des-autochtones-canadiens-a-compter-de-lundi.html

Between April 18 and 19, 2020, twenty-two people were killed and three injured in Canada's largest mass shooting. RCMP knew from almost the very beginning that the killer was driving a replica police cruiser in a deadly rampage across rural Nova Scotia, but they never sent out an emergency broadcast and only warned the public of the shooter's vehicle until much too late. Now, as a public inquiry seeks to determine how much, if any, bloodshed could have been prevented by a more competent police response, Jacob and Liam discuss what we, as Canadians, should expect from our national police service and whether our politicians have the correct policy and communication tools at their disposal to meet those expectations.

Liam lays out the shooting in close (and graphic) detail. If you prefer, listeners can skip to 21:30 for a wider discussion on the consequences (and lessons for the future) of this terrible tragedy. 

April 9th was the day Alberta was to be saved from the long, terrible reign of the tyrant Kenney. Now, it seems it could only be the beginning of a whole new nightmare. Is the premier correct when he hints of "lunatics trying to run the asylum"? Who are these lunatics exactly, and how can they be combated before they seize in the reins in an increasing tense prairie politics? How can the rest of Canada manage an Alberta in decline? Jacob and Liam dissect.

Former Co-Chair of the federal NDP Women's Commission Bethany Drader joins Liam and Jacob on the pod to discuss the new Supply and Confidence agreement between the Liberals and New Democrats while examining the ongoing struggle for women and minority representation in politics.