The much anticipated budget is finally here and it promises to make "Canada Strong."

Between the eye-popping promise to enable $1 trillion dollars in investments over the next five years and the $78.3 billion deficit, there’s a lot to take in.

And that’s before we get into the really critical stuff… like maybe Canada will try to join Eurovision for some reason? (We don't talk about Eurovision at all).

Today on The Hatchet, Jordan sits down with Arshy to break down the budget and try to make sense of what this all means for Canada.

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The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

So last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith used the notwithstanding clause to force Alberta teachers back to work.

It’s the first time the notwithstanding clause has ever been used in this kind of a manner to end a labour action. And that’s led to some softening of support for Danielle Smith.

But here’s the truth. The latest polls show that if an election were held today, Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party would still easily come out on top.

Why is that? How is Smith’s appeal so resilient? And why the hell can’t Naheed Nenshi and the Alberta NDP get their s**t together?

Well, luckily for us, Jeremy Appel from The Orchard is here to answer those questions and many more.

A few months ago we had a great discussion with Jen Gerson about the unique political figure that is Danielle Smith and her relationship with Alberta’s nascent sovereignty movement. You can think of this conversation with Jeremy as a bit of a sequel to that one.

We talk about some of the underlying reasons behind the teacher’s strike, Smith’s continued flirtation with separatism, how she holds her coalition together with culture wars, the return of pipeline politics and of course, the many failures of Alberta’s NDP.

Now just for context, this was recorded before Smith invoked the notwithstanding clause, but the discussion is still just as relevant today.

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The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

In 1965, Canada’s postal workers did something so radical, so unprecedented, that it shook our country’s political establishment to the core.

They went on strike.

It was radical and unprecedented because up until then public employees had no right to walk off the job. But for two weeks, postal workers conducted an illegal wildcat action which, by the end of it, saw them winning the right to strike for almost all government workers.

Over the next few decades, you’d see the same pattern time and time again. In the 1970s, union leaders were jailed for defying back-to-work legislation. And in 1981, the union won the right for paid-maternity leave, a first for the public sector, and a right that would gradually expand to many other workers.

In other words, you can attribute many of our labour rights, and even key planks of the welfare state, to the resolve of posties past.

But the age of the noble postal worker appears to be coming to an end. The Liberal government announced major cuts to Canada Post’s core services last months.

And I know what you’re thinking.

This was all inevitable, wasn’t it?

After all, who sends letters nowadays? Maybe once-upon-a-time Canada needed a public mail service, but those days are long behind us. And sure, we’re all sad for the thousands of those people at Canada Post who will be laid off, but that’s just the way of the world.

That’s the narrative that you’re hearing regurgitated in comment sections across the internet and in quotes from business professors to the mainstream press.

But the ongoing labour dispute between Canada Post and its workers is far more complicated, and far more important, than that simplistic story.

Instead this is a story about the hollowing out of the Canadian state. About the gigification of work. About how the managerial class places their need to control workers over the viability of the actual businesses that they run.

So to talk about it all, we’re bringing on Adam D.K. King, a labour studies professor at the University of Manitoba and a labour columnist for The Maple, who has been following this story for years.

Featured in this episode: Adam D.K. King

To learn more

"Canada Post’s Moment Of Reckoning May Finally Be Here" by Adam D.K. King in The Maple

"Return to Sender: As Canada Post evades bankruptcy, workers push back on a future where efficiency trumps the collective" by Stephan Boissonneault in Maisonneuve

"Liberal government instructs Canada Post to end home delivery, close some post offices" Peter Zimonjic in CBC News

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The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

I think it’s kind of funny how we talk about election campaigns while they’re in progress. Between the polling and the poll aggregators, there’s often a feeling of inevitability to the result.

But it also makes those times when the result is unexpected, when the actual will of the voters turns out to be very different from what the polls and the pundits predicted, to stand out in stark relief.

We got one of those last week.

The polls that were conducted in Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial election campaign showed that the incumbent Liberals were set to handily win another majority, which would have been their fourth victory in a row. The only question seemed to be how big their victory would be.

But it was not to be.

The Progressive Conservatives, led by the mild-mannered Tony Wakeham, prevailed, rendering John Hogan a half-year premier.

But really, all of this has just been a capper to an incredibly strange year in Newfoundland and Labrador politics.

It started when Premier Andrew Furey announced that he and Quebec premier François Legault had created a framework for a new deal around Churchill Falls. Since 1969, Newfoundland and Labrador has provided unbelievably cheap energy to Quebec from Churchill Falls. The lopsided arrangement has been a thorn-in-the-side for the province ever since.

We talked about this all in-depth earlier this year in an episode about Churchill Falls.

But not long after announcing this new deal, Furey resigned. With no explanation.

The PC’s election victory has put the Churchill Falls deal, which was the centrepiece of the Liberal campaign, into question.

So what does all of this mean for Newfoundland and Labrador, for Churchill Falls and for the country during a testy time for Confederation?

I decided to call up friend of The Hatchet Ed Hollett, one of the keenest political observers on the Rock, to talk about it all.

Featured in this episode: Edward Hollett (Bond Papers)

To learn more

The Hundred Years' War between Newfoundland and Quebec from The Hatchet

"Easy grift and hard graft" by Edward Hollet in Bond Papers

"Red Team. Blue Team." by Edward Hollet in Bond Papers

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The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

Why can’t the government do stuff?

I’m not being facetious here. I think most Canadians — in fact, most people who live in western democracies — have a feeling that their governments are incapable of actually delivering on projects or providing services.

But it wasn’t always this way. There was an era, not so far back in the future, when the Canadian governments turned petrochemicals into plastics, dug uranium out of the ground, operated airlines and railroads and so much more.

But today, governments seem to be focused exclusively on two things: handing out money to big businesses and overseeing an increasingly fraying social safety net.

So how exactly did we get here?

Nora Loreto has part of the answer. Earlier this year, she released the second book in her Canada in Decline series called Corporate Control.

In it, she details the policy decisions that hollowed out the Canadian government and makes it next-to-impossible to actually get anything done.

In our conversation, we cover a lot of ground, from free trade to the Chrétien/Martin austerity budgets, the rise and fall of Crown corporations and why governments don’t care about Canadian culture.

I think it’s really one of the most interesting discussions we’ve had on this show so far, so I’m excited for you all to give it a listen.

Featured in this episode: Nora Loreto

To Learn More

Corporate Control by Nora Loreto

"What Canadian nationalism?" by Nora Loreto on Substack

The Social Safety Net by Nora Loreto

Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com

The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

Back a few years ago, there was this moment where it felt like there was a movement building against monopolies.

It started in the United States with academics like Lena Khan and Tim Wu and journalists like Matt Stoller speaking out about the creeping corporate concentration that was infecting so much of American life.

Eventually that movement found purchase in the Biden administration, which put antitrust at the centre of their agenda.

And because Canada is always a little bit behind the United States, we got our own version of that movement. And in a weird way, Jordan and I were both a part of that, when in 2022 and 2023 we put out our series on Monopolies on Canadaland COMMONS.

It really felt like momentum was building and that everyday people were getting more and more upset about the domination of the big banks and the big telcos and the big grocery chains.

But recently, it’s felt like that momentum has kind of….gone away. And there’s still plenty of people working on this issues here, but at least in terms of journalism, the trade war and the Trump administration and a million other things seem to have distracted away from what I still believe is such an essential issue.

And that’s why I was so excited to get an email from Peter Nowak a few months ago. He said he had an idea and wanted to talk.

Now for those of you don’t know Peter, he’s a longtime journalist who has done some amazing work over the years.

When I was getting interested in business reporting more than a decade ago, Peter was one of the best out there. His main focus was the telecom industry. And that was a really interesting time for the telecoms. The Harper government was actually putting some pressure on them and had appointed an aggressive CRTC commissioner instead of just the usual corporate toady.

And Peter was a dogged reporters covering all of this and was honestly a bit of an inspiration for me. He was the kind of journalist that I one day wanted to be. But he’d gone off to work at tech savvy, a small internet service provider, a few years back, so I thought he was out of the game.

So I was really excited when he told me that not only did he want to get back into journalism, but that he saw our Monopoly series on COMMONS as his primary inspiration.

You know, when you hear that kind of thing from someone you really admire, it’s pretty damn flattering. But more than that, I just think it’s so important, so necessary right now to have dedicated journalists on the monopoly beat.

This week, Peter has finally launched his own Substack called Do Not Pass Go, the first two episodes are out already, and you should absolutely go subscribe and give it a listen.

And we wanted to sit down to talk to him about reporting on monopolies, what he has in store and why he always forces himself to drive to another city just to watch a movie.

Featured in this episode: Peter Nowak

To Learn More

Do Not Pass Go: The Debut Episode

The Great Awakening: Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell

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The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

Vancouver is a funny place.

It’s without a doubt the most beautiful city in the country, probably also the continent and maybe even the world — at least when the sun’s shining. The rainy season, which lasts around eight months of the year, can turn it into a dreary, inescapable limbo.

It’s a place filled luxury car dealerships, high-end watch stores and other markers of flamboyant wealth. But also absolutely heart-wrenching displays of visible poverty.

Vancouverites are simultaneously proud of their city, and often deeply insecure about how it compares to other metropolises.

It’s also, I’d argue, deeply misunderstood by the rest of the country.

Strangely enough, Vancouver, and British Columbia more broadly, are left out of the national conversation, despite its population, economic importance and unique political culture.

There’s this conversation I always have with my journalism friends from BC about how whatever’s happening in Vancouver eventually ends up becoming the rest of the country’s problem. You’ve seen that over and over again, whether it’s about the housing crisis or debates around drug use or crime.

And so I figured, why not just bring one of those friends on to have that discussion right here on The Hatchet.

Last week I was at a wedding in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where I was able to corner my old friend and CBC Vancouver’s municipal reporter Justin McElroy, and bully him into being on the show.

For the British Columbians in the audience, Justin really needs no introduction. He is by almost any measure one of the best-known journalists in the province. And he’s gained this enormous cult following, not just through his reporting or his penchant for ranking things, but because he has an almost uncanny ability to make people care about the things that he cares about.

And in addition to being one of my oldest friends, Justin is also the man who taught me how to be a journalist more than fifteen years ago.

In this conversation, we talk a little bit about Justin’s erstwhile fame, and then give listeners a full political education in all things Vancouver and why the rest of the country should be paying for attention.

And after that, for our paid supporters, we have a little something extra. Justin and I do some reminiscing about the good old days, when we worked together at The Ubyssey, UBC’s student newspaper. So if you want to hear about how I forced Justin to resign as editor of the newspaper, whether or not I was a decent roommate or the time we were in an honest-to-god zombie apocalypse, make sure to become a paid supporter today.

Featured in this episode: Justin McElroy

To Learn More:

"B.C. government says more oversight coming for dysfunctional municipalities" by Justin McElroy in CBC News

"Vancouver's byelection a story of big lines, big passion, and ABC coping with a big loss" by Justin McElroy in CBC News

The Four Pillars Revisited by Sam Fenn and Gordon Katic in The Tyee

Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com

The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

This episode is available immediately to paid supporters. For unpaid supporters, we're providing a short preview. Please consider supporting us at hatchetmedia.substack.com

The Canadian Pacific created a nation. But it also destroyed nations in the process.

This is our third and final episode in our series about the building of the CPR and the foundation of Canada. And at the heart of this story is an unescapable question — what did it cost to create this country? And who paid that terrible price?

In the years after Confederation, Canada signed treaties with numerous Indigenous nations on the plains, promising aid in the event of a famine. But when the buffalo were slaughtered into extinction, the Canadian government was unable — or unwilling — to fulfill its treaty obligations.

At the same time, the CPR was facing financial ruin. And if it fell, Canada as an independent political entity would almost certainly cease to exist.

Famine, disease, economic collapse — all of these calamities came to a head in 1885, the single most significant year in Canadian history.

Which is when Louis Riel rose up once again.

Featured in this episode: Stephen Bown

To Learn More:

Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada by Stephen Bown

The Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain by Dukesang Wong, David McIlwraith & Wanda Joy Hoe

The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation by Jean Teillet

The National Dream

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The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

This episode is available immediately to paid supporters. For unpaid supporters, we're providing a short preview. Please consider supporting us at hatchetmedia.substack.com

There’s a story we like to tell ourselves about how Canada was built. It’s about John A. Macdonald’s fearless vision and how Canadians across the continent came together in a noble quest to create a nation.

And then there’s what actually happened.

This is the second instalment in our series on the Canadian Pacific Railroad and the founding of Canada. Paid supporters can listen to it immediately. And if you aren’t already supporting us, please consider joining The Hatchet family, it’s only $11 a month.

In this episode, we're looking at what happens when the most powerful politician in the land gets into bed with the richest man in the country. And how the workers caught in the wake of their machinations end up paying the price.

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald promised to build a railroad that would unite Canada, and went so far as to rig an election to get his way. But the robber barons who financed his corruption ended up turning on him. They blackmailed Canada’s first prime minister and plunged the country into a crisis.

And after the rich and powerful were done destroying each other, thousands of workers risked life and limb to build an industrial marvel that would benefit everyone except them. Many of the men who crossed an ocean to do this work wouldn’t make it home alive. And even those who survived saw their rights stripped away, year after year.

This is the story of how Canada was really built — political corruption, exploitation and a willingness to sacrifice everyday people at the altar of the progress.

Sound familiar?

The final episode in our series will be available to paid supporters tomorrow.

Featured in this episode: Stephen Bown

To Learn More:

Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada by Stephen Bown

The Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain by Dukesang Wong, David McIlwraith & Wanda Joy Hoe

The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation by Jean Teillet

The National Dream

Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com

The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

Most countries have a founding myth of some kind, a moment in time that serves as an anchor for the grand national story.

For the United States, it’s the American Revolution and the founding of the republic. France’s history goes back centuries, but their national narrative begins with the storming of the Bastille. Which is why Bastille Day is their most important holiday.

England has the Norman invasion and the Battle of Hastings. And Mexicans usually trace their history back to the fall of Tenochtitlan.

But Canada, as usual, is strange.

Some will inevitably point to the Charlottetown and Quebec City conferences as the moment when our national story begins. And sure, that may be where the idea of Confederation was born. But the country that emerged was simply a union of what are today only four of our provinces.

The real Canada, the one made up of a massive landmass that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across the entire length of the North American continent, the country we have today, wasn’t born on July 1st, 1867. That nation came into existence on November 7, 1885, when the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven into the ground at Craigellachie, British Columbia.

It seems fitting to me that Canada wasn’t created out of some spirit of revolutionary zeal or war of conquest or high-minded ideal.

Instead, our grand national story is about an industrial project.

And I find that apt. Because the story of the CPR truly does speak to what it means to be a Canadian. You can see so many of the themes of our history, so much of what it means to be Canadian, in this monumental endeavour.

There’s the resistance to the American behemoth. The taming of a wild, unforgiving landscape. The ingenuity and persistence and grit of thousands of Canadians working together to build one of the greatest marvels of the industrial age.

But there’s also the unparalleled corporate and political corruption. Labour exploitation on a scale that’s hard to fathom. And the utter subjugation of the Indigenous peoples of this land.

And all of that put together is what makes the story of the construction of the CPR a fitting foundational myth for Canada.

So on this episode of The Hatchet, at a time when Canadian nationalism is peaking, we’re going to lay out the true story of the Canadian Pacific Railway in all of its glorious and gory detail. In order to bring us closer to an honest understanding of who we are as a nation, for good and for ill.

Featured in this episode: Stephen Bown

To Learn More:

Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada by Stephen Bown

The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation by Jean Teillet

The National Dream

The Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain by Dukesang Wong, David McIlwraith & Wanda Joy Hoe

Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com

The Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.

Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque