In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on November 28th, 2025, your hosts start with the biggest story of the week before veering off into a surprisingly long but very entertaining tangent about seafood and the possible unsustainability of our entire civilization. Trust us, it’s a good one.

They do eventually get to the Memorandum of Understanding signed this week between Ottawa and Alberta. Both hosts agree it ended up being a solid week for Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. They also wonder whether it somehow turned into a good week for Steven Guilbeault, who is now out of Carney’s cabinet. Did Guilbeault’s decision to walk away mark the moment more Liberals finally realized the Trudeau era is really, truly over? Matt also notes that Carney can’t keep offering everyone carrots; sooner or later, someone is going to need to get the stick. And he names the province he thinks should be made example of ... to encourage the others, of course.

From there, the conversation shifts to Matt’s recent trip to the Halifax International Security Forum. He’s working on a series of columns about it that will begin rolling out soon, but he shares a few early stories — all circling the theme of America having ghosted the world, and how some Americans, bless them, still think this is something they can fix quickly after a midterm or the next election. Matt isn’t convinced.

He also has a few thoughts about the relative cleanliness of some Canadian cities he has visited lately. Halifax, you’re looking good.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Like and subscribe, and check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca.

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Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson had a sit-down chat with Ross Douthat, a columnist with the New York Times who was in Ottawa this week to deliver the inaugural Ian Shugart Lecture, hosted by Christian think tank Cardus. (Jen was also at the conference.) Jen presses Ross on his now-infamous column from earlier this year arguing that Canada should “join Empire America” — and why he thinks that idea was worth advancing. Gerson and Douthat dig into why that column hit such a nerve, what Ross was actually arguing, and how Canadians misunderstand both American politics and themselves. They explore the themes behind his Ottawa lecture, including the shifting religious and political landscape in the United States, and how those shifts ripple north of the border.

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The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]

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In the latest episode of On The Line, host Jen Gerson sits down with Ross Douthat, a columnist with the New York Times who was in Ottawa this week to deliver the inaugural Ian Shugart Lecture, hosted by Christian think tank Cardus. Jen presses Ross on his now-infamous column from earlier this year arguing that Canada should “join Empire America” — and why he thinks that idea was worth advancing.

Gerson and Douthat dig into why that column hit such a nerve, what Ross was actually arguing, and how Canadians misunderstand both American politics and themselves. They explore the themes behind his Ottawa lecture, including the shifting religious and political landscape in the United States, and how those shifts ripple north of the border.

The conversation then turns to the rise of Christian nationalism. What does this movement really represent? Why is it gaining traction? And what do Canadians — especially those who comment on American politics — get right, and very likely wrong, about its causes and its future?

You can find more of Ross Douthat’s work in the New York Times, on the podcast The Argument, and in his books, including The Decadent Society.

New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.

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And plenty more options here.

We hope you enjoy the episode — and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]

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In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on November 21st, 2025, both of your hosts are on the road, and both of them bring stories and observations from where they’re visiting.

This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.

We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.

First up, Jen Gerson joins us from Ottawa, where she’s at the Cardus conference talking about issues of faith and values in Canadian public life. Your hosts get into a long conversation about what “values” actually mean in a Canadian context, how they show up (or don’t) in public policy, and where we might look to find them.

They also talk a bit about fighter jets, but that’s neither here nor there.

From there, the episode shifts into a deeper discussion about immigration. The Conservatives have rolled out some proposals that both your hosts think are reasonable, but the larger conversation becomes one about national identity. What is Canada’s sales proposition, and what are we asking new Canadians to adopt as part of becoming Canadian? There’s a lot to unpack, including a few shared worries.

Last up, Matt Gurney dives into an interesting — and overdue — development in Canadian health care. And yes, it ties right back into the values theme, making this a rare three-segment through line.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Like and subscribe, and check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca.

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Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney chatted with Dan Seljak about issues where the left and right can come together to save our cities, and also with John Wright, about a Canadian war hero whose story you’ve probably never heard.

Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]

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In the latest episode of On The Line, Matt Gurney welcomes two very different guests for two very different conversations — and both of them are well worth your time.

This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.

We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.

The episode opens with a wide-ranging chat with Dan Seljak, who joins Matt to unpack an issue that somehow turned into a strangely complicated political fight in Toronto. The whole thing should have been simple: should the city allow small retail outlets inside residential neighbourhoods? Most of us grew up with corner stores, coffee shops, and little walk-in places woven into the communities around us. But Toronto’s own governance rules have made these kinds of businesses nearly impossible to open, and the city has been steadily losing the ones it still has.

Dan set out originally to save one small store that committed the terrible sin of … selling coffee to customers. What followed was an unexpectedly intense battle to protect all the remaining shops and to make space for new ones. Dan talks about how he found himself pulled into the fight, what it revealed about the way cities make decisions, and why something so basic became so hard. He and Matt dig into a bigger question, too: how did urban governance in Canada become so tangled that even the simple things are impossible to achieve? This isn’t a left-right issue — there’s a surprising amount of agreement across political lines — and yet nothing gets done. How did we box ourselves into this, and how do we get out?

You can read more from Dan, and keep up with his work, at Another Glass Box.

After Dan, John Wright joins the show. John is a long-time friend of The Line and has been involved in a campaign to raise public awareness about a once-celebrated Canadian military hero who has almost disappeared from our national memory. He and Matt pick up the thread from last week’s discussion about Remembrance Day on The Line Podcast, exploring why these stories fade and why they matter. John also shares a quick update on his own professional world — and it’s worth sticking around for. For more information about John’s new venture, go here. To learn more about the RCAF Foundation, go here.

New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.

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We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected].

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In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded one day early on November 13th, 2025 — and yes, your hosts are aware they’re tempting the wrath of the news gods every time they do that — Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson dive into the story that continues to reverberate this week: what happens when MPs decide to leave their party?

This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.

We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.

Jen makes a spirited defence of crossing the floor. Matt agrees, in part, but notes that whatever the theoretical ideal of voting for the candidate over the party might be, the reality is that we’re stuck with the voters we have, and they tend to vote for the party first and the candidate second.

They also discuss, as an interesting counterexample, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who isn’t having any difficulty criticizing his own party from within it. He’s obviously not thrilled about being dropped from cabinet, but it’s noteworthy how comfortable certain disaffected voices seem to be operating inside both the Conservative and Liberal caucuses. They don’t know if that tells us more about the parties or about the individual MPs involved, but it’s interesting.

Lastly, they turn to November 11th, collective memory, obligation, and the limits of lived experience when it comes to learning from history. It’s a more intimate and reflective discussion than usual, but one they think you’ll enjoy. And they’d love to hear from you in the comments: what was Remembrance Day like in your community this year? Matt was struck by how quiet it felt in Toronto, and he’s hoping that was just because of the very early blast of lousy winter weather that has befallen the Centre of the Universe.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Like and subscribe, and check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca.

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Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson spoke with Matt Spoke of Project Ontario on their efforts to start a new, more conservative alternative to Doug Ford.

Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]

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This week on On The Line, Jen Gerson sits down with entrepreneur and policy advocate Matt Spoke to talk about Project Ontario — a new movement of small-c conservatives who say Doug Ford’s government has lost its way. Spoke argues that after more than seven years in power, Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are governing like Liberals: spending more than ever, doling out billions in corporate subsidies, and failing to fix core problems in housing, health care, and education.

This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.

We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.

The conversation dives into the numbers — sluggish growth, stalled housing starts, and a province now leading the country in corporate handouts. Spoke explains why Ontario’s policy choices are driving people out of the province, why school boards have drifted toward activism instead of academics, and how competition and parental choice could push the system back toward better outcomes.

The pair close with a look at Ford’s enduring popularity and whether it can last. Is this a call for the premier to course-correct — or the beginning of a broader conservative renewal in Ontario? Tune in for a candid, numbers-driven look at what’s gone wrong, and what might come next. To learn more about Matt’s project, go to ProjectOntario.ca.

New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.

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And plenty more options here.

We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected].

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In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on November 7, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson react to a remarkably busy week in Canadian politics.

This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.

We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.

They start with the Mark Carney government. Matt’s self-imposed six-month grace period for judging the new prime minister has expired, and he’s ready to weigh in: better than Trudeau, but not good enough for the moment. Jen is slightly more patient but, somehow, even sharper in her take — especially when it comes to Carney’s recent apology to Donald Trump, which she finds baffling and unnecessary. And enraging.

This episode is also brought to you by CPA Ontario. There’s a saying: “Keep it simple,” and what’s true for life is true for taxes. And while this week’s historic federal budget introduced some much-needed tax measures to help spur investment and innovation, there is still more work to be done to make Canada’s tax system less complex, and more competitive.

Just ask a CPA. In a recent survey, 84 per cent of Ontario CPAs said Canada’s tax system is overly complex. They know how complexity drains resources from productive activity, and how high tax rates discourage investment and entrepreneurship, the very things Canada needs. Consider the numbers: real GDP per capita has barely grown in seven years and investment per worker in Canada is less than half that of the U.S.

Complexity has a cost, and Canadians are paying it. Our sponsor, CPA Ontario, the regulator of over 105,000 Chartered Professional Accountants, has released a report putting forward 20 bold, practical recommendations to reform Canada’s tax system, and simplify the Income Tax Act. The 2025 Budget was a step forward — but more reform is needed to grow the economy, create jobs, and raise living standards.

Learn more at cpaontario.ca/taxreform

Then attention turns to the Conservatives, where Pierre Poilievre’s week has gone from bad to worse. Two MPs have walked away, and the question now is whether this is an isolated hiccup or the start of a real leadership problem. Matt and Jen point out that without the wind of inevitable victory at his back, Poilievre will need to rely on charm and political skill — qualities not generally considered his strong suit.

The episode wraps with a wide-ranging discussion on what “woke” and “feminism” actually mean in 2025, and how those words have evolved. Jen is workshopping a new column on the topic, and Matt is clearly looking forward to reading it.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.

YouTube:

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Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney spoke with Alberta-based lawyer and law professor Peter Sankoff about whether people who are non-citizens of Canada should have their immigration status factored into sentencing if they are convicted of a crime.

Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]

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In this episode of On The Line, host Matt Gurney sits down with Peter Sankoff, a Alberta-based criminal defence lawyer and law professor, to talk about one of the country’s more heated current debates: should non-citizens receive legal leniency in criminal cases to avoid disrupting their immigration status?

This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.

We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.

For context, recent cases have seen judges issue lighter sentences, or defence lawyers argue for them, so that a non-citizen resident of Canada wouldn’t face deportation. These decisions have sparked controversy and political backlash. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner has even tabled a private member’s bill that would prevent judges from taking immigration status into account when handing down sentences.

Matt supported the proposal on Twitter; Peter disagreed. After a spirited exchange online, Peter remarked that the issue was better suited to long-form discussion than social media — so Matt invited him on the show. Together they dig into the controversy itself, why Peter believes judicial discretion is essential and already well-established, and also, moral and fair. Matt points out what he thinks are inconsistencies and blind spots in that argument — the kind that can come from being too close to an issue.

But while they disagree on specifics, both men share a broader concern: that public faith in the justice system is eroding, and not without reason. Peter offers some ideas for how the system could regain public trust.

You can learn more about Peter’s work at Sankoff Criminal Law and his educational platform Criminal Defence Essentials, or find him on LinkedIn.

New episodes of On The Line drop every Tuesday. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.

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And plenty more options here.

We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected].

Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on October 31, 2025 — spooky! — your hosts take on the big political issues in Canada today, including, God help us, the prospect of a federal election. They don’t think it’s likely, but they do think it’s possible.

This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.

We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.

After that, they turn to the latest turbulence in U.S.–Canada relations. It’s been another difficult week. Both hosts hope the situation might finally knock some sense into our political leaders — though Matt Gurney warns Jen Gerson that Canadians may be almost immune to having sense knocked into them.

This episode is also brought to you by CPA Ontario. If you’re looking for a good scare this Halloween, you should check out Canada’s economic numbers. Our GPD per capita is down, our business investment is down and so is our labour productivity. But if there is one thing Chartered Professional Accountants understand, it’s numbers.

Tax Reform for Growth in Canada, a recent report from our CPA Ontario, puts forward 20 pro-growth recommendations from CPAs and experts on reforming Canada’s tax system to make our economy more competitive.

For example? Canada gets 37 per cent of its total government revenue from individual taxes, 13 per cent higher than peer countries on average. Meanwhile, 22 per cent of Canada’s total tax revenue is from consumption taxes like the GST, while other peer countries average 32 per cent. This means that Canada relies too heavily on the types of taxes that hurt economic growth the most.

Eighty eight per cent of CPAs believe reforming our tax system is important. With the federal budget just days away, Canada can’t be afraid to take bold action. Visit cpaontario.ca/taxreform to learn more.

Finally, Jen gets everyone caught up on the fallout from Alberta’s recent teachers’ strike and notes that Danielle Smith took an awfully big swing to bring it to an end. We’ll see how that works out for her.

All that and more in this week’s episode of The Line Podcast. Check us out at ReadTheLine.ca.

YouTube:

Video goes live in 30 minutes!

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And plenty more options here.

Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson spoke with Dr. André Gagné, a theology professor at Concordia University and author of American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times, for an analysis of the religious statements of Peter Thiel — the Palantir CEO, multi-billionaire, and deeply influential figure in both Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s orbit.

Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected]

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In this episode of On The Line, host Jen Gerson is joined by Dr. André Gagné, a theology professor at Concordia University and author of American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times.

Together, they dive into the curious case of Peter Thiel — the Palantir CEO, multi-billionaire, and deeply influential figure in both Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s orbit. Thiel has recently been on a tear, warning that anti-AI activists, Greta Thunberg, and just about anyone who disagrees with him politically are aligned with “the anti-Christ.”

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So what exactly does that mean? What is the anti-Christ, Biblically speaking? Are Thiel’s warnings remotely theologically sound — or is something else going on here? Jen and Dr. Gagné unpack the religious, political, and cultural forces shaping the modern Evangelical movement in America, and why it’s increasingly blending faith, conspiracy, and power.

All that and more, today On The Line.

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