The Paul Wells Show

k.d. lang reflects on her four decade-long musical career, which may have reached its end. “All music tends towards silence and I have to honour the silence,” she tells Paul in an open and wide-ranging conversation in Calgary.

We originally released this episode in March, 2023.

Today, we're sharing an episode from our friends at the podcast WONK, which Paul appeared on this week.

Paul talks to host Amanda Lang about some surprising shifts in the wake of the federal election, including an easing of the 'ever-deepening animosity' that’s become a trademark of politics, evidence of a common understanding of what's good for Canada and why we should be grateful Trump isn’t better at his job. 

Two top Liberal advisors and one Conservative MP look back at the election. 

Andrew Bevan was the national campaign director for the Liberal Party. Gerald Butts was a senior advisor to the Carney campaign and formally acted as Justin Trudeau's principal secretary. 

Scott Aitchison is the MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka.

Someday we should probably sit down and have a talk about election platforms. Count this week’s instalment of The Panel as a down payment on that conversation.

Platforms are weird: if you release yours on Easter Saturday, after the television debates are already over, and a month after the election campaign started, your body language doesn’t say “Key piece of voter information.” But nobody dares not release one.

Anyway, we’ve got Allison Gifford, Marci Surkes and Jason Lietaer to discuss the platforms, the debates, and the home stretch of this fascinating campaign.

This week is mostly about Quebec. Sorry, people who get bugged by that. The Conservative and Liberal leaders were on Tout le monde en parle, the only talk show in either official language that’s a must-attend for the Carneys and Poilievres of this world. On Wednesday they’ll be at the French-language leaders’ debate, followed by the Thursday English-language debate, both in Montreal. (The leaders of the emergency back-up parties will join them.) Mark Carney, at least, decided to stay in the Montreal area between TLMEP and Wednesday. Poilievre had Montreal events on Monday too. Our Panel also discusses Carney’s habit of putting his campaign up on blocks so he can return to Ottawa and be prime ministerial every time Donald Trump does the sort of thing Donald Trump would do; and the tendency of both major-party leaders to go on quirky offbeat lifestyle podcasts where nobody ever asks a backup question or points out a contradiction. Mostly I’m the one who wanted to talk about that last part. Our Panel, once again, is Conservative Jason Lietaer, New Democrat Allison Gifford, and Liberal Marci Surkes. And they’re the best. Enjoy.

We are living in "the age of coercion," says Michael Wernick. The former Clerk of the Privy Council talks about what the civil service (and the government) will be up against after the election.

Geoff Meggs, former Chief of Staff to B.C. Premier John Horgan , weighs in on drug policy on the campaign trail and the unique politics of British Columbia. You can hear more of Geoff Meggs on the Hotel Pacifico podcast. 

And Shannon Proudfoot, feature writer in the Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau, trades notes with Paul on the first few weeks of the election. Is Poilievre failing to respond to the moment? And how much can Carney separate himself from Trudeau's legacy?

Surely by now you've learned to mistrust an empty schedule. Time for my weekly campaign meeting with The Panel — Marci Surkes, Allison Gifford, Jason Lietaer — to discuss the strangest federal election in many years. On paper, it’s a quiet week. Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement was last week, the leaders’ debates are more than a week in the future. But while we’re still lousy at predicting surprises, I think we’re better than we used to be at realizing surprises are bound to happen. This week’s instalment ends with bonus minority-government speculation. Who’s got friends? Who can keep them? Will the NDP even control the balance of power?