Friday Focus: A crisis in Ottawa - Canada as the 51st state?

Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths, Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates.

The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus.

Rudyard and Janice open the show with the surprising events out of Ottawa this week: finance minister Chrystia Freeland resigning in a blistering rebuke of the Prime Minister just hours before she was due to present the fall economic statement. What is next for the embattled Justin Trudeau? And what happens if the country is forced to wait through months of a liberal leadership race without a functioning government to face the existential challenges from the incoming Trump administration? In the second half of the show Rudyard and Janice talk about Trump's joke that Canada should become America's 51st state. Should Canadians take Trump's joke as a serious threat? Is this the beginning of a sinister plan to bring Canada into the US?

To access full-length editions of the Friday Focus podcast consider becoming a donor to the Munk Debates for as little as $25 annually, or $.50 per episode. Canadian donors receive a charitable tax receipt.

This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue.

More information at www.munkdebates.com.