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It was late in the game, and the United Conservative Party was set to lose the Alberta election, when it finally discovered a way to win over voters and eke out a victory. The secret? Being just moderate enough to comfort city people and just conservative enough for everyone else, as former federal Conservative MP and Alberta public affairs consultant Monte Solberg tells Brian Lilley this week. If Danielle Smith can manage to keep that up, Solberg explains, the NDP might never have as good a chance to govern again. (Recorded June 1, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A cargo container filled with millions in gold and valuables landed at Toronto’s international airport one day this past April. Then it vanished. Weeks later, police haven’t found it. Scott Andrew Selby, co-author of Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History, has studied sophisticated high-stakes robberies. He joins Brian Lilley this week to discuss what we know about how the recent Pearson heist went down, what the thieves might be doing to stay one step ahead of the cops — and other criminals after their loot — and what their odds are of getting away with the haul. (Recorded May 18, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did we end up with a new passport design that replaces stirring images of Canadian identity — Nellie McClung, Terry Fox, the Mounties, and Vimy — with vapid graphics of squirrels, autumn leaves and snowmen? The problem lies in our classrooms, prominent Canadian historian David Bercuson tells Brian Lilley this week. Canada has a great deal to be proud of in our history, says Bercuson, but generations of students are being taught instead to focus on a few stains. Fortunately, we have the power to change that — if we choose to. (Recorded May 18, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The traditional ways of dealing with our dead are running into problems. Cities are running out of space for cemeteries. Cremation and burial are being shunned for their environmental damage. And there’s a huge wave of boomers running out of time. Ian Sutton, author of The Big Exit, joins host Brian Lilley to discuss the trouble of dealing with so many humans dying off, and the creative alternatives being explored — including feeding us to mushrooms, blowing us into space, crushing us up, and putting us to sleep with the fishes. (Recorded April 20, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Natalie MacLean broke out of the Ottawa tech scene to become a globally celebrated wine writer, travelling the world, paid to drink, she thought she had everything she could want. Then, like a glass toppling off a table, her life was shattered: her marriage collapsed, she was pilloried in an journalistic ethics scandal, and she realized wine had gone from career to crutch. MacLean, bestselling author of the new book Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Depression, and Drinking Too Much, joins Brian Lilley to discuss the perils of the wine world for women and why she’s speaking out against the dangers of today’s “wine mommy” mania. (Recorded April 26, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada isn’t the only place where left-wing activists are blackening the names of colonial-era figures like John A. Macdonald and Henry Dundas for not living up to modern, ultra-progressive ideals. When British ethicist Nigel Biggar found himself defending 19th-century mining magnate Cecil Rhodes against exaggerated claims of racism from Oxford University students, he recognized the need to bring more balance — and historical literacy — to arguments over British colonialism. Biggar joins host Brian Lilley to discuss his new bestselling book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, and why, despite its many flaws, British imperialism is getting an unfair rap (Recorded April 25, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 1,019 days Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were China’s hostages, cruelly imprisoned by the communist regime as leverage for the release of Meng Wanzhou, held under house arrest in Canada on a U.S. warrant. Then, suddenly, one day, they were free, thanks to a White House-brokered deal. Mike Blanchfield and Fen Osler Hampson, authors of the new book The Two Michaels, join host Brian Lilley to discuss what went on behind the headlines. They explain why Beijing targeted the Canadians, why the ordeal dragged on as long as it did, and what led to the bargain that finally broke the nearly three-year impasse. (Recorded April 20, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billy Gorta saw the rise of violent attacks in New York City back in the ’70s and ’80s, when politicians took a soft-on-crime approach. If that sounds familiar, that may be because Canadians are facing a shocking crime wave — and many point the finger at looser bail and police-defunding policies. As an NYPD captain, Gorta was in the room when leaders finally got serious about cracking down on crime. Gorta, who went on to become a journalist, joins host Brian Lilley this week to talk about what we can learn from New York’s experience, and what it will take to get serious about making Canada’s streets safer again. (Recorded April 12, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new buzzword among urban planners is the “15-minute city,” but it’s the same old idea they’ve been pushing for decades — their dream of getting us all living in small, densified urban condos, and out of our cars. Urban Policy Analyst Wendell Cox joins host Brian Lilley to explain what the “15-minute city” really is and why it’s doomed. He discusses how planners ignore how we really want to live, how cars and suburbs improve our lives, and how the ways the pandemic changed our work and our world should rightly put an end to these schemes once and for all. (Recorded March 29, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wars, terrorism, boycotts, a nuclear Iran: Since the 1948 founding of the modern State of Israel, the Jewish state has faced seemingly endless threats to its security — and, at times, its very existence. As it approaches its 75th birthday, the biggest threat comes from within, says Vivian Bercovici. Canada’s former ambassador to Israel joins host Brian Lilley from Tel Aviv to explain what’s really behind the massive, unprecedent protests against the government’s so-called judicial reforms. And why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t back down — threatening what Bercovici believes could be a 75th birthday that is more civil war than celebration. (Recorded March 29, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices