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It’s where we should be building up capabilities against Russia’s hypersonic missiles and Chinese spy aircraft coming over the North Pole. But news the Liberal government is closing the Canadian International Arctic Centre is the latest indication Ottawa doesn’t get the importance of the North. After the Harper government made the Arctic a bigger priority, the last eight years have revealed Ottawa’s lack of ambition and enthusiasm for the region, says Heather Exner-Pirot, one of Canada’s most prominent authorities on the Arctic. As Exner-Pirot discusses with host Brian Lilley, we’ve left behind a northern vacuum — and other countries are filling it. (Recorded July 6, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Food inflation is showing no signs of letting up soon, as guest Sylvain Charlebois tells Brian Lilley this week. But grandstanding politicians yelling about “greedflation” by allegedly avaricious grocers are looking in the wrong place, says Charlebois, professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. The recent guilty plea by Canada Bread, admitting to years of bakery price-fixing; allegations that Maple Leaf Foods may have done the same with meat; and revelations of “blackout” periods of fixed supplier prices all point to a bigger problem than inflation — and possibly a much dirtier one. (Recorded July 6, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Climate crusaders are convinced this year’s fire season is global warming. Conspiracy theorists think it’s eco-terrorism from arsonists to scare us about climate change. The reality, as Kenneth Green tells Brian this week, is much more complicated, with everything from poor forest management practices, natural burn cycles, and yes, also some climate and some human causes, playing roles — in addition to countless other factors (including psychological ones). In fact, as Green, an environmental scientist and author of the new book The Plague of Models: How Computer Modeling Corrupted Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulations, explains, this fire season may not necessarily even be all that exceptional. (Recorded July 6, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s one of the most dramatic episodes in Canada’s early years, although it’s often neglected by our history lessons: Irish republicans attacked Canada from the south as part of a wild plan to win independence for Ireland. As we celebrate the Canada Day weekend, host Brian Lilley is joined by David Wilson, author of Canadian Spy Story: Irish Revolutionaries and the Secret Police. They discuss the stranger-than-fiction chapter in our history, which saw Canadian troops killed battling invading American Fenian armies and John A. Macdonald deploying secret police to infiltrate a fifth column that had surreptitiously operated at some of Canada’s highest levels. (Recorded June 22, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cabinet ministers have quit. Some party leaders are calling for him to resign. But New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs tells Brian Lilley he’ll stake his political career to take a stand for parents in his province to be involved when their kids ask at school to be identified by a different gender or name. Higgs discusses what he thinks of attempts by Justin Trudeau, activists, and progressive media to portray him as “far right,” and why he’s confident the public is on his side. The premier also shares his own thoughts about the prime minister and federal policies he believes are hurting New Brunswick — and the country. (Recorded June 22, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hatred toward Jews is the oldest and most pernicious form of prejudice. Although anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and the persecution of Jews have always been around, the rise of social media, populism and identity politics have made it seem increasingly pervasive. Author Philip Slayton joins Brian Lilley to discuss his new book, Antisemitism: An Ancient Hatred in the Age of Identity Politics, and why he believes the fight against anti-Semitism needs to adapt to its modern expressions. Inevitably, he says, that means not expending energy on crackpots and trolls, but focusing resources on real and present dangers of harm directed toward the Jewish people. (Recorded June 1, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Sharon Koivu says it’s like the reverse of the ethical “trolley problem”: in the effort to help an opioid user, Canada’s “safe supply” drug policy puts many more people in danger. A long-time proponent of harm reduction, Koivu, an urban doctor in London, Ont., tells host Brian Lilley how she has watched with alarm as policy has shifted from safe, supervised consumption, to pumping quantities of extremely addictive opioids onto the streets, where they’re often sold cheaply for cash, or harder drugs. She discusses how she’s seen first-hand how the diversion of inexpensive “safe supply” opioids is creating new addicts, and overdoses — including, horrifyingly, among schoolkids. (Recorded May 23, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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