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Canada might never fully solve the pandemic problem until we understand why some people are so resistant to getting the vaccine. That means actually sitting down and talking to people who aren’t typical anti-vaxxers but are suddenly opting to lose their jobs rather than roll up their sleeves for a COVID shot. Anita Davis is one of those people. After 30 years as a nurse, she was just terminated from a health-care system already starved for staff because she isn’t comfortable getting the COVID vaccines right now. She joins Anthony to explain why she felt so strongly about her decision and what we can learn from someone who would sacrifice a decades-long career over vaccine choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The concept of the “citizen” is found rarely throughout human history, and those lucky enough to have it must guard it jealously. It is one of the most cherished ideals of our liberal, democratic societies. But the forces of globalization and progressivism, and the elites who benefit from them, are working to erode it. Victor Davis Hanson is a prominent American intellectual, a scholar of ancient Greece and military history, and a prolific commentator on contemporary U.S. politics. He joins Anthony to discuss his new book, The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America. (Recorded October 21, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beijing’s threats to invade Taiwan are getting serious. Military tensions are ramping up. And a war — perhaps even a Third World War — is not out of the question. It could even be inevitable. Scott Simon, co-chair of Taiwan studies at the University of Ottawa, joins Anthony to explain why he thinks Xi Jinping’s China today looks a lot like Hitler’s Germany in 1938, bullying the world to appease its territorial demands before it moves towards even more aggressive expansion. And, he says, unless Canada and the West start demonstrating more strength, we will be falling right into China’s trap. (Recorded October 21, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He became famous for refusing to back down to animal-rights protestors picketing his meat-focused Toronto restaurant, defiantly butchering and eating a leg of deer in front of them in 2018. But the climate for Michael Hunter's Antler restaurant, and for wild-game enthusiasts, remains hostile. He joins Anthony this week to discuss the devastation to restaurants caused by government pandemic policies, the suddenly soaring cost of food, and why he thinks that, despite the growing movement to get us all eating plant-based synthetic products, people are loving wild food — including game meat — more than ever. (Recorded October 13, 2021.)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After their latest election loss, Canada’s Conservatives are discovering that they simply don’t have what Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney once relied on to win federal elections. And Erin O’Toole’s shape-shifting, from a hard-right leadership candidate to a Liberal-lite campaigner, clearly didn’t prove to be the path to victory. Tasha Kheiriddin, national politics columnist for Postmedia, joins Anthony to discuss how the Tories are missing opportunities to connect with many voters naturally inclined to support a conservative vision for Canada. And the dangers that lie ahead for the party if it doesn’t learn the right lessons, fast. (Recorded October 6, 2021) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Housing prices keep soaring. Inflation is hot again. Even the upper middle class is struggling to keep up. Today, life in Canada is becoming harder than living elsewhere. Meanwhile, governments keep making matters worse by pumping out money, raising taxes and creating energy crises, while pushing elaborate economic transitions. Martin Pelletier, portfolio manager at Wellington-Altus Private Counsel, joins Anthony to discuss what we all need to know about the biggest risks to Canadians’ financial security, how we can prepare for them, and how we might even prevent some of them. (Recorded September 30, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The People’s Party of Canada didn’t elect any MPs in Canada’s recent federal vote, but its platform opposing vaccine passports and promoting free markets and reduced immigration got nearly a million votes, roughly tripling the PPC’s support over its 2019 debut at the polls. Bernier was excluded from the leaders’ TV debates and his party was hammered with negative coverage during the campaign for its anti-mask stance and for attracting certain unsavoury characters (one since-removed party official threw gravel at Justin Trudeau) — yet it still managed to double the vote share of the Greens. Bernier joins Anthony to explain why he thinks his party is much more than a protest against repressive pandemic policies. And why, thanks to the softening of the federal Conservatives and the advantages his party has earned after reaching five-per-cent support, he’s confident the PPC will be even stronger next time around. (Recorded September 24, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Bergen was the first journalist to produce a TV interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, where the terrorist leader first declared war on America. In his reporting from Afghanistan since the ’90s, Bergen witnessed how the Taliban-controlled country became a safe haven for bin Laden’s al-Qaida and for global terrorism. Now, 20 years after 9/11, the Biden administration has surrendered Afghanistan to Taliban rule once again. And Bergen, author of the new book The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden, joins Anthony to explain the danger the world now faces as terrorists return to their former base in Afghanistan — to train, organize and kindle a new wave of global violent jihadism. (Recorded Sept. 16, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With his journey to a majority government hitting the rocks, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is ditching his sunny ways and doing all he can to spook swing voters away from the Conservatives and frighten NDP voters into saving his Liberals from a split vote. He’s warning that Tory Leader Erin O’Toole will ban abortion, empower anti-vaxxers, and open the floodgates to more assault weapons, climate change and privatized health care. John Ivison, National Post Ottawa bureau chief and columnist for Postmedia, joins Anthony to discuss what he has witnessed on the leaders’ campaign tours, and why the Liberals’ scare tactics are more desperate, possibly dangerous, and seemingly less effective than they were last time. (Recorded September 9, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The majority of Canadians have been clamouring for vaccine passports as a way to make them feel safer about COVID-19. But while feeling safe isn’t the same as actually being safe, politicians are rushing ahead with these polarizing policies anyway. Christine Van Geyn, litigation director at The Canadian Constitution Foundation, talks to Anthony about why passport policies probably won’t work, but they will likely cause serious harm both to individuals and to our society. (Recorded September 2, 2021.)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices