They just don't want to leave the country.

Yeah, I think it was quite telling today that Premier Smith is now kind of laying down the gauntlet, claiming that her party is a Federalist Party only party.

Alberta independence types need not apply nor are wanted in the fold.

I think it speaks to the genuinely, I think, existential threat to her leadership and what this will mean.

The conservative movement more broadly in Alberta has a long history of eating its own and never letting a premier actually run for re-election after they've been elected.

And we'll see if Daniel Smith's the first premier to do that since Ralph Klein or if she'll be the other one to bite the dust.

Jamie Elgin, your comment.

It's a real indicator of how the K-shaped economy, as people now talk about it, those at the top are doing incredibly well, and those at the bottom of the K are really struggling.

Yep

...

Richmond and Adelaide, I think are where you could argue, yes, this is clearly working when you look at the number of bikes that go through there.

But on some of the other roads where the usage isn't as high, we've gotta get more creative as to how we go about it.

It can't just be one mode of transportation good, another bad.

There needs to be a balance.

And the way the city's going to continue to grow, we just straight up don't have the actual room in the city for more cars on the road, and so we've gotta find a way to balance to get those people moving around.

The arc of this story with layoffs, whether or not the Canada is going to successfully be able to sue them, which seems like it would be dragged out forever, Jamie.

'Cause the previous press secretary also said some wild things too.

Yeah, it's 100% disrespect to the media as an institution, and I think when you look at the reality of this, it, it means media's going to have to adapt and find other ways to hold this presidency accountable and get their information.

I think when so much of what I think President Trump's orbit is relying on is that any time they stick a microphone in his face and he says something, it's going to get covered, and he's going to get the reach that he wants just because the fact he opened his mouth.

And I think outlets that are trying to hold them accountable and not just be the president's stenographers, uh, will have to find other ways and maybe stop giving him the platform he wants all the time, while still trying to hold the government accountable or rec- recognizing he is the president of the United States.

Jimmy Ellerton, is the prime minister doing the right thing by setting up camp in Alberta this week?

Yeah, he's absolutely doing the right thing by setting up camp in Alberta this week.

This is when Albertans are going to the polls, and he's using the power of having the, uh, the bully pulpit, as you would call it, of being the prime minister to drive a message when it's most consequential.

Uh, and I would also just refute the premise that the prime minister wasn't talking to Canadians all summer.

Do you feel like the right decision is made? Um, uh, have they gone about it the right way? Take it where you need to take it

itYeah, I think one of the biggest questions I have coming out of today is I think the government obviously got the headline they were looking for in that mental health will no longer be a qualifying factor.

But how that ultimately is going to get written into legislation and codified in terms of how it's put into practice, uh, those details are, are, are not yet there.

And so I think there's a lot more work to be done.

I think there's generally broad public support for medical assistance in dying, especially when it, say, comes to someone later in life with terminal cancer and just not wanting to have to suffer through to the very end of what otherwise would have been their natural death.

But for some of these gray zones, you've seen some reports where people who kind of feel like they have to do this 'cause they don't have another choice, 'cause the broader healthcare system's not getting them the care they need, and that to me is just an absolute tragedy, uh, and I think Canada needs to do better.

So we'll see where the details of this one ultimately land.

What if somebody is mentally okay, and then they get sick, and then the turmoil, experience, difficulties of being ill compromises the mental wellbeing? Then at that point they're not able to make the decision? Like i- this must be an example of, uh, of one of those gray areas of, like, what are they gonna do when somebody was okay, and they said they wanted it, but they didn't qualify for it, but now they might?

Do we need to be reminded maybe that this is what he's up to? We're just collateral damage [laughs] in the meantime.

Yeah, I think it really looks at where the Canadian strategy is right now, and the Canadian strategy is very much focused on things at home, focused on other places.

Uh, I think when you look at what the prime minister has been doing recently in strengthening Canada's relationships with other allies across the globe, uh, not just the EU, but others as well, this is something that's going to ultimately over the long term be better for Canada as we try to diversify our trade away from the United States.

Again, that doesn't mean we're not going to trade with the United States, but as a proportion of our ol- overall economy, uh, we want to expand trade elsewhere to bring those ratios down.

And the Americans are gonna do what the Americans are gonna do.

At the end of the day, a lot of people like to chalk this up as just being a Donald Trump thing.

But, uh, the reality is, until the American people wake up and say, "This guy is bad, and we wanna be better," and actually do something about it beyond just telling [laughs] Canadian news reporters who put a microphone in their face what they think about Canada, uh, we're not gonna see that change south of the border, and I think we'd be foolish to expect it.

I mean, so are we getting our money for our dollar in Canada in regards to all these promises that are reacting to the stuff from the south?

That's my concern.

Alright, so I think there's a lot to unpack there.

On the market stuff, I don't think anyone is proposing it's a zero-sum game.

There will continue to be a trading relationship between Canada and the United States.

The consumer investor products you just talked about sound like they're going to persist for the foreseeable future.

And there's a lot of different investment products out there.

So talk to an advisor, get proper advice before you make those decisions.

How's that been going for you? Do you like it? Do you like to sit down and write down your thoughts like that?

That seems to me to be a little bit more telling.

Yeah, it shows that the American consumer is feeling the pinch and that kind of blowback to the president's insanity and economic illiteracy is starting to have an effect.

You can't look at American news right now and look at his low approval numbers and the increasing gap between where the Democrats are and the Republicans are as the midterms approach at the beginning of November, which would, if he loses the Senate and the House, impact his ability to govern, even though he seems to do everything by executive order anyways.

So this is going to have a real consequence.

Obviously, the price of eggs and oil and gas are at the top of that list and driving up necessities is going to further the challenges for the president and his party.

Jamie Ellerton, how do we de-escalate? 30 seconds.

Yeah, the prime minister used the language trade war after walking away from the negotiating table as a result of the American hijinks and what went down on the eve of that August 19th deadline.

I think the path forward for Canada on this is to hold the line, not try and escalate this forever unless warranted in response to American action and to effectively wake the Americans out.

Does it seem to you to be a little bit hypocritical to all of a sudden care about renaming things when we've been going through it for years?

Well, Shane, this is the beauty of hypocrisy on the internet.

If it's a cause you support, you're willing to swallow the price and think it's probably okay and not wanna talk about it, uh, and focus on what you think was the good thing that took place.

And if it's a cause you don't support, you do wanna talk about the cost and make it have more friction to see it enacted.

I think part of this actually just kind of goes to the very civic literacy in recognizing everything has a cost, and that includes government.

And so often, government feels inoculated from cost because they can just raise taxes, and it's not real money.

Uh, whereas a business actually has to be profitable at the end of the day, um, if they're going to stay in business for any serious length of time.

Do you feel like that's in balance from the comments from the piece?

Jamie, um, have you learned your lesson? You can't do this anymore.

[laughs] I think the big thing that jumps out for me on this, Shane, is if we're being honest, we kind of divide the world up.

You used to say first world, second wor- world, third world.

Now you kind of have Western liberal democracies, kind of a tier below that of, like, mostly democratic, but still not perhaps as strong in the rule of law.

And then other places that are a combination of squalor, authoritarianism, and other forms of government.

And so I think when you look at what President Trump has done in places like Venezuela and throwing his weight around in the rest of the Americas, where they're a lot smaller and have way less power than something like Canada does, this is effectively the, the playbook he was trying to run here.

And similar to the Europeans standing up for Greenland, uh, it was never going to fly, and he didn't like the pushback.

Um, is it possible that, you know, that he's just not in control of things right now and, and he's just out there doing the public face thing, Jamie, and, and the politicians have sort of caught on that there's a breakdown in the background?

So if we have a deal, Jamie, why is it only three days to get it done? Um, that means there must be some other things to settle out, no?

If something is being settled in three days and both parties agree they're that close, that tells me they essentially have a pretty robust agreement in place, and some technical language and technical measurements, uh, are going to be fine-tuned as to how that gets drafted into law, uh, for the text of this agreement and ultimately law i- in both countries.

That's what this suggests to me.

I think there still remains to be seen what actually has been agreed to.

You straight up can't believe anything President Trump says.

And the other piece of this is we often forget Canada has the best market access to the United States compared to any other country in the world.

Obviously, it's because we're their largest neighbor, and so let's not pretend like they're doing us any favors.

Is it always this complicated?

Uh, Jamie, does it take a pain point of getting through this and just getting a deal done just so we can say there's a deal done and then hoping that we can reapproach it later?

I really don't know, Shane, 'cause I think even when you listen to what the prime minister has said, he said he's not gonna make a bad deal just for the sake of making a deal.

And I think through all of this, the president clearly thrives off trying to create instability and being unpredictable, and so you can just predict he's gonna be chaotic, and that's, like, the Donald Trump constant.

And when, when it comes to actual trade, by and large, steel and auto being a, a exception as a result of more recent tariffs, uh, everything's still flowing across the border under the USMCA agreement that he himself negotiated with Canada back in his first administration.

This is all the threat of what could come if we don't do a deal, and the Americans obviously wanna oppose it.

You had Marco Rubio and others in the State Department bragging about how they wanted to be essentially the hemisphere's biggest bully, and the Americans are large and in charge everywhere they go here in the Western hemisphere.

And so we'll ultimately see where this goes.

Whether they are or not, I don't know.

Or is that just how it happens always?

Yeah, I guess so.

I think people had a lot of hope that the ceasefire was going to lead to something because when the ceasefire itself was announced, it essentially was a framework to put in place a broader deal down the road.

Clearly, there's challenges there.

I think when you look at how the markets are pricing this in, some of the prices have come back up, obviously, with the price of oil, but nowhere near the high that it hit earlier this spring.

And so there's kind of, I think, a really big wait and see here.

And I think part of the reason for that is so much of what President Trump does is... often reversed.

Jamie Ellerton.

Should it be gone? Save money.

No, and I'm going to take a step back here for a second.

Every single member of Parliament sponsors petitions for their constituents, whether or not they agree with an issue.

And it's a formal way to engage with Parliament, to have your voice heard.

If it reaches a certain number of signatures, the government is then obligated to respond.

It allows people to organize and get talking about stuff.

The reason we're talking about this, of course, is the hypocrisy of it, because Pierre Polyev came out last week or two weeks ago railing against the plans to renovate 24 Sussex, which is the official residence for the prime minister.

you all get a bonus.

And is this just the way business works? Are we overreacting?

There's a lot to unpack there, Shane.

The prime minister's conflict of interests are a matter of public record.

And there is effectively what is called a conflict screen that is in place.

Now, anyone who's ever had to put anything into a blind trust is not supposed to know what goes on with their investments.

but given the prime minister's large holdings in Brookfield and the large number of businesses that Brookfield's owned and controlled for a long period of time, he obviously would still know a lot of what is going on in his portfolio.

So I think this is actually a sign, Shane, that the system is working.

Well, my only question really is wouldn't this extra bloat in the market availabilities bring down the market anyway to make it accessible for people, Jamie?

Jamie Ellerton, thank you.

I'm touched.

The magic.

You know what? Let's be real.

It is not magic.

The skill and craftsmanship passed down for centuries from Japanese cooks that make these things possible.

Like the knife you have, Shane, was like hand forged in Japan.

All right, Jamie, your thoughts?

Yeah.

And in all honesty, this news today has been lighting up the family group chat because my parents, who live in Windsor, Ontario, shout out to AM 800 listeners here tonight, live near the Tecumseh Mall, where one of the locations will be reopening imminently.

And so it's like my parents get to go live far more of the nostalgia vibe at this relaunched Zellers.

So who knows what they'll take to shopping to it.

The world has changed a lot since then.

But Kerry and Clifford at AM 800 Land will inevitably check it out at the Tecumseh Mall when it opens.

Jamie Ellerton, please explain this for my brain.

Wow, that's a lot to unpack there.

And it was there one more thing you wanted to add about the returning things.

Yeah, I just think it's actually great when people fight back.

These systems are literally designed to assume that you're not going to invest the time and like the emotional toil and just kind of steamroll you.

So when people like actually take it to be like, no, screw you.

Like you're going to screw me over.

Like I'm going to get this right back.

And I think ultimately it comes down to like shopping.

Why would anybody be offended? And, Jamie, why does it take so long for Canada to go, oh, yeah, by the way, we can do this?

Jamie?

Yeah, I think a lot of our politics right now really focuses on the conversation of the inputs in the conversation and not the outcomes and the outputs.

And I think what Mark Carney has done is he won the debate on the inputs in the last election.

And so this is where you now see some of the, I think, growing pains a year out from that as to what people are feeling.

I think on the macro level, I think people generally still like him and think he's doing a decent job.

Again, to your point, Shane, whether or not you're a new Democrat, liberal or conservative traditional voter vote.

But that kind of, yeah, I'm doing this, but stuff that tends to creep into political excuses is something that he's going to have to deal with.

They can say whatever they want about our country in their country.

find it frustrating, my friend.

Yeah, I think those frustrations are very legitimate.

I think that is also very accurate.

I think another thing to point out when it comes to this fiscal update, they're trying to sell themselves as sound fiscal managers, and it really goes to the heart of the rhetorical political brand that Mark Carney has sold himself on.

The revenues were up because of, indeed, the proceeds from the higher cost of energy benefiting Canadian producers and ultimately the tax revenue that flows from that.

But spending still went up more than what the revenues were.

So although the deficit is lower, it's not lower as it could be if it was truly a line for line.

does leading by example matter in this jamie when i think the people in that room are happy to celebrate their king down in the states and he's like okay well if you're gonna think he's a king at least let me show you how a king behaves

Jamie, do you think that's crazy notion that the biggest upstream battle is actually education?

Yeah, I'm just also not sure it's one we can actually win, Shane, because I think if you're looking at running a campaign that is going to reach Americans quite broadly, we just like straight up don't have the money to like engage in the kind of sustained effort that that's going to be required, which is why I think you've seen the first time we renegotiated NAFTA, they have a very kind of integrated network approach.

advisors and governors going down at the state level and looking at where the pressure points are for where they actually feel the consequences and the benefits of the canada u.s relationship and make sure those people knew what was going on but to like solve for america's lack of education i think i remember like there's the clip of uh i think it was miss south carolina saying she wanted to like solve the education in the south africa and the iraq because americans deserve deserve it like go look up the clip i'll send it i'll share it with you so you can put it in the show notes uh like that's what we're dealing with and so i don't think educating is actually the answer here i think we look at where americans actually benefit from the canada west relationship and what the cost would be of those dynamics were materially altered and look for where your leverage points are because i don't think uh broad education is actually going to be successful

Jamie, do you think that the Americans can recover in any short term of what the globe looks at that country?

Yeah, I think you always can see perceptions quite change quite rapidly.

Obviously, a lot will have to go into that.

It does, however, feel like look at what the Democrats ran on the last campaign.

America's looking a lot more inward right now.

And are you going to quit? Is this politics or am I being naive in this?

No, this is definitely politics driving this.

And I think it's also just kind of a very easy story for the parliamentary press gallery to write.

But I also get it.

The Conservative Party has a not so proud tradition of knifing their leaders in the back and throwing them overboard at the first sign of difficulty after an election loss.

And he's now lost four caucus members over the past five months.

and rumors that there's going to be more.

Any trooper song references for you and your thoughts, Jamie Ellerton?

They're still running in deficits drunk on this money.

Yeah, you think people think of the lottery as something different, Shane.

I think it's, frankly, part of middle-class North American culture.

People buy their weekly lottery ticket, probably now upwards of $10 for your, what is it, Lotto Max? I was going to say Super 7, but I'm dating myself.

My lottery reference is here.

And I think for the most part, that $10 a week doesn't really feel...

It's excessive to most people, whereas when you do think of betting and you watch people play table games, and now to Lindsay's point, what they're doing on their phones, on their couch, maybe after a few beers in while watching the game, it is far more of a problem.

Well, is that politicians politicking to take advantage of a crash for their own favor, Jamie, which to me is ugly?

Jamie Ellerton, do you trust, do you use the reviews?

Some of them.

I also, if I ever found the time, would write a book called Five Star Fraud.

And this notion that we have to live in this perfect five star world, I think is absolutely ludicrous.

Like, let's be honest.

Most things aren't excellent.

Five stars is excellent.

Jamie Ellerton, your thoughts on it?

Your thoughts, Jamie, on flying as you do like to do a little bit of it.

So I can't stand this stuff.

Drip pricing is the concept that effectively is what we're talking about here is where they advertise one price and then tack on a ton of other fees for all these other things.

And you never actually end up seeing and paying the price that they advertise.

Airlines do this.

A lot of others do it.

I remember there was like that Van Gogh immersive exhibit that was in the city a few years ago, interested in going to.

Again, more clarification and more careful words, Jamie from the Prime Minister.

I mean, you're seeing people right now that have gone on conspiracy things for epstein that have gone on court cases for celebrities like puffy and now they're on the war like experts and they're getting hundreds of thousands millions of people following what they do maybe i'm jaloux because i'm sitting here going maybe we just got to be more inflammatory and make stuff up as we go jamie is this just the new world we live in because there are things still happening in the world

It does seem some days that we are only able as a society to like fixate on one thing at a time and it changes rapidly as a result of what's going on in the world.

I think just the reality is media habits and media technology has evolved and become far more fractured than it used to be.

Go back to like the 90s where everyone kind of had like their two or three local papers the local newscast, maybe a competing option.

Uh, and there was kind of like a shared agenda, if you will, in a shared conversation that, that it made it easier to talk about different things.

Um, whereas now I think it's harder for those local things to stand out and the, the nature of how social media works and online news habits works as a kind of like, it's a, it's a slow drip, but they call it doom scrolling for a reason.

Um, and I don't think we've yet figured out how to protect some of what needs to be happening as citizens.

Some radio hosts you could put in that pile