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Full Comment is Canada’s podcast for compelling interviews, controversial opinions and fascinating discussions. Hosted by Brian Lilley. Published by Postmedia, new episodes are released each Monday.
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The federal Liberals are likely facing an even less friendly Donald Trump administration than last time. And they’re in an even weaker position than they were then, as Brian discusses this week with Postmedia columnist Chris Selley. Their minority government is teetering, mounting scandals are weighing them down, and their mass-immigration and anti…
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The presidential election came down to the clevers versus the normals, guest John Robson tells Brian this week. Those succeeding in the establishment’s ever more complicated system of official and unofficial rules around work, business, education and identity politics went for Kamala Harris. Everyone else —feeling left behind, ignored and scorned —…
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It’s the final hours of a “dumpster fire” of a presidential election, as guest and American political writer J.D. Tuccille calls it. And it’s hard to imagine a worse one. Democrats are back to comparing Donald Trump to Hitler, and Republicans say the Democrats are communists. The vice-presidential picks JD Vance and Tim Walz have had minimal impact…
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So, the rebels in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s caucus couldn’t convince him to quit. But they’re still fed up, and they still have forceful ways of showing it, as veteran Postmedia politics columnist John Ivison discusses with Brian this week. That may just include sabotaging a confidence vote that could bring down their own government. Now Trud…
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For years, Canada has wrestled with an overdose crisis, with thousands of people succumbing to the deadly effects of toxic drugs like fentanyl. But there’s a second brewing crisis involving those who don’t die after overdosing. Ottawa Sun reporter Andrew Duffy joins the show to discuss the effects a non-fatal overdose can have on a person, how that…
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Prioritizing medical expertise and skill in doctors is so passé. If powerful activists pushing to redesign Canada’s physician regulators get their way, tomorrow’s doctors will be focusing on promoting anti-oppression and anti-racism. Dr. Mark D’Souza has been on the forefront of the fight to prevent that. He explains to Brian how the radicals’ plan…
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British Columbia voters are so unhappy that they might elect a party this week that barely existed two years ago: the Conservatives led by John Rustad. No wonder. As veteran B.C. politics columnist Vaughn Palmer tells Brian, voters see crime as out of control; drug decriminalization creating no-go zones everywhere; and immigration soaring even as t…
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In the wake of the NDP ending its agreement to keep the Trudeau government afloat, opposition parties have been jockeying for position as power brokers, trying to advance agendas to either stave off or force an election. The Bloc Quebecois has seized the opportunity on a couple of files, including a pricey increase to pension coverage supported by …
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The now legendary “firewall letter” stunned Canadian political watchers. Officially called the Alberta Agenda, it called on the province to start taking back powers from the federal government, refusing to be taken further advantage of. And for 20 years, Alberta governments largely ignored it. But as former provincial finance minister Ted Morton di…
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B.C.’s election is shaping up to be unlike any in recent memory. The NDP is seeking re-election amid an affordability crisis and health care crunch, while facing renewed opposition after a merger between the former Liberals and the Conservative party. Vancouver Sun politics reporter Alec Lazenby joins Dave Breakenridge to discuss the key issues in …
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You’d have to be a fool not to see how the UN has been taken over by malevolent dictatorships. But rather than give up on the ideals the United Nations was founded on, Hillel Neuer forces the world body to face its hypocrisy, antisemitism and despot-worship. The Montreal-born executive director of UN Watch joins Brian this week to talk about his wo…
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The Conservatives’ attempt to bring down Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government with a non-confidence motion was virtually DOA when the Bloc Québécois quickly said it would refuse to support it. No wonder: With no NDP deal to back the Liberals, the Bloc suddenly finds itself with significant power over the Liberals, as Brian discusses in our politics …
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If you’ve ever wondered how some self-proclaimed feminists can defend the brutal rapists of Hamas, or how people can passionately believe men can get pregnant, Gad Saad has an explanation. As an academic researcher in behavioural science, Saad has spent his career studying how perceptions and ideas can produce biological effects. He joins Brian thi…
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A prominent Edmonton psychologist goes missing. His body isn’t found. Police believe he was murdered and that his brother had something to do with it. They just have to get him to confess. Regina Leader Post courts reporter Brandon Harder joins the show to discuss how police ensnared a murder suspect in an elaborate undercover investigation, why on…
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The political marriage between the federal liberals and NDP is over, and that means Canadians could be headed to the polls sooner than expected. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced he was leaving the agreement with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals that’s keeping the government in power after more than two years. National Post political reporter Ryan Tumilt…
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The leader of the federal NDP has spent two years thundering righteously against the Liberals —while propping up their minority government through a supply-and-confidence deal. Now, Jagmeet Singh has said he’s for sure, no-joking, super-duper fed up with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and he’s cancelled their bargain, which means giving up his leve…
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Fast enough to make your head spin, Canada’s “harm reduction” approach to helping drug addicts went from a few safe injection sites to giving away powerful opioid drugs to addicts. As Adam Zivo, journalist and director of the Canadian Centre for Responsible Drug Policy discusses with Brian, ideologically radical public health officials now even ins…
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We’re still learning how institutions and officials politicized science during the pandemic to justify economic lockdowns, border closures, school shutdowns and other measures that lacked supportive evidence but carried grave consequences. Vanessa Dylyn is the award-winning director of the new documentary Covid Collateral, which shows how real scie…
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Questions are being asked after a father and son were arrested on terror charges in Ontario. The pair were nabbed earlier this month and now MPs are planning hearings to determine how the immigration system let in people who were ultimately charged with plotting a terrorist act. Toronto Sun politics reporter Bryan Passifiume joins Dave Breakenridge…
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Not long ago, our practical, moderate approaches were considered exemplars that countries around the world tried to emulate. But as Postmedia’s Tristin Hopper discusses with Brian this week, in just a few years Canada went from paragon to cautionary tale. A model of how one should definitely not handle drug policy, euthanasia, housing, online censo…
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A Toronto man who duped hundreds of victims in several countries into giving him money and then even more money in dubious stock schemes or fake coloured diamonds. National Post investigative reporter Adrian Humphreys joins the show to discuss how this Toronto businessman wound up embroiled in massive money scams, how he wound up on police radar, a…
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The statistics are undeniable: married people tend to be happier, amass more wealth and live longer, healthier lives than unmarried people, as sociologist Brad Wilcox tells Brian this week. Marriage also reduces child poverty and makes communities safer. So why are so many so-called progressives in politics, the media and other influential spheres …
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Instead of focusing on defending their Olympic title, Canada’s women’s soccer team became embroiled in scandal at the Paris games. Before the opening ceremonies even took place, accusations were levied that people involved with the women’s team had been using a drone to spy on New Zealand’s practice. This has sent ripples through soccer Canada and …
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Chrystia Freeland talks like a patronizing schoolmarm. Mark Carney comes off like a visiting aristocrat. Yet, the federal Liberals face a reckoning sooner or later, and they’ll eventually need someone to replace Justin Trudeau. Having turned his party into a suppressive cult of personality, however, Trudeau has thwarted the rise of any real heirs o…
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The fire that overtook the Jasper townsite late last month left many Canadians reeling. Like Fort McMurray and Slave Lake before it, wildfire hit the iconic mountain destination, destroying a large swath of the community. Edmonton Journal reporter Zac Delaney joins Dave Breakenridge to discuss the destruction wrought by the fire, the recovery effor…
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Joe Biden's resignation as the Democratic nominee for U.S. president, less than six months before the election, caused a stir in Canada and reignited discussions about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's future, especially since Trudeau has been under scrutiny following his party's loss in a spring byelection and could face further challenges if the Li…
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As the honeymoon quickly fades for the unelected but anointed Democratic candidate, the ugly truth about Kamala Harris is emerging. As U.S. political columnist J. D. Tuccille details with Brian this week, Harris has proven herself to be alarmingly unserious and personally difficult, with a problematic record on rights. And for Americans who want ch…
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National sports writer Dan Barnes joins the show to discuss Canada's prospects at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where the team aims to surpass their Tokyo medal haul, highlighting strengths in swimming and track while exploring potential medal contenders and anticipating a more traditional Olympic experience post-COVID. Background reading: Gol…
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It’s been three years since the bombshell media reports first spread claims there was a “mass grave” found at a former Kamloops residential school, and the truth has been playing catch-up ever since. But as our guest this week explains, anyone with knowledge of history should have known the grisly allegations that residential schools had been disap…
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The province causing pain in Ottawa’s side these days isn’t Quebec or Alberta — it’s Saskatchewan, where Premier Scott Moe this year unilaterally declared his province would not be forced to pay carbon taxes on natural gas. So far, the courts are backing him up. John Gormley, former dean of the province’s talk radio (and former MP), joins Brian thi…
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While the world fixates on the war in Gaza, Israelis in the north are under daily attack from Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Islamist group that’s a key part of Iran’s multi-front war against the Jewish state — and the entire western-led world order. Sarit Zehavi speaks to Brian from her home in the Galilee, as missiles explode in the background, and…
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A collapse of their Toronto—St. Paul fortress is just the beginning. All that remains to be seen is how extensive the Liberals’ inevitable ruin will be once Justin Trudeau’s strange, destructive experiment is over. As Liberal activist and strategist Andrew Perez tells Brian, the prime minister has made the once-mighty, centrist “natural governing” …
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If you want the real story about why residents in one of Canada’s biggest cities have for weeks been under orders to ration their water usage, you won’t get it from Calgary’s mayor or city bureaucrats. As local veteran Postmedia journalist Don Braid tells Brian in this week’s episode, the catastrophic water-main explosion is a tale of municipal mis…
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A break in the city's main water pipe has left Calgary under severe restrictions for over two weeks, raising concerns about water usage and the potential impact on the city's premier summer festival, the Stampede. Calgary Herald reporter Scott Strasser joins Dave Breakenridge to discuss the cause of the pipe failure, how the city is handling the si…
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Ottawa has been rocked by the fallout from a parliamentary report that suggests MPs have been witting or semi-witting participants in foreign interference. The report, released June 3, also implies one instance of an MP providing privileged information to a foreign operative. National Post politics reporter Ryan Tumilty joins the show to discuss wh…
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