Liberalism is clearly on the ropes. To many, the threats originate from what they consider the outside: populism, authoritarianism, misinformation, and polarization. But to others, the wounds appear self-inflicted: arising from tensions within liberalism itself. For decades, liberal societies promised a host of goods: most notably, individual freedom. But many now look around and see loneliness and social decay. Families are breaking down and the culture is fragmenting. Institutional mistrust is...
Jun 11, 2026•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 131
We are in a moment of heightened focus on Canadian national identity. Ever since Donald Trump threatened to annex Canada, many Canadians have responded with the assertion that Canadian identity is unique from the United States. But this national mood comes only a few years after a campaign of tearing down statues of Canada’s seminal historic figures, and then-prime minister Justin Trudeau calling Canada a “post-national state.” Most recently, a so-called prank show with funding from the CBC targ...
Jun 04, 2026•45 min•Ep. 130
This week, we present a special bonus episode: a live conversation between author Rob Henderson, who famously coined the term luxury beliefs, and MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley. The event was recorded in April 2026 before a live audience in Vancouver, as part of MLI's Voices That Inspire speaker series. In their conversation, Crowley and Henderson discuss the formative childhood experiences that led the author to his ideas about elite hypocrisy, Crowley asks whether discrediting the val...
May 28, 2026•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 129
The West offers the “ideal environment” for an organization like the Muslim Brotherhood to carry out its operations “because we are extremely tolerant,” says Lorenzo Vidino, an expert on the Islamist organization. The Muslim Brotherhood has inspired or spawned some of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations. Yet its goals, strategy, structure, and financing remain poorly understood – even by many of the world's leading national security and intelligence agencies. The Brotherhood’s lon...
May 21, 2026•40 min•Ep. 128
Courts have become central players in some of Canada’s biggest political and moral debates – especially since the advent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms . That’s raised hard questions about their role, what accountability mechanisms exist, and how Canadians understand the place of the judicial branch within their system of government. Like any other institution, courts depend on public trust which must be earned and sustained. McMaster University political science professor Andrea Lawlor h...
May 14, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 127
Our culture tells parents that “you can do it all” – but that's “a very dangerous narrative” and “a narcissistic trope,” says social worker and parenting coach Erica Komisar. Is it time for our culture to grapple with a hard truth: life requires setting priorities and making trade-offs between items like career and family, rather than trying to have it all at once? Modern societies invest a great deal of resources into children. But often it comes in the form of trends like helicopter parenting,...
Apr 30, 2026•1 hr•Ep. 126
Sports betting, online gambling, and now prediction markets are becoming harder to avoid. What was once confined to casinos or occasional wagers is now built into our phones, advertised on sports broadcasts, and increasingly our wider digital economy. This raises bigger questions about the impact of markets. Should markets always follow demand, even when it involves a social harm, letting choice prevail and government coffers swell with the proceeds? Or should we look to the total economic and s...
Apr 23, 2026•59 min•Ep. 125
“The whole of the West views Islam … through a Western cultural prism,” and that’s a problem, says British author and commentator Melanie Phillips. With terrorism, extremism, and antisemitism surging throughout the West, people are looking for answers. They’re trying to understand why our leaders and institutions are failing to stand up to this threat. Phillips, one of the clearest voices sounding the alarm about these issues, joins Inside Policy Talks to share her assessment of the problem. As ...
Apr 16, 2026•58 min•Ep. 124
Last month, a major constitutional showdown took place before the Supreme Court of Canada. Over four days of hearings, the court heard from a record number of interveners in quite possibly the biggest and most consequential case since the Charter was adopted in 1982. In the wake of these hearings, the justices will now deliberate on Hak v Quebec . It's a case that addresses the scope of rights and their limits, whether the Notwithstanding Clause is subject to any restrictions beyond proper appli...
Apr 09, 2026•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 123
As Canada continues its decade-long slide in the UN’s global happiness rankings, there’s growing questions about whether policymakers are even using the right metrics to measure the indicators of living a good life. Across the developed world, there’s a similar, troubling pattern. The 2026 UN World Happiness Report , released earlier this month, suggests pronounced declines, particularly in Anglosphere countries. That includes Canada, which dropped to 25th spot in the rankings, while the United ...
Mar 27, 2026•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 122
Across the country, law and medical schools have adopted identity-based admissions criteria in the name of equity. But very little data has been available on how those policies work. New research from MLI is changing that. In a new paper on DEI and admissions in Canadian law and medical schools, researcher David Wand requested admissions data from 18 law schools and 14 medical schools. Only six law schools and eight medical schools agreed to share their data. Wand then compared applicants’ stand...
Mar 19, 2026•53 min•Ep. 121
As the second week of war in Iran continues, there’s growing questions about whether regime change is possible, and what the end game looks like. The United States and Israel have taken out the long-time leader of Iran’s Islamic regime, Ali Khamenei. But with his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, now installed as the new supreme leader, the regime appears to have dug in for a long fight to retain power. Are the ongoing aerial strikes enough to permanently hobble the Iranian regime, and are Iran’s people re...
Mar 12, 2026•44 min•Ep. 120
In the wake of the United States and Israel’s military actions against the Islamic regime in Iran, nations around the world rushed to stake out their positions on the strikes. While some voices condemned the attacks as a violation of international law, Canada issued a statement that drew some measure of surprise across the political spectrum — overhead of it being more supportive of the military actions than many anticipated. A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office on the morning of ...
Mar 05, 2026•49 min•Ep. 119
As the United States tightens its blockade to cut off oil from Cuba’s communist regime, some are calling for Canada to step in with aid. These events come at a moment of rapidly shifting geopolitics around the world. Yet Canada’s approach to Cuba remains strikingly unchanged. For decades, Ottawa has treated Cuba with kid gloves, applying a softer touch than it does with other authoritarian regimes. Yet Cuba is a strategic actor embedded in an emerging authoritarian alignment that includes Russia...
Feb 26, 2026•48 min•Ep. 118
There’s a growing debate in Canada about balancing the relationship between courts and legislatures. For nearly four decades, one Supreme Court ruling has loomed large in shaping an aspect of this debate: how conflicts between rights – and their limitations – are determined in Canada. That case – R v Oakes , decided in 1986 – gave Canadian jurisprudence the famous “ Oakes test,” which courts still use to assess whether limits on Charter rights are justified. The test is widely cited. But critics...
Feb 19, 2026•46 min•Ep. 117
A series of global shocks is testing the character and resilience of the West. In recent weeks, debate has intensified over whether the rules-based international order is fraying. Tariff threats, talk of annexing sovereign territory, and reports of a new “strategic partnership” between Canada and China have all fuelled concern. At the same time, Western elites and the media class seem to be losing their moral compass – with much of the political and media establishment slow to call out the dange...
Feb 13, 2026•59 min•Ep. 116
Canada is at a turning point in how it governs the digital economy and artificial intelligence. It must do so in the face of rapidly changing technology – a challenge that’s compounded by geopolitical tensions and economic stress. Over the past few years, Ottawa has attempted to moved quickly on competition law, online harms, and AI. This comes after previous measures on online harms and AI faced criticism and were eventually paused, but these are now back on the table. While it’s clear these ar...
Feb 06, 2026•56 min•Ep. 115
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent high-profile international trip included a visit to China where he announced a new “strategic partnership” with Beijing. In the aftermath, attention has focused on the canola and electric vehicle deals that emerged, while far less has been said about the “guardrails” Carney previously stated are necessary for dealing with Beijing. But those promised guardrails deserve serious scrutiny — especially after decades of foreign interference in Canada carried out by ...
Jan 29, 2026•46 min•Ep. 114
Every year, thousands of women and children in Canada and the United States are drawn into human trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and online abuses. These victims are often hidden in plain sight, but the harms they endure ripple out across families and communities. It's a gut-wrenching issue, but there's some signs of hope. Our culture is becoming more aware of how vulnerable people are targeted, and how all of society is affected by factors like the omnipresence of pornography. In t...
Jan 22, 2026•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 113
Reversing declining birthrates will require “a pro-natal culture stronger than you've ever had,” says researcher Daniel Hess. Across the world, births are falling – with many countries are now below replacement levels. It’s a shift could have far reaching impacts – reshaping economic growth and pensions, family life, housing markets, and the future of communities. To talk about this problem – and the solutions – Hess, a demographer who writes at his Substack More Births joins Inside Policy Talks...
Jan 15, 2026•57 min•Ep. 112
Immigration has long been described as simply a net positive, and debated solely in economic terms – like jobs, wages, and GDP. But after decades of immigration from different parts of the world – with newcomers now making up increasingly large shares of the population in Canada, the United States, and other Western countries – people are starting to ask different questions. How does migration shape culture and trust? What impact does it have on social cohesion over time? To share his research o...
Jan 08, 2026•48 min•Ep. 111
Canada’s economic future increasingly hinges on a deceptively simple question: how free is trade within Canada itself? For decades, economists and policymakers have warned that Canada’s internal market—fragmented by duplicative rules, sector-specific carve-outs, and a thicket of provincial exceptions—acts as a drag on growth and competitiveness. Even the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, heralded as a breakthrough, is riddled with loopholes. To dig deeper, Inside Policy Talks brings together legal ...
Dec 11, 2025•46 min•Ep. 110
Across Canada, some of the most heated disputes – from housing restrictions to Indigenous land claims – turn on this question: how secure are Canadians’ property rights? The answer may surprise you. Canada is one of the only developed democracies where property rights have no constitutional protection . That gap has real consequences. It can lead to family farms shuttered by regulation, homeowners caught in civil forfeiture, or even recent court decisions like Cowichan Tribes v. Canada which upe...
Dec 04, 2025•51 min•Ep. 109
Canada faces a growing array of national security threats—from foreign interference networks to money laundering operations and organized crime groups exploiting modern digital tools. Yet many of our laws designed to protect Canadians were written for a different era. As hostile actors adapt faster than our institutions, gaps in Canada’s legal framework have become opportunities for adversaries to operate with alarming ease. What should Canadians understand about the risks created by outdated se...
Nov 20, 2025•22 min•Ep. 108
The UN Human Rights Council contains members like China, Cuba, and Qatar. Yet it remains a highly trusted institution across Western democracies. What should the public understand about the reality of activities going on at the UN? And how should Western democratic governments address the organization’s shortcomings? To discuss some of the major concerns about the UN, Hillel Neuer joins Inside Policy Talks. Neuer is a lawyer, writer, and activist, and the executive director of UN Watch, a human ...
Nov 13, 2025•29 min•Ep. 107
Across the Western world, migration, identity, and belonging have moved from policy questions to existential ones. The political and moral assumptions that held our societies together for decades are starting to unravel. Now, there is deep tension between those who want to defend the open, liberal order, and those who believe its openness has gone too far – eroding belonging, stability, and moral coherence. What comes next? Are we watching the liberal order evolve, or decay? To reflect on this, ...
Nov 07, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 106
It’s been more than 10 months since Canadians got a close look at the federal finances in last fall’s economic statement. At that time, they learned the deficit for the 2023–24 fiscal year had ballooned by over 50 per cent. Now, as the Carney government prepares to table its first fiscal blueprint, there’s talk once again of rising spending and soaring deficits. A recent Desjardins forecast estimated the deficit for the current fiscal year could exceed $70 billion. That’s a more than 65 per cent...
Oct 30, 2025•53 min•Ep. 105
Rare diseases affect only a small number of Canadians, but a lack of adequate testing and treatment reveals some of the key weaknesses in our health care system. These illnesses – which affect about one in 12 Canadians – raise hard questions about health care costs, access, and fairness, and test how well Canada’s fragmented health governance systems can adapt to new challenges. For a closer look at Canadian rare disease policy, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow John Adams joins Inside P...
Oct 23, 2025•49 min•Ep. 104
There's rapid change happening in Middle East In a ceremonial show of unity, world leaders headed to Egypt for an Oct. 13 peace summit in support of United States President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza. All living hostages have been returned to Israel, though Jerusalem is still working to secure the release of some deceased hostages. It's been a historic week, but questions remain about the future of Hamas, and what it will take to deliver long-term security in the region. To discu...
Oct 16, 2025•34 min•Ep. 103
With the Canada-United States relationship at an all-time low, China has moved quickly to position itself as a beneficiary of the fallout. Canadians should be wary. Beijing is seeking to court Canadians with trade deals. But it is simultaneously punishing Canada for adopting anti-Chinese trade laws, which – as the Chinese are quick to point out – were implemented by Canada in response to American pressure to crack down on unfair Chinese trade practices. Now, we’re seeing growing numbers of Canad...
Oct 09, 2025•34 min•Ep. 102
