Canada’s 44th general election is underway. On September 20th, electors will return the members of Parliament who will decide who governs the country. When casting a ballot, however, voters typically think of political parties and their leaders. So, we ask: What are the policy priorities of Canada’s political parties? On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with candidates from three of the country’s major political parties: Angella MacEwen of the New Democratic Party, Annamie Pau...
Sep 14, 2021•47 min•Season 2Ep. 51
Let’s start with a little celebration: This is the 50th episode of Open to Debate! Thanks to each and every one of you for listening. We look forward to many episodes to come. For this milestone moment, we are excited to welcome a special guest to help us navigate the question: What is the state of Canada’s courts? Plus, as a bonus, we get into the topic of...thriller novels and the virtues of Stephen King. On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with the Right Honourable Beverley...
Aug 03, 2021•43 min•Season 2Ep. 50
The free market is notorious for its contradictions and inequities. Competition tends towards monopoly. Owners accrue capital at the top but extract it from labour at the bottom. Large enterprises enter, disrupt, and even decimate communities, often leaving workers holding the bag, worse off than they were before. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are alternative economic systems to capitalism; there are also alternative market arrangements within capitalism--or something like it. One such m...
Jul 20, 2021•46 min•Season 2Ep. 49
Despite a steady stream of news about the politics of the day, each of us might be forgiven for being unsure what a member of Parliament actually does. Even members themselves, from time to time, seem unsure. Are they lawmakers? Government foot soldiers? Opposition sentries? Committee investigators? Community service-persons? Issue advocates? An admixture of each? The fact is that the role of an MP often depends on the member, the party, and context of the day. But as elusive as a simple rundown...
Jul 06, 2021•59 min•Season 2Ep. 48
In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States recognized same-sex marriage in the country as a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. The ruling was the culmination of decades of legal battles and advocacy labour by the gay rights community and their allies. The story of same-sex marriage in the United States is long and complicated. But one author has distilled this history into an accessible and engrossing tale of policy, legal, and personal battles. Yet while the book ends in a ru...
Jun 22, 2021•57 min•Season 2Ep. 47
June is Pride Month. For decades, the 2SLGTBQ+ community and their allies have been advocating and organizing for rights recognition. This month is both a celebration of that community and a remembrance of the struggle for justice and equality. A struggle that is ongoing. Even as we celebrate Pride, the Canadian government is fighting to uphold a discriminatory policy that requires men who have recently had sex with men to wait three months before they can donate blood. The state’s intransigence...
Jun 08, 2021•50 min•Season 2Ep. 46
There are plenty of criticisms of democracy in Canada. While the country ranks in the upper echelons of mainstream reviewers concerned with global comparisons, there are disconcerting cracks in the foundation of our self-government. Indeed, the foundation itself is fundamentally flawed. One could—and should—point out the country’s inequities and inequalities, embedded colonialism, vestigial electoral system, and so forth. But on this episode, our focus is on a sort of immanent critique of Canada...
May 25, 2021•45 min•Season 2Ep. 45
In March of last year, David Moscrop spoke with feminist theorist and friend Amanda Watson about managing life during the pandemic. The conversation included thoughts about compassion, care, inequity, resistance, and, of course, anxiety. Just over a year later, as the end of the pandemic begins, the two revisit that conversation. This time the focus is on processing...all of this, with special attention given to the question: How are we managing late-pandemic anxiety and what will a return to “n...
May 11, 2021•56 min•Season 2Ep. 44
In Canada and around the world, anxious, weary populations are looking forward to returning to something that will approximate normal life. That return is predicated on, among other things, mass Covid-19 vaccination efforts that continue along slow and steady. As more of us get the jab, states, including Canada, are considering vaccine certification programs for domestic use, foreign travel, or both. But concerned individuals, including health, privacy, and social science experts, are raising a ...
Apr 27, 2021•45 min•Season 2Ep. 43
In Canada, wireless and broadband prices are too damned high. Why? The recent news of a merger attempt by Rogers and Shaw gives us a hint—and a look into the world of telecom strategy and oligopoly. Indeed, observers would be forgiven for thinking the country is a handful of telecom companies in a trenchcoat, perhaps with an airline or two crammed in there. But there’s more to it than that—a bit more, anyway. Understanding wireless and broadband policy requires us to dig into the state of the in...
Apr 13, 2021•43 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Canada’s political left is facing a series of choices. What kind of movement should it pursue in the face of contemporary challenges at home and around the world? How can left-wing parties win at the local, provincial, and federal orders of government? Should communists, socialists, and social democrats work together -- and, if so, when and how? Also, to what extent does the leading social democratic party in Canada, the NDP, serve as a vehicle for successful left politics? Answering these quest...
Mar 30, 2021•49 min•Season 2Ep. 41
In early March, Ontario surpassed 7,000 Covid deaths, over 3700 of which occurred in the province’s long-term care facilities. Around the country, suffering and death in care homes is part of an emergency that has long been ignored -- an emergency that pre-existed the pandemic. Precarious work, low pay, inadequate staffing, neglect, abuse, unreasonable waitlist times, poor communication, and the urge to put profit before people condition much of the long-term care sector. Because of that, the mo...
Mar 16, 2021•50 min•Season 2Ep. 40
We have been at...all of this for about a year now. Maybe it feels longer for you. Maybe it feels shorter. Maybe time has lost all meaning. Whatever the case, on this episode of Open to Debate, we are taking a deep breath and mixing things up as we celebrate our 40th episode and process 12 months of pandemic life. How do we simultaneously celebrate this podcast and process what the last year has meant? Well, mostly we make jokes for about an hour. And talk about trains. How else would we proceed...
Mar 02, 2021•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 39
Throughout the pandemic, the quality and success of communications from government, public health officials, elected representatives, and others tasked with keeping us in the loop have been, let’s say, inconsistent. There have been highs and there have been lows. Quality has varied across jurisdictions. And it shows. While approaches to good communication work may vary, there are some strategies and tactics that ought to be more common. For instance, meeting people where they are, rather than ex...
Feb 16, 2021•41 min•Season 2Ep. 38
In late January, the House of Commons unanimously voted on a resolution, proposed by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, to call on the government to “use all available tools to address the proliferation of white supremacists and hate groups.” The motion included a specific focus on designating the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization. . The rise of white supremacist and hate organisations poses a threat to Canadaians. These groups and their members must face consequences for their actions. They ought t...
Feb 02, 2021•45 min•Season 2Ep. 37
Lady A has been in the music industry for decades. In recent months, she has been in the national spotlight in the United States for reasons other than her music. After the band Lady Antebellum shortened their name to “Lady A” in the wake of the death of George Floyd to dissociate themselves from the “Antebellum South” and the racism bound up with that phrase, the band and Lady A entered into lawsuits over the use of the name. In December, she released the track “My Name is All I got.” This epis...
Jan 19, 2021•44 min•Season 2Ep. 36
For as long as anyone can remember, talk about deficits and the debt have been central to political life. How much can we spend? On what? What are the trade-offs? What will it cost? I mean, what will it really cost. If politics is about choosing, if it is about, as the classic phrase goes, “Who gets what, when, and how?” then spending constraints are central to what makes it so. But what if deficits and the debt did not induce the constraints we thought? Modern monetary theory invites us to thin...
Jan 05, 2021•40 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Throughout the country, politicians and policymakers routinely talk about the need to address Canada’s historic and ongoing colonial practices. Talk is plentiful. Action, less so. Among the many manifestations of Canada’s legacy and present-day colonialism is a healthcare and healing crisis in which Indigenous Peoples are overrepresented among those struggling. The challenge calls for decolonization, including robust, structural changes informed by the answers to the question: How we can re-imag...
Dec 08, 2020•37 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Around the world, the calls have begun to “build back better.” The slogan, or some variant of it, is ubiquitous. Even as we continue to manage life during the pandemic, we start to look beyond it, towards something better, we hope. In Canada, the idea of a universal basic income has been circulating for decades. However, as the discussions and debates around our post-pandemic world pick up, it’s an idea that is enjoying a moment. And so on this episode, we ask: Should Canada adopt a universal ba...
Nov 24, 2020•49 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Around the world, the race is on to develop a Covid-19 vaccine. So far, nearly 200 candidates are in the works, including dozens at the human-trial stage. The optimistic experts tell us that a vaccine could be ready this year or early next, and set for distribution by mid-to-late 2021. The pessimists suggest it could take longer. But few doubt that we will be able to produce a vaccine. The question of concern, therefore, is not whether we’ll develop a Covid-19 vaccine or whether it will be safe ...
Nov 10, 2020•44 min•Season 2Ep. 32
In the United States, the votes have been cast. In some jurisdictions, they are still being counted despite the best efforts of President Trump to stop it. But counted they will be. The presidential election was closer than many expected, despite Joe Biden winning more votes than any contender in U.S. history. We are left with questions about the Biden campaign strategy, polling, and the state and future of American elections and democracy. For now we ask: What just happened, America? On this ep...
Nov 06, 2020•32 min•Season 2Ep. 31
On Tuesday, November 3rd, Americans will head to the polls in the country’s 59th election. After four years in power, Donald Trump’s presidency is on the ballot and on the ropes—things are not looking good for the incumbent. But will the US election be free and fair? For years, Trump has been working to undermine the integrity of American electoral institutions. He has refused to say whether he’ll recognize the results of the vote. He has attacked the postal service and postal balloting. He has ...
Oct 27, 2020•46 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Over 500,000 people die around the world each year from drug use, and the vast majority of those deaths are related to opioids. Thousands of the lives lost are Canadian lives. The old ways of thinking about, legislating around, and policing drug use have failed. New ways of thinking about drug policy, including an emphasis on safe supply, destigmatization, and treatment are ascendent. But more must be done. Decriminalizing drugs reduces harm and saves lives. That’s what the evidence says. The po...
Oct 13, 2020•47 min•Season 2Ep. 29
In Canada, the opioid crisis has killed thousands of people and continues to claim more lives each and every day. In August, British Columbia marked its third straight month with over 170 deaths by overdose - and its fifth-straight month with over 100 lives lost. In Canada’s westernmost province, the crisis has been, by far, deadlier than covid-19. While there is no panacea for the crisis, there are policies that can reduce harm and save lives. Those policies require political will and cooperati...
Sep 29, 2020•40 min•Season 2Ep. 28
Democracy is in decline in the United States of America. While President Trump is hastening that decline, he is neither the initial nor the sole cause of it. Indeed, prior to Trump’s election, the Economist, in its Democracy Index, downgraded the USA from “Full Democracy” to “Flawed Democracy,” citing the concerns that would help give rise to the 45th president. Stretching back to the 18th century, the United States has routinely faced democratic crises, but this time may be different. The count...
Sep 15, 2020•42 min•Season 2Ep. 27
For over a year, Open to Debate has brought you smart, witty and thoughtful political conversations on current affairs, to help make sense of today's politics and policy, in Canada and around the world. At its core, Open to Debate is a space for agreeable disagreement, driven by the belief that honest, meaningful and vigorous discussion are essential to democracy. Open to Debate returns this fall. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Sep 07, 2020•2 min•Season 2Ep. 28
Social media has opened up opportunities for sharing, networking, self-expression, and collaboration that were previously difficult, if not impossible for many. In plenty of ways, it has pluralized and democratized communication. While social media offers opportunities, it also comes with risks and costs. At times, it becomes an utter wasteland: a haven for harassment and a steward of violence. One way to manage such behaviour online is by holding people to account for their speech and actions. ...
Aug 11, 2020•48 min•Season 2Ep. 26
The year 2020 will be, for many, the most difficult year of their life. And yet, there will still be difficult years ahead. We are living through a pandemic. We are facing structural shifts in the global order. We are witnessing the decline of democracy, or at least its stagnation. We are grappling with climate change. The struggles we face are shaped by factors we control, and factors we cannot control. Managing and solving big problems requires structural changes and action from those in posit...
Jul 28, 2020•49 min•Season 2Ep. 25
In the United States, the United Kingdom, and around the world, protestors are defacing and toppling statues of figures whose legacy of deeds include oppression, violence, and death. While these monuments purport to celebrate these individuals for other reasons, the mere presence of such tributes speaks to a particular construction and understanding of history. In Canada, John A. Macdonald has been the focus of those who point out that his role in Indigenous genocide renders him unfit for monume...
Jul 14, 2020•47 min•Season 2Ep. 24
In June, Canada lost its bid for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council. The loss came after four years of campaigning for the spot and is reminiscent of Stephen Harper’s 2010 failure. Back then, we lost to Germany and Portugal. This time, it was to Ireland and Norway. Each time, we have been left asking: Why? Previously, going back to 1946, Canada had won each of its bids for a UNSC seat. What is it about Canada’s contemporary foreign policy that led to the two losses? And beyo...
Jun 30, 2020•49 min•Season 2Ep. 23
