General Wayne Eyre served for decades in the Canadian Army, including as its commander, before being promoted to Chief of the Defence Staff in 2021. During his time as Canada's top soldier, he has overseen not only a series of challenges inside the Canadian military, but also a rapid deterioration in the geopolitical environment. The world is a more dangerous place, and Gen. Eyre has been unusually outspoken in noting that Canada needs to do more to be ready for what's coming. In this conversati...
Apr 16, 2024•28 min•Ep. 3
How are Canada's conservatives feeling right now? Pretty good, it turns out. In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on April 12, 2024, Matt Gurney finds Jen Gerson in Ottawa, in the media room at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference. (And be warned, listeners and viewers, because Jen is in the field, there's some background noise in this episode, especially when some people protesting Israel's military campaign in Gaza show up.) On the agenda for this episode: the conference i...
Apr 12, 2024•54 min•Season 2Ep. 14
In the latest episode of The Line Podcast , recorded on First Contact Day (April 5), 2024, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson discuss Matt's column on former CPC leader Erin O'Toole's testimony before the Foreign Interference Commission, and a pretty nasty and revealing swipe that the PM made against O'Toole afterward. They also get into a much broader discussion about China's deep reach into many elements of Canadian society, much of which is fully legal and unremarkable ... except for how it might giv...
Apr 06, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 2Ep. 13
In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on March 29, 2024 — and happy Easter, everyone! — the dynamic Line editing duo first start by indulging Matt in some pure speculation. He has a hunch that after months of getting their butts kicked, the Liberals, specifically Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, might be starting to find his fight again. It's too soon to say for sure, but they'll be watching to see if the Liberals even have enough energy left to make a contest of it. Jen takes over t...
Mar 30, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Israel on the Liberal bench. Last week's NDP motion - roundly supported by his Liberal peers - has Housefather engaging in some serious soul searching about his future with the party. Will he cross the floor? Is he representative of a deeper political realignment? Why does he think the motion was "anti-Isreal"? This week, he speaks with The Line's Jen Gerson. Like and subscribe www.readtheline.ca...
Mar 27, 2024•55 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Well, hello there, fans of The Line Podcast. Matt and Jen had almost too much to talk about this week, especially because breaking (and sad) news from Kensington Palace landed as they were recording. They'll get into that near the end, but they start with a discussion about Matt's column this week, in which he explains why he was wrong about Pierre Poilievre's electoral chances. The conversation covers not only what Matt said in his column, but also some of what he couldn't fit in. Is Poilievre ...
Mar 23, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 11
In The Line Podcast for March 15, hosts Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney announce a live taping in Calgary on April 19. Get your tickets here: www.readtheline.ca. This week, a Supreme Court ruling that may or may not have avoided using the controversial term "women." The Toronto Police's advice on preventing auto thefts, and the implications of unequal access to safety and policing. Gerson and Gurney also touch on the role of culture wars and manufactured outrage in public discourse. They explore the ...
Mar 16, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 10
In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on March 8, 2024, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson discuss the Durham byelection results, which Matt doesn't think matter ... but that he does find interesting (and he suspects they'll be of interest over at Liberal Party HQ, too). The intrepid editors also gab about state-capacity issues in Canada, and the blunt comments made by Bill Blair about the state of the Canadian Armed Forces. G&G also highlight the challenges of building infrastructure ...
Mar 08, 2024•53 min•Season 2Ep. 9
In this week's The Line Podcast , recorded on March 1, 2024, Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney discuss evil, death and growing old. All cheerful stuff. First they offer quick thoughts and condolences on the passing of former prime minister Brian Mulroney. Then they delve into the Liberals' proposed Online Harms Act, and conclude that while most of it is reasonable and does attempt to deal with legitimate and pressing concerns — like inappropriate revenge related material, and content related to the exp...
Mar 01, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Oh yes, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — ostensible defender of limited government and freedom — is coming for your goon caves. (Google it, if you have to, but not at work.) More specifically, the CPC leader is supporting bill S-210, which seeks to age-gate porn, blocking access by minors. Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney clash on the issue; both agree that this makes for terrible, albeit emotionally popular, policy. They disagree about whether it will make for good politics. Then they go on to ...
Feb 23, 2024•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 7
This week's The Line Podcast , recorded on Feb. 16, 2024, sees Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson talk about federal environment minister Steven Guilbeault's bizarre statement promising no new federal funding for big new road projects. And, yes, we know that roads fall under provincial and municipal jurisdiction — as does housing, energy policy, health care, and a host of other issues in which the feds do not hesitate to involve themselves. Also, if electric vehicles aren't the answer, why are we invest...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 6
A special edition of The Line Podcast for Thursday Feb. 15; Don't worry fans, Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney will be back on Friday to talk Canadian politics. But until then, join special guest Patricia Treble, Canadian royal watcher and writer at the Write Royalty Substacak. In this episode, they discuss King Charles III's cancer diagnosis; what that means for the operation of government, and when a regency could be declared. Paired with news that Catherine, Princess of Wales underwent abdominal su...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 5
We doubt it, but The Line 's Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney talk about the goomba anyway. Then the pair discuss Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre sticking to his guns by once again opposing a free trade deal with Ukraine on some dubious carbon tax pricing grounds. Is this evidence that Poilievre is in bed with Vladimir Putin? Well, probably not, argues Gerson; instead it suggests something weirder and in some ways worse. The pair also talk about Poilievre's opposition to puberty blockers, and dis...
Feb 09, 2024•59 min•Season 2Ep. 4
This week in The Line Podcast , your Line editors are forced to talk about trans issues, which they absolutely hate doing, thanks to a series of proposals made by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Smith could have simply done as Saskatchewan and New Brunswick are doing, and that would have been meat for her socially conservative base. But she went further. The proposals will certainly be popular, but Smith is no so-con — she's a libertarian, and always has been. Why has she decided that youth spor...
Feb 02, 2024•56 min•Season 2Ep. 3
This week, The Line's Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson chat about Tucker Carlson's visit to Alberta — or as Liberals put it, the visit of a homophobic hate monger whose presence evokes the threat of violence by MAGA far-right Conservatives. We deem all of this stupid, and expect more stupidity. So much more. Then they chat about Durham Conservative Candidate Jamil Jivani, and what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meant by calling him a "twofer" — racist dog whistle, or manipulative video editing? (It's t...
Jan 26, 2024•52 min•Season 2Ep. 2
We're back! After a refreshing holiday, The Line Podcast 's Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney are together again to discuss the state of play in Canadian politics. Have the Liberals under Justin Trudeau bottomed out? Why can't they seem to secure a comeback — Gerson thinks she knows: it's because everybody's broke, and the Liberals are fixated on electric vehicles, plastic bags, and carbon taxes. The Line offers a quick update on Israel, and the federal government's incoherent and constantly wavering p...
Jan 19, 2024•52 min•Season 2Ep. 1
In this week's The Line Podcast , Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson discuss the UN Ceasefire vote, and compare it to the previous request for ceasefire with conditions, and the Liberal government's insistence that the UN ceasefire vote wasn't a vote for Hamas because, really, what even is a ceasefire anyway? Canadian representative to the UN Bob Rae knew what was up when he issued his vote and then said, on a hot mic, "we'll see how that flies." It's all just another example of a Canadian foreign polic...
Dec 15, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In this week's The Line podcast, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson talk about Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek's bizarre decision to publicly abstain from a civic menorah lighting ceremony because a poster advertising the event said it would be about "unity, supporting Israel, and Jewish Pride." Could her decision have been handled any more incompetently? No! Gerson column here: https://www.readtheline.ca/p/jen-gerson-just-do-your-job-jyoti Then G2 whine about Pierre Poilievre's penchant for stupid political...
Dec 08, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 12
This week, The Line Podcast's Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney go deep. They discuss the $100 million Google deal to Canadian media — a win for Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, or an attempt to salvage a nearly existential catastrophe for Canadian journalism? You decide. Then we get into the absolute insanity of trying to justify Hamas hostage taking by parsing the emotions on the faces of hostages at the moment of release. This invariably leads into a deep philosophical discussion about how we de...
Dec 01, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 11
After offering a brief update on the hostage transfers between Hamas and Israel, The Line Podcast with Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson delves right back into parochial Canadian current events by chatting about the explosion on the Rainbow Bridge. We, too, feared terrorism at first, as did much of the media. Turns out, it was just some dude driving Dukes of Hazzard-style into the border crossing. Phew? Now the fallout; critics are piling on Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre for initially...
Nov 24, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 10
The Line Podcast is back! This week, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson reluctantly go over the latest from the Israel-Hamas conflict because, good Lord, that's really all there is to talk about. Statements from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about not killing more women and children were met with rebuke by highly problematic Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then California Governor Gavin Newsom made fun of Trudeau's weird sock fixation. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh played cute, accusing the IDF of...
Nov 17, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In this week's The Line Podcast , Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson describe Canadian foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly's baffling and bizarre statement about getting Hamas — a genocidal death cult openly committed to exterminating the Jews in Israel — back to the bargaining table. Then they talk about the escalation of antisemitic violence and graffiti in Canada, and in Montreal in particular. Concordia University seems to be a real ground zero for anger against Israel — and Jewish students, by ex...
Nov 10, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 8
In this week's The Line podcast, Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney talk about the increasingly public calls for Justin Trudeau to resign. Facing poor polling numbers, internal caucus division, and an embarrassing walk back of the Liberals' signature carbon tax policy, PEI senator and Liberal stalwart Percy Downe penned a polite op-ed advising Trudeau to step down. The provinces, including Saskatchewan, are on the verge of an outright tax revolt over the Liberals' plan to give heating oil a temporary ca...
Nov 03, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In The Line’s weekly Dispatch podcast, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson discuss Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s bizarre decision to lift the carbon tax on heating oil — and only heating oil. Is this a defensible policy, or simply pork barrel politics, and a sign of serious fractures in his caucus? (For clarity: in the podcast, we aren’t explicit that the carbon tax is coming off oil nationally, not just in Atlantic Canada — we stumble around that, but to be clear, the tax is being lifted nati...
Oct 27, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In this week's The Line podcast, Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney discuss claims that Israel blew up a hospital in Gaza — including the part where, as it turns out, that did not happen. Rather, a Palestinian rocket misfired. They talk about the desire to create a moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel, a desire that makes Tweeters and news editors alike quick to forget beheaded babies, and even faster to accept Hamas' claims of Israeli atrocities. Then, The Line also talks about the CBC's decision...
Oct 20, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 5
The Line's Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson discuss the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel; Israel's response in the Gaza Strip — and North America's progressives, who have left their asses hanging in the wind by applauding and condoning acts of violence that include the murder of children and sexual assault of Israeli women. Progressives are doing incredible damage to their own causes by justifying the violence of Hamas — a genocidal and theocratic terrorist organization — under leftist jargon l...
Oct 13, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 4
On why the podcast proposals aren't as benign as the government makes them sound (and might believe). On the pending Google disaster. And why Canadians aren't as smart as we think we are.
Oct 06, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson on Canada humiliating itself by giving a Nazi a standing O, insulting our allies by promising to spend more on the military right before we announce we are going to spend less on the military, and, oh, God, I guess we’re debating the notwithstanding clause again. And more!
Sep 29, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson bring you the first episode of The Line Podcast. And gosh, this week didn’t go the way we thought it would. Canada finds itself in a major dispute with a global superpower, again. Justin Trudeau and his comms obsession is causing us problems, again. Doug Ford has to make a full retreat, again, this time on the Greenbelt. And Alberta and Danielle Smith pick a dumb fight with Canada, again, this time over pensions. Be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube or the podcast app...
Sep 23, 2023•1 hr 32 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Get ready for a new(ish) podcast from Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson.
Sep 19, 2023•1 min0
