All NATO members are required to spend the equivalent of 2% of GDP on their military, and Canada has always fallen short of that benchmark. But now, more frequent domestic crises, mounting geopolitical turmoil, and harsh rhetoric from south of the border, may mean that it's time to put up or shut up when it comes to military spending. So where do the biggest gaps in our capabilities exist? How difficult will it be to remedy them? And what sort of military do we as Canadians actually want? GUEST:...
Jun 24, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast On what is a sweltering weekend across much of Canada, we thought we'd revisit an episode that takes place in cooler climes. It's the quirky story of how a war fought using bottles of whisky led to the establishment of Canada's first and only land border with Europe. Enjoy! ----------------------------------------------------------- ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES: 50 years ago, a dispute arose between Canada and Denmark over Hans Island, a piece of land that exists almost exactly halfway between the coast ...
Jun 23, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast This month, schools across the country will be closing for the summer. And the kids? Well, their parents will have to figure out what to do with them. Nowadays, there's a lot of pressure to register kids for expensive camps and classes, but is all that really necessary? Can the kids just do nothing all summer? Jordan speaks with Alyson Schafer, one of Canada's leading parenting experts, to find some affordable ways to make sure the kids are safe and occupied this holiday. Here's a link to the ep...
Jun 22, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast For decades, the sight of a bald eagle anywhere near Southern Ontario was basically an impossibility. The species has nearly been extinguished twice in the past century, and while many of the majestic birds had bounced back on the west cost, there simply weren't enough of them around the Great Lakes to sustain a population boom. Over the past few years, slowly and carefully, and with plenty of help from dedicated conservationists, that's changed. There are even bald eagles nesting in Toronto. Ho...
Jun 21, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Liberals say their changes to the capital gains tax mean that Canada's ultra rich will pay a little more, money they can easily afford. The Conservatives say the Liberals are taxing small business owners and Canadians already struggling to get by. Who's right? What if they both are? The changes to the tax were bound to become a political football: A complicated tweak to an existing tax that can be easily spun by either side of the aisle. So who will it really hurt? Will it help? What do you ...
Jun 20, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast A few weeks ago, temperatures in India blasted past 50 degrees Celsius. Currently much of the United States and parts of Canada are in the grip of a heat dome that could shatter records. Summer's hot, and heat waves happen. We know this. But if a heat wave is a period of time with temperatures above normal, and the "normal" temperature keeps rising... What do the heat waves of the future mean for us? What exactly is a "wet bulb" measurement? Which parts of the world can withstand the heat to com...
Jun 19, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Typically, a broken water main does not plunge a city into weeks of critical water shortages and a state of emergency. But the pipe that broke on June 5 wasn't a typical water main. Now, almost two weeks later, the city is estimating another three to five weeks for full repairs, and until then Calgarians are under water restrictions. How did the break happen, and could it have been prevented? Why will repairs take so long? What might happen if the city gets close to running out of water? And wil...
Jun 18, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richmound, Saskatchewan thought they'd have seen the last of the so-called "Queen of Canada" by now. It's been almost a year since Romana Didulo and her followers moved into an empty school in the tiny prairie town. And they're still here. Nearly a year of living next door to a dozen or more conspiracy theorists who promise public executions does some strange things to a small community. When everyone knows everyone, and everybody has to pick a side, what happens? Nothing good. GUEST: Rachel Bro...
Jun 17, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're coming up on the show's six year anniversary, and so we wanted to revisit the first episode we ever released to show just how far we've come in that time. We hope you enjoy! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau managed to green light recreational marijuana in Canada, but there is still a lot to get done before legalized weed makes its way into the hands of Canadians. Maclean's Ottawa bureau chief, John Geddes, explains how ...
Jun 16, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tova wrote into the show expressing frustration with the price of clothes at brick and mortar stores. She wants to shop online but doesn't like the hassles associated with making returns. Tova's email got us thinking about our own evolving shopping habits and what it means for both the economy and the environment. Do we need to reframe how we think about buying clothes? Jordan talks to Kelly Drennan, the founder of Fashion Takes Action, a non profit organization that's devoted to advancing susta...
Jun 15, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Using glue to stick cheese on a pizza. Drinking urine to pass kidney stones. The past few weeks have been filled with weird, hilarious and definitively wrong answers supplied by Google's new AI Overview. The criticism became so intense that Google has fixed many of the answers manually, but it's still determined to push forward incorporating AI into its responses. Why? How did AI mess these simple questions up? What has Google lost as it moves forward with its plans? And ... does the company und...
Jun 14, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, a bombshell report revealed multiple Canadian parliamentarians have, intentionally and unintentionally, worked with foreign agents to interfere in our politics. The revelation sparked furious debate around who these MPs are, what they've done to undermine Canada's interest and whether or not the "traitors"—as many called them—should be named. Today, we'll bring you on a deep dive into the world of foreign interference, security clearance, intelligence gathering and how to protect Cana...
Jun 13, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The CRTC decided last week to levy a tax on the Canadian revenue made by the giant streaming services. This money will ostensibly go towards supporting Canadian creators and improving Canadian content...which is what exactly? This is where Bill C-11 gets interesting, because streamers already spend a ton of money making content in Canada, or purchasing stories and IP created by Canadians. Much of that won't count, so what will? And who will end up paying for the tax on those services—American co...
Jun 12, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast This weekend saw four Israeli hostages rescued at the cost of at least 200 Palestinian lives. While the world debates the calculus of that manoeuvre, it is either way more lives lost in a conflict overflowing with them. When this began, very few experts could have imagined Israel's bloody response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks lasting eight months. But here we are, with ceasefire deals and hostage exchanges having failed every time they've seemed close. Is there still a way to end the bloodshed? Will...
Jun 11, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The 1930s was a disastrous time for Alberta, as crops failed and topsoil blew away in the wind. And while the province is not currently at that level today, all signs are pointing towards a period of prolonged drought in the province. This is a problem even a month of rain can't fix. And every government in the province is having to dramatically rethink how they handle water when it becomes scarce. What does the future hold for Alberta's crops? And what are we doing now to avoid the worst-case s...
Jun 10, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Traditionally, we think of a tip as an acknowledgement of a job well done, usually by someone who performs a service for us. It's become impolite not to tip, of course, but until recently the standards were still mostly understood. Then society began to go cashless... Over the past few years, tipping has crept into far more transactions than it had previously. Now businesses don't need to rely on tradition, they can simply add a tip prompt to their transaction machines, and presto! Tip creep. Th...
Jun 09, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast In pop culture, pre-nuptial agreements (or pre-nups) are usually talked about as something that protects a rich person from marrying a gold digger. But these days, most of us don’t have much gold to dig for; that said, there are still things couples need to think about before combining finances. Jordan talks to Georgina Carson, a family lawyer and partner at Carson, Chousky and Lein to get the low-down on marriage and cohabitation contracts, and find out what steps couples should take when they ...
Jun 08, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scientists are very careful about throwing around words like 'breakthrough' or 'cure'—especially when it comes to diseases like ALS that are so devastating to their victims. But the past few months have seen an incredible sense of optimism around research being done by a team at Western University, who seem to have found a way to prevent the cell death that is the core of the disease. How did they make this discovery? How does it work so far in experiments? And why is this step turning heads aro...
Jun 07, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast On Wednesday the Bank of Canada lowered its key interest rate for the first time in four years, after months spent at a 20-plus year high. The cut was just a quarter-point, but it could be a signal that easier economic times are on the way for millions of Canadians struggling with servicing their debt. So what does this latest cut mean right now, and what might it mean in the future? And is this the start of a trend, or could the bank decide to walk it back later this year? GUEST: David, senior ...
Jun 06, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Heat pumps could fundamentally shift the way we heat and cool our homes, but high costs and misconceptions about their performance in cold weather have served as barriers to their mass adoption in North America. So how do they work? How effective could they be in reducing carbon emissions? And what's being done to make them more attainable for the average household? GUEST: Matt Simon, Senior staff writer, WIRED We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You ca...
Jun 05, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast There are some large companies in Canada that have a history of breaking environmental laws. But the framework for fining them can be complex, and often struggles to make the larger businesses feel serious financial ramifications. How does this system work? Or does it? How could we adapt it for a world in which the pursuit of profits that cause environmental harm will become more and more dangerous? GUEST: Ben Collison, PhD student at Dalhousie University, writing for The Conversation We love fe...
Jun 04, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's been decades since the Conservative party played any real role in British Columbia's legislature. But that might be changing. With a little over four months to go before the next provincial election, they BC Conservatives are neck and neck with the NDP to form the next government, at least according to polls? Is it a mirage? A sign of a serious shift in the electorate? Or an indication of pure frustration and anger with the current government, so much so that anyone else, even a party that ...
Jun 03, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the next few weeks, we'll be revisiting some of our favourite episodes from the catalogue. If you're new to the show, we hope you enjoy hearing these for the first time, and if you've been with us a while, enjoy this trip down memory lane! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES: It's not easy to make yourself notorious among the more than 40,000 McDonald's franchises in the world—but Ottawa's Rideau Street location accomplished it. From...
Jun 02, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cheap. Entitled. Greedy. Those are just a few things that come to mind when one thinks about a landlord. But have you ever considered becoming one? According to data collected by the Canadian Real Estate Association, the current average cost of a house in Canada is just over $700 thousand dollars. Simultaneously, the cost of renting remains at an all-time high. Buying a house that has a basement unit, or something you can rent out to help cover your mortgage, might seem like an appealing option....
Jun 01, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast The debate around Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying legislation is exhaustive, and there is no shortage of opinion out there from doctors, advocates, experts and academics, as well as first-person testimonials from terminally ill people who are availing themselves of the system. One of the perspectives often missing in that debate, however, are disabled people, many of whom say they feel the system pushes them towards using MAiD by making them feel like a burden on society. Today, using a tex...
May 31, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to a fascinating little corner of contract and competition law that could leave a lasting impact on Canada's grocery industry. Last week, the competition bureau revealed it was investigating the parent companies of two of the country's largest grocers in relation to controls they have applied to their lease agreements. These sorts of controls are common in all sorts of agreements—but the bureau alleges that Loblaws and Sobeys are using them in an unfair and anticompetitive manner, so it'...
May 30, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast A couple of years ago, angry Taylor Swift fans filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster, after a presale event for her tour went haywire and resulted in millions of disappointed fans. That lawsuit is still before the courts. But it's one thing to have Swifties suing you, and another to face the United States Department of Justice, who also sued Ticketmaster's parent company Live Nation last week, alleging that the company is a monopoly and accusing it of several practices that combine to give it unf...
May 29, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Aiden Pleterski was charged with fraud a couple of weeks ago. On the face of it, it's a simple charge, but the story behind those charges is one that could only happen in the world of cryptocurrency. Pleterski, a native of Whitby, Ontario, built a reputation as the 'Crypto King' and is alleged to have been living lavishly on investors' money. Now there are handfuls of lawsuits, allegedly tens of millions in missing money and a tangled web of angry investors. How did this all go down? How did Ple...
May 28, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The internet changed nearly everything about real estate. Now buyers can see all the listings, everywhere; they can learn the price histories and estimated values of houses they look at, and can see the minute details of those houses before ever visiting them or retaining an agent. But one thing never did change: they still can't easily see an agent's commission. But a settled lawsuit in the United States and two more in the courts in Canada are preparing to change that and then we'll learn just...
May 27, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast We've gained some new subscribers recently, and over the next few Sundays we want to help welcome them to the show by re-releasing some of our favourite episodes from the last few years. If you're new here, welcome! And if you've been with us for a while, we hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane. ---------------------------------------------------------- It's here. It's become a part of summer in most areas of Canada. It's bad for you. What exactly makes wildfire smoke harmful to breathe? An...
May 26, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
