In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on March 6th, 2026, your hosts agree at the outset to avoid talking about Alberta for once, because Jen really needs a break. Fortunately, there was plenty else happening this week.

Today's episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Engage, the new door-to-door canvassing app from Geppetto Technologies. Engage makes it effortless to go knock doors and connect with your community. With a fragmented media landscape, endless spam phone calls, and social media echo chambers, the best way to reach people is at their doorstep. The Engage app makes it happen. Your canvassers will be ready to go in seconds using Engage's user-friendly interface. We seamlessly connect with your campaign's digital infrastructure to help you collect valuable data. Quickly track support, volunteers, signs and issues to set up a strong get-out-the-vote effort. With upcoming municipal elections in BC and Ontario, there's no better time to get started with Engage. Made in Canada, built and supported by experienced campaigners. Ready for a winning ground game? Visit goknockdoors.ca for your demo.

They begin with a quick tour of the current geopolitical landscape and what it means for Canada. Much to Jen’s disappointment, it leaves the country in a position where our new prime minister is starting to sound a lot like our old one. Jen generously volunteers to head to Ottawa and fix the Carney government’s communications problems herself. Matt suggests the real issue is that the government communicates well only when it’s confident the public will like what it has to say. The moment it has to juggle competing domestic priorities — as happened recently with the India trip and the new war against Iran — the messaging turns muddled and incoherent. Matt ultimately agrees with Jen: she’d better get to Ottawa and sort it out.

From there, the hosts turn to Pierre Poilievre’s recent trip to Europe. Matt gives the effort some credit, even if it arrives a year or so late in terms of helping the Conservatives form a government. Jen is less charitable. She argues that Poilievre has already burned through several full personality reboots, and worries that each one seems suspiciously calibrated to whatever happens to be trending in right-wing social media echo chambers.

Finally, Matt and Jen have some fun with a column in The Globe and Mail and what they consider a wildly exaggerated response from the ambassador of the United States in Ottawa. The laughs give way to a more serious discussion about information echo chambers, and how ideas that sound outrageous to outsiders can be wildly popular — and profitable — within a loyal online tribe. That dynamic, they conclude, may be great for engagement metrics, but it’s a terrible way to run a civilization.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.

#TheLinePodcast, #CanadianPolitics, #MarkCarney, #PierrePoilievre, #CanadaForeignPolicy, #Geopolitics, #CanadaUSRelations, #MediaEchoChambers, #PoliticalAnalysis, #CurrentAffairs

In today’s episode of On The Line, host Matt Gurney is joined by two guests to discuss the new war unfolding in the Middle East.

First up is Bill Roggio, editor of The Long War Journal and a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Roggio gives Matt the view from the United States: why Washington chose to strike now, the risks of an early withdrawal, and why he doesn’t see a coherent plan to actually win this war on the ground. In his view, the groundwork for success should have been laid months ago. Roggio makes clear that he wants a better future for the people of Iran, but he’s not convinced the U.S. fully understands what it has stepped into.

This episode of On The Line is brought to you by the Forest Products Association of Canada. In a volatile world, Canada has to focus on what we can control right here at home. Prime Minister Carney says a country that can’t build itself has few options. The forest products sector provides the literal building blocks for our country — from the lumber and wood products to build new homes and infrastructure; to pulp and paper for household and business use; to the
renewable power we need to support energy security.

We’re already a global trade success story, and we’re ready to do more to build a resilient, self-reliant country.

It’s time to focus on Canada’s domestic strengths. Learn more at www.fpac.ca.

Then Matt turns to Toronto and his old friend Kaveh Shahrooz of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. A member of the Iranian diaspora, Shahrooz has been in close contact with family in Iran as well as with members of the community here in Canada. He describes a moment filled with both optimism and fear. For the first time in nearly 50 years, there is real hope that change may be possible — but he cautions that any transition will likely involve dealing with deeply compromised actors who have done terrible things.

It’s a sobering, dual-perspective conversation about strategy, uncertainty, and what change might actually cost.

As always, like and subscribe, and check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca.

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on February 27th, 2026, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson begin with a close look at what Pierre Poilievre had to say at the Economic Club in downtown Toronto this week. Matt liked much of the speech, aside from one section he considers pure fantasyland. Jen is far less impressed overall. Both hosts agree the message might have landed better a year ago, and both detect lingering signs of denial when it comes to how Conservatives are interpreting what’s actually happening in Washington.

They then head south, metaphorically, as Jen dissects the State of the Union delivered by Donald Trump. Matt didn’t catch the entire speech but offers a few observations about Trump’s delivery that Jen happily builds on. The conversation widens to include the Democrats, who, in the hosts’ view, seem unusually committed to missing opportunities that are right in front of them.

In the final segment, Matt and Jen turn to new polling that shows something odd unfolding out west. The Liberals are gaining traction in places where they traditionally struggle. Jen thinks she understands why. Even people who would never vote Liberal are quietly telling her they find themselves liking Mark Carney. The episode wraps with a brief discussion of Alberta’s latest provincial budget, which Matt, speaking as an Ontarian, finds contains more than a few familiar elements.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca, and always remember to like and subscribe.