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Front Burner is a daily news podcast that takes you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. Each morning, from Monday to Friday, host Jayme Poisson talks with the smartest people covering the biggest stories to help you understand what’s going on.

Front Burner

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau is dating the American pop star Katy Perry. He’s been spotted with her on her yacht, singing along at her concerts, and globetrotting with her hand in hand.

It’s not the kind of post-political life Canadians are used to witnessing. 

So today, a look at the lives of Canadian Prime Ministers once they’ve left office and the post-electoral endeavors of American presidents. 

Are they extensions of who they were as leaders or breaks from the past? 

Susan Delacourt is a longtime political journalist with the Toronto Star, and Gil Troy is a historian of American history and professor at McGill University. They join us to talk about the second acts of many of our most notable leaders.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The former PM and the pop star

Nick Fuentes and his followers - Groypers - are working to push American conservatism and the MAGA movement into even more dangerous and reactionary territory. He started to gain a following in 2017 after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. On his show, America First, Fuentes openly praises Adolf Hitler and pushes white supremacist, Christian nationalist and antisemitic ideas. 

Fuentes, and his ideas moved one step closer to the mainstream last week when he sat down with Tucker Carlson, one of the most prominent right wing talk show hosts in the U.S.

So we’re talking about this mainstreaming of his beliefs with Ali Breland, staff writer at The Atlantic, and Ben Lorber, senior research analyst at the social justice think tank Political Research Associates. Lorber is also the author of Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Nick Fuentes and the mainstreaming of neo-Nazism

The Conservative party is reeling from a pair of resignations that happened during budget week.

First, Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor to the Liberals, citing disagreement with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s approach to politics.

Two days later, Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux resigned from his position, citing the need for more time with his family. According to a senior Liberal source who spoke to the CBC, Jeneroux was in talks with Prime Minister Carney about defecting.

Longtime federal politics reporter Stephen Maher walks us through the high stakes political drama. Maher is also the author of “The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau”.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Is Pierre Poilievre’s leadership in trouble?

One year after Trump’s election, the U.S. looks very different than it did in 2024. PM Mark Carney has dubbed Trump “transformative”, and there’s no indication the president is shifting gears. CBC’s Washington correspondents – Paul Hunter, Katie Simpson and Louis Blouin – take stock of the last year, talking to Americans about whether they still stand by their votes, and assessing what’s ahead for Canada.

FB Exclusive: Trump's re-election, one year later

Writer George Orwell has had a major impact on the way we talk about and view the world. His book 1984 introduced us to words and phrases like “thoughtcrime,” “doublespeak” and “Big Brother,” which have become common parts of our vocabulary. Seventy five years after his death, his ideas around mass surveillance and propaganda continue to resonate in a world of Big Tech, challenges to democracy, and distrust of institutions.

The new documentary Orwell: 2+2=5 by filmmaker Raoul Peck explores the origin of Orwell’s ideas, and how they connect to political events like the January 6th insurrection, the persecution of the Rohingya people in Myanmar, and the invasion of Ukraine.

Raoul Peck joins guest host Daemon Fairless to talk about Orwell’s life, his words, and the ideological battle over his ideas.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

How Orwell’s words became our reality

In a huge win for the Democrats, Zohran Mamdani has been elected mayor of New York City. He ran on an explicitly leftist platform, focused on affordability and the working class — but many of his own party's top leaders have been reluctant to endorse him. Some still haven't.

A rift is growing between the party's centrist establishment, keen on partisan opposition to Trump and appeasing wealthy donors, and the progressive wing of the party newly energized by Mamdani, who promises to tax the rich and fight what he sees as a growing oligarchy.

Joshua A. Cohen is the author of the American politics newsletter Ettingermentum. He breaks down the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party.

A big Mamdani win, a big Dem identity crisis

Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberal government have unveiled a budget that calls for $141-billion of new spending in the next five years to prop up an economy grappling with major economic disruptions. It also proposes $51.2-billion in cuts and savings, including the slashing of tens of thousands of public service jobs.

From billions of investment in infrastructure and defence, to new details about the government’s climate and immigration targets, we’ll break it all down with Aaron Wherry and David Coletto.

Aaron is a senior writer with CBC’s parliamentary bureau, and David is the CEO and founder of Abacus Data.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Carney’s budget: generational or generic?

It’s been two and a half years since a civil war broke out in Sudan after a brutal struggle for power between its army and a powerful paramilitary group - the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The UN has called it the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe. Over 150,000 people have been killed, and over 12-million displaced.

Last week, the war saw a grim turning point when the northern city of El Fasher came under control of the RSF, which now controls all urban centres in Darfur. For over a year hundreds of thousands of people, many displaced and vulnerable, have been sheltering under siege in El Fasher with little to no access to food or medicine.

Dallia Abdelmoniem is a Sudanese political analyst. She’s here to help us understand what’s been happening in El Fasher, the unrelenting war in Sudan more broadly, and the forces - including foreign powers - behind it. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts.

What’s fuelling the war in Sudan?

On Tuesday, Canada’s Minister of Finance will announce his much anticipated budget.

It’s Mark Carney’s first as Prime Minister, and comes at a time of instability and uncertainty for the country. Trade negotiations with the U.S. are on hiatus, and the pressure’s on to spark economic growth while trimming spending and making life more affordable for Canadians.

Carney’s minority government also needs support from other parties for the budget to pass. And if it doesn’t, we could be looking at another election.

Our guest is Rosemary Barton, CBC’s chief political correspondent.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Mark Carney’s high-stakes first budget

Earlier this week Danielle Smith’s UCP government forced teachers back to work after a a three week strike using the notwithstanding clause. This prevents the Alberta Teachers' Association from challenging the legislation in court.

In response, the Alberta Federation of Labour announced that the wheels are in motion for a possible general strike by the province's unions.

Provincial affairs reporter for CBC Edmonton, Janet French, walks us through how these negotiations got to this point, what’s at stake for teachers, students and the government and where this fight could be headed.

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For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Is Alberta headed for a general strike?

After the events of Sept. 11, sweeping changes were made to U.S intelligence and counterrorism practices as part of the American-led 'war on terror'. Agencies like the CIA started focusing less on traditional forms of espionage, and became more of an organization centred on assassination and hunting non-state actors.

As part of that broader effort, a plan was born: what if the CIA were able to conscript a white American man to infiltrate the inner workings of Al-Qaeda? 

Journalist Zach Dorfman spent years investigating one such deep cover operation — and tells us how the program reached the desk of then President George W Bush, and would chart the secretive intelligence agency on a course that would go on to define its future. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Inside a CIA agent's mission to infiltrate Al-Qaeda

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