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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

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.

We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

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

Is Alberta headed for a general strike?

Why has U.S. President Donald Trump suspended trade talks with Canada? Why did the U.S. ambassador to Canada level an expletive-laced tirade at Ontario's trade representative, in front of more than 200 people? Why is Trump's treasury secretary accusing the Ontario government of running a psy-op?

Because of a 60-second ad, featuring clips of former president Ronald Reagan explaining why he thinks tariffs — Trump's self-professed "favourite word" — are bad economic policy.

Rick Perlstein has written extensively about the history of American conservative politics, including the book Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980. He breaks down what Reagan actually believed about tariffs and free trade, and why bringing up the spectre of Reagan — one of the most sacred figures in American conservatism — has caused so much chaos.

We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

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

What did Reagan really believe about tariffs?

As Donald Trump ends trade talks with Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Asia this week, meeting with leaders, and pitching Canada as a reliable partner in a moment of geopolitical realignment. 

On the trip, Carney has talked about Canada’s search for new reliable partners “who honour their commitments, who are there in tough times, and who engage collaboratively to fix something that isn’t working.” 

So, with Carney in Asia in search of new partners, where does this leave Canada? 

Our guest is Vina Nadjibulla, Vice-President of Research and Strategy with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

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

In Asia, Canada hopes to fill a Trump-sized void

Since the 1960s, Israel has been building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank — settlements deemed illegal under international law, and condemned by the Canadian government. With the settlements has also come many documented cases of violence from Israeli settlers against the Palestinians whose homes are being bulldozed to build those settlements.

Now, a new investigation by CBC's the fifth estate has found that Canadian charities have been indirectly funding organizations, including the Israeli military, that support the ever-expanding settlements. That includes issuing tax receipts on those donations — despite them running afoul of the rules governing registered Canadian charities.

Cohost Ioanna Roumeliotis breaks down her team's reporting, and why critics say these donations are perpetuating violence that threatens the possibility of peace and a Palestinian state.

We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

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

How Canadian charities fund illegal West Bank settlements

After an anti-tariff ad commissioned by the Ontario government ran during the World Series, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the plug on negotiations between his office and the federal government. 

It comes as Stellantis and General Motors announced they were moving some production to the U.S., affecting thousands of jobs on this side of the border. 

So we’re talking to historian Dimitry Anastakis about the importance of the Canadian auto industry, how it became so intertwined with America and what options the government has.

We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

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

Can Canada’s auto industry survive Trump?

U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear that he’s serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st state, with his deputy chief of staff saying Trump has made no concessions on the topic. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that threat is “a real thing”.

Trump says he’d use economic force to drag Canada under America’s boot. But he’s been less delicate about other places, saying he could use military force to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal.

Howard Coombs is director of the Queen’s Centre for International Defence Policy. He’s also a retired member of the Canadian Armed Forces and deployed as a civilian counter-insurgency advisor in Afghanistan.

He talks to Jayme Poisson about what a theoretical takeover of Canada by the U.S. could look like. One that could include tariffs, but also boots on the ground.

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

What if the U.S. invaded Canada?

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