Episode 224 Audio: David Doel

Krystal Kyle & Friends

According to many political commentators, a liberal victory in the Canadian election wasn’t in the cards. So why did it happen? We tackle this question with this week’s guest, David Doel of The Rational National. The answer has to do with Trump. Trump’s trade wars and tariffs on Canada; his repeated jabs about Canada the 51st state; and his isolationist vision of the U.S.’s role on the global stage all made Trumpism deeply unappealing to Canadians. Pierre Poilievre, with his history as a union-buster and a friend to big business, fit into the Trumpian mold. Mark Carney, with his steady hand and focus on key voter issues like affordable housing, offered a viable alternative.

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We also talk with David about Canadian-American relations, strained by Trump’s aggressive and American-exceptionalist leadership, and the threats of annexation and border changes that Trump has suggested he’d like to impose on our neighbors to the north. The elections serve as a sampling of Canadian national opinion on what they’d like the future of their country to be like; ideally, it seems, Trump is nowhere in the picture.

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