A two part podcast! First, we talk with CUTRIC's Josipa Petrunic to get an look inside a lobbying campaign that just bore fruit in the form of the Liberal government's multi-billion dollar transit funding announcement. 

Second, we talk with Hill Times columnist Scott Taylor about the ongoing crisis in the Canadian Armed Forces after investigations were launched into former top general Jonathan Vance and Art McDonald, his short-lived replacement who recently stepped aside from the top job. 

Music by Kevin Macleod 

The government just introduced a new bill that takes steps towards drug decriminalization in the face of the ongoing opioid crisis. The bill doesn't go all the way towards decriminalization, but will these interim measures achieve the goals of reducing overdoses and overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous people in Canadian prisons? Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice Arif Virani and University of Windsor law professor Bill Bogart join to walk us through it all. 

Music by Kevin Macleod

As Canada's vaccine supply slowly ramps up, should policy makers be worried about how many people are willing to take it? Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, joins The Hot Room to walk us through his research on vaccine hesitancy in Canada and how we compare to other countries. 

Music by Kevin Macleod

Senator Pamela Wallin's mother and grandmother had Alzheimer's. She knows firsthand the pain the disease can bring to an person and their family. That's why she's been an outspoken advocate for amending the assisted dying law, currently before the Senate, to allow those suffering from the disease to make an advanced request for medically assisted death. She joined The Hot Room for a candid conversation on a deeply personal and difficult issue for hundreds of thousands of Canadians. 

Music by Kevin Macleod

You may have heard that Canada’s been having some issues with vaccine supply in the  past few weeks. 

Getting enough doses into the country is just one issue the vaccination drive will face. 

Dr. Kumanan Wilson, a physician scientist at The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa professor, and CEO of CANImmunize, joined The Hot Room to discuss how the technologies used to schedule and track the rollout are essential to ensuring the largest healthcare intervention in human history runs smoothly. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Senator Murray Sinclair said he has no interest in the Governor General post but is interested in being part of the appointment process. He joined The Hot Room to talk about the role of the Governor General in an evolving Canadian society, his Senate tenure, Reconciliation, and white supremacy. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Derek Sloan was booted from the Conservative caucus after a "destructive pattern of behaviour" over the past year, the final straw being his accepting a donation from a known white supremacist during the Conservative leadership campaign. 

Mr. Sloan has been a thorn in the side of Conservative leader Erin O'Toole since Mr. O'Toole won the leadership in August. How does this move affect the direction Mr. O'Toole is trying to take the party? Will Sloan and his brand still be a presence in Canadian politics?

Conservative strategist and Hill Times columnist Tim Powers joins The Hot Room to walk us through it all. 

Music by Kevin Macleod 

In the wake of Capitol Hill riots many have wondered aloud whether there is a similar threat posed by hate groups in Canada. The country has already seen a number of heinous attacks by supporters of neo-fascist ideologies, and the threat to politicians and citizens alike continues to grow as these groups gain a following online. Stephanie Carvin, professor of international relations at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs and an expert on terrorism, joins The Hot Room to walk us through what it all means for Canadian politics. 

Hill Times deputy editor Peter Mazereeuw, Hill Times managing editor Charelle Evelyn, and freelance journalist Dale Smith, author of The Unbroken Machine: Canada's Democracy in Action discuss the top storylines for each party ahead of the House returning on Jan. 25. 

Will there be an election? How can Erin O'Toole balance playing to the Conservative base and courting a larger coalition? Can Jagmeet Singh revitalize the NDP? Can the Bloc Quebecois maintain their support  as other parties look to pick off seats in Quebec? What vision does Annamie Paul have for the Green Party and how can she win a seat in the House of Commons? And how does the pandemic and vaccine rollout affect it all? All this and more in this episode of The Hill Times Hot Room. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod 

The Liberal government recently promised to admit over 400,000 immigrants per year over the next three years, the highest number in over a century. Is this the right time to pursue the policy? How will COVID affect the plan? Conservative immigration critic Raquel Dancho joins The Hot Room to give us her thoughts on the ambitious plan.  

Programming note: This episode was recorded on Dec. 14 at 2:30 p.m. eastern time. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, is stepping down after six years at the helm of the organization that advocates for nearly one million First Nations people. He joins The Hot Room to talk about how reconciliation has progressed over his tenure, what work still has to be done, why he's not running for National Chief again, and what comes next. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod 

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux joins the Hot Room to discuss the government's fall economic statement and his recent report that argued the Liberal government's fall economic statement uses contradictory guardrails that could derail a post-pandemic recovery. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Today is the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate accords and evidently the Liberal government wanted to make a splash. The federal government released an ambitious climate plan aimed at getting Canada on the path to meeting its Paris targets and a net zero economy. The Healthy Planet and Healthy Economy plan proposes spending $15-billion on 64 different measures, including building retrofits and electric vehicle incentives, along with raising the carbon tax, something the Liberals promised repeatedly NOT to do in the 2018 election. 

There’s a ton more in the plan, so we brought on Sara Hastings-Simon, a researcher at the University of Calgary and the Payne Institute of Public Policy to walk us though it. 

A new report by The Lancet has some startling findings on how climate change affects our health, and how it could be partially responsible for thousands of deaths per year in Canada. Dr. Finola Hackett and Dr. Claudel Petrin-Desrosiers analyzed the report to find out what it means for Canadians. They joined The Hot Room to walk us through their findings. 

Canada's privacy laws have been pilloried by experts for years as unfit for the digital age. The government recently introduced a new bill aimed at bringing the privacy regime into the 21st century. That law, C-11, could see a fundamental reset of the existing framework. University of Ottawa professor Teresa Scassa, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy, joins The Hot Room to walk us through the key issues. 

The Liberal government just tabled new legislation on climate change accountability with the goal of meeting, and even exceeding, Canada's climate change targets. How will the bill help keep future Canadian governments accountable to these targets? Where are the loopholes? Will the bill actually help accomplish these important goals? Eco Justice lawyer Julia Croome joins The Hot Room to answer these questions and more.  

Two vaccine candidates have given the world a flicker of the light at the end of the COVID-shaped tunnel. With that light in mind, the UN just released a paper titled UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery focused on key questions that need answering if the recovery is to be equitable, sustainable, and resilient. Steven Hoffman, scientific director of the Institute of Population and Public Health at the Canadian Institute for Health Research, was heavily involved in the development of the roadmap and joins The Hot Room to take us through what it argues for in a post-COVID world. 

Statistics Canada released a report in October showing Canadian military colleges rife with sexual harassment and assault. The military has tried to rid itself of sexual misconduct over the years, but has been less than successful. Why does this problem persist and what can be done about it? Michel Drapeau and Joshua Juneau join The Hot Room to offer some answers. 

Hill Times columnist Erica Ifill, who also co-hosts the Bad + Bitchy podcast and co-owns Not in My Colour, joins The Hot Room to talk the still-ongoing U.S. election. Erica touches on transnational populism, racism in Canada, the pandemic-induced economic fallout, and more. 

China's National Security Law, passed in response to massive protests in Hong Kong, tightened the Chinese Communist Party's control over the semi-autonomous region. NDP MP Jenny Kwan, her party's immigration critic, joins The Hot Room to discuss what policy levers the government can pull on to help Hong Kongers. 

Conservative House Leader Gérard Deltell joins The Hot Room to talk about the Conservative motion to strike a special committee to study the WE scandal and the government's pandemic response, and the newest motion to have the Health Committee study the government's pandemic response.

The family reunification immigration lottery system just opened up and Elizabeth Long joins The Hot Room to take us through the changes in the program over the past decade, the pros and cons of a lottery system, and how Canada's traditional economic immigration streams can hurt immigrant families in Canada. 

Chief Science Advisor Dr. Mona Nemer was just reappointed to a two-year term and released her annual report. The University of Ottawa's Paul Dufour joins The Hot Room to talk about the history of the position, how it differs from other models across the world, and what could be coming down the road for Canadian science as the pandemic continues to rage, and more. 

The Liberal government "is now focused on entirely eliminating chronic homelessness in Canada" according to the Speech from the Throne. Billions of dollars of investments were made prior to the pandemic, with billions more dollars coming during COVID to help address homelessness in Canada. Western University professor of nursing Abe Oudshoorn joins The Hot Room to unpack this ambitious promise. 

Governor General Julie Payette delivered the Throne Speech and to Canada's collective relief it didn't mention spaceships. It did, however, promise quite the ambitious agenda. Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and political science professor Daniél Beland joins The Hot Room to parse through the rhetoric and tell us what to expect in Canadian politics going forward. 

Testing centres across the country, and especially in Ottawa, are filling up, with some wait times over six hours. Professor David Juncker, chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department at McGill University, joins The Hot Room to talk rapid saliva tests for COVID-19 and how they could help ahead of a vaccine. 

Christopher Ragan, director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, joins The Hot Room to take us through Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem's speech on the Bank's role in the economic recovery. 

Rose LeMay is the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group, a twice-monthly Hill Times columnist, and member of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in northern British Columbia. She joins The Hot Room to discuss protestors toppling a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Montreal, two residential schools being designated as national historic sites, and the Liberal track record on reconciliation. 

Erin O'Toole takes over as leader of the Conservative Party during a worldwide pandemic with a prorogued parliament and a general election lurking in the shadows of West Block. 

How did we get here, and where do we go next? Tim Powers is vice-president of Summa Strategies, managing director of Abacus Data, a Hill Times columnist, joins The Hot Room to discuss all things Conservative leadership. 

Tariffs are back! U.S. President Donald Trump slapped aluminum tariffs on Canada again. Trade lawyer Matthew Kronby joins The Hot Room to talk about the economic impact, Canada's ability to respond, and how the looming U.S. election could affect it all. 

Carleton University Professor Jonathan Malloy joins the Hot Room to talk Bill Morneau's departure, Chrystia Freeland as the new Finance Minister, and internal power dynamics within Cabinet. Sorry to all Dominic LeBlanc fans.

York University professor Steven Hoffman, one of Canada's leading experts on public health, joins The Hot Room to evaluate Canada's COVID response to date - and where we go from here. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod 

"Acid Trumpet" and "Faster Does It"

Former lieutenant general and Liberal MP Andrew Leslie joins to talk about Canadian foreign policy ahead of the U.S. election. Hill Times reporter Neil Moss takes us through a story he wrote on a new parliamentary process for trade deals. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod 

"Acid Trumpet" and "Faster Does it" 

Nik Nanos joins the pod to talk about how the WE scandal could affect Canadians' attitudes toward the Liberal Party and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as more details continue to emerge. In the second half, Hill Times deputy editor Laura Ryckewaert talks about a survey she conducted on political staff diversity. 

Music by Kevin MacLeod

"Faster Does It" and "Acid Trumpet"

Senator Gwen Bonfiace, former head of the OPP, talks police reform in Canada, her experience with the Ipperwash Inquiry, and more. 

Host Peter Mazereeuw returns from vacation to talk with reporter Aidan Chamandy about the new contact-tracing app. Chris Sands, head of the Wilson Center's Canada Institute, also joins The Hot Room to talk about Canada-U.S. trade tensions and the USMCA. 

Paul Heinbecker, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, joins The Hot Room to talk about Canada's unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council. Hill Times managing editor Charelle Evelyn also joins to talk about her recent story on Black public servants pushing back against racism in the federal public service.

Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page joins the podcast to talk about the government's unprecedented spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Hill Times reporter Mike Lapointe digs into his latest story on a lack of diversity in the Parliament Press Gallery.