For the second week of my campaign coverage on the podcast, I wanted to kick back at the monostory a little. Everyone’s talking about disarray on the Conservative campaign, and I do mean everyone:
I have no reason to doubt that story, but it seems amply covered already. And there’s time for the Poilievre campaign’s fortunes to reverse, just as there’s time for things to go evern worse. Either way I’ll catch up to it later. Instead this week’s episode begins by paying both of the largest parties the compliment of taking their promises seriously.
Stephen Gordon is a friend of this newsletter who directly influenced my decision to launch a Substack in 2022. He also heads the economics department at Université Laval in Quebec City. We used to bring him into federal budget lockups so he could catch details we’d miss, back when I was writing for an old magazine. He’s on this week to kick the tires on a few prominent Liberal and Conservative promises: income-tax cuts, debt financing for home construction, and tax-free capital gains if they’re put back into Canadian investments. Gordon gives the first promise a big thumbs down and offers mixed reviews for the others.
Next is Mark Bourrie, whose big new biography of Pierre Poilievre hit bookstore shelves just as the election was being called. Bourrie’s critical of Poilievre, much more so than Andrew Lawton, who came on the pod to talk about his own Poilievre bio a year ago. Lawton is running for the Conservatives in the current election. Bourrie’s not likely to follow suit. But he reflects on Poilievre’s strengths and weaknesses, informed by close observation of the Conservative leader’s entire career
My interview with Vassy Kapelos concludes this episode. Interview? Chat, more like. This is Vass’s third appearance on the podcast. Between her two TV shows and her radio show, she interviews more politicians in a week than most of us do in a year, and it’s a great pleasure to benefit from her experience as we compare notes on a chaotic first campaign week.
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I am grateful to be the Max Bell Foundation Senior Fellow at McGill University, the principal patron of this podcast. Antica Productions turns these interviews into a podcast every week. Kevin Breit wrote and performed the theme music. Andy Milne plays it on piano at the end of each episode. Thanks to all of them and to you. Please tell your friends to subscribe to The Paul Wells Show on their favourite podcast app, or here on the newsletter.
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