In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on March 13th, 2026, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson begin with federal politics. Mark Carney appears to be on track to secure a majority government, and your hosts wonder whether he truly deserves it. Has the country actually improved much over the last year, or have the Conservatives simply squandered their opportunity not only to win, but even to hold him to a minority? They also discuss the government’s latest Arctic announcement, which Matt notes isn’t especially new. He’s frustrated that a leader recycling old announcements may still lock up the majority that will allow him to govern largely as he wishes for the next three years.

The conversation then turns to the war in the Middle East. Jen brings some personal perspective to the discussion — many listeners may not realize that she lived in the region early in her career and still has many friends there. She shares some of what she’s hearing from people close to the unfolding conflict. At the same time, both hosts reflect on how strange the war feels from afar. Perhaps, they suggest, all of us — hosts and audience alike — are slowly becoming desensitized to events that would have seemed shocking and horrific not that long ago.

The final segment takes an unexpected turn. It starts with Matt throwing Jen a conversational curveball: Hitler. You’ll have to tune in to hear exactly why that came up. But while they’re recording, breaking news emerges from Toronto, and the discussion shifts abruptly. Matt vents some frustration about what he sees as inadequate action to protect the city’s Jewish community, and some of that frustration spills out on air. He also makes, only reluctantly, an observation that he hopes no one in the White House hears, in case they use it against us. Jen laughs. She likes the chaos.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca.

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In this episode of On The Line, host Jen Gerson sits down with Michael Geist, a professor at the University of Ottawa and one of the country’s leading voices on digital policy.

They begin with the latest United States Trade Priority Report, which singled out controversial Canadian legislation such as Online Streaming Act (Bill C‑11) as a major digital dispute complicating negotiations between Canada and the United States. Gerson asks whether the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated to the point where Canada now feels compelled to defend objectively terrible legislation simply on principle. It certainly seems that way.

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From there, the conversation turns to the apparent resurrection of the Online Harms Act, which many observers assumed had died on the order paper. Instead, it may be finding new life following reports that Jesse Van Rootselaar had been flagged by OpenAI as a potential risk before the shooting rampage in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.

Finally, Gerson and Geist discuss Bill C‑4 and the Senate of Canada’s effort to block what critics describe as an outrageous move by the House of Commons of Canada: legislation that would carve out a special exemption allowing political parties to avoid the privacy rules that apply to nearly everyone else. The result is a sharp conversation about digital governance, political incentives, and whether Canada is drifting into a regulatory posture that’s increasingly hard to defend.

For more like this, visit our main page at ReadTheLine.ca. And as always, like and subscribe.

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In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on March 6th, 2026, your hosts agree at the outset to avoid talking about Alberta for once, because Jen really needs a break. Fortunately, there was plenty else happening this week.

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They begin with a quick tour of the current geopolitical landscape and what it means for Canada. Much to Jen’s disappointment, it leaves the country in a position where our new prime minister is starting to sound a lot like our old one. Jen generously volunteers to head to Ottawa and fix the Carney government’s communications problems herself. Matt suggests the real issue is that the government communicates well only when it’s confident the public will like what it has to say. The moment it has to juggle competing domestic priorities — as happened recently with the India trip and the new war against Iran — the messaging turns muddled and incoherent. Matt ultimately agrees with Jen: she’d better get to Ottawa and sort it out.

From there, the hosts turn to Pierre Poilievre’s recent trip to Europe. Matt gives the effort some credit, even if it arrives a year or so late in terms of helping the Conservatives form a government. Jen is less charitable. She argues that Poilievre has already burned through several full personality reboots, and worries that each one seems suspiciously calibrated to whatever happens to be trending in right-wing social media echo chambers.

Finally, Matt and Jen have some fun with a column in The Globe and Mail and what they consider a wildly exaggerated response from the ambassador of the United States in Ottawa. The laughs give way to a more serious discussion about information echo chambers, and how ideas that sound outrageous to outsiders can be wildly popular — and profitable — within a loyal online tribe. That dynamic, they conclude, may be great for engagement metrics, but it’s a terrible way to run a civilization.

All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.

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