Shauna Sylvester, Founder and Lead Convenor of Urban Climate Leadership, sits down with Nikki and Tom to talk about Canada's city halls, convening nascent economic sectors, and long-term change that creates jobs, increases energy efficiency and helps people.

The Urban Climate Institute is currently convening those who bring social capital -- skills, knowledge, production, finance, policy -- to switch many urban apartment heating systems to heat pumps. The initiative brings air conditioning to many tenants who don't already have it while reducing total electricity demand and the need to spend on more power plants. Shauna sees the approach as a model that can be used to develop other sectors.

Shauna has worked as a convenor in other transformation projects, including Canada’s World, which worked to help decision-makers other countries see a modern Canada, and in that a potential partner an friend.

Below the Fold

With municipal elections happening in several provinces this fall, Tom connects with Saman Tabasinejad, executive director of Progress Toronto, for an update on her city's civic elections.

Tom also gets the details on the recent Smith-Carney oil and gas MOU from The Breach contributor Desmond Cole, who reports that key environment groups are raising concerns Carney has agreed to cut the industrial carbon levy so deeply that private sector investment in the promised carbon capture and storage plan -- The Pathways Project -- will never happen with just private money.

Love it or heave it

Nikki is loving that the BC legislative session and the BC Conservative race is now almost over ans everybody can heal.

Tom is loving seeing Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew deal a very public correction to the "fake framing" of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith about à recent court case.

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Jennifer Howard, former Manitoba Minister of Labour and Finance, and 2025 NDP campaign director, joins Left East to West to talk about Mark Carney's direction for Canada, the Liberals undoing pharmacare, the NDP's unsolved strategic challenges and building a stronger brand for the NDP on jobs and economic development.

Nikki checks in with James Valcke from Viewpoints Research with an updated on a recent Nova Scotia poll showing a long-term care strike is accelerating Premier Tim Houston's slumping support.

Tom looks at the coal plant controversy in Saskatchewan, where leaked documents show a total refurbishment and operation cost of $26 billion, far more than previously admitted, after Premier Scott Moe shot-gunned the province in to the most expensive option possible when his government wasted time and ran out of runway.

And Nikki and Tom discuss Prime Minister Carney's meeting with BC Premier David Eby and the a tribute to former premier John Horgan.

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Coree Tull, chair of the the BC Watershed Security Coalition, explores the challenges facing Canadian watersheds in our Feature Interview. Canada's watersheds face intensifying demands from industry, including new data centres, while Donald Trump makes unsettling comments about US desires for Canadian water.

Coree believes that to protect jobs and the natural water so central to Canadian identity, Canada needs to think of watersheds as key infrastructure and give them active monitoring and management plans to maintain them.

This Week Below the Fold looks at a couple important new stories that didn't make national headlines:

• Tom checks in with Farouk Karim, Quebec political analyst, about polling shifts after the CAQ and Quebec Liberals picked new leaders and Quebec Solidaire put a focus on affordability
• Nikki takes a look at how Canadians' data security concerns are showing up in responses to the Canada census and the BC Conservatives' leadership race

Love It Or Heave It is about something you love and want to keep, or something you'd like to heave and forever forget. This week:

• Tom loves that he called it right three months ago when he predicted the Ontario Liberal Party old guard would try to defeat Nate Erskine-Smith by any means necessary
• And Nikki is also loving the BC Conservatives claim of 42,000 members doesn't appear to be true, something she predicted a few shows ago

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