Jeremy Withers, senior researcher with the University of Toronto's New Housing Alternatives, sits down with Nikki to find out more about the causes of the 2020-2022 housing market bubble, its big pop in 2022 and the price collapse still going on in Toronto four years later. Jeremy shares his thoughts about government responses to the condo crisis in Toronto and Vancouver and falling home ownership rates as big investors take control of the housing stock.

Also, Nikki and Tom talk about the on-going chaos in the BC Conservative Party, Marit Stiles' by-election success and the opening weeks of the Quebec provincial election.

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Jared Walker, Canadians For Tax Fairness Executive Director, joins Nikki and Tom to talk about C4TF's recent report detailing growing extreme inequality in Canada, province by province. Jared believes a wealth tax on fortunes of $100 million and more and a new income tax bracket on annual income over $1 million will reverse growing extreme inequality while providing revenue to end cuts to key programs, like healthcare and schools

Jared also outlines how we can put some money back in Canadians' pockets with a levy on the windfall profits oil companies are making off high pump prices during this US-Iran War. And according to C4TF research, unless repatriated by a windfall tax, most of that profit windfall from Canadian oil resources will flowing to investors in the United States.

Nikki digs into some polling data suggesting wildfires across the world are pushing global warming up the priority list of Canadians and asks if the Mark Carney government or Avi Lewis' NDP will address that re-emerging concern.

Tom speaks with Toronto NDP MPP Chris Glover, who was in the trenches battling the plan by US bank JP Morgan to expand Toronto's waterfront airport. JP Morgan had Doug Ford's PCs and Mark Carney's Liberals onside. But Toronto City Council, community groups and the Ontario NDP fought the deal -- and for have won, for now.

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Marit Stiles, leader of the Ontario NDP, sits down with Nikki and Tom to discuss the scandal-plagued Doug Ford government and her drive to raise people's expectation and break out of the cycle of cynical politics and bad outcomes Ontario has settled into.

Marit tells us about the work she’s been doing as official opposition to Premier Doug Ford, digging up scandal after scandal. But she also talks about the need to propose solutions and raise people’s expectations about what government can get done for them.

Recently, her NDP put out proposals for a forestry sector strategy, summer jobs for young workers, housing and healthcare staffing. In our interview Marit also talks about the need to reform the food distribution sector, which consistently delivers prices that rise faster than general inflation.

Marit also reflects on Ontario regionalism and the very different levels of public services and infrastructure in different parts of Ontario — or even different neighbourhoods of the same city. Doug Ford’s destructive focus on Toronto may be amusing to some in have-not regions, but the politics of resentment isn’t helping their access to healthcare, schools, job opportunities or even safe highways. Is "One Ontario" waiting to be built?

Nikki takes a look at a by-election win in PEI by the provincial Greens that could be signalling a coming political realignment in that province. Or it might just a by-election blip, though the scan polling evidence available suggests it is more than that.

Tom digs into the signals sent by Prime Minister Carney appointing his principal secretary, Tom Pitfield, to the Senate and replacing him with Scott Gilmore. While Pitfield comes from a legacy Liberal family, Gilmore was an active Conservative until a few years ago.

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Sabrina Fernandes, author and well-known Brazilian political commentator, talks about this fall's pivotal elections, which pits incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — Lula — of the social democratic Workers Party against Trump-backed candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his Liberals.

What's at stake for Canada is that while we seek more trade partners to reduce dependance on US trade, a Trump-aligned president will reduce Brazil's current search for increased trade diversification for the same reasons. Brazil has the world's the tenth largest economy by GDP.

In the past year, pro-Trump politicians have won presidential elections in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Chile. Brazil and Mexico remain the most important hold-outs.

Like Canada, Brazil has significant natural resources including oil, forests, farming and minerals. It has a big manufacturing sector, anchored by auto assembly plants and steel mills. But while about 75 of Canadian exports go to the U.S., the United States is the market for only about 10 percent of Brazilian exports.

But there will still be economic pain from the 25 per cent tariff on many exports imposed by Trump last week. The Trump administration claims Brazil's Pix payment system prevents market access for companies like Visa or PayPal. It says Brazilian court orders unfairly restrict U.S. media platforms X and Meta. Bolsonaro says his alignment with Trump will allow him to remove the tariffs, if elected.

Brazil's largest export market is China, which purchases substantial amounts of food and oil. Trump's National Security Strategy overtly states the resources of The American exist to power US wealth, not it's competitor, China. And while even the election of Bolsonaro likely will not change sales of food and oil to China, he would pursue a different path than Lula on mineral resources, which the U.S. president wants to control.

Like Canada, Brazil has significant critical mineral reserves and Lula has promoted a value-adding approach to mineral extraction to develop a domestic industry and maintain sovereign control. But Bolsonaro is agreeable to exporting unfinished products at low royalty costs, a position supported by foreign mining companies and Trump.

A Bolsonaro presidency would also take a different path on the new international alliance created by Trump this spring, The Shield of The Americas. The new organization's stated purpose is to co-ordinate work against drug trafficking. But it's militarized approach raises concern it is a trojan horse for greater Trump influence within national police and military forces and even military intervention.

While several governments in The Americas have joined, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia have not. Colombia may join after it's new pro-Trump president-elect takes office in August. And likely Brazil will join if Bolsonaro wins in October.

Lula's Workers Party (PT) was created in the early 1980s in the context of military dictatorship and as a coalition of unions, church groups and rural peasants. PT candidates have won five of the past six presidential elections.

But the PT has been unable to convert presidential wins into a majority in the federal chamber of deputies or senate. The right has used it's legislative majority to impose spending caps on the government, reducing the president's fiscal power and limiting federal transfer payments to state governments to support health care, education and infrastructure.

Whatever the outcome, October's elections are significant for global politics. They will either result in a president happy to serve Donald Trump or one trying to limit the U.S. president's global power. They will either elect a legislature that supports or seeks to limit presidential powers.

In our view, a Brazilian president with the legislative backing to limit Trump's power over Brazil is in the interests of Canadians, if only because adding to Trump's global power certainly is not.

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Nikki and Tom celebrate six months of Left East to West with a retrospective on federal politics, federal-provincial relations and shifts in provincial politics across the country.

The overriding federal story is continued Liberal strength. But polls show a drop in Mark Carney’s net approval score. Can Pierre Poilievre or Avi Lewis benefit?

In federal-provincial relationships, alignment between provinces and with federal government seems better. But has it come at the cost of having any climate policy and enforcing the Canada Health Act?

Provincially, many premiers face sagging support. Can they successfully increase perceptions of the risk of change? Can opposition leaders lower voters’ perception of the risk of change? Nikki and Tom look at different strategies for addressing risk perceptions.

Nikki gives some love to properly-done long-term land use planning. Tom heaves pollsters who claim decimal-point accuracy or to know the reasons behind poll changes that may not even exist because they don’t exceed the margin of error.

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Carla Beck, leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, sits down with Nikki and Tom to talk about her strategy to defeat Scott Moe and her economic plan to spur Saskatchewan growth.

Carla launched her Grid and Growth plan more that two years before the next provincial election, due in October 2028, just before leaked information from inside SaskPower showed premier Scott Moe's coal-generation electricity plan would cost billions more than admitted and modelling proving it was the most expensive energy option. Carla also talks with Nikki and Tom about help the federal government can give to her Saskatchewan plan, and the significance of Scott Moe's cooling relationship with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Also, Tom talks about new StatsCan data showing a stagnating Alberta average wage despite oil companies pump record volumes and high prices. Nikki reflects on the heat dome that sent temperatures soaring five years ago, leading to 619 deaths, and the unfinished work of preparing for another heat emergency.

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Economist Jim Stanford discusses the cost of Trump’s Iran War to Canadians and Mark Carney’s economic agenda. Jim estimates the direct economic cost of high fuel prices will reach $50 billion and go higher if it prompts the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates to reduce inflation. Jim also explores the investment banker vision of Mark Carney and concerns that his proposed “sovereign wealth fund” will be a mechanism for privatizing airports, ports and other public infrastructure.

Nikki looks at the series of federal-provincial deals from the Build Canada fund but questions why Nova Scotia seems to have no plan in the works to get federal assistance for provincial priorities.

Tom digs into some new data showing the sales margin for food and fuel retailers is growing at twice the rate of inflation, pouring money into the accounts of food billionaires like the Weston family, who are now using their wealth to fund a new media platform.

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Stefan Löfven, former prime minister of Sweden and now president of the Party of European Socialists, talks with Tom about the Nordic model, the key role played in it by the labour movement, and its ability to deliver strong economic and social results.

Nikki dives into the results of the B.C. Conservative leadership race and how Kerry-Lynne Findlay will shape the contest leading up to the election in 2027.

Tom looks into a recently promoted success of Mark Carney's Major Projects Office and finds it has little to do with creating jobs or speeding permits for projects and a lot more to do with buckets of public money for G7 priorities.

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