In the chaotic early months of his second term, Donald Trump has attacked the Canadian economy and mused about turning Canada into the “51st state.” Now, after decades of close allyship with the U.S., our relationship with America has suddenly become fraught. Which means that Canadians are now starting to ask what a more sovereign Canada might look like – a question Jim Balsillie has been thinking about for 30 years. Balsillie is the former co-CEO of Research in Motion, the company that developed the Blackberry, and is one of the most successful business people in Canada. He’s also one of the patriotic, which makes his recent criticism of our country that much more meaningful. As Balsillie has pointed out, our GDP per capita is currently about 70% of what it is in the U.S., our productivity growth has been abysmal for years, and our high cost of living means that 1 in 4 Canadians are now food insecure.

But, according to Balsillie, none of this can be blamed on Trump. He thinks that over the last thirty years we’ve clung to an outdated economic model and have allowed our politics to be captured by corporate interests.

So, with less than a week to go before the federal election, I thought it was the perfect time to sit down with Jim and ask him how we might build a stronger, more sovereign Canada.

Mentioned:

“Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),” The World Trade Organization

“Reinforcing Canada’s security and sovereignty in the Arctic,” Prime Minister of Canada

“Ontario Welcomes Siemens’ $150 Million Investment to Establish New Technology Centre in Oakville,” news release from the Government of Ontario

Further Reading:

“We are all economic nationalists now,” by Jim Balsillie (National Post)

We have a really exciting episode coming out on Tuesday: an interview with former RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie about the fight for Canada’s economic sovereignty.

In the meantime, we wanted to share a conversation between Taylor and political journalist Paul Wells. Every week, Paul sits down with the people trying to solve the biggest problems in Canada and around the world. And this week, that person is Taylor.

He joins Paul to discuss his work on election interference and share his wish list for the next government’s digital policy.

We’re a few weeks into a federal election that is currently too close to call. And while most Canadians are wondering who our next Prime Minister will be, my guests today are preoccupied with a different question: will this election be free and fair?

In her recent report on foreign interference, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue wrote that “information manipulation poses the single biggest risk to our democracy”. Meanwhile, senior Canadian intelligence officials are predicting that India, China, Pakistan and Russia will all attempt to influence the outcome of this election. To try and get a sense of what we’re up against, I wanted to get two different perspectives on this. My colleague Aengus Bridgman is the Director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory, a project that we run together at McGill University, and Nina Jankocwicz is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project. Together, they are two of the leading authorities on the problem of information manipulation.

Mentioned:

“Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions,” by the Honourable Marie-Josée Hogue
"A Pro-Russia Content Network Foreshadows the Automated Future of Info Ops,” by the American Sunlight Project

Further Reading:

“Report ties Romanian liberals to TikTok campaign that fueled pro-Russia candidate,” by Victor Goury-Laffont (Politico)

“2025 Federal Election Monitoring and Response,” by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network

“Election threats watchdog detects Beijing effort to influence Chinese Canadians on Carney,” by Steven Chase (Globe & Mail)

“The revelations and events that led to the foreign-interference inquiry,” by Steven Chase and Robert Fife (Globe & Mail)

“Foreign interference inquiry finds ‘problematic’ conduct,” by The Decibel