With Shuvaloy Majumdar, MP for Calgary Heritage

This week, Israel launched one of the most significant military operations of our time—decimating Iranian nuclear infrastructure, IRGC command, and ballistic capabilities. The West? Mostly quiet.

We go deep with Shuvaloy Majumdar, MP, former advisor at Foreign Affairs, and one of the sharpest, clearest voices on Middle East geopolitics today.

In this episode:

• 🔥 What Operation Rising Lion tells us about the new era of warfare

• 🧠 Why Iran isn’t just a regional threat—but a global one

• 🇮🇱 Why we should be thanking Israel

• 🛰 How Israel’s campaign could reshape the Middle East—and what it means for Iranian dissidents

• 🛑 And why “de-escalation” may be the most dangerous word in Western diplomacy right now

Plus:

• 🌍 Canada, the UK, and France: how the West is failing to lead

• 🎯 Why China and Russia are (for now) staying quiet

• 💡 The power vacuum inside Iran—and the once-in-a-generation opportunity it presents

And don’t miss:

• 🇨🇦 Our domestic lens:

   • How Iran’s reach extends into Canada’s real estate and political networks

   • Why we should prepare for increased domestic extremism

   • And why the response from Canada’s government has been morally bankrupt

Also in this episode:

• 📉 UK economy contracts 0.3%—we talk tax, talent, and the politics of non-doms

• 🚨 G7 trade wins: UK car tariffs down, UK-Canada security pact brewing, and a possible Carney–Trump deal in 30 days

• 🎖 Canada’s $9B defence announcement: long overdue, or spending set to burn?

• 🇺🇸 Trump’s departure from the G7 and ominous remarks on Iran: “It’s much bigger than a ceasefire…”

🔊 Listen now for the clearest, most sobering breakdown of the Israel–Iran conflict—and why it’s a hinge moment for the future of the West.

This week, we crack open a UK import—Hawkstone Lager from Jeremy Clarkson’s farm—and break down Canada’s biggest defence spending announcement in decades.

PM Mark Carney has committed to meeting NATO’s 2% target this year, nearly a decade ahead of Trudeau’s original pledge. That’s over $9 billion in new spending—including raises for CAF members, $2B in military aid to Ukraine, and major procurement commitments. But can it all be spent wisely?

In this episode:

• 🇨🇦 Why this announcement matters—and why it hits close to home for Joseph

• 💸 The risks of rushing defence procurement (and why it’s rarely done well)

• 🇬🇧 What the UK’s new Strategic Defence Review signals for joint defence priorities

• 🤝 Why now might be the right time for a Canada–UK security compact

Plus:

• 🧨 Labour’s massive U-turn on winter fuel benefits: smart politics or panic move?

• 🎯 Is there still room in politics for a sensible, fiscally responsible conservative party?

• 🇺🇸 Trump sends the Marines to California—why it may be a turning point. Or not.

• 📉 Canada’s jobless rate rises—are we seeing the limits of the Carney honeymoon?

And don’t miss:

• 🍺 Beer of the week: Hawkstone Lager

   • Andrew tastes a biscuit-forward Italian Pilsner with a crisp finish

   • Joseph declares it “a Helles lager met an Italian Pilsner and the two had a baby”

With Chris Spoke, developer and host of the Hogtown podcast

Every party says they want to fix the housing crisis. But on the ground, very little changes. Why?

This week on Craft Politics, we go deep with Chris Spoke—Toronto-based developer, housing policy advocate, and host of the ⁠Hogtown ⁠podcast. Chris isn’t just talking about the housing crisis. He’s trying to build through it.

In this episode:

• 🏘 Why zoning—not greed or foreign buyers—is the real problem

• 📉 Why the incentives in municipal politics make it nearly impossible to build

• 🗳 Why “local democracy” might be the biggest obstacle to affordability

• 📊 What a well-designed federal housing policy should look like—and why Trudeau’s version was better (in theory) than Poilievre’s

• 🧠 How to bring communities onside (hint: it’s not by yelling “YIMBY”)

Plus:

• 🌇 Why Canada’s post-WWII housing model doesn’t apply in 2025

• 🏗 The case for radical deregulation—and how Japan and New Zealand did it

• 📉 The wild stat about how few people it actually takes to block development

• 💥 The rise of “BANANAs” (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything)

And don’t miss:

• 🚫 Chris’s worst NIMBY moment

• 🧠 Rapid fire round: worst myth, best policy idea, and his favourite urbanist thinker

• 🧱 Why landlords aren’t to blame for high rents (but policy might be)

We wrap with:

• 🍺 This week’s tasting notes: Percy drinks a Christmas tree in a can, and Joseph finds his go-to BBQ lager.

🔊 Listen now if you want to understand why the system isn’t working—and what a serious housing fix actually looks like.