The Line Podcast: The Carney verdict is (half) in

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on November 7, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson react to a remarkably busy week in Canadian politics.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Forestry For The Future. Canada’s housing crisis demands bold, scalable solutions. Build Canada Homes is an opportunity to leverage Canadian wood in modern construction. Wood-based methods like mass timber and modular construction can significantly reduce build times, waste, and carbon emissions, while supporting local economies. Expanding building codes, streamlining approvals, and prioritizing domestic wood in federal projects could double demand and foster job creation in rural and northern communities.Despite trade challenges and market volatility, a partnership between industry and government is vital to stabilize the sector, enhance competitiveness, and deliver innovative, sustainably sourced Canadian wood products for homes across Canada and abroad. With capacity growing across provinces, stable demand and predictable financing are key to unlocking the sector’s potential.We need to Build Canada Homes with Canadian wood. To learn more, visit ForestryForTheFuture.ca.They start with the Mark Carney government. Matt’s self-imposed six-month grace period for judging the new prime minister has expired, and he’s ready to weigh in: better than Trudeau, but not good enough for the moment. Jen is slightly more patient but, somehow, even sharper in her take — especially when it comes to Carney’s recent apology to Donald Trump, which she finds baffling and unnecessary. And enraging.This episode is also brought to you by CPA Ontario. There’s a saying: “Keep it simple,” and what’s true for life is true for taxes. And while this week’s historic federal budget introduced some much-needed tax measures to help spur investment and innovation, there is still more work to be done to make Canada’s tax system less complex, and more competitive.Just ask a CPA. In a recent survey, 84 per cent of Ontario CPAs said Canada’s tax system is overly complex. They know how complexity drains resources from productive activity, and how high tax rates discourage investment and entrepreneurship, the very things Canada needs. Consider the numbers: real GDP per capita has barely grown in seven years and investment per worker in Canada is less than half that of the U.S.Complexity has a cost, and Canadians are paying it. Our sponsor, CPA Ontario, the regulator of over 105,000 Chartered Professional Accountants, has released a report putting forward 20 bold, practical recommendations to reform Canada’s tax system, and simplify the Income Tax Act. The 2025 Budget was a step forward — but more reform is needed to grow the economy, create jobs, and raise living standards.Learn more at cpaontario.ca/taxreformThen attention turns to the Conservatives, where Pierre Poilievre’s week has gone from bad to worse. Two MPs have walked away, and the question now is whether this is an isolated hiccup or the start of a real leadership problem. Matt and Jen point out that without the wind of inevitable victory at his back, Poilievre will need to rely on charm and political skill — qualities not generally considered his strong suit.The episode wraps with a wide-ranging discussion on what “woke” and “feminism” actually mean in 2025, and how those words have evolved. Jen is workshopping a new column on the topic, and Matt is clearly looking forward to reading it.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes!Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Matt Gurney spoke with Alberta-based lawyer and law professor Peter Sankoff about whether people who are non-citizens of Canada should have their immigration status factored into sentencing if they are convicted of a crime.Thanks for all your support. We’ll talk to you soon.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe