The Boys in Short Pants

The Boys are joined by Dr. Frederic Bouchard, Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Montreal, to discuss his work chairing a recent federal advisory panel on research and science policy.

The Boys join Politicoast for a crossover on the cabinet shuffle and Various National Security Issues.

The Boys are joined by Tyler Meredith (@tylermeredith), former budget policy and platform impresario of the Liberal government.

Robin Shaban and Keldon Bester of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project join Laurent for a chat about competition policy. You can check out/submit to ISED's consultation here: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/strategic-policy-sector/en/marketplace-framework-policy/competition-policy/consultation-future-competition-policy-canada

The Boys welcome to the pod former chief of staff to the Conservative Whip, Sean Murphy, to discuss all things whip.

The Boys return! Poilievre, inflation and the new anxieties of hybrid parliament.

The Boys discuss the Liberal-NDP accord and the recent federal budget.

The Boys discuss the Emergencies Act, the Conservative leadership race, and whether drink tickets are too complicated a system to be implemented in the real world.

The Boys discuss the latest in Conservative leadership tumult and what it all means.

The Boys discuss the opportunity costs of slow starts, Halo 3, and if the Liberal agenda is more like a steamroller or a lawnmower. (It's an Albany thing).

The boys are joined by Paul Wells of Maclean's Magazine to discuss the past, present and future of political communications.

The Boys sit down with a special guest to discuss the furniture situation in Canada's official residences and other issues.

The Boys discuss the ins and outs of the new Cabinet.

The Boys talk about the results of Canada's 44th general election.

The Boys dispense some mostly unsolicited career advice, review the state of the election, and talk platforms a bit.

The Boys take a quick look at the federal election landscape and assign you all some summer reading - namely, Eddie Goldenberg's The Way It Works: Inside Ottawa.

The Boys dive back into the mailbag filled to the brim with your questions!

The Boys talk Green Party omnishambles, legislative update (also omnishambles) and Sheriff-Commissioner Dion's Morneau Report. If you want to submit a question for our Q&A episode, you can DM our twitter account (@shortpantspod) or email us at shortpantspod at gmail dot com

CUPE economist Angella MacEwen (@amacewen) joins the Boys to discuss her new book co-written with NDP policy director Jonathan Gauvin as well as childcare and industrial policy. The book mentioned was Alain Deneault's "Canada: A New Tax Haven: How the Country that Shaped Caribbean Offshore Jurisdictions is Becoming One Itself." Angella and Jonathan's book is "Share the Wealth: How We Can Tax the Super-Rich and Create a Better Country for Everyone," available wherever fine books are sold.

Professor Kevin Milligan of UBC joins us once more for a discussion of his time at the Privy Council Office during the pandemic and a quick look at the macroeconomic outlook.

Made glorious summer by this sun of podcasting. The Boys are joined by Open Media's Laura Tribe (@ltribe) to talk about what's going on with Bill C-10. Note re factual error: Hansard blues are in fact available 'live'... but only from the Parliamentary precinct, an important fact that Laurent forgot about

The boys discuss budget, O'Toole Bucks, and pandemic response.

Special cross over episode with the Wonks and War Rooms podcast: "Where political communication theory meets on the ground strategy. Host, Professor Elizabeth Dubois, picks a political communication theory, explains it to a practitioner, and then they have a chat about whether or not it makes sense at all out in the world of politics and communications. She chats with political staffers, journalists, comms experts, lobbyists, activists and other political actors. Elizabeth quizzes them on pol comm theory and they tell her how ridiculous (or super helpful) that theory actually is." https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/wonks-and-war-rooms/id1533275521

The Boys talk Lobbying Act, the Auditor General's pandemic preparedness report, and the weird accountability vacuum at the heart of government.

The Boys mark the one year pandemicversary, and talk about why political data operations should be EMP'd. Also other stuff in between.

The Boys take aim at a strange change made in the new firearms bill and a whiffed call by the CMHC.

The Boys talk Tories, Greens, Bloc and the cutting insight of Dr. Marcus Powlowski, MP.

It was most definitely the worst of times. The Boys talk the shuffle and what it means for Liberaldom, the prospect of a coming election, and the governing and political styles of Jason Kenney and Doug Ford.

Laurent and Etienne go full Grinch mode with a blistering listener Q&A episode. This is probably the last one of the year. http://www.clioscurrent.com/blog/2015/9/8/vfj07rtg8hm8edjnxjckz47xa6pux4

The Boys talk video games, the fall economic statement, government HR, and vaccines.

The Boys discuss the absence of a fiscal update/mandate letters, a suggestion to radically empower provincial public officers, some new bills, and more.

The Boys talk Parliamentary trench warfare.

The Boys talk Speech from the Throne, testing (again), the Green Party leadership and what's on in Parliament.

The Boys talk Wave 2 and the Tories' new Shadow Cabinet.

Join the Boys for their first-ever actually shorter episode about the Conservative leadership race results.

The Boys talk WE, Morneau, and surprise prorogation. We don't talk about New Brunswick - sorry!

The Boys discuss the state of Ottawa summer, WE, and lobbying arcana. More about kveik, if you're interested https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2019/7/22/a-fire-being-kindled-the-revolutionary-story-of-kveik-norways-extraordinary-farmhouse-yeast?fbclid=IwAR2_zAoBRErLo7C3yEmpjyMuzjkAm-lHhTYa3ndmOZ5qOINWVky9edVKzvI

This week, the Boys allegedly discuss the fiscal snapshot, the RCMP/policing, and the WErfuffle. Allegedly.

The Boys are joined by uOttawa PhD candidate Caroline Dunton (@caredunton) to discuss what happened with Canada's Security Council bid. Was it a vanity project? What would the upside have been? All this and more, answered! Re Etienne's constant allusions to Global Affairs' crystal supply, in 2018, the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation learned through Access to Information that the department had spent $127,000 on crystal glassware since 2016.

Etienne's yard work obligations have stretched out our recording windows out of all reason - our apologies (really just Etienne's). The Boys talk the Deal, the Tory leadership race, and the Rainville-Carbonneau Political Staffer Persistence Theory (or 'Roach Theory').

The Boys talk Virtual Parliament, the WHO and the value of expertise, and what's going on with provincial reopening plans.

The Boys talk administrative capacity, accountability, and perils and pitfalls of city living.

The Boys talk uhhh what do you think

The Boys talk House of Commons Committees, the Conservative leadership race, and the emerging displacement of Emperor Trudeau by his Shogun, Chrystia Freeland. 'Hustings' comes from Old English through Old Norse, and means "house thing," where "thing" means an assembly.

This might be our dumbest episode name yet!

We're back! Again! Not a lot has happened. We talk about the CPC leadership race and some other stuff.

The Boys, in the last episode of the decade, discuss the Conservative leadership race and the state of the putative Big Shift.

Ain't that the truth, folks.

The Boys break down the new Liberal Cabinet in this first part of an exciting two-part presentation of the lay of the federal land ahead of the beginning of the 43rd Parliament. We don't actually talk about parliamentary secretaries as implied in the title, sorry. (Laurent flubs the episode number right at the beginning, also sorry.)

Paul Thomas joins us to discuss all-party groups of all sorts.