Nationalizing Groceries and Drilling the North Sea

Avi Lewis won the federal NDP leadership on the first ballot in Winnipeg with 56% of the vote. He's a documentary filmmaker, former CBC and Al Jazeera host, co-creator of the Leap Manifesto, and — as Andrew helpfully notes — a complete loon politically, though surely a lovely chap.

His platform: nationalize groceries, nationalize telecoms, build a million public homes, do banking through Canada Post, slap a wealth tax on the rich, tax oil and gas exports, and invest 2% of GDP in climate action. It's the most aggressively left federal platform in recent memory, and it won over about 40,000 NDP members who apparently liked what they heard.

Joseph and Andrew debate whether this is a stroke of genius or a spectacular miscalculation. The Corbyn comparison gets a full workout — and the part people forget is that Corbyn nearly won before he got crushed. Provincial NDP leaders started running for the exits within minutes. And the question nobody can answer yet: is there actually a market for left-wing populism in Canada, or has the NDP just made itself irrelevant to everyone except degree-educated urbanites who were already voting for them?

Story 2: "Go Get Your Own Oil"Coming Up

Trump told the UK — by name — to either buy American oil or "build up some delayed courage" and secure the Strait of Hormuz. Hegseth mocked the Royal Navy for good measure.

Andrew walks through the UK's North Sea drilling fight: Labour banned new exploration licences, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband won't budge, and the Conservatives and Reform are hammering the government with a simple question voters understand — why won't you let us use our own oil? The economics say it wouldn't move prices much. The politics say it doesn't matter.

Joseph and Andrew find common ground on the deeper problem: Western allies spent more energy punching Trump than engaging with the opportunity to confront Iran, and now everyone's paying for it — literally, at the pump. The conversation gets frank about what Europe and Canada left on the table.

Part two drops later this week with a full breakdown of the war in Iran once Trump has addressed the nation. Joseph and Andrew are also lining up future episodes on Australia's populist wave and the post-war regional power rebalancing.