This week on On The Line, Matt Gurney is joined by Gregory Jack, senior vice president of public affairs at Ipsos Canada, for a conversation about the issues that are animating — and dividing — Canadians today.
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They start with an extended discussion guided by new polling data that captures what Canadians are currently worried about. Concerns about Donald Trump and the U.S.-Canada relationship remain, but they’ve faded. Cost of living issues, public safety, crime, and the eternal favourite — healthcare — are back at the top of the agenda. But the polling also shows that Trump has a knack for shooting back to the top of the list whenever he has one of his more remarkable moments talking about Canada.
This episode is also brought to you by the Daily Bread Food Bank. Working-age Canadians with disabilities experience poverty and food insecurity at twice the rate of the general population. The Canada Disability Benefit was designed to address this, but at $6.67 a day, it fails to cover essentials like food, housing, and medication. Daily Bread Food Bank and coalition partners urge the federal government to fully fund the benefit to lift those it was meant to serve out of poverty. Join thousands of Canadians calling for change to help ensure people with disabilities can live a life of dignity. Take action at FundTheBenefit.ca.
From there, Matt and Greg dive into immigration — a topic they deliberately avoided earlier in the show so they could focus on it here. Matt had a hunch, based on what he’s been seeing and hearing out there, and asked Greg to pull some numbers to see if it held up. Stay tuned. You won’t want to miss this one.
A note for our audience: this episode was recorded early because of the Thanksgiving long weekend, so we avoided anything we thought might be vulnerable to breaking news developments. Don’t blame us if something wild happens! We did our part to be responsible and not jinx anyone.
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