Gerson is describing a society whose institutions have detached from the practices they supposedly serve. Health care, education, media, and government still speak the language of public goods, but their standards of excellence have been displaced by bureaucratic self-preservation, vague benevolence, and emotive moral identity. The first step is not grand reform but truthful admission: we need to know what is actually happening. ER wait times, cancer diagnosis pathways, elder care outcomes, school performance, municipal permitting, infrastructure timelines, industry competitiveness. Canada needs dashboards of institutional reality, not press releases of good intention. A high-trust society without practical rational standards does not become virtuous. It becomes evasive.
A high trust society might possibly have existed prior to the Interwebs, but it is no longer. I think it is a complacent society instead - it's what allows government to get away with it no matter how bad it looks on them. Trump made shamelessness socially acceptable behavior - the dude just doesn't care. I believe we have come to expect not mucking fuch from our political leaders.
Dashboards aren't nice. If you publish criticisms of government bureaucracy, you'll get Jen Gerson/CBC Comedy Central responses: they're trying their best. Its not nice to publish critical information.
About half Canadians are too smug (and stupid, or intellectually dishonest if you prefer the long version). They are the ones who rendered this country so unfit is has forfeited its right to existence some years ago.
This episode was in many parts juvenile, and overall there was a whole lot of figure skating across the entire ice, with too few direct shots fired at the goal.
I have not donated and will not donate to the current funding drive, because you keep on fluffing up for Mark Carney, the Fraud Emperor Of Deliberate Misrule And Waste, and his bunch of now openly corrupt and increasingly dictatorial "Liberals".
Until I see The Line getting a truck load of 3 foot long corkscrews and another truck load 3 foot long railway spikes and start systematically screwing them and hammering them with great determination into Mark Carney and his "Liberals", I will not give a donation only to be used for fluffing up for Carney and "Liberals".
The irony of the bitterness that Conservatives such as yourselves show towards the Liberals is that the worst legislation of the Carney government has systematically had more support from the Conservatives than from other parties. Maybe get your party to stop voting for bad Bills like C-5, C-4, or C-2 before lecturing others for allegedly being too submissive to the Liberals!
As usual you are misreading the landscape. Conservative and other parties helped to pass these bad bills so that the "Liberals" no longer had any excuses and thus the deceitfulness of the "Liberals" was out in the open for all to see.
Dude, are you alright? Like ... are you on the correct substack, friend? I listen faithfully each Friday and I have learned that MG and JG lean right. Are you sure you aren't mistaking The Line for another podcast as I hear them kick the crap out of Liberals all the time. I think they are both free range journalists who are for me, a trusted source of insight minus the bafflegab.
If you truly believe that The Line is fluffing things up for the Mark Carney. you should give basically all of their 2024 to early 2025 coverage of how god awful that Liberal government had become. Goodness, I don't think you will find a fairer assessment of Canada's political scene, I think they have always given an honest assessment each time I listen.
I do wonder, however, why are you here if you see no value in The Line other than its fluffing up of Mark Carney? Help me understand?
Also what would have to exist for you to come to the middle as that is where deals are done, ultimately.
Briefly. I am on this substack cuz by and large I agree with what you are saying about their reasonably fair and honest assessment of Canada's political scene. They do have blind spots and that annoys me. It is not worthwhile to go into that now as I have other thighs to do.
The space called the middle "where deals are made" has moved so far to the left that now it is directly in the territory of a leftist dictatorship. That is NOT where the deals are made because there are no deals to be made; there exist only rules issued by the leftist dictatorship to be unquestioningly followed. We are seeing it in real time.
You are far too charitable to the current version of the hard left who label themselves "Liberals".
I call a spade a spade and choose to see reality plain. Conspiracy theories do not compare to reality, which is much more interesting and varied. Bye for now.
I gotta disagree about the permanence (or even the significance) of a US Canadian rupture, and not because I think future GOP administrations will be pro Canadian. Sure, the liberal party will be able to play on the core of Canadian identity (“we’re not American!). But it remains true that it’s cheaper to move goods by rail or truck or pipeline north-south than east-west or from Canada’s backwards ports. It’s all of the above: the size of the US market, its proximity, Canada’s own dysfunction. From Canadian universities, the best students want to work in New York or San Francisco.
In other words, carney can yap all he wants about rupture, and, sadly, voters will eat it up. But he is fundamentally small c conservative, so he won’t change the cultural, economic or geographic fundamentals, even if he could.
I’d like to substitute the word “entitled” for smug. In the US calling someone “entitled” is an insult. (At times combined with “Karen”). In Canada being entitled - to “free” this, “free” that -is considered a sign of national pride and something to be smug about 😆. I can still picture PM Jean Chretien saying in his inimitable accent “I am entitled to my entitlements”. And of course being a Karen is celebrated as a sign of civic mindedness.
I know lots of people called Karen including some I’m friends with. Their usual response is “I’m Karen but I’m not a Karen”. I agree it’s stupid but it’s there. I have a French last name and I’m called a Pepsi fairly often in Canada. My favorite response is “Bain wee, tabarnack”
A good podcast though I don't know if you actually covered smug or not. I might have missed it.
For me, why, there's no time like the present for Canada to grow the #% up because change will come as sure as JG will rant once more. Change or be changed. Head's out of asses now, all together now Canada. Take a deep breath of the fresh air of truth - we have believed our own BS for far too long.
High trust society, eh? Just ask Quebecers how much they trust the rest of Canada, or the rest of Canada how much they trust Quebec. How trusting do Albertans feel about Central Canada? More locally, divisions within communities have grown significantly, whether it's "progressives" or right wingers against each other, and against the centre.
I think that Canadians are suffering from self-deception. As well, we are very naive. They may see, but do not internalize the soft corruption and self-serving of our politicians, our institutions, our business and cultural elites.
Perhaps it is that our perceptions were formed in an earlier time, when our society was more homogeneous, when the future looked bright, and when our press did not dig too deeply. But I think that we are slowly changing, waking up to the world as it is now. A painful process, but I think that it has started, and we will be better -- for being more realistic, and so more effective in future.
On free trade with the U.S., I note that Canada and Mexico seem to be taking two diametrically opposite approaches. Mexico is doing its best to increase its integration with the U.S. economy, and is going out of its way to please Trump's whims. We are trying to diversify away from the U.S. Which approach will turn out to be better?
The best summation of Carney was stated on the Elevate Report (today) by US rep Switzer. He actually said what needed to be said. Points: Political malpractice, unserious, geography wins, ego & feelings, etc. Pretty much called MC a whinny toddler - lmao.
So no, nothing, literally zero, is being done ‘behind the scenes, obscuring tactics.’
You accuse CPC types for "blameshifting" the current crappy situation to MC when it should be - according to you - allocable to DJT. Crap!
Yes, DJT has done just awful stuff, very much including the Canada - US relationship as well as the US relationship with the rest of the world. Yup, he is responsible for ever so much bad stuff there. But, but, but ....
You just cannot ignore what MC has/hasn't done and he (i.e. MC) is responsible for his own actions. Or damned well should be.
Therefore, we don't even need to bring up DJT - Lord knows, he has a lot to answer for given all the relationships that he has broken - but WE DON'T AND DIDN'T ELECT DJT, WE ELECT MC. And, MC made many campaign promises and assertions that he had dealt with DJT and he know how to deal with DJT. All we get is, well, the old LPC tactic of saying one thing in English Canada and then absolutely contradicting oneself in French Canada. MC has been oh, so obsequious to DJT while looking him in the eye or while in the US but he has been incredibly scornful when out of the US.
MC seems to think that we don't know how he acts in the US and in DJT's presence and he further seems to think that DJT and his acolytes don't know what he says when outside of the US.
The truth is that MC lied to the Canadian public about his background with DJT and his capabilities in striking a deal with DJT. MC has made a large number of statements, promises, undertakings and generally given the impression of action but he has effectively done nothing in this last year. Accordingly, for PP to call him on it is entirely appropriate.
The discussion about Canada being a "high-trust society" touches on a lot of the problems we are facing right now, and I think helps to explain some of the mindset we are seeing in our politics.
I think that Canada *used* to be a high-trust society. I think it's increasingly clear that isn't really the case anymore. We have imported a lot of people from cultures that don't think that way, and at the same time it's become clear to a lot of people who grew up here that the trustworthiness especially of institutions isn't there anymore.
The problem is the large chunk of the Canadian population who keep insisting that the high-trust Canada remains. That other people can be given unlimited chances because they are fundamentally good. That people won't act on incentives to take advantage. That institutions and government are working properly and don't require reform. That the media is honest and objective. That our ruling class operates in good faith and are Trying Their Best. That our democracy is functioning just fine and this is exactly how it is supposed to work. And importantly, that anyone pointing out the opposite to any of this, is a bad person, probably infected with fake news, and is acting like a (low-trust) American.
Here's the problem. Ever since Trump started threatening Canada in early 2025, this mindset has been turbocharged. Now there is what seems like the notion that naivete and complacency are a sort of national virtue, a way that we aren't like Americans. Suddenly, pointing out problems in Canadian institutions is seen as unpatriotic. Everything is fine and nothing is wrong and you must love Trump if you say otherwise.
This is a big part of why Boomers embraced the Carney brand of nostalgia. And it's why the opposition - left and right - can't get any traction. Their role is to criticize and criticism is uncomfortable and requires admitting things are wrong.
Trust the system, don't question, everything in Canada is pure and lovely and trustworthy and fine.
Gerson is describing a society whose institutions have detached from the practices they supposedly serve. Health care, education, media, and government still speak the language of public goods, but their standards of excellence have been displaced by bureaucratic self-preservation, vague benevolence, and emotive moral identity. The first step is not grand reform but truthful admission: we need to know what is actually happening. ER wait times, cancer diagnosis pathways, elder care outcomes, school performance, municipal permitting, infrastructure timelines, industry competitiveness. Canada needs dashboards of institutional reality, not press releases of good intention. A high-trust society without practical rational standards does not become virtuous. It becomes evasive.
A high trust society might possibly have existed prior to the Interwebs, but it is no longer. I think it is a complacent society instead - it's what allows government to get away with it no matter how bad it looks on them. Trump made shamelessness socially acceptable behavior - the dude just doesn't care. I believe we have come to expect not mucking fuch from our political leaders.
Dashboards aren't nice. If you publish criticisms of government bureaucracy, you'll get Jen Gerson/CBC Comedy Central responses: they're trying their best. Its not nice to publish critical information.
About half Canadians are too smug (and stupid, or intellectually dishonest if you prefer the long version). They are the ones who rendered this country so unfit is has forfeited its right to existence some years ago.
This episode was in many parts juvenile, and overall there was a whole lot of figure skating across the entire ice, with too few direct shots fired at the goal.
I have not donated and will not donate to the current funding drive, because you keep on fluffing up for Mark Carney, the Fraud Emperor Of Deliberate Misrule And Waste, and his bunch of now openly corrupt and increasingly dictatorial "Liberals".
Until I see The Line getting a truck load of 3 foot long corkscrews and another truck load 3 foot long railway spikes and start systematically screwing them and hammering them with great determination into Mark Carney and his "Liberals", I will not give a donation only to be used for fluffing up for Carney and "Liberals".
The irony of the bitterness that Conservatives such as yourselves show towards the Liberals is that the worst legislation of the Carney government has systematically had more support from the Conservatives than from other parties. Maybe get your party to stop voting for bad Bills like C-5, C-4, or C-2 before lecturing others for allegedly being too submissive to the Liberals!
As usual you are misreading the landscape. Conservative and other parties helped to pass these bad bills so that the "Liberals" no longer had any excuses and thus the deceitfulness of the "Liberals" was out in the open for all to see.
Dude, are you alright? Like ... are you on the correct substack, friend? I listen faithfully each Friday and I have learned that MG and JG lean right. Are you sure you aren't mistaking The Line for another podcast as I hear them kick the crap out of Liberals all the time. I think they are both free range journalists who are for me, a trusted source of insight minus the bafflegab.
If you truly believe that The Line is fluffing things up for the Mark Carney. you should give basically all of their 2024 to early 2025 coverage of how god awful that Liberal government had become. Goodness, I don't think you will find a fairer assessment of Canada's political scene, I think they have always given an honest assessment each time I listen.
I do wonder, however, why are you here if you see no value in The Line other than its fluffing up of Mark Carney? Help me understand?
Also what would have to exist for you to come to the middle as that is where deals are done, ultimately.
Briefly. I am on this substack cuz by and large I agree with what you are saying about their reasonably fair and honest assessment of Canada's political scene. They do have blind spots and that annoys me. It is not worthwhile to go into that now as I have other thighs to do.
The space called the middle "where deals are made" has moved so far to the left that now it is directly in the territory of a leftist dictatorship. That is NOT where the deals are made because there are no deals to be made; there exist only rules issued by the leftist dictatorship to be unquestioningly followed. We are seeing it in real time.
You are far too charitable to the current version of the hard left who label themselves "Liberals".
Which leftist dictatorships? Friend, you sound like a conspiracy theorist.
I call a spade a spade and choose to see reality plain. Conspiracy theories do not compare to reality, which is much more interesting and varied. Bye for now.
We have Canadians like what you are describing. They have all moved to America to run their businesses
I gotta disagree about the permanence (or even the significance) of a US Canadian rupture, and not because I think future GOP administrations will be pro Canadian. Sure, the liberal party will be able to play on the core of Canadian identity (“we’re not American!). But it remains true that it’s cheaper to move goods by rail or truck or pipeline north-south than east-west or from Canada’s backwards ports. It’s all of the above: the size of the US market, its proximity, Canada’s own dysfunction. From Canadian universities, the best students want to work in New York or San Francisco.
In other words, carney can yap all he wants about rupture, and, sadly, voters will eat it up. But he is fundamentally small c conservative, so he won’t change the cultural, economic or geographic fundamentals, even if he could.
I will replace the small c conservative with capital D Dictatorial as it is more accurate in describing Carney.
Pierre Trudeau had a trade diversification program in the early 70s. It didn't change anything. More of the same now.
I’d like to substitute the word “entitled” for smug. In the US calling someone “entitled” is an insult. (At times combined with “Karen”). In Canada being entitled - to “free” this, “free” that -is considered a sign of national pride and something to be smug about 😆. I can still picture PM Jean Chretien saying in his inimitable accent “I am entitled to my entitlements”. And of course being a Karen is celebrated as a sign of civic mindedness.
As someone whose name is Karen, I'm beyond sick & tired of hearing/seeing my name used as an insult.
Also, it was David Dingwall who said "I'm entitled to my entitlements".
I know lots of people called Karen including some I’m friends with. Their usual response is “I’m Karen but I’m not a Karen”. I agree it’s stupid but it’s there. I have a French last name and I’m called a Pepsi fairly often in Canada. My favorite response is “Bain wee, tabarnack”
It wasn't Cretien. It was MP David Dingwall in 2005. Cretien stopped being PM in 2003.
Thanks for the correction. It just sounded like something Chretien would have said. Like “Me, pepper, I put dat on my plate”.
A good podcast though I don't know if you actually covered smug or not. I might have missed it.
For me, why, there's no time like the present for Canada to grow the #% up because change will come as sure as JG will rant once more. Change or be changed. Head's out of asses now, all together now Canada. Take a deep breath of the fresh air of truth - we have believed our own BS for far too long.
Right now it’s the fresh air of “farm” coming from Rottawa.
High trust society, eh? Just ask Quebecers how much they trust the rest of Canada, or the rest of Canada how much they trust Quebec. How trusting do Albertans feel about Central Canada? More locally, divisions within communities have grown significantly, whether it's "progressives" or right wingers against each other, and against the centre.
I think that Canadians are suffering from self-deception. As well, we are very naive. They may see, but do not internalize the soft corruption and self-serving of our politicians, our institutions, our business and cultural elites.
Perhaps it is that our perceptions were formed in an earlier time, when our society was more homogeneous, when the future looked bright, and when our press did not dig too deeply. But I think that we are slowly changing, waking up to the world as it is now. A painful process, but I think that it has started, and we will be better -- for being more realistic, and so more effective in future.
On free trade with the U.S., I note that Canada and Mexico seem to be taking two diametrically opposite approaches. Mexico is doing its best to increase its integration with the U.S. economy, and is going out of its way to please Trump's whims. We are trying to diversify away from the U.S. Which approach will turn out to be better?
I’d put money on Mexico!
Thank you for making us mavericks feel better. It warms me to know I’m not crazy….just really pissed off. Now what??
The best summation of Carney was stated on the Elevate Report (today) by US rep Switzer. He actually said what needed to be said. Points: Political malpractice, unserious, geography wins, ego & feelings, etc. Pretty much called MC a whinny toddler - lmao.
So no, nothing, literally zero, is being done ‘behind the scenes, obscuring tactics.’
If you keep going down this line every Friday I won't have to go to confession when I get to church. 😉
Probably the least coherent and muddled podcast you've done but I do appreciate many of the insights.
Just waiting for this to start and that's one heckuva provocative question. . .
Hold on now, Jen.
You accuse CPC types for "blameshifting" the current crappy situation to MC when it should be - according to you - allocable to DJT. Crap!
Yes, DJT has done just awful stuff, very much including the Canada - US relationship as well as the US relationship with the rest of the world. Yup, he is responsible for ever so much bad stuff there. But, but, but ....
You just cannot ignore what MC has/hasn't done and he (i.e. MC) is responsible for his own actions. Or damned well should be.
Therefore, we don't even need to bring up DJT - Lord knows, he has a lot to answer for given all the relationships that he has broken - but WE DON'T AND DIDN'T ELECT DJT, WE ELECT MC. And, MC made many campaign promises and assertions that he had dealt with DJT and he know how to deal with DJT. All we get is, well, the old LPC tactic of saying one thing in English Canada and then absolutely contradicting oneself in French Canada. MC has been oh, so obsequious to DJT while looking him in the eye or while in the US but he has been incredibly scornful when out of the US.
MC seems to think that we don't know how he acts in the US and in DJT's presence and he further seems to think that DJT and his acolytes don't know what he says when outside of the US.
The truth is that MC lied to the Canadian public about his background with DJT and his capabilities in striking a deal with DJT. MC has made a large number of statements, promises, undertakings and generally given the impression of action but he has effectively done nothing in this last year. Accordingly, for PP to call him on it is entirely appropriate.
The discussion about Canada being a "high-trust society" touches on a lot of the problems we are facing right now, and I think helps to explain some of the mindset we are seeing in our politics.
I think that Canada *used* to be a high-trust society. I think it's increasingly clear that isn't really the case anymore. We have imported a lot of people from cultures that don't think that way, and at the same time it's become clear to a lot of people who grew up here that the trustworthiness especially of institutions isn't there anymore.
The problem is the large chunk of the Canadian population who keep insisting that the high-trust Canada remains. That other people can be given unlimited chances because they are fundamentally good. That people won't act on incentives to take advantage. That institutions and government are working properly and don't require reform. That the media is honest and objective. That our ruling class operates in good faith and are Trying Their Best. That our democracy is functioning just fine and this is exactly how it is supposed to work. And importantly, that anyone pointing out the opposite to any of this, is a bad person, probably infected with fake news, and is acting like a (low-trust) American.
Here's the problem. Ever since Trump started threatening Canada in early 2025, this mindset has been turbocharged. Now there is what seems like the notion that naivete and complacency are a sort of national virtue, a way that we aren't like Americans. Suddenly, pointing out problems in Canadian institutions is seen as unpatriotic. Everything is fine and nothing is wrong and you must love Trump if you say otherwise.
This is a big part of why Boomers embraced the Carney brand of nostalgia. And it's why the opposition - left and right - can't get any traction. Their role is to criticize and criticism is uncomfortable and requires admitting things are wrong.
Trust the system, don't question, everything in Canada is pure and lovely and trustworthy and fine.
Jen's remark from her column sums it up: "Having failed to improve, it no longer exists." Insert your topic of choice.