In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on November 13th, 2026, Matt Gurney is joined from Montreal by Andrew Potter, filling in for Jen Gerson.
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First up, your hosts tackle the immigration debate now exploding across Canada. Both are very mindful of the fact that they’re middle-aged white dudes, but they have serious concerns about the government’s new proposals. For one thing, the economic rationale simply isn’t there. For another, the Liberals have done almost none of the political groundwork necessary to sell these changes to Canadians. As Andrew notes, this government, like most Liberal governments, hates having to explain itself to the public. Matt worries that the consequences could be severe. Canada has maintained a remarkable pro-immigrant consensus for decades, and while Canadians have clearly soured on immigration, they haven’t yet soured on immigrants. That distinction matters. And it might not last.
Next, Matt and Andrew turn to the war in Ukraine, where Russia is hammering the country’s utilities and forcing Ukrainians into darkness and cold as winter approaches. Matt also highlights a series of particularly brutal recent terror attacks against Ukrainian civilians, attacks that serve no military purpose beyond demoralizing the population. Your hosts agree that Vladimir Putin is trying to force some kind of resolution of the war before the Democrats take control of the U.S. Congress in January. Matt wonders whether Ukraine can hold out that long. Andrew has another question: even if it can, what help is actually coming? Will the Democrats care? Will the Europeans finally step up?
This episode is also brought to you by BioCanRx. We’ve been partnering with federally-funded Canadian not-for-profit BioCanRx to learn how made-in-Canada immunotherapies offer new ways to beat cancer. This week we asked whether the new federal budget improves the landscape for Canadian drug development. Short answer: it does!
New tax incentives will support Canadian biotech companies carrying out commercialization and regulatory activities in Canada, and federal research funding agencies will modernize to offer additional support for bridging lab to market. The government also pledged to respond to recommendations from last summer’s Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector Task Force. Steps like these can address key challenges facing Canada’s life-sciences sector and make Canada more globally competitive.
There is much more work to do to support Canadian health-care systems. BioCanRx will continue to participate in any effort to strengthen Canada’s life-sciences ecosystem and help Canadian discoveries become therapies to treat patients across Canada and the world. Thanks to them for continuing to partner with The Line to share this information. Visit BioCanRx.com to learn more.
Finally, your hosts discuss the rapid downfall of Nvidia’s Jensen Huang following revelations of a series of extramarital affairs with employees and potentially a Chinese intelligence asset. But the conversation quickly broadens to the extraordinary pace of progress in artificial intelligence, the threats this technology may pose to human civilization, and the difficulty of imagining any government effectively regulating it. Matt and Andrew consider historical parallels with genetic engineering and thermonuclear weapons, and the uncomfortable reality that AI has become one of those rare technologies where the people who understand it best, and who are actually responsible for creating it, often seem the most terrified of what they’re unleashing.
Maybe we should think about that.
All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Remember to like and subscribe before your AI does it for you.
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That’s all for now! Talk to you guys soon.
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