An election in a polluted media environment

Last week one of the U.S.’s leading scholars and thinkers on fascism announced his intention to leave his country, which he said was “tilting toward authoritarian dictatorship.” Jason Stanley will be leaving Yale and taking up a post at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. Stanley has been warning about the threat and rise of fascism in the United States since Donald Trump’s first term – his work notes the throughline between American Jim Crow and the Third Reich, fascism’s reliance on the identification of internal enemies, and why fascism rests upon the promise of restoring a mythic past. Stanley is a longtime professor and his latest book is titled ‘Erasing History, how fascists rewrite the past to control the future.’ He joins the show to discuss his decision to come to Canada as an academic refugee, and situate fascism in the broader continuum of American history.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As the Liberals ride strong, support for the NDP is collapsing. Most polls now show their support at less than 10 per cent — half of what it was just three months ago. Some data suggest they could lose three quarters of their seats in the house, and that they’re at risk of losing official party status.How did the New Democrats get here? Why hasn’t leader Jagmeet Singh been able to turn policy wins for the party into electoral success? And where do they go from here?Today we’re joined by two people who have been following the NDP for a long time. Jordan Leichnitz is a former NDP senior strategist, and David Moscrop is a political commentator.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Just over one week into the federal election campaign and there's lots to talk about. From Mark Carney's first call with Donald Trump, after which the U.S. President pulled a dramatic change in rhetoric about Canada, to infighting and chaos in the Conservative ranks.CBC's Chief Political correspondent Rosemary Barton breaks down week one of campaigning in this pivotal election.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Across the world an anti-Tesla campaign has been growing since Elon Musk began his work dismantling U.S. government institutions, and meddling in other country’s democracies. The protests, dubbed “Trash Tesla,” are seeing regular folks and former customers selling their cars, dumping stock and picketing dealerships. Others are torching Tesla vehicles.As a result the U.S. attorney general says they’re looking into the incidents as potential domestic terrorism.Today on the show, Wired writer Carlton Reid is joining us to talk about his reporting on the Tesla backlash. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The federal election has only been officially underway since Sunday, and a few stories are dominating the headlines.Both the Liberals and the Conservatives are facing allegations of foreign interference, which has once again resurfaced questions about why Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre refuses to get his security clearance to be briefed on such issues.Liberal leader Mark Carney continues to face scrutiny for his time in the private sector, in particular his role at Brookfield Asset Management, which moved its headquarters from Toronto to New York during his tenure.Meanwhile, comments from Alberta premier Danielle Smith to American conservative media, as well as a continued cold shoulder from Ontario premier Doug Ford, raise the question of whether the country's two most prominent Conservative premiers are going to be bigger liabilities than assets for Poilievre in this campaign.Catherine Cullen and Jason Markusoff — the hosts of CBC's politics podcast House Party, which you can find here — break it all down.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In a 2021 speech entitled ‘The Universities are the enemy,’ Vice President JD Vance laid out a plan for America’s universities saying in part “we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.”Columbia University has become ground zero for the Trump administration's war on higher education. Following a year of pro-Palestinian protest on campus, Trump revoked $400-million in funding and has instructed federal agents to oversee raids on campus, looking to deport international students and permanent residents that have been involved in protest. Joseph Howley is a professor at Columbia and joins the show to discuss the last year and a half on campus, at a time students are being hunted, and some feel the university has capitulated to the demands of a hostile government.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

With the federal election underway, Pierre Poilievre’s political opponents have intensified their accusations that the Conservative leader is like U.S. President Trump.On Sunday, Liberal leader Mark Carney said that Poilievre mirrors Trump in language and intention, and that he followed the administration’s lead in proposing foreign aid cuts.For weeks now, the party has been putting out ads focusing on the similarities between Poilievre and Trump.NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said, also on Sunday, that Poilievre is endorsed by Elon Musk, who is leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.In a country where the majority of people have negative views of Trump, this start to the campaign likely wasn’t an ideal one for Poilievre and his team.CBC parliamentary bureau reporter J.P. Tasker, who’s currently on the campaign trail with the Conservatives, outlines Pierre Poilievre’s Trump problem, and what it might mean for the campaign moving forward.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

With trust in journalism eroding, disinformation — once fringe — is now mainstream. Much of it is spreading on social media. Today’s guest says the online media environment in Canada is more fragile and vulnerable to manipulation than ever before. A dangerous situation at the best of times — even more so during an election.Taylor Owen is a professor at McGill University, the Chair in Media, Ethics and Communication, the founding Director of The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy and principal investigator at the Media Ecosystem Observatory.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canadian pride reached a fever pitch after the NHL 4 Nations Cup last month and it hasn’t showed any signs of slowing down since. Sales of the Canadian flags are up. American liquor and beer have been pulled off the shelves in stores throughout the country. “Elbows Up”, a war cry and tribute to Gordie Howe’s signature defensive move, has been trending on social media. But in a country that, according to polls, saw declining national pride for decades, what is our national identity? And how do you build a forward-looking and also inclusive, patriotic society? We wade through the good, the bad and the ugly of Canadian patriotism with David Moscrop, a freelance journalist and political scientist, and Jeet Heer, author and national affairs correspondent at The Nation.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On August 9th and 10th of 1969, a series of brutal murders took place in Los Angeles. Seven people were killed, including actress Sharon Tate, who was married to director Roman Polanski.Members of the Manson family, a kind of cult, were found guilty for the crimes. Manson and four of his followers were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death.The prosecutor at the time said that Manson wanted to start a race war and trigger the end of the world. For decades, that was how the story went.But a new film by legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris asks the audience to reconsider that. It's inspired by a book called "CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties" by journalist Tom O'Neill, which makes the case that Manson might have been connected to the CIA's mind control program, MK-Ultra.Errol Morris talks to host Jayme Poisson about "Chaos: The Manson Murders", unpacking the many theories about Charles Manson, and the culture of paranoia from that era of American history. The film is out on Netflix now.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts