Transcript
Zain
0:02
Well hi there, and a warm radiant hello to you, strategist listeners. Isn't it just magnificent outside? Look at that sun through the trees, look at your neighbors, who are waving happily at you as you shovel their walk. Yeah,
Zain
0:15
Yeah, cause you're helping, and of course they're at home watching heated rivalry, cause that's the only thing that gives them purpose in life. Anyways, look at the unity in our political discourse. The Novice Standing Clause, that definitely wasn't used to override your basic rights this year. Nope, not even once. It just You're sat there on the shelf, dusty, forgotten. And more importantly, you. Look at you. Your blood pressure, it's great. It's resting at a cool 110 over 70, I imagine. You haven't clenched your jaw in a while reading a post-media op-ed in six months. And your wallet, I'm sure it's bursting. Your oil sand stocks are probably doing so well. You're welcome. Probably also doing fine with those tariffs. And wait, is that you by a fire? You look rested. Probably saying to yourself, wow, things are great before the water wars start. What a lovely, stress-free life you lead. It'd be a shame if it really, you know, set in. So grab your kids, grab your lukewarm, inflation-adjusted, no-name eggnog, and grab whatever hope you briefly felt when Mark Carney rolled up his sleeves, and now burn it all. Because it's time for the Better Late Than Never Strategist Holiday Spectacular, brought to you by Flair Airlines. And welcome, Shannon Phillips, Annalise Klingbeil, and Stephen Carter. What
Zain
1:22
What a glorious post-holiday it is. The
Carter
1:24
The whole gang is here.
Zain
1:28
Indeed, indeed. Stephen Carter, how did you celebrate Orthodox Christmas?
Carter
1:32
Like I celebrated Christmas by barely being aware of it.
Zain
1:36
Yeah, well, there you go. Shannon, Orthodox Christmas, that is the holiday of choice on the show, if you were not aware, and you celebrated how?
Zain
1:48
Okay, and Annalise, same question to you.
Annalise
1:50
Skiing, always skiing, Zane. It's
Zain
1:53
how we celebrate. Yeah,
Zain
1:54
that is how we celebrate.
Zain
1:56
Listen, I'm wasting no time. We have our first segment. It is the segment that predicts the future. It is bulletproof. It is the pre-flight security screening, also known as How White with
Zain
2:09
Stephen Carter. For those of you that have not been part of this show before, this is our holiday spectacular. Welcome. We're not wasting any time. We get straight to the main event. For 12 years now, I think 13, Stephen Carter, Carter. This has been the single most accurate way to predict the weather and how white we're going to have this winter. We determine how white Stephen Carter is, and that tells us how white of a white Christmas we're going to have going forward. The way this works, Stephen Carter,
Zain
2:36
is we have 10.
Zain
2:38
No, no, I'm going to read. I'm going to read to you. We have to do this. We have to do this every year. I will allow you know what? Before I get into the rules, I will allow your 30 seconds of protest before I make the decision I have already made. Go ahead. Every
Carter
2:49
Every Every year we begin the podcast, the Holiday Spectacular, by humiliating me. And
Carter
2:55
And we have so many other people we could humiliate. We could humiliate Shannon. We could humiliate Annalise. We can even humiliate you, Zane. Why is it always me? I feel like you hang yourself with
Zain
3:06
with the rope that is provided. I gave you 30 seconds to protest. Instead, you said, every year I choose not to learn about culture that is not white. I, instead of doing my homework, I feel like this is an embarrassment. Carter, you've revealed yourself once again, hanging yourself with the rope I'm providing you.
Zain
3:24
Here's how this works. Stephen
Zain
3:26
Carter, we're doing it.
Zain
3:27
There's a person of color that is the response to 10 questions that Annalise and Shannon have. They will alternate back and forth. Stephen Carter has to guess the answer. It's a person in our politics, could be Canadian or American politics, or a person in broader pop culture. Here's how the scoring works. Marks, every
Zain
3:45
every person, as I mentioned, is a person of color. If Carter knows the name, he gets zero points. That's good. You get nothing. So if you know, you get nothing, Carter. So I've changed it up this year. If you fail, which I think is a more likely scenario on each of these questions probabilistically, you get one white point.
Zain
4:03
The lower the score, the whiter the Christmas. Okay, Carter? So here we are. This
Carter
4:07
This is great. So I'm aiming for something
Zain
4:10
You got to just try to get one. And I think there's a couple you will be able to get. I really believe in you, Stephen Carter. I will be scorekeeper for this first segment. And we'll start with Shannon and then Annalise back and forth. Oh, great.
Annalise
4:24
Yeah, yeah. Follow the questions. Yeah,
Annalise
4:25
Yeah, that's right. We're reading the questions.
Zain
4:30
Yeah, that's good. They're participating in what could be classified if anyone other than myself did this without my pigmentation. I hate crime. So, Stephen Carter,
Zain
4:39
Carter, please go ahead. Did either
Carter
4:40
either of you, when you were tasked with this, think this was unfair? Yes. Don't say no. God, don't say that. Shannon thought
Zain
4:48
thought it was hard. Annalise didn't comment, which I meant she got 10 out of 10. Let's
Shannon
4:53
Let's do this. Which means that I have more whiteness points than Annalise. All right. Question one.
Shannon
4:59
know it's coming and
Shannon
5:00
and I never study. You should probably pay attention to non-white culture at some point over the course of the year. This Calgary Conservative MP of Punjabi background kept his seat in 2025 and remained one of the party's loudest voices on cost of living and immigration.
Zain
5:19
Yeah, this is why I'm Calgary MP, Carter. You have to say an
Zain
5:23
Name a Calgary Punjabi MP that you know for any place.
Carter
5:30
I'm not real good with the Conservative MPs. Oh, okay. Is it the Conservative
Zain
5:33
Conservative MPs or the Punjabi MPs that you're not good with?
Carter
5:36
I mean, both, apparently.
Carter
5:40
Jim Carter, do you
Zain
5:41
you want to take a guess?
Carter
5:45
want to Google Calgary
Carter
5:46
Calgary MPs, but I'm afraid that I'd get it wrong even if I did. So I'm going to go with Jamil
Shannon
5:55
He's not Calgary. It is, in fact, Jezron Singh-Hallan, who
Shannon
6:00
who is also... Also, you
Shannon
6:01
you you can be forgiven, Carter, because normally people, you know, who pay attention to politics would know who the opposition finance critic is. But this is a man who didn't even get to talk to the media and get permission from his leader to talk to the media on Budget Day this year. So partisan
Zain
6:18
partisan swipe and like defense by Shannon at the same time. That's right.
Corey
6:24
Very good, Shannon. Anyway,
Shannon
6:26
still know who he is.
Zain
6:29
last part of shannon state but i agree with all righty question
Annalise
6:32
question two it's a culture one steven carter this houston rapper and cultural force spent 2025 doubling down on independence holding onto her masters and refusing respectability politics carter do not say cardi b do
Carter
6:49
say Cardi B. Who
Carter
6:53
I mean, you lost me at rapper.
Carter
6:57
have no clue. Houston? No.
Carter
7:04
Really? That's a person?
Zain
7:06
Stephen Carter, your current tally is two points.
Zain
7:10
You're getting points. See, Carter? This is how you keep feeling good. This is how you keep pace. You get points while doing nothing. Shannon, over to you. This one, Carter, you should get. this
Shannon
7:18
this turbaned federal party leader spent the entire year trying to prove his party is relevant in a minority parliament while reminding carney that renters vote too uh
Zain
7:29
even harder correct zero points accumulated on that one thank
Zain
7:34
we go back to the rap yeah
Annalise
7:35
yeah yeah of course question four a culture one this compton rapper's 2025 output defined the year's mood his lines about not faking humility were quoted in the house of commons by a conservative backbencher this
Carter
7:53
is another cultural okay i thought you were frozen yes carter you
Annalise
7:57
have to say where is carter i
Zain
8:01
a comp think of the most the most famous rapper carter think of m&m jesus
Zain
8:06
jesus christ he chooses the white
Zain
8:13
Question four. Carter gets zero points.
Zain
8:16
No, Carter, you do get points. This is the third point that you have accumulated. We are well on our way. Who was that? Kendrick
Carter
8:23
We're on question five. Kendrick Lamar. Okay. I think I know that name. Damn
Shannon
8:28
right. Next question. Back to you.
Shannon
8:31
He made history as the first black speaker of the House of Commons and spent 2025 trying to keep the Carny-Poilievre shouting matches from violating standing orders. He's also a very nice man. He
Carter
8:39
He is a very nice man. His name is escaping me at this particular moment.
Carter
8:44
This is so unfair. It's
Carter
8:48
This one is not
Shannon
8:49
not unfair. You should
Carter
8:50
should know the name of the speaker.
Zain
8:51
speaker. You got Jagmeet Singh, which I'm happy.
Carter
8:54
I should get this one. This one I should be able to get. I'll
Zain
8:58
I'll give you the no points, technically, because that's what we're doing. I'll give you the no points for
Zain
9:04
for either half of his name.
Zain
9:10
should be so easy yeah
Carter
9:11
yeah i you know it's the stress it's the stress that gets you i
Zain
9:16
it's a lack of preparation you
Carter
9:20
i can't i i didn't i always forget that this is coming i
Carter
9:23
i always forget that i'm going to get humiliated i can't remember his name i
Carter
9:27
i can see his face give me give me the initials describe
Shannon
9:36
don't think I'll be doing that he
Annalise
9:39
he can picture his face that's such a come out Carter is
Zain
9:43
is it the same or different shade than Eminem I'm
Carter
9:47
I'm going to skip over this I'm going to say that I can't get it is it Greg Greg Fergus
Carter
9:56
I was going to say Ferguson but my friend who's white is named Greg Ferguson And I thought, you know, I'm going to get in trouble on that one.
Zain
10:04
Stephen Carter, what are we doing? Shannon, it's your call on this one. Do we want to give him the lack of point or not? Give
Shannon
10:10
Give me the point or give me the lack of point. I think we should give him the lack of point because, you know, yeah, I have sympathy for just not being able to remember things.
Carter
10:19
Yeah, here we go. Very old. Question
Annalise
10:22
Question six is another culture one. Oh, God. My favorite. This
Annalise
10:27
South African artist known for her blue hair and self-described future
Annalise
10:31
future ghetto funk had one of the most praised records of the year.
Annalise
10:36
Take a swing, Carter.
Carter
10:39
artist with blue hair? Yeah.
Carter
10:41
South African artist with
Carter
10:44
A South African Shakira.
Annalise
10:51
Moon Childs and Nelly. Four
Carter
10:54
on, that doesn't even count. Is
Zain
10:55
Is Shannon back to you? My age is going to know that. Seventh question, Shannon Phillips.
Shannon
11:02
This Haitian Canadian liberal was elected in Papineau in 2025, taking Justin Trudeau's old riding and instantly becoming a power player in the Quebec caucus. She is also in cabinet. I'm going to give you a little hint.
Zain
11:13
hint. As a health minister, that is correct. We'll give you even that, Stephen Carter.
Zain
11:19
Excellent. Does not make a difference.
Carter
11:22
Health minister. I should know the health minister. Yeah.
Shannon
11:24
Yeah. Yeah, that's a true fact. Anyway, it's Marjorie Michelle. We award you points.
Zain
11:31
Stephen Carter, seven questions in, five points. We've already hit the threshold. Okay, I'm going to nail these last three. You've got three left. Question eight. This is where the
Annalise
11:38
the stress melts off. There's
Zain
11:40
There's no stress anymore. White Christmas is guaranteed. Don't
Annalise
11:43
culture one. It is another culture one. Yeah, it is. It's so good.
Zain
11:46
good. It's like giving these animals
Annalise
11:47
animals an alternating word. Politics, culture, politics, culture. There's a pattern going on. He is the men's creative director at Louis Vuitton. he co-chaired the Met Gala and he turned black
Annalise
11:57
black dandyism into the look of 2025. He is also seemingly ageless.
Zain
12:09
guess actually. Good guess though. That's a terrible guess. Terrible guess. Shannon, you are not one to say good guess. Terrible guess. How
Carter
12:17
How is that a terrible guess? Black dandyism is probably not going to be in my cultural literary, you know. Do you think I don't know that? Do you think I do not know this?
Annalise
12:26
Zane wrote the questions, Carter.
Annalise
12:29
Who's the answer? It was Pharrell Williams. I don't know why you keep asking for the answers.
Zain
12:34
Pharrell, God, this is embarrassing for everyone.
Annalise
12:37
That was my fault.
Carter
12:38
He's the guy who sang the song, right? Yes,
Carter
12:40
the guy who sang the song.
Zain
12:42
Okay, I think Carter should get the next two. Shannon and Annalise, I feel like we wanted to end on a struggle. Zane and Carter, we've done eight questions. You've accumulated six points. These are questions nine and ten, starting with Shannon and then Annalise again.
Shannon
12:57
This South Asian Alberta NDP MLA, an effective critic on kids' rights and education, topped the, quote, best of Alberta politics list this year.
Carter
13:11
No, who is it?
Carter
13:14
Pancholi. Rocky Pancholi, okay.
Zain
13:16
Excellent, excellent. I got
Carter
13:18
got confused when you said South Asian. I thought immediately Southern Alberta. That's my fault. I didn't think it all the way through. I didn't listen close enough to the question. Yeah, that's fair. Okay.
Carter
13:27
At least I can pronounce her name now. There's some significance. That's right. The name of it
Zain
13:31
it was last year. It wasn't last year.
Zain
13:33
year. It was two or three years ago. It was pretty bad. We should run the tape if we have it. No, we're not running the tape, Hax. We should definitely run the tape. Move on. Let's go. I'm Stephen Carter butchering that one.
Zain
13:43
I think Racky's been a dancer every single year. You're getting incrementally better.
Carter
13:46
I'm getting incrementally better.
Annalise
13:49
Final question. It's a politics one.
Annalise
13:52
This Cree and French Métis MLA from Edmonton West Henday was a breakout star of the legislature for his work on indigenous justice and the sovereignty fight.
Annalise
14:06
We said where he's from.
Zain
14:10
We'll give you NDP MLA as well. Well, of course
Carter
14:13
course it's an NDP
Zain
14:14
NDP MLA. I don't know. You're fucking saying, of course. Some of these are slam dunks, I would say. Cree,
Annalise
14:21
Métis, Edmonton West, Henday Come on Carter
Carter
14:25
Would you have gotten this when you read this Or did you have to google the answer I would have gotten the
Zain
14:30
the last two I would have gotten
Carter
14:36
everybody It will be another white Christmas
Zain
14:42
Brooks, Arcand, Paul, Stephen Carter You, my friend
Zain
14:47
You, my friend And got Jagmeet Singh right.
Zain
14:50
did. And Greg Fergus. Was that it? Is that what happened here?
Annalise
14:54
here? He only got the Greg part of this. And it took a long time.
Carter
14:59
I got crushed. This is the worst performance I think I've ever done.
Shannon
15:02
The culture ones were
Shannon
15:03
were very difficult. They were hard. I will give you that.
Zain
15:06
If you were not into the rap game, Carter, they were difficult. Okay,
Carter
15:09
Okay, friends. I got Eminem. I mean, that's got to count for something.
Zain
15:13
You got something there.
Carter
15:15
there. I named a rapper.
Zain
15:17
Oh, my God. But, okay, let's get everyone into the mix. We're moving on to our next segment. Our next segment, our Flair Airlines delayed response of the year. I am going to give you five things that happened, five political parties, five political figures. You are going to give me, in a very simple fashion, who you think the most delayed response of the year belongs to. So, your list includes Jagmeet Singh not calling an election when Trudeau was still around. you
Zain
15:47
have Mark Carney on his major projects file you have Pierre Pauliev on his lack thereof or slow pivot to Trump whatever you want to call it during the election you got Trudeau's slow response for leaving and then you got the Ontario Liberals slow response for getting their act together before Doug Ford calls his snap election Jagmeet Singh not taking down the government Mark Carney on major projects Pierre Pauliev on a Trump pivot Trudeau not leaving, or the Ontario Liberals. Annalise, can I start with you? For you, what
Zain
16:19
your delayed, which one of these five is your delayed response of the year? Which one would you crown as the best of the worst?
Annalise
16:27
Oh, the best of the worst. Polyev. Like a year ago, a year ago and two weeks, he was like 30 points ahead. And look at where we are now.
Zain
16:40
Annalise chooses Pierre Polyev. Jeff Shannon, can I go to you? Between Jagmeet Karni,
Zain
16:44
Karni, Polyev, Trudeau and the Ontario Liberals, who are you choosing?
Shannon
16:48
Oh, it's got to be Polyev. I mean, if you listen to the Holiday Spectacular last year, which I had the misfortune to do over
Shannon
16:55
over the course of this week, you will find several references from all of, from everyone about how Pierre Polyev was going to be prime minister. A more spectacular bed shit we have not seen in Canadian politics in some time. And he's just underlined it yet again with his response to Venezuela, in which he's congratulating Donald Trump. The man has learned nothing. But
Shannon
17:19
But can we just clarify,
Carter
17:20
was it us who shit the bed or was it Pierre? You left that kind of hanging. No, Palliev. It felt like it was us who shit the bed. Absolutely not. It
Zain
17:29
seemed like your quarterback of last year's
Carter
17:32
Spectacular. I mean, everybody was predicting Pierre Palliev was going to
Shannon
17:35
to get an extra
Shannon
17:36
can't tell you. So I don't feel like that's an us problem. It's
Shannon
17:38
not on you. It's not on you. i'm saying that everyone is sensitive after
Carter
17:43
right now a little sensitive
Shannon
17:45
no carter on that one you were right on like literally everything else in the holiday spectacular you were wrong but uh on this
Carter
17:52
this you were absolutely right well let me tell you something i mean you guys being wrong on pierre pauliev is
Carter
17:57
is another thing jagmeet singh gave up everything uh
Carter
18:00
uh by not forcing an election by doing this ridiculous
Carter
18:03
ridiculous deal with the with the liberals which basically took his caucus and made them a part of the furthest left liberal party that
Carter
18:10
that we've ever seen. Jagmeet Singh wins the award this year for the most delayed response. Congratulations to Flair Airlines.
Zain
18:22
Indeed, congratulations to Flair Airlines. And Carter, thank you for mentioning that, because this does bring us to our sponsor block, where, of course, we talk about our sponsors. This episode exclusively available on Microsoft Zoom as we talk about Carter, are the only platform that understands our demographic. And of course,
Zain
18:38
course, Flair Airlines, there's a difference between going and getting somewhere. Carter, let's move it on to our next segment. This is our rare perfect landing. And this is a rare year because as part of Flair Airlines' rare perfect landing, we actually have a unicorn landing, which I'm not going to let you choose. So there are four options on the table. The unicorn landing of the year was Mark Carney's election win. That is too low-hanging fruit for you to go. So I'm going to take that, put it in its glass case, and memorialize it as it should be. But I'm going to give the three of you four other rare
Zain
19:13
rare perfect landings. And you have to tell
Zain
19:16
tell me which one takes the cake for you. Which one is the best of the year? Number
Zain
19:21
Number one, Doug Ford's early election call.
Zain
19:27
CUPE and their public relations fight against Air Canada. Canada.
Zain
19:34
Thomas Lukasik here in Alberta and the Forever Canadian petition drive.
Zain
19:39
Or number four, Danielle Smith and her credit on the pipeline pivot and making pipelines more popular and getting a deal from the Liberals. So I got Ford, I got QP and Air Canada, I got Lukasik and Forever Canadian, and I got Danielle Smith and pipelines. Carter, can I start with you? Of those four, not including Mark Carney, in that glass case, as we mentioned, which are you choosing as the Flair Airlines' rare perfect landing of 2025?
Carter
20:06
I think it has to be Thomas Lukasik in the Forever Canada petition. The collective
Carter
20:11
collective weight of the podcast was against him by saying that there was no way. Primarily you, but yes. You owe him an apology. The collective weight,
Carter
20:21
Annalise and Shannon were right there, right there agreeing with me. You need to apologize
Carter
20:27
Yeah, do you want to do that now? I've had lunch with Thomas where I have apologized to him. He laughed and said something along the lines of, like your fucking predictions matter. So that
Carter
20:39
hurtful. That's the appropriate response.
Carter
20:41
Yeah. So yeah, I mean, Thomas Lukaszek, to me, is the rare perfect landing from Flair Airlines. Oh,
Zain
20:48
Oh, I'm intrigued that you chose that. Shannon, can I turn it over to you? You got the same four on the board. board which one are you picking well
Shannon
20:57
well i i think if there's a play of the year it's it's that one uh but i'm gonna choose qp uh and the year canada is straight because we never see this uh in you know the sort of 30 years that i've been watching politics and somewhat adjacent to the labor movement you so
Shannon
21:15
so rarely see in fact you never see it number one that people had heard about it uh
Shannon
21:20
uh a labor dispute and number two that people were overwhelmingly on the side of the workers and i think it's a it's a credit to the uh everlasting shittiness of air contempt uh that they have you know essentially uh alienated uh 80 percent uh of their customer base and uh canadians uh that we take no pride uh in that particular uh company that people remember them getting bailed out during COVID and all the rest of it and that people have had enough of sort of the inequality of right now and QP landed the communications perfectly also pretty rare like if we're all being honest from unions they usually find a way to you know either wrap the message up in gauze or make it too technical or whatever you know there's a kind of two poles of a of a communications fail but they they did neither uh
Shannon
22:16
uh they hit air canada where it hurt and uh it worked and you know the carney government walked right into the trap
Zain
22:24
one for cupi and air canada we got one for the forever canadian petition
Zain
22:28
and elise are you breaking the tie or are you going your own way
Annalise
22:31
way i'm breaking the tie before carter said it i was going to say lucasic as well it was a big he had a big hill to climb and he did it and he got a lot of media he got he had his rv his face like even his name a year ago there was a lot of albertans who wouldn't have remembered him from his previous political career and who he was and he's he's just been out there and he got the signatures right and a lot of people including stephen carter thought that there was no way he could and
Annalise
22:59
he did it and
Carter
23:00
and and you i I mean, I
Annalise
23:04
don't know if you're remembering that correctly, Carter.
Annalise
23:06
Carter. None of you wanted
Zain
23:08
wanted to choose Doug Ford? No.
Zain
23:10
No. For a jump? Well, why didn't I? To me, as I wrote this, Doug Ford was the obvious answer. None of you chose it. That would have been my pick, 100%.
Shannon
23:18
No. I mean, because it's opposition, you know, no shade to my friends in the ONDP and certainly no shade to my non-friends in the OLP, but both opposition parties were kind of wrapped up in a ball of hair by then. You know, like they were not ready for an election, despite it being telegraphed since, you know, essentially September 2024, that one was going to happen. And they didn't, they couldn't find a way around the Trump discourse, right, and couldn't find a way in. And part
Shannon
23:49
part of that is they hadn't seeded the ground effectively on the right issue set, whether like that was adjacent to Trump, whether it was affordability or health care.
Shannon
23:57
So, no, it was no surprise to me that he pulled it off. And, in fact, what was a surprise, he didn't pull it off bigger. At the time of the election, people were saying, oh, he's going to get 100 seats, yada, yada. He did not get 100 seats.
Zain
24:11
Yeah, pretty much got what he was at with another four-year refresh of his mandate. Okay, let's move it on to our next segment. This one, Stephen Carter, we've also done in the past. It's not our eulogies just yet. For those listening, that is coming shortly. this
Zain
24:26
next segment is if lair airlines whose middle seat would you rather be in remember
Zain
24:31
remember this steven carter i give i
Zain
24:33
i give the two of you across four questions here a pairing i
Zain
24:37
i ask you who would you rather be sitting in the shitty middle seat two people who may not have had a great year shannon best
Zain
24:45
best way to start is to get started pierre
Zain
24:47
pierre poliev or justin trudeau who
Zain
24:50
who would you rather be sitting in a Flair Airlines middle seat today in early January 2026?
Shannon
24:56
Oh, Justin Trudeau, because I would get to ask him all about Katy Perry going to space.
Shannon
25:00
And that would be really fun. And then I could hear stories that I would then repeat to my friends about how incredibly untethered from reality that man is. And that would also be fun. And probably remind him of some of his public policy achievements, because public policy was not exactly his forte. I also can't stand Pierre Polyavre. I think he's an unctuous prick. So I would take someone, you know, who's known for his performative nonsense any day of the week.
Zain
25:30
So Justin Trudeau has a slightly better year than Pierre Polyavre is what you conclude. He's
Annalise
25:38
You disagree with that, Zane?
Zain
25:40
I'm just asking the questions. It's all I do. I only voice my opinion when it comes to Doug Ford. Stephen Carter.
Zain
25:48
Middle seat. Two options, who
Zain
25:50
who had the shittier year and who would you rather be having in that middle seat? David Parker, that
Zain
25:57
that seems like a blast from the past, but it's actually really not. Or Sonia Sharp,
Zain
26:03
narrowly losing a mayoral
Zain
26:06
or narrowly losing your political apparatus and perhaps even power, TBD,
Zain
26:12
TBD, I guess, on Parker, unless you disagree. agree steven carter middle
Zain
26:18
who would you rather be i'm
Carter
26:20
i'm gonna put sonja sharp in the middle seat uh you know the uh the
Carter
26:26
the the joy of the prevent of the municipal elections primarily rested with me on on sonja sharp not winning uh so i put her in the seat david parker he does feel like a a spent political force in the province of alberta uh someone who used to have the year of the of of the premier, and now still
Carter
26:45
still has a Twitter account or an ex-account, and that's about it. And so I think that Thomas
Carter
26:54
organizing has taken the best organizer in Alberta title away from David Parker.
Zain
27:01
You think so, hey? I
Zain
27:02
I do. I really do. Really? That's a category we should bring up, best political organizer.
Zain
27:09
the federal NDP, or
Zain
27:11
or the Quebec Liberals,
Annalise
27:14
what it's who who would i rather who would i rather put in the middle seat the
Zain
27:18
the middle seat sucks and the middle seat especially sucks on flair airlines who would you want to stuff into that middle seat federal
Annalise
27:29
yeah even about the
Zain
27:30
the quebec liberals tell me why
Annalise
27:33
look at the year that they had zane just
Annalise
27:36
just think and potentially think about it and the year that that they're going to have and
Annalise
27:41
to the point earlier about uh what they could have done with an election or like yeah federal ndp full
Annalise
27:51
full stop period shannon
Zain
27:54
shannon phillips i'm going to give you an extra swing because you deserve it also because i didn't
Shannon
27:58
didn't understand the question that's
Zain
27:59
that's fine it doesn't matter you just have to listen to previous holidays i did you
Carter
28:03
you did you did a great Great job. Who
Zain
28:05
Who do you want to stuff into a middle seat, Shannon Phillips? Chuck Schumer.
Zain
28:10
We're talking American politics. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's fine. Or anti-mega Republicans.
Zain
28:15
shittier year that belongs in the middle seat?
Shannon
28:17
Oh, no, the anti-mega Republicans are on good ground. Both the never-Trump Republicans and the ones who are, like, America first going up against the, like, who are, you know, anti-mega but are America first now. Like, your Marjorie is Taylor Greene. uh those folks are having you know had a great 2025 both uh categories of them or at least by the end not
Shannon
28:39
not the beginning i'm sticking chuck fucking schumer in that middle seat i hope he has to live in it for the rest of his life uh every single time that man talks publicly he he steps on his own dick and he is just the just the worst it's just an object lesson in boomer go home and retire please these just these fossils you know dragging themselves around to a capitol hill making decisions they should be allowed to do nothing they need to go home drink tea write checks uh start a foundation whatever you're gonna do but get the fuck out of public life there enough boomers shannon
Zain
29:18
shannon phillips not only does she understand the question we've unlocked a new level of
Zain
29:22
of the phillips uh
Zain
29:24
uh excellent work folks it is now time Stephen Carter, you're familiar. Annalise, Shannon, it is the solemn part of our evening. It is the Player Airlines annual goodbye from the gate. This year, everyone will say a few words, of course, to begin with, for I'd say the most important eulogy, our fallen comrade Corey Hogan, and
Zain
29:44
and then eulogize their signed tragedies as I have presented them to you. Who shall we start with? Maybe on Corey Hogan, we'll all give our short analogy first. Shannon Phillips, on the
Zain
29:58
the passing, the sending off of one Corey Hogan from the Strategist podcast, the Flair Annual's Goodbye from the Gate for Corey Hogan, please.
Shannon
30:08
Friends, listeners, fellow sufferers of Alberta politics, we gather not to mourn the man exactly, but to mark the passing of Corey Hogan, who like a phoenix made entirely of communications rules and brand guidelines pdfs has risen from the ashes of podcasting to become a member of parliament cory
Shannon
30:25
cory hogan gone from our microphones forever alive in our corrections every time someone misses uses podium instead of lectern every time a minor semantic point derails an otherwise good conversation we'll hear his voice whisper, well, actually,
Shannon
30:40
his ghost still haunting the discord. As
Shannon
30:44
Shannon Phillips, his replacement, his understudy, his tragic exception, I must acknowledge the obvious. I will never truly replace him, not because I lack insight or perspective, not because I lack some
Shannon
30:56
some decades of experience in politics, but because as we all know, women cannot be strategists or funny or interesting or, God forbid, on podcasts. In all seriousness, though, Corey did possess a rare talent. He could cut through noise, distill complexity, and make politics sound, if not noble, at least like something we should all pay attention to. He
Shannon
31:16
He made words work hard and made you feel smart for following along. That is a skill. That is Corey Hogan. So, farewell, Corey. May Ottawa treat you kindly. May your caucus buy a proper lectern for your maiden speech. And to the Strategist podcast, we will muddle through, knowing full well that some voices, some pedantic, brilliant, impossible voices cannot really ever be replaced.
Zain
31:41
Beautiful. Beautiful. Moving. It was good, Shannon.
Zain
31:44
but moving and appropriate. Shannon Phillips with her Flair Airlines goodbye from the gate for one Corey Hogan. Annalise, I will give you the say and crack at Corey Hogan. I
Annalise
31:54
I wrote some notes. A fallen comrade
Annalise
31:56
Corey, two middle initials Hogan.
Annalise
32:00
Great guy, kind, funny, smart. The first time we ever met in person was on stage at the Strategist Live at the Grand Theatre in April 2023 during the Alberta provincial election. if cory was here with us today he would say i was wrong that we had met before that in person but i don't remember i
Shannon
32:23
have no recollection uh
Annalise
32:24
uh he was the smart one on the podcast he was the organized one the one who occasionally sent me money for episodes something that has not happened since he left the podcast in may uh
Carter
32:35
get to it people
Annalise
32:36
people love him they
Annalise
32:38
miss him he's a man Are we not paying women
Zain
32:41
women on the podcast anymore?
Annalise
32:43
I'm wrongly renaming entire neighborhoods to buying bus benches in said neighborhoods.
Annalise
32:51
Who else would announce on April Fool's Day, late in the race, that they were running for MP, which resulted in journalists calling me about the press release and asking if it was a joke or not. And now he's on to bigger and better things. He is gone from this podcast, and he's an MP, and he's my MP. May he rest in peace.
Zain
33:16
moving, accurate, and best of all, unpaid. Thank you, Annalise, for that. Thank you for that wonderful eulogy. One choreo, get member of parliament, ex-member of the podcast, Stephen Carter. You've known him the longest. You've hugged him the dearest. Just the Flair Airlines goodbye from the gate for Corey Hogan, member of Parliament, but no longer a member of this podcast.
Carter
33:43
Today we stand in memory of Corey Hogan's career.
Carter
33:46
Let's take a moment to consider the tens of thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands of dollars this political animal will forego for the pleasure of being a parliamentary secretary for the rest of his career.
Carter
34:00
Hogan's career began with his fascination of playing with trucks as a small child. He became a truck driver. Not
Carter
34:07
Not just any truck driver, he was a big, big truck driver. Needed a special license and everything. But
Carter
34:13
But the lure of politics, the shiny object that would eventually come to destroy his personal net worth,
Carter
34:18
was always strong. Working
Carter
34:20
both the federal and provincial liberals, one
Carter
34:23
one could be forgiven for thinking that the political bug died when Corey single-handedly marshaled the provincial liberal party into oblivion.
Carter
34:31
But after years of making real money through both entrepreneurial and real jobs, Corey was lured back to politics in 2025. This
Carter
34:39
This time for good.
Carter
34:41
His life of potential earnings is over.
Carter
34:43
What a waste of an Ivy MBA.
Zain
34:47
beautiful gold medal winning ivmba now being devoted to public service the capitalist stephen carter with a beautiful eulogy for his now impoverished friend cory hogan well
Carter
34:59
well he didn't even give me a chance to make any of that money you know it was very upsetting could have passed some over to us he
Zain
35:04
he could have but he never did very well done very moving we have got further eulogies to go as folks might be aware this segment we talk about the things that our Canadian politics that have died. And
Zain
35:16
And we eulogize them.
Zain
35:18
Corey Hogan was the one that everyone covers, but I've got individual ones for Annalise, Shannon, and Stephen. Shannon, can I go back to you? Because I would like to have a eulogy by
Zain
35:30
by yours truly, yourself, on
Zain
35:33
on the judicious use of the Notwithstanding Clause.
Zain
35:35
That is now gone, and the Flair Airlines goodbye from the gates for the Notwithstanding Clause, Shannon, please, if
Zain
35:41
if you could take it away.
Shannon
35:44
friends and former believers in things like the rule of law we gather here tomorrow in the tragically premature passing of the canadian charter of rights and freedoms choked
Shannon
35:52
choked to death by the notwithstanding clause the charter for those who remember civics and social studies class before that what too was quietly euthanized was born of lofty aspiration pierre
Shannon
36:03
pierre trudeau and his flair for constitutional drama flamboyant high-end gestures and rose lapels i
Shannon
36:10
i dreamed of of a nation where individual rights weren't playthings for premiers with poll-tested tempers. But alas, lurking in the fine print, right there in Section 33, the fatal compromise. The deal struck with the provinces, who feared that the federal courts would suddenly tell them they couldn't expel or generally harass the citizens they least liked or who were afraid of. Or in the case of the NDP-governed Saskatchewan at the time in 1980, the worry that the federal courts would stop them from nationalizing the potash industry through a backdoor interpretation of private property rights in Section 7.
Shannon
36:40
at first, the notwithstanding clause slumbered quietly. It'll never really be used, and for a while it wasn't, they said. Our leaders understood that you don't just gut the Bill of Rights in public, you had the manners to pretend shame.
Shannon
36:52
But then came a new generation, a golden era of fashy grievance politics, and Alberta stepped forward with great enthusiasm. Behold, I have the constitutional right to ignore your constitutional rights.
Shannon
37:04
And so, in Alberta today, you can watch a government light the Charter on fire on the grounds that just because you can, you should, punch down and pummel the vulnerable for sport.
Shannon
37:15
Next to the Charter lies the rule of la mortally wounded.
Shannon
37:19
Want to be recognized as fully human, simple, just pack up your life and walk until your individual liberty means something, again, across a provincial border. So
Shannon
37:27
So let us mourn, but also acknowledge the replacements that thrive in the Charter's absence, the shameless bile of performative populism, the smug smirk of common sense politics. Rest in peace, dear Charter. You were too principled for this place. And to the rule of law, may your gravestone be engraved with the words we once believed, a free and democratic society.
Zain
37:49
Powerful. Tears. Beautiful. I don't see any tears, Carter.
Corey
37:53
No, I mean, I'm
Carter
37:53
I'm thinking of someone. Okay, thank you. Someone was probably crying somewhere.
Zain
37:59
Carter, that's method. that annalise the
Zain
38:02
the flare airlines goodbye from the gate for voter turnout a historic low outside of of course the carny unicorn election of voter turnout alberta less than one in three voters so many places experiencing low voter turnout annalise take it away you
Annalise
38:14
you got it eulogy
Zain
38:15
eulogy on voter turnout picture
Annalise
38:16
picture this it's the middle of october 2025 i'm
Annalise
38:20
i'm waiting in line at my local elementary school gym with my three-year-olds and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to vote waiting
Annalise
38:30
for nearly an hour which is a lot longer than an actual hour when you have a three-year-old with you others gave up others did not show up here in calgary less than four out of 10 eligible calgarians cast a ballot in the october municipal election even fewer came out in edmonton where turnout was 30 in february
Annalise
38:48
february 2025 the ontario federal election saw the second lowest voter turnout in provincial history less than half of ontario's eligible voters cast a ballot it. There is a spot of good news, I guess, maybe. Nearly 70% of eligible voters cast a ballot in the 2025 federal election. That is good, but it is not good enough. It's not 79.4%, which is the number of eligible Canadians who voted in the March 1958 federal election. The highest number ever.
Annalise
39:19
And that was nearly 70 years ago. Voter turnout, may you rest in peace.
Zain
39:26
beautiful moving carter as someone who pedals and low voter turnout any reaction no
Zain
39:33
no tears no tears whatsoever yeah
Carter
39:36
none no tears whatsoever
Carter
39:37
it's beautifully written but no tears the
Zain
39:39
the forgotten but not gone inevitable
Zain
39:42
inevitable conservative majority it
Zain
39:48
it has died and it deserves to be eulogized by none other than stephen carter stephen carter the flare airlines lines, goodbye from the gate for the inevitable Conservative Party of Canada majority government.
Carter
39:58
See, can I just point something out here?
Carter
40:01
You gave me Pierre Poliev, and it's subtly different than what you just asked me to do. So I'm going to do Pierre Poliev.
Carter
40:10
You prepared, Stephen Carter.
Carter
40:12
Carter. It's the same, but different. And so today, we mark the passing of Pierre Poliev's political ambition, not
Carter
40:20
not with silence, but with a warning. Like
Carter
40:22
Like Icarus, he was gifted wings, not of wax and feathers, but of slogans and soundbites. He rose fast, powered by grievance, outrage, and the thrill of being louder than everyone else in the room. And for a while, it worked. The
Carter
40:34
The cheers were loud, the cameras followed, the sun felt warm.
Carter
40:38
But Icarus was warned, and Pierre was warned too, that anger burns hot, that mercury has a shelf life, that flying against everything eventually leaves you standing for nothing. Still, higher he went, closer to the sun for his own certainty. Until the heat did what heat always does.
Carter
40:55
The wings cracked, the slogans melted, the applause thinned, and down he came, not felled by enemies, but by gravity, the unavoidable pull of reality.
Carter
41:04
Let this obituary note the cause of death plainly.
Carter
41:08
Hubris, unchecked ambition, and the belief that volume is the same thing as leadership.
Carter
41:15
May future flyers remember,
Carter
41:17
the sun doesn't care how confident you are, and
Carter
41:19
and neither do Canadian voters.
Zain
41:23
oh yeah see i that's what i prepared not
Carter
41:26
not the one you asked me for there no mention
Zain
41:29
of the actual cause by death death by jenny burn but i like that it's good it's
Carter
41:36
that's good i should have put that in no
Shannon
41:37
no death by hubris sounds better more shakespeare good job that's
Zain
41:42
please take that advocate get me sued um shannon phillips um
Zain
41:47
the eulogy The Flair Airlines goodbye from the gates for
Zain
41:50
for none other than
Shannon
41:54
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to mark the end of an era, the passing
Shannon
41:59
the political life and times of Justin Pierre James Trudeau, Canada's 23rd Prime Minister. We
Shannon
42:04
We will, of course, remember his flair for the dramatic, the breathlessly dramatic, the rolled up sleeves, the tearful apologies, the climate change pressers with the emotional range of a soliloquy. the
Shannon
42:16
the man could milk a photo op who could forget the costume journeys abroad that launched the international use of the cringe emoji but
Shannon
42:23
but to be serious let's talk about the
Shannon
42:26
the inequality lessening amounts of the canadian child benefit that lifted thousands of people out of poverty the affordable child care they boosted health transfers expanded dental and pharma care use federal spending power to target primary care long-term care for seniors mental health which had been ignored by the provinces, brought in the school food program and many other things.
Shannon
42:46
Progressives spent years mocking Trudeau as a neoliberal in disguise, but conservatives loved to feminize him as a way to show his incompetence because everyone knows that being feminine is bad. Yet one day the working class folks with the fuck Trudeau stickers on their trucks might actually check their bank statements and do some financial planning and find their child benefit, their middle class tax cut and their working income tax benefit and their carbon tax tax rebate, actually made them far, far better off than they were under Harper. And the grumpy left may realize that he was the first real NDP prime minister in spirit, investing in families and workers in ways that Jack Layton would have done as
Shannon
43:21
Now that he's gone, we might find ourselves missing him, though we will not miss his performativity, his drama, his bullshit focus on games and gimmicks, his brain-melting inability to bully his ever-growing civil service into to delivering literally anything on time, his serial ineptitude to talk to Canadians in a language they can understand, his weak-ass little bitch fight-back strategy against an emboldened fashy far-right.
Shannon
43:46
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to whatever political party next promises affordable childcare. He'd like that, though that probably means he'll be writing a check to the phantom NDP.
Zain
43:57
Whoa. Oh, my goodness. That's so good, Shannon. A eulogy turning
Zain
43:59
turning into a speech on class warfare. That's
Zain
44:04
Which is how most eulogies I've attended end up. Shannon Phillips nailing it with the Justin Trudeau eulogy. Annalise, for every man, there
Zain
44:14
there is a woman.
Zain
44:15
And that woman has
Zain
44:17
has had an extended... Yes, that is actually fact. That is a fact that cannot be criticized. For every man, there is a woman.
Shannon
44:24
And a little bit more. Because we outnumber them. Because we're not as dumb and we live longer. Semantics.
Zain
44:30
Semantics. Okay. Okay, that woman is
Zain
44:33
is one Krista Freeland, whose official goodbye, coming
Zain
44:39
coming. But her political goodbye, oh, well, was had in 2025. Annalise, the Flair Airlines goodbye from the gate for one Krista Freeland.
Annalise
44:48
Who speaks five languages, has three children, was born here in Alberta in Peace River, educated at Harvard, a Rhodes Scholar, an acclaimed journalist and author, the first woman in history to serve as Canada's Minister of Finance.
Annalise
45:03
She's been a long-time member of parliament, first elected in 2013. She's negotiated major trade deals and served for five years as deputy prime minister and she just recently announced she will be stepping down in the coming weeks after she accepted a role advising the Ukrainian president.
Annalise
45:20
I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Her accomplishments speak for themselves. Let me end with some words from her own father who she turned to for advice in the summer of 2013 when Justin Trudeau was trying to convince Freeland to run for election as she told the Ivy School of Business quote at the end of the day my
Annalise
45:39
my father was a person who really shaped my decision he said to me Canada has given you a lot as a young person in Alberta you're being offered a chance to help your country maybe it will work maybe it won't but you owe it to Canadians who have been so great to you and supporting you so much to try it And she did try. She served Canadians as an MP for 13 years. May her political career rest in peace.
Zain
46:05
Class eulogy by Annalise. No mention of Disney Plus or Larry Summers on Epstein Island. That's a classy. That's a classy. You know, Carter,
Zain
46:17
it to Annalise, not you. Yeah, I know. You
Carter
46:20
have been all about
Carter
46:21
that backstabbing $13.99 a
Zain
46:23
a month for Disney Plus. us carter
Zain
46:25
carter you can have at it but just you know see segment one for how it might go down related to people of color uh this flare airlines goodbye from the gate for one and i know you want to do this desperately carter jagmeet singh you are saying goodbye to
Zain
46:40
to canada's turban prince from politics what
Zain
46:44
what do you have to say you
Carter
46:45
you know zane some eulogies are centered on a simple phrase is gone but not forgotten.
Carter
46:51
For Jagmeet Singh, he is both gone and forgotten.
Carter
46:54
In fact, based on his performance in the 2025 election, his days of being forgotten started in the early 2020s.
Carter
47:00
Sure, some of that may be due to Justin Trudeau moving so far to the political left in Canada that there was no place for
Carter
47:07
for Jagmeet Singh's NDP. But
Carter
47:09
But when Mark Carney took over and moved the federal liberals to the space traditionally occupied by
Carter
47:13
by the Federal Progressive Conservative Party,
Carter
47:15
Jagmeet Singh was unable to step up and regain the political left.
Carter
47:23
Political left was totally forgotten.
Carter
47:26
We hardly knew you.
Zain
47:29
Stephen Carter wrapping us up of our eulogies. Congratulations, folks. Beautiful, beautiful eulogies. Good work this year. Good
Zain
47:37
Good work this year.
Carter
47:38
You know why? Because we knew what we were doing this year. Yes, it's helpful. We like
Zain
47:42
like that. Corey chose the improv route, and you can see how well it worked for him. Okay,
Zain
47:48
Well done. The amount of preparation across the board. It's very not us.
Carter
47:55
Very not us. This whole episode is very not us. I like this. That's good. I think it's new for us. Now I'm going to have to start paying everybody because they're working so hard.
Carter
48:05
that's why you're admitting that
Zain
48:06
that you weren't paying people. No,
Carter
48:08
to the bank account. I now have access to the bank account. It's a big step forward.
Shannon
48:13
forward. It only took nine months. Holiday spectacular and business planning episode. Yeah,
Zain
48:17
Yeah, also class warfare strategizing session. This is good. You know, we're almost near our end, but sometimes there are surprises, especially, Carter, surprises on flight when there's a birth, when there's a child, when there is a birth to be had on an airplane. Have you ever been witness to a birth on an airplane, Stephen Carter?
Carter
48:35
No, I haven't. I've been witness to births, but not to one on an airplane. This is the Flair
Zain
48:39
Flair Airlines rebirth of the year, the in-flight rebirth of the year, I'm going to give you four things to choose from that are back in Canadian politics. They're gone for a while, but they have been rebirthed, and you're going to tell me which one is the rebirth of the year. Your choices are pipelines,
Zain
49:08
and conservative caucus freedom.
Zain
49:11
These are your choices. Conservative caucus freedom, liberal racism, Western alienation slash separation, pipelines and floor crossers.
Zain
49:19
These have all been rebirthed this past year. Stephen Carter, what is your Flair Airlines in-flight rebirth of the year?
Carter
49:27
I think that it's got to be liberal racism. I mean, liberal racism has really taken a step forward here, as Jamil Javani, whose name I just casually threw out. The only guy you know. Yeah, I mean, I threw that out. it. And there's a song. There's a song that kind of really typifies what liberal racism is all about. It's from Avenue Q, and it goes a little bit like this.
Carter
49:50
Everyone's a little bit racist sometimes. Doesn't mean we go around committing hate crimes. Look around and you will find no one's really colorblind. Maybe it's a fact we should all, all should face. Everyone makes Next judgment's based on race.
Carter
50:17
was something, Stephen Carter. A little Avenue Q coming at you. A little Broadway. A little just off-Broadway.
Zain
50:25
any reaction? And then please tell me your rebirth of the year.
Shannon
50:28
I think that was fantastic. I do not like musicals or the concept of breaking into the song into in the middle of uh a story but once a year i'll take it from carter once i'm
Carter
50:41
i'm going to do it
Shannon
50:41
it every episode from
Carter
50:42
from now on no
Shannon
50:44
yeah i think it's going
Carter
50:45
going to be so popular that every episode i'm going to be doing it dear
Shannon
50:48
dear listeners that 30 skip button is there for a reason all right uh so floor crossers has got has got to be the rebirth of the year an old parliamentary tradition tradition that somehow we forgot about because of the aforementioned really, really strategically boneheaded move by Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to make common cause with a desperately unpopular third term government. So we forgot about the concept of floor crossing. But as soon as that stupid agreement was gone, what happened? We got back to the business of being a parliament. and it has already undermined Mr. Pugliavera's brittle leadership. This is fantastic. I want to see more of it. So much so that I hope somebody recreates Winston Churchill's famous quote, which is, you know, what was it? Anyone can rat, but it takes a special genius to rat twice because he, in fact, crossed the floor two times there and back. and so this is a long-standing tradition we we elect individuals not parties not leaders more of this please and I'm so glad to see it back very
Zain
52:03
very nice Shannon Phillips Annalise bring us home which one of these would you choose as our rebirth of the year I'm
Annalise
52:08
I'm still focused on the visual of giving birth on an airplane Zane I don't know why I did I've written about it before When I was on the crime and breaking news desk, it did happen, and it was international news. Rebirth, I'm going to also go with floor crossers, was what I was going to go with. Keeps things interesting and spicy and keeps politics fun. So let's have more of it in 2026.
Zain
52:35
Stephen Carter, no one chose separatism or pipelines. Does that surprise you?
Carter
52:40
I actually would have chosen pipelines as my second choice. uh just proving how wrong annalise and shannon sing
Annalise
52:46
sing about it carter sing about it everybody
Carter
52:49
everybody needs a pipeline everybody needs some gas everybody's pipeline goes across bc for fun i don't know i was just i i don't know it's
Annalise
53:00
it's off the top of your head
Carter
53:00
head you know because song is just in me it's
Carter
53:05
it's just in me and shannon every episode from now on i'm breaking out into song let's
Zain
53:11
let's move Moving on to our final dissent, our lightning round on this Flair Airlines Holiday Spectacular. Better late than never. Holiday Spectacular.
Zain
53:19
Four questions I'm going to ask you guys. I feel like I should jump in
Carter
53:21
in and say that Flair Airlines isn't really our sponsor.
Zain
53:24
No, you shouldn't do that. That's what Corey's there for. That's
Carter
53:26
That's what Corey's there for.
Zain
53:27
for. And he's not here. He died. I don't know if you guys sent him off
Carter
53:29
off very nicely. Yeah, I sensed
Zain
53:32
Okay. I got biggest surprise of 2025 across the board, lightning round. Annalise, do you want to give us your biggest surprise of 2025? I will. cory
Annalise
53:40
cory hogan is an mp if you but like honestly a year ago a year ago on january 8th 2025 if we were doing an episode and we had said cory hogan is going to be an mp asterix who will announce that he's running on april fool's day
Annalise
53:57
no way everyone would have thought you were ridiculous and it was a joke and look at him now he's an mp he's
Annalise
54:03
parliamentary secretary he's not parliamentary
Annalise
54:06
he's not on the podcast He's gotten some cakes.
Annalise
54:09
I think that was a big surprise that was not predicted or expected a year ago.
Zain
54:16
I like it. Locked and loaded, Annalise was. Shannon, your biggest surprise of 2025 in Canadian politics?
Shannon
54:23
I'm sorry to the listeners to take this in a nerdy and substantive direction. But the fact that NAFTA, COSMA is still there at all, if only sort of symbolically, is a massive surprise. Because as soon as Trump
Shannon
54:38
Trump was elected and in the run up to Inauguration Day, he was beating the drum that, you know, about Canada and about ripping out this very unfair trade deal that he himself negotiated. And so I think the fact that we are still living under the, if not the actual reality, but at least the fumes of QASMA is a huge surprise. I would have thought that he would have somehow found a way to rip it up already.
Zain
55:07
Carter, biggest surprise of 2025? The
Carter
55:09
The United States still exists.
Carter
55:12
You know, I mean, the fact that we haven't had civil war, I mean, we're getting so close. I mean, there's so many different pieces. So I'm going to go with the United
Carter
55:23
United States simply existing.
Zain
55:26
My next question here is the biggest disappointment of 2025. Not the biggest loser, to be clear, but the biggest disappointment. I want to make sure that I'm clear. Now, that could be the same as your answer for biggest loser, which is coming up as his biggest winner.
Zain
55:41
Shannon, you want to take a crack at your biggest disappointment of thy calendar year of 2025?
Shannon
55:48
The Ontario federal NDP longtime seats that lost their seat. I would have thought that they would have been able to, because they were well-established, well-liked incumbents, we're talking Hamilton, Windsor, London, and they all not just lost, but lost to Conservatives. And, you know, that historic collapse of the federal NDP vote in southern
Shannon
56:15
southern Ontario, where there's a lot of steel workers and uniform unionized jobs, is catastrophic for the industrial labor base of the party. And I think it's historic.
Zain
56:30
Annalise, your biggest disappointment of 2025? 25 biggest
Annalise
56:34
disappointment i might just go closer to home like how boring the municipal elections were in calgary and edmonton like voter turnout was one thing but they were just boring they
Annalise
56:44
they were boring and boring and boring and
Annalise
56:48
and that's disappointing and carter played a big role in that yeah
Carter
56:51
thank you yeah thank you very much
Zain
56:53
biggest disappointment of 2025 daniel
Carter
56:58
in general she just disappoints me she disappoints me every time she opens her mouth
Zain
57:02
Stephen Carter, your biggest loser of 2025.
Carter
57:05
My biggest loser of 2025.
Zain
57:10
Jeez, that's a tough one. Is this unanimous? Is this the one where we go unanimous across the board? I thought we would.
Zain
57:16
Really? Yeah. Jugmeet Singh?
Zain
57:19
Sure. That's what your choice is. Pierre
Zain
57:21
I think that would be my choice. Annalise?
Carter
57:23
I mean, Pierre Polyev certainly lost
Carter
57:27
lost more by winning so many votes quotes and by being so close he to me is the uh yeah
Annalise
57:37
biggest loser yeah polyeth 2025
Annalise
57:39
polyeth calgary party and better edmonton lost pretty spectacularly thank you i think it's good to have that on the record too yeah
Annalise
57:46
so if you need something other than polyeth we could say those two thank
Zain
57:51
you shannon phillips your biggest loser of 2025 well
Shannon
57:55
well pierre polyever but but it was too much fun to watch for me, so I'm going to leave him aside and go with a sad thing that I believe is losing, which is public health care.
Shannon
58:04
We now have a situation where anything goes in terms of private delivery, private
Shannon
58:11
private insurance, the whole ball of wax, private hospitals, all of it, and a federal government who is not going to lift a finger.
Zain
58:21
Very nice. biggest winner of 2025 i feel like there's an obvious answer here you are few you could feel free to choose it or
Zain
58:31
or you could feel free to sidestep it annalise can i start with you your biggest political winner of 2025 mark
Annalise
58:36
mark carney again like at the the episode that you guys did a year ago which shannon and i both listened so we were familiar with the concept of a holiday spectacular spectacular uh
Zain
58:48
uh you should be familiar with your constant and religious listening of the show
Zain
58:53
since you weren't yeah
Annalise
58:54
yeah but like it's just nuts how much things have changed in a year and how much polly have lost and carney got into the picture and just how rapidly like you guys recorded before trudeau had even stepped down i think it was like a few days later and then it was just like boom boom boom boom boom and here we are so i'm gonna go with mark carney the obvious choice.
Zain
59:15
Stephen Carter, your biggest winner of 2025? Everything
Carter
59:18
Everything that Annalise just said.
Carter
59:20
There is no other person in my mind in Canadian politics who won as big as
Shannon
59:29
Well, again, I don't disagree, but I want to put another winner on the table, and that's the Canadian oil and gas sector, and the CEO class in general. They now have a seat at the table that they did not have before. They have a level of the business council, like the whole, the CEO class have an ear and a portal into government that they haven't had for many years. They got that back after the success of Mr. Carney. And now they have the bat phone into the prime minister's office. And that's a win for them.
Zain
1:00:04
Fantastic. We're going to leave it there. That is our show. We made it. Stephen Carter, we made it. Annalise, we made it. I'm pretty surprised we did it all
Carter
1:00:13
all under an hour. Now we just have to see if Haxem can produce this. Who cares? Who cares about that? Because
Carter
1:00:18
Because releasing it is actually a big part of it. Oh,
Zain
1:00:20
Oh, no, releasing it is not part. Distribution is what we, I don't care about at all. Just recording it. That's just all I care about. We're going to leave it there. That's a wrap on episode 1901. The Flair Airlines Better Late Than Never Holiday Spectacular. My name is Zane Velge. With me as always, Shannon Phillips, Annalise Klingbill, and Stephen Carter. We shall see you next time.
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Corey
1:01:26
I'd like to read from the book of Jeremiah, chapter
Corey
1:01:32
Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss.
Corey
1:01:37
weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because
Corey
1:01:40
because he will never return nor
Corey
1:01:42
nor see his native land again.
Corey
1:01:47
We are gathered here today to pay respects to a host of strategy
Corey
1:01:51
cut down in his prime by the desire to spend most of his time on a plane or in a strange city far
Corey
1:01:57
far from the world he knows.
Corey
1:01:59
But do not mourn, for
Corey
1:02:01
for there is no sadness in no longer having to try to get Zane to be available to
Corey
1:02:06
to record a podcast.
Corey
1:02:08
Do not mourn, for
Corey
1:02:10
for there is no sadness in applying your craft, rather
Corey
1:02:12
rather than simply talking about your craft.
Corey
1:02:17
for this, too, will someday be marked by professional debt, and
Corey
1:02:26
for at that time, many stories will be able to be told of strategy and politics.
Corey
1:02:31
Whether those are tales of triumph or failure is of no matter. what
Corey
1:02:35
what matters is the effort and
Corey
1:02:37
and being able to leverage that into
Corey
1:02:39
into the view of
Corey
1:02:40
those not in the know that your experience means
Corey
1:02:43
you know what you are talking about
Corey
1:02:47
thus is the eternal joy of politics
Corey
1:02:50
we will miss you Stephen Carter have
Corey
1:02:54
running the Manitoba PC campaign
Corey
1:03:00
and they're okay with that?