The Decibel

Nearly 15 years ago, the NDP became Canada’s official opposition. Now, Jagmeet Singh and the NDP are trailing far behind the frontrunners of the upcoming federal election and are no longer campaigning to win — but instead to hold the winners accountable, raising questions about the party’s future.Gary Mason is a national affairs columnist at the Globe. He’s on the show to explain how Singh’s campaign is responding to waning support, what’s led the NDP to this point and what the party’s collapse could mean for Canada’s political landscape.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, many are remembering his time as pope as one that marked a shift towards more progressive ideals, including an apology for the role of the Catholic Church in the harm done to Indigenous peoples through the residential school system, both in Rome, and again in Canada, back in 2022. Some critics said this apology didn’t go far enough. Tanya Talaga is an Anishinaabe journalist, speaker and contributing columnist for the Globe and Mail. She’ll explain the Pope’s role in reconciling historic harms, what impact his apology actually had, and where reconciliation with the Church goes from here.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs have created an uncertain environment for Canadian businesses, and many are considering shifting investments south of the border. But, for some, tariffs are having the opposite effect – providing opportunity to grow in Canada.Pippa Norman is The Globe’s innovation reporter. She’ll explain how these businesses are expanding at home, and how risky the bet on Canada might be.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com 

On April 28, Canadians will vote in a new federal government. Voters have gotten to know the front-runners – Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal leader Mark Carney … but what about the people steering them?With a week left, we’re looking at the people running this election’s leading campaigns – and the strategies driving the Liberal and Conservative war rooms in this tight race.The Globe’s senior reporter Stephanie Levitz will introduce us to the strategists, advisors and campaign directors trying to win your vote – and the challenges both parties are facing in the process.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Presenting Machines Like Us, a Globe and Mail podcast on technology and people.We’re a few weeks into a federal election that is currently too close to call. And while most Canadians are wondering who our next Prime Minister will be, host Taylor Owen and his guests today are preoccupied with a different question: will this election be free and fair?In her recent report on foreign interference, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue wrote that “information manipulation poses the single biggest risk to our democracy”. Meanwhile, senior Canadian intelligence officials are predicting that India, China, Pakistan and Russia will all attempt to influence the outcome of this election. To try and get a sense of what we’re up against, Owen wanted to get two different perspectives on this. Aengus Bridgman is the Director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory, a project that they run together at McGill University, and Nina Jankocwicz is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project. Bridgman and Jankocwicz are two of the leading authorities on the problem of information manipulation.This episode was originally published on April 8, 2025.

Canadians are not particularly good at resting. According to Statistics Canada data collected between July 2022 and July 2023, people over the age of 15 spent an average of 17 minutes a day resting, relaxing, or lying down, and an average of 18 minutes a day on relaxing pursuits known as “active leisure” (think: birdwatching, camping, or going to an art gallery). That’s translating into stress – more than a fifth of employed Canadians said their stress levels were high or very high. On top of all that, Expedia’s 2024 Vacation Deprivation Report found that 45 per cent of Canadians left vacation days on the table in 2023.Zosia Bielski is the Globe and Mail’s time use reporter. Today, she’s on the show to challenge the idea that down time needs to be earned, and to talk about some of the different approaches people are taking to prioritize rest in their lives.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

With less than two weeks until the federal election, The Decibel is bringing you another edition of Campaign Call, The Globe’s weekly election panel.This week, ahead of the French and English leaders’ debates, feature writer Shannon Proudfoot and chief political writer Campbell Clark will explain why debates still matter and what each leader needs to accomplish during them.In the second half, we’re joined by Nik Nanos, the chief data scientist of Nanos Research, to get a behind-the-scenes look at the polls – in terms of how the data is gathered and how reliable polls are.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

The way medical records are handled in Canada is a patchwork of disconnected systems – creating massive headaches for patients and doctors. Patients struggle to access their own data, and practitioners have to waste time compensating for inefficiencies. But, governments, companies and healthcare professionals are searching for ways to make all these systems talk to each other.Chris Hannay is a staff reporter at the Globe who covers the business of healthcare. He’ll explain how Canada’s medical record system ended up like this and what Canada could gain from adopting an interconnected system.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

The federal election is in two weeks, on April 28 – so the Decibel has invited the leaders from Canada’s major parties onto the show to share their vision for the country.And while environmental concerns haven’t been top-of-mind in this election … Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault says he isn’t just concerned about climate change.Pedneault – who previously served as the party’s deputy leader from 2022 to 2024 – is proposing bold policies on a range of issues Canadians are facing, from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats to the high cost of living.The former journalist and human rights investigator, who has spent the better part of the last decade and a half working and living abroad, believes more progressive ideas are needed in this election. But the Greens are lagging in the polls, and Pedneault is running in a Liberal stronghold … So how will they be effective if they don’t make it to the House of Commons?Today, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault joins us from Montreal. Ahead of the leader debates this Thursday, we ask him about his party’s daring proposals, what the Greens are offering Canadians, and if he’s returning to Canadian politics for good.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

We’re halfway through the election period and it’s time for Campaign Call, The Decibel’s weekly election panel making sense of the major issues. This week, the embers of western separatism were stoked by an opinion piece by Preston Manning published in The Globe, arguing that national unity is on the ballot. We explore the threats of regionalism amidst the surge of pro-Canadian sentiment across the country. Plus, we’ll look into how the major parties are making their pitch to win over a crucial voting demographic – seniors.Feature writer Shannon Proudfoot, Alberta politics reporter Carrie Tait, columnist Konrad Yakabuski based in Montreal and Meera Raman, retirement and financial planning reporter, discuss the big stories with host Menaka Raman-Wilms.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on most of the world, plunging markets into some of the worst days in recent memory. The tariffs took effect yesterday, but after hours of market volatility, the White House reversed course. Trump announced a 90-day pause on his initial tariff plans, instead issuing a 10-per-cent tariff on all implicated trading partners other than China. Instead, Trump doubled down by raising tariffs on Chinese goods to 125 per cent. All of this uncertainty has led to chaos in global markets.Tim Kiladze, a financial reporter and columnist for The Globe, is on the show to make sense of what’s going on in the markets, and what all this means for global trade.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

For years, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been framing the federal race as a “carbon tax election.” But then Mark Carney became the Liberal Leader and Prime Minister and “axed the tax” for him, setting the consumer carbon price to zero.Now, Poilievre is targeting another federal carbon tax – the one on the industry’s largest emitters. It’s part of a broader shift in this election toward energy sovereignty. Against the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ongoing threats to Canada’s economy, there’s been a surge in public and political support for domestic oil and gas projects.Today, The Globe’s Adam Radwanski, a columnist who covers climate policy, is on the show. He’ll walk us through the ongoing political fight over carbon pricing, why we’re suddenly seeing more support for pipelines, and the cost of slowing Canada’s efforts against climate change.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

In the age of gentle parenting, a new trend has emerged: parents are changing the ways they talk to their young children about sharing. Rather than forcing their kids to share their toys, relenting to their playmates’ demands, some parents are encouraging their children to say “no” and stand up for themselves.Amberly McAteer is a contributing parenting columnist for the Globe. She joins the show to talk about what it looks like to teach your kids it’s okay not to share all the time, how she’s adopted this mentality with her own children, and why she believes it will lead them to become more empowered and self-assured as they grow up.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Last week, the U.S. Senate vote to pass Senator Tim Kaine’s resolution to end the state of emergency that allows U.S. President Donald Trump to issue tariffs on Canadian goods. President Trump’s stated reason for the tariffs is that the fentanyl flowing into the United States from Canada “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat.” The number he’s been citing is 43 pounds for the fiscal year 2024.Globe reporters Kathryn Blaze Baum, Colin Freeze and Andrea Woo looked into that number and found that the White House has been using misleading data to justify tariffs on Canada. Today, Kathryn is on the show to explain what their investigation found, how much fentanyl seized in the U.S. last year can actually be attributed to Canada, and what kind of impact the Senate resolution could have on the trade war.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

It’s the end of the week, which means it’s time for Campaign Call…our election panel where we make sense of the major issues. This week we’re going to talk about one of the central themes in the campaign: the uncertainty caused by U.S. President Donald Trump. We also get into why the Conservatives are fighting in public, and what each major party is promising to help workers affected by Trump’s tariffs.Feature writer Shannon Proudfoot, senior reporter Stephanie Levitz, and economics reporter Jason Kirby discuss with host Menaka Raman-Wilms.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Wednesday to put reciprocal tariffs on goods from most of its international trading partners. Trump called the tariffs a “declaration of economic independence” and accused other nations of stealing American jobs.However, Canada and Mexico, which have been in Trump’s crosshairs for months, are exempt from the new tariffs, as long as they comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal. But higher tariff rates will continue for aluminum and steel, and tariffs are coming on all foreign auto products.Mark Rendell, the Globe’s economics reporter, breaks down the confusing array of new tariffs, the ones that Canada’s still dealing with... and the impact of Trump’s trade war going global.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, immigration lawyers have reported seeing a rise in non-U.S. citizens being denied entry. At the beginning of March, Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian who had previously been able to obtain a U.S. work visa, was detained for nearly two weeks when she tried to renew her visa. European tourists have been detained at the border, and Canadians born in Iran and Afghanistan have been increasingly turned away at the border.The Globe’s Vanmala Subramaniam spoke to immigration lawyers about what Canadians living and working in the U.S. should do, given the situation at the border. Today, she’s on the show to talk about why we’re seeing this increase in Canadians being denied entry or detained at the U.S. border, and what people travelling to the U.S. can do to protect themselves.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

In the first week of the federal election campaign, several new foreign interference stories have bubbled up. The first involves allegations that CSIS believed agents working on behalf of India organized support for Pierre Poilievre’s 2022 Conservative leadership bid.Meanwhile, the Liberals are dealing with fallout from the allegations that former Member of Parliament Chandra Arya had ties with India and met with Prime Minister Narenda Modi. Liberal leader Mark Carney is also responding to calls to fire a GTA candidate after remarks calling for a Conservative candidate be turned in for a Chinese bounty.Robert Fife has been breaking all of these stories, and he’s is on the show to discuss.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

This March, Adrial and Adiah Nadaraja turned three years old. Born at 22 weeks, they were the youngest premature twins ever to survive to their first birthday. If they had been born just two hours earlier, health care workers would not have medically attempted their resuscitation.Today, Kelly Grant joins the show with an update about how Adrial and Adiah are doing, how far the family has come, and how the twins’ birth asked difficult medical and moral questions, but may ultimately help to push the conversation around preemie viability forward.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

During the election campaign, the Globe and Mail is travelling across the country to hear about the issues facing people in Canada today.In small communities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick this week, producer Kasia Mychajlowycz spoke to students, business owners, retirees and more. She found that as some struggle to make ends meet with the rising cost of living in rural Atlantic Canada, many are patriotic in the face of the trade war with the Trump administration.If you’d like the Globe and Mail to visit your community, please e-mail and tell us why at thedecibel@globeandmail.com