About the Episode

David McLaughlin, political insider with experience in multiple Canadian governments; he is the CEO of the Institute on Governance. He discusses the Israeli-Hamas conflict, noting the lack of clear solutions and the importance of understanding the region’s history, and the irony of Israel being surprised by attacks on Jewish holidays, and the ongoing challenges in intelligence gathering, and the lack of transparency and accountability in Israel’s intelligence community has led to concerns about the reliability of intelligence gathering and the potential for political interference. David believes there is a deep connection between Iran and Hamas, with Hamas being funded by Iran and taking instructions from them.

McLaughlin is wary of drawing conclusions about Iran’s involvement in the recent massacre in Israel, as there is limited information and the risk of driving conflict with Iran.

In the second half of the show, they discuss the election results and campaign strategies of the recent Manitoba election. David headed up Brian Pallister’s election campaigns in 2016 and 2019. Charles Adler questions the accuracy of Marni Larkin’s claim that the Manitoba PCs were threatened with losing 45 seats in the legislature, which David dismissed Larkin’s claim as “windmill size spin,” as the PCs actually retained 15 seats instead of losing 45.

Also covered: What this means for Conservative election strategies going forward and what challenges the Manitoba PC’s face due to branding and how they have positioned themselves, potentially impacting their next leader and future political efforts.