Who is Danielle Smith, really? And how did she make one of the most remarkable political comebacks in Alberta history?

Max Fawcett sits down with Alberta journalist Jeremy Appel, author of the new book Dark Phoenix: The Rise, Fall, and Re-emergence of Danielle Smith, to unpack the political career of Alberta's premier.

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Prefer watching? Full video episodes are available on Canada's National Observer YouTube channel.

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Corey Hogan is a Liberal MP for Calgary Confederation and a former senior Alberta government official who has worked under both the NDP and UCP. He and Max discuss Alberta’s upcoming referendum -- including Danielle Smith’s approach to separatism and why conservative politicians have been “playing with the separatist live wires.” The two also dig into Western alienation and Hogan’s argument that Western Canada has too often been treated as an afterthought.

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Prefer watching? Full video episodes are available on Canada's National Observer YouTube channel.

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Max Fawcett sits down with Phil De Luna, co-founder and CTO of Alberta-based climate technology startup CURA, to discuss why he believes Canada's push to attract investment could also accelerate the country's clean energy transition.

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Prefer watching? Full video episodes are available on Canada's National Observer YouTube channel.

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Max and economist Trevor Tombe dig into the financial realities of Alberta separation. They dig into what an independent Alberta could mean for the province’s debt, taxes, pensions, public services, and borrowing costs—and why the fiscal benefits separatists promise may not be as straightforward as they seem.

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Prefer watching? Full video episodes are available on Canada's National Observer YouTube channel.

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Max talks to Anthony Koch, managing principal of AK Strategies and a longtime Conservative strategist, about what’s happening inside Canadian conservatism. They cover why Conservatives are struggling to adjust to PM Mark Carney while digging into Donald Trump and MAGA’s influence on Canadian conservative politics.

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Prefer watching? Full video episodes are available on Canada's National Observer YouTube channel.

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Max sits down with the University of Calgary's Sara Hastings-Simon to take stock of the global energy transition and what it means for Canada. They talk about the rapid growth of renewables and the future of oil demand, whether the oil sands’ Pathways carbon capture project still makes economic sense and how Prime Minister Mark Carney is handling the climate file. And of course, they dig into Alberta’s data centre boom.

Do you agree with Max and Sara? Where do you think they’re wrong? Let us know.

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Prefer watching? Full video episodes are available on Canada's National Observer YouTube channel.

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On this latest episode of Powerlines, Max speaks with former national security investigator Patrick Lennox about foreign interference, disinformation and why he believes Canadians are "sleepwalking" into a dangerous moment.

Prefer watching? Full video episodes are available on Canada's National Observer YouTube channel.

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Max and Heather Exner-Pirot of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute talk Canada's energy strategy. They get into whether global demand for fossil fuels will continue to grow, if renewables are advancing faster than the industry expects and whether new pipelines still make economic sense. Buckle in.

Prefer watching? Full video episodes are available on Canada's National Observer YouTube channel.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.