Longform North

Sir John A.I. Macdonald

This episode is a little different. It's an interview with an A.I. of Sir John A. Macdonald. So what does that mean? Well, it means that I gathered up the transcripts for all the House of Commons Debates for every year that Macdonald was Prime Minister, and threw in a few other historical resources as well. I processed those and made them available to a large language model, similar to the one that powers ChatGPT. Then I instructed that large language model to answer all of my questions as though it were Sir John A. Macdonald, using those historical resources I provided for reference. The result is this interview you're about to hear.  If you want to ask John A. Macdonald some questions of your own, you can do so here: sirjohnai.longformnorth.com [https://sirjohnai.longformnorth.com/] All the historical resources I used are listed there as well. (Note: The idea for this episode was partly inspired by Tyler Cowen who used ChatGPT to record an interview with Jonathan Swift. You can check out that interview here [https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/jonathan-gpt-swift/].) For more about the podcast, check out the website: longformnorth.com [https://longformnorth.com/] Music by Aaron Barth Hosted and produced by Ian Van Harten

Getting Clean Drinking Water to First Nations Communities in Canada - w/ Ken Coates

Here in Canada, you can get clean drinking water simply by turning on a tap. Unless you live in one of the many First Nations communities that are subject to long-term drinking water advisories. In which case, you have to boil the water first before you can use it. Or you have to use bottled water for everything, including brushing your teeth or cooking with. How is it that in a first-world country like Canada, we still have communities of people who don't have access to clean drinking water? Joining me to help better understand what's going on here, is Ken Coates. He is a man with many titles, but one of them is that he is a distinguished fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute where he co-authored a paper called The Water Conundrum and Indigenous Communities in Canada. Links: * The Water Conundrum and Indigenous Communities in Canada [https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/the-water-conundrum/] * Ken Coates [https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/cm-expert/ken-coates/] For more about the podcast, check out the website: longformnorth.com [https://longformnorth.com/] Music by Aaron Barth Hosted and produced by Ian Van Harten

Who Killed Canadian History? 25 Years Later - w/ J.D.M. Stewart

A little over 25 years ago, a book by the historian Jack Granatstein came out, called Who Killed Canadian History? It sparked some controversy back then about how ignorant most Canadians are about Canadian history, and how riddled it is with politics and bureaucracy. And, Granatstein said, if you don't have any memory of your history, then you don't really know who you are, other than maybe 'not being American.' But that was 25 years ago. What about today? Joining me for a discussion about Who Killed Canadian History? is J.D.M. Stewart. He was a high school history teacher for 30 years. Now he's a writer, historian and author, most recently of a book called Being Prime Minister, and he has another one coming out later this year. Links: * J.D.M. Stewart at the Hub [https://thehub.ca/author/jdmstewart/] * Christopher Dummitt at the Hub: We Are Telling the Wrong Story About Canada [https://thehub.ca/2023/12/07/christopher-dummit-we-are-telling-the-wrong-story-about-canada-and-the-consequences-are-enormous/] * Who Killed Canadian History? by Jack Granatstein [https://archive.org/details/whokilledcanadia0000gran/mode/2up] For more about the podcast, check out the website: longformnorth.com [https://longformnorth.com/] Music by Aaron Barth Hosted and produced by Ian Van Harten

Canadian Politics 101: Federalism and Unity

Welcome to Longform North -- a longform interview podcast featuring Canadian voices and stories about Canada. Canada is a federal country, which means power is divided between two levels of government - the federal government and the provinces. And even though it's all one country, the provinces are very different from each other. They have different economies, different cultures, different politics, different languages, and different interests. And sure, diversity is our strength and all that, but trying to balance all those interests isn't always easy. At least one province has tried to separate a couple times, while similar threats from other provinces have bubbled up, too. So how do all these governments work together? And what, if anything, keeps the country from falling apart? Joining me again to help out with these questions is Dr. Tom Bateman. He is a professor of political science at St Thomas University, and he is one of the co-authors of a book called The Canadian Regime: An Introduction to Canada's Parliamentary Democracy. Some of the topics we discuss include: * Why did Canada choose to have a federal system back in 1867? * How John A. MacDonald was originally against federalism and aimed to create a strong central government. * How are the different powers divided up between the federal government and the provinces? * How the impact of health and education gave the provinces much more influence and power than what was originally planned. * How the lines get blurred as to who has jurisdiction over what. For example the environment, where natural resources is provincial, but climate change and environmental sustainability is federal. * Equalization payments and how they work. * The separatist movements in both Alberta and Quebec, and what is behind them? * Could Canada fall apart? What is it that's keeping it together? Links: * The Canadian Regime: An Introduction to Canada's Parliamentary Democracy [https://utppublishing.com/doi/book/10.3138/9781487525378] * Dr. Tom MJ Bateman [https://www.stu.ca/politicalscience/thomas-mj-bateman/] *Note: This episode was recorded on March 15th, 2025. For more about the podcast, check out the website: longformnorth.com [https://longformnorth.com/] Music by Aaron Barth Hosted and produced by Ian Van Harten

Canadian Politics 101: Elections

Welcome to Longform North -- a longform interview podcast featuring Canadian voices and stories about Canada. In Canada, we pick our leaders through elections, where the person who gets the most votes wins. But it's actually a little bit more complicated than that. And some people think that the way we do elections should actually be changed. So what are the rules for how someone wins an election? What does it mean to represent, or act on behalf of, the people that voted you in? And what do you do when the voter participation rate gets as low as 45%? Less than half of the total amount of people who are eligible to vote. Dr. Tom Bateman is back to help us out with these questions and more. He is a professor of political science at St Thomas University, and he is one of the co-authors of a book called The Canadian Regime: An Introduction to Canada's Parliamentary Democracy. Some of the topics we discuss include: * How we think about the role of a political representative in Canada * Representation and diversity - the idea that the government should be representative of certain identity groups, as well as some of the problems that can arise from that * How the country gets divided up into different voting districts * How and when elections are called (and why fixed election dates don’t work in our system) * Campaign spending limits and limits on 3rd party advertising during elections * Should we lower the voting age? * The reasons why the voter turnout rate among younger people is low * What does the low voter turnout rate indicate more broadly about the voting public? * Should we bring in online voting? * How do we pick the “right” electoral system? * How the First-Past-the-Post system works, and how it impacts the way our elections work? * How would a Proportional Representation system work? What are its advantages and disadvantages compared with our current system? * What happened with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to bring in electoral reform back in 2015? * Is there any hope of changing our electoral system, or are we stuck with what we have? Links: * The Canadian Regime: An Introduction to Canada's Parliamentary Democracy [https://utppublishing.com/doi/book/10.3138/9781487525378] * Dr. Tom MJ Bateman [https://www.stu.ca/politicalscience/thomas-mj-bateman/] *Note: This episode was recorded on January 25th, 2025, a day after Premier Doug Ford called a snap election in Ontario, and a few weeks before Mark Carney won the leadership race for the Liberal Party of Canada. For more about the podcast, check out the website: longformnorth.com [https://longformnorth.com/] Music by Aaron Barth Hosted and produced by Ian Van Harten