Friday Focus: Munk Debate on Foreign Wars, a shaky ceasefire with Iran, and Carney braces for tough trade talks ahead

Become a Munk Donor ($50 annually) to get 72-hour advanced access to full length editions of the Friday Focus podcast with Janice Stein. Your donor membership comes with other great perks including a livestream pass to our mainstage debates and advanced access to full length episodes of our other weekly podcast with Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne.

Rudyard and Janice open the show with news of the Spring 2026 Munk mainstage debate: Be it resolved, don’t go hunting monsters. A timely debate on competing interventionist and restraint-based approaches to foreign policy now contending for dominance in the halls of power. Rudyard and Janice move on to the Iran war and the shaky ceasefire that Trump has extended despite Iran’s attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. With the Strait now closed, this has become an economic war and an endurance test: which country can withstand the pain longer? This is the single largest energy shock the modern world has ever seen that will bring about significant inflation. How will inflation further radicalize populist movements and destabilize governments around the globe? In the back half of the show Rudyard and Janice turn to upcoming trade talks between Canada and the U.S. Carney is warning Canadians that there is a bumpy road ahead and concessions will need to be made that will likely yield a scaled down agreement with a narrower scope. Rudyard suggests that despite Trump’s animosity towards our country, Canadians would be wise to accept that our economic interest lies in a better trade relationship with the U.S. over diversification overseas. Carney should consider delaying any concessions until the midterms and restart negotiations in November with a politically weakened president.