Munk Dialogue with Andrew Coyne: the American experiment at 250 and Canada’s pipeline gamble

Programming Note: Friday Focus is taking a summer break. We will be back with new episodes starting September 11 (and, of course, if any significant geopolitical news breaks over the summer!). 

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

What would America’s Founding Fathers make of the state of U.S. politics as the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence? The constitutional rules they established to guide the republic and safeguard it against monarchical or dictatorial rule are being tested by President Trump, whose conduct has exposed potential weaknesses in the system. Andrew argues that America’s checks and balances ultimately depend on everyone—from all three branches of government, and especially the commander-in-chief—respecting both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. Twenty-five years from now, will America still be the democratic republic we know today?

In the second half of the show, Rudyard and Andrew examine the Canadian government’s announcement that it will build a new, government-funded 1,000-kilometre oil pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia. The decision to press ahead despite the environmental concerns that have long plagued similar projects underscores just how politically important this pipeline has become—for both Western Canada and Ottawa. Should Canadians be concerned that it will be built by a federal Crown corporation? And how can the government hope to keep costs under control when the proposed route appears so technically complex?