Munk Dialogue with Andrew Coyne: the Iran-U.S. ceasefire unravels and Alberta pulls ahead while Ontario and Quebec fall behind

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 should we make of this week’s NATO summit in Ankara? If it doesn’t end with the U.S. withdrawing from NATO, should it be considered a success?

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iran resumed strikes just weeks after signing a memorandum of understanding. Andrew argues that Trump was warned about the risks of cutting a deal with Iran. The ceasefire is unraveling because there was never a real agreement—it merely bought a few weeks of respite. Iran now holds the upper hand, and there is no easy way out of this dilemma.

In the second half of the show, Rudyard and Andrew turn to Canadian politics, specifically Alberta’s announcement of a new pipeline and Meta’s investment in a major data centre in the province. Why is Alberta capitalizing on this moment while Central Canada is falling behind? As Ontario and Quebec face a manufacturing exodus to the United States, what extraordinary measures are needed to make Canada a more attractive destination for investment? And does Ottawa have a serious plan to address the challenges facing the country’s manufacturing sector?