Front Burner

On Thursday, Canadian trade representatives were in Washington for more talks amid a tentative trade deal with the U.S.

Coming out of the meeting, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said that they were "very close" to reaching an agreement.

Today, CBC senior parliamentary writer Aaron Wherry and Abacus Data CEO David Coletto are here to parse through what we know so far about the impending trade deal and talk about the political test Prime Minister Mark Carney will face in defending it.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In 2020, the politics of racial justice appeared to be everywhere: the killing of George Floyd sparked one of the largest protest movements in American history, and progressive ideas about policing, prisons, racism and inequality moved into the political mainstream.

But many of the central demands of the millions who took to the streets were ultimately not met.

Six years later, some of the politicians and activists who came of age during that period now appear to be distancing themselves from it. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently described the politics of that era as “Woke 1,” saying: “Woke 1 was crazy.”

So, what happened?

Scholar, professor and author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor joins Front Burner to talk about the legacy of that protest movement, and what happened to the wave of progressive ideas that followed it.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Late Tuesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would pause the implementation of the 50 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian goods for three days, saying the two countries had reached a tentative agreement. Shortly after, Prime Minister Mark Carney put out a statement that read, in part: "Substantial progress has been made, although there is important work still to be done."

Host Jayme Poisson spoke to senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong earlier in the night, before the announcement, about the complexity of the negotiations, the challenges in getting a deal, and the uncertainty inherent to any deal with this U.S. administration.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This past weekend, Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry. It was the deadliest attack since a fragile ceasefire was reached in June, meant to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – though attacks continued.

On top of airstrikes and drone attacks, residents and emergency workers in the region are accusing Israeli forces of intentionally starting wildfires which have been ripping through homes, forests and olive groves throughout the embattled area.

All of it has people there worried about whether they’ll be able to stay and whether the hundreds of thousands displaced by the war will ever be able to return.

Will Christou works for The Guardian based in Beirut. He’s been reporting on the fires, and the broader Israeli campaign in southern Lebanon.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

During Pete Hoekstra's tenure as U.S. ambassador to Canada, he has called Canada’s federal election campaign “un-American”, amplified one of Donald Trump’s “51st state” posts, and reportedly unleashed an expletive-laden tirade on an Ontario trade official. Now, a petition calling on him to be expelled from the country has gathered nearly 200,000 signatures.

Today, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, the Canada bureau chief for the New York Times, tells us who Pete Hoekstra is, why some Canadians are so upset with them, and what the push to kick him out says about the Canada-U.S. relationship.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts