The Paul Wells Show

Michael Wernick, the longtime senior civil servant who served as Clerk of the Privy Council under Justin Trudeau, shares his thoughts on Canada in the era of Donald Trump. "It's very different dealing with an administration that absolutely disrespects your sovereignty," he tells Paul Wells. "The people that are sort of advocating fortress North America, 'Let's hug them even more closely,' I think are deluded."
Read more from Paul Wells at paulwells.substack.com

Canada's retired Chief of the Defence Staff has a new memoir out, describing a military career that lasted 40 years, from Army Cadets to wars in Afghanistan and Ukraine. He's got choice words for the office of his former boss, Justin Trudeau. He vividly describes a life in war zones and trouble spots. And he laments the long decline of Canada's military. 

Go to paulwells.substack.com for more of Paul Wells's journalism.

Here's how the Paul Wells Road Show: Calgary went. On Sept. 28, Paul Wells was at the sold-out Martha Cohen Theatre in Calgary to celebrate Alberta's unique place in Canada and ponder its uncertain future. Guests include Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas, economist Trevor Tombe, city builder Kate Thompson and musical guests Jesse Morrison and The Dust Collectors. 
Follow all of Paul Wells's writing at paulwells.substack.com

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and author Anne Applebaum joins Paul Wells to discuss her Atlantic magazine cover story, "Empire of Grift." She argues that Donald Trump's foreign policy now has two engines: ideologues who see the Western Hemisphere as America's to run, and grifters using U.S. power to enrich themselves and Trump's circle.
She describes her recent trip to Venezuela, discusses the standoff over Greenland, and discusses MAGA's strange fascination with breaking up Canada.

For more from Paul Wells, subscribe to paulwells.substack.com

Paul Wells interviews Jill Lepore, Harvard historian, New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize winner about The Rise and the Fall of the Artificial State, her latest bestseller.
"Few grand transformations have been more precipitate or more heedless,” Lepore writes, "than the rise of what could soon be “government without consent, even government without humans.”
But she's not here peddling despair. She believes a democracy of and for real people can make a comeback, if people only have faith in institutions and in themselves.
The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by Cameco and The Transition Accelerator. For more of Paul's writing, go to paulwells.substack.com