Gloves Off

From our Canadian podcast friends at Canadaland: 

As Canada inches closer to China’s “global swagger” to escape the US’s orbit, do we even know who we’re dealing with? Host Noor Azrieh sits down with Jonathan Cheng, The Wall Street Journal‘s China Bureau Chief, a Canadian who’s been based in Beijing since 2019, to get an inside look at China’s current confidence, its trade posture, and what Beijing actually thinks of Canada.

For more go to Canadaland

Episode originally aired May 26, 2026

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...

In this extended interview, economist Dan Ciuriak speaks with Stephen Marche about what a trade war with the United States would actually mean for Canada—and why the bigger opportunity may be building new markets, strengthening our economy, and taking control of our digital future.

Visit our website—gloves-off.ca—for more research behind the issues including four charts illustrating how Canada’s trade exports are diversifying beyond the United States 

Follow us on YouTube 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season 2 wraps with a look at what the future could hold for a middle power alliance and what Canada’s role might be in it.

The people applauding Carney’s Davos speech were the same people who built and ran the system that led to Brexit, Trump, and more. How can middle powers win without returning to globalization and the same old system? How can they not just gain power but exert that power, and to what ends? These questions and more are considered by guests Alastair Campbell, a longtime British politico who served in the Tony...

Host Stephen Marche traces the rise of a global right-wing influence project — funded by tech billionaires like Elon Musk and philosophically rooted in anti-democratic thinkers — that is actively working to end liberal democracy worldwide…and Canada is not immune. 

Paris Marx (author of Hyperscale, and host of the Tech Won't Save Us podcast) and Gil Duran (author of Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy) join to ponder if tech is incompatible with democracy, and to envision a path forward for the enduring sustainability of democratic institutions.  

Featuring (in order of appear...

Like most of the world, Canada overrelies on and is beholden to American digital entities like Google and Amazon. But now movements are underfoot, in Europe especially, to decouple from the American tech giants. Host Stephen Marche explores how those efforts could inform the growth of a native Canadian tech sovereignty with Cristina Caffara, a driving force behind Eurostack; Margarethe Vestager, former European Commissioner for Competition; and author Tim Wu (The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity). 

Featuring (in order of appearance): Judge Kimberly Prost, Tim Wu, Margrethe V...

As recent events in Ukraine, Russia, and Iran have demonstrated, the nature of modern warfare is changing fast (think: drones). Canada will get left behind if it doesn’t start innovating quickly. Host Stephen Marche explores the advent of drone warfare with Tim Mak, Kyiv-based publisher of The Counteroffensive; and Cameron Chell, a Canadian defence tech entrepreneur at Draganfly, shares how the Canadian drone industry can drive technological innovation, not just in the defence sphere but also in a multitude of other uses that will bolster the country’s economy. 

Featuring (in order of appearance): Brittney Shki-G...

In part two of how to build a thriving economy, Stephen Marche weighs the tension between maintaining economic efficiency—making convenient trade deals for short term gain—and building economic resilience—an economy less reliant on external partners. He first speaks with Brazilian economist Monica de Bolle about the drawbacks of her country’s trade relationships with China and America. Then economists John Rapley and Dan Ciuriak outline their visions for building Canada’s economic resilience, overcoming complacency, stimulating innovation, and restructuring investment.

Featuring (in order of appearance): Robert Mackalski, Monica de Bolle, John Rapley and Dan Ciuria...

First episode of a two-part look at Canada’s economy and the opportunity to thrive in a new world order. With CUSMA being renegotiated at the moment, Stephen Marche reviews Canada’s trade relationship with the United States and explores what some consider the drawbacks of economic efficiency: making convenient trade deals for short term gain.

Economist Dan Ciuriak makes the case for doing away with the country’s automotive industry, while Flavio Volpe (President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers'​ Association) strongly disagrees. And Australian economist Huw McKay describes how his country abandoned car manufacturing and develope...

If a middle powers alliance could create a third pole of power to offset China and the United States, what would that look like in practical terms? What kind of alliance would enable Canada and other middle powers to thrive in a new world order? Host Stephen Marche catches up on Carney’s latest alliance-building moves with former Canadian Diplomat Colin Robertson, and learns from Anthony Dworkin of the European Council on Foreign Relations about how the EU has leaned on strategies like a trade bazooka and a unified defence strategy in Greenland. 

Featuring (in order of...

A clear eyed assessment of Mark Carney’s vision of middle powers creating a third pole of power, providing alternatives to a fraying reliance on the United States. Since his famous speech at Davos, he has been travelling the world meeting with likeminded politicians to shore up support. But the reception to his idea has raised doubts in Canada. Host Stephen Marche hears bipartisan caution from former Canadian Foreign Ministers Peter MacKay and John Manley, while former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull echoes a chorus of approval heard among many global leaders.

Subscribe & follow us on Yo...

Gloves Off is about the threat to Canada’s sovereignty and how the country can thrive in the new world disorder. Because it’s not just about surviving as a nation. It’s about winning. Hosted by journalist and author Stephen Marche.

The Gloves come off Canada Day, 2026. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on YouTube where you can watch our aftershow Cross Check with Vass Bednar and Jon Shell.

Also visit our website—gloves-off.ca —for more research behind the issues from the Canadian Shield Institute.

In this extended interview, Margaret Atwood joins Stephen Marche for a wide-ranging, sharp, and often darkly funny conversation on what we can learn from the past when Canadian sovereignty has been threatened by America; how this moment is exceptional; what we might expect in the future. From draft dodgers to free trade, red bonnets to AI servers, Atwood weighs in on where we are—and where we might be headed. Atwood brings sharp insight and surprising optimism to a moment of national reckoning.

A must-listen on sovereignty, survival, and what Canada needs to protect itself from th...

Over the past seven episodes, we’ve tracked Canada’s shocking, painful, and necessary awakening. The threat from America is no longer theoretical—it’s here, it’s real, and we’re not ready.

But something else is happening too. Canadians are responding. Travel boycotts. A rise in patriotism. A new spirit of sovereignty. Because our old relationship with America is over. Our final question to close the series: What does the new normal look like?

In this episode, Stephen Marche speaks with two people who have seen the future from different angles: Pulitzer Pri...

In 2013, a Russian journalist walked into a St. Petersburg startup looking for a job. What he found was the frontline of a new kind of war—an information war fought not with bullets but with online chaos.

Today, those tactics have gone global. Online disinformation floods our social feeds, shapes our politics, and fractures our societies. Authoritarian states are waging an invisible war against democracies like Canada, and we’re dangerously unprepared.

Stephen Marche speaks with University of Waterloo's Bessma Momani and Taiwanese fact-checking pioneer Billion Lee to ask the hard questions: How can...

What if we end up in the nightmare scenario: America invades Canada and our military isn't strong enough to resist. Canada gets annexed by force. How do we fight back? What would a Canadian insurgency look like?  

Stephen Marche explores the unthinkable: a military occupation of Canada and the resistance that would surely follow. He speaks with International Security scholar, Aisha Ahmad. We also meet former IRA member, Breige Brownlee, to understand how ordinary people become freedom fighters—and why the most powerful armies in the world can't stop them. 

It’s not fiction...

For most countries, the military is key to national identity. But Canada's identity has been tied to military contributions to the global order and peacekeeping. Now that's all changed. The world is heating. The North is thawing. The South is melting. How do we defend Canada and not get overtaken?

Stephen Marche heads to the Arctic with Canadian Ranger Neil Kigutaq and speaks with Retired Major General Scott Clancy and Finnish security expert Matti Pesu about how Canada can build up its military and what a whole-of-society defence approach looks like. With military apathy at home...

Living next to a dangerous country is new to us but many countries bordering authoritarian states have a lot of experience. Ukraine has lived in the shadow of a monster its entire existence. What can they teach us?

Ukrainian refugee Viktoriia recalls fleeing war-torn Kherson—offering a sobering reminder of how quickly peace can vanish. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander Vindman and war correspondent Tim Mak unpack what Ukraine got right, what they missed, and what Canada can learn from their ongoing war with Russia. Can we recognize the warning signs of annexation and authoritarianism? Or will we...

A Canadian toy company is on the brink because of US tariffs. Millions in unsold stock. But this isn’t just one company’s problem—it’s Canada’s.  

Stephen Marche digs into the economic war we’re already in with the US. How can we fight against an economy ten times our size, where the tariff goal posts keep moving, and where any brokered deal is a tweet away from becoming meaningless? What are new approaches to doing business in today's climate? Featuring bold ideas from business owner, Zita Cobb, and Chair of Social Capital Partners, Jon...

A middle-aged graphic designer joins the Canadian Reserves, but her story reveals something bigger: our greatest friend and most important ally, the US, is now threatening our country. How prepared–or unprepared–are we to deal with this threat? Stephen Marche asks a range of Canadian leaders to grade our readiness – politically, economically, militarily. What are our strengths as a country? What are our weaknesses?

Featuring (in order of appearance): Beatrice Winny, Greg Sorbara, Lisa Macleod, Francine Pelletier, Chief Rodger Redman, David Rosenberg, Philippe Lagassé

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...

Until the second Trump Administration, Canada's relationship to the US has been Robin to its Batman. We've trusted and counted on the US for trade, security, defence, global leadership, and so much more. But now those days are gone. As American democracy unravels and chaos grows, Canada is left exposed and vulnerable not only to the US but to bad actors around the world. With insights from Civil War expert Dr. Barbara F. Walter and former CSIS Agent Neil Bisson, plus chilling stories from Canadians on American soil, host Stephen Marche tries to find out how much trouble Canada...

Welcome to Gloves Off, a podcast about the threat to Canada’s sovereignty and what we can do about it. Hosted by Stephen Marche. Gloves Off is Canadian Realpolitik – what are the dangers we face and how do we avoid them? We break down the critical issues with outspoken experts and thinkers, as well as everyday Canadians.

The Gloves come off on Canada Day, Tuesday, July 1st. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

Follow us on YouTube.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.