Conversations That Matter

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Synopsis

Beyond the Headlines, an in-depth, one on one conversation on the issues shaping our future.

Episodes

  • Ep 423 - Canada’s Gateway Port Guest: Duncan Wilson

    17/02/2023 Duration: 01h09min

    Ep 423 - Canada’s Gateway Port Guest: Duncan Wilson By Stuart McNish   Dock workers, truck drivers, forklift operators, tug boat deck hands, ships pilots, and crane operators rarely make the news. In fact, the only time we hear about them is when, in rare cases, something stops working the way it does 99.9% of the time.   Duncan Wilson, the VP of Environment and External Affairs at the Port of Vancouver says, “These are the people whose work makes our lives work. They are the lifeblood of the country, the province, the region and our city and they are so good at their jobs that sometimes that gets forgotten.” While their work has an impact in Europe, Asia and North America, it is work that doesn’t sparkle the way high tech does, so it is easily overlooked.   Wilson says, “The Port of Vancouver is a shining jewel on the west coast of North America. No other port is as diversified nor has a gateway network like Vancouver.” The Port is so vital to Canada that it generates close to 1% of the national GDP.  The Po

  • Ep 422 - Can Genomics Save the Taz? Guest: Carolyn Hogg

    17/02/2023 Duration: 26min

    Ep 422 - Can Genomics Save the Taz? Guest: Carolyn Hogg By Stuart McNish   The Tasmanian devil is a less than cuddly carnivorous marsupial with an international reputation, thanks to Looney Tunes. The “Taz” appeared in cartoons in 1954 and was still on television well into the 90s. The devil is important to Tasmania as a tourism attractor because people come from all over the world to see it.   In 1941, the devils became officially protected by the government of Australia. Unfortunately, that protection isn’t protecting their health. Since the late 1990s, devil facial tumour disease has dramatically reduced the devil’s numbers and now threaten the survival of the species. In 2008, the devils were declared an endangered species. In an effort to save them, the Australian government started to send Tasmanian devils to zoos around the world as part of the government’s Save the Tasmanian Devil Program.   For the past 12 years, Dr. Carolyn Hogg has been working with the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, utilizing g

  • Why Canada Needs Immigrants

    17/10/2022 Duration: 24min

    Ep 421 - Why Canada Needs Immigrants  Guest: Patrick MacKenzie By Stuart McNish   Even with uncertain economic conditions ahead, Canada’s labour market is still hot – unemployment is running at 4.9%, which is, in essence, full employment. There are more than one million job vacancies across the country. Some sectors, like health care and social services, are seeing vacancies and demand for workers climb higher and higher. The Immigrant Employment Council of British Columbia develops and promotes solutions for BC employers to attract, hire, and retain immigrant talent that can meet current and future labour force needs. Its employer-focused resources and programs help businesses of all sizes and sectors across BC integrate skilled immigrants into workplaces. Immigrant Employment Council of BC CEO Patrick MacKenzie recently attended a meeting of high-level international officials in Berlin, where they examined migration issues and policymaking processes across Europe, North America, and Australia. With Canada o

  • Has Canada Lost Its Way?

    02/10/2022 Duration: 32min

    Ep 420 - Has Canada Lost Its Way? Guest: Ken Coates By Stuart McNish   “Canada is a country without a centre, without a purpose”, says Ken Coates, a Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Indigenous Affairs Program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a Canada Research Chair at the University of Saskatchewan. It’s a jarring statement, one Coates says is, “an apt description of the state of the country.”   Coates says, “on one level, the idea that Canada’s future is uncertain seems absurd. The country routinely places well in global comparisons.” While that is true it also masks the reality of crumbling sectors of the economy, investment in education, investment in natural resources and infrastructure projects that are stalled or mothballed. Coates adds, “Canadians don’t seem to care.”   I invited Ken Coates to join me for a Conversation That Matters about Canadians need to turn our attention to the issues that are bubbling to the surface and could dramatically change our quality of life. Join us at a Con

  • Searching for Innovative Addiction Treatment

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 419 - Searching for Innovative Addiction Treatment Guest: Hirpal Hundial By Stuart McNish   The numbers are staggering – almost five people a day in BC are dying from what the Coroners Service calls “illicit drug toxicity,” also known as opioid deaths. That adds up to 1,095 people from January 1, 2022 to the end of June.    Hirpal Hundial says, “There has been nothing transformative or innovative in the field of addiction medicine to assist people going through detoxification for the last 25 years.” The current solution is to switch users from their opioid of choice to an opioid agonist therapy like suboxone or methadone, both of which research demonstrates produce marginal benefits. Hundial says, “Time is up – we need access to innovative and transformative solutions, otherwise there will continue to be escalating numbers of deaths.”   One such alternative is ibogaine, a psychoactive substance that shows promise in the treatment of opioid users. In New Zealand where the use of ibogaine is legal, a study a

  • Is Ukraine vs. Russia a Proxy World War?

    02/10/2022 Duration: 36min

    Ep 418 - Is Ukraine vs. Russia a Proxy World War? Guest: Jeffrey Simpson By Stuart McNish   Is the Ukraine-Russia war a proxy World War? Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says, “It is!” He contends NATO is “using Ukraine as a battering ram against the Russian state.” He says, “Russia is the target of one of the most ruthless proxy wars in modern history.”   US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in a Washington Post article, confirmed that America’s goal is to “‘weaken’ Russia,” saying that “the only way to deal with a rogue regime is to reduce its capacity for harm.”   Anthony Pfaff, a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council, wrote, “With Russia already believing the war is effectively a battle against the West and NATO, there is the possibility that a potential Russian defeat could motivate Putin to expand the conflict by attacking NATO countries.”   More than six months into the conflict, Russian casualties continue to mount and the impact of the war is being felt in countries around the world. Cut off

  • A New Spirit of Capitalism

    02/10/2022 Duration: 32min

    Ep 417 - A New Spirit of Capitalism Guest: Drew Erdmann By Stuart McNish   “Even before the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09, the excesses of unchecked capitalism were manifest – what once seemed like a virtuous drive to maximise returns on investment for everyone came to seem like a race to the bottom. The wealthy got increasingly wealthy, workers’ wages stagnated, the environment suffered, and parts of many countries were left behind,” states a new book published by the Trilateral Commission, “A New Spirit of Capitalism.”   It is clearly time for a reset. The book’s authors go on to say, “The problems got harder to ignore once the first bubble popped.” And then came COVID-19 – a pandemic “which exposed weaknesses in globalisation’s relentless pursuit of low cost production; the crisis highlighted instead the value of supply chain security and resilience, and a collaboration between state and business,” emphasises co-author Drew Erdmann.   Erdmann goes on to point out, “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine demonst

  • BC Legends

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 416 - BC Legends Guest: Carole Taylor By Stuart McNish   “British Columbia is rich with people of legendary status – people who looked the hardships of life in the eye and stared them down,” says Carole Taylor.  “Along the way, the tales of their seemingly impossible feats became folklore. In other words, they are larger than life.”   Carole Taylor, a legend in her own right, set out to document BC’s living legends. She says, “I wanted to ensure we recognized and preserved the stories of these extraordinary women and men from them. I wanted to capture their personalities, their drive, their enthusiasm and great devotions.”   Taylor interviews artists, businesspeople, social advocates, environmentalists – along with others like Doug and Diane Clement, who convinced us to get off the couch and move; Ratana and Aaron Stephens, who guided us to consume organic food; Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, who showed us the path to reconciliation; and Jody Wilson-Raybould, who showed us what courage looks like when standing u

  • Is paper the right environmental choice?

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 415 - Is paper the right environmental choice? Guest:Dr. Chris DeArmitt By Stuart McNish   On June 22nd of 2022, the Government of Canada introduced its “Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations,” legislation that states that plastic checkout grocery bags are considered single-use if the bag breaks or tears if “used to carry 10 kilograms over a distance of 53 metres 100 times.”  A plastic straw is considered single-use if after washing it 100 times in a dishwasher, it changes shape. Does that make the straw or the bag a bad environmental choice? A paper straw that may survive a single use is not considered a bad environmental choice.   Plastic knives and forks are treated the same way if, after 100 washes, they change shape – then they are considered single-use and a bad choice. The day before recording this conversation, two paper catalogues arrived in the mail: unsolicited and unneeded. They won’t be used – is that a bad environmental choice?    “When it comes to banning single-use, we might be better

  • Fighting for Truth and Justice

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 414  - Fighting for Truth and Justice Guest: Matthew Caruana Galizia By Stuart McNish     In the afternoon hours of October 16th 2017 in Bidnija, Malta, the car of investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was ripped apart by a powerful bomb. “My mother had to go to the bank, she left the house and then I heard the explosion,” said Matthew Caruana Galizia in an interview for the Allard Prize for International Integrity. His mother was a fearless Maltese journalist who was assassinated for ceaselessly uncovering corruption in her country. Her car was found more than a city block from the ignition point of the blast. It was a powerful message to anyone who dared to expose corruption at the highest level in Malta.   In recent news, one of the men accused on the bombing has confessed saying, had he known who she was he would have asked for money to kill her. According to “The Guardian”, George Degiorgio said, “if I knew, I would have gone for 10 million, not 150,000” Euros. He went on to say, “for me it wa

  • Do Universities Matter?

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 413 - Do Universities Matter? Guest: Joy Johnson By Stuart McNish If knowledge is empowerment, does the place where you garner that knowledge matter? “The answer is yes, it does matter,” says Joy Johnson, the President of Simon Fraser University. Johnson continues by noting, “a university degree carries with it exceptional career prospects, higher pay and it opens a person’s mind to the realm of the possible and pushes the boundaries of the seemingly impossible.”   There are many careers that are simply unattainable without a university degree such as in health, the sciences, technology, business, law and education. There is also a perception that universities are a place where you can explore ideas from a variety of perspectives and that you are free to do so.    Stuart McNish invited Joy Johnson, the President of Simon Fraser University, to join him for a Conversation That Matters about the complex, diverse, and critical role of universities in our economy and society. Join us at a Conversations Live

  • Blowing the Whistle on Danske Bank

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 412 - Blowing the Whistle on Danske Bank Guest: Howard Wilkinson   As Russia continues to disrupt the world, we revisit a previous Conversation with Allard Prize for International Integrity co-winner Howard Wilkinson, the man who blew the whistle on the largest money laundering case in history. Wilkinson uncovered and exposed an international money laundering scheme that reached all the way to the Russian secret police, which included relatives of President Vladimir Putin. So corrupt is the regime that more than 230 billion euros passed through bank accounts at the Danske Bank in Estonia.   Wilkinson reported his suspicions to senior officials at Danske Bank – to which the bank responded by letting him  go, muzzling, and paying him off. His report, while not acted upon at the time, eventually came to light and he says, “Charges have been laid against 12 former bankers in Estonia and another 10 Danish bankers have been served with preliminary charges.” The scandal rocked the financial world in Europe and th

  • Smart Mission: How NASA solves problems

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 411 - Smart Mission: How NASA solves problems Guest: Ed Hoffman   “The COVID-19 global pandemic demonstrates the need for international collaboration to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges,” states a new book on project and program management called “The Smart Mission, NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People and Projects.” Over 37 days, a NASA team of aerospace engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with no knowledge of medical devices built a working ventilator from off-the-shelf parts. This illustrates how effectively teams learn and share knowledge in real-time contexts.   One of the book’s authors is Ed Hoffman, who was the Chief Knowledge Officer at NASA, who says,  “Never has there been more urgency. The social dimension of knowledge and the need for people to collaborate remains constant as projects become increasingly complex and pose technical challenges that we cannot anticipate.”   Hoffman continues saying, “Complex challenges require complex teams in multiple disciplines ov

  • Is Russia Collapsing?

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 410 - Is Russia Collapsing? Guest: Diane Francis   The EU just announced its seventh sanctions package, which is set to put an embargo on Russian gold. Gold is Russia’s largest non-energy export. The Russian government’s response was to shrug it off and downplay the impact of sanctions – a position the Union of Gold Producers in Russia disagrees with, noting that “the country’s gold industry may suffer irreparable damage.”   Author, National Post Editor-at-Large, and Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council Diane Francis says, “Russia is in trouble economically, demographically, financially and militarily.” Francis goes on to say, “Punitive Western sanctions, as well as brain and capital drains, are shredding the country’s future.”   In an article titled “To Russia With Malice,” Francis states, “Sanctions against the import of technology such as microchips have caused factories to stop making many consumer products, as well as weapons of war. Automobile production is down by 96.7 percent [and] Aeroflot is usi

  • Health Care on Trial

    02/10/2022 Duration: 25min

    Ep 409 - Health Care on Trial Guest: Dr Brian Day   A recent Research Co. survey on health care shows that confidence in our healthcare system is dropping. “Three years ago, 77% of Canadians were proud of the healthcare system,” says Mario Canseco. “In 2022, the proportion has dropped by 19 points to 58%.” And an Angus Reid poll showed 70% of British Columbians feel the province is doing a poor job in health care and the opioid crisis.   Premier Horgan pointed the finger at Ottawa, saying, “The federal government must come to the table to address a lack of federal funding in health care across the country to protect and improve the services the people rely on.” Dr Brian Day says, “We’re doing an awful job of meeting the health care needs of Canadians. It’s the core reason we started the Cambie Clinic, to give people greater access to health care.”   That’s the backdrop against which the Court of Appeal in British Columbia upheld a ban on paying directly for health care and private insurance. A three-justice p

  • Is Ethanol a Good Fuel Choice?

    02/10/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 408 - Is Ethanol a Good Fuel Choice? Guest: Marc Rauch   As we all know, the price of gas is skyrocketing. It’s a big issue for the President of the United States, namely because he’s under fire to address inflation. His response to soaring fuel prices was to lift a ban on the sale of E15 fuel. E-15 stands for 15% ethanol in the fuel and adding it to gas saves money and reduces carbon output. “A welcome announcement you’d think?” asks Marc Rauch, the Executive VP of the Auto Channel. “It should be!” he answers his own question, “but it wasn’t!”   “Ethanol,” says Rauch, “is the forgotten alternative fuel – the only one that blends with current gasoline while improving air quality and saving money.” If ethanol is the magic bullet in the fuel sector, why is it so maligned? Rauch says, “It’s historical and the reasons are hysterical.” Namely, he claims it comes down to the power and influence of the Rockerfeller family.   To take us on a fascinating examination of the history of ethanol, we invited Marc Rauch,

  • All of Life is a Gamble - Kamal Gupta

    12/05/2022 Duration: 23min

    “All of life is a gamble, all of it!” says Kamal Gupta, a man who has taken big risks throughout his life – risks he details in his book “Play It Right,” the story of a young graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology who took a chance in the late 1980s and left India for the United States.   Gupta’s story is more than the story of an immigrant in search of the “American Dream.” His is a story of a man who took big risks. After securing a well paying job in tech, he became bored. To alleviate his boredom, he became fascinated with blackjack. He was determined to master the game and win. And win, he did. He quit his job and became a professional gambler.   Two years later, he bet again and did two things he said he would never do – “work on Wall Street and Live in New York; those were the promises I made to myself,” says Gupta. His journey to the top of the financial markets is fascinating and insightful.     Stuart McNish invited Kamal Gupta, the author of “Play It Right,” to join him for a Conversation T

  • Putin’s Long Game Guest: Vice-Admiral US Navy, (Ret) John Stufflebeem

    03/05/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 398 - Putin’s Long Game Guest: Vice-Admiral US Navy, (Ret) John Stufflebeem By Stuart McNish   The war in the Ukraine has revealed that Russia is ruthless in its tactics, that it is willing to kill noncombatants.  And it has also demonstrated that despite a coalescing of NATO nations, Ukraine is on its own. As retired U.S. Navy Vice-Admiral John Stufflebeem points out. Putin calculated the world's political and economic powers have fractured. He noted they did nothing after he annexed Crimea and devastated Aleppo.   So he feels, who's going to stop me? Who would dare? And that is at the core of his thuggish mindset.    Putin has been unabashed in his openness about taking Ukraine under the direct influence of Moscow. He's worked to align Iran, China, North Korea and he's also deepening his relationship with Indian Prime Minister Modi. Stufflebeem says, “Putin has a much larger strategy than the Ukraine and the countries of the former Soviet bloc.”   Stufflebeem believes,  “Putin wants to break up the globa

  • It’s Lonely at the Top Guest: Ron Bremner

    03/05/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 397 - It’s Lonely at the Top Guest: Ron Bremner By Stuart McNish   "It's lonely at the top" is the famous line in Shakespeare's Henry IV. The King had a very challenging reign; he felt alone in his misery. “It’s lonely at the top” speaks to the theory that leaders are not only lonely, they’re also isolated – which raises the questions: are they? And if so, where do they find companionship and trust?   Executive coach Ron Bremner says, “One of the challenges is as a CEO or executive leader, you can’t ponder or wonder or muse about anything with the people who report to you. What you do, say, think, and decide impacts them and they all want to know you are in control and in charge.”    Bremner goes on to say, “If you appear to be uncertain or inconsistent, your team will lose confidence in you and that’s why you need to find a trusted advisor to work your way through the many challenges you face.”   Stuart McNish invited Ron Bremner to join him for a Conversation that Matters about why and how executive coac

  • Is Vancouver a Headquarter Ghost Town? Guest: Jock Finlayson

    03/05/2022 Duration: 23min

    Ep 396 - Is Vancouver a Headquarter Ghost Town? Guest: Jock Finlayson By Stuart McNish   Is Vancouver a head office ghost town? “The numbers say no, but they also say we’re not doing well and the prospects of a change of fortunes are slim and dim,” says Jock Finlayson, the past chief economist of the Business Council of BC.   Head offices are highly sought after by any city because they generate employment, taxes and attract professional and financial services that support corporate headquarters. Calgary has established itself as more than just an energy hub – it is also the most concentrated headquarter city in Canada.   The presence – or lack of presence – of head offices speaks volumes about a city. Is it business focused? Does the city government understand or appreciate the needs of a corporate head office and do they care? Why should you care?   Finlayson says, “Vancouver is in a tough spot given our woeful combination of sky-high housing costs and modest incomes. The city has long struggled to expand a

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