Important correction: During this episode, Line editor Gurney utterly brain cramped and repeatedly referred to Jeff Simpson when he meant Lawrence Martin. No excuses. Just a mortifying flub. Mea culpa.
In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on August 2, 2024, your hosts Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney discuss Jen’s column this week, but they also discuss the broader problem with Canadian governance these days: disasters aren’t to be learned from, they’re to be blamed on someone or something else. There are undoubtedly things we should learn from the recent devastation of Jasper. We should learn them before something terrible happens to Banff, just to cite one example. But will we? Of course not. The fire in Jasper, like everything else, is just an opportunity for us all to convince ourselves that we’re perfect and the other bastards are to blame again.
They also discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, and wonder if something even more awful will have happened…