The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Is Netanyahu's Time Up?

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Benjamin Netanyahu's hold on power has been tenuous at best for the past year, but even more so after the past few days.  There's a sense that the prime ministership of Israel may be slipping away from him.  Dr. Janice Stein has her weekly Monday take on the Middle East story, the Ukraine-Russia war, and a very bleak outlook from the new Defence Secretary in the United Kingdom.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. Is Benjamin Netanyahu running out of allies? That's coming right up. And hello there, welcome to Monday. Peter Mansbridge here in Stratford, Ontario. Looking forward to our chat. It's Monday, that means Dr. Janice Stein from the University of Toronto, Middle East expert, conflict management expert. We talk about some of the major stories happening internationally on Mondays. And that's led, of course, by Israel-Hamas, Ukraine-Russia, and more. Some really fascinating stuff today. Fascinating on one hand, kind of scary on the other.

We'll talk about that when Dr. Stein joins us in just a couple of minutes. But the other thing I'd like to do on Mondays is give you a heads up of the question of the week. We started this as the calendar clicked into 2024, and it's been extremely successful so far. Getting so many letters every week from you answering the question and thinking about it, thinking about the challenges that are put forward in the question, and there have been some real challenging ones,

to the point where last week I had a couple of letters from people saying, really, can you give us an easy one, just for once, so we can kind of slow down our thought process and just enjoy one instead of having to really think deep on the answer to the question. Well, the idea is to think deep, right? And to throw out some unique ideas, some innovative ideas on some of these questions.

But I hear you. Let's have an easy one for this week. And so I was thinking, what could we do? So I looked outside. What do I see outside? Here in Stratford, Ontario, I see a lot of white, a lot of snow, and it's been pretty darn cold in many parts of the country over these last couple of weeks.

But, hey, it's January, right? It's winter in Canada. That's what happens. But here's the question then. Unlike the one thing you do to change the political system, the one thing you do to change the media, the one thing you do to make us get along more, those are all great questions and they're fabulous answers. Here's this week's question. One thing you like best about winter in Canada. Okay, that sounds kind of, well, that's easy.

I love skiing. I love this. I love that. So go deep. Go think. The one thing you like best about winter in Canada. We have something here nobody else has, like we do. What is it about winter in Canada you like best?

Okay, the one thing. So once again, remember these points. Name, location you're writing from, and keep it short. It really worked well last week. People were writing in a paragraph, a short to the point paragraph. So here's the same thing. You know, the one thing you like best about Canada, you may be able to back it up with a sentence or two about some kind of family reason why you like it best,

something that's happened over time. But again, keep it short. That's the best way to get on the air. Keep it short. Remember your name. That shouldn't be hard. Remember your, write your name name remember to write your location deadline once again 6 p.m eastern time wednesday that's the deadline anything comes in after that

doesn't make it okay so you got a couple of days here to think about it and the winner of course will get a signed copy of one of my books sent out to them. It's already on the way to last week's winner. And from what I'm told, it's been received by winners in past weeks already. It's fairly quick, you know. All the whining we do about the Canada Post Office is pretty good on this, at least moving my books around. Okay, enough on all those things.

Let's get to today's topic, which is the regular Monday topic, our conversation with Dr. Janice Stein, and this is like another, you know, classic mini class in global politics and global conflict. So let's hear then from Dr. Janice Stein for this week's conversation. Well, I think we've agreed that even since immediately after October 7th that Benjamin Netanyahu has been in trouble. He's been in trouble in his own country. He's been in trouble elsewhere. But he's still prime minister.

And he's been counting on support from the United States, not only from the Biden administration, but clearly from Republicans in Washington. But in the last couple of days, I saw this quote, and Andrea Mitchell did a story over the weekend. And she had a Republican, a leading House Republican, talking to her. She wouldn't give his name, but she quoted him as saying, it's really hard to defend Bibi or to justify his political strategy in all of this. There's real distrust. There's real questions about his ability to lead. So you've got that happening in Washington, and then at home, you've got the first real indication that there are problems within that war cabinet that he set up.

So talk to us about the implications of both of those. This was a really bad week for him, Peter. Gary Eisenkopf, a former chief of the defense staff, one of five people in the war cabinet, was really credible from Benny Gantz's party, who lost his son in this war, and his nephew came out with a series of statements. First, Benjamin Netanyahu bears clear responsibility for the failure that preceded the war.

No break. Secondly, we have not defeated Hamas. We have not achieved our war aims. Hamas still has a division intact. It is hiding underground. And we are not, in the third one we are not going to be able to rescue the hostages through military action. We have to do it through diplomacy which is going to mean a long ceasefire.

Every one of those three comments sends a knife frankly into Netanyahu. It contradicts absolutely everything he says. And he made those comments on the record to a television program in Israel as demonstrators. Thousands of demonstrators were in the streets in Tel Aviv demanding a ceasefire in order to accelerate the rescue of the hostages. Couldn't be worse, really, for Netanyahu.

Now, he's defiant. He is always defiant. Let's layer on two more leaks from the White House that Joe Biden is really frustrated, did not talk to Netanyahu for a month after having talked to him every second day. That's a pretty clear signal. They finally had a conversation this week, slightly different readouts, but standing in the way of it all is Netanyahu, and I have no doubt about this, Netanyahu's opposition to a Palestinian state. He won't even commit

to a plan for a Palestinian state. And why is that? Because he would break up his coalition. He would lose power. And that is at the root of this whole problem.

And thirdly, Tom Friedman, who I think you would have met in the administration whispers and Tom Friedman's here all the time and wants to send a message, came out this weekend with a flashing

comment saying this is all about Netanyahu personally, about his effort to stay out of jail. This is, and says, and in fact this is a disaster strategy for Israel to continue to pursue. All this is going to come down. Israeli newspapers are running opinion polls how can we oust them is there a path to ousting them

that's the tenor of the conversation inside the country which doesn't get translated into the English language press there isn't five members of its own party have to leave because the only way to dissolve a government in Israel, short of the regular four-year election cycle,

the parliament has to dissolve itself. And right now he's got 64 votes out of 120. Well, and the key votes for him outside of his own party are the two kind of extreme right-wing parties. Is there any indication, you know, I mean, people are bailing on Netanyahu here. Is there any indication that they are? The two right-wing parties are not going to bail.

I don't think they're think I think it's almost they would bail if he made a commitment even in principle to an independent Palestinian state because then for them all is lost so they would bail but short of that I don't think they'll bail

the hope is within his own party that you know it's like the Republican Party. It's Donald Trump's party now, but there are remnants in that party of an older Republican Party that members thought very differently. The same is true of Netanyahu's party. And when will be enough be too much for them when will they really feel they are putting the future of the country at risk there are certainly four or five people

in his own party that could leave and vote to dissolve parliament people have been waiting for that for a year and it hasn't happened what what can uh biden or his administration do that they haven't tried already well there's a this is an election year let's start that way and biden's already paid a very heavy price with our american voters and he's paid a price with our american voters in a key swing state which which is Michigan. There are only four or five, depending on how you count, swing states. Michigan is one.

If you think that the sum total of voters we're going to decide the next U.S. election, 100,000. It's astonishing, really, how crazy the American electoral system really is. The people who live around Dearborn, really, how crazy the American electrical system really is. And the people who live around Dearborn, Michigan, that's $20,000 right there.

And he's already paid that price. To come out swinging now would probably have an impact on the Jewish community in North America. And he could end up in a lose-lose situation. That having been said, there's lots they can do. They can just not move on that military assistance bill. They can just not

do much about it. That will bite. And the army admits that. They need resupply of ammunition just like the Ukrainian army does. They don't have the stockpiles. They need that, and they need resupply for missile technology. Slow down.

The signal will go that we're serious. We're serious this time. So even if they don't come out in public a whole bunch of quiet signals that they can send i think we're getting pretty close to that frankly but but even the americans have created a box for themselves i mean they they've put all this military might in the mediterranean and in the red sea um you know they're into it now in Iraq. They're into it against the Iranians. They're into it on Yemen.

They're in a box themselves. It's not like they can just say, okay, we're out of here, or we're withdrawing our help. They are into it, and there's a changing conversation, too, as people start to draw the threads closer and closer to Iran and see a bigger strategic problem for the United States, which are the international waterways. You know, I've talked about it. But Netanyahu is complicating it for them. They need a pathway to an independent Palestinian state. And by the way, what the Americans are now doing, which is beneath the surface,

and people are not writing about it, they are already starting to develop lists of Palestinians who have for a long time been paid by the Palestinian Authority since the civil war essentially between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority broke out in 2007. They are developing lists without consulting Israel at all of a technocratic group of people that could take over government functions once the fighting inside Gaza de-escalates. I'm sure the Israelis know that. They get tactical intelligence on the ground. So the United States is fundamentally sending messages, now we're going around you, we're going around you. We can't work with you on this, we're going around you.

The Americans are into it on their own. There's no doubt here if there were a ceasefire, which is ultimately what's going to happen here, the pressure will build to such a point on hostages that there will be a long-term ceasefire. The Houthis would stop and Hezbollah would stop for now. But I can well imagine that inside the Pentagon, in some of the other American allies, this has provided a foreshadowing of problems that even were there to be an independent Palestinian state and the Israel-Palestine

conflict goes way, way, way down the register, these problems would continue to exist. This is a movie for them that they know they're going to see again. Just a last point on Netanyahu. Does anyone else have influence? I mean, Biden clearly has less than he thought he had. Trudeau has none. They're totally not talking. There's no love lost there. None.

But what about like a Macron or a Sunak? Or does anybody in Europe have any influence? I'm going to make a comment, which there is somebody who has influence in the Biden. It's probably Donald Trump of everybody, right? And that's part of the game that Tonya was playing here. And I said it's very similar to the game that Vladimir Putin is playing hold on by your fingernails

at all costs to wait to see if Donald Trump becomes president of the United States because if he does the game changes from now then all the pressure is off will Donald Trump step up now and say, come on, brother, do the right thing here?

I think the probability of that is very, very low. Okay, let's move to Ukraine, because we can start in kind of a similar vein, actually, on Ukraine. You know, there was Zelensky, who two years ago right now, wouldn't leave his bunker, right? I mean, you know, he was in real serious danger. Now he's sort of globetrotts.

And this week he was in Davos with all the multi-billionaires in the ski resort in the Alps. And among other things, he said, well, sure, I've heard Trump say that he can solve this in 24 hours. Well, why wait till the fall? Why don't you come over right now and solve it? Sort of calling his bluff. But, you know, at the same time, there he was with all the elite of the world's business community trying to gain some support. This happening at the same time that, I mean, NATO exists to be on the defensive, right? That's why NATO is there.

It's there to defend Western interests, certainly against the Russians now, who used to be the Soviets, obviously. But NATO saying this week, or at least one of its leading members from the Netherlands saying, we got to prepare for war. Now one assumes they're always prepared for war, but this has taken it up a notch. We've got to be prepared for war. What do you make of that?

What does that say about where we are on this ukraine russia story you know it is very very grim very worrying for countries um who support ukraine on the merits but also support ukraine because they feel that russia succeeds here, that is the beginning of the story, not the end of the story. So that is every Baltic leader, for sure, who feels that very, very keenly. Add the Poles to that. These are all countries that have had a terrible history with Russia. Finland, who have seen Russian boots on the ground. And look at what's happening in Ukraine very differently from a Canadian or an American,

or even somebody in France. They see successes and goals in Putin to continue to restore the full remit of the old Soviet empire. And they're really, really worried. Crane, running out of ammunition. Air defenses are weak. They're using their long-range missiles now to blow up oil facilities inside Russia in an effort to try to raise the cost to Putin. But they are the object of a barrage of missiles all the time in the winter.

If Putin succeeds in really breaking through in the air and Ukraine cannot defend its cities, you know, we may not get to a counteroffensive next summer, Peter. It is that grim, really, for Ukraine. And NATO, you know, the Brits have agreed to supply Ukraine with additional equipment, but their stocks are running low. We promised. We promised. We promised, but we're hung up on an agreement that hasn't

yet been signed, but also our stocks are down to, you know, where we are with the Canadian military and Canadian stockpiles. That's generally true. NATO did not invest. NATO countries did. We had a peace dividend.

NATO countries did not invest in the infrastructure, the manufacturing infrastructure except the United States, nobody else to supply at pace and at speed for wars like this and there's a real

element I think of anxiety now in NATO capitals. You know, it's interesting, the candidate for Secretary General of NATO, because the current one has had his term extended for a year, and there's been a competition that's been going on. We had a Canadian in the running, but it's Mark Rutt, the former

Prime Minister of the Netherlands who retired last year who's probably the most likely and he's coming out of a culture of the kind you just talked about. We're in real, real worry about the security of Europe

and it does have the capacity now to defend, even if it had the will. You know, meanwhile, we have this sort of stalemate. We've talked about it before, especially right now being the winter there, and everybody's kind of dug in i i saw a chart yesterday in the telegraph in britain and it was of the trenches that have been built for this war and it's you know it's like you're looking at the first world war all

over again you've got these trenches on the r Russian side in the area they've occupied. And you've got huge lines of trenches on the Ukrainian side. All of this built in the last two years. It's stunning to think that that's what's going on. I mean, the headlines you hear about are the drones and the missiles. And yes, they are happening. But at the base of it, in terms of the ground forces, it's trench warfare. Yeah. You know, they are stunning, those pictures.

I've seen what you're talking about, Pierre. I've seen the pictures. And if you think about the Russian ones, there are three lines of trenches, right? Along with, you know, prickly, sawtooth, defensive barriers that will stop any tank. Yeah, in its tracks, literally, it just blows up their tires, and then you're sitting ducks as you move forward.

So there's no obvious breakthrough on the ground coming because the Ukrainians have essentially adapted. They've done just what the Russians are doing. They made it very, very costly to move forward. So where's the breakthrough going to come? It's got to come in the air because it can't come on the ground in the near future. It's come at sea already. We don't talk about that.

The Ukrainians have pushed the Russian Navy out of the Black Sea, out of that cork in the Black Sea, and it was just astonishing when Ukraine was able to export grain by sea. But ultimately, it's going to be in the air and it's going to be as it is in the capacity to defend the cities so that it doesn't become more than an energy nightmare

as Russia hits energy stocks and suppliers in Russia and the civilian population you can break it's really interesting, what is the history what does history tell, you know, it's really interesting. What is the history? What does history tell us? You know, it's really tough to break the morale of a population by repeated bombing campaigns and airstrikes.

It doesn't happen, but everybody hopes it does. You think of the Blitz in Britain. Everybody hopes, and they inflict think of the Blitz in Britain. Everybody hopes. And they inflict huge damage on civilian populations. It doesn't change the outcome in the end, but it inflicts horrific misery on the population. Same in North Vietnam. Remember all the bombing in Hanoi? The only time that you could argue that it worked was Kosovo.

Yes, that's right. That's right. And that may be the only occasion. Okay, we're going to take a break here. You mentioned something a moment ago about the peace dividend, which was supposed to be the big bonus out of the end of the Cold War. We'd have all this money we wouldn't have to spend on defenses, and now we're back at it but

somebody talked about that this week and i want to get your thoughts on it but first we got to take this break break we'll be right back and welcome back you're listening to The Bridge, the Monday episode with Dr. Janice Stein, University of Toronto, the Muck School. And we're sort of covering a lot of territory here today. You're listening on Sirius XM, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or on your favorite podcast platform. Okay, here's a new name in this sort of international story, the platform out there in terms of uh of conflict

around the world the guy's name is grant shapps you may never have heard of him i'd never heard of him until this week he's the new uk united kingdom defense secretary and he had his big maiden speech this week and it it was quite the speech because he said you know since the since the end of the second world war since the end of the cold war we've been living in a kind of post-war period that's over we're into the pre-war period he was very negative about where things stand for the future. He says the era of the peace dividend is truly over. We find ourselves at the dawn of this new era, and we've come full circle, moving from a post-war to a pre-war world. Whoa.

What do you make of that? Wow. As you said, Peter, that was a dramatic call. And you captured so well, boy, that phrase, we are done with post-war. We are pre-war. And that was a very, very strong statement from him. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Just to fill in the blanks just a little bit for our listeners,

Kim Jong-un came out with a barn-burning speech himself 10 days ago in which he said, we're giving up on peaceful unification. South Korea is the enemy, and we're giving up on peaceful unification. South Korea is the enemy and we're prepared to use nuclear weapons if we need to in order to deal with the enemy at the same time as he is testing. He has an affirmed

nuclear weapons program and he is testing very advanced missiles. So all the alarms went off. If you look at this, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, I think a reasonable person would have concerns about each of these four going forward. And what's amplifying these concerns, there are improved relationships among all four. And North Korea, so they're connected. North Korea is supplying missiles to Russia.

Iran is sending drones and missiles to Russia. China is standing back but clearly not unhappy a bit that the United States is being challenged in the Red Sea. Far better to challenge the United States in the Red Sea than to challenge them in the Straits of Tehran. So I understand where he's coming from. Five short years, we have seen, you know, you can't look only at capabilities, because if you did that,

we'd all be worried all the time that we're going to war. But you do have to pay attention to what governments do and to what they say they want to do. And if you listen to those four governments, there is a far more warlike tone in every one of them. And Russia openly, Iran by what it's doing in the Paralympic North Korea yeah there's a South Korean election coming so

some of that you can explain away but I think what Shabba said captures the way many ministers of defense feel across NATO and you know connect that back to our earlier conversation. Underarmed, under-equipped, without the industrial base in place right now

across the alliance to build up, even to supply Ukraine now, much less what might happen. So that's why he's sending me along. Now, let's just add one more Peter to the table here, because from the other side, NATO is about to run its largest exercise ever. Thirty-something countries, huge numbers of aircraft and ships and planes. It's going to start in February. It's going to last three months. You're sitting in Moscow.

What are you thinking? Exactly. They're getting ready. Yeah. And, you know, we've got a lot of troops over there right now. Yeah. With NATO continued. So I assume that Canada's involved in these exercises.

Yes, we are. We double down, you know on our commitment right to latvia we had a very unhappy chief that sent stuff before we double down said we don't have and we are short of manpower we're short of everything and then we go down on the commitment so we are stretched we're stretched beyond the limits in Canada frankly no more can we bring to the table and we

aren't contributing the money they want no the 2% we're far off Shapp talked about that too, that other NATO countries have got to get in the game here. But, you know,

so I'm a little confused. Are we listening or are we not listening? We're listening if we double down on the force there. We're not listening if we're not putting the money in or the equipment in. I mean, the equipment issue, as you pointed out, is a really big one. Really important.

As you know, it's just budget-cutting time right now in Ottawa. Every department is, and yet, what's being cut, Peter? Not the existing budget. What's being cut is anticipated spending in the next budgetary year. Well, that level of spending is being cut now. If we were doing that in our household budgets, we might have a question or two to ask ourselves, but that's what the budget cutting is all about in Ottawa. But which department took the biggest cut

of anticipated future spending in Ottawa this year? The Department of National Defense. Why is that? Because they're the easiest target when you need to get a chunk of money out of the budget that will be coming down very shortly. There's a lot of unhappiness about that. So we're sending this signal to the world, we're with you, we're doubling our forces.

But when it comes to budget making in Ottawa, that's a different story. Well, the other question too about the canadian situation is is the age-old question about defense forces around the world in terms of their planning are they planning for the last war are they planning for the next one yeah yeah and you know and i mean we're trying to do everything for everyone yeah and we're a small country uh so that's not you know that's not the best strategy look I think two things there's a defense policy review ongoing right now it's been ongoing

for quite a while there's always a defense policy review white papers green papers red papers I mean around for years but what if I were a betting woman, what would I bet on? Let the Arctic be upright, which in my view it should be.

Because, you know, we are Russia adjacent in the Arctic. Sure. We don't think about that. And there's a lot of very creative discussion going on with our NATO partners. If we really were to ramp up on defense infrastructure in the Arctic, would that count toward our 2%? So you can see where that conversation is frankly likely to go. Well, I mean, the Arctic is key to what a lot of people think is the future in terms of defense structure and defense needs. You just have to look at a map to see that. It is the middle ground between Russia and the U.S. We're sort of the battleground.

Peter, it's a no-brainer for this country, frankly. It's astonishing Peter it's a no brainer for this country frankly it's astonishing that it's taken this long you know when I say this I ask often who's got the largest Arctic research institute in the world well China

China it's not an Arctic power and it finds some 200 Arctic researchers. Now why would that be? Because if you're looking to the future, right? No, it's when

you look at a map from the top down. In other words, the top of the planet down. It's a very interesting collection of countries. and who's ahead on on on research and exploration and development russia that's right you know the northeast passage is a hell of a lot more organized and ready than the northwest passage that's right so if you take our earlier conversation you say well, Russia and China are heading

to the Northeast Passage, and we're talking about the connections between those four countries, this becomes a really, really important strategic area for NATO, and we're there, and the most underinvested of any Arctic country in our defense industry. All right.

Last topic for today. And it's a bit of a shocker, really. It falls under the Janus Stein label of what are we missing? In other words, what are we not talking about when all these other things are dominating our discussion? And this is a good one. So unveil it for us. Well, you know, this is, to me i i really sat up on my chair because when i think of france flow i think i think of really good wine great

food um you know a great fashion industry but i never think about efficiency and productivity and economic growth in fact i think about a three-hour lunch hour i think about efficiency and productivity and economic growth. In fact, I think about a three-hour lunch hour. I think about efficiency. Where do I look? Germany. Well, shocker. The French economy grew at a faster rate than the German economy since 2019.

And I thought, oh my goodness, the French are more efficient than the Germans. That is just inconceivable to me. So why did this happen? First of all, Matt Carolla got much reviled by the French president, hated by his countrymen. There's no doubt about it, forced through increasing retirement age.

That's fine. I know Parisians took to the streets and pushed it up, I think, from 62 to 65, which Canadians would kind of look at and say, oh, my goodness, are you for real? Here's a big one. Here's the one that I think. He got unemployment, which in France has been huge, down to 7%. That's remarkable in France. He's investing in an AI national champion. We're not there yet in Canada. He's doing it. It's called

NISra. And he's positioning France as a player in that. But the real game changer for France in comparison to Germany, France relies on nuclear power for 60 to 70% of its

electrical capacity generates electricity is by clean nuclear power what happened in Germany a whole middle industrial infrastructure which is so important to Germany

they call it middle in Germany but what it really means is the middle class works in this industrial infrastructure. Angela Merkel made hostage to cheap Russian energy. She

bet the house on cheap Russian energy and she lost the bets. She shuttered the nuclear plants and it's so politically costly now. Add shut the nuclear funds. And it's so politically costly now. Add to the German nightmare

the AFD, the German ultra right-wing party, is pulling a 25%, Peter, because Germany's in recession. And the headline in every German newspaper this week,

secret meeting, far right, with Nazi party members. That was leaked. And so you have this, you know, flammable recession, high-run planet, expensive energy, right-wing populism. Germany's in a funk right now. Wow. Well, that gives us even more to think about. You know, the nuclear energy story is interesting. It's so big.

It is so big and so many places in the world, us included, are rethinking it and our position on it. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's a really important debate to be having. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's a debate that's so worth having

because anytime we want to reduce our risk to zero, we make a mistake. Right? There's no perfectly safe answer to any big question.

And she overreacted to what happened in Fukushima. I just shuddered those plants. And the German economic story would be different today if she had not done that. You can't drive to zero. You can't take the risk out of any area that really matters to us. But the Germans being edged out by the French on productivity.

Isn't that something? Yeah, who would have thought that? But the Germans being edged out by the French on productivity. Isn't that something? Oh, my God. Yeah. Who would have thought that? And when you compare champagne to regionally, it's not even a contest, Peter. All right. We're going to end it there. You've given us, as you always do, Janice, so much to think about on so many different fronts. Thank you for this.

Talk to you again in a week. See you in a week. And it's going to be a warmer so many different fronts. Thank you for this. Talk to you again in a week. See you in a week. And it's going to be a warmer week in our country. Thank goodness. I'll say. There you go. This week's masterclass from Dr. Janice Stein, University of Toronto, the Munk School.

Lots to think about there, including reassessing Angela Merkel, at least on one area. So that's an interesting discussion to have too. All right, we're almost out of time. I got a little end bit for you though. And if you've been through any major airport lately, you'll notice in some areas that there are some security lines where you don't have to take anything

out of your pockets you don't have to take anything out of your your suitcase you don't have to take your shoes off none of that you just go through everything goes through the security machines as is computers laptops the whole bit and still in the case don't have to take anything out now that's not in a lot of places, and it's not in a lot of security lines, but it is in some, and eventually it'll be in all. But there's more coming. A piece in the New York Times the last couple of days.

You know what biometrics are, right? We each have individual kind of unique physical identifiers, like fingerprints, faces. Well, they're going to expand the use of biometrics in airports, starting around the United States, but also in other parts of the world, to enhance security and replace physical identification. Physical identification like passports, like driver's licenses. All to not only enhance security, but to reduce the time required by travelers to pass through airports.

Biometric technology will be seen everywhere, from bag drops of the check-in counters to domestic security screening. In the U.S., the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, is already expanding its program, allowing passengers to opt in for a security screening relying on a facial recognition match with their physical ID. So things are changing. You know, the world that we've seen for the last 20 years in airports appears to be changing.

Less hassle. At the moment, it's just for, you know, certain classes, certain airfares, but eventually it's going to be everywhere. That's the plan. But a world without passports at the airport? Now that would be different, right? Certainly for those of us who've spent our whole life holding a passport, updating it every five or 10 years. You know, I've got all my passports from back when I was a kid, 50s.

And the thought that those are not going to have those anymore, or we're not going to need them anymore. Well, it's not going to be tomorrow or next week or next month or even next year, but that seems to be the way we're heading. Biometrics. All right, tomorrow. Tomorrow, we're going to have More Butts conversation number 13. We're going to talk about foreign policy with More and Butts. What actually happens behind the doors of cabinet rooms, caucus rooms?

How much do they actually talk about foreign policy? Or is it really domestic policy that is what's on the minds of most of those men and women, MPs from across the country and all parties, when they head into meetings. So it's an interesting conversation once again. The Moore-Butts conversations are always interesting. James Moore, former Conservative Cabinet Minister, Gerald Butts, former Principal Secretary to Justin Trudeau,

check their partisanship at the door and have their conversation. So we'll look forward to that tomorrow. A reminder, Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern is the deadline for answering your question for this week. And the question for this week is much simpler than the last ones for the last couple of weeks. It's about winter. What's the single best thing

about winter in Canada for you? Name, location, and a nice, tight, short answer. Let me understand what it is about winter that you like that's it for now I'm Peter Mansbridge looking forward to talking to you again tomorrow which is when we'll be back in 24 hours music music