Your World Tonight - Liberal leadership race deadline, America first at Davos, surgery preparation and more

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

The field is set in the race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader and Prime Minister. Today was the deadline for candidates to submit their paperwork. They now face a 45-day sprint before the party votes, with opposition parties circling, and a possible federal election to follow. We break down those who are in and out.Also: America first. Donald Trump faces the World Economic Forum for the first time since his return to the White House and takes his grievances to a global audience – and tells business leaders – make your products in the U.S., or face punishing tariffs.And: The benefits of ‘prehab.’ The Canadian based findings that may help lead to a speedier recovery for some surgery patients.Plus: The housing struggle facing some Jasper, Alberta residents after the fires; the controversy over Oscar-favourite Emilia Pérez; and more.

Some people say the end is near. Some say that it's already here. Wildfires across Canada are burning hotter and faster than ever. I'm Adrienne Lamb, the host of the podcast World on Fire. We'll meet the reporters who run towards the danger and hear the stories of their harrowing escapes and finding resilient communities. That's World on Fire, wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a CBC Podcast. It can be overwhelming, stressful, exciting, but also very energizing at times, all in the same breath. Liberal leadership hopefuls catching their breath and ready to race. It's deadline day for candidates vying to replace Justin Trudeau, just in time to take on the opposition in a federal election. As the field takes shape, we're getting a clearer picture of who's in and who's backing them. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner.

It is Thursday January 23rd coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast. I called for the Prime Minister and asked the federal government to immediately approve the Energy East project. With a potential tariff nightmare getting closer some Canadian leaders are having pipe dreams. For decades, this country's network for delivering oil has flowed primarily south. But with the White House putting America first, there's a new push for pipelines that cross Canada

instead of the border. And they're off. Candidates who want to become the next Liberal leader had until this afternoon to submit their paperwork and enter the race. Now they have 45 days to win over fellow Liberals and try to become the next Prime Minister. Rafi Boujikaneen reports. I have just left the party office. In the middle of a snow-covered downtown Ottawa Street, Karina Gould, the Liberals' former House leader, makes it official. I deposited my papers to be an official candidate in the upcoming leadership race. The 37-year-old joins a crowded field, including former

back-of-canada Governor Mark Carney and former finance minister Christia Freeland, but Gould says she has the grassroots helping her out. We need to empower our regions, our provinces, our people on the ground. When it comes to endorsements by caucus though, they're lining up by the dozens behind Freeland and Carney. Most cabinet ministers who are publicly backing a candidate are supporting Carney, once governor to both the banks of Canada and England in turn, but never before someone who's held elected office. People in Gatineau and across Canada are telling me they want a coherent vision for economic growth.

One of his latest supporters, Labour and Employment Minister Stephen MacKinnon. I believe Mark Carney offers us the best hope. Freeland, as if to emphasize her bid, arrived to the Liberal Caucus meeting flanked by two cabinet members supporting her. For me, a huge emphasis is going to be reviving the party, reviving the grass roots of the party, reviving a real democratization process in the party. In these early days she has tried to distance herself from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying she would get rid of the consumer carbon tax and the

capital gains tax, but she has also leaned in on her experience as finance minister. She insists she is the one to take on US President Donald Trump in a trade war because she has dealt with him during his first tenure renegotiating NAFTA. This country is not broken. But it does need experienced leadership and a real plan. Trump is fast becoming the focus as well for Carney. He had no planned public appearances today, but put out this ad trying to connect the US president to the leader of the opposition conservatives here. You can't stand up to Trump when you're working from his playbook.

Pierre Poliev has been a politician his entire life. Despite the conservatives' overwhelming popularity in electoral polls, the liberal leadership race has attracted multiple other contenders, including current MPs Jaime Batiste and Chandra Arya, along with former members of parliament Frank Bayliss and Ruby Dalla and anti-abortion businessman Michael Clarke. Whoever wins this race in early March will likely be headed off to a general election months, if not weeks later. Rafi Boudjikani on CBC News, Arwa.

Watching all of this closely, Catherine Cullen, host of CBC Radio's The House. Catherine, this race is happening at warp speed. It's now being billed as a clash of two front runners. How is that fact shaping the race? Well, Susan, frankly, both Mark Carney and Christia Freeland had some bumps right out of the gate. At his launch, he gave a stilted speech, apparently because of teleprompter problems, and Christia Freeland's launch was interrupted repeatedly by protesters and she seemed thrown off. But most liberals I speak to acknowledge that Carney has got the edge. His big boost is that he was on The Daily Show. Interestingly, he's also outpacing

Freeland in terms of liberal caucus support, even though he never sat in that caucus. And even Freeland's close colleagues around the cabinet table are supporting Carney in greater numbers. Still, Carney is an unproven commodity in politics. He'll have to do interviews that aren't with American late-night hosts, but journalists who will likely be less friendly when pressing him for answers. There are also likely to be debates too, a chance to see the candidates who get approved by the party go head to head. You say debates, meaning there will likely be one in French. How important is that? How could that affect the race? Well, some of Mark Carney's

supporters acknowledge his French still needs a bit of work, whereas Freeland gave her first interview in very fluid French. This matters, or at least has the potential to matter more in the Liberal Party because it is such a long-standing proponent of official bilingualism. Now, the race is happening so quickly, we don't have the details about the debates or even actually an iron-clad commitment to hold them, but there's at least one place Carney has a potential advantage in Quebec. He was endorsed by Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie, who is said to have a formidable political organization in Quebec and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, also well known in the province.

There are a lot of seats in Quebec, so having the organizing edge there could be significant. And Catherine, two non-liberal names hang heavily over this race. How are they affecting things? Donald Trump is everywhere. And Freeland wants to make standing up to him the ballot issue in this race. It's because she's got a track record of going toe to toe with the Trump administration in the last NAFTA renegotiation. So she is making this a virtue.

But at the end of the day, the liberals, like all political parties, want to win or at least not lose as badly. So the odds are the question will be who can take the fight best to Pierre Poliev. Even as the liberals focus on this race, he is out doing campaign style events. He's crisscrossing the country and he's putting out a lot of online content attacking all the contenders in the Liberal leadership race. Thank you, Catherine. Thank you.

The CBC's Catherine Cullen in Ottawa. Coming up on the podcast, Donald Trump takes his tear of threats against Canada to a bigger stage and tosses in new demands. The roadblocks and heartbreak of trying to rebuild Jasper post-fire and how the right prep for surgery can help recovery. U.S. President Donald Trump has taken his threats against Canada to an international audience in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Trump once again claimed Canada trades unfairly with the US and in a surprise move that could have major impact here, he demanded NATO members drastically raise their defense spending.

Paul Hunter reports from Washington. One thing we're going to be demanding is we're going to be demanding respect from other nations. Canada on the global stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, albeit among a litany of other comments, Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years. Donald Trump's reiteration of his threats against Canada brought gasps from those in the crowd. He vastly overstated the US trade deficit with Canada, suggested again that he'd be fine with Canada as the 51st state, but he underlined, on trade, if Canada doesn't do his bidding, his bottom line seems to be the US could simply stop buying.

We don't need them to make our cars and they make a lot of them. We don't need their lumber because we have our own forests, etc. etc. We don't need their oil and gas. We have more than anybody. Appearing by video link, Trump took another shot at Canada and all NATO countries, calling on them to massively expand their targeted spending on defense. I'm also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, which is what it should have been years ago.

And to all countries that threat by now familiar to Canadians. Tariffs on goods imported for sale in America. My message to every business in the world is very simple. Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth. But if you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff. We are ready to respond. On the threats threats to Canada Prime Minister Trudeau today.

Our efforts are first and foremost to make sure that tariffs don't come on Canada. It would be bad for Canada, yes, but it would also be bad for American consumers. But for Trump that was all just for starters. He also said he wants oil prices and interest rates to come down, that he wants to work with Russia and China to reduce nuclear weaponry worldwide, and said he's asking Saudi Arabia to invest a trillion dollars in the U.S. But also today, a setback for Trump, a judge in Washington state pausing Trump's executive order ending so-called birthright citizenship, calling it blatantly

unconstitutional. And finally, he signed yet more executive orders, including an unusual one, declassifying government documents on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. A lot of people are waiting for this. We're along for years, for decades. Everything will be revealed, he said. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. After years of stalemate over pipeline projects,

Trump's tariff threats appear to have sparked an energy rethink. Currently, more than 90 percent of Canadian energy exports are headed to the U.S. There's now a lot of talk about getting oil to other markets to protect this country's energy security. Evan Dyer tells us more. I called for the the Prime Minister and asked that the federal government to immediately approve the Energy East project. Nova Scotia's Tim Houston says his province wants a pipeline. There was support from a number of premiers on that as well. New Randswick's premier Susan Holt says she also wants to take a second look at the plan to reuse an old gas pipeline that crosses north of the Great Lakes

to get Western oil to eastern Canada and ultimately to markets overseas. Pipelines are having a moment and not just on the East Coast. Western oil to Eastern Canada and ultimately to markets overseas. Pipelines are having a moment and not just on the East Coast. I was a person that really fought against the Northern Gateway pipeline. On Tuesday, B.C.'s Grand Chief Stuart Phillip appeared to change his mind about the pipeline, which would have shipped Albertan oil to the Pacific. I would suggest that if we don't build that kind of infrastructure, Trump will. After receiving blowback from other Indigenous leaders, Philip walked back his comments,

but the message had been heard. Ten years ago, the watchword was continental energy security, the idea that Canada could protect itself from future threats by becoming more interconnected with the U.S US oil analyst Rory Johnston of Commodity Context. If it's easier to push a pipeline through the US border, if it's cheaper, if there's less political blowback than going through BC or Quebec, well, it was a no brainer because our closest ally through all of history would never impose a punitive tariff on us. That's crazy talk.

And yet here we are. This has kind of recentered the strategic value of Western Canadian production in the minds of Eastern Canadians, in the minds of politicians in Ottawa, to understand that, okay, maybe there is some grand East-West bargain that can be reached. That bargain would involve committing to help Alberta get its oil to the East or West Coast or both. Already, the Trans Mountain expansion has proved its value by raising prices for Western heavy crude. But TMX can only handle about a quarter of the volume of crude Canada ships to U.S. refineries. Oil analyst Joe Kalman of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says there's

room for more. Telling the people of Alberta, telling the government of Alberta, like, I know this is going to hurt, but we will support a further expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Start talking about Energy East, not only for bringing Canadian oil to Europe and elsewhere in the world, but also as a way to diversify away from the Line 5 pipeline, which is a major energy security risk. Currently, the only pipelines that connect Alberta to central Canada are Line 5 and Line 78, both of which run through Michigan. A 1977 treaty technically forbids the US from shutting them off, but it would be a mistake to put much faith in laws or treaties when dealing with Trump, says Johnston. Doing that would violate a whole number

of bilateral treaties, but also like the imposition of these tariffs is itself a violation of USMCA. And so I think the rules are off. Pipelines take years to build, says Kalman, and won't be an immediate fix. Even if we're saying it'll take five years, the best time to start a five-year-long project is right now. No tariff has yet been imposed, but Trump's threats are already changing Canadian attitudes about future dealings with the U.S. Evan Dyer, CBC News, Ottawa. California lawmakers have approved more than two

and a half billion dollars in funding to help Los Angeles recover from its recent fires. The funding will help with state disaster response efforts such as evacuations, sheltering survivors and rebuilding. Ongoing fires across LA have killed at least 28 people and destroyed thousands of homes and other structures. A red flag warning for dangerous fire weather remains in effect for parts of LA through Friday morning. Rain is forecast for the weekend, but with that comes the threat of mudslides.

The flames have long been extinguished in Jasper, but the rebuild of the Alberta town is just getting started. Tomorrow marks six months since a massive wildfire destroyed hundreds of homes there, and displaced residents are running out of time. As Julia Wong tells us, a disagreement about temporary housing could leave them stranded. How has your family been able to fit in here? We manage it somehow.

It's a tight squeeze for Diana Danatz's family of four inside a one-bedroom Jasper hotel suite, a big change from the five-bedroom house she lost in last summer's wildfire. My kids sleep here in this bedroom. And then we sleep on the couch or the pullout couch. Jumping from hotel to hotel the last six months, Danette had been looking forward to temporary housing promised by the province.

But now that may not be coming. And Danette says she has to be out of her hotel by the end of April. The uncertainty is overwhelming. The Alberta government offered roughly $100 million to build permanent single detached houses. But the town says there's only room for 60 of those units on the land set aside by Parks Canada. It says it needs high density interim housing for more than 600 households.

To our right hand side here is one of the four parcels of land that has been allocated for interim housing purposes. Michael Fark is Jasper's director of recovery. All that work has been done underground, everything's been roughed in? That's correct, yes. So then the only thing really that's needed for this site to get up and running is? For the houses to arrive. The Alberta government says more land should be made available but Fark says suitable space in Jasper is limited and it's hard to expand the town's footprint because it's inside a national park. Alberta's Community Services Minister Jason Nixon says the province isn't budging from its offer.

If we don't have a project that meets those requirements, then this money can't be spent. He says if the money isn't spent on housing, it's off the table. Farke says it's urgent they find a solution for the tourist town. If we don't have housing, there isn't going to be enough staff. So there will be significantly less capacity to support those visitors when they come. In a statement, Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeau says he's coordinating with Parks Canada and focused on building interim housing, and he wants to collaborate with the Alberta government. Oh, this is Peach.

As for Danette, she hopes the stalemate comes to an end, fast. We just need help to bridge this gap and rebuild our stability. Which is what she really crazed after a tumultuous six months. Julia Wong, CBC News, Jasper, Alberta. Many Canadians are all too familiar with spending months waiting for surgery. New data today shows how patients can benefit by spending that time getting stronger and healthier before their operation. It's a concept called prehab. And as we hear from CBC health reporter Mike Crawley, the number of Canadian hospitals offering prehab programs is growing.

Bend the knees a bit, yeah. Hips back, there you go. A kinesiologist works Paul Kennedy through an exercise with a resistance band. Squeeze the shoulder blades back here. Got to breathe too. A 73-year-old Kennedy, a former CBC Radio host, is due for open heart surgery next month in Toronto.

Feel the muscles in the hips. He began this exercise regime six months ago as part of the hospital's prehab program. My endurance is infinitely better than it was. Everything's better. I'm in better shape for the operation. The idea that patients do better with surgery when they're stronger and healthier makes intuitive sense. Now a Canadian study is putting some hard figures on the benefits of

prehab. So having surgery is stressful on your body. Dr. Dan McKisick is an anesthesiologist and scientist at the Ottawa Hospital. He likens surgery to a long-distance race. I don't know anybody who'd decide to go out next weekend, run a half marathon without doing any prep. McKisick led research that's newly published in the medical journal BMJ. Looking at more than 15,000 surgical patients in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. It found that prehab programs to improve strength and nutrition brought a 40 to 50 percent reduction in surgical complications

and on average one fewer day spent recovering in hospital. Very very promising results. McKisick wants patients to take note of the findings. We hope this data can be motivating to get them moving before surgery, improving their diet before surgery. While the study shows how prehab programs are good for patients, shorter hospital stays and fewer surgical complications also benefit the health system.

They're not coming back to the emergency. They're not being readmitted post surgery. Selina Schiefbergdahl is a kinesiology professor at McGill University. A dollar in the investment in the prehab might actually end up with a greater amount of saving at the end. More and more Canadian hospitals are running surgical prehab programs. Dr. Daniel Santamina leads one of them at Toronto's University Health Network. We're trying to target those who are most likely to benefit and those tend to be those who are frail or have a complex

surgery with a higher risk of complication. Inhale as you lift, exhale as you lower. Even if every hospital in the country offered pre-hab to everyone with scheduled surgery, it's up to patients like Kennedy to put in the country offered prehab to everyone with scheduled surgery, it's up to patients like Kennedy to put in the work. I'm not as rigorous as I was at first. Still, he's certain that he's now far more physically prepared for his surgery than he was before.

Mike Crowley, CBC News, Toronto. Canada's Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to Quebec's secularism law. Bill 21 bans civil servants from wearing religious symbols at work. Opponents say it violates charter rights. Supporters, including Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchette, calls the legislation legitimate and says the federal government should not get involved. We do not mind this debate being held in the Supreme Court of Canada. We do mind that every Canadian Federalist Party

supports the idea to use the money of Quebecers against Quebec. Bill 21 was enacted in 2019. Quebec's government invoked the notwithstanding clause to shield the legislation from court challenges. It argues the law is essential to preserving French-Canadian values. invoked the notwithstanding clause to shield the legislation from court challenges, it argues the law is essential to preserving French-Canadian values. Emilia Perez is a film that's difficult to describe. A musical, in Spanish, about the

head of a crime cartel family. Now you can add another descriptor, Oscar nominee, after the film racked up record breaking number of Oscar nominations this morning. But as Eli Glasner reports, many of the communities the film celebrates are not impressed. For our final category. Our final category. I cannot wait. It's the day Hollywood waits for and one film was heard. Amelia Perez.

Again. Carla Sofia Gascon in Amelia Perez. And again. And Zoe Saldana in Amelia Perez. When it was all said and done, Amelia Perez made history, racking up 13 nominations, including Carla Sofia Gascon

as the first openly transgender best actress nominee. A remarkable accomplishment for a Spanish language musical about a drug cartel boss who undergoes gender-affirming surgery. The joy for me was that first seven minutes and going, what am I watching? Critic Terri Hart still remembers the feeling of her first screening. Dancing, Zoe Saldana, it truly was one of the most refreshing movie experiences I've had in a long time. It's a film she keeps coming back to. I think the emotional trajectory of all of the characters

is what got me. While Amelia Perez has been performing well on the awards circuit, not everyone is on board. I was just truly aghast watching this for the first time. Sarah Ty Black is one of many in the trans community who see the film as a step backwards. Just such a regression into these stereotypes about trans people, especially trans women that we've seen on screen for decades. So to see particularly that aspect of the film to be lauded has been really,

I will say, exhausting. Exhausting as a trans critic, myself. They say the film's obsession with genitalia and surgery is harmful and point it comes out at a time when other films, such as I Saw the TV Glow, do a better job. It's really been a landmark year for trans directors, for trans characters on film, and it's such a slap in the face to see Emilia Perez dominate the conversation when it's so... It just does not care.

But there's another community frustrated by Emilia Perez. It's incredible because somehow the film has united Mexico. Everyone seems to hate it. While the film is set mainly in Mexico, it features few Mexican actors and was shot in a French studio. Ricardo Gallegos Ramos is a critic in Mexico City who says the performance of Zoe Zaldana and Selena Gomez are going viral in a bad way.

She's unintelligible. Literally people are asking for subtitles. Ramos says the film traffics in stereotypes and points out a scene where Emilia's son says she smells like mezcal and guacamole. This is some Speedy Gonzales level racism going on in this movie. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. going on in this movie. In a recent interview with CNN, Emilia Peres director Jacques Aurillard apologized, saying cinema doesn't provide answers, it only asks questions. But as the Oscars approach, it remains to be seen if Emilia is the answer they're looking for.

Eli Glaster, CBC News, Toronto. Finally we close with something to watch out for in the waters of the South Atlantic. I will take you out the door. There's an iceberg over that way. You have to have a very healthy respect for the ice because if you don't, it will get you. And it does, it does make things a lot more tricky. British Sea Captain Simon Wallace knows how to spot potential hazards

and this one is hard to miss. The largest iceberg in the world is on the move. Known as A23A, nearly the size of Prince Edward Island, taller than the Eiffel Tower and visible from space, the icy behemoth broke off an Antarctic ice shelf in 1986 but for for decades, it didn't do much, stuck on the sea floor, until about two years ago when it started drifting. Now it's on a crash course with the island of South Georgia. Only about 20 people live on the remote British territory,

but chunks of ice could threaten seal and penguin populations there. There's no stopping the iceberg, but scientists like Laura Taylor are learning from it. It's unlikely that A23A was caused by climate change because it carved a long time ago in 1986. But as climate change progresses and the ice sheets become more unstable,

more giant icebergs will form. So being able to see icebergs like this and study them allows us to understand the impact that they're going to have on the ocean and everything around them. It's also possible that A23A will miss South Georgia and just keep drifting. In that scenario warmer waters will gradually break the iceberg apart into smaller chunks, the size of cities and football stadiums. Thank you for joining us.

This has been Your World Tonight for Thursday, January 23rd. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.