• A viewer's guide to U.S. election night
    Nov 5 2024

    It’s been an incredibly tight race between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump ahead of today's U.S. election.


    The winner is expected to be decided by razor-thin margins in seven battleground states: Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.


    From understanding the path to victory, to the value of the blue wall states, to the final stretch of the campaigns, CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter guides us through what to consider while watching the U.S election results come in.


    For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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    21 mins
  • What’s up with these political polls?
    Nov 4 2024

    With the U.S. election just a day away and a Canadian one that could be called very soon, we’re all spending a lot of time talking about polls.


    But how exactly do they work and what happens when they get it wrong? Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe won another majority government for the Saskatchewan Party despite some polls beforehand showing the NDP in the lead. And famously, the polls highly underestimated Donald Trump’s voter base in both 2016 and 2020.


    So to better understand the ins and outs of the polling business and the challenges of adapting it to changing habits and politics, we’re talking to David Coletto, founder and CEO of Abacus Data.


    For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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    24 mins
  • Front Burner Presents: The Flamethrowers Ep. 6
    Nov 2 2024

    Donald Trump takes the style, tactics, and issues straight from the right-wing radio playbook. The only question now is: Where does it go from here?


    This is episode 6 — the final episode — of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling.


    Listen to the full series here.


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    50 mins
  • An undecided Palestinian Democrat in Michigan
    Nov 1 2024

    In the Democratic presidential primaries in Michigan earlier this year, rather than voting for Joe Biden, more than 100,000 people marked “uncommitted” on their ballots. It was an anti-war protest, meant to send a message to Biden to make a permanent ceasefire happen in the war in Gaza — or risk losing those voters in November.


    That campaign spread nationally. And while Biden is no longer the Democratic candidate, the Uncommitted movement is still going — even though it has garnered significant controversy.


    Nowhere does this matter more than in Uncommitted’s home state of Michigan. Not just because it’s a key battleground where the election may be won on razor-thin margins, but also because Michigan’s significant Arab and Muslim communities are crucial voting blocs in the state.


    Our guest today, Rima Mohammad, is a Palestinian-American from Michigan, and a lifelong Democrat. She was also a delegate representing the Uncommitted movement at the Democratic National Convention. She tells us about the disillusionment many Arabs and Muslims are feeling with Kamala Harris and her campaign, and why she worries the Democrats may have reached a “point of no return” with many in her community.


    For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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    27 mins
  • Why did Elon Musk go all in on Trump?
    Oct 31 2024

    As recently as 2022, billionaire Elon Musk was saying that Donald Trump should "hang up his hat & sail into the sunset." But in recent months, Musk has become one of the most influential supporters of Trump's campaign to regain the presidency, from appearances at rallies to millions of his own dollars in funding.


    What prompted his change of heart? And how much might it have to do with the relationship his companies like Tesla, SpaceX and StarLink have with the U.S. government — both in terms of contracts and investigations into regulatory breaches?


    Washington Post technology reporter Trisha Thadani explains why Musk is all in on Trump, and what he stands to gain from a second Trump presidency.


    For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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    22 mins
  • The state of the U.S. presidential race
    Oct 30 2024

    The 2024 U.S. presidential election is happening on Tuesday.


    With six days left, the New Republic's senior editor, Alex Shephard, is here to take the temperature of the race. What are presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris pitching in this last week of the campaign? Where are they focusing their efforts? What issues and revelations could make a difference in these final days of a race most pollsters say is too close to call?


    For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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    33 mins
  • Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach faces slew of sex assault charges
    Oct 29 2024

    As CEO of Magna International, a global leader in auto parts manufacturing, Frank Stronach was a big deal in the business world. In the ‘80s alone, the company’s sales grew twelvefold, to over a billion dollars annually.


    Stronach would go on to be praised by prime ministers and presidents. He received the Order of Canada, and even started his own political party in Austria. You can find his name on many landmarks near Aurora, Ontario, where he used to preside over Magna.


    But in June of this year Stronach was arrested on five sex crime charges. Police laid more in the following months, and by October, Stronach's charge sheet had grown to 18 criminal counts. The alleged offences date from 1977 to this year, and involve 13 women.

    Stronach categorically denies all the allegations.


    Mark Kelley has been reporting on the Stronach case for the CBC’s Fifth Estate, and interviewed Stronach twice for the investigation. You can stream “Stronach: Power and Silence” now on YouTube.


    For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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    27 mins
  • Lessons from the last federal Liberal mutiny
    Oct 28 2024

    As we approach the deadline set by dissenting members of Liberal caucus for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign, we look back at the last time there was a mutiny against a once popular Liberal Prime Minister.


    It’s the year 2002 and after successfully winning three majority governments, Jean Chrétien has several members of his party come out and urge him to resign, throwing their support behind his recently fired finance minister, Paul Martin. In the backroom, pulling the strings for Martin were political strategists, David Herle and Scott Reid.


    Herle and Reid join us to talk about how they did it, what’s changed about party politics since then and why taking Trudeau down might be much more difficult.


    For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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    30 mins