Prime Minister Mark Carney just returned from Beijing with a landmark trade deal—49,000 Chinese EVs at 6.1% tariffs in exchange for China dropping duties on Canadian canola. One year after calling China the "biggest threat" to Canada, Carney now speaks of a "new strategic partnership" and a "new world order."

But this isn't just about cars and canola. As the U.S.-China AI race intensifies, Canada's pivot toward Beijing raises urgent questions about data sovereignty, connected vehicle security, and where Canadian AI policy fits in a fragmenting global order.

In this episode: the deal's details, the political reactions (Trump called it "a good thing"), the controversial "new world order" moment, China's updated Cybersecurity Law, EVs as "rolling data centers," and why the Canadian AI community should be paying attention to this story—even if they aren't yet.

TIMECODES

[0:00] Intro - Carney's Beijing trip and deal overview

[2:30] The Deal - 49,000 EVs, canola tariffs, visa-free travel

[5:00] The Reaction - Ford, Moe, Trump's surprising endorsement

[6:30] The "New World Order" Moment - Carney's controversial phrase

[8:00] What This Means for AI - U.S.-China competition, Canada's position

[10:30] The Data Sovereignty Question - Cloud Act vs China's Cybersecurity Law

[12:30] The Electric Vehicle Angle - EVs as data collectors, Bill C-27's death

[14:00] The Talent and Investment Question - Chinese investment, IP concerns

[15:30] What to Watch - USMCA review, data governance, AI community response

[17:00] The Takeaway - Canada's bet and unanswered questions

SOURCES

• CBC News (January 15-17, 2026)
• Al Jazeera (January 16, 2026)
• CNBC (January 17, 2026)
• NPR (January 16, 2026)
• Government of Canada Backgrounder (January 16, 2026)
• Global News (January 17, 2026)
• Bloomberg (January 16-17, 2026)
• Japan Times (January 16, 18, 2026)
• Globe and Mail (January 16, 2026)
• Council on Foreign Relations (January 2026)
• Atlantic Council (January 15, 2026)
• IAPP (January 2026)
• US Commerce Department (February 2024)
• X posts: George Magnus, Danielle Smith, Doug Ford

Tax season 2026 brings new AI tools—and new AI scams. The CRA's Charlie chatbot got a $18M generative AI upgrade, but how do you know which AI tools to trust?

In 2024, Canadians lost over $638 million to fraud, with AI making scams harder to spot. Voice cloning now takes just 3 seconds of audio. Deepfakes fooled an Ontario man out of $12,000 using fake Trudeau videos. One Hong Kong company lost $25 million to a deepfake video conference.

This episode covers: CRA's AI chatbot accuracy and limitations, how voice cloning and deepfake scams work, who's most at risk (newcomers, seniors, everyone), protecting yourself from AI-powered phishing, what to share (and not share) with AI chatbots, why Bill C-27 died and what regulators are doing now, and practical steps to stay safe this tax season.

Scammers are ready. Make sure you are too.

Timecodes: 0:00 Introduction: Tax season meets AI 0:45 CRA's Charlie Chatbot: $18M upgrade explained 2:30 The AI scam landscape: $638M stolen in 2024 3:45 Voice cloning & deepfake threats 4:50 Who's most at risk 5:40 How to protect yourself 7:15 What regulators are (and aren't) doing 8:15 Practical steps for 2026 8:50 Final takeaway

Canada's AI ministry used AI to analyze 11,300+ public consultation responses—despite internal warnings it could "further undermine public trust." This episode unpacks what happened when the federal government turned to Cohere, OpenAI, and Anthropic to parse feedback on Canada's AI strategy, and why critics say the entire process was designed to prioritize industry over public concerns.

We cover the leaked November briefing note from Associate Deputy Minister Mark Schaan, the controversy around the 28-person industry-heavy task force, and why major issues like Indigenous consultation and environmental impact barely registered in the government's questions. From Kevin O'Leary's $70 billion Wonder Valley project on Treaty 8 land to the transparency questions around how AI actually analyzed your responses, this is the story of who really gets heard when Canada shapes AI policy.

The strategy drops any day now. By then, it becomes policy.

EPISODE TAGS/KEYWORDS

Canada AI strategy, Evan Solomon, government consultation, AI policy, Indigenous rights, digital sovereignty, OpenMedia, public trust, Ministry of AI, consultation process, Wonder Valley, Kevin O'Leary, Treaty 8, AI governance, transparency

EPISODE CATEGORY

News & Politics / Technology

TIMECODES

0:00 - Intro: AI analyzing AI feedback 0:45 - The breaking news from National Observer 2:15 - Internal government concerns revealed 3:45 - The bigger pattern: industry-captured consultation 5:30 - Wonder Valley: consultation without consultation 6:45 - The trust problem and transparency questions 7:30 - What to watch as strategy drops 8:15 - The takeaway: who really decides?

Canada is spending billions on AI infrastructure—data centres, compute capacity, sovereign clouds. But what if we're building the wrong thing?

In this episode, we examine a growing debate in Canadian AI policy. Daniel Wigdor argues that Canada's focus on data centres misses the bigger opportunity: building AI applications and companies. Mark Doble warns that billions spent on hyperscale infrastructure will soon face scrutiny. Meanwhile, globally, hyperscalers are spending $527 billion on AI infrastructure while generating only $25 billion in AI revenue—a gap that has investors nervous.

We break down the applied computing argument, Canada's IP drain problem (75% of AI patents go to tech giants), and whether Ottawa's infrastructure-first strategy will leave us as landlords in someone else's AI economy.

Plus: what to watch in 2026 as this debate intensifies.

TIMECODE TABLE OF CONTENTS:

0:00 - Introduction 0:45 - The Critique: Wigdor's Challenge to Infrastructure Spending 2:15 - The Applied Computing Argument 3:45 - The Counterargument: Government's Defense 4:30 - The Global Context: $527B Spending vs. $25B Revenue 5:45 - The Talent and IP Question 6:45 - What to Watch in 2026 7:30 - The Takeaway 8:15 - Outro

Canada wants digital sovereignty. OpenAI says it wants to help. But is that a contradiction in terms?

In this episode, we unpack the tension at the heart of Canadian AI policy. OpenAI's Chris Lehane came to Toronto pitching partnership, warning Canada not to become "the Maine of AI." Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney has committed billions to a sovereign Canadian cloud. The problem? The U.S. Cloud Act means American companies can be compelled to hand over data regardless of where it's stored.

We look at Cohere's $240 million federal deal that flows to American infrastructure, Microsoft's $7.5 billion "sovereignty" pledge, and what AI Minister Evan Solomon means when he says "sovereignty is not solitude."

Plus: why Europe's GAIA-X failed, what Guillaume Beaumier says about the legal realities, and four things to watch as this debate unfolds.

NVIDIA's Jensen Huang announces the Rubin platform at CES 2026, promising a tenfold reduction in AI token costs — just as Canada rolls out its $2.4 billion sovereign compute strategy. We break down the federal government's $42.5 million investment in the University of Toronto's SciNet supercomputer, Minister Evan Solomon's response to the global X and Grok deepfake controversy, and why private players like IREN are racing to build GPU capacity in British Columbia. Plus, what Satya Nadella and Sam Altman are saying about the compute arms race — and what it means for Canada's AI ambitions.