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The midterms deliver a rebuke too big to rig, Pete Fry is sworn in as mayor, and Ottawa tables a budget with a deficit north of $60+ billion. Jody Vance and George Affleck on Episode 345: The pendulum swings: Texas elects a Democrat to the Senate, and a president who is still in office for two more years.George's prediction: Saudi oil floods the market, gas drops before 2028, and JD Vance takes the Republican nomination.Resignations, breaks with Trump, and a post-election speech about anything but the election.Pete Fry is sworn in at the Orpheum, and four new councillors stand silent through O Canada.Fry's message to a council with no majority: work together for the city.Will the first motions be about Vancouver, or about everything but Vancouver?A new park board, the gavel back to Tom Digby, and the fight to keep pools open.Budget day: capital versus operating spending, explained like a mortgage.Pipelines, power, and the price of a new world order after the EU-Canada summit.Why West Coast projects will probably land on the taxpayer.River Crossing: why it has to be a bridge, with SkyTrain to Delta and a bike lane.Jennifer Whiteside steps in as interim BC NDP leader. Is it Ravi Kahlon's turn, or Brad West's?How would BC Conservatives vote in America? Why it all comes back to the middle.The new BC legislature is sworn in November 19, with cabinet announced November 20.Subscribe for weekly Vancouver, BC and national politics with zero spin. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Lorne Doerkson's Conservatives win a two-thirds majority, Vancouver swears in a left-leaning council, and the US midterms are five days out. Jody Vance and George Affleck on Episode 344: Eby's snap election backfires: the seat count bets, and Christy Clark called it at 60 plusLynne Block's long shot in North Vancouver-Seymour pays offHow the Conservatives really won: not a blue wave of new voters, but NDP voters staying homeFirst Conservative government in a century, same centre-right ground the BC Liberals heldWould a later election have changed anything? Why Caroline Elliott would have been a different raceDoerkson's first test: denouncing white supremacists outside the legislature, without pauseVancouver voted yes on the plebiscite and still elected a left-wing council. What gives?Pete Fry sworn in Monday, Rebecca Bligh on the transition, and the six votes that could set the agendaA pension that kicks in by one day, and two terms is long enough for anyoneJamie Stein thanks the MLA he defeated, and why that is the politics we needFive days to the US midterms: where is Congress, and can the states hold the line?Bill Maher, Karoline Leavitt and a 1,300-word post, plus Obama's Cheesecake Factory lineTexas: Talarico leads Paxton, so why SE Cupp says do not count Paxton outPete Fry and the new Vancouver council are sworn in Monday, November 2. US midterms are Tuesday, November 3. Subscribe for weekly Vancouver, BC and national politics with zero spin. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Pete Fry sweeps Vancouver, ABC is down to one councillor, two thirds vote yes on the plebiscite, and the provincial vote lands Saturday. Jody Vance and George Affleck on Episode 343: Pete Fry wins big: Vancouver's first Green mayor, more than 30,000 votes ahead of Ken Sim on record turnout.Why this was a vote to throw a government out, and the youth vote that went straight down the ballot.A council with no majority: five Green votes, four COPE, and OneCity's Lucy Maloney and ABC's Mike Klassen holding the balance.What a hard swing actually changes inside City Hall, and whether COPE ends up playing opposition.Vancouver went left, the region went right: Doug McCallum back in Surrey, Daniel Fontaine in New West, Kirk LaPointe in West Van, upsets in Delta and Richmond, and Brad West at 90% in PoCo.The plebiscite: more than two thirds say yes on public drug use and secure care at the old St. Paul's. A waste of money, or cheap polling at about two bucks a ballot?.Pete Fry's middle path: there is more red tape to open a bar than a consumption site, and that has to change.The Conservatives' EBY to BYE ad, and why George calls it the smartest creative of the campaign.Prediction markets favour the Conservatives, but the momentum is drifting toward the NDP.Surrey decides it: a half-built hospital, SkyTrain to Newton and pavement politics.Jody's call for Saturday: a minority government.Carney takes trade and defence to Türkiye, the federal budget lands November 5, and the US midterms come two days earlier.Provincial election day is Saturday, October 24. Subscribe for weekly Vancouver, BC and national politics with zero spin. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

The BC leaders' debate lands no knockout punches, Vancouver posts record early turnout, and the mayor's race comes down to two. Jody Vance and George Affleck on Episode 342: The leaders' debate: David Eby, Lorne Doerkson and Emily Lowan, and why nobody landed the big hit.Lowan pitches herself as the balance of power, and George's Gordon Wilson lesson from 1991: why not run for premier?Ten years in power, so why are the new machines and hospitals only showing up now?Big promises, no costing: where would the Conservative cuts come from? George and Jody disagree on whether it matters.Governments lose elections, and why there are real savings to find in Victoria.Record early turnout in Vancouver, and why southeast Vancouver could decide it.Ken Sim versus Pete Fry, a possible 2018 rerun, and could ABC sweep all nine council seats?Free Kits Pool: open it when the flowers bloom, close it when the leaves fall, and find the park board candidates at freekitspool.com.Surrey, Richmond, West Vancouver, Delta and Langley Township: where the upsets could happen.Alberta votes October 19 on whether to start down the road to separation, and what that means for BC.A US president polling below George W. Bush, a White House leaning toward Russia, and the November 3 midterms.Is the American economy booming? Depends whether you own a business or sit at the kitchen table.Municipal election day is Saturday, October 17. Provincial election day is October 24. Subscribe for weekly Vancouver, BC and national politics with zero spin. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

The BC NDP comes up a candidate short, Lorne Doerkson keeps his cards close, and George calls a Conservative majority. Plus a dead heat for mayor. Jody Vance and George Affleck on Episode 341: The NDP campaign: one candidate short after a paperwork error, and why the election call came from the top.New MRIs and CT scanners now. Where were they for the last ten years?Lorne Doerkson's likability, the Vassy Kapelos interview, and the leader or front man question.SOGI 123, the UBC bullying study, and why governments cut programs that work.The ridings in play: Yaletown, South Vancouver, Surrey and maybe Eby's own Vancouver-Point Grey.Dueling tax breaks, and cutting the paperwork that buries doctors.The predictions: Jody says NDP minority, George says massive Conservative majority.Inside the polling station: a two-sided ballot, the plebiscite, and the viral video that got it wrong.Vancouver mayor: a dead heat between Ken Sim and Pete Fry, and why Rebecca Bligh drifted left.Surrey: Janet Brown runs for council and the mayor's race is wide open.Trump tells a rally Iran could take out Los Angeles and San Diego, and George calls it treason.Anne Carson wins the Nobel Prize in Literature, and Canada gets a poet's answer.Advance voting October 10 and 13. Municipal election day October 17. Provincial election day October 24. Subscribe for weekly Vancouver, BC and national politics with zero spin. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Carney and Smith green-light the Pacific Link pipeline, the BC Conservatives get election amnesia, and Vancouver's mayor race tightens as advance voting opens. Jody Vance and George Affleck on Episode 340: Pacific Link: the first project of national importance under the Building Canada Act1,250 km, shovels in the ground September 2027, and 100,000 short-term jobsRoberts Bank tankers, the north coast tanker ban, and orca protectionsEthical oil for Korea and Japan, and why the Strait of Hormuz changes everythingFirst Nations at the table, and the Alberta referendum behind the speedBC Conservatives: who leads after October 24, and why the party's infighting suddenly went quietWhy the Eby snap election question will not go awayVancouver mayor lightning round: Ken Sim, Pete Fry, Kareem Allam, Rebecca Bligh and Colleen HardwickSafety is the number one issue, and the St. Paul's "prison downtown" debateCould we see a 2018 repeat, and will Vancouver elect its first woman mayor?Free Kits Pool and the park board raceAdvance voting starts Saturday, October 3. Municipal election day October 17. Provincial election day October 24. Subscribe for weekly Vancouver, BC and national politics with zero spin. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

David Eby calls a snap election on top of the municipal vote, Lorne Doerkson steps into the spotlight, and Vancouver heads into advance voting. This week on Unspun with Jody Vance and George Affleck: Eby calls a snap election with a majority of one, and why it will be forgotten by tomorrow.Who is Lorne Doerkson? The interim BC Conservative leader, Cariboo fire fighter and former newspaper publisher.The question for Doerkson: the fringe corners of his party."Anybody but Eby" and what we should have learned from the US.John Rustad out, Elenore Sturko leads CentreBC, Andrew Weaver joins, Richard Zussman runs for the NDP.Brenda Bailey, Ravi Kahlon and Lana Popham not running again.Eby courts US health care workers from red states, and the doctor shortage in the north.Three elections in three weeks: October 17, October 24 and the US midterms November 3.Vancouver: ABC's $2.1 million war chest, the safety plebiscite, and is it down to Sim and Fry.Surrey, Richmond and the ballot draw.Park board, pools and community amenities topping the polls for the first time.Advance voting October 3, 7, 10 and 13. Municipal election day October 17. Provincial election day October 24. Subscribe for weekly Vancouver, BC and national politics with zero spin. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Mark Carney gets a VIP welcome in Europe, the US president calls the AI risk a hoax, and Vancouver voters get two plebiscite questions on the ballot. Jody Vance and George Affleck on Episode 338: Carney at the EU summit, the Nobel chatter, and a White House threatening Europe over a Canada dealAI without guardrails, and why Kara Swisher puts it beside fire, electricity and the bombCarl Sagan in 1985 calling all of this, and the reminder that we did heal the ozone layerBrampton's assembly plant, the Gibsons mill and 400 jobs, and when a bailout stops making sense$500 billion in commitments out of the Canada Summit, and data centres that come with strings attachedPrivatizing the major airports, the $200 million parking lot at YVR, and Canada Line versus BroadwayEby names a campaign manager and tells caucus to be readyAngus Reid: 51% of British Columbians feel politically orphanedVancouver's two plebiscite questions, and what a yes vote actually doesEarly voting October 3, 7, 10 and 13. Election day October 17. Subscribe for weekly Vancouver, BC and national politics with zero spin. 📬 Follow Jody: @jodyvance 📬 Follow George: @george_affleck 📬 Follow Sitka: @sitkamedia 🌐 sitkamedia.ca

Episode 337 of UnSpun with Jody Vance and George Affleck opens with counter-tariffs finally in effect and a US media campaign working to make Canada the villain. From there, it is Zelenskyy in Ottawa, a premier in a lumberjack jacket, and a Vancouver mayoral race with the filing deadline tomorrow. Here is what is inside: The Reciprocal Tariffs Are Live: Motorcycles, booze, paper products — but not oil and gas. Canada’s list is surgical. Theirs is willy-nilly. Do we counter-tariff the counter-tariffs? Enough of the Minutiae. Get Back to Work: George’s view as a business owner: we know where we stand. Stop relitigating tariffs every day and let people run their companies. Americans Are Asking What You Are Doing to Canada: Close to nine in ten do not want a trade war. So why is it still happening? We Had a Deal and Canada Walked Away: Jamieson Greer is repeating that line on US cable. But everyone in the room signed an NDA, and reported 11th-hour demands involving Canada’s trade relationships and French language were non-starters. Say It Often Enough and the Viewer Believes It: Jody on the messaging taking hold on American news. George on the rules inside Trump’s orbit. Trumpapalooza in Dallas: JD Vance, RFK Jr., Dr. Oz and more, with Trump headlining Thursday. George’s warning: never underestimate him. The FCC Comes After Jimmy Kimmel: Brendan Carr threatens the licence if Kimmel airs his James Talarico interview. Kimmel’s answer: put it on YouTube. Vote for Me and Here Is $5,000: Trump’s midterm promise comes with an enormous price tag. George compares it to political cheque promises closer to home. Zelenskyy Is in Canada: Jody and George discuss the parallels between how Washington is treating Canada and Moscow’s treatment of Ukraine — and why even unlikely threats have to be planned for. A Trillion Dollars on the Table in Toronto: Investors are gathering and even Mr. Wonderful says Canada is a good place to invest. The Mac Jacket Press Conference: A giant flag, “never the 51st state” and a rap. George’s take: voters want solutions, not comedy. Cancel the Tax Instead: John Rustad points to the October 1 PST expansion to accountants, engineers and strata companies. George says cancelling it would offer real relief. Vancouver: The Deadline Is Tomorrow: September 11 is when the mayoral field becomes official. With William Azaroff out and the left divided, polling suggests the split could return Ken Sim to City Hall. Where the NDP Machine Puts Its Money: With Azaroff gone, where does union support go? George looks at the remaining options. This Race Is About to Get Ugly: George expects ABC has spent the past year building a file on its opponents — and will use it when needed. Rebecca Bligh Stays In: Polling around 3 or 4%, Bligh has launched her platform. George questions the political logic of staying in. Pete Fry Wins Either Way: Win or lose, George argues Fry can emerge with a higher profile and potentially position himself for a future federal run. The Bottleneck Nobody Is Pricing In: Little is being submitted or built. George warns that could mean fewer housing starts today and a price spike in four years. Poilievre Tells US TV Canadians Are Wounded and Confused: George’s advice: rebuild the message and focus on winning the small battles in the House. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Episode 336 of UnSpun with Jody Vance and George Affleck starts with a trade war that has turned juvenile and ends with a Vancouver mayoral race where the deadline to file is days away and nobody wants to blink first. Here is what is inside: Walk Away From the Table: Mark Carney ordered the negotiators home from Washington. George and Jody on how a deal written in pencil turned into renamed lakes, armed goose memes and an escalation neither of them saw coming. 68% of Americans Do Not Want This Fight: Americans agree on almost nothing, and they agree on this. Roughly nine in ten Canadians say stand up to the bully. Picking a fight with your best friend is not a winning play. Assume Free Trade Is Done: George's working assumption: this is the long term, tariffs are the historical norm, and we should build everything around a pre-1990s model. If it turns out better than that, great. Two Months to the Midterms: Texas closing 92 voting places while moving against mail-in ballots. Immigration enforcement at polling stations. Suppress the vote is the dirtiest phrase in politics, and George explains the turnout math that makes it work. How Do You Lose Track of $1.5 Billion?: A gas royalty accounting error, a four-month delay, and a story that keeps changing. George's position is blunt: at any nonprofit in this province, the executive director and the board president would have been gone on day one. Nine MLAs and Counting: The BC Conservatives are shedding members by the day while the leader's office says the caucus remains focused. George is watching for the number 20, when the math flips and a new party becomes possible. The Seat That Opened Up: The allegation was that an MLA was offered a plum party job to give up their seat. It was denied, and then a seat opened up and the person who stepped aside became assistant chief of staff, then chief of staff. Third one in three weeks. September 11 and a Game of Chicken: The Vancouver filing deadline is days away. COPE's Stephanie Allen stepped aside for the good of the city. Two hours later, everyone else said they are staying in. George reads it as a standoff, and thinks the NDP machine simply will not put its money behind a Green. The Polls Are Not Measuring What You Think: Jody's catch: the summer polling asked by party name, not candidate name. A party with no declared mayoral candidate still registered. That is a manufactured progressive battle and a very useful wedge. Do Your Homework on the Candidates: Jody watched the full Stephen Quinn and Justin McElroy debates on CBC and got to know the candidates past the six o'clock soundbite. The slick candidate wins when nobody looks closer. Free Kits Pool: New designs, a mayor on side, and one simple ask for the Park Board: keep it open a month longer, no reservations, show up, pay, swim. The best days are the rainy days. Subscribe, comment, and tell us: who should be resigning over the $1.5 billion, and will anybody blink before September 11? Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Here is what is inside of Episode 335 of UnSpun with Jody Vance and George Affleck: The Trade Talks Blow Up: A week ago the US president was already selling it to his farmers. Then Carney picked up the phone and called everyone home. George and Jody on what actually happened and why nobody should be surprised. Signed in Pencil: Trump tore up NAFTA, negotiated CUSMA himself, called it the greatest deal ever, then shredded it with the ink still on the page. So what exactly would a new signature be worth? The Distraction Theory: Greenland, Venezuela, the Kennedy Center naming fight. Jody makes the case that the trade war is the shiny object keeping the news cycle off everything else. Gavin Newsom Does the Canadian Media Tour: CTV, CBC, Global, the full rounds. Rosemary Barton presses him on the obvious: Biden never removed Trump's first round of tariffs, so why would a Democratic White House remove these? His answer is the part Canadians need to hear. Tariffs Are the New Normal: George on why the US keeps reaching for tariff revenue. No appetite for income tax, no national sales tax, and a debt they cannot service. Free trade was the historical exception, not the rule. What Was Actually on the Table: Reports that Ottawa would have had to clear future trade deals with a joint board, plus first right of refusal on our minerals and potash. Hell no, says Jody. Turning Off the Taps: Winter is coming, the northeastern US runs on Ontario and Quebec power, and middle America needs our potash. Jody asks whether we would ever use it. George says weaponizing it would be a mistake. Seafood Gets a Backtrack: Tariffs on fish and seafood pulled back the morning of taping. Somebody did the math, and on both coasts that math matters. Grants, Loans and the 75% Wage Backstop: George worries subsidies blunt the very leverage the tariffs are meant to create. Jody's counter: the 75% wage coverage for a laid off Canadian worker does not exist south of the border, and that is the difference. Loblaws Puts the Canada Signs Back: The backlash worked. Read your labels, buy local, and the elbows up thing is still on us. The BC Conservatives Are Coming Apart: Down to 32 seats. Five MLAs gone in 12 days: Teresa Wat, Brennan Day, Rosalyn Bird, Peter Milobar and Ian Paton. Stated reasons: lost confidence in the leader's judgment, ethics and conduct. George's Prediction: Watch for 20: At roughly 20 departures the math flips. That is when they have the numbers to either finish Kerry-Lynne Findlay or fund a new party, and she loses official opposition status and the money that comes with it. At two a week, he puts that as early as October. The Leaked Audio: Jas Johal posts a phone call. Somebody talks about holding fundraisers, getting in there and pillaging, and not leaving without half a million dollars. Jody has watched it several times and it still curls her toes. There Are Still Good People Running: George's counterweight to the cynicism: this Vancouver civic election has a deep bench on every side. And a reminder most voters never get, you do not have to fill out the whole ballot. Vote only for the people you actually believe in. Helmcken, Yaletown and a Snap Election: The NDP walks back the overdose provention consumption site in a swing riding. George reads that as polling, and thinks Eby calls an election as early as November. If he were advising, he would say next week. Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Episode 334 of UnSpun with Jody Vance and George Affleck lands mid-negotiation, the 50% tariff deadline came and went, Trump hit pause, and Canada looks closer to a deal than it has in months. Then it's straight back to BC, where the attack ads got ugly and Vancouver is about to spend half a million dollars asking a question it can't answer itself. Here's what's inside: Trump Hits Pause on the 50% Tariffs: The deadline passed, the hammer didn't drop, and the LeBlanc–Greer press conference sounded legitimately positive. Is this a deal, or just another week of taco diplomacy? What Relief Could Look Like: Word from inside: reductions on autos, softwood lumber, steel and aluminum, plus the smaller tariffs on everything else. Including, yes, tubas and washer dryers … the "national security threats" nobody can explain. American Booze Returns to BC Shelves: Carney gets ahead of it, Eby calls it Team Canada, and Quebec's premier does her due diligence. Jody's take: put it back and still don't buy it. Keystone, Trust & a Rising Loonie: Why the pipeline's Canadian backers want congressional approval before they'd touch it, and how a stronger dollar hurts both sides like a tariff nobody voted for. Dairy on the Table: If supply management cracks, cheap American cheese comes north and Ottawa ends up subsidizing our own producers to compete. $2 cheese has a price. Loblaws Pulls the Canada Signs: The maple leaf labels are coming down across the stores. Liability cleanup or quiet retreat? Either way, it's back on us to read the label. Small Business Is Getting Hammered: Clients down in gross revenue, marketing cut first, and George and Jody on the year they've been asked to work for free more than ever. Media Cuts & the Journalism Subsidy Rumour: Big cuts underway, one-person newsrooms doing 50 jobs, and word that Canada's support for local news could be on the negotiating table. Why that should worry everyone. The BC Conservatives' Ugly Attack Video: Nazi-adjacent imagery and culture-war editing aimed at David Eby. Not funny, not clever, and not how a serious opposition behaves. Centre BC and the 5% Problem: Mike Bernier's new centrist party polls small but sits exactly where most voters live. The pundits agree on one thing: it's a threat to the BC Conservatives, not the NDP. mRNA, Cancer & the Anti-Vax Hangover: Personalized mRNA vaccines are now targeting melanoma recurrence. So where do the anti-vaxxers land when it's their cancer? Plus: the tech traces back to UBC, and Operation Warp Speed was Trump's own win. Vancouver's $500K Plebiscite: Rebecca Bligh takes aim at Ken Sim: three years to pick up the phone to the premier, and instead a non-binding vote. George argues it's about handing the next council a mandate. Jody asks the harder question … where are people actually supposed to go? Called a Murderer at City Hall: George on a 5% budget line vote and the emotional theatre that passes for municipal debate, including the meetings spent arguing over the word "institution." From a tariff truce nobody trusts to a plebiscite nobody can enforce, Episode 334 is classic UnSpun: local frustration, national stakes, zero spin. 💥 Subscribe, comment, and tell us: should American liquor go back on the shelves — and would you buy it? 📬 Follow Jody: @jodyvance 📬 Follow George: @george_affleck

Episode 333 of UnSpun with Jody Vance and George Affleck opens on a somber note, then moves through stalled trade talks, a province on fire, and a surprise ballot question coming to Vancouver this October. Here's what's inside: Remembering John “Keach” McKeachie: Jody pays tribute to the legendary BCTV sportscaster, sharing what his mentorship meant to her from her very first television broadcast. A heartfelt look back at a Vancouver broadcasting era that is quickly passing. CUSMA Talks and the Leak: With the August 19 deadline looming, negotiations appear to be stalling. George breaks down why Canada likely leaked the state of the talks, why the American offer reads like an insult, and how premiers from Ford to Moe to Smith are pulling in very different directions. The Tariff Reality: Why tariffs are really a consumer tax on Americans, why the US has no easy revenue alternative, and how Canada's surprisingly strong jobs and economic numbers are flipping expectations from just six months ago. The Ambassador Petition and US Booze: A Calgary-launched petition to declare Ambassador Hoekstra persona non grata gathers over 100,000 signatures. Plus, why putting American liquor back on the shelves won't win Canadians back until the politics change. Data Sovereignty: A look at why Canadian-based servers matter, how post-9/11 US law drove data north of the border, and why nonprofits and corporations increasingly want their data hosted in Canada. BC Wildfire State of Emergency: With 51 fires under evacuation order, Jody and George cover the devastation in Summerland, Boston Bar, Clinton and beyond, the heartbreak of evacuating care homes, and the community fire-readiness culture in the Interior. Plus the push to fund made-in-Canada water bombers out of Calgary. Climate, China and the Green Divide: Reflections on a fully electrified Chengdu, China's five-year-plan model, and what it means that major countries are backing away from climate commitments as wildfires worsen worldwide. First Nations Land and BC Polling: The controversy over Premier Eby returning parcels of land to First Nations, the fear-mongering around it, and new Yorkville polling showing the NDP now leading the BC Conservatives by six points, resuscitating Eby's political future. Vancouver's St. Paul's Plebiscite: A non-binding ballot question on turning the old St. Paul's Hospital into mental health and addiction treatment beds heads to voters in October. George explains the political calculus, ABC's war chest, and why the Kits Pool fight is shaping up as an election issue. From trade brinkmanship to a province on fire to a packed October ballot, Episode 333 has it all. Tell us in the comments: Should Canada walk away from CUSMA? And should St. Paul's become a treatment facility? Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Episode 332 of UnSpun with Jody Vance and George Affleck runs from Ottawa's tariff standoff to a new Vancouver poll that reshapes the October election, and ends with a province on fire. Here's what's inside: Carney Plays Hardball on Tariffs: Mark Carney trolls Trump's failed teleprompter and refuses to negotiate in public. With a new round of tariffs landing August 19, George lays out why there is no point signing anything with a president whose signature isn't worth the paper, and predicts aluminum is where Trump finally blinks. Canada's Numbers Are Quietly Good: Over $200 billion in new foreign investment in a single year, oil revenues climbing, and a nearly balanced budget in sight. Carney's five-year, one-trillion-dollar investment target is somehow on track, and the opposition has very little to swing at. Aluminum, Potash and Real Leverage: American manufacturers and farmers are the ones bleeding. Jody and George break down which cards Canada actually holds, from critical minerals to winter energy, and why threatening to shut off the grid is not a strategy. Carney 63 Per Cent, Poilievre 14: The Conservative leader now polls one point above "undecided." George asks the question the caucus won't: at what point does a party tell its leader the act isn't working anymore? BC Conservatives Keep Bleeding: Another executive resignation, another scorched-earth farewell letter, and a party arguing about whether to purge its former BC Liberals. George explains why that coalition is the only thing that has ever won government in this province. New Vancouver Poll: ABC 31, Liberals and Greens Tied at 19: Fresh numbers put ABC well out front, Colleen Hardwick's party capped at 14, and 30 per cent still undecided. Pete Fry leads on the leadership questions despite his party sitting third. Too Many Parties, One Obvious Fix: George's blunt advice to Vancouver's left: pick one leader, run a coalition, or hand ABC another term. Meanwhile ABC's polling lead translates into a war chest the others cannot match. John Coupar Runs for Council: The former NPA park board chair announces a council run. George worked two campaigns with him and explains why the man who saved the Bloedel Conservatory got pushed out as chair of park board by his own side. Kits Pool Goes Viral: Two million views and 4.3 million impressions in seven days. Not a lone wolf, not bots. freekitspool.com. 111 Wildfires and a Heat Dome: Boston Bar, Clinton, and a monster fire north of Vernon racing toward 100 Mile. Dry lightning, evacuation orders being ignored, and Mexican firefighters landing in Abbotsford to double the force. Jody makes the climate point and braces for the trolls. Tell us in the comments: Can Vancouver's left actually unite before October? Is Poilievre finished? And why is there still no state of emergency in Clinton? Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck sitkamedia.ca

Episode 331 of UnSpun with Jody Vance and George Affleck runs from Ottawa's negotiating table to Victoria's caucus cracks to a Vancouver council vote that George says was 100% political. Here's what's inside: Carney Won't Weaponize Our Oil: The Prime Minister rules out using energy as leverage against the US. George argues Canada's whole pitch is ethical, reliable resources, and burning that reputation costs more than it wins. Doug Ford can threaten shutting hydro to the northeast. The country still negotiates as one. Why Can't Canada Build a Train?: Political pushback in Quebec and Ontario stalls high-speed rail while the rest of the world moves people and freight fast and cheap. Jody and George run through the trains we've already killed, from Vancouver Island to Chilliwack, and ask why we tear up track instead of laying it. Wildfires, Floods & a Brutal Summer: First Nations communities in Northern Ontario wiped out, Clinton BC devastated, flooding across Edmonton highways, and evacuations around Kamloops. The stories getting lost while the US complains about smoke. Kelly Greene Defies the Caucus: The MLA breaks ranks over the Tilbury LNG project and isn't disciplined for it. Eby says there's room for disagreement. George says that's how a Pandora's box opens, and that losing your caucus is the beginning of losing everything. Centre BC and the Fight for the Middle: Mike Bernier resurrects the centre-right lane and blames Trudeau for the BC Liberals' collapse. George isn't buying it. He says weak leadership did it, that Kevin Falcon was ten years behind the times, and that Ellis Ross might have been premier if the party had picked him. BC Conservative Turmoil: The party turfs its executive director, and Carrie Lynn Finley picks a fight over whether to keep saying "First Nations." Jody's response: of all the problems in BC, that's your priority? The whip comes down hard, the party looks more extreme, and the centre vote goes looking for a home. The Villages Plan Goes Down: 22 sites, four to six storeys, gentle density with small grocery stores and shops you can walk to. Council votes it down and blames staff for a flawed three-year process. George calls that unacceptable, says the right move was sending it back for amendments, and admits he'd have voted for it and eaten the consequences. Frances Bula's reporting and neighbourhood walks come up throughout. Fake Callers, Real Consequences: Paid speakers phoning in from California to a Vancouver public hearing. Once screening tightened up, the line went dead. So much for overwhelming opposition. September Cuts Coming: The 0% property tax increase was never the whole story. George predicts big layoffs across staff levels when the budget breakdown lands this fall, and says he's already seeing improvements from the last round. Sports & City Deals: Vancouver picks a prospective owner to chase a Major League Baseball team. Jody would rather hear the Whitecaps are saved. And the Aquilinis float a Canucks training facility at Britannia, which would keep ice in the community and set off a fight on Commercial Drive. Kits Pool Keeps Climbing: 2.5 million social media impressions in seven days, strangers stopping Jody's partner on the street, and freekitspool.com still gathering names. Her message to Park Board: open it this summer and prove her wrong. freekitspool.com Follow Jody: @jodyvance Follow George: @george_affleck