Canada’s most startling political history podcast is back for another season, as host Tristin Hopper brings you the wildest Canadian stories you might think you remember and revealing what you haven’t been told. We talk to the politicians, journalists and newsmakers who were right there when history happened — and have a lot of fun along the way.
The curse of the Rob Ford crack video (Bonus episode)
Host Evan Solomon explores the bizarre saga of the Rob Ford crack video and its far-reaching consequences for Toronto's political and criminal underworld.
7 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT
A boy genius turns to international villainy
He was an all-Canadian whiz kid, a celebrated rocket-engineering prodigy, who wanted to make this country a serious player in the 1960s space race. But when science sidestepped Gerald Bull’s plan to build gargantuan guns that could launch projectiles into orbit, he just … broke. He turned his brilliance in missile design to darker pursuits, building horrible weapons for sinister regimes. If it sounds like a spy novel, it ends like one too, with Bull meeting a violent, mysterious end of his own.
31 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
The Charter was a huge mistake
It’s lionized by politicians but, in the real world, Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms has proved less a symbol of democratic liberty than an agent of destruction. Since becoming constitutional law, the Charter has run roughshod over Canadian democracy, weaponized in the courts to overturn popular and vital policies. In 1982, there were plenty of people on the left and the right who tried to warn us of the coming devastation before it happened. It ended up being worse than they imagined.
24 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
How to ignore a terrorist mass murder
Where can you slaughter hundreds of people and get away with it? Only in Canada, where authorities bungled the chance to stop an obvious plot to bomb Air India Flight 182 and then failed to bring a single one of the brazen terrorists to justice. It was the most preventable horror in our history, and we seem eager to forget it ever happened — even as more violence brews from the extremists behind the worst Canadian terrorist attack ever.
17 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
A separatist swindle of the century
Host Alex Jones interviews historian Dr. Sarah Miller about the separatist swindle and undisclosed plans behind Quebec's 1995 independence referendum.
10 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
Nazi war criminals, welcome to Canada!
We shouldn’t have been too shocked when Parliament blundered into honouring a veteran of a Nazi SS unit in 2023. After the Holocaust, this country became a favoured destination for countless European war criminals. They were actually welcomed by the government. Despite their crimes, they were left to live peaceful, prosperous lives and even built monuments here to their wartime exploits. What is shocking is that almost none of them faced a single consequence for their atrocities.
19 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT
Canada Did What?! Season 2 Trailer
Host Tristin Hopper previews the upcoming season of Canada Did What?!, promising to explore the wildest Canadian stories with politicians, journalists, and newsmakers, offering listeners a fresh perspective on familiar historical events.
1 Apr 2025TRANSCRIPT
Who killed Canada’s abortion debate?
It wasn’t that long ago that elective abortions were harder to get in Canada than anywhere in the U.S. What changed was one of the most actively forgotten political brawls in our history, sparked by one doctor, Henry Morgentaler, a Holocaust survivor who believed legal abortions could prevent future mass atrocities. The ordeal was so divisive, so heated and so unpleasant that an exhausted country gave up on finding a way through it, and instead just decided to never tackle the issue again.
25 Mar 2025TRANSCRIPT
Winning the war on le terrorisme
The fashionable way to remember the October Crisis today is to tsk-tsk at a hysterical government overreaction to the FLQ movement and gross violations of civil liberties with the War Measures Act. But what if marching the army into Montreal in the fall of 1970 was … a fantastic idea? Listen in for the harrowing story of how a maniacally violent radical group with a mounting murder toll held the country at gunpoint, until leaders of all stripes brilliantly put a stop to it — forever.
18 Mar 2025TRANSCRIPT
Canada’s biggest political rockstar
He went out a weird, morbid old man, but John Diefenbaker was indisputably the biggest political sensation this country had ever produced. He won the biggest landslide in Canadian history. He walked through screaming, adoring crowds where tearful fans would kneel and kiss his coat. Sit back and listen to the heartbreaking tale of what it’s like to achieve the absolute pinnacle of political success … only to have it all stripped away, bit by excruciating bit. (Featuring special guests, diehard Diefenbaker buffs Jason Kenney and John Baird.)
11 Mar 2025TRANSCRIPT
The metric schism
Canadians measure weather in Celsius but cook using Fahrenheit. We drink alcohol by the ounce and soda by the litre. Why? This unholy amalgam of metric and imperial is the hard-won truce of a chaotic war between a technocracy-obsessed bureaucracy and a liberty-loving people who refused to submit to measurement tyranny. Get ready for a wild story featuring angry farmers, lawbreaking butchers, constitutional lawsuits, a “freedom” gallons-only gas station — and the unquenchable Canadian spirit of patriotic pragmatism.
4 Mar 2025TRANSCRIPT
I was a commie prime minister
Every democratic leader gets accused of being either a communist or a Nazi at some point. But Canada really did have a prime minister who was unashamed about his love for communist regimes, from China to the U.S.S.R. to Cuba. Pierre Trudeau regularly took their side during the Cold War and befriended their brutal dictators. He’s frequently voted one of Canada’s best prime ministers but we’re going to show you Pierre Trudeau’s little-known dark side. And boy is it dark.
18 Feb 2025TRANSCRIPT
Introducing Canada Did What?!
Welcome to Canada Did What?! A Postmedia podcast that digs into the untold, surprising political stories of the last few decades with host Tristin Hopper. From the metric wars to Morgentaler, from the October Crisis to the abortion debate, we’re unpacking all the wildest political moments you might think you remember — and giving you the real story you never knew. We talk to the politicians, journalists and newsmakers who were right there when history happened. And we have a lot of fun doing it. Coming soon to your favourite podcast platform!
Inside a recent episode
The curse of the Rob Ford crack video (Bonus episode)
Published 14 Apr 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] As in, you'd see the mayor of Toronto answering his cell phone, and it was an old lady asking for a pothole to be filled, or whatever. And he promised he'd get someone right on it. And then he did. Now, there's a whole bunch of reasons why this is a terrible idea for the chief executive of the city of more than two million people. But you can't deny that it wasn't charming. Between that, the various random drunken appearances, the weird public access style cable show that we open this podcast with. Rob Ford ran one of the largest cities in North America like he was the mayor of a small town in Newfoundland or something. […]
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