MOORE BUTTS Encore Episode: Disagree Better - Is That Even Possible?
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What is the focus of the Moore-Butts conversations?
And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. Welcome to the summer of 2026. With the bridge taking a break for the summer, on hiatus as we say, each Wednesday we will be airing an encore episode of our very popular Moore-Butts conversations with former Stephen Harper Cabinet Minister James Moore and former Justin Trudeau aide Jerry Butts. The idea of these chats is not to have a partisan bun fight, but to give us a sense of what happens behind the closed doors in Canadian politics. So throughout this summer, some of the best from the 25-26 season. Hope you enjoy.
And hello there. Welcome to Tuesday. Peter Mansbridge here. In the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder last week in the United States, one person seemed to come to the forefront, mainly because he was hosting most of the news conferences that took place right after that. The governor of Utah, where the murder, the assassination took place. The governor's name is Spencer Cox. And in the hours immediately after that incident, Cox struck the right note. He said, among other things, this is our moment. Do we escalate? Do we find an off-ramp? We can return violence with fire and violence. We can return hate with hate. And that's the problem with political violence. At some point, we have to find an off-ramp. Well, we're going to look for that off-ramp today.
I mean, Cox... hit the high note with those words last week. He's since seemed to flip on his own position, but nevertheless, that's not the point. The point is, is there an off-ramp? And if so, what is it? I don't think anybody's comparing Canada's situation to the United States in terms of the hate that's out there. But there have been been moments where evidence would suggest we're heading in that direction. So James Moore, Jerry Butts will be joining us in just a moment to give their thoughts on this kind of issue of how do we disagree better? But first, as we like to say, a little housekeeping. We have a question that's somewhat related to this whole issue. as our question of the week this week.
And that question is simply this. Is social media a cancer? Now, we announced the question last week, and there has been a torrent of letters and emails since we announced it. and I assume there are going to be even more now. I'd say we're already past our limit, but we're going through these letters. We'll see what the best of them are, and we'll air them on Thursday's Your Turn. Now, as we've seen in the past, if we get so many and they're all so good, then we might stretch it into two weeks. So don't be shy. Send your comments in. And here are the basic rules. You send it to themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com. themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com. You have until 6 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow night, Wednesday, to get your answers in.
Include your name and the location you're writing from. These are all prerequisites. You've got to follow these. And here's the most important one. 75 words or fewer. Okay?
How can we disagree better without hate?
We already had some that were over that, and they're goners. There's nothing we can do with them. The rules are simple. 75 words or fewer. Okay? So there you go. That gives you a sense of the direction we're heading in for this week on the question of the week. And if you'd like to join us, we're more than happy to have you with us. All right, time for our Moore-Butts conversation. A reminder, James Moore is the former Conservative Cabinet Minister in the Stephen Harper government. Gerald Butts is the former Principal Secretary of to Justin Trudeau in the 2015 election and the government that followed. So you have Moore, Butts, conservative and a liberal. This is their 23rd conversation for the bridge, and each time the audience grows.
People really like this conversation. And I think you'll find this one. Well, why prejudge it? Why not? Let's just listen to it and see what you have to say. Here we go. More Butts Conversation number 23. All right, gentlemen, I know we've kind of discussed this issue before last year sometime, but, you know, I think given the events of the last week, I think we need to take another run at it.
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