More details have emerged about Warren Kinsella’s secret work to expose Maxime Bernier as a racist. And what’s at stake as the CBC renegotiates its licence to broadcast in Canada?

Or did we play ourselves? This most recent Conservative leadership race highlighted a number of deficiencies in Canadian media. Namely, why did the guy with virtually no chance of ever becoming Prime Minister, who skipped debates and ran much of his campaign from Boston, receive so much more press coverage than the guy who actually won the leadership? Did media just go for the low-hanging fruit, or did we allow ourselves to be manipulated by an expert huckster? CBC.ca’s Opinion Producer Robyn Urback has some opinions of her own and joins us for the episode.

The Conservatives have a new, dimpled, leader, Nova Scotians have more of the same, and British Columbians have an unprecedented lefty hybrid. How effective was media coverage of these three electoral events?

Is the media complicit in popping Harjit Sajjan's balloon?

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the rollout of a basic income trial. The program is to be introduced in three Ontario communities this summer, including Thunder Bay. This is widely seen as compensation for living in Thunder Bay. B.C. Premier Christy Clark gives a voter a succinct primer on democracy, while Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil trips on his shoelaces and accidentally drops his writ. In our feature interview, Ashley speaks with Bloodwatch.org founder and Executive Director Kat Lanteigne about her long fight for justice for victims of Canada’s tainted blood scandal, and why she believes the federal government and some provinces are inclined to roll back some of the regulations put in place following the Krever Report.

The Liberals, according to Conservative MP Scott Reid, are trying to "ram through whatever the f**** they want." In other, vaguely sexually-themed Conservative news, Brad Trost isn't down with the "the whole gay thing," while k.d. lang asks if Jason Kenney might be secretly fond of it. Kellie Leitch and Senator Lynn Beyak? Just crapping on Muslims and Indigenous peoples again, respectively. Nothing sexy there.

Having passed a second reading, the controversial bill C-23 stands to give U.S. border guards greater authority to reject, detain, or search Canadians and permanent residents trying to enter the United States. Speaking of the border, a significant chunk of our shared border with the United States comes in the form of four of the five Great Lakes (bonus points if you can name the one entirely contained within one of the two countries). President Donald Trump’s newly-unveiled budget threatens to decimate the funding of the Environmental Protection Agency and, by extension, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. And the ugly battle for the federal Conservative leadership reached blobfish levels of unattractiveness as accusations of widespread voter fraud reached a fever pitch over the weekend.   You can find out more about our exclusive sponsor, Wealthsimple here. Follow the show on Twitter.

Michael Chong is trying to sell an inclusive, sober conservatism. Are conservatives buying it?

Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch released a video this week that was somewhere between political platform and performance play. Also, Kevin O'Leary continues to draw a paycheque from CNBC while running for the same role.

The Conservative leadership hopeful regularly big-ups his candidacy on CNBC spots.