Summer 2025 didn’t simmer — it combusted. In this episode of Awfully Unfiltered, we dissect a season defined by political theater, economic brinkmanship, and the slow-motion unraveling of institutional credibility across borders.
It begins with the Trump–Putin summit: a spectacle of optics and ambiguity that reignited global anxieties about alignment, loyalty, and power. Not far behind, Elon Musk teased the launch of a new political party — a move equal parts disruption fantasy and populist provocation. Meanwhile, Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” dominated the domestic stage, a legislative package engineered for maximum media saturation and minimum transparency.
In Canada, the summer unfolded more quietly — but no less consequentially. Mark Carney shelved the digital services tax in a calculated bid to keep U.S. trade talks from collapsing. The G7 Summit in June offered little more than climate posturing and economic choreography, while immigration raids across the U.S. cast a long shadow over North American diplomacy.
But the real tremors came from within. Alberta’s separatist movement surged. First Nations mobilized against Bill 54. And in a move as strategic as it was symbolic, Pierre Poilievre returned to the national stage — not with fire, but with focus. His reentry signaled a recalibrated message machine, one designed to ride the wave of Western alienation without capsizing the Conservative brand.
This episode is a forensic breakdown of a summer where every gesture — diplomatic, legislative, rhetorical — carried the weight of a system under strain. From strongholds to soft power, from meltdowns to mobilizations, we trace the fault lines of a political season that refused to stay in its lane.
