This Week's Round-Up: May 4, 2026

• Trump wants Canada’s water

• Alberta separation, by the numbers

• Can politics be civil again?

• A beloved Toronto diner closes

• Readers’ letters are back

Americans Trust Canada in Trade Talks More than Their Own Government

New poll suggests most believe Canada negotiates in good faith

BY PHILIPPE J. FOURNIER

Even among Republican voters, 53 percent say they trust Canada, while 33 percent do not—a net trust score of plus twenty. Among Democratic voters, Leger measured much higher levels of confidence: 71 percent trust, 12 percent distrust. Partisan differences exist, but by the standards of contemporary American polarization, they remain surprisingly modest.

Contrast that with US attitudes toward Donald Trump’s administration. Just 42 percent of Americans say they trust their own government to negotiate in good faith, while 44 percent say they do not.

More from The Walrus:

• The AI Race Is Charged by the Fear of Being Left Behind

• You’re Not Imagining It: Cookie-cutter Offices Are Making You Less Productive

• Mile End Kicks: The Strange Sensation of Seeing Myself in the Buzzy Montreal Movie

• FICTION: A Lump in the Throat

• WATCH: Why are so many mayors quitting?

As political discourse grows sharper and trust erodes, The Walrus Debate asks a timely question: Can Politics Be Civil Again?

Hosted in Calgary at the Canadian Vote Summit, this debate brings together former political leaders—Kathleen Wynne, 25th Premier of Ontario, Jagmeet Singh, Former Leader of the New Democratic Party, and Ian Brodie, Former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper—to model respectful disagreement and explore how dialogue can help rebuild public trust in democracy.

A MESSAGE FROM THE WALRUS LAB IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE AGA KHAN MUSEUM. THE MUSEUM WISHES TO THANK NADIR AND SHABIN MOHAMED FOR THEIR FOUNDING SUPPORT OF THIS BEING HUMAN.

Light at the Heart of the Aga Khan Museum’s Design

The first episode of the new season of This Being Human, features host Mai Habib in conversation with principal architect Gary Kamemoto, who led the Aga Khan Museum’s design alongside the late Fumihiko Maki.

The focus on light shaped everything, from geometry and materials to the way visitors move through the space. The episode explores how the building uses light to animate Islamic design and ideas of pluralism, creating something both timeless and contemporary, while revealing subtle details that shift throughout the day and transform how the space is experienced.

This week on What Happened Next, host Nathan Whitlock is joined by award-winning author Miriam Toews. Her most recent book is the bestselling memoir A Truce That Is Not Peace, published by Knopf Canada in 2025. Miriam and Nathan talk about the early days of her writing career (a word she hates), about how she thinks every new book she completes is her final one, and about how she got to hold the Oscar for Women Talking for only about five seconds.

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

I was left unsatisfied and frustrated after reading Cathrin Bradbury’s “What is Sex?” (January/February). No mention was made that a healthy sex life relies on not just affection, attraction, and chemistry, but also intensity. As a heterosexual sixty-seven-year-old woman with a vibrant sex life, I believe sexual intercourse is reliant on getting to a point where you and your partner feel so close emotionally and physically that you lose your sense of individuality, sometimes your ability to speak, and meld into each other. Here is one quote about sex I have tacked to my cork board, from Northern Exposure, when Joel says to Maggie: “I always wanted more. Not frequency; I am not talking about frequency—although that would have been great, too. I wanted more intensity. I wanted to be out there, outside myself, outside my skin. I wanted sex to be like robbing life out of the jaws of death!” They are sitting outside in minus-twenty-degree weather and Maggie breaks out into a sweat.

Vivian Moreau
Victoria, BC