While Europe plans 100,000 VW layoffs and Canada bleeds factories, Audi plants $4.2B in Georgia. London’s Chatham House playbook to go around your vote is on paper — and voters in Quebec, B.C., and Germany are already saying no.
Susan Kokinda opens with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney celebrating Brazil’s election, von der Leyen’s partnership “thriving” and Carney’s “flourishing”, set against Volkswagen’s plan to cut 100,000 jobs, Canada’s lost manufacturing jobs, and Audi’s first U.S. plant, announced with President Trump in Perry, Georgia, with Rep. Rich McCormick on what it means for Georgia and a look at GDP growth in the United States, the euro area and Canada.
The episode then turns to the U.S. Embassy in Canada’s October 21 fact sheet on Canadian activities in U.S. politics: Carney’s and Minister Mélanie Joly’s denials, Joly on meeting “so many governors and potential presidential candidates”, tariffs aimed at “political pressure”, and the anti-tariff billboards.
It sets that beside Chatham House’s August 27 paper for Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government, which urges London to court members of Congress, state legislatures, potential presidential candidates and industry leaders, and looks at the British pedigree of Canada’s trade team and Chatham House director Bronwen Maddox on the members of Congress who came through Chatham House.
It closes with the voters: the Parti Québécois win in Quebec and the Conservative majority in British Columbia that President Trump congratulated, the AfD’s wins in two German states, and the President’s “France: Now and Then”.
Barbara Boyd
00:00 The Midweek Update – London’s Plan to Bypass Your Vote — And Why It’s Already Failing – October 28, 2026
02:17 Thriving and Jiving
04:58 The Real Plan
09:28 The Voters Are Figuring It Out