This is the first and only book panel since the federal election was declared. One might have expected something like the purdah that civil servants observe once the writ is dropped, with politically controversial subjects being avoided and politically controversial opinions not being stated. Instead, Sean Archer seems to have deliberately stirred things up, jumping on Justin Trudeau’s campaign to defame Conservative leaders of the past when he mentions John A. Macdonald and only him as an architect of the residential school system. In fact, Macdonald was never responsible for setting up the residential schools, which preceded his entry into politics. He also never made them compulsory. That was left to William Lyon Mackenzie King, our longest serving Liberal Prime Minister. I no longer expect anything like a fair and balanced treatment of political issues from the book panel, where Ann and Sean compete to see who is the more woke. But I did think they would give it a rest at least for this month. Even that, it seems, was asking for too much.