Our veteran politics panel — consultant Lauren Hunter, journalist & former mayor Sylvia Sutherland, businesswoman Jenny Lanciault, editor Donald Fraser and Curve Lake Council member Sean Conway — starts the new year by unpacking the seismic political events of the first week of January in the United States. They assess what the surprising victories for the Democrats in the January 5th run-off election in Georgia mean for the Biden administration Then they move on to an analysis of the storming of the capitol building in Washington the next day and the implications for us in Canada. We have no reason to remain smugly aloof of these toxic dynamics. The same extremism is alive and thriving in Canada. The panel also ponders the implications of the nomination of former Ontario premier Mike Harris to the Order of Ontario. In closing, the panel briefly looks at the phenomena of developers who express their displeasure with the policies of the current Peterborough City Council by withholding their projects. This panel discussion was recorded on January 7, 2021.