Author: Cam Holmstrom

We’re onto Day 4 of the 43rd General Election and the first weekend of campaign events. The first few days have been interesting to watch, to see how the different campaigns are dealing with things and what the different leaders are having to say. Some of it has been pretty

This afternoon I had the chance to join Bill Carroll on his nationwide “The Bill Carroll Show” with Shane McKenzie and Amanda Galbraith. We talked about last nights first debate of the 43rd General Election, the Maclean’s/CityTv debate, who won the night, who missed the mark and the conspicuous absence

During the campaign I’m happy to have the chance to take part in some different projects, one of which is being launched today. “What You Need to Know” is a new podcast from my colleagues and I at Bluesky Strategy Group. Every Friday during the campaign we’ll be releasing a

Last night we saw the first debate of the 2019 Federal Election, and it was a night with a lot at stake for those taking part. While every party leader had questions and issues going into the night, this debate offered them all a chance to step forward and make

During every election campaign many different groups come out to take positions on various issues of the day. In some cases, that involves taking a stance either against or for a certain party, as a means to dealing with that issue. In this day and age though, getting involved in

We are onto Day 2 of the 43rd General Election and after a first day that included some good speeches, some travel changes, some bus-on-plane contact and an interesting reminder that we are all, in fact, earthlings, the campaigns are now starting to stretch their legs. So while the various

In this day and age we tend to closely examine what our political leaders say, and for good reason. The words that most politicians speak during prepared moments are very deliberately chosen, either what is said or what is not said. That choice of words and the audience that they

With the official start of the 43rd General Election this morning, it’s on and the campaigns are into full swing. As the party leaders start to criss-cross the country and attempt to grow their caucuses, all of the parts of the campaign are swinging into action. That includes the air

This morning the 43rd General Election will kick off, with Liberal leader Justin Trudeau heading to Rideau Hall to visit the Governor General. With that, the campaigns are now rolling, the journalists are hitting the road and campaign signs will start to fly up all over the place. In short,

Over the summer everyone in political Ottawa has been taking their best guesses about when the writs for the 43rd General Election would finally be drawn up. There have been many schools of thought about when would be the best time to do this. Some have felt going earlier is

There are going to be many issues that will be a part of the discussion going on around the 43rd General Election, some of which the parties will want to discuss and others that they won’t. One such issue that has been bubbling up in the run up to the

With the writ on the 43rd General Election expecting to be dropped on the weekend, we are more or less into the campaign now. And as I wrote about last week, once the campaigns starts we start to see all kinds of debates and events involving party leaders and candidates,

The newest episode of the Magpie Brûlé Podcast is now up and available for download. In this episode I review the week that was in Canadian politics, the Green/NDP drama from New Brunswick and look ahead to the first debate of the 43rd General Election, the Maclean’s/CityTV debate on Thursday

As few weeks back I wrote a piece in which I brought up changes to the elections laws and how their changes can create issues and situations from campaign to campaign. In that case, I was talking about the ability of environmental NGO’s to be involved in campaigns or comment

Life folks, it can come at you fast. It’s amazing how sometimes a big story, which seems to be potentially damaging, proves to be something else entirely once a bit of scratching at the surface takes place. It turns out that this seems to be the case coming from Tuesday’s

Political scandals and stories can be a bit like water; no matter what, water wants to run and will run towards the openings it has available to it. Whenever a party or a government tries to shutdown a story or a scandal that they are facing, typically that story finds

There are many old sayings that go with politics and campaigns. These truisms come from hard learned experience and sometimes it amazes me just how true they continue to be over time, regardless of the changing situations. One of the truest of those old axioms is that “Campaigns Matter”. Time

This afternoon I had the chance to join CFRA’s Evan Solomon again, this time with Warren Kinsella and Jason Lietaer. We talk about the parties preparing for the upcoming election, the news of defections from the NDP in New Brunswick and Maxime Bernier’s cyberbullying of Greta Thunberg on Twitter. You

Today has been a day so far, surely not the day many were expecting when it started this morning. Sometimes politics can be just like that, and things can come out of left field that you didn’t see coming and hit a bit harder than you would have expected. For

Well it’s finally upon us. With Labour Day now in our rear view mirrors and most children heading back to school, the summer is essentially over. And while the writ for the 43rd General Election will not likely drop another dozen or so days, give or take, in effect we