2019 has been a crazy year in our politics, and really the politics of the World as a whole. While we’ve seen some disturbing things here at home that were against norms we expect like a properly functioning democracy, like the SNC-Lavalin Scandal, we’ve been able to look elsewhere in
Continue readingAuthor: Cam Holmstrom
Magpie Brûlé: Talking Ron MacLean, Prince Andrew & Alberta-Quebec Relations with Evan Solomon
This afternoon I had the chance to join Evan Solomon on “Ottawa Now” with Katlyn Harrison and Shane Mackenzie. Today we talked about Ron MacLean’s apology, the dumpster fire of an interview by Prince Andrew and a week of tense back and forths between Alberta and Quebec. You can listen
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Parliamentary Dance Begins
It’s been close to a month since Canadians elected a minority Parliament but really it was this week that we really started to see things go. All week we’ve seen a steady stream of leaders, both federal opposition leaders and some provincial premiers, make their way into Ottawa for meetings
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: More Shifting in the Red Chamber
This week in Ottawa all attention has been focused on the various meetings the Prime Minister has been having with Opposition leaders and various provincial premiers before the December 5th Throne Speech. And honestly, rightfully so; that is where a lot of what we’ll see in this minority Parliament is
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Planning the Return
Since the Federal Election took place close to a month ago (I know, it feels like it’s been longer, hasn’t it?) and Canadians elected a minority Parliament, many have been wondering when we’d see that Parliament at work. There has been a lot of speculation as to when MPs would
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Talking the Firing of Don Cherry & Scheer’s Leadership Issues with Evan Solomon
This afternoon I had the chance to join Evan Solomon on “Ottawa Now” with Katlyn Harrison and Shane Mackenzie. Today we talked the firing of Don Cherry, the comments that got him fired and claims of anti-Catholic bigotry in regards to questions about Andrew Scheer’s Leadership. You can listen to
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Talking Remembrance Day, the future of NATO & Don Cherry on “The Arlene Bynon Show”
This morning I joined Arlene Bynon on “The Arlene Bynon Show” on Sirius XM’s Canada Talks 167, along with Alise Mills. We talked about Remembrance Day, the future of NATO as an institution and the comments by Don Cherry. You can listen to a clip of the audio below. Enjoy!
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: What You Need to Know – Quebec and NAFTA 2.0
The newest episode of “What You Need to Know” is recorded and now up. In this episode Alyson Fair, Geoff Turner and I talk about the federal election results in Quebec, the provinces importance in the upcoming Parliament, what will come of NAFTA 2.0 (if anything) and we look ahead
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Time for Reflection
We live in an interesting time, and not always for the best reasons. Let’s face it, 2019 has been a crazy year and 2020 doesn’t promise to be much better. We live in a time where we’re not seeing the best of us as humane people on a regular basis
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Shifting Red Chamber
As we start to go into our new reality of minority government in Canada, there are many things that many observers need to pay attention to in order to stay on top of things. That’s standard operating procedure in minority governments and has been ever seen Confederation, but this time
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Green Fade
Now that we have entered into November and with a couple of weeks before the Liberals name their new cabinet, the parties are starting to put the pieces back together. They are looking ahead at the next Parliament and asking a lot of questions about their own performances, their future
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Strategic Considerations
With the 43rd General Election now a week in our collective rear view mirrors, many people are doing a lot of thinking about what happened during the campaign and what the results all mean. It’s part of our nature to pick through the entrails of the results, look over the
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Talking the Return of the Ontario Legislature & Federal Leadership talk with Kristy Cameron
Yesterday I had the chance to join Kristy Cameron on “Ottawa Now” on CFRA with Kate Harrison and Shane Mackenzie. We talked about the return of the Ontario Legislature, the new tone from the Ford Government, if it will result in a different choices and the state of Andrew Scheer’s
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: What You Need to Know – The End of #Elxn43
The newest episode of “What You Need to Know” is recorded and now up. Every Friday Bluesky Strategy Group will be releasing a new episode where we’ll talk about the events of the week and give perspectives from across the spectrum. In this episode Alyson Fair, Neil Brodie, Hussain Shorish
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Orange Post-mortem
It’s been a few days now since the 43rd General Election came to an end and we’ve started to come to terms with our new political reality. We’ve got a new minority Parliament, one that looks like it won’t be coming back anytime soon, but we’re seeing things start to
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Talking The Day After #Elxn43 with Graham Richardson
Yesterday I had the chance to join Graham Richardson on CFRA’s “News and Views”, along John Delacourt and Garry Kellar. We talked the results of the 43rd General Election, the political futures of the party leaders, some of the promises made and much more! It was a long one and
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Morning After: #Elxn43
Well after 40 days and 40 nights of the 43rd General Election, we now know what the next little while will look like. The broad strokes of the results last night (a Liberal minority government, a Conservative opposition, the return of the Bloc and the NDP where they ended) were
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Talking Election Day & The End of #Elxn43 with Evan Solomon
This afternoon I had the chance to join Evan Solomon on “The Evan Solomon Show” with Jenni Byrne and Shane Mackenzie. Today we talked about Election Day, the end of the 43rd General Election, what in this campaign was over-hyped and overplayed and more. You can listen to the audio
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Talking Election Day & The End of #Elxn43 on “The Arlene Bynon Show”
This morning I had the chance again to join Arlene Bynon on “The Arlene Bynon Show” on Sirius XM’s Canada Talks 167, along with Alise Mills. We talked Election Day, the end of this campaign, what we are looking at tonight and what disappointed us during this campaign. You can
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: E-Day 2019
Election Day is finally here folks. Congrats for making to the end of this after finally after all of this we’ll finally know what our next Parliament will look like. And after tonight, the next set of political dramas will start, depending on the results of course. But I’ll get
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