Looking ahead to the fall election, many people are speculating on what might happen and are looking at many different angles to try to figure out what the end results might be. The 2015 election was a unique one that saw some different things happen, that lead to a different
Continue readingAuthor: Cam Holmstrom
Magpie Brûlé: Talking Premiers Meetings and Carbon Tax in Court on CFRA
This afternoon I had the chance to talk with CFRA’s Anna Desmarais on their Strategy Session. Along with Sabrina Grover, we talk about the Premiers Meetings starting in Saskatchewan, new developments in the Saskatchewan Carbon Tax case and how this all might play into the 43rd election in the fall.
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Educated Ignorance
2019 has been a rough year in our politics so far, and with a big election coming in the fall, it seems to be sure to get harder before it gets any better. Some of that will come from policy differences that have existed since the very beginning of the
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Magpie Brûlé Podcast: The Quiet Season at Queen’s Park & The Importance of Candidate Vetting
Today I was happy to be able to record and post the newest episode of the Magpie Brûlé podcast. In this episode I talk about the “Quiet Season” at Queen’s Park, the fall out of the scandals building there and how they will affect the Federal Election. Then I go
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Quiet Season at Queen’s Park
July is supposed to be a quiet month for most politicians, or at least it’s usually among the quietest for them. Elected people are back at home in their ridings, away from the crush of the press gallery and are usually keeping a low profile. For governments that are going
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Importance of Candidate Vetting
One of the most important parts of a well run party in the 21st century is a solid organizing team, one that is able to not only get members activate but can also find those big time candidates to run for them. While we keep downplaying the importance of individual
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Banking on a Solution
Canada is a massive country, a huge swath of land stretching to the eastern, western and northern extremes of the North American continent. Being such a geographically large country brings about unique challenges that require unique solutions, and sometimes technology isn’t enough to overcome the gaps that exist. Also as
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The New Landscape?
We’re very early in the run up to the 43rd general election, and the start of July kind of unofficially marks the end of the 42nd Parliament. Everything that is going on right now in Canadian politics is being looked at through the lens of the vote in the Fall,
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: John Rafferty – July 3, 1953- June 30, 2019
In our lives, if we are lucky, we have some good people who come into it and become a part of it, even if only for a while. Some of us are also lucky to have people who helped us get to where we are, who took a chance on
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Ultimate Disrespect
It’s been said by many observers so far, myself include, that the upcoming fall election promises to be an especially vicious one. In the last few years, we’ve seen some online groups form that have stoked a lot this, put out all kinds of fact-free and inflammatory stuff intended to
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: A Day I Thought I’d Never See
Since my first day working in political Ottawa, there have been many moments when I’ve been reminded of where I am, what I was doing and what that meant. I’m Métis and very proud of that fact. But as such, I’m always reminded of what it means to have had
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Best Little Gravy Train in Ontario
As I noted here a couple of days ago, the troubles for the Ford Conservatives at Queen’s Park don’t seem to be close to being at an end. While the “resignation” of Ford’s Chief of Staff Dean French was something that many believed had to happen at some point, the
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: In The Mail
With the fall election getting closer and closer by the day, we are starting to see the different parties ramp up in different ways. Between the floods of emails soliciting emails and phone calls for the same, the parties are doing what they can to get the resources in place
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Long Shadow of French
When Doug Ford adjourned the Ontario Legislature for five months, until well after the Federal election in the Fall, all the talk out there about this move was that this was an attempt to try to lay low and stay out of the news to help Andrew Scheer. And while
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Case for Better
Social Media has changed so much in our modern world, but probably in no greater way than in politics. This hasn’t all been good, but instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater I believe we need to ask ourselves some serious questions about how we can do better.
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: What a Final Straw
Everyone gets involved in politics for their own reasons, and those reasons can be quite varied. For many though, when it comes to those reasons for getting involved they are quite passionate about them. It is those reasons or issues that drive them, and sometimes define what they do with
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Two Votes
You may remember back in May we saw the results from the provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador, a result that was historic and a surprise. The governing Liberals of Dwight Ball lost their majority government, falling a single seat shy of the majority mark. It was quite the dramatic
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Ford Fight
Most experts have been predicting that the upcoming Federal election is going to be a wild and intense. There is a lot of uncertainty and a few wildcards in this deck, things that are making the potential outcomes all the more unpredictable. One of the biggest wildcards in this campaign
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: The Big Ford Shuffle
It’s been just over a year since Ontarians elected the Ford Conservatives to a majority government and it’s not been a smooth ride so far. Between the massive cuts all over the place, to the erratic nature of the Premier, to getting booed in public multiple time (including by a
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Drunken Sobriety
When I started blogging the first time well over a decade ago, I set a few ground rules for myself, rules that I’ve stuck to ever since and I believe have served me well. One of those rules was to “Never blog while extremely angry.” That’s a rule I had
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