For Canadians, Trump’s probable return to office isn’t a mere circus act for us to watch from the bleachers. Monday, a state Senator introducing Trump’s VP pick JD Vance, stated “it’s going to take a civil war to save the country” if they don’t win this fall’s election. Coupled with
Continue readingAuthor: David Graham
A View From the Back Bench: The Most Sincere Liberal Vice
If I were to boil down liberals’ greatest challenge to a single word, it would be sincerity. Liberals fundamentally believe that simply doing a good job will be noticed and rewarded by electors. Balance the disparate needs of the country, avoid radical controversy, keep the economy afloat, modestly improve the
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Are you familiar with Project 2025?
If you haven’t been following social media closely since the American presidential debate two weeks ago, you are probably not familiar with Project 2025. It is imperative that you fix that; the project, led by a team of former President Trump staffers, aims to reform the United States of America
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Trumping Democracy
On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its split ruling in the jarringly ironic case, “Trump v. United States” in which the former President claimed immunity from criminal prosecution for his attempted coup on January 6, 2021, on the grounds that his actions were conducted in his
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: When Liberals Lose Toronto
Monday night, Liberal candidate Leslie Church lost the by-election for Toronto—St Paul’s, the Toronto riding held by the Honourable Carolyn Bennett since 1997, to Conservative Don Stewart. There are many ways to see this outcome, none of which are encouraging to the Liberal campaign team. Leslie Church herself was a
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: A Year On
It has been one year since I started this SubStack. The idea began shortly after I lost the election in 2019. I had blogged before, starting somewhere around 2001, and stopped when I started working for politicians, long before thinking of running myself. After I lost, I realised I had
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Foreign Interference in Canada
Last week, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians issued its Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada’s Democratic Processes and Institutions. As has been widely reported, several Members of Parliament are alleged in the report to have been “wittingly” aiding foreign powers in interfering in our democratic process,
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Winning the Nomination
At my nomination meeting at the Mont-Tremblant bowling alley on September 18th, 2014, party officials had assumed that my opponent would win. My opponent had told her supporters and local journalists that the meeting was “just a formality” and had greatly underestimated the strength of my support, and the weakness
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: On Deciding To Run
When I first moved to Ottawa, I did not believe I could ever be a Member of Parliament. In spite of Marva’s observation years earlier that politicians also put their pants on one leg at a time, it seemed wildly improbable that I would ever run. But in working for
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: The Lighter Side of Hill Work
When I started working for him, Scott Simms was the elected chair of the Atlantic Liberal Caucus, and, as the biggest regional caucus in the emaciated 2011 National Liberal Caucus, they met in the same room as the full National Caucus. As we were no longer government or official opposition,
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Full-Time Just On Time
When I arrived in Ottawa in mid September, 2010, I gave myself two years to find full time work on the Hill. Following the federal and Ontario campaigns in 2011, I had found work in the offices of three of the 34 remaining Liberal MPs. A feat in its own
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Survivor’s Guilt
After the 2011 election, McGuinty’s job was to go through the painful process of laying off nearly all the staff from the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, which we no longer held, the Whip’s Office, and the House Leader’s Office. Some 200 Liberal staffers in various capacities and
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: The Perfect Image of Pierre Poilievre
A few days ago, Pierre Poilievre’s official social media channels shared a fairly generic campaign image of him enjoying the services of a small business in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The caption read: “Nathan served up just the shot we needed to get us going this morning.” The business’s name, however,
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Entering the Ottawa bubble
Even before I left Guelph, I began helping Jean-Marc Lacoste, the nominated Liberal candidate for my home riding of Laurentides–Labelle, having met him on my last visit before moving in the spring of 2010. [ Continued from Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Going professional
2008 had been a busy year for me. I wrote dozens of essays and articles, ran data for a pair of election campaigns, started my first newspaper column, became a regular guest on a local radio show — Royal City Rag with Jan Hall on the University of Guelph campus
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Learning to campaign, for real
In the year following Frank’s nomination, I expressed an interest in getting involved with his campaign and helping him win the eventual by-election. It took a lot of patience, taught me a lot, and left me addicted to the street-fight of election campaigns. [ Continued from Part 1 | 2
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: The politics of politics: my first nomination campaign
After the 2006 election, with the Liberals in opposition and Martin out as leader, Guelph MP Brenda Chamberlain let it be known that she would not run again, ultimately resigning before the next general election, effective April 7th, 2008. This opened the door for a nomination race through 2007 for
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: A Leader I Could Believe In
On April 7th, 2006, former environment minister Stéphane Dion announced his candidacy for Liberal leader, only two years after embarrassing Paul Martin into keeping him in cabinet to continue his work on what was then still more often called global warming. [ Continued from Part 1 | 2 | 3
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Palestine Motion Amendment: Stately Compromise or Compromised State?
Monday, the House of Commons spent the day debating a lengthy NDP opposition day motion to call on the government to “officially recognize the State of Palestine”. Barely 20 minutes before the vote was scheduled, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon proposed an amendment changing this controversial part of the bottom
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Getting Disengaged From Politics
At the close of 2003, Paul Martin finally won the decade-long civil war he had waged inside the federal Liberal Party, sending Jean Chretien into retirement and taking the reins of the country himself. [ Continued from Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
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