Separation of Church and Debate?
There are many constant features of all election campaigns that create their own interesting quirks. One of those in communities, big and small, across the country is all-candidates debates. Various…
Cam Holmstrom
Self-Inflicted Wounds
I have to admit that the start of this federal campaign period has been pretty underwhelming for me. Maybe it’s because I’ve come to expect better of political parties or…
A Lack of Contrition
It’s now been a week that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has found himself with a big problem on his positions around some social issues. First there was the re-release of…
Not-so Friendly Manitoba Debate
With the Federal Election just around the corner, there is one last race to take place before the big show in the fall. That race is the Manitoba Provincial Election,…
The First Attempt
When watching our elected leaders at work, it’s always interesting to watch when someone decides to take a bold step and try to be the first to do something difficult.…
Calling out to Progressives
As of today, the 43rd General Election coming this fall promises to be a very tight race with a lot at stake for all of the parties. The fact that…
Communications Failure, the Next Example
It was just yesterday that I wrote about a spectacular communications gaffe from the Liberals on carbon pricing, in which I talked about the importance of consistent and well prepared…
Communications Failure
Communications is key in our modern political world and the importance of having a clear message cannot be understated. That’s always been true in politics long before now, but in…
Magpie Brûlé Podcast: The End of Summer & Manitoba Goes to the Polls
After a bit of time off today I was able to record and post the newest episode of the Magpie Brûlé podcast. In this episode I review the most recent…
Eight Years Ago…
In many ways, I consider myself to be very blessed and to be very fortunate. I have a loving family who I can always depend on, an amazing wife and…
The Opening Act
It was just last week that I went into the news surrounding the Federal Leaders debates, who was in and who was out as of that moment. In that piece…
Sticker Shock
Back in June I wrote about the Ontario Conservatives plans to force gas stations to put politically torqued stickers on their pumps with misleading information about the federal Carbon Tax.…
Longueuil Changes
Politics can be a strange and fickle beast at times, or at least some days it feels that way. And in one way, that makes a lot of sense; people…
The Slanted Playing Field
Between elections it’s not uncommon for Parliament to makes changes and updates to the laws that guide our election campaigns. Sometimes that involves simple updates to make the laws more…
Provincial Campaigning in the 204
This week another political event started, with a provincial election in the province of Manitoba. Despite the fact that under Manitoba’s fixed date election law the next election wasn’t supposed…
Friday Odds and Ends
With the big news around LavScam from earlier this week it’s turned out to be a much more eventful week in political Ottawa than most of us were expecting. It’s…
Vicarious Liability
Yesterday turned out to be a much bigger day than most of us thought it would be when we all woke up on a lazy mid-August day. Ottawa has been…
Conflicted, Again
Just yesterday I was on CFRA talking about the most recent revelations from the CBC’s Aaron Wherry’s new book on the Prime Minister, which talked about Mr. Trudeau’s views on…
Getting the Length Right
The last Federal Election that we had in 2015 was remarkable for many reasons and we saw many things that we hadn’t seen before that had an effect on the…
Talking New Political Book, Debates and the Manitoba Election on CFRA
This afternoon I had the chance to talk with CFRA’s Rob on “News and Views” Strategy Session. Along with Melissa Lantsman, we talk about Aaron Wherry’s new book on Prime…