We’re in the dog days of the election. The televised debates won’t start until tonight (French Language: 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT on CBC Newsworld, Radio-Canada, CTV Newsnet and TVA and the English language goes tomorrow, 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.EDT) and most parties already released their policy platforms earlier in the week. So […] More »

Back on Friday, Harper announced that if we elected him back into power, he would have Canada stop exporting bitumen to countries that have lower greenhouse-gas emission standards than we do. At first listen, this sounds like a great policy from an environmental perspective-we’ll stop selling our oil to nasty countries that pollute a lot […] More »

This weekend’s Trinity-Spadina federal candidates debate in Kensington Market was, at first, like one of those earnestly quirky but kind of lame dinner parties where the host insists you wear a toga and play Headbandz and which, for one reason or another, you feel obligated to attend. But despite the cheese, (like swearing allegiance to […] More »

We often use the old left-right spectrum while describing political sympathies. You are on the right if you favour the free market, limited government intervention, and, often, social conservatism. You are on the left if you favour economic safety nets, or progressivism, and social inclusiveness. Simple. Neat. Inadequate. The Political Compass tries to lend us […] More »

Tonight the Polaris Prize, the “$20,000 prize for a full length Canadian album, judged solely on artistic merit, without regard to genre or record sales” will be awarded, and both the timing and the artist lineup are delicious (if unintended). One of the bands whose artistic merit is being judged this evening is Holy Fuck, […] More »

With just over two weeks left in the race, Jack Layton and the New Democrats finally released their party platform yesterday, and along with it came a pledge from Layton to end poverty in Canada within the next 12 years, as reported by the Toronto Star. The platform is rich with hot button issues like […] More »

CLAUDE WILLIAM GENEST GREETS ELIZABETH MAY Elizabeth May and her train made a quick stop in Montreal today. The Green Party leader greeted about 60 supporters and began her brief address to the crowd in French. (I, and many other Quebeckers I think have been dreading hearing May stumble along in the upcoming French debate, […] More »

For the team of This bloggers, this past week has been a flurry of news briefs, policy announcements and candidate resignations, all while the highly debated polls have swayed back and forth. In case you’ve missed anything this week, here’s a quick recap: On Monday, Daniel Tseghay wrote about the pros and cons of a […] More »

Before a political party settles on a candidate to run in an election they engage in the immensely important process of vetting. This is simply the examination of and research into the candidate in question: findout out about their personal history; their legislative or executive record; and everything else about the person so they don’t […] More »

According to CBC.ca, New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton will be in Vancouver today to announce his plans for a universal prescription drug plan for Canadians who pay more than $1,500 in drug costs each year. The announcement came about a week after a study by Wyatt Health ranked Canada 17th out of 18 OECD […] More »

For our Hamiltonian readers, you might want to check out the launch this weekend of the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting, a new outfit supporting investigative journalism. It’s on Saturday, September 27 at 7 PM at the Skydragon Centre, at 27 King William St. Susanne Reber, Author of ‘Starlight Tour: ‘The Last Lonely Night of […] More »