Just before Parliament adjourned for the summer, Justin Trudeau’s government introduced its answer to the Harper government’s hugely controversial 2015 anti-terrorism legislation. The old law, Bill C-51, sparked protests across the country from people who said it trampled on civil liberties and privacy rights. It gave Canada’s intelligence agencies enormous surveillance powers, to be held […] More »

Every election threatened to destroy them. “We had to find 50 people willing to pay a thousand bucks they’d never get back,” says Chris Lea, leader of the Green Party of Canada (GPC) from 1990-96. “Every election there was a worry whether we’d survive it.” Money was scarce. Meetings were limited because of sky-high travel costs; […] More »

The residence at 24 Sussex has been vacant since the Harpers moved out in October 2015, with the Trudeaus in no apparent hurry to move into the house deemed in “urgent” need of repairs. In fact, the auditor general pegged renovation costs at $10 million back in 2008, and nearly a decade on, there’s reason […] More »

THE GHOST OF TWEETS GONE BY THEN: Ala Buzreba, the Liberal candidate for Calgary Nose Hill, dropped out of the running after tweets from 2011 in which she told another user to “go blow [their] brains out” resurfaced. NOW: She made the news again last year in an article from the Hamilton Spectator after she […] More »

This month, the NDP and Canada achieved a historical first. Jagmeet Singh, former Member of Provincial Parliament in the Ontario legislature was named the eighth leader of the federal NDP. The moment marked a dramatic shift for the party, which has struggled to connect with youth and racialized voters. But it also signifies new possibilities […] More »

A range officer waves me forward into the shooting bay. The semi-automatic rifle he places in front of me is surprisingly light in my shaking hands. “I’m probably going to get this all wrong,” I nervously shout, the only way to communicate thanks to the heavy-duty ear muffs strapped over our heads to protect our hearing. […] More »

THE ANIMAL PROTECTION PARTY The primary goals of the Animal Protection Party are pretty much what it says on the tin: Their platform calls for the ethical treatment of animals, with ongoing campaigns to ban shark finning in Canadian waters and prevent cosmetic testing on animals. They stand apart from the Green Party because, according […] More »

We can fight the global rise of right-wing demagoguery in two possible ways. There’s the establishment option embraced by centrist parties the world over, which promises a little more child care, better representation of women and people of colour at the top, and maybe a few more solar panels. But this option also comes with the […] More »

After my Vancouver book launch in October 2013, I headed right for the snack table. My travel schedule had brought me from Winnipeg to Vancouver early that morning: I had slept on a friend’s floor in Winnipeg and arrived before sunrise in Vancouver. By the end of my talk, the sun was back down and […] More »

Dear Europeans, Listen, we Canadians are fond of you. And sometimes you Europeans can even find our country on a map. We like the way you keep it post-colonial. But we have to have a chat about Prime Minister Trudeau. The new one, Justin. Not Disco Trudeau—that was Trudeau 2.0’s dad. I’m talking about Yoga […] More »

Trudeau’s majority win in 2015 promised many things, among them a strong economy and a happy middle class. Early on he revealed the party’s plans to run a “modest short-term” deficit of no more than $10 billion a year to achieve this, and hit the ground running with campaign promises of better infrastructure, innovation spending, […] More »