Category: Podcasts

It’s easy to have sympathy and be captured by the moment, but really the challenges are in the long-term, and in many ways the worst is yet to come, outside the actual danger.

This week, our thoughts are with all those affected by the wildfires in Fort McMurray. For the most part, Ottawa and Canada were talking about different things this week, but both conversations were dominated by discussions of the emergency situation in Alberta. Allie talks with Jason Hatcher about the government’s response to the crisis in Fort McMurray and how Canadians are reacting. Jason is a Managing Principal at Navigator and leads our Western Canadian operations in Calgary. He has also led a number of projects, including Alberta First Responders’ Communications System

I don’t know that we can go backwards anymore, for any politician in any country. This is the world now. It is social media. Even Hillary Clinton is trying.

He’s just not ready. He’s got great hair. He’s the Internet’s boyfriend. This week we have a very special episode. We’re talking about the celebrity status of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with some very special guests.
To get some perspective on the intersection of celebrity and political culture, Allie talks with CTV’s THE SOCIAL Co-host and ETALK Senior Correspondent Lainey Lui, and Ryerson University’s Greg Elmer. Greg is a professor of Communications and Culture and Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson, and during the 2008 Canadian federal election he worked with CBC News to cover online campaigning. His research focuses on media and the role of new media in politics.
Image credited to Renegade98

He might have just become the most popular man in the senate they should take 10% of what they were going to spend on legal bills and buy Senator Duffy a car or something.

We’re not big on scandals in Canadian politics. Compared to our neighbours south of the border, ours are few and far between. The biggest in recent memory, is Senator Mike Duffy. In 2014, he was charged with 31 criminal offenses, including fraud, breach of trust and bribery. And this week, he was acquitted of all 31 charges. This scandal, and the subsequent acquittal, have once again spurred conversations on Senate reform.

Really what the leadership vote demonstrates is an unwillingness to move back to third-party status.

Ottawa is still abuzz with the results of the NDP Convention and the NDP is now looking for a new leader, and so, this week it a number of our issues blended together. As sometimes happens with politic, and any major issues really, it can be difficult to distinguish where one ends and another begins. So our top issue for the week is really an amalgamation of a few topics: the NDP convention, Rachel Notley’s response to the Leap Manifesto, and pipelines.

Really what the leadership vote demonstrates is an unwillingness to move back to third-party status.

For our special update on the NDP leadership vote, Allie gets Sally Housser’s perspective on what it means for the NDP moving forward now that Tom Mulcair is no longer leader of the party.