We weren't planning on writing about the grocery rebate found in the new Canadian federal budget. BalanceofFood.com, our sibling blog, found the grocery rebate idea as a fascinating topic worth exploring.
Their research took them to Andrew Chang explaining the grocery rebate for the CBC News Explore audience. Chang left The National to do online journalism for CBC News Explore. His explanation of the grocery rebate on the whiteboard was journalism that was simple and informative. A good sign for Canadian journalism if the new service is doing that kind of work.
The money on the table for low and middle-income Canadians is a decent amount ($233 or $467 with seniors getting $225) but won't go too far given the current rising food prices. As our sibling blog noted, the American government with the GOP-led House won't even consider help for Americans unless the Democratic Party wins back the House in 2024.
Food prices are generally higher in Canada than in the United States due to a number of circumstances. Even higher if you consider the cost of groceries in the North, such as in Iqlauit in Nunavut. The Balanceoffood.com story includes links to podcasts that delve into the high food prices in Canada.
Always dignified under pressure... Dear God. I had one job. Look classy. I did this instead. (Let me take this opportunity to tell you that you need to see the incredible "I Like Movies" by Chandler Levack. And the transformative "Brother" by Clement Virgo.) pic.twitter.com/WHlsHzsyuM
— @realSarahPolley (she/her) (@realsarahpolley) March 14, 2023
The significance of Sarah Polley's Oscars win is also crucial because she is a great champion of Canadian film.
This is the part of the season where prominent Canadian films get a brief theatrical release in Canada. For those who missed the Toronto International Film Festival or even the Windsor International Film Festival, this is a chance to see the films mentioned in various articles.
Riceboy Sleeps and Brother were the runaway significant films. Love that Polley is championing Chander Levack's I Like Movies. Was also impressed with North of Normal, intrigued with Falcon Lake, and surprised by The Swearing Jar. These other films have later debuts.
Jesse Brown of Canadaland ran through the nominees for Best Motion Picture to start off a podcast on Bill C-11, designed to redraw definitions on Canadian content (among other issues).
Babysitter; Brother; Falcon Lake; Riceboy Sleeps; Summer with Hope; and Viking
Brown pointed out that he had heard of none of them. Your humble narrator has seen the first 4 on the list, had heard of Viking, and only learned about Summer with Hope when the nominations came out. That film is another Canadian film in name only from Sadaf Foroughi, writer/director of Ava.
I hadn't heard of Babysitter before the Windsor International Film Festival. I knew Monia Chokri's work as an actor and director so I was genuinely excited about the film (marvelous, by the way). I knew and liked Tu Dors Nicole, a previous film of Stéphane Lafleur, who also did Viking.
I was not familiar with the filmmakers of the other 3 films. Their films were outstanding.
We poke fun at Jesse Brown's attitude toward Canadian films but on some level, he has a point. How are Canadians supposed to know about these films?
If Canadians are getting their movie information via Entertainment Tonight on American television or even Breakfast Television on Citytv, few little of that info is on Canadian films. I sought out those Tom Power interviews because I knew about the movies, was interesting in those films, and listened to the interviews after I saw the films.
"I'll admit. I've overstated things in the past where I have such negative associations with Canadian TV and film growing up. That's the low budget stuff that was always forced. It's anti-marketing. You're actually making me less engaged and interested in watching it when you put it into that kind of framework. A genre I don't want to mess with."
Jesse Brown from a different recent podcast, also devoted to Bill C-11. There is a mindset in English Canadian society that fits this. I've seen some of the films and TV Brown speaks of. What he is saying applies to some of that content.
Riceboy Sleeps and Brother do not fit that profile. Beans and Scarborough do not fit that profile.
We've seen 9 of the 10 titles from the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film nominees. The only film from that list that we saw and didn't love was Something You Said Last Night from Luis De Filippis. An interesting concept but a really boring film. A lot of people liked it. Brown might like this more than me. He might like Riceboy Sleeps, Brother, Beans, and Scarborough.
Brown and Canadian Senator Paula Simons mentioned that Canadian films are noted in streaming services. As someone who has to do a Netflix search for Canadian films and TV, knowing there are films outside the search, having Canadian content marked in Canada seems like an advantage. Unfortunately, movies such as The Nest, My Salinger Year. and French Exit are marked as Canadian film, which will confuse Brown and many other English Canadians further about Canadian film.
This CBC News report talks about these exciting Canadian films and the limitations for Canadians to know and find these films.
"Canadian culture is incredibly diverse. We’re a small population spread over a vast geography. We live next to a pop culture behemoth."
"Canadian films tell us about ourselves and our neighbours. They tell us about the world we live in and the world we want to live in. National Canadian Film Day gives us an opportunity to share these stories. Canadian cinema has the power to bring us together. Come with us."
That backstory and question comes from the folks at National Canadian Film Day, which is coming up on April 19 this year, a mere 16 days away.
As an outsider, I get that I might appreciate Canadian film through a different lens. I also appreciate that Jesse Brown, a Canadian living in Canada, specifically in the Toronto area, has a lot easier time finding good Canadian films, plenty of mediocre Canadian films, and yes, some bad Canadian films.
Willing to bet Jesse Brown of Canadaland has seen a few Canadian documentaries, given that Brown is a journalist. Canadaland's look into Bill C-11 has been thorough. If Brown finds some down time, he should check out a Canadian feature film not because it's Canadian but he should be aware of great Canadian films he otherwise might have missed.
Twitter capture: @realsarahpolley photo credits: Riceboy Sleeps; Brother; National Canadian Film Day video credit: CBC News
The final segment is set in the musical chairs on Canadian political talk shows. Evan Solomon left the CTV shows and Canada for an online political news outlet in New York City.
Vassy Kapelos, who never seemed like a good fit at CBC, jumped to CTV News to replace Solomon on Power Play and Question Period. CBC senior parliamentary reporter David Cochrane was the most logical of several good candidates to get the job at hosting Power & Politics. Now Cochrane is the new permanent host.
In Canada, this is more about the cable news wars. For our American readers, having David Cochrane in the coverage stretches to CBC Radio and CBC podcasts.
Cochrane promised he would not be a "perfect host." In many ways, former host Rosemary Barton was that perfect host but that ship has sailed. Cochrane will be, in our opinion, a more ideal and welcoming host than Kapelos.
The private networks tend to undercover the disturbing elements of Pierre Poilievre as the federal opposition leader. The CBC often capitulates to conservative politicians but needs someone stronger, such as Cochrane, in this role to come closer to balance.
The holiday tradition continues in 2022 with a new season of Letterkenny debuting on Crave on Christmas Day and Hulu on Boxing Day. Makes me wish I was back in my Airbnb where I stayed in Windsor, watching Letterkenny on Christmas Day. Those on the U.S. side have to wait an extra day to get their present.
The trailer mentions several themes for the upcoming season. We only mention 2 words: chip flavours. Sounds like that would go well with the Caesar episode from Season 10. Canada has way more interesting chip flavours than the United States. Watch and learn.
The pattern has been to have 6 episodes with an extra episode coming within months.
Our happy holidays message also applies to Hanukkah, which started on the evening of December 18 and runs through the evening of Boxing Day on December 26.
As we wind down 2022, here are some random thoughts for our holiday notebook.
Carey Price is one of our favourite NHL players for a lot of reasons. Talented goalie, his amazing resolve (especially on Saturday nights), a Canadian goalie who stayed in Canada.
This made his social media appearance on Bill C-21 all the more surprising. The weapon Price is carrying isn't being banned. Indigenous people, of which Price is one, are exempt.
Bill C-21 is going after assault rifles, not hunting rifles. There is this nuance of assault vs. hunting yet most weapons are distinct.
Hunting is a part of the Canadian landscape. Having guns for hunting is not and should not go away. Quite frankly, the handguns pouring into large Canadian cities, a lot from the United States, is the larger concern.
One of the changes that came after the École Polytechnique shooting was a long-gun registry. Stephen Harper dismantled that long-gun registry after he became prime minister. Many of Justin Trudeau's supporters hoped he would bring back that registry.
This isn't just about Bill C-21 and the potential loss of guns. The MontréalCanadiens sent out a response saying Price didn't know about the history of the mass shooting. Price came out with his own response and said he did know about the mass shooting in Montréal in 1989. The fact that the right-wing gun group Price was supporting had a coupon code that said POLY has a lot to do with why people are upset.
CBC News Explore is a new online approach to news from CBC News. This is only available on Canadian soil. With a nightly 1-hour newscast and a 24-hour news network, many stories fall through the cracks or don't have enough context.
Hopefully, CBC News Explore is a way to get some guidance on some of those news stories. The channel can be streamed for free, again on Canadian soil.
We also recommend Canadaland and its offspring podcasts as an option to learn more behind Canadian news stories. Watching a 30-minute TV newscast just before you go to bed doesn't give much insight into what is happening in Canada.
Canadian TV programs have dominated Sunday nights in the U.S. on the CW Network. The U.S. network finished up Season 1 of Family Law on December 11. Season 4 of Coroner finished up Sunday with back-to-back episodes. That marks 10 episodes for Family Law and 12 episodes for Coroner.
Global has renewed Family Law for Season 3. The CW status of any show is up in the air due to new ownership i.e., Nexstar. Hopefully, a show where production costs are already paid for will help in that decision process.
Family Law has been a pleasant surprise in terms of character development. Jewel Staite is very comfortable playing a lawyer who is a recovering alcoholic.
There were some amusing Easter eggs in Episode 5 of Season 1, Until Death Do Us Part.
A guest of one of the main characters is watching TV. That show turns out to be Jann. Later in the show, one of the women in a lesbian couple is watching Wynonna Earp.
You might expect an Easter egg to tie back to programs on that network. While Global airs Family Law, Bell Media (CTV) produces Jann and Wynonna Earp.
The fun for the American audience is that both shows within the show can be found in the United States. Jann is on Hulu in the States, though only the first 2 seasons (where the bleep is Season 3?). Wynonna Earp airs on Netflix in the U.S.
Eternal Spring was worthy of making the Academy Awards shortlist for Best International Feature Film but missed the cut. There are a lot of good films on the shortlist.
You can draw inspiration from our look back at previous nominees. Well, maybe not Chien de Garde. Such a terrible film.
Jason Loftus and his crew should be proud of the film they made.
— Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (@FullFrontalSamB) December 13, 2022
Samantha Bee is having a U.S. tour with a stage show entitled Your Favorite Woman starting in April. Her Full Frontal with Samantha Bee was cancelled by Warner Brothers Discovery after 7 seasons on TBS.
"Many of the best segments we did on 'Full Frontal' focused on making complex issues more accessible," said Bee in a prepared statement. "And I am called to do that once again. Not sure why. Nothing much is happening in the world of women's bodily autonomy, so I am taking it upon myself to teach the parts of Sex Ed that should’ve been taught by your gym teacher."
This will be a boost after not having a live audience for the show since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We still miss the TV show. The Daily Show has an opening and CBC late night could use a take on the news.
The NHL looked very different 12 months ago with postponements of games due to the latest COVID-19 variant. Glad for a sense of relative normalcy.
CBC and Citytv have New Year's Eve programming instead of Hockey Night in Canada on December 31. The league takes off for a holiday December 24-26.
We don't cover the World Juniors as part of our hockey coverage anymore. We do provide the basic information before the tournament begins. The 2023 version runs from Boxing Day (December 26) through January 5 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick.
This is the third straight year the tournament has been held on Canadian soil, mostly due to the pandemic. Edmonton had the tournament by itself in 2021 and that city shared the tournament with Red Deer, Alberta in 2022. Halifax and Moncton took over from Novosibirsk and Omsk, Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Halifax will host Group A, featuring Canada, at the Scotiabank Centre. Moncton will host Group B, featuring the United States, at the Avenir Centre. Halifax previously co-hosted the 2003 tournament with Sydney, Nova Scotia.
TSN covers the tournament with the NHL Network showing the TSN feed unless the United States is involved.
Canada did really well in the World Cup qualifying through CONCACAF and made its first World Cup (for the men) since 1986. Yet the Canada team drew a really tough group in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Sometimes, such things get exaggerated. Croatia and Morocco, the teams that advanced out of Group F, finished third and fourth, respectively, in the whole tournament. Croatia defeated Morocco 2-1 in the third place game. Canada looks better as a result of how the other teams did in the rest of the tournament.
Montréal's Morocco community embraced their home country's success in the World Cup. Morocco was the first African country to reach the World Cup semifinals.
The fine folks at CanadianCrossing.com are taking a holiday break. The CBC winter schedule preview runs on December 28. The NHL month in preview for January will run on December 30. The year to come in travel and politics will run that first full week in January. Breaking news will run as needed, such as if a famous director passes away over the holidays. Schedules are subject to change. We have a lot of archive material to read over the holidays, including many film reviews.
video credit: Letterkenny/Hulu photo credit: cpoo31/Instagram Twitter capture: @FullFrontalSamB
CTV News picked a CBC News person to host Power Play and Question Period in 2015. This time, CTV News hired a current CBC person: Vassy Kapelos, who started on Power & Politics when she joined CBC in March 2018.
Kapelos will replace Evan Solomon, who became the publisher at the online political news outlet Gzero Media in New York City. Solomon had been with Bell Media since 2015 after being fired by the CBC for ethical violations.
Kapelos will also get a 2-hour daily radio show on iHeartRadio Canada Talk Network stations.
So … plot twist? I’m hosting @PnPCBC tonight. We are on for 3 hours to provide special coverage of the US midterm elections. It all starts at 5 eastern on CBC NN.
David Cochrane, CBC senior parliamentary reporter, is a good possibility to replace Kapelos. David Common would be another good choice from within CBC. Rosemary Barton, the host before Kapelos, is also a great option. The competition is not limited to those 3 people.
CBC could also bring in former CTV national news anchor Lisa LaFlamme, who were unceremoniously dumped from CTV National News in August. Citytv hired LaFlamme as a special correspondent for the Queen Elizabeth II coverage though that was temporary.
Kapelos never seemed like a good fit on CBC since she skews to the right. When Jayme Poisson has Kapelos on Front Burner, their conservative leanings are collectively stronger.
This might be a move that benefits everyone. Kapelos goes where she will be more comfortable. CBC gets a chance to rethink its political show with a more appropriate host.
photo credit: Bell Media/CTV Twitter capture: @DavidWCochrane
"Monday, Monday, can't trust that day." — Mamas and Papas, 1966
If you need a newspaper to come to tell you it's Monday, there are a lot of Canadian cities where that isn't an option. As of today, you won't get a Monday edition from these SaltWire Network newspapers in Atlantic Canada newspapers:
The Chronicle Herald in Halifax
The Cape Breton Post in Sydney, NS
The Guardian in Charlottetown
The Telegram in St. John's, NF
Increasing costs on print operations, rising fuel costs. What you might have figured in terms of why the decisions were made.
Given the damage from Hurricane Fiona in that region, people might not have had the power or Internet to read about the storm. Then again, home delivery would also be tough.
Postmedia made a similar decision to not publish on Mondays starting today for 9 of its urban dailies. The Canadian news company, essentially controlled by American hedge funds, owns both newspapers in Vancouver (The Vancouver Sun, The Province); Calgary (Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun); Edmonton (Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun); Ottawa (Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun); and the only English daily in Montréal (Montréal Gazette).
There are digital versions online just not print editions. Sadly, this won't be the last day of the week to go through this ritual.
I remember this summer hearing Mattea Roach on a Canadaland podcast episode. I eventually made the connection with her appearances on Jeopardy! earlier in the year. I was pleasantly surprised how well she did on the podcast episode.
Mattea Roach now has a more substantial role with Canadaland as the new host of Backbench. In the introductory podcast entry, Roach went into the story of when she was 5 and met her MP. This started her curiosity with Canadian politics.
Fatima Syed, who writes for The Narwhal, was the original host when the program started in 2021. The Canadian politics podcast has featured a variety of panelists, including Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Jason Markusoff, Drew Brown, Emilie Nicolas, Jaskaran Sandhu, Murad Hemmadi, Leena Minifie, and Stuart Thomson.
Emilie Nicolas, who we saw on CBC's Quebec election coverage, hosts Détours for Canadaland, essentially Canadaland but in French. Je ne comprends pas Francaise well enough to follow along. Nicolas does well in English so I imagine she is even better in French.
Nicolas co-hosted a Canadaland episode that explained a lot about the Quebec election that was really informative.
Evan Solomon has taken an intriguing turn in his journalism career. Solomon left a major position at CTV to be the publisher at the online political news outlet Gzero Media. He will be based in New York City.
Solomon hosted Power Play and Question Period on CTV and CTV News Network. Bell Media insists Solomon will continue to "report regularly" on Canadian politics and global affairs as a special correspondent for the network.
We should know fairly soon who will replace Solomon on those major shows. We know Lisa LaFlamme won't be on the list of replacements. Citytv hired former CTV national news anchor Lisa LaFlamme as a special correspondent for the Queen Elizabeth II coverage. Rogers doesn't have a national news setup for Citytv.
Solomon had been with Bell Media since 2015 after being fired by the CBC for ethical violations.
Frank was a satirical magazine yet also broke crucial news stories. Now Frank has ceased publication after 35 years as of last month.
The magazine had been based in Halifax. One major story the magazine broke in 2022 was that senior members of an internal RCMP team tasked with providing information to Nova Scotia's mass shooting inquiry were married to 2 top female officers involved in the response..
I heard about Frank from a Canadaland episode about this story. Sorry I didn't get a chance to experience this magazine in my hands. In an effort to get independent voices in Canadian journalism, Frank sounds like something Canada needs.
Catherine Cullen has replaced Chris Hall as the host of CBC Radio's The House. Cullen has been with the parliamentary bureau for the CBC for the previous 8 years, among her career highlights.
"The program is going to keep its focus, yes, on politics and big dramatic political stories like that — but also on policy, on people," Cullen said before her first show last month.
The Globe and Mail along with the Toronto Star are almost by default the best major Canadian newspapers. The new Toronto Star management may challenge that a bit. Still, there is important content in those newspapers.
They are the most likely newspapers to block content. Even though there are ads on the pages, they want a lot more money to access their pages. Blocking exclusive content is one issue; Canadian Press stories, those you can find anywhere, also get blocked.
Access is not cheap, especially compared to American newspapers. If I lived in Toronto and had a job, I would be glad to give The Globe and Mail $78 Canadian for online access. Difficult to do under the current circumstances. You will still see ads but you can read the stories.
The National Post, the national paper of the Postmedia empire, is a terrible newspaper. Some days, it is a worse pick than the Toronto Sun, also part of the Postmedia empire. To say the National Post is a conservative newspaper with laughable opinion columns is like saying the sun comes up at Cape Spear before anywhere else in Canada.
Here is one huge advantage to the National Post: You can read their terrible content without a firewall. The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star are not controlled financially by American hedge funds, so that might be part of why there is a difference.
We know that newspapers are having a rough time financially. We hate the walls but we get that on some level. Access, especially with ads, needs to be easier. Conservative news with more mistakes is easier for Canadians to read than reasonable, thoughtful analysis. Even the simple act of forwarding links on social media, something that can more eyeballs to your pages, becomes useless if people can't read those links.
CBC News is accessible online but without the deep analysis.
Twitter capture: @Barrett_Heather photo credit: Backbench/Canadaland; The Globe and Mail
Lisa LaFlamme, the CTV chief news anchor and senior editor since September 2011, did not have her contract renewed by the parent company Bell Media. LaFlamme, in a statement in the above video, said she was told this was a "business decision" on June 29. The time between then and yesterday was that she was asked to not talk about the decision until matters were settled.
LaFlamme cited her 35 years of news experience with Bell Media, most of that time with CTV. She started on the national level as a weekend anchor/reporter in 1997 for CTV News Network.
"At 58, I still thought I had a lot more time to tell more of the stories that impact our daily lives." LaFlamme said in the video.
We would normally not give a person's age in a story. LaFlamme mentioned she is 58. The idea of a "business decision" will likely lead to a younger and cheaper replacement at a sacrifice to the news audience at CTV. The experience in covering elections is crucial.
Omar Sachedina, CTV News national affairs correspondent who joined the network in 2009, will be the new top anchor as of September 5.
The Bell Media release language is that LaFlamme is "departing the network." Given that LaFlamme noted "I was blindsided" makes this a one-sided decision.
"Recognizing changing viewer habits, CTV recently advised LaFlamme that it had made the business decision to move its acclaimed news show, CTV National News, and the role of its Chief News Anchor in a different direction."
Canada has been rather remarkable in that the nightly news anchors have been female. Adrienne Arsenault has anchored with Andrew Chang Mondays-Thursdays on The National and will be the solo anchor in the fall. Dawna Freisen has been the Global News anchor since 2010.
I'm at a loss for words. Lisa is among the very best at what she does. I know surprisingly arbitrary decisions can be made in this business but Lisa, you deserve better than this. Way better. https://t.co/VlpseimCbk
Lloyd Robertson had been co-anchoring (1976-1984) or anchoring (1984-2011) the CTV nightly news for a very long time. He anchored The National on CBC from 1970-1976. There was a significant transition time between Robertson and LaFlamme.
Bell Media and Rogers (owners of CityTV, which doesn't have a national newscast) have gone back and forth laying off sports personalities on TV and radio during the pandemic as "business decisions."
This decision feels worse in that news is more important than sports (sorry, sports fans) and that credibility is really important in news delivery.
We would watch CBC over CTV in Canada yet recognising that LaFlamme was very good at her job. CBC or even Global would be smart to hire LaFlamme in some role. If CityTV wants to run a national newscast, which is doubtful, she would be a good choice.
CBC Radio One is going with a world traveling, CBC radio veteran to replace Carol Off on As It Happens. Nil Köksal, host of World Report, will take overAs It Happens with co-host Chris Howden on September 5.
Off had spent 16 years as the co-host of As It Happens. There will be a search to find a new anchor for World Report.
Köksal has done a number of guest stints on the show since 2019. "I would always leave after my stints raving about the kind of culture and energy that is As It Happens," Köksal said in a news release.
Köksal has been the host of World Report since 2018. She was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and moved to Canada in 1981 at the age of 4. She has reported from Tunisia, South Korea, U.S., UK, and Turkey, among many countries.
As It Happens airs for 90 minutes on CBC Radio One following the World at Six. The program airs in the United States through Public Radio Exchange on some NPR stations. The show is also available through the CBC Listen app and the podcast version is also an option.
Very exciting, bittersweet news to announce: I am leaving The National in order to help develop and host a brand new, daily, news & current affairs program on CBC's streaming channel and platforms! 1/2 https://t.co/fsRxJlCuxO
TV news is trying to produce a product for how people are consuming TV news. These days, this means providing a streaming version of the news.
CBC News will launch a free 24-hour live streaming channel this fall with Andrew Chang playing a key role.
"A big chunk of it will be the bundling of journalism that we do across the country that sometimes comes and goes in a newscast … It's generally longer form. It's more evergreen. And it can live beyond a day." — CBC News editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon said in an interview.
The move pulls Chang off The National where Adrienne Arsenault will be the solo anchor Mondays-Thursdays while Ian Hanomansing will anchor on Fridays and Sundays from Vancouver.
The 4-headed anchor team who replaced Peter Mansbridge on The National have found their way. Rosemary Barton is now the CBC News chief political correspondent, hosting the At Issue panel on Thursdays and hosting Rosemary Barton Live.
Having the 4 newspeople from the start gave them credibility for when other moves were made.
The new streaming news service will be distinct from CBC News Network and also be ad-supported.
CBC with Adrienne Arsenault gives the 3 national newscasts a female face with the CTV primary anchor in Lisa LaFlamme and Dawna Freisen with Global.
Chris Hall has accumulated a lot of knowledge and experience with Parliament Hill. Hall has retired as the CBC News national affairs editor. He has been with CBC News since 1998. Hall had previously worked for the Ottawa Citizen.
Hall was the host of The House on CBC Radio One, which is also available in a podcast edition.
Canadaland is one of the best resources to know what is happening in Canadian journalism. The Web site recently had podcast episodes on laws dealing with government and Big Tech funds going to some Canadian journalism outlets. The first podcast listed is focused on the reader while the second podcast delves into the publisher perspective.
The obvious conflict of interest: journalism having financial ties to the government.
The CBC situation is very different. Taxpayers feed money into the CBC.
Though the program has been in place for 2 years, we know very little about who is taking the money, how much are they getting, and if some outlet applied and was denied.
A basic code of conduct of decent behaviour would be a wonderful start. Even if you disagree with them or their bosses' approach, ask them a question when they are done either live or taping a stand up. Ask them politely. No misogynist or racist actions or language.
Most journalists are hard working and try to get things correct.
Another important reminder too. Only 58% of Ontarian’s voted in the 2018 Ontario election. Thats why Ford won. Don’t be complacent this time. Get out a vote for change no matter what the polls say. Polls don’t count. Its seats that matter. Vote strategically in your riding.
There is a correlation often with a low turnout and which party wins when fewer people come out to vote. The consensus is that Doug Ford will easily win a second term as premier of Ontario. That 58%, a number Americans would crave in most elections, is a low number in Ontario. The predictions is that the turnout percentage will be lower in 2022.
Plenty on the line. Climate change. Long-term care homes. Pandemic policies and how quickly they were implemented. Transportation infrastructure (this should count intercity buses but hasn't).
Ontario, along with California and Quebec, had a cap-and-trade system to deal with climate change. The Liberals in Ontario made that happen. Doug Ford came in and destroyed that. The carbon tax had to be implemented. The Progressive Conservatives rail against the carbon tax.
Understand that the Ontario system was so good, the carbon tax didn't need to be implemented in Ontario before the PCs took over.
The Ford Government cut back on inspections in long-term care homes before the pandemic. Ontario had a significant percentage of long-term care homes that are privately run. The quality of care, especially during the pandemic, suffered worse in privately run homes than government run homes.
The pattern was consistent. People begging Doug Ford to do something in the pandemic. Lots of waiting. Waiting. Then something would get done. This is the government that wanted police to go after people for using playgrounds. Playgrounds.
Yes, the PCs want to build some public transportation. The emphasis has been on Highway 413, something about building it into the ring of fire. Don't know what that means.
Don't know if Queen's Park has any input for the horrible nature of train travel in Ottawa, which is a part of Ontario. If not, they should step up.
Greyhound bailed out of Canada while Ford was premier (not his fault). Has intercity bus travel even come up? A lot of people in northern Ontario, who pay taxes into Queen's Park, rely on bus transportation for doctor visits and maternity care.
All 4 major parties have promised to bring back the Northlander train, discontinued a decade ago. As you will note in the CBC News segment (above), local residents have doubt those promises will be kept.
"That means Ford's record of pandemic mismanagement, long-term care crisis, canceling a minimum-wage increase, delaying the implementation of pay transparency legislation, leaving disability benefit rates at rock-bottom levels, botching a redesign of the province's license plates, and failing to procure provincially-mandated anti-carbon tax gas pump stickers that actually stick to things (incidentally, they were alsoillegal) might not be enough to usher in a change in government."
There is a polarization is referring to an op-ed published outside the jurisdiction. The op-ed is one of the few pieces I've seen in the campaign that comes close to illustrating what has happened in the last 4 years.
Contrast that with the Martin Regg Cohn puff pieceThe Evolution of Doug Ford on the front page of the Toronto Star, a newspaper considered somewhat liberal under previous management.
The way Doug Ford has treated the press (little to no access) has emboldened the press to not be as harsh as they could be, given his actual track record.
As we've noted in numerous political stories, voting against someone isn't good enough. You have to have a reason to vote for someone. We haven't mentioned NDP leader Andrea Horvath, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, and Green Party leader Mike Schreiner.
Horvath has several elections under her belt and 4 years as opposition leader. This is Del Duca's first election and he doesn't even have a seat in Queen's Park. There is even concern Del Duca may not win his riding. Schreiner has run on ideas even before the writ was dropped.
Del Duca seems to be concentrating more on getting back seats from the NDP while Horvath has talked about winning 10 more ridings to get a minority government.
The most intriguing idea has been Del Duca's $1 transit rides for a limited time. The proposal sounds great to a public transportation nerd, such as your humble narrator. The GO train is so expensive that a $1 ride sounds wonderful. The problem with the plan is that outside Toronto, there aren't many Ontario cities with an expressive train service. Ottawa's light-rail is new with all sort of issues. Windsor and London, among others, have bus services. Money saved and getting cars off the road are wonderful goals.
The drawback is that in most of the ridings where Ford is dominant, they want more highways built, regardless if they are paving over wetlands.
The other parties have struggled to gain momentum based on Ford's pandemic track record. No one knew in 2018 that the winner might have to deal with a pandemic. We do know in 2022 that any government might have a similar crisis.
None of this is about who to vote for. Ontario voters could vote for enough of MPPs in the other parties to have a minority government.
Why is an Ontario election ad playing during a Calgary-Edmonton game?
The Ford Government changed the rules on outside spending on political ads. They even used the highly controversial notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to overrule a court ruling on the matter.
The PCs have definitely had the advantage among parties in terms of running ads. So even Albertans watching hockey got to see PC ads.
A friend in Ontario told me about the "decline to vote" option. You can show up at the polling place, get handed a ballot, and turn it right back to the poll worker.
This is sort of a protest vote built into the system. Reportedly, 22,684 voters did so in 2018. My friend likes the idea but isn't sure he will do so in 2022.
Your humble narrator might get that if you live in a predominant riding where a party you don't like will win. Still, if you are frustrated with the system, try a 70% turnout. That could shake things up in Queen's Park.
Early voting is up compared with 2018. The province has 10 days of early voting vs. 5 in 2018. Elections Ontario said Monday that 1,066,545 voted in advance polls, about 9.92% of the eligible electorate.
In 2018, 698,609 people did advance voting, about 6.8% of eligible voters.
This is crucial since there will be 751 fewer voting setups. For those who remember the nightmare of the lines for the federal election in 2019 in Spadina and Fort York, there is a great potential for similar problems on Thursday night.
Polls are open 9 am to 9 pm Eastern. There is a section of Ontario, west of 90° longitude that is in the Central time zone; the polls are open 8 am to 8 pm (Central). Thunder Bay is in the Eastern time zone.
CBC stations in Ontario (Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor) will carry Ontario election coverage instead of Game 2 of the Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup playoffs series. You can stream the game on cbcsports.ca or watch a CBC station outside Ontario.
We will have extensive coverage on Friday morning.
Twitter captures: @merry123459; @K98Moore photo and video credit: CBC News
