Political Traction

With President Obama exiting stage right and Donald Trump ascending to the top job, Justin Trudeau will be the symbol of progressive leadership in North America.

The House is back and so are we! Welcome to season two of Political Traction. For our first week, it’s a good news/bad news situation for the Liberal government.

‘Making America great again’ is a politically correct statement. Hillary Clinton can make that statement. Every party in effect, promises it in a way.

He says outrageous things. He lies. But somehow, he still has a lot of supporters. We explore what’s going on with Trump and how we can explain voter behavior.

The whole Mulcair thing went out with a whimper. Even just the fact that he remained as interim leader…it was such an odd climax to their post-election angst.

– Colin MacDonald

We have come to the end! This episode marks the end of our first official season. The House have risen, and after this week, so shall we – or, at least, so shall our regular format.

For our season finale, Allie, David and Colin go over the top issues since March and weigh in on whether they were (in our opinion) undervalued, accurately valued, or overvalued in terms of their traction numbers with Ottawa and the Canadian public. We talk about the Conservative convention, the NDP convention and Leap Manifesto, Orlando, and the national deficit. And even though they didn’t make our top five, we also go over democratic reform, the First Nation’s suicide crisis, and doctor-assisted dying legislation.

So please join us in our (short-term) nostalgia for the issues from way back in long-forgotten March and our expert opinions on why we think some things were worth more attention than others.

And also, we would like to say a big thank you for staying with us this season! We won’t be gone for the summer, but we won’t be doing our weekly format. We will be producing special episodes until the House returns in the Fall, so stay tuned for updates on scheduling. In the meantime, check us out on Twitter, Facebook, and this week’s Huffington Post blogpsot…and enjoy our special end of season discussion.

It feels like a different country today.

– Ashley Prime

This morning, Canada awoke to shocking news as the United Kingdom voted to exit the European Union, roiling the world in political and economic turmoil.

By now, you know the numbers: the leave vote won 51.9 per cent of the popular vote, for which 72.2 per cent of voters turned out. Put differently, yesterday evening, 37 per cent of Brits singlehandedly altered the course of European history for decades to come. Further complicating the picture was the fact that both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted resoundingly to remain in the EU, throwing the unity of the UK into question.

Perhaps more troubling, according to Google: “What is the EU?” is currently the second most searched related query since the announcement.  Many within and outside the United Kingdom are asking themselves if voters were prepared for repercussions of this divisive outcome.

Regardless of one’s position on the matter, we can all agree that Brexit will have long-lasting effects on both Canadian business and global affairs moving forward. 

We have produced a special version of our Political Traction Podcast, examining the results of the referendum and its repercussions in the United Kingdom, by interviewing our London Managing Director Ashley Prime, who provides on-the-ground perspective and insight.

 If you have any questions on the implications of Brexit and its implications for your organization, please reach out to Navigator’s Brexit-response team here.

There is a segment of the population that is tied to a notion, somewhat romantic I think, of Canada being this great peace-keeping country, this great honest broker.

It’s been a sad week. The Orlando shooting dominated discussions in Ottawa and on our Canadian panel. From broadcast news to Twitter, everyone was focused on the tragic massacre and its aftermath. Part of this aftermath has involved discussions on gun control policies, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s responses, the upcoming election, and Canada’s relationship with the US.