The Canadianist Network

Anyone else smell the fireplaces outside tonight? Felt like a good night to sit down, turn on the camera and just talk for a bit. No script. No agenda. Just a conversation from home.

Conservative MP Dean Allison shared a Toronto Sun editorial declaring that Pierre Poilievre was “right about everything.”

Fine. Let’s assume he was.

Then why isn’t he Prime Minister?

Being right isn’t the same as persuading people you’re right, and that’s where Canadian politics keeps falling short. Conservatives speak to Conservatives. Liberals announce policies and numbers without explaining what they mean to the people actually living with the consequences. Both sides seem increasingly comfortable talking to their own base while talking past everyone else.

From Poilievre’s election loss to the Liberals announcing 380,000 permanent residents without first explaining where the doctors, nurses and skilled tradespeople are coming from, this episode looks at a basic failure of political communication and leadership.

Elections are won beyond the base. Leadership means listening to people who disagree with you, explaining what you’re trying to do and persuading them to come with you.

Canada needs more voices in Parliament because Canadians deserve more than an A-or-B choice between political tribes that increasingly seem unable to hear them.

We’re not customers. We’re shareholders.

The other day I received a comment on one of my posts that made me stop and think. I may have been wrong about Canadianism.

I spent some time with the argument. And the further I followed it, the more I realized the conversation hadn’t undermined Canadianism at all.

It may have made the case for it stronger.

Something has shifted in Canada. You can feel it in the conversations we’re having, the pressures we’re carrying and the lives we’re trying to build.

The middle is sick of being quiet.

Meet the Radical Centre.

Join us and be heard.

#SomethingShifted #RadicalCentre #Canadianism #UCCParty #cdnpoli

Canada has changed. The Canadianist Manifesto is a new weekly series examining whether the country’s institutions and systems have kept pace with the Canada that exists today.

In short, focused episodes, Christopher M. Michaud breaks the manifesto down section by section, exploring modernization, democratic institutions, Canadian identity, representation and the values the country carries forward.

This is the introduction to the series.

The Canadianist Manifesto

Meet the Radical Centre.

uccparty.ca

centristesunis.ca

Subscribe to follow the series.

#Canada #CanadianPolitics #CanadianistManifesto #RadicalCentre #Democracy #UCCParty

Ontario Votes 2026 is The Canadianist News election series looking at municipal races and the people seeking to lead communities across the province.

Christopher M. Michaud sits down with Wasaga Beach mayoral candidate Leslie Farkas for a long-form conversation about who he is, the community beyond the beach, beachfront redevelopment, growth and infrastructure, municipal spending, transparency and his vision for Wasaga Beach.

Michaud also makes the case against Farkas, challenging him on changing leadership in the middle of a major redevelopment, whether his approach could slow the project down, and what residents should actually expect to see one year after a Farkas victory.

The Canadianist News invited all four Wasaga Beach mayoral candidates to participate in the same long-form interview format.

In this episode of The New Canadiana, a ride through Vaughan turns into a conversation about Wonderland, raising twins, family life, working as a PSW, and some of the funny little things that come up when two people just start talking.

Something has been disappearing from Canada.

You can see it in our economy. You can see it in our politics. The edges keep getting stronger while the people, businesses and conversations in the middle get squeezed.

The problem isn’t that Canadians disagree. We’ve always disagreed.

The problem is that we’ve stopped meeting.

The middle was never an ideology.

It’s where Canada meets.

#Canada #CanadianPolitics #Centrism #MiddleClass #cdnpoli

Something changed in Canada.

Not all at once. Not with one election, one government, or one crisis. It happened gradually.

The middle started getting harder to hold onto. The ordinary life many Canadians expected to be able to build became less certain, while the political space between the loudest sides seemed to narrow at the same time.

This video is about that realization.

About paying attention long enough to see that different pressures were starting to form the same pattern.

The country hasn’t failed.

But something has shifted.

#Canada #CanadianPolitics #MiddleClass #CanadianLife #TheCanadianist

In September 2019, Andy Baquero came to Toronto as a member of Cuba’s national football team to play Canada at BMO Field.

He never went home.

After the game, Andy and teammate Alejandro made their way through their hotel, avoiding Cuban security and looking for a way out. They reached an emergency exit, discovered they didn’t know how to open it, and eventually ran for a waiting car.

But getting out was only the beginning.

Andy talks with Christopher M. Michaud about leaving his family behind, working construction through his first Canadian winter, finding his way back to professional soccer, making music, bringing his mother to Canada, and the strangers who made him feel at home within days of arriving.

It’s the story of one decision, a frightening escape, and the life Andy Baquero built afterward.

Journeys, from The Canadianist Podcast.

Real people. Real stories. A more Canadian tomorrow.