Balance of Power

What happens when Alberta separatists take their campaign south of the border and start fighting with each other along the way? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil and Shannon Phillips look at the Globe and Mail’s reporting on Alberta separatists, Republican operatives, and efforts to win support in Washington. First: the separatist movement. What does the infighting tell us about t...

Canada has some of the strongest legal protections for abortion in the world. So why do reproductive-rights advocates say the fight is changing rather than ending? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil sits down with Frédérique Chabot, executive director of Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, to talk about where the abortion fight is happening now. First: abortion may be legal...

What happens when a government calls a snap election two years early — and the opposition is still trying to figure out who it is? This week on Balance of Power, Shannon Phillips and Leah Ward are joined by Nikki Hill, co-host of the Left East to West podcast, to break down David Eby’s surprise election call, the collapse and reconstruction of the B.C. Conservatives, and why British Columbians are...

What happens when a seat everyone assumed was safely Conservative suddenly flips? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips break down the Calgary-Shaw by-election upset, what actually drove the result, and why everyone seems to be taking a different lesson from the same vote. First: the shock. The NDP wins a seat it had no business winning based on recent...

What happens when the agency responsible for running Alberta’s referendum is already warning that it is stretched too thin? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips look at growing concerns around Elections Alberta, the referendum process, and what happens when public confidence starts to erode before voting day even arrives. First: referendum watch. With...

What does it mean to win a referendum if the result still leaves the separatist movement alive and kicking? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips look ahead to Alberta’s referendum and ask what a decisive federalist victory would actually have to look like. First: turnout. More than 200,000 Albertans have already requested special ballots, but does that...

What happens when a crisis becomes an opportunity to make changes governments and business have wanted for years? This week on Balance of Power , Shannon Phillips and Leah Ward dig into the politics of “crisitunity,” the Team Canada response to the trade war, and what Canada risks giving up in the name of competing with the United States. First: the race to the bottom. Environmental protections ar...

What happens when a referendum starts to feel less like a vote and more like a warning? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil and Leah Ward are joined by political scientist Lisa Young to talk about the strange political fall Alberta is heading into, the separation debate, and what happens when a fringe idea becomes a live political question. First: be careful what you wish for. Lisa...

What should politicians actually be doing while everyone else is trying to enjoy August? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips remember Jeff Sloychuk, a longtime labour and NDP organizer whose politics were rooted in working-class people, practical action and getting the job done. First: summer politics. Is August a time to rest, work the barbecue circu...

What happens when politicians and their staff decide the questions are the problem? This week on Balance of Power , Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips break down two spectacular examples of how not to handle the media, and what competent political communication is supposed to look like when the stakes are high. First: Ontario’s wildfire response. After a ministerial staffer interrupted a live CBC inte...

What happens when politics stops being a conversation and becomes an ambush? This week on Balance of Power , Shannon Phillips and Leah Ward dig into the recent political ambush videos in Alberta, the instincts they reveal, and the mistakes politicians make when they forget who is really watching. First: the confrontation. From Naheed Nenshi’s exchange over a photo with the Israeli ambassador to Da...

What does it actually take to run for office, and how do you know whether you should? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward, and Shannon Phillips offer a practical guide for anyone thinking about putting their name on a ballot, from the first conversation with a riding association to the realities of campaigning, fundraising, vetting, and family life. First: forget the myth...

What happens when conservatives pick a fight with someone who knows exactly how to fight back? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil and Shannon Phillips dig into Calgary’s Stampede noise war, Jeromy Farkas’s escalating feud with Danielle Smith and Pierre Poilievre, and what happens when conservative messaging gets turned back on the people who invented it. First: the fun police. Why...

What happens when stepping away from politics creates room to think differently about art, fear, community, and the work still left to do? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward, and Shannon Phillips unpack Shannon’s recent trip to Patmos, Greece, where she joined artists, writers, and musicians including Ani DiFranco, Neko Case, Anaïs Mitchell, and Ann Powers for a ten-day...

How many ballots is too many ballots? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil and Leah Ward unpack the staggering logistics behind Alberta’s October referendum vote. With Elections Alberta preparing to print 45 million ballots and recruit 60,000 workers, they explore what happens when direct democracy collides with administrative reality. First: the ballot problem. The hosts break down...

For years, Alberta's separation movement has talked about what it wants. What happens when it has to talk about what it costs? This week on Balance of Powe r, Annalise Klingbeil and Leah Ward look at what it means for a political project built on emotion to encounter a spreadsheet. As new estimates put a price tag on Alberta independence, they ask whether the politics of grievance can survive cont...

In a moment when Prairie politics feels increasingly untethered from reality, what happens when governments start making generational decisions while chasing internal political pressure? This week on Balance of Power , Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips are joined by Saskatchewan NDP MLA Aleana Young to unpack Saskatchewan’s stunning $26 billion coal gamble, the politics driving it, and why the fight...

In a province where politics increasingly feels like performance, what happens when the people who understand the stage best start talking openly about persuasion, authenticity, and fear? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward, and Shannon Phillips unpack the politics of communication, the growing international fascination with Alberta separatism, and why the fight over Cana...

In a week where Alberta politics somehow got even messier, what happens when the process itself becomes the problem? This week on Balance of Powe r, Annalise Klingbeil and Shannon Phillips dig into the escalating fallout from the alleged misuse of Alberta’s voters list, the separatist petition, and why a data leak involving nearly three million Albertans is about much more than privacy. First: the...

Balance of Power: Gay Enough? In a moment when trust in democracy feels fragile, what happens when the basic machinery of politics becomes the story? This week on Balance of Power, Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward, and Shannon Phillips dig into the Elections Alberta investigation, the alleged misuse of the list of electors, and why a story about voter data is not just procedural, but deeply personal....

If the problems keep getting worse, are we even solving the right one? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil and Leah Ward take on a set of decisions that feel increasingly out of step with how people actually live. From time changes to family planning to public consultation, they walk through what happens when policy targets miss the mark. First: daylight saving time. Alberta is movi...

In a moment where things feel like they’re slipping, what does control even look like? This week on Balance of Power , Shannon Phillips, Leah Ward, and Annalise Klingbeil step into a rough stretch for the Conservatives and unpack what happens when a party starts to wobble. From by-election losses to internal pressure, they walk through how instability takes hold and what it really takes to stop it...

Balance of Power: Does Anything Matter? In a political moment where lines are blurring and power is shifting, what actually matters anymore? This week on Balance of Powe r, Shannon Phillips, Leah Ward, and Annalise Klingbeil dig into the growing trend of floor crossing. They talk about what it says about political values and whether consistency still counts in modern politics. From party loyalty t...

What happens when a leadership win sparks tension inside the party? This week on Balance of Power , Shannon Phillips, Leah Ward and Shannon Greer reflect on the legacy of Stephen Lewis, unpack the implications of Avi Lewis’s decisive leadership win, and dig into what it all means for New Democrats across the country. First: legacy and loss. The panel reflects on Stephen Lewis’ impact on Canadian p...

Is this about rights or strategy? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips talk kettlebells (kettleballs?) before digging into the politics behind the latest waves of anti-trans policy in Canada and what it reveals about how governments choose to fight. First: the framing. How “parental rights” moved from the margins to the centre of the debate and who it...