The Hatchet

So last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith used the notwithstanding clause to force Alberta teachers back to work. It’s the first time the notwithstanding clause has ever been used in this kind of a manner to end a labour action. And that’s led to some softening of support for Danielle Smith. But here’s the truth. The latest polls show that if an election were held today, Danielle Smith’s United...

In 1965, Canada’s postal workers did something so radical, so unprecedented, that it shook our country’s political establishment to the core. They went on strike. It was radical and unprecedented because up until then public employees had no right to walk off the job. But for two weeks, postal workers conducted an illegal wildcat action which, by the end of it, saw them winning the right to strike...

I think it’s kind of funny how we talk about election campaigns while they’re in progress. Between the polling and the poll aggregators, there’s often a feeling of inevitability to the result. But it also makes those times when the result is unexpected, when the actual will of the voters turns out to be very different from what the polls and the pundits predicted, to stand out in stark relief. We...

Why can’t the government do stuff? I’m not being facetious here. I think most Canadians — in fact, most people who live in western democracies — have a feeling that their governments are incapable of actually delivering on projects or providing services. But it wasn’t always this way. There was an era, not so far back in the future, when the Canadian governments turned petrochemicals into plastics...

Back a few years ago, there was this moment where it felt like there was a movement building against monopolies. It started in the United States with academics like Lena Khan and Tim Wu and journalists like Matt Stoller speaking out about the creeping corporate concentration that was infecting so much of American life. Eventually that movement found purchase in the Biden administration, which put...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca Vancouver is a funny place. It’s without a doubt the most beautiful city in the country, probably also the continent and maybe even the world — at least when the sun’s shining. The rainy season, which lasts around eight months of the year, can turn it into a dreary, inescapable limbo. It’s a place filled luxury car deale...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca This episode is available immediately to paid supporters. For unpaid supporters, we're providing a short preview. Please consider supporting us at hatchetmedia.substack.com The Canadian Pacific created a nation. But it also destroyed nations in the process. This is our third and final episode in our series about the buil...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca This episode is available immediately to paid supporters. For unpaid supporters, we're providing a short preview. Please consider supporting us at hatchetmedia.substack.com There’s a story we like to tell ourselves about how Canada was built. It’s about John A. Macdonald’s fearless vision and how Canadians across the con...

Most countries have a founding myth of some kind, a moment in time that serves as an anchor for the grand national story. For the United States, it’s the American Revolution and the founding of the republic. France’s history goes back centuries, but their national narrative begins with the storming of the Bastille. Which is why Bastille Day is their most important holiday. England has the Norman i...

During my lifetime, there have only been a handful of times that quote unquote Canadian nationalism has been a potent force of any kind. The first, actual wave of Canadian patriotism I ever encountered was in the year 2000. That’s when Molson put out their “I Am Canadian” ad. You know the one I’m talking about. And for many people, that kind of came to encapsulate what it meant to be Canadian. Eve...

The Hockey Canada trial has been going on for two months now. And during that time, the Canadian media has meticulously covered every twist and turn that’s taken place in the London, Ontario courthouse. Five men — Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote and Carter Hart — have been accused of sexually assaulting a twenty-year-old woman, who is only being identified as E.M., after a H...

It’s so hard to know where to start a story. Choosing a starting point shapes the entire message and moral of whatever story you’re trying to tell. And that’s especially true when it comes to something like the recent Israeli and American bombardment of Iran. The simplest way to start would be to parrot what most Western governments and the mainstream media have been saying. For them, you need to...

Arshy and Jordan sit down to give a quick update about how things have been going, a sneak peak at some upcoming projects, and the future of The Hatchet . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.ca/subscribe

We’re now a month-and-a-half removed from the last federal election. And it feels like we’re finally starting to get a sense of how this government is going to, well, govern. Domestically, there’s been legislation on resource development and a lot of new powers for cops and border guards. Plenty of increased spending on defence and tax cuts. And internationally, Mark Carney has been doing a lot of...

Point Roberts is one of the most unique places in North America. It’s a tiny spit of land right across the American border from the Vancouver suburb of Delta. But because it’s surrounded on three sides by water, it’s not connected to the rest of Washington state.  It’s a community built by both Canadians and Americans — a physical manifestation of what the relationship between our two countries ca...

What does Danielle Smith want? The American threat has led to some strange bedfellows between the premiers and the feds. Leaders as different as Wab Kinew, Doug Ford and Mark Carney all seem to be on the same page. But not the Albertan premier. She’s been the odd woman out during the past few months. She maintained friendly contacts with the Trump administration, she argued against the use of expo...

The last time we spoke with John Rapley, economic columnist for the Globe and Mail, it was right after Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister, creating a crisis for the Trudeau government. Remember that? It feels like quite a long time ago. Here’s some of what’s happened since then — Justin Trudeau announced his resignation, Donald Trump began to joke about Canada as the 51st state, and th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca Final thoughts on one of the strangest elections in Canadian history from the team at The Hatchet. If you’re in Toronto, make sure to drop by our election watch party at the Dock Ellis.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca For the first and only time this election, the major federal party leaders (and Yves-François Blanchet) stepped onto a stage and debated each other in English. None of the major parties have released a fully-costed platform. And both Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre have done everything possible to avoid being subjected...

Brookfield has been in the news constantly over the last few weeks. The Conservatives attacked the company for moving the headquarters of one of their subsidiaries to New York City. The NDP have accused it of avoiding taxes through offshore havens. And Prime Minister Mark Carney, the former chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, has found himself on the defensive because of his association with...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com It’s week two of the federal election and Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are off to a rocky start. There’s been reporting in most major news outlets about turmoil behind-the-scenes. And high ranking staffers have been openly criticizing his campaign and pushing for a change in di...

With the American government regularly threatening annexation on a weekly basis, there’s one question that I’ve had on the top of my mind — what does the Canadian military think about all of this? We’re well past the point where anyone can argue that this is a joke or that Trump isn’t being serious. I don’t think it’s a surprise for anyone that the Canadian Armed Forces are almost entirely depende...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com The federal election is here! And I think we all know this is going to be a wild one. The last few months have already been some of the strangest in modern Canadian history. But worry not, The Hatchet is here to help understand everything you need to know about this race. In additi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca There’s a line about Canada that gets tossed around a lot. It comes from Harold Innis, the father of Canadian economic history, who said that Canadians have been relegated to “hewers of wood and drawers of water.” An…

This was the week where Doug Ford finally became Prime Minister. Okay, so technically it’s Mark Carney who was actually sworn in as PM. But for a few weeks, Doug Ford appeared to be leading the nation. After all, it was Ford that was invited down to the Washington for a meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The feds just sort of tagged….along. And there were two people in particular that...