Balance of Power

Big news. Serious business. No press conference. Just a leak. This week on Balance of Power, Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips dig into how this actually works. Government wants something out there. Not a scrum. Not a pile of questions. Their version. First. So it shows up in a column. A scoop. Headline already pointed where they want it. Why do it this way? What do they get out o...

How do political campaigns actually win once the voting starts? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips unpack the strategy behind the federal NDP leadership race as voting begins, check in on the budget fight unfolding in Nova Scotia, and talk about the rarely discussed cost of maintaining a political image in the age of constant cameras. First: the mech...

Are Alberta’s immigration referendum questions actually about immigration, or about politics? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil and Leah Ward are joined by Dr. Bronwyn Bragg, a human geographer at the University of Lethbridge who studies labour migration and precarious work. First, the politics behind Alberta’s proposed immigration referendum. The panel breaks down what the questi...

Are we governing for the moment? Or reacting to it? This week on Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips break down three political pressure points, and what they reveal about leadership in high-stakes moments. First: The fallout from the Tumbler Ridge tragedy in B.C. After reporting revealed OpenAI had flagged violent content from the alleged shooter but did not aler...

Are we misreading the political moment? This week, Annalise is away and Shannon Phillips and Leah Ward are joined by pollster and data scientist Kyla Ronellenfitsch, President of Relay Strategies, to cut through three dominant narratives: Alberta separatism, immigration backlash, and the supposed rightward shift among young voters. First: new reporting reveals Alberta separatist organizers meeting...

Is Alberta separation gaining ground, and can it be stopped? In the debut episode of Balance of Power , Annalise Klingbeil, Leah Ward and Shannon Phillips unpack new polling showing 29% of Albertans would vote to leave Canada, and why that number could shift quickly in a referendum. They debate the messaging war behind separatism, the silence from business leaders, and what a Brexit-style shock co...