Party Lines

The Trump campaign has spent months setting expectations low for Joe Biden, from nicknaming him “Sleepy Joe” to outright questioning his mental capacity. Now, on the eve of the first Presidential debate, the pressure is on for the challenger to show up sharp and steady — and do much more than position himself as the “not Trump” of the election. Also top of mind: Trump’s refusal to commit to a peac...

So, that was a lot yesterday: a lengthy throne speech, that resets the Liberal government’s priorities six months into this pandemic; some fiery responses from opposition parties, one of which the government will need to survive a confidence vote; and a whole separate address-to-the-nation from the Prime Minister himself, stressing the urgency of this pandemic. But will that urgency translate into...

November’s election was already set to go down as the most litigated in U.S. history — but then Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, opening up a whole new layer of complications. To understand the stakes of filling the feminist icon’s now-vacant seat, Elamin calls on Zoe Tillman, who covers the intersection of law and politics for Buzzfeed News. Tillman explains how the next few weeks...

You’ve probably seen the headlines this week: COVID-19 cases are on the rise in several provinces across the country. “The time to act is now,” according to Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam — but is that message actually getting through to anyone? Rosie and Elamin point out we haven’t seen a substantial shift in messaging from governments recently, and the power of that “flatten the cur...

It's become gospel in America: win the suburbs, win the election. These vast, rapidly changing communities have become the focus of both campaigns. Trump claims that a Biden administration would spread big city looting, chaos and crime. Biden is betting on a progressive shift in suburban values, including support for racial justice. Nowhere are these competing narratives more live than in Wisconsi...

Okay, let’s catch you up: in the span of about a week last month, the finance minister resigned, the prime minister prorogued Parliament, and the Conservatives elected a new leader. Where does that leave things, heading into the fall? Rosie and Elamin break down some of August’s biggest political headlines, and build up what’s quickly becoming a highly anticipated fall session of Parliament — comp...

Let’s face it: whether or not you’ve been officially following the U.S. presidential race, you’ve been hearing about it. And the Trump vs. Biden talk is only going to ramp up this fall, as the whole world tunes in to the 2020 election. Enter Elamin: a curious global citizen who wants to be in the loop but not in the weeds. Starting next Tuesday, he’ll be hosting a Party Lines spin-off — Party in t...

Call it a prorogation, call it a vacation — Party Lines is taking a summer break! Elamin runs through the political stories he and Rosie will be keeping an eye on, from the WE Charity controversy to the Conservative leadership race, and Party Lines producer Emma Godmere swings by to read through some of your responses to last week’s Last Call question. Rosie and Elamin will return at the end of th...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted this week he should have recused himself from discussions about WE Charity; specifically, whether they should have been contracted to run a multi-million dollar student service program. Last week, we learned that both Trudeau’s mother and brother had been previously paid to speak at WE events. Conservatives want the RCMP to investigate, the Bloc is asking Tru...

Rosie and Elamin were pretty sure the federal government’s fiscal “snapshot” was going to present a rather bleak picture this week. Lo and behold, they were right on the money: Finance Minister Bill Morneau unveiled a projected deficit of $343 billion for the 2020–21 fiscal year, along with the expectation that Canada’s GDP will shrink by an amount not seen since the Great Depression. It all sound...

Get ready to make space on your home screen soon: July 2nd was supposed to be the day Canada’s “COVID Alert” app rolled out for testing across Ontario, with a wider cross-country release expected down the line. When the Prime Minister unveiled these plans a couple weeks back, he emphasized the app’s privacy measures and low-maintenance nature — but will that equate to an uptake significant enough...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hit a milestone, if you will, on Monday: he completed his eightieth press conference since the pandemic was declared in mid-March. The majority of them have been held just off his front porch at Rideau Cottage, though a few recent briefings have become almost campaign-style visits to Ottawa-area businesses. And those big-impact announcements of border closures and eme...

You’ve probably heard a lot of discussion around systemic racism this past week — particularly when it comes to the RCMP. Commissioner Brenda Lucki acknowledged last Friday that it exists within the force she leads, after dodging questions days earlier and explaining she’d heard up to “15 or 20 definitions” of the term. Elamin sifts through several examples of systemic racism specifically involvin...

People all around the world saw the photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking a knee at an anti-Black racism protest in Ottawa last week. Some felt it was a striking image, but others wondered if that moment would translate into action. Elamin and Rosie take a look at some of the federal government's possible next steps, including Trudeau's recent move to support outfitting RCMP officers with...

Elamin was ready to talk about something else this week — anything else, but recent events have forced another heavy conversation about structural, anti-Black racism. The protests unfolding in cities across the continent are responding to issues that are not strictly American. The concern around police brutality and the relationships between police forces and Black communities is a live issue in C...

It’s some of the most wrenching news to come out of this pandemic: horrific allegations of elder abuse and neglect at five Ontario long-term care homes, outlined in detail by the Canadian military, whose members have been providing assistance to seniors since late April. But they're not the first to blow the whistle. Now that COVID-19 has exacerbated the situation, Rosie wonders: could this finall...

Elamin and Rosie have spent weeks wondering how and when Canada might start rebooting parts of the economy. But now that virtually every part of the country is starting to re-open, Elamin has a new question: how safe is it out there? Has the risk changed at all, since the onset of the pandemic? Plus, Rosie shines a light on another challenge that has emerged over the last ten weeks: getting food o...

Rosie and Elamin check in on two borders this week: the one Canada shares with the U.S., and the one Quebec shares with Ontario. In both cases, one side’s dealing with a much more serious COVID-19 case load than the other. When it comes to Quebec, and especially Montreal, Rosie wants to know: how did it get this bad? How did one region get hit so much harder than virtually everywhere else in Canad...

While it’s been about five months since Andrew Scheer announced he’s stepping down as Conservative leader, he pledged to stick around until a replacement was picked — meaning he remains Canada’s leader of the Official Opposition, through this unprecedented pandemic. This week, he warned that the government’s COVID-19 support programs could discourage Canadians from returning to work, risking labou...

If you’re listening to this in New Brunswick right now, congratulations! You’re allowed to go to the beach today. Rosie and Elamin are not. But as Rosie points out, provincial reopening plans vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction simply because the COVID-19 case load in each province is so different. Still, Elamin wants to know: as Manitobans hit up patios next week while their neighbours...

It’s been a tough week, in a tough month, in a tough year. In the wake of last weekend’s devastating tragedy in Nova Scotia, questions have inevitably been raised about federal gun control. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on several occasions this week that his government was on the verge of introducing new legislation that would ban assault weapons — a pledge they made in the 2019 el...

So, we’re a month into this whole thing: the physical distancing, the not being able to hang out, the favourite restaurants being closed, and the kids staying home from school. That’s also four weeks of the economy being at a virtual standstill. How can the federal government get people back to work, and how soon? As Rosie puts it, kick-starting the economy is not so much flipping a switch as it i...

Projections. Models. Curves. Political coverage is getting a whole lot more mathematical these days, as provinces release their pandemic predictions to the public. But when we hear these best- and worst-case scenarios, Rosie wonders: do they have the potential to help — or harm? Plus, Elamin takes a look at the current state of Canada-U.S. relations, after last week’s scuffle over shipments of N95...

The start of a new month means rent is due for millions of Canadians all across the country. But people can only apply for these new federal government assistance programs starting next week. As Elamin points out — that leaves a lot of people in the lurch. With job losses and EI claims also mounting, could this pandemic widen an already worrisome wealth gap? And how prepared is the federal governm...

Did you notice the Prime Minister sounding more stern this week? Elamin says it’s like the scene in a family minivan: if you don’t stop acting up back there, dad’s gonna turn this car around and no one’s gonna get any ice cream. In this case, the ice cream is civil liberties — the freedom to still leave your house, at a safe distance from others, during this COVID-19 pandemic. As government offici...