Probably About Politics Podcast

Alex and Kaleigh have explored a lot of big policies that were made to meet big problems from the past over the last few months and for this episode, the hosts explore The Green New Deal - a big policy idea to meet the current global challenge of climate change. They answer all the hard-hitting questions that often remain unanswered in the news coverage of The Green New Deal like: What is the Gree...

With COVID-19 under control nationally, Suriname is ready to head to the polls to elect their national assembly this month. Alex and Kaleigh explore the challenges of running for re-election when you're a former dictator, wanted by EUROPOL, the Netherlands and have just been convicted for murder in your own country. The hosts also celebrate victories for small countries, urban design in crisis and...

To start a conversation about how governments make policy to handle economic downturns Kaleigh & Alex look back in history to the Great Depression in the USA and The New Deal policies and government institutions that were enacted in the 1930s. The hosts explore how FDR's New Deal helped the USA recover from the Great Depression, the ways it changed governance forever, and what it can teach us...

For our first-ever bonus Space News! episode Alex and Kaleigh bring you a little bit of space, as well as some sea monsters, ocean anxiety, and the hottest new hibernation game show. Kaleigh still doesn't like space but has lots of questions and Alex still has all the space answers and please someone send him to space. Please Rate & Review! Keep up with Probably About Politics: Instagram: @pro...

Sri Lanka's parliamentary election has been delayed as the country responds to COVID-19. Alex and Kaleigh explore the significant issue of the election, including constitutional changes to parliamentary powers. The hosts discuss the challenge to democracy and constitutional crisis the election delay and broader impacts COVID-19 could create for countries like Sri Lanka. As well the hosts catch up...

This week Kaleigh and Alex explore how Canada got their primary constitutional document on the rights and freedoms of Canadians in 1982. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The hosts also dive into the human rights law at all levels of government in Canada and how the country's government response to national emergencies like COVID-19 interacts with their citizen's rights and freedoms. Please Rate...

This week Kaleigh and Alex take look at the defacto sovereign country of  Abkhazia's Presidential election... Take two. The hosts also discover that there is lots of fun to be had while social distancing with more poisoning, contested statehood, cursing, and whale poop than ever before in Probably About Politic's first pod in a pandemic. Please Rate & Review! Keep up with Probably About P...

Sometimes it can seem like governments can't pass the major legislation of the past like, for example, universal health care in Canada. This week Kaleigh and Alex are trying to answer the question of how major legislation, specifically the Canada Health Act, gets passed. What your hosts discover is a long and winding road that tells you a lot about Canadian governance but also what it takes to get...

A lot is happening in the world this month but not all of it is making headlines, and that is the theme of this week's episode. Alex and Kaleigh return to cover a national election in Iran for the second time in Probably About Politics history.  Iran takes up a lot of international news coverage, but very little has been said about their upcoming election. But with on-going unrest and 9,000 c...

Welcome to the first Probably About Politics Explains! For our first monthly explainer episode, Kaleigh and Alex are staying in South America after coving Peru's election to explore the Odebrecht Scandal - or Operation Car Wash. The hosts are diving into the global corruption scandal that started in Brazil and sparked demands for democratic reform in Peru's recent election that has now implicated...

Welcome back to Probably About Politics! This week Alex and Kaleigh are heading back to South America to explore Peru's upcoming general election which sees the country, that has been hit by a major political corruption scandal that has taken down leaders in several countries in South America, on the brink of an opportunity to make major democratic reforms. Plus don't miss out on robot government...

2019 was an exciting year for Probably About Politics! 10 countries, 4 special episodes, and 3 interviews. This week Alex and Kaleigh met up over the holidays to take a look back on some of these elections and a couple they missed to see what happened after they covered them. Tensions rise, but the duo has put together the most exciting podcast highlights of the year! Please Rate & Review! Kee...

December is not the most common month of the year to have elections, and this might lead you to ask why the United Kingdom is holding theirs in December for the first time in over 100 years! Alex and Kaleigh are here with the answers to that and more. And to balance out the return to the UK for the second time this year, they've also got exciting news out of Finland and a big update on the worm ce...

With lots of exciting elections finishing out November, Kaleigh and Alex are playing catch up on Canada's cabinet announcement and then diving in with some elections you might have missed, including Hong Kong's local elections and the national elections of a country of 50,000+, the Marshall Islands. But, as the hosts discover, these elections were closely watched by major powers like China an...

On Sunday, November 17th, 2019 Belarus swept out the only two representatives from parties that opposed the government that had been elected since 1994. With the country having been led by President Alexander Lukashenko since around the time that Kaleigh and Alex were born, it makes sense that you probably haven't heard much about this particular election. In this episode, the hosts look at Belaru...

The Canadian Federal election is October 21. Just in time for election day, Kaleigh and Alex give you their look at the Federal Party platforms; particularly what the parties have to say about the hot issue of the campaign, climate change. Kaleigh travelled to Alex to mark the special occasion of discussing, for the first time, the context, issues and scandals of an election that both the hosts ge...

The Canadian Federal election is here and, we're kicking off Season 4 of Probably About Politics, and we think it is only appropriate then that we have an interview with Jenica Atwin! This interview is an exciting follow up to our conversations with other candidates for local and provincial elections. Alex and Kaleigh want to help voters heading to the polls this fall by highlighting candidates ru...

Scandals in Ibiza, the rise of European populism and a snap election! This episode Kaleigh and Alex are looking at the upcoming Austrian election and the scandal that brought the country back so quickly to another election in a whirlwind two years. They also get excited talking about the unprecedented temporary technocratic government that has been in charge for the last few months. Kaleigh helps...

The mission of this podcast continues to be to keep our listeners up to date on issues in a democracy,  and we haven’t been talking enough about how climate change fits firmly into this category!  To get started on talking climate change and democracy Alex and Kaleigh want to take a look at how to lead discussions and education around the super wicked problem of climate change. So this m...

Our goal for this season of summer school was to give you concrete examples of ways to participate and influence levels of government around you. For this episode, we look at the types of political parties, how they build their platforms, and how through membership you might influence them.  To do this Alex and Kaleigh dive into the Canadian political parties and then shine a bit of light on...

We're back in Greece! This episode Kaleigh and Alex are looking at the recent Greek election that saw the return of an old party to power with a new leader. To talk about the 2019 election we have to take a look back at the election of the outgoing Prime Minister in 2015 and what happened since. To celebrate our return to our first-ever episode we bring back an original podcast segment "Phases of...

  Summer school is back in session! Our second class looks into the role of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council and the role of the Prime Minister of Canada. Rate & Review on all of your favourite platforms! Keep up with Probably About Politics: Twitter: @probpolitics Email: probablyaboutpolitics@gmail.com

For the first time ever Probably About Politics is heading to North America! Guatemala is heading into the first part of its national election this June but it might be an election you haven't heard much about. With the complicated history and role of international politics, Alex and Kaleigh quickly shine a light on an election that will be extremely consequential for the biggest country in Centra...

Summer school is back in session! Kaleigh and Alex's first class will be looking at the consensus governance style of the territorial governments of Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada's North.  What are the different ways people govern themselves? How can we improve our democracy? This season's summer school is diving into the practical way things work in our governments, how they ca...

We couldn't say Probably About Politics does election coverage if we missed 900 million eligible voters heading to the polls in India. Running an election for a country as big and diverse as India is tricky, so Alex and Kaleigh explore how the world's largest democracy works in some unique ways. They talk about running the seven phases of voting over five weeks, and the role of local politics to t...