Democracy Lost Out

I have an editorial in the May issue of Outlooks, which is now available online and in print. This was written immediately after the election, and was a bit of a distillation of the mood of the time. While a couple of weeks have passed, it still holds and talks about a number of things that most columnists aren't talking about right now, which is a conversation I hope to continue in the coming weeks and months.

I had also written a profile of Lee Easton, an openly gay candidate for the leadership of the Alberta Party, which was a bit of a foray back into Alberta provincial politics for me (where the bug first bit me during my years as a page in the Alberta legislature), but unfortunately it was cut for space, and Easton lost the leadership this past weekend, so that piece is iced unfortunately.

The editorial is on page 15 of the print edition.

NDP's Dany Morin has a lot on his agenda

I have a new story up on the national page of Xtra.ca, which is my second interview with one of the new gay NDP MPs, this time Dany Morin. It was a good interview, and again it was nice to be recognised by my subject beforehand in that my reputation preceded me. That said, what I wasn't aware of until after the story was published was that Morin was another one of the Quebec NDP candidates who was basically unavailable to the media throughout. One of my compatriots at Xtra.ca noted today that Morin was consistently unreachable throughout the campaign, with no contact information, and the party's campaign office unwilling to provide any either. Had I been more aware of this at the time of the interview, I would have pressed him on it - but there's always a future date for such conversations.

Randall Garrison eager to be a federal NDP voice

I have a new story up on the national page of Xtra.ca, which is my first interview with Randall Garrison, one of the three incoming gay NDP MPs. The interview ended up being a bit shorter than I had perhaps initially anticipated, but that in part had to do with the fact that he's still new, and hasn't been assigned any particular critic responsibilities yet. Nevertheless, he did recognise my byline, and sounds like he's looking forward to speaking to me a whole lot over the next few years.

Davies readies for Parliament

I have a new story up on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which continues my series of interviews with queer MPs post-election. Up today is "senior" out NDP MP Libby Davies (though this was actually the third interview I did), who is usually a pretty fun interview if only because of her enthusiasm for everything.

Scott Brison: the lone gay Liberal MP

I have a new piece up on the national page of Xtra.ca, which is my post-election interview with Liberal MP Scott Brison. This is the first in a series of post-election interviews, and being as Brison was in town first, and I it was an interview that touched on issues for three different articles that will be coming out over the coming weeks, and there are some really thoughtful things that I'm looking forward to unveiling as they are published.

Françoise Boivin takes Gatineau

I have a piece - well, half of one - in the current print edition of Xtra Ottawa, which melds this election night piece from my colleague Noreen Fagan, and tacks on my earlier piece about Françoise Boivin and her apparent "outing" and accusations of hiring misdeeds onto the end. While this works on a superficial level, I was disappointed that the questions raised about Boivin were pretty much chopped out, which I felt made the piece far more supportive of Boivin than perhaps should have been - though this does not surprise me, considering the endorsement that Xtra Ottawa gave to another local NDP candidate.

Supreme Court to hear harm reduction case

I have a new story on the national page of Xtra.ca which previews this week's trial at the Supreme Court of Canada, which follows up on many of the stories I've been writing for a while now. Sadly, I won't be covering the actual trial - they've assigned the full-time staffer in Ottawa to that task, but I nevertheless got to write the preview piece. I was also quite fortunate that all of my sources came together before deadline, despite the fact that I was up late writing it. As well, I had another one of those perfect quotes from one of the sources which made a great sub-hed.