OTTAWA — The country’s most active right-leaning charities reported zero “political” activity in 2014 while engaging in work that appears to meet the Canada Revenue Agency’s own definition, a new Broadbent Institute survey has found. This raises fresh questions about how conservative-oriented charities are interpreting CRA’s definition of “political” activity and the agency’s political-activity auditing program.

OTTAWA—The Broadbent Institute’s Stand up for Progress National Tour featuring Harry Leslie Smith wraps up today after the Second World War veteran traveled nearly 17,000 kilometers inspiring the next generation of progressives in the lead-up to the federal election.

Canada’s oldest rebel and author of Harry’s Last Stand: How The World My Generation Built Is Falling Down, And What We Can Do To Save It hit seven Canadian cities across five provinces, from Victoria to Halifax, in the past month. The tour ends in Oshawa today.

The Canadian government passed Bill C-24 this week, giving itself the power to revoke citizenship of dual citizens convicted in Canadian courts or abroad of committing "acts against Canada,"including terrorism, espionage or treason. Though the government claims it is now better able to protect Canadians from "jihadi terrorism," the law does not make Canadians safer. Instead, it creates a class of second class citizens, whose status as Canadians is insecure.   

I taught Canadian government for 30 years and over that time the course content traced the growing shift of power from Parliament to the executive branch and increasingly to the position of Prime Minister.

I recall that most of my students paid very little attention to politics and topical political issues. In the years since, the erosion of Canadian democracy has continued at an accelerating rate and far too many Canadians – much like my former students – appear unaware of these developments or, worse still, indifferent to them.

David McGrane / Winnipeg Free Press

Several studies have established that young Canadians have lower rates of voting compared with older Canadians. But little research has looked at the question: Do young Canadians display different political attitudes than older Canadians?

Susan Delacourt / Toronto Star

Is it possible for Canadians to hate politics but still believe in government?

Findings released at Progress Summit 2015 raise question of how youth vote could change election result

OTTAWA—More than older Canadians, younger Canadians support increases in taxes tied to better public services, prioritize environmental protection over economic growth, support more spending on health and education, and want an activist government that creates jobs, according to a new study.

Joe Friesen / Globe and Mail

Canadians under 35 are more left wing than the rest of Canada and could transform the political landscape if only they voted, according to a new study.

MEDIA ADVISORY

New study of massive dataset of over 8,000 Canadians being released Friday at #prgrs15

OTTAWA— University of Saskatchewan political scientist David McGrane will be available to answer questions from reporters about his new study being published Friday by the Broadbent Institute.

This year Pope Francis is expected to deliver an encyclical on ecology, one concerning the environment broadly and perhaps climate change more particularly.

Believers and non-believers alike, united by a common concern for the future of the planet, have high hopes that someone who chose to name himself after that great lover of creation, Francis of Assisi, will say something truly transformational, for as a Canadian Council of Churches document lamentably observes, transformative change has not “found traction within political processes.”