Help a Canadian Stay In Her Own Lane

March 3, 2020 5:25 PM

Of late years, I've become so consumed by what's going on south of the border that I am embarrassingly uninformed about what's going on in my own country. I want to correct that. What are the best Canadian/Ontarian/Torontonian political Twitter accounts/Facebook pages? I already follow the worthwhile major Canadian news outlets, and most of my elected leaders/representatives. I'm looking for good politicians, reporters, critics, and lesser known publications to follow. In general, I want social media accounts that will infuse my newsfeed with intelligent, reliable coverage and analysis of Canadian news and politics. What do you suggest?
posted by orange swan to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

Canadaland
posted by ovvl at 5:58 PM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

May I recommend Jonathan Goldsbie? I remember him as a young civics nerd at the Toronto Public Space Committee years ago. He's now an editor at Canadaland, too. Some snark, but mostly intelligent writing.
posted by scruss at 5:59 PM on March 3, 2020

I like Matt Elliott for Toronto City Hall coverage. He's on twitter, and writes for the Star and the CBC, and he also has a weekly newsletter covering City Hall.
posted by persimmons at 6:17 PM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

I subscribe to Matt Elliott's City Hall newsletter, and can echo the recommendation above.

Steve Munro has forgotten more about transit in Toronto and Ontario than most people could ever hope to know.

Indigenous Twitter is a helpful and up-to-the minute corrective to the misinformation served up by Canadian media outlets, including the CBC.

A non-exhaustive list:

Hayden King (also, the Yellowhead Institute)

âpihtawikosisân/Chelsea Vowel

Pam Palmater

Russ Diabo

Kim Tallbear

Rick Harp (he also runs Media Indigena, the podcast)

Brock Pitawanakwat

Candis Callison

Ryan McMahon (see also his Thunder Bay podcast via Canadaland)

Far right coverage/exposés (if Canadian Nazis are exposed and it makes it to the major news outlets, chances are it appeared here first):

antihate.ca

The ARC Collective

Mack Lamoureux, in collaboration with other journalists, has been doing excellent investigative reporting on the far right in Canada, including The Base.

General news sites:

The Narwhal

The Tyee

Press Progress
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:25 PM on March 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

Toronto twitter:
Matt Elliot
Steve Munro
Gord Perks
Lauren Pelley
Jennifer Pagliaro
Vicky Mochama

Toronto / Ontario / National:
Tabatha Southey
Jesse Wente
Denise Balkissoon
Carissima Mathen
Supriya Dwivedi
THIS Magazine

My twitter is feed is full SuperTuesday right now, once it clears up i'll probably come up with more.
posted by girlpublisher at 6:31 PM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Oh! And Sandy Hudson and Nora Loreto are great.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:39 PM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Press Progress

I mean, only if you want to read the party organ of the NDP. No judgment if you do (really), but they are more "partisan publication" than "newspaper with an ideological bent".
posted by ripley_ at 8:16 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Jennifer Keesmaat
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:14 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I mean, only if you want to read the party organ of the NDP. No judgment if you do (really), but they are more "partisan publication" than "newspaper with an ideological bent".

Good caveat, for sure. Speaking as someone who's never been a member of the party and has no partisan allegiance to it, I included it because in the short term anyway, it's pretty hard for it to be wrong about Doug Ford or Jason Kenney.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:55 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Kim Tallbear is very good. I like Amber Dawn, the poet out of Vancouver.
posted by PinkMoose at 12:27 AM on March 4, 2020

Good economic analysis: https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan

Progressive think tank Maytree Foundation

I won't link to them but a millions reporters like Mike Crawley (CBC Queen's Park), Travis Dhanraj (Global Queen's Park), Ben Spurr (Toronto Star Transit), Oliver Moore (G&M Transit)

Toronto City Hall : https://twitter.com/PlannerSean
https://twitter.com/AdamCF
posted by girlpublisher at 7:22 AM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

Was this inspired by the Beaverton, perhaps?

You'll come across the National Observer if you read/listen to enough Canadaland. They have broken a lot of stories. Sandy Garossino is great.
posted by anthill at 2:02 PM on March 4, 2020

Response by poster: Heh, no anthill, I had never seen that particular Beaverton article before I read it via your link. And I can name my own MP, MPP, and Toronto councillor, plus some others.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I've followed nearly everyone you recommended on Twitter and added the links for the publications you recommended to my Media favourites folder. My newsfeed is already skewing much more Canadian. I think I may set myself the assignment of posting one Canadian news-related item to my Facebook page every day.
posted by orange swan at 3:23 PM on March 4, 2020