If you are, we'd encourage you to participate in this. Samara co-founder, Michael MacMillan, is this year's Brockington Visitor at Queen's, where he will participate in a number of public lectures, including the revisitation of a controversial film he made while a student in the 1970s.While the student orientation chair, Michael made a movie called The Academic Cloister that raised a number of pr... [More]

Back in warmer days, an interesting online debate about political engagement and our young people took place, sparked by a provocative column in the Globe and Mail. Earlier this month the organizers of the NOW conference at the University of Calgary (an event put together around the Dalai Lama's visit to Cowtown, complete with a White Hat) invited me to participate in a panel on political engag... [More]

Last month, the washingtonpost.com's former executive editor, Jim Brady, was at Samara talking about the various ways that news organization works to cover politics and public policy in a changing media environment. In addition to the experiments he highlighted, it's worth checking out their POTUS-tracker, which uses the information from Obama's schedule to show how he's spending his time, wi... [More]

Yesterday's post was a bit depressing, so today's seeks to swing the pendulum in the other direction and remind us why politics matters. Last week, our colleague Reva attended Maytree's annual conference and sent the following note that I wanted to share with you. ---- Yesterday I attended the Maytree Leadership conference which concluded with a 1o year celebration of their Scholarship Program.... [More]

Last spring, I watched former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush chat on stage in downtown Toronto. At the time, I was impressed with the regard each had for the other, musing that I couldn't imagine two former Canadian leaders having such a respectful exchange in public. Today, one of the participants in our MP exit interview project sent me this article from the Montreal Gazette that re... [More]

Those of you who've been following the various discussions on the future of journalism these past weeks may be interested in watching an edited video of the "What's Next for News" panel held at Ryerson, featuring media futurist Clay Shirky, author Andrew Keen and Globe and Mail editor Mathew Ingram. You can watch it here.

Globe & Mail editor-in-chief John Stackhouse gave an overview things in his world to to a group from the Canadian Journalism Foundation this evening. It was upbeat and refreshing, combining an overview of the industry with a loose outline of the Globe's plans for the future, both online and off. And for the inquiring minds among us, he also shared their top-read online stories this year. He... [More]

Last month, the washingtonpost.com's former executive editor, Jim Brady, was at Samara talking about the various ways that news organization works to cover politics and public policy in a changing media environment. In addition to the experiments he highlighted, it's worth checking out their POTUS-tracker, which uses the information from Obama's schedule to show how he's spending his time, with... [More]

We are currently looking for people interested in political leadership and public affairs to provide transcription support to our MP Exit Interview team. This involves transcribing digitally recorded audio tapes of one-on-one interviews with former MPs. This is a wonderful way to earn some extra spending money while contributing to a project we hope will make an important contribution to the pub... [More]