Samara, in partnership with Massey College, is hosting Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief, president and CEO of ProPublica in Toronto on Monday March 1st. Recently named one of Fast Company's ten most innovative media companies, ProPublica is a non-profit investigative newsroom that produces journalism in the public interest. Prior to establishing ProPublica, Steiger was the managing editor of the ... [More]

Evan Bayh, the former governor of Indiana and a U.S. senator since 1999, announced his retirement from the Senate this week, and penned an extremely thoughtful piece on why in last weekend's New York Times. The piece was about what ails the U.S. Congress, but its echoes reverberate up here, at least if one believes what one reads about Parliament these days. Concerned Canadians should read this p... [More]

In earlier posts, we've talked about our lack of a "political class" in Canada, and also noted how few Canadians wanted their kids to pursue a career in elected office. Thanks to Edmonton Journal reporter Trish Audette for highlighting these all-in-the-family political stories from Alberta, one from Calgary and one from Edmonton. Move over Bushes, these family histories give a whole new meanin... [More]

In honour of the Olympics, a nice video tribute to Canada by NBC.

A recent Ipsos Reid poll asked Canadians if they would "encourage any family member to run for public office because it is a noble calling." The result? Two of every three Canadians polled, or 66%, said no. That's not a surprise. Given the negativity that surrounds much of the discussion around politics, not to mention the time and travel demands and public scrutiny associated with the job, I'd ... [More]

We are looking for a small team of volunteers to help develop Samara's next phase of activities. If you're interested in thinking about tough problems, researching and discussing ideas with others, please consider applying. All backgrounds and levels of experience welcomed. More information is available here.

I'm working my way through this report on Canada's democratic engagement, released recently by The Institute of Wellbeing, an organization that develops and regularly produces statistical reports on various aspects of Canada's well being. The upshot is that our democracy is in a pretty ho-hum state. No surprise there. The researchers have done a very thorough job of pulling together the lite... [More]

Writing about the political paralysis facing our neighbours to the south, a paralysis many observers believe has worsened over the past year, Slate's Jacob Weisberg points a finger at one suspect - or group of suspects - who often escapes scott-free. We the people. This very provocative piece, Weisberg suggests that instead of blaming various politicians or cable news stations, the American ... [More]

Last week, we wondered if the lack of an established political class in Canada was a problem or not. If one thinks it is (a few of you articulated as much in your responses), then it's important to understand what drives MPs to leave public life and whether those conditions can be reasonably changed. One big driver of turnover is electoral defeat, accounting for two-thirds of the total turnover... [More]

One of the most common questions I'm asked, maybe because of my own gender, is whether Samara's exit interviews take a particular look at women in politics. The answer is yes and no. Yes, because we are interviewing women (our pool, which draws form those who left public life during or after the last two Parliaments, includes 36 women, or about 26% of our total interviewees). This is a bit high... [More]