Congratulations to the latest winner of the Guess Who? contest! Erin Tolley of Ottawa, Ontario correctly guessed the Honourable Pat O'Brien (click here to read his quote). As her prize for the correct guess, Erin chose Shakedown by Ezra Levant from our list of Best Canadian Political Books of the last 25 Years. *** The Guess Who? Contest is taking a hiatus over the summer. ... [More]

School may be out for the summer, but we here at Samara are in the process of cooking up new and engaging ways for kids to learn about their political system, and how to become active participants within it. During the Exit Interviews, many of the MPs lamented the lack of civics education students receive in Canada. This week's quote comes from an Ontario MP who came to politics from education. H... [More]

Congratulations to the latest winner of the Guess Who? contest! Tracey Schultz of Ottawa, Ontario correctly guessed the Honourable Loyola Hearn (click here to read his quote). As her prize for the correct guess, Tracey chose Harper's Team: Behind the scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power by Tom Flanagan from our list of Best Political Writing. *** Regular visitors k... [More]

With a marathon filibuster ending in the House on the weekend, we thought we would bring you a debate-themed Guess Who? contest this week. Of course the filibustering looked a little different than the way this MP described debate in the House... This week's quote comes a Newfoundland MP who served as the first House Leader of the Conservative Part of Canada in 2004. Guess which of the 65 parti... [More]

Congratulations to the latest winner of the Guess Who? contest! Stephanie Feldman of Ottawa, Ontario correctly guessed the Honourable Eleni Bakopanos, the first woman born in Greece to be elected as an MP (click here to read his quote). As her prize for the correct guess, Stephanie chose The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis from our list of Best Political Writing. *** Re... [More]

The next MP exit interview report--due out in July, for all of you who have been holding your breath--has a lot to do with how the MPs survived Ottawa, their recommendations for other MPs, and their success stories. So we thought we would bring you a Guess Who? contest this week that focused on survival of the MPs. Survival was a common theme during the interviews, both in terms of electoral victo... [More]

Tomorrow, Andreas Krebs of Samara will be facilitating a workshop at Govcamp, an "un-conference" organized by Mark Kuznicki. Participant will be looking at how open government can be implemented at federal, provincial, and municipal levels. Basically, Govcamp is a mashup of open data and government, examining ways that government processes and information can be made most accessible to citizens, a... [More]

Congratulations to the latest winner of the Guess Who? contest! Steven Lee from St. Catharines, Ontario correctly guessed Canada's first Green MP Blair Wilson (click here to read his quote). As his prize for the correct guess, Steven chose The High Road, by Terry Fallis from our list of Best Political Writing. *** Regular visitors know that our Guess Who? contest r... [More]

Last week we brought you some interesting facts about the average age of the 41st Parliament (i.e., it's not as young as you think!), and some were skeptical. One commenter asked for median ages. And Aaron Wherry kindly linked to our blog, and accurately noted that even if the new MPs' average age of 44 isn't terribly young, this Parliament still has a number of the youngest MPs in Canada's histo... [More]

With all the kerfuffle about Question Period back in the news, we thought we would bring you a Question Period-themed Guess Who? contest. This week's quote comes a British Columbia MP who famously left his part to first sit as an independent, then join another party...if we told you which one, it would be too big of a hint. Guess which of the 65 participating MPs spoke the words below before noo... [More]

There has been a lot of coverage in the media about the age of the new MPs set to take their seats in Parliament next week. We know that Pierre-Luc Dusseault, at 19 years of age, is the youngest MP ever to be elected in Canada. But what about the rest of them? Is Dusseault's jeunesse indicative of the overall age of our new Parliamentarians? Samara and a group of volunteers--Janet Rodriguez, ... [More]

Congratulations to the latest winner of the Guess Who? contest! Nick Taylor-Vaisey from Ottawa, Ontario correctly guessed longtime Medicine Hat MP and political blogger the Honourable Monte Solberg (click here to read his quote). As his prize for the correct guess, Nick chose The Good Fight: Political Memoirs 1909–1958, by David Lewis from our list of Best Political Writing. *** Regular v... [More]

Our friends in Montréal, l'Institut du Nouveau Monde, are hosting this year's CIVICUS World Assembly in September. It is an opportunity for citizens, organizations, business, and government to come together from around the world to share their projects and techniques for improving civic engagement. Registration is now open, with a 60% discount for those who register before May 30th.

Alison Loat will be discussing Samara's third report from MP exit interview project, "It's My Party": Parliamentary Dysfunction Reconsidered on the Agenda with Steve Paiken tonight. Check it out on TVO at 8pm. We'll post the video of the interview later in the week.

The first post-election Guess Who? contest focuses the feeling of awe and grandeur that many of the participating MPs mentioned upon first setting foot in the House of Commons. This week's quote comes an Alberta MP who was a broadcaster, businessman, and prominent blogger. Guess which of the 65 participating MPs spoke the words below before noon EST on Thursday May 19th. We'll choose one winn... [More]

Since last week's election, the media has been abuzz over the apparent inexperience of many of the new MPs set to arrive in Ottawa. The youngest MP in Canadian history, Pierre-Luc Dussealt was elected, as were a number of students and other young people. In future posts, we'll be discussing the age and professional backgrounds of the 41st Parliament. Here, we'd like to point to another way of thin... [More]

In Saturday's Ottawa Citizen, Ian MacLeod and Glen McGregor interviewed Professor Jon Pammett, a member of the Canadian Democracy Index academic team, on the impact that "political passion" can have on voter turnout: Detroit loves its cars. Seattle thrives on coffee. In Milan, it’s high fashion. And in Ottawa, where politics defines us, we vote like mad. So much so, four of the top... [More]

Below are the highlights of the coverage of Samara's latest report, "It's My Party": Parliamentary Dysfunction Reconsidered, including editorials, news stories, and radio shows. Pundits in papers from both left and right were actively in calling for further discussion on the issues raised in the report: The editorial board of the Ottawa Citizen notes that even with a change in seats per party ... [More]

Congratulations to the latest winner of the Guess Who? contest! Patrick Johnston from Toronto, Ontario correctly guessed longtime Thunder Bay MP the Honourable Joe Comuzzi (click here to read his quote). As his prize for the correct guess, Patrick chose Game Theory and Canadian Politics by Tom Flanagan from our list of Best Political Writing. *** Regular visitors know that our Guess Who? contes... [More]

The Guess Who? contest has been on hold for a few weeks with the release of our latest report. We're back with an election-themed challenge. This week's quote comes from a long-serving Northern Ontario MP and cabinet minister. Here he discusses the importance of a personal connection for politicians. Guess which of the 65 participating MPs spoke the words below before noon EST on Thursday May 5t... [More]