Dispatch from the Front Lines: Liberals, enjoy your mug full of piss
We, too, regret publicly suggesting that our rivals should be kidnapped and disappeared into torture gulags. Our bad.
Lots to cover this week, friends, and lots to keep you up to date on. So we’ll just blow right in. First, we have launched our weekly election features. Check ‘em out, they’re both a ton of fun.
Anti-Panel, Week 1: 'Even the NDP wouldn’t think that would win seats.'
During the election, and then once after to wrap-up, The Line has assembled a panel of partisans, but fun ones! People we know and like. They’re going to help us analyze the campagin, but they’ve also agreed to give some honest feedback to their own parties. Though we suspect we might have to force them into that each week. We have
Bullshit Bulletin, Week 1: We've decided to spend a lot less time with our families
Well, we’re back! It seems like just a few years ago — in fact, it was just a few years ago — that The Line last rolled out its much-loved election-time fact-checking feature. (Look at all those hyphens.) Yes, that’s right! The Bullshit Bulletin is back!
On top of that, we’ve got both of our podcasts this week — and they were both election heavy, as you’d expect.
We make our usual requests of you! Please like, subscribe and share widely. That means here at the main site, of course, but also on our distribution channels: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all the others. A nice review helps, too!
New to this list: our Twitter accounts! Matt’s is here. The Line’s is here. Jen is here. As part of our revamped strategy, we’re asking you to follow us on all our social media platforms, which we’ll be using to directly distribute our podcast content. A full list can be found below:
Facebook x 2: (On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here). (We need to do it this way because of C-18. So thanks, Trudeau.)
Instagram.
TikTok.
BlueSky.
LinkedIn.
Okay! Let’s go!
First, we tip our hats to our friends at The Hub, which recently received more than $20,000 from the Canadian Journalism Collective, the nonprofit established to disburse $100 million a year to “eligible news organizations.” The money comes from Google, which pays into the fund to comply with C-18, the Online News Act. The Hub chose to donate all of its funds to charity, and has called on any organization that received the funds to disclose as much. (Disclosures are mandatory, but are not expected before the end of the election.)
We echo that call for transparency. And we’d also like to take this opportunity to reiterate, as we often have before, that The Line has not sought nor received a dollar of federal subsidies in any form. There are a variety of programs; we know we wouldn’t qualify for some of them because we’re fully owner-operated, but even the ones we might qualify for, we’ve ignored. We do not believe accepting these subsidies is compatible with maintaining the faith of our readership. We have foresworn them on that basis — plus, we also just think the shakedown of big tech was gross and want no part of it.
Not all our colleagues in the traditional or legacy media feel the same. Fair enough. But The Line’s position is clear — not now, not ever. We’ll do it the harder way.