Dispatch from the Front Lines: Lord, let this election not be awful. Amen.
Matt cancelled a planned golf trip to cover this, so this better not suck.
Well, we are off to the polls. Yay. Fun. You can feel our enthusiasm, we're sure.
Some programming notes for how we're going to cover the election:
Our Bullshit Bulletin is back. We're going to release these on Fridays, before our The Line Podcast episodes. These were a lot of fun in the 2021 election. We solicit nominations! But! We have a rule. You can't just send us things you disagree with! It cannot be: "Well, I think what so-and-so is campaigning on is bullshit." It must be actually dishonest and/or inaccurate. If you see something, from any campaign or candidate, submit it to lineeditor@protonmail.com, subject line BULLSHIT! And we will review. Submissions can be anonymous.
We are excited to announce our Anti-Panel, an election-analysis panel with a Line-style twist. We've arranged for three smart people affiliated with each of the major parties (via a current or former role) to offer us a weekly written analysis of the campaign. But! To avoid the same-same nothin'-but-spin nonsense that these panels often become, we're going to make each of our participants say nice things about the other campaigns. Not endorsements! But actual analysis of what the other teams are doing well, and maybe even some honest feedback where their own team could be doing better. You'll have a chance to meet the panel soon. We'll release these panels on Saturday.
Our weekly dispatches will continue to be released on Sunday.
We will continue to publish articles daily — we aren't requiring them to be election themed, but they likely will be in the main.
The Line Podcast and On The Line will both continue their publication schedules, and both will focus heavily on the election. There is one important tweak! To better tickle the algorithms, On The Line's video release via YouTube and Twitter will shift to Tuesday evenings, when more people are available to watch. The audio version will continue to go out Tuesday mornings.
Sorry! That’s a lot of boilerplate. But we’ve got big plans and we’re excited to show you what we’ve got.
And what we’ve got, right now, is the latest episode of The Line Podcast.
Also enjoy last week’s episode of On The Line, where Matt Gurney spoke with P.J. Fournier from 338Canada about the polling environment, and also with journalist and author Stephen Maher about Justin Trudeau’s legacy. Gurney, by the by, said on this episode was that the reason he wanted to talk with Maher about Trudeau’s legacy then was because news was moving so fast that he wasn’t sure there’d ever be a chance if they waited. And that … seems to have been right.
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. (We need a bit more time to get Jen’s set up for video broadcasting, but if you want to follow it now, it’s 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.
Yeah, yeah, lots of boilerplate. But now you’re all caught up. And, God help us … on with the dispatch.