While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Luke LeBrun.
The choice of Ben Mulroney as the new interim host of Global News’ national political affairs program offers an intriguing case study into the potential problems of mixing journalism with business, lobbying and partisan politics – or it might not matter, given Mulroney denies he is a journalist. Mulroney, who is the eldest son of former conservative Prime Minister Brian...
It’s a cliché in Canadian politics to say the Liberals campaign from the left and govern from the right. But the growing discrepancies between what Mark Carney said during the election and how he’s handling things six months into his prime ministership are leaving more and more progressive swing voters scratching their heads. Sure, most Canadians assumed Carney would be...
Anyone expecting a gentler, more moderate Pierre Poilievre to emerge following his electoral defeat can put to rest any speculation that the Conservative leader is planning a great reset. Despite internal grumblings that Poilievre’s combative tone and coziness with far-right types has been bringing their party down, his Conservatives are back and picking fights with Crown prosecutors trying “Freedom Convoy”...
After losing the election and his own seat, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre will also soon need to move out of his taxpayer-funded public mansion. Stornoway, a 9,500-square-foot mansion in Ottawa’s tony Rockcliffe neighbourhood, has been the official residence of Canadian opposition leaders since the 1950s. The mansion is maintained by the National Capital Commission. According to the Official Residences Act...
The latest example of viral misinformation disrupting Canada’s federal election involves a decontextualized photo featuring a retiree giving two middle fingers at a Mark Carney rally in Brantford, Ontario. The man in the photo tells PressProgress the intended recipient of his hand gestures was a group of far-right activists with “F–k Carney” flags, Pierre Polievre banners and pro-Trump t-shirts who...
It’s bad enough Canada already faces myriad threats to our democracy from covert foreign influence campaigns and online disinformation. Now, Canadians apparently also need to worry about Liberal operatives sneaking around planting fake evidence about their political opponents.
As Donald Trump continues waging his dizzying trade war against Canada and sends global markets spiraling, ordinary Canadians could be forgiven if they missed an extraordinary milestone in our ongoing federal election. Just recently, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre set what is perhaps a new Canadian election record by dropping not one, not two, but three candidates all on one day.
Andrew Lawton was a member of the “clandestine” group chat used to coordinate convoy messaging on social media. One of Pierre Poilievre’s high-profile Conservative candidates was a member of a secret group chat used by Freedom Convoy leaders and their lawyers to coordinate messages on social media with right-wing alternative media personalities and far-right social media influencers.
Audio recording shows CTV cancelled an ‘election misinformation’ segment with journalist Rachel Gilmore after online backlash from conservatives. CTV has cancelled a segment on its national morning show fact-checking “election misinformation” after an online backlash from Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives and right-wing alternative media outlets targeting a prominent journalist.
Pierre Poilievre’s office won’t say if it condones conservative group’s ads juxtaposing prime minister with a “global child sex trafficking ring.”
If Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives form government after the next federal election, Poilievre will defund the CBC and expand government funding arrangements to include right-wing alternative media outlets. Speaking to right-wing online media personality Candice Malcolm with the website “Juno News” last week, Poilievre indicated he would, in his words, “depoliticize news media finance.”
Ontario is in the middle of an election. But amidst a trade war and chaotic news environment, it would be no surprise if voters are having trouble paying attention. After voter turnout reached historic lows in 2022, we may again be sleepwalking towards a similar outcome. Part of this is by design. After all, Doug Ford did call a snap...
It’s getting harder and harder to shrug off Donald Trump’s talk of annexing Canada. Canadian officials assured us the incoming U.S. president was just “telling jokes” when he first floated the idea of making Canada the 51st American state during dinner with Justin Trudeau last month. But as Trump keeps fantasizing about Canada and threatens “economic force” to gain control...
As Justin Trudeau takes time over the holidays to contemplate his future as prime minister, right-wing forces are seizing the moment and riding a wave of anti-Trudeau sentiment into power. The victory of a hardline social conservative candidate in a federal byelection last week, on the same day as Chrystia Freeland abruptly resigned as Trudeau’s Finance Minister and Liberal MPs...
As American democracy dives into darkness, Canada is facing difficult choices. The consensus among Canada’s political and business establishment is that the number one priority must be to protect Canada’s all-important trade relationship with the United States.
British Columbia’s provincial election is getting extremely weird, and it might be a sign something’s deeply broken in Canadian democracy. The Conservative Party of B.C. — led by a man who had to issue a mea culpa after discussing the idea of prosecuting doctors in “Nuremberg”-style COVID-19 trials — has been surging in the polls. The party now looks set...
A BC Conservative candidate who is facing calls to be removed from the ballot also shared a graphic comparing public health policies to the Nazi Holocaust. Brent Chapman, the BC Conservative candidate for Surrey South, shared a graphic on one of his campaign’s official social media account a little over a month ago that equates public health “harm reduction” strategies...
The Pentagon and NORAD are responding to a recent suggestion from the Premier of Alberta that the US Department of Defence could be responsible for alleged reports of chemtrails over Edmonton, Alberta. At a recent town hall, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith fielded a question from one attendee who wanted an explanation about lines they’ve been looking at in the sky...
British Columbia’s soon-to-be defunct centre-right BC United Party prepared a nearly 200-page dossier of opposition research on John Rustad’s far-right BC Conservatives – and now the entire document has leaked onto the Internet in the middle of the election campaign.
There’s something cathartic about watching bullies get put in their place. That’s likely a big reason why a video showing NDP leader Jagmeet Singh confronting and schooling a far-right heckler is resonating with so many people after going viral last week.
One of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative MPs was spotted at an after-party for a far-right group that has been mobbing parliamentarians, disrupting ceremonies honouring Terry Fox and getting into altercations with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
A Russian-Canadian diaspora group is asking Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference to examine new evidence surfaced in a US Department of Justice indictment alleging a far-right media outlet run by a Canadian YouTuber received $10 million from Russia to interfere in the 2024 US Presidential vote.
Luke LeBrun is the editor of PressProgress. His reporting focuses on federal politics, right-wing media and far-right extremism. Canadians often worry about Trump-style politics crossing our southern border and interfering with our elections, but readers may be surprised to learn a number of Canadians are actually at the centre of an alleged foreign plot targeting the 2024 US Presidential vote.
The far-right media outlet at the centre of a US Department of Justice indictment over an alleged foreign influence campaign involving covert funding from Russia also produced dozens and dozens of videos this year focused on Canada.
Ontario’s opposition parties are calling for the LCBO’s President to resign and face an ethics investigation over a “massive conflict of interest” over his conflicting roles running a public crown corporation at the same time as he sits on the board of a big business lobby group.
Seven in 10 Canadians say they’re worried about climate change, so you might think it’s strange to hear Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives railing against “woke” green policies and vowing to “axe the tax.” But Canadians who want to see action on climate change should pay closer attention to what’s happening in Europe, where a cost-of-living crisis, and far-right populists are threatening...
Canada’s leader of the official opposition pulled over on the side of a highway Tuesday evening and paid a surprise visit to a group of far-right extremists who have staged protests at the Nova Scotia–New Brunswick border for the last three years.
American far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is doubling-down on his recent endorsement of Pierre Poilievre, insisting he and the Conservative Party of Canada leader share identical views on the “anti-human globalist agenda.” The conspiracy theorist, best known for losing a $1 billion defamation lawsuit brought by the families of murdered Sandy Hook elementary students, also rejects suggestions that Poilievre is...
One of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative MPs says Canadians who visit porn websites can trust companies won’t leak their personal information or viewing histories if a plan to mandate digital IDs for porn websites becomes law. According to Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, the invisible hand of the free market would prevent such data breaches from ever happening in the first place...
Man behind Leslyn Lewis’ petition believes UN wants to enslave humanity and modify DNA to turn humans into ‘different creatures.’ A British Columbia man affiliated with a group that believes the United Nations wants to enslave humanity and turn humans into a different species says a Conservative MP had a hand in drafting the text of his petition calling for...
Canada’s far-right began 2023 wandering aimlessly in the freezing cold. Following a high from the 2022 Freedom Convoy, Canada’s far-right quickly found itself falling back down to earth as many convoy leaders found themselves in prison and their activities under increased police surveillance.
Members of the controversial “Save the Children Convoy” say they were invited into the House of Commons as “VIP” guests of one of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative MPs before being suddenly kicked out following questions from PressProgress.