Job alert!! @nationalobserver.com is hiring for a backfill reporter position from Feb to October. Ottawa-based. Application link here.

Compared to the rest of the country, Canada's oil and gas industry loves Donald Trump. After his military adventure in Venezuela is over, they'll learn to hate him like the rest of us already do, @maxfawcett.bsky.social writes

Ford government lets utilities pass ‘buy Canadian’ costs on to customers. @nationalobserver.com www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/06/a...

It's well past time for Canadian government officials to get off of X, @jameswsthomson.com writes. This latest — disgusting — incident is just one more reason.

Mark Carney take note. A new study out of Germany offers helpful tips on how to do business with the narcissist-in-chief. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/01/05/o...

It's well past time for Canadian government officials to get off of X, @jameswsthomson.com writes. This latest — disgusting — incident is just one more reason.

Industrial carbon pricing is the major climate policy Prime Minister Mark Carney is depending on to reduce Canada's emissions. But with provinces' wildly differing approaches to the tool — some of them outright hostile — how can Carney push them to pull together?

By the time you've had your morning coffee today, Canada's best paid CEOs have made more than the average worker will make all year.

Climate advocates lost some political battles in North America last year, but technology and economics are winning the war everywhere else. 2026 will make the inevitability of the energy transition even more difficult to ignore. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/01/02/o...

#UofG | PhD candidate Allegra Love speaks to @nationalobserver.com about how climate change could be impacting when female caribou grow their antlers. @uofgcbs.bsky.social @integrativebiology.bsky.social Read more: www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/30/n...

Canada's National Observer is looking for a reporter in Ottawa to cover the federal government and its relationship with Vancouver, BC, for a Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) position. This is a full-time, 8-month contract (backfill) position. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/31/n...

Last day of the @nationalobserver.com fundraiser! We're $27,000 short of our goal for the Climate Solutions Reporting Project. If you've been thinking about donating, today's the day. Help us get this across the finish line: www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/124263

10 hours. $23K to go. Help us close the gap on our Climate Solutions Reporting Project fundraiser. We're so close, but we need you. Quality climate journalism shouldn't be a luxury. Let's make it happen. www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/124263

Final hours. We're $27,000 short of funding the Climate Solutions Reporting Project. This year, we reached 10% of Canada. Got cited in Parliament. Built Civic Searchlight. We need to finish what we started. But we can't do it without hitting this goal TODAY: www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/124263

How National Observer made a difference in 2025 www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/17/o...

Climate journalism that highlights solutions, not just problems—that's what your donation funds. We're at $214K of our $250K goal for the Climate Solutions Reporting Project. Just 15% to go before midnight Dec 31. Can you help us finish strong? www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/124263

Statistic Canada found more than 13,700 kilometres (!!!) of asbestos cement water pipes across the country. I asked doctors, concerned citizens, and govt about it for @nationalobserver.com:

For @nationalobserver.com, I spoke with U of T’s Laura Tozer. Last year, she was adding climate policies to her lecture slides. This year, she’s deleting them, and asking Prime Minister Mark Carney to explain the rollbacks directly to her students.

Asbestos is banned in Canada. Why is it in our drinking water? www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/29/n... @leahbortskuperman.bsky.social @nationalobserver.com 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 ⇢ CanadaHealthwatch.ca 🍁

In the week since it was published, this story has become one of our most read of 2025. “Every single semester, a student raises their hand: 'Professor, is there any hope on climate change?' How about this year when the new semester starts in January, you get to look them in the eye and answer."

The headline kind of speaks for itself, here

Loved this story, not least because I learned that finger limes, the world's weirdest fruit, are being grown a few kms from my house!

My final freelance story of 2025: I heard from the coast guard & industry critics about ongoing work to get a grounded container ship off the shores of Newfoundland - as well as gaps this exposes in Canada’s coastal response capacity 🚢 @nationalobserver.com www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/23/n...

A year ago, U of T’s Laura Tozer was adding climate policies to her lecture slides. This year, she’s deleting them, and asking Prime Minister Mark Carney to explain the rollbacks directly to her students. @cloelogan.bsky.social reports.

We're at 78% of our $250,000 goal with only TWO more days left! Every donation to the Climate Solutions Reporting Project helps us fund the next investigations. Please give what you can. www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/124263

The climate lab the Trump administration is closing "is very much the infrastructure for the field as a whole," said Paul Kushner, a professor at the @utoronto.ca. Closing it "will weaken atmospheric science as a whole [and] certainly will weaken Canadian science as collateral damage."

NEW FROM ME:“We have a federal [industrial pricing] backstop that we should be willing to enforce if provinces aren't willing to do what they're supposed to,” said @stevenguilbeault.bsky.social “It's in federal law. I don't understand why we're not doing it." www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/18/n...

Canada has the authority to enforce environmental laws, yet is choosing not to as climate targets fade into the distance. Former environment minister Steven Guilbeault says it's time for the federal government to tell provinces: "Actually, you can't break the law."

Our 2025 wrapped: 4M readers (10% of Canadians) Built Civic Searchlight—every major outlet now uses it to search municipal meetings Coverage in NYT, CBC, Mother Jones 100 FOI-based stories published What would you like to see more of in 2026? www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/17/o...

It has been so gratifying to work with the incredible staff at @nationalobserver.com as EIC this year. I published this letter to our readers and supporters to document some of the impact we had this year and plans for 2026. Some highlights:

Ford has given his minister broad authority to decide what areas, projects and proponents should be designated for fast-tracking, @matinsarfraz.bsky.social reports

Ford sets criteria for ‘special economic zones’ that fast-track projects. @nationalobserver.com www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/18/n...

The Pathways megaproject is a linchpin of the “grand bargain” energy deal signed by Ottawa and Alberta. Many questions hang over the project though, including how much water Pathways — or any next generation carbon capture initiative — will actually consume.

Even if Lewis and his Green New Deal is not the first choice for New Democrats seeking a way to rebuild their party’s dismal fortunes, it’s nice to see someone aiming high for the climate www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/17/o...

“2026 can be the year we build more shared infrastructure that makes municipal governance searchable, comparable, and trackable at national scale.” CNO publisher @lindasolomonwood.bsky.social's 2026 prediction in @niemanlab.org

NEW for @nationalobserver.com. Despite efforts from the Ford government to limit bike lanes, Toronto council has approved over 20km of new cycling routes. City staff says because the plans don't requite the removal of vehicle lanes, they are legal under Bill 60.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and city council have done an end-run around Premier Doug Ford's anti-bike lane law. A new bylaw passed today allows the city to build a suite of new bike lanes that won't run afoul of the provincial rules.

Civic Searchlight just got more useful. We've added the ability to watch council videos in the tool so that you can see and search the transcript while watching the video, to make sure you don't miss a beat. Let us know how it works for you! civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com

ICYMI: @natashabulowski.bsky.social took a deep dive into how municipalities across Alberta are approaching data centres. Some see dollar signs: "It's like the second coming of the oilpatch," one councillor said. Others are wary of the facilities' impacts on land and water.

Experts are relieved that the methane regulations have landed, but a carve-out worked into the recent MOU between Ottawa and Alberta could undermine them, they warn.

The Trump administration's new National Security Strategy revolves around an anti-diversity, anti-immigration worldview that's fundamentally at odds with our own. We'd better be prepared to start defending it, @maxfawcett.bsky.social writes.

Will BC Conservatives double down on climate denial and all its related conspiracies? Or will they return to the middle ground their predecessors occupied for decades? By no coincidence, their federal counterparts are weighing the exact same question, @arnokopecky.bsky.social writes.

Canada's premiers keep attacking the courts. It might be good short-term politics for them, but it's doing long-term damage to institutions our democracy and freedoms depend on. #cdnpoli www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/16/o...

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's stance on AI data centres clear but municipalities & counties are a different, far more complicated story. @nationalobserver.com's Civic Searchlight tool allowed me to scan council meeting transcripts for data centre discourse: the pros, the cons and the questions

Across Alberta, municipalities are weighing the pros and cons of hosting AI data centres. I used @nationalobserver.com's Civic Searchlight tool to figure out which towns are looking at data centres and dig into how they are thinking about the costs & benefits www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/16/n...

For @nationalobserver.com. One funding stream for free AC units in Toronto is failing the people it’s meant to protect. Just 25 recipients in 2 years. One case: an 85-year-old with multiple chronic illnesses denied for having $700 in his bank account.

It's not just Kevin O'Leary's big (stalled) project: using Civic Searchlight, @natashabulowski.bsky.social got inside the data centre debates happening across Alberta, from the prairies to mountain towns.

The president has openly coveted Venezuelan oil. In 2023, Trump said: “When I left [office], Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over. We would have gotten all that oil.” Canada should learn the lessons from intervention in Libya, Owen Schalk argues.

Last March, I spent a month chasing Poilievre's campaign across 6 provinces. Despite being within 10 meters, his handlers never let me ask a question. That silence was the story. Help us keep reporting what matters—$250k by Dec 25. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/06/o...