Well hel-looooooooooo, Kits!
And welcome to the Beaver Lodge
I’m your Eager Beaver, and I am just delighted to have joined the Dean Blundell network to provide you, dear readers/listeners, with incisive political commentary.
The True North Eager Beaver (TNEB) is a labour of love, I started just over 11 years ago, around the time then-Conservative Party of Canada leader Stephen Harper secured his much-pined-for majority. At the time, I was so upset by the result, that I was just going to check right out.
But, having been fortunate enough to have been a political communications strategist by training, blessed with a rather big mouth, and cursed — as David Herle would surely confirm — to be a political junkie, I could not stay away.
I decided then that I was going to hold space, and so I started the TNEB blog on Facebook. I wanted there to be one little corner on the web where reasonable, fair-minded Canadians, from Progressive Conservative to Green, could have exchanges without the crazy toxicity. I hardly marketed or promoted it at all; I simply let people find me organically. And about 2,700 of you did.
🦫🎙️NEW Eager Beaver Interview🎙️🦫
Our guest is the ambitious and accomplished political commentator @EvanScrimshaw.
Join us for a wide ranging discussion about political analysis, critiquing the media, and upcoming electoral races.
No words minced.https://t.co/uAJWnehTwf
— The True North Eager Beaver Podcast – Do Democracy (@TrueEager) April 12, 2022
A few years ago, Chris, a friend with whom I discussed politics at times, suggested I start a podcast; he said I had ‘a voice’. But I had no belief there would be much of a market for my type of commentary: striving to be accurate on facts; attempting to avoid flimsy logic; being trenchant when needed, while maintaining an ability for temperance; putting my biases on the table; admitting what I don’t know; being open to gentle corrections and admitting when I am wrong; avoiding the ‘gotcha’ question; using an analytic lens of clarity, coherence, constancy, consistency; championing peace, order, and good government, regardless of which party provides it [politically, I’m a party’s worst nightmare… I’m a GDI: a G** Damned Independent]; and, probably most distinctively, delivered with some sass / sarcasm / snark / at times swearing / camp / and yes, even a sting of bitchiness [but always punching up, hopefully].
I try to champion both an increased level of political and media literacy; to point out that politicians are most definitely not all the same; and to promote the fact that democracy is not a spectator sport: Democracy is something you do!
There’s a bit of Penn & Teller: Fool Us to the initiative. I like to show you how the sausage is made.
Then I stumbled upon a successful American podcast called The Daily Beans, and it showed me that there was indeed a potential market for my style of commentary! So after a few failed attempts to get technologically set up, I found my co-host, gear geek, and recording engineer / editor extraordinaire, Mr. Grizzly. Not really sure what we were doing, we put out a teaser on April 23, 2021, and the next day, our first episode was out!
About 11 months in, a series of fortunate events stemming from the unfortunate Ottawa occupation brought our little-podcast-that-could to the attention of Dean Blundell, and the rest is history… or magic.. or… whatever it is; it is something for which I am deeply grateful.
You will find our True North Eager Beaver podcast on this site. We are still experimenting with things, but we currently have 3 formats for you: our flagship show, which is more scripted; Beaver Bites, which is a bit more of a free-wheeling discussion [we originally planned for them to be shorter than our flagship, but we’re chatty, so that didn’t work out]; and, The Eager Beaver Interview Project, which is a series of extended interviews (typically more than an hour, sometimes even two), in which we really get know a guest, dive into a topic, or both [in our back catalogue you will find interviews with curler Colin Hodgson, foreign correspondent Keith Boag, journalist and author The Reverend Michael Coren, former CPC National Council member Bert Chen, and more…]
New Beaver 🦫 Bites 🦷 #17
Released April 25th
"FATAL ERORR – The S.S. Pierre-tanic"
(Bonus points if you see what we did there…😏)https://t.co/ddV511kuEv
— Douglas Connors – Make Online More Human (he/him) (@calmecam) May 2, 2022
Our most recent Beaver Bites episode, FATAL ERORR — The S. S. Pierre-tannic (bonus points if you say what we did there), is the most downloaded TNEB product since we began our adventure: You may find it here.
And I am pleased to announce that I will also be writing for the Dean Blundell network and that you’ll be able to find everything here.
It is my hope, that over time, the TNEB can be the political show/content for those who both love and hate politics, and that we’ll create an engaged, proactive, and supportive community that can get together to exchange and / or complain about politics, celebrate Canadians Who Make Us Proud, laugh together as an alternative to crying… or worse, and, at times, mobilize, when we need to.
I’m grateful to be here and grateful that you would take time out of your life to let us in.
It’s going to be a fun ride, Kits… So why not pull up a seat and get comfy…
Until we next meet, be kind to, and gentle with, yourself,
Your Eager Beaver
