Even if you spent the month of August on a golf course, cottage deck or Pluto, the noise from the first month of the 2015 Canadian federal election campaign probably interrupted your summer reverie, at least a bit. First impressions: Conservatives had a good start, but got knocked off message by the Duffy trial. Justin Trudeau is exceeding expectations, not just because he wore pants to the first leaders’ debate. And the NDP is still riding the orange wave that swept Quebec in 2011 and Alberta this year. But forget all that: the real campaign begins now that summer’s over, and C2C Journal is going to be all over it during the next six weeks with a dozen unique election analyses and regional pre-vote profiles. In other words, it’s mandatory reading if you want to win the election night pool.

From Shakespeare to Twain to Leacock, the most memorable and influential political commentators of history have been humorists. And from Macdonald to Disraeli to Reagan, the most successful and effective politicians have been the funniest. Alas, it is our misfortune to live in politically humourless times, where the mildest political mis-step is cause for crucifixion, where no joke goes unpunished as an insult, and every real or imagined affront provokes unfettered outrage. The Summer 2015 edition of C2C Journal aims to fix all that. It is a collection of essays, anecdotes, polemics and a poem that celebrate political humour. Risky you say? Maybe, but worth it because a democracy that cannot laugh at itself is no better than a dictatorship.

Take heart, Alberta conservatives. Sure you lost the province to the NDP. Sure investors are redeploying their capital from “Albertastan” to Kazakstan. And sure it looks bad for Alberta federal Conservatives in the fall election, especially in Edmonton, where the orange wave was strongest. But nothing lasts forever, and the PCs could not have done more to self-destruct their four-decade dynasty if they tried. It’s a fair bet that Rachel Notley’s rookie team of social workers, students, union activists and Chavistas is going to mess things up as badly as the NDP did in Ontario and B.C. Meanwhile, the rejuvenated Wildrose party is well-positioned to unite the right, which still represents most Albertans. So don’t move to Saskatchewan, advises C2C editor Paul Bunner, because this too shall pass…

The Spring 2015 Edition of C2C Journal is like nothing else we – or any other magazine that we know of – have ever done. It is a fascinating collection of political biographies by a dozen Canadian writers, young and old, men and women, conservative and liberal, English and French, well-known and unknown. Each piece explores the influences and epiphanies that shaped the writer’s political evolution. By turns poignant and hilarious, touching and courageous, and invariably introspective and insightful, these essays speak to the journeys we all take to political conviction and engagement.

The passing of conservative western Canadian journalist and political activist Link Byfield on January 24 prompted numerous media stories and tributes from friends and colleagues. Many travelled from afar to join hundreds of family members and neighbours at his funeral in his rural community northwest of Edmonton. Among his many accomplishments, mourners recalled Link’s dedication to developing young writers as advocates for freedom and democracy. This work will continue, writes C2C editor Paul Bunner, through the creation of the Manning Foundation’s Link Byfield Journalism Legacy Fund.

Federal and provincial conservatives in Alberta have been estranged for decades, ever since the Reform Party went to war against the old Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Reform won that battle and became today’s ruling national Conservative Party, but the Alberta divisions remained. Eventually they begat the province’s Wildrose Party, which was a virtual proxy for the federal Tories – until former Harper cabinet minister Jim Prentice won the provincial PC leadership. Then Ottawa switched sides, leaving Wildrose friendless and setting the stage for this week’s historic reuniting of Alberta conservatives. C2C editor Paul Bunner explains…

Even the framers of Canada’s 1982 constitutional reforms thought they were flawed. But reopening the Constitution is a taboo subject among Canada’s political class and as a result, from Senate reform to internal trade to aboriginal rights, it is increasingly judges, instead of elected legislators, who are calling the shots. The contributors to the Fall Quarterly edition of C2C Journal examine the spectrum of constitutional maladies and offer provocative prescriptions for reform.

“Gotcha” hissed the Idle No More activist after goading Tom Flanagan into an impolitic remark about child porn during a presentation about aboriginal policy at the University of Lethbridge. Within hours, a surreptitious video recording of the exchange went viral, and Flanagan became a human piñata, pummelled by enemies and friends alike. Paul Bunner reviews Professor Flanagan’s response in his new book: persona non grata…