Chris Wattie / Reuters

Why am I so willing to give the benefit of the doubt? It is because I know how critical it is to keep hope alive. I do not want to feed the bad wolf. Citizen engagement and faith in the system are essential ingredients for our survival. I speak not of a figurative survival. I speak in real terms of real survival.

Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press

Radical populism has shown its ugly face during this leadership race, and that face is the dual-headed hydra of Kellie Leitch and Kevin O'Leary. The concern is that if radical populism in the Conservative Party is left unchecked, it threatens to overtake meaningful and nuanced candidates like Bernier and Chong.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

In the world of crisis communications, we counsel to always tell the truth, and if you cannot, just shut up. Lies inevitably will be exposed. Reputations that are already damaged will be shattered beyond repair. But as we well know, Trump and his team have broken all the rules of media relations and gotten away with it -- so far.

Jonathan Hayward/CP

As O'Leary or his campaign team commits another blunder by posting a video of him having fun at a shooting range just as the funerals for the Mosque victims in Quebec starts, sharks of every colour -- blue, red, orange and green -- should be circling around him.

Ben Nelms / Reuters

While it might not be noticed at first glance, proper arguing has a moral component to it: One shouldn't convince people with tricks of language. This apparently wasn't a lesson learned by our prime minister during his university days.

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Shower sharing is planet caring, so do your duty to Mother Nature this Sunday and find a friend to shower with. While you are at it, there are other ways you can take care of our most valuable resource and reduce your monthly bills.

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While the operating principle in our modern politics has been partisanship, its equivalent in our communities has been polarization. More than a few are now worried that this practice has carried over into how we treat one another as citizens.

World Vision

The cold truth is this: Europe's winter weather has set in quicker than its leaders were able to make decisions on how to protect these people. For many migrants and refugees, the shores of the Mediterranean aren't just arrival points. They have actually become semi-permanent homes.

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I am not surprised in the slightest that Trump wasted no time in taking the preliminary steps to get rid of Obamacare, to build the wall along the Mexico - U.S. Border and to ban Muslims. It's exactly what he said he'd do throughout his entire campaign. In fact, I would have been shocked if he'd backed away from any of it, or even waited for the Obama's plane to take off for Palm Springs before getting started.

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Some say that after menopause their sex drive is AWOL. Others say sex is different, but with a few accommodations it's still an enjoyable and significant part of their lives. Some say menopause isn't slowing them down one bit. They're having the best sex of their lives.

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A strange phenomenon has been happening over the past decade or so that has stifled great debates, great conversation. I did not truly understand the magnitude of the problem until I began receiving messages from people on Facebook after getting into debates with strangers about one of those hot-button topics.

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In Paris Jackson's and many other people's circumstance, being biracial isn't easy. The reality is there are people in the black community who will simply not accept her as being "black," and some white people will think of her as being mixed race. One thing is for sure; it seems that now she is an adult and has had a bit of time to live her life, she wants the world to know that she is black. Can we let the girl live?

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I ask a simple question: should a party with less than 40 per cent of the popular vote control 100 per cent of the power in our democracy? There is an overwhelming consensus that the answer is "no." Democracy's legitimacy lies in its authority from the people, and the majority of Canadians are left unrepresented in governments under our current voting system.

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Ottawa's Trump strategy, to date, has been to render itself very, very tiny - so tiny that Trump does not see us. Their approach has been analogous to Justin Trudeau taking the longer route home, so that the bully Trump does not beat him up and steal his lunch money.

CP/Jonathan Hayward

Thanks to the digital revolution, Canadians have access to more news and information than ever before. Public consumption of the news is at historic levels. Despite all that, and despite the capacity to reach more people than ever thought possible before, the economic underpinning for gathering and producing reliable news and information is quickly collapsing.

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While president Trump's America-first policies focus on turning inwardly to protect, promote and privilege Americans, a Canada-first approach to international relations does the opposite. The overwhelming response over the weekend shows that Canadians value hospitality, diversity and internationalism.

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It's been almost three months since I ran the Marathon of Afghanistan and I have been asked many questions about the race. However, that was only seven hours out of an 11 day trip and I would like to share with you some of the other incredible aspects of my experience.

Sean Kilpatrick/CP

According to recent media reports based on the Panama Papers, some see Canada as a tax haven. It may seem unlikely when you are reviewing how much tax you paid to the government in 2016 but evidently, our reputation and economy is a good venue for hiding wealth.

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Nothing is more dangerous than the efforts to make ourselves feel good about being Canadians by telling us that we are all good and free from the toxicity of U.S. politics. We keep telling ourselves that the incidents where we portrayed our distrust and hate towards each other are all isolated incidents, carried out by the misfits. They don't represent who we are. We are nice people. We need to wake up.

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Resilience has very little to do with surviving, and everything to do with awakening into where you are at this very moment. When we distance ourselves from, or anaesthetize ourselves against trauma and loss, we inadvertently diminish the potential breadth and beauty of our life.

Alan Freed / Reuters

Groundhog Day derives from Candlemas, a festival that has been celebrated since the fourth century. Traditionally, observers would light candles on an early February day to brighten things up, and monitor the weather to see if spring was approaching. Many poems have been written to celebrate Candlemas, such as this Scottish couplet: "If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year."