A polling pro, policy wonk and gossip girl walk into a studio

And fresh Greenbelt dirt

ABOVE THE FOLD

Burning questions abound this week:

What went wrong for the Liberals in Milton? How did the embattled PCs hang on in back-to-back byelections? Why are the Official Oppo NDP trailing in third? How did the fringe Tory spinoff New Blues beat out the growing Greens? How is the Trudeau-Poilievre dynamic impacting the Ford-Crombie scene? Is the electoral map getting redrawn? Will there be an early election?

I unpacked all that and more with TVO’s inimitable policy wonk JOHN MICHAEL McGRATH on The Writ podcast, hosted by fellow Substacker and top polling and elections scribe ÉRIC GRENIER.

Check it out below — and send me your hot takes, on or off the record: