Eleanor Wand

Eleanor Wand reports on Parliament Hill for The Hill Times, with a beat that centres on the Bloc Québécois, the NDP, the Green Party, and the Senate. Her coverage tracks how political decisions and party dynamics affect people and institutions that sit just outside the executive spotlight. Across her work, she returns to under-amplified voices in federal politics, whether youth climate organizers, Indigenous parliamentarians, or the local media infrastructure that shapes election campaigns.

Parliament Hill parties and Senate dynamics

Wand’s core assignment is the opposition benches and the Senate, rather than the day-to-day choreography of cabinet and the prime minister. She reports on how parties such as the Bloc Québécois, the NDP, and the Green Party position themselves within Parliament and respond to leadership questions and internal tensions. Her story on the timing of former NDP MP Lori Idlout’s exit, framed as “surprising” in the wake of a speech at a party leadership event, shows her focus on the interplay between personal decisions and broader leadership contests. In that piece she foregrounds the views of political strategists, illustrating a reporting style that uses seasoned operatives to explain why moves on the Hill matter beyond the day’s headlines.

Her Senate coverage fits the same pattern, treating senators as political actors whose decisions and alignments have concrete implications for policy and party strategy. She writes from within the rhythms of Parliament Hill, but her emphasis is on how opposition parties and senators shape the legislative agenda and government accountability rather than on official talking points. This beat gives her work a distinct vantage point on federal politics, grounded in the institutions and caucuses that can constrain or reinterpret government policy.

Youth climate policy and program cuts

Wand’s reporting on the Trudeau-era youth climate council being shut down amid federal spending cuts highlights a recurring interest in how budget decisions affect participatory mechanisms and younger stakeholders in climate policy. In that article, she documents the end of the youth body and captures the concern that “you’re losing this set of voices” when such councils disappear, tying fiscal restraint to a loss of structured input from youth climate advocates. The story sits at the intersection of climate policy, youth engagement, and program review, and she treats the council as a piece of the democratic infrastructure rather than a symbolic initiative.

This focus aligns with her broader beat: she follows how decisions made around the cabinet table ripple out to advisory bodies, councils, and informal power centres that connect Ottawa to communities. Her youth climate coverage shows a preference for speaking with affected participants and advocates and for framing climate politics not only in terms of emissions targets, but in terms of who is at the table when those targets are set and revised.

It distinguishes her work from more generic political reporting that might track the cut only as a line item without dwelling on the voices displaced.

Media, elections, and democratic infrastructure

Alongside party and climate coverage, Wand has written about the health of the news ecosystem that surrounds federal elections. In one piece she reports on a study warning about the lack of candidate coverage in the 2025 federal election, describing how some MP hopefuls escaped scrutiny from local media outlets. She relays the report’s argument that this gap points to a need for more funding, innovation, and data collection to rebuild a shuttering local news scene.

By treating media coverage as a structural part of democratic accountability, she extends her politics beat into the conditions under which campaigns are fought and voters receive information.

Her work in this area often draws on researchers and report authors, using their analysis to open up questions about how political communication actually reaches the electorate. This strand of coverage connects back to her experience reporting on current affairs and local news earlier in her career, giving her a practical understanding of newsroom pressures. It also complements her Parliament Hill reporting by showing how decisions in Ottawa intersect with the capacity of local outlets to follow and challenge candidates.

Career background in political reporting

Wand has reported for The Hill Times since April 2025. Before joining the masthead, she worked in Montreal covering current affairs and local news for CBC, building experience in daily reporting and community-facing stories. She also reported for rabble.ca, where she covered provincial and federal politics, giving her an early grounding in policy debates and party dynamics beyond Parliament Hill. This mix of mainstream and advocacy-oriented political reporting informs her current focus on voices and institutions that sit outside the core of executive power.

Her formal training includes a graduate diploma in journalism from Concordia University and an honours degree in philosophy from McGill University. That combination of journalism practice and philosophical study underpins a reporting style that is comfortable with both detailed policy discussion and broader questions about representation and democratic structures.

Across her work at The Hill Times, she brings this background to bear on stories that link opposition parties, youth councils, Indigenous representation, local media, and the Senate into a coherent picture of how Canadian politics operates beyond the government front row.