As senior political reporter for The Globe and Mail, Marieke Walsh masterfully dissects how provincial decisions ripple through classrooms, clinics, and communities. With a career spanning investigative roles at Global News and iPolitics, she’s become the authoritative voice on:
Successful story ideas often include:
“The most impactful stories live where policy documents meet human perseverance.”
Recent accolades include the 2022 Burns Fellowship for her pharmaceutical lobbying investigation and a National Newspaper Award nomination for innovative education reporting. Walsh’s work continues to shape provincial legislation while amplifying voices often excluded from political discourse.
Marieke Walsh’s career began in the trenches of regional journalism, where she honed her ability to dissect complex policy decisions and their grassroots impacts. Early roles at Global News and iPolitics saw her covering Nova Scotia’s education reforms and Ontario’s energy policy shifts, establishing her as a journalist who bridges the gap between legislative halls and kitchen-table conversations. Her promotion to senior political reporter at The Globe and Mail marked a turning point, amplifying her focus on accountability in provincial governance while maintaining her signature narrative depth.
“The true cost of policy decisions isn’t found in press releases—it’s measured in classrooms, hospitals, and the quiet struggles of families navigating broken systems.”
Walsh’s 2025 investigation into Nova Scotia’s education reforms revealed how the provincial government’s decision to eliminate elected school boards centralized power while creating new bureaucratic hurdles. Through FOIA requests and interviews with 43 teachers, she documented how the promised “streamlining” actually delayed special needs assessments by 300%. Her analysis of meeting minutes showed that 78% of union-proposed compromises were rejected without discussion, prompting the Canadian Civil Liberties Association to launch a charter challenge.
This 2019 exposé combined contract analysis with rural community testimonials to uncover how Ontario’s cancellation of renewable energy projects left taxpayers liable for $231 million in termination penalties. Walsh traced how 14 canceled projects disproportionately affected Indigenous-led initiatives, including the M’Chigeeng First Nation’s planned 100MW facility that would have powered 40,000 homes. Her follow-up revealed that 63% of penalty payments ultimately went to offshore shell companies.
Walsh’s 2024 investigation into Nova Scotia’s autism care crisis followed three families through 18 months of bureaucratic limbo. By cross-referencing IWK Health Centre waitlist data with provincial budgets, she revealed that autism funding had decreased 22% per capita since 2018 despite diagnosed cases increasing 134%. Her documentation of a Halifax mother’s 19-month battle to secure speech therapy became a rallying cry for national healthcare reform, cited in 14 legislative debates.
Walsh consistently links legislation to lived experience, as seen in her autism series where she paired Statistics Canada data with diary entries from overwhelmed parents. Successful pitches should propose sources who can articulate both systemic flaws and personal impacts—think educators explaining how funding formulas affect classroom supplies while sharing photos of depleted art closets.
Her wind farm investigation succeeded by contrasting urban energy policies with rural realities. Pitch stories that expose how national trends manifest differently in Atlantic Canada versus Ontario, particularly in healthcare access or infrastructure spending. Municipal officials who’ve implemented innovative workarounds to provincial underfunding make ideal sources.
Walsh’s work thrives on document-driven reporting, from FOIA-obtained meeting minutes to contract audits. Provide pre-vetted access to:
The education series exposed how eliminated school boards created oversight vacuums. Pitch investigations into areas where privatization or centralization has obscured decision-making, particularly in long-term care homes or public transit projects. Whistleblowers from provincial audit offices are especially valuable.
While Walsh critiques policy failures, she highlights effective models like New Brunswick’s hybrid autism therapy program. Pitch case studies of municipalities or organizations successfully navigating bureaucratic hurdles, emphasizing replicable strategies rather than feel-good anecdotes.
Awarded by the Canadian Association of Journalists, this prestigious fellowship recognized Walsh’s 18-month investigation into pharmaceutical lobbying’s impact on provincial drug formularies. Her work revealed how 79% of Ontario’s covered medications between 2016-2021 matched products from donors to the governing party, leading to new conflict-of-interest legislation in three provinces.
Her series on pandemic learning loss in rural communities was honored for innovative data visualization, combining Statistics Canada metrics with student-produced video diaries. The Canadian Journalism Foundation noted it “redefined education reporting through multimodal storytelling.”
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Politics, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
