Robyn Urback

Robyn Urback is a current affairs columnist at the Globe and Mail who uses sharp, accessible opinion writing to connect Canadian politics and public policy decisions to their real-world impact on people’s lives. Her work centres on the behaviour of governments and political leaders, but often widens to the systems, regulations and social norms that surround them. The through-line in her columns is a clear, often wry argument about how power is exercised and where institutions are failing to meet their responsibilities.

Parliament, parties and leadership pressure

Urback writes frequently about the internal dynamics of Parliament and party leadership, focusing in particular on the strains within the Conservative caucus and the durability of Pierre Poilievre’s leadership. Her column on “Who wants the worst job in Parliament?

Anyone? Bueller?” uses the resignation of a Conservative MP and a series of caucus exits to examine how long a leader’s grip can last under sustained pressure.

In “Pierre Poilievre should oppose the government – but he can support it, too,” she dissects what effective opposition looks like, arguing that reflexive obstruction can be at odds with the public interest. She extends this institutional lens to questions of democratic accountability, insisting in “Parliament should be sitting if Canada is at war” that the legislature must remain in session when the country faces conflict abroad. Her year-end piece on “‘Serious governance’ will be the theme of Canadian politics in 2026” frames the coming year as a test of whether political actors can rise above short-term tactics to confront overlapping crises, signalling her preference for substantive engagement over performance.

Elsewhere, she tracks leadership contests and local races - including a column asking “Why is Chris Alexander running for mayor of Toronto?” - to show how national figures move through municipal politics and what that reveals about ambition and judgment.

Policy, regulation and economic nationalism

A second strand of Urback’s work examines how specific policy and regulatory choices play out in markets, consumer behaviour and democratic norms. Her column “Canada opened the door to private sports betting years ago, and then walked away” traces the federal decision to permit single-event sports betting, the way provinces such as Ontario and Alberta built private-market gambling frameworks, and the resulting surge in wagers and tax revenues. She brings in health data, including research on increased gambling-related emergency room visits after liberalization, to argue that governments have failed to manage the social costs of these policies. In “Canada has entered a new era of AI in political ads.

We will survive,” she turns to the advertising industry to explore how new tools are reshaping campaign messaging, balancing concern about manipulation with an argument that voters and regulators can adapt. Economic nationalism and trade friction are recurring themes: pieces such as “Cringe Canadiana is the worst response to Trump’s economic aggression” and “Don’t bring back COVID-era shaming in this Buy Canadian moment” scrutinize domestic reactions to U.S. policy and the resurgence of “buy local” pressure, warning against empty symbolism and performative patriotism.

She also writes on broader sovereignty and trade questions, including columns on Canadians “fighting for their sovereignty” and the risk that Mark Carney would “rather concede to Trump than risk short-term economic pain,” using these narratives to probe how governments balance economic resilience with political expediency.

Social policy, culture and everyday experience

Urback frequently anchors complex social and ethical debates in concrete cases, combining political analysis with human stories. In “Restoring sanity to MAID laws in Canada will protect them,” she addresses medical assistance in dying as a policy architecture that must be preserved by tightening eligibility and restoring public confidence, rather than expanded without guardrails. Her column on the Lindsay Clancy trial highlights the “cruel reality of mental illness,” using the case to question how the justice and health systems respond when tragic outcomes emerge from psychiatric crises. She applies a similar approach to debates over religious freedom and institutional rules, arguing in “The CAF’s new public ‘prayer ban’ is not an attack on religious freedom” that a controversial policy should be understood in the context of pluralism and state neutrality.

Pieces such as “Hate absolutely has its place in Canada. It has been normalized, ignored and excused” and her commentary on gun violence and “losers with guns” link everyday public safety concerns to failures in enforcement and political rhetoric.

Immigration and generational expectations surface in her column arguing that “Canada does not owe international students a path to residency,” where she parses the promises and limits of Canadian policy against the realities facing students and communities. She also writes more domestic, observational pieces - including “God made toddlers smaller than adults for a reason” - that use parenting and daily frustration as a lens on responsibility, restraint and social expectations.

Across these topics, she treats social policy not as abstract law but as a set of choices that shape the texture of ordinary life.

Voice, format and scope of coverage

Urback writes as a staff columnist on the Globe and Mail’s opinion pages, with short, tightly argued pieces that typically run three to four minutes of reading time.

Her columns blend reported detail - such as legislative timelines, regulatory frameworks and research findings - with a direct, often sardonic voice that is comfortable calling out what she sees as hypocrisy or empty posturing. Headlines like “Ontario PC MPPs needed hotel rooms to rest. The poor babies only get five months of summer vacation” and “The humiliation of Pierre Poilievre continues” signal a willingness to use humour and pointed language to puncture political self-pity and spin.

She moves easily between federal, provincial and municipal levels, writing on subjects ranging from Alberta health-care reforms to the restoration of 24 Sussex Drive, and from British Columbia election tactics to mayoral races, which gives her coverage a wide geographic and institutional scope. Her professional background includes running an opinion section at a public broadcaster and serving as a columnist and editorial board member at a national newspaper, experience that informs her focus on argument-driven pieces rather than straight news reporting.

Overall, her work offers communications and policy professionals a clear sense of how contentious issues in politics, regulation and social policy are likely to be framed in a high-profile opinion context.