Counterweights is a political blogazine with a Canadian focus. Our editorial offices are in Toronto, Ontario. Technical support is in Palo Alto, California.

We take an interest in our wider North American and global environments. And we identify with our local Toronto and Ontario regional contexts at the other end of the scale. We see culture, economics, and history (and even murder and sports!) as crucial background.

The name is taken from Pierre Trudeau’s Foreword to his 1968 book, Federalism and the French Canadians: “There is thus the danger that mass media … constitute a vehicle for error … The theory of checks and balances … has always had my full support. It translates into practical terms the concept of equilibrium that is inseparable from freedom in the realm of ideas …  My political action, or my theory — insomuch as I can be said to have one — can be expressed very simply: create counterweights.”

The site was launched in the summer of 2004, in response to a dockside debate in the northern woods. The current counterweights editors are committed to carrying on for at least a full decade (until the summer of 2014, that is) — and possibly or even probably until the next Canadian federal election in 2015.

SPRING 2013.