What will it take for Conservatives to win urban Canada?

With Karen Stintz, former Toronto city councillor and 2025 federal candidate

What happens when Conservatives run a strong urban campaign, knock on thousands of doors, and the NDP only consumes 1.4% of the vote?

This week on Craft Politics, Andrew and I sit down with Karen Stintz, a political veteran who nearly flipped Eglinton–Lawrence, one of the toughest ridings in the country for Conservatives to crack. She brings the hard-earned lessons from the 2025 campaign trail—and they’re ones the entire movement needs to hear.

In this episode:

• 🗳 What Karen’s close race reveals about urban voters’ shifting priorities

• 📉 Why the collapse of the NDP didn’t lead to a Conservative win

• 🏙 The myth that urban voters “just don’t get” conservatism—and how to break it

• 📺 The power of legacy media in big cities (and why it still shapes the ballot question)

• 🤝 Why it’s time for Conservatives to stop fighting and start making friends and allies

Plus:

• 🚨 We debate the missed opportunity for compassionate conservatism on homelessness and addiction

• 🇨🇦 Karen delivers a stinging critique: “How did we let patriotism slip away from us?”

• 🧱 Should the rebuilding of urban conservatism start at the municipal level?

And don’t miss:

• 🎤 A surprise drop-in from Andrew Percy, live from being eaten alive by Ottawa’s mosquitoes after attending the King’s Speech

• 🦝 Joseph’s failed political dreams of running a raccoon-free campaign for Mayor of Toronto

• 📰 An issue scan covering:

   • Charles III’s parliamentary visit

   • Carney’s single mandate letter

   • Reform UK’s lurch leftward to challenge Labour

   • And why CEO turnover is the sleeper political story of the year