Last year, the metallic ring of spoons, spatulas and kitchen utensils banging on pots and pans became the sound and call for democracy in Quebec and Canada. rabble.ca was there. We provided on-the-ground coverage and analysis while the mainstream media played catch-up. When Idle No More was launched, rabble.ca was there from the beginning. Again, the mainstream media was weeks behind. At rabble we devote special attention to covering democracy movements in Canada and beyond, sharing the stories and struggles of people fighting for change.

The BC Liberals have been in power almost as long as rabble.ca has been online. We started in April 2001; the Liberals run in office began the next month, May 2001. 

Today's election looks likely to end this dozen-year hold on provincial power, as the BC NDP is favoured to win today's vote. 

Polls are open in B.C. until 8pm PST (11pm EST), so it'll be a late night following the results coming in and discussing the implications. One great place to be for informed commentary and debate tonight is Babble's election discussion thread. 

At rabble.ca we get a lot of visitors -- up to 450,000 a month, and we have over 18,000 Twitter followers. That’s a lot of folks. Who are you? In 2011 we had a visitors' survey and now we are doing it again. We are hoping to get 100 more people responding so we have opened the survey back up until May 20. Yes, you can still get prizes! We are offering Canadian music CD prize packs, rabble tote bags, or some rockin' bike lights.  Congratulations to Marion P., Jody S., Beth L., and Chris C. who have won already!

Our survey just takes a few minutes and can be found here:

rabble.ca is excited to announce a re-launch of a great part of the site, what we now proudly call the Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit. The Activist Toolkit is a special section on rabble.ca that acts as a resource hub for community and labour organizers.

More than 2000 New Democratic activists spent the weekend at a policy convention in Montreal -- described as the largest policy convention for the party to date. It was an historic weekend not just for the number of delegates in attendance, or because of the highly anticipated change of the party's preamble; this was also the first convention post Jack Layton, and the first convention where Tom Mulcair has had the opportunity to set the tone for his leadership. More than 92 per cent of delegates demonstrated they had confidence Mulcair could take them into the 2015 election (Watch the confidence votes results here.)

Fetch stories, not coffee as a rabble editorial intern. Immerse yourself in the world of activism, news writing and editing! rabble.ca offers a supportive work environment and a chance to hone your media-making skills.

We're currently seeking summer editorial interns at rabble; positions run through August 2013.

Please see descriptions below. More information about these positions can be found at our jobs page.

Applications are due Friday, April 26, 2013 by noon PT/4 p.m. ET.

Internship 1: News writing and editing

Who comes knocking? It was 2011 last time we asked, so it is rabble survey time! We get a lot of people visiting rabble.ca and our visitors survey gives us good feedback on how we are doing and who is visiting us. 

We would appreciate it if you took a few minutes to complete our survey. Plus, if you complete the survey you could win a Canadian music CD prize pack, rabble tote bag, or some rockin' bike lights.

Thanks for your input!

The rabble.ca staff

p.s. - you can encourage other rabble vistors to complete the survey by sharing this link: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/rabble2013

Over the past few months, rabble’s discussion forum, babble, has seen some vivid, sometimes controversial discussions. From Idle No More to the Babble Book Club, contributing opinions have sparked lively discussion and debate.

Curated by rabble’s own Kaitlyn McNabb, the Babble Book Club has hosted such distinguished Canadian authors as Lynn Coady and Farzana Doctor, and discussed such titles as Food Inc., People Park and Cool Water. The Babble Book Club continues to be an excellent forum for the promotion of Canadian literature and writers.

On Valentine’s Day we wrapped up our annual winter donation drive and we are excited to report that with a flurry of donations at the end we exceeded our goal of $15,000. We raised a bit over $17,000! We know people get a lot of requests for support so we truly appreciate it when rabble visitors become rabble supporters. Thank you, merci beaucoup.

We held weekly prize draws for great prizes including Beacon Bike Lights, our own rabble tote bag, music CD packs and two grand prizes of a year's supply of Zatoun Fair Trade Extra Virgin Olive Oil (six 750ml bottles). Congratulations to all of the winners, including our grand prize winners M.H. of Riverview, N.B. and R.P. of Vancouver, B.C.!

We all know the mainstream media was late to the game when it comes to the Idle No More movement, but contributors to rabble.ca's discussion forum, babble, were talking about it long before it made headlines.

Last December, one of our longtime babble contributors created this thread. At the time, the movement was barely a blip on the somewhat faulty radar of the mainstream media, but, with ears to the ground, our contributors picked up on the unfolding story.