Anson Carter

Hockey Analyst and Former NHL Player

"As a native New Yorker, of course I'm pulling for the Rangers," said singer Vanessa Williams. "I think the Rangers will win the Stanley Cup, because I really like the way Lundqvist plays." Director Bobby Farrelly feels for Maple Leafs fans because they're "just like Red Sox fans" -- "classy, passionate and have been deprived of winning for so long."

Craig Scott

NDP MP, Toronto-Danforth. Opposition Critic for Democratic and Parliamentary Reform

In Mr. Fife's reporting this week, he alleges that back in February Prime Minister Harper's Chief of Staff Nigel Wright gave Senator Mike Duffy $90,000 so that Mr. Duffy could pay back a massive amount of expenses. From all this emerged an effort by the Conservative distortion machine to make Mike Duffy -- and, after his role was revealed, Nigel Wright too -- into some sort of ethical heroes. This is a strange way to behave "honourably."

D.K. Latta

Pop Culture Blogger

There are so many Canadians living in Los Angeles that Hollywood is cheekily referred to as the fourth largest Canadian city. Yet Canadians are almost never depicted in American movies and TV shows. Except when they are.

Tim Knight

Writer, Comunications Coach, Broadcast Journalism Trainer, Filmmaker

So what's all this fuss the lefties are making about Prime Minister Harper trying to keep track of costs at the CBC by writing a few words into the back of his omnibus budget, Bill C-60? But what's the difference between a public broadcaster and a state broadcaster? I've worked for both. So I can tell you what's the difference.

Diane Francis

Editor-at-Large, The National Post

Canada's Senators are Canada's Lords and Ladies and, as such, are held to a lower standard than anyone else. Like nobles everywhere, they are immune from sanctions even when it comes to bad behaviour. This is, needless to say, extremely debilitating in a so-called democracy.

Grooch

A generation"X", middle class, lover of satire and hyperbole.

The first round of the 2013 NHL Playoffs is finished and only one of four Canadian teams remains.

The water cooler talk is all about "who will I cheer for now?"

Rebecca Saxe

Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, MIT

cooperating in large groups is a signature accomplishment of the human brain: among similar species, we are remarkably good at working together and negotiating our differences.

Nydia Dauphin

Social Commentator

Quebec comedians have a strange affliction. It sporadically resurfaces time and again and it's proven almost impossible to cure. The affliction in question is the Quebec comedy scene's' sick, inexplicable obsession with blackface. Last Sunday it exposed itself yet again.

Shelley Emling

Editor, Post 50

Just because you've been getting away with a social gaffe for decades doesn't mean you shouldn't stop making it. By the time you're 50, you should know a thing or two -- or 25 -- about etiquette.

Keith Beardsley

Partner, True North Public Affairs (Ottawa)

The Conservative caucus must be stunned at this on-going drama that unfolds day after day. In both the Penashue case and the recent Senate revelations the public is left with the impression that the Prime Minister is protecting individuals who have done something wrong. The public quite rightly should be asking "why?"

Mark E. Robson, M.D.

Attending Physician, Clinic Director, Clinical Genetics Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

I have been involved in research in this area for 17 years, since shortly after BRCA1 and BRCA2 were discovered, and I have no idea what I would do if I were a woman faced with this decision. The diagnosis of a mutation is just words on paper, but the risks they foreshadow are very real.

Priya Sankaran

Radio Reporter, CBC News Toronto

I was 33 years old and working the local news beat with the CBC's supper hour news cast when the universe hurled a wicked curve ball my way. On the Tuesday morning after the Canada Day holiday, I tripped and fell in the newsroom, scraping my knee. Forty-eight hours later I was admitted to Emergency in a Toronto hospital. And I learned that something was terribly wrong with my health.

Shireen Jeejeebhoy

Author and Photographer

Near midnight last night, the Toronto Star detailed the video of Mayor Ford allegedly smoking crack cocaine. But while they're the ones questioning Ford's fitness to lead, they're also the ones who are primarily responsible for this mess -- them and our arcane electoral system. The first past the post system made it harder for the non-top-two candidates, including Sarah Thomson, to stay in the race. If we'd had a ranked ballot method of voting, they may have stayed in. I was livid at Thomson quitting, leaving us with two crappy choices. It's no wonder so many of us either didn't vote or seriously considered not voting.

Lucas Silveira

Musician

I was repetitively asked "Are you a boy or a girl?" throughout childhood and adolescence and usually followed by "Fucking dyke!" Very recently, all of these wounds resurfaced when I saw this comment left by a woman on a video I posted on Facebook to raise funding for a tour for my band The Cliks. Don't shame me for speaking up for myself. Shame those who hurt me.

The Purple Fig

The Purple Fig women's blogazine, thepurplefig.com

My boyfriend proposed, and suddenly I was a fiancée. All the pressure for a legit BIG FAT Italian wedding was all on me. How could I disappoint? Planning my family's wedding, turned into a full-time job, signed, sealed and almost delivered in a mere eight months. I had lost sight of what I was doing, and who I was doing it for. In fact, at month six of Wedding Boot Camp, I wasn't even sure I wanted to marry my boyfriend.

Priya Sankaran

Radio Reporter, CBC News Toronto

There were others like me dealing with the disease. And they lived in a vitamin D rich country like India. Everything I had read about MS suggested it was a chronic condition which is much more pervasive in temperate climates like Canada, the U.S., Scotland, England.

Mark Hasiuk

Contributing Columnist, The Province

Obviously, the face of B.C., quite literally, is changing. Immigrants account for 45 per cent of the population in Vancouver, 52 per cent in Surrey, 59 per cent in Burnaby and 70 per cent in Richmond. Immigrant populations are rising everywhere, even in the whitest regions of the province. And they aren't buying what the NDP is selling. Big government. Vast social programs. Union allegiance.

Theresa Wells

Writer

What the hell indeed is going on in Fort McMurray, you might ask. How did I get to spend time talking to Malcolm Gladwell, and Bill Cosby? What is bringing these people so far north? Well, what is bringing them is the Northern Insights speaker series from the Fort McMurray Public Library - but I think what is really drawing them in is the narrative of this community.

Kevin Grandia

President, Spake Media House

Pardon my french, but Canada's tar sands suck. As a Canadian it blows my mind that we can have the second largest deposits of oil in the world, but our government remains billions in debt and one in seven Canadian children live in poverty. Here are ten reasons Canada's tar sands suck.

Mike Klassen

CFIB BC Director Provincial Affairs, BC Wine Lover

Last September, while swimming against a tidal wave of negative public opinion, I predicted the BC Liberal Party led by Premier Christy Clark would win the May 2013 election. Understandably, most readers scoffed. I can assure you that I am no Nostradamus. Don't bother asking me which stock to pick or what the 649 Lottery numbers will be. Rather, I relish being a contrarian. It is my nature to question the prevailing view on a range of topics - politics in particular - and to hopefully stir intelligent debate.

VICE

VICE Canada

Canadian-style liquor store setups are exceedingly rare. There are almost no countries that require you to purchase spirits in the manner that we are accustomed to. In Communist China, it's a free-for-all. Almost nobody does it like we do, Canada. We're an outlier. We're a weirdo.