Inside The Narwhal

Making waves — and making my mom proud

Years ago, people told me launching The Narwhal was a bad idea. Thousands of supporters keep proving the naysayers wrong

By Carol Linnitt

Dec. 8, 2025 2 min. read

“I hope you prove me wrong.”

Those words are underlined in one of my notebooks from 2018 — part of a quote from an influential pessimist in my life who told me launching The Narwhal was a bad idea.

Co-founder Emma Gilchrist and I faced our share of naysayers in the early days. Our mainstream media colleagues often failed to recognize us as legitimate journalists, even as they relied on the big stories we were breaking for their own reporting.

So much has changed. Last month, The National broadcast a joint Narwhal-CBC investigation about train-wildlife collisions into living rooms across Canada — just the latest proof that our newsroom, small as it may yet be, will not be ignored.

Collaborations of this scale are made possible by thousands of readers who believe independent journalism is worth supporting. And there’s more: a group of special donors has stepped up to match every dollar you give between now and Dec. 31. Yes, that means if you give $100, we get $200. If you give $250, we get $500. You get the idea! Will you make a special donation today to support our fearless, independent journalism into 2026?

As Emma and I planned our ambitious non-profit publication, we understood that proving our naysayers wrong would rely on people stepping up to pay for journalism they could otherwise get for free.

Thanks to the generosity of thousands of extraordinary people, we’ve done it: The Narwhal has become a leading publication covering energy and environment issues in Canada.

My milestone 40th year is coming to a close, and I’ve been reflecting on its proudest moments. At the top of the list? My mom’s message to the family group chat, celebrating The Narwhal’s big collaboration with the CBC. (Hi, Mom!)

Every dollar you give today makes it possible for us to tell more stories and reach more people — and qualifies for a 2025 charitable tax receipt. Will you help us reach our goal of raising $200,000 by Dec. 31?

Together, we’ll keep proving that guy wrong.

Another year of keeping a close watch

Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.

Our stories have been raised in legislatures across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.

In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”

We’d like to thank you for paying attention. And if you’re able to donate anything at all to help us keep doing this work in 2026 — which will bring a whole lot we can’t predict — thank you so very much.

Will you help us hold the powerful accountable in the year to come by giving what you can today?

Yes, I’ll support independent journalism

Another year of keeping a close watch

Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.

Our stories have been raised in legislatures across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.

In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”

We’d like to thank you for paying attention. And if you’re able to donate anything at all to help us keep doing this work in 2026 — which will bring a whole lot we can’t predict — thank you so very much.

Will you help us hold the powerful accountable in the year to come by giving what you can today?

I’ll support independent journalism

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People always tell us they love our newsletter. Find out yourself with a weekly dose of our ad‑free, independent journalism

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