May 22 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Most of us are a little fuzzy about what our central bank actually does. It speaks only occasionally, and in the opaque language of a Delphic oracle. But we all know that it is powerful, essential to our financial system and has a reputation for absolute integrity. Strangely, in most countries they are an invention […]
May 15 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Sneers ran through political insider circles this week, when it was revealed that Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford’s campaign team had so little confidence in him they demanded he could take cheat sheets with him to the debate. This must have stung Ontario’s deeply insecure premier. Like Donald Trump, Ford’s deepest angst is being viewed […]
May 8 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — The stunning leak of the draft opinion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito that would endanger women’s right to choose bears reflection by Canadians. The news that the U.S. court might overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing the constitutional right to abortion was not surprising. That it leaked more than a month before […]
May 1 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — At the beginning of this century, former senator Hugh Segal — one of the few politicians with genuine friendships across all party lines — made a plea. He called it “In Defence of Civility,” a book published in 2000. Segal is the classic Red Tory, fiscally somewhat conservative, socially somewhat liberal, always courteous. His plea […]
Apr 24 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Former Ontario premier Bill Davis expressed astonishment with his usual restraint, saying only, “My goodness!” We were discussing changes in the province since he entered politics more than half a century ago. Our conversation was part of a large transition project that Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath had commissioned to prepare a detailed plan for […]
Apr 17 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — There were civilians only months ago. Now, these young activist soldiers have fled the cities for the countryside, where after scant military training they face the brutality of Russian attack helicopters, MiG fighter jets and heavy artillery. No, these courageous soldiers are not Ukrainians — they are citizens of Myanmar. In February, the acting president […]
Apr 10 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Imagine if you had to wait three years for a response from a corporate customer service department. Or you were in line with 1.8 million others waiting for a call or an email from a government agency or business. Imagine desperately checking your phone every day for three years. This is what keen prospective immigrants […]
Apr 3 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Canada faces policy challenges today that are broader and more complex than perhaps ever in our history. Several are well-known: climate, health care and the next contagion, sliding productivity and widening inequality. Each will be expensive to tackle, and all will require great creativity to address. In the U.S., the U.K. and Europe much of […]
Mar 27 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Nearly all of the advanced democracies are governed by more than one party. The two notable exceptions are Canada and our troubled political neighbour. Most democracies concluded long ago that sharing power between two or more parties delivers more carefully considered policy, quickly and effectively. The Bloc and Tory hysteria at the NDP-Liberal agreement is […]
Mar 20 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — It takes a special kind of courage for a national leader, determined to defend his nation, to have to take out his begging bowl again and again, around the world on video. But Volodymyr Zelenskyy has done so without flinching, with eloquence and with severe warnings to those who fail to listen to his appeals. […]
Mar 13 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Canada’s nakedly racist immigration policies are not ancient history. It was only in the 1970s that they were finally wound down as policy, though the colour blindness of some immigration officials was never believable. The department is currently under investigation for allegations of years of systemic racism. Canada had a racist screening system that was […]
Mar 11 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Policy Magazine — Many of the world’s foreign affairs pundit class – and some in the Canadian contingent – seem trapped in a time warp. Before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, they tut-tutted about how the West and NATO should not have provoked Putin into threatening his invasion, by welcoming new members 25 years ago. Within days of […]
Mar 6 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Western media played a strategic role in undermining the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. In the ’50s and ’60s, Radio Free Europe beamed compelling news and cultural programming from Estonia to Romania. The BBC World Service was listened to everywhere for its straight-ahead news of the world. By the ’70s and […]
Feb 27 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Many Canadian cities have long had problems managing semi-trailer truck traffic. Now that we have seen that they can be used as weapons, it’s time we rethink how to live with them. In Toronto, more than half the trucks passing through the city on the DVP, the Gardiner and the 401 have departure points and […]
Feb 20 2022 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Sandy Smallwood resigned in disgust just hours before Mayor Jim Watson’s coup seizing control of the Ottawa Police Services Board, stuffing it with his tame councillors. One of Canada’s most respected police oversight veterans and vice chair of the board, Smallwood said, “The police governance model is set up for failure. And I think what […]