Jul 31 2020 — Tiffany Gooch — Policy Magazine — Growing up in Windsor, my Emancipation Day was annually spent connecting with elders and learning of the stands taken and sacrifices made by generations before my own, striving toward human dignity for all. I remember a particularly sad moment alongside local historians when a commemorative plaque was delayed, again, this time with the excuse of […]
Jul 26 2020 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — In the 1988 election, the landmark one-issue campaign on free trade, the Conservative leader’s tour stopped in New Brunswick one day for a television interview. “Harrison McCain is against this deal,” the local news anchor told the prime minister. “Yeah, well, Jim Irving is in favour of it,” replied Brian Mulroney, father of the Canada-U.S. […]
Jul 20 2020 — Peter Mansbridge — Policy Magazine — Canadians are hibernators. We are no different, really, from many of the animals that roam our wonderful land. For five or six months a year, we put on our long johns and basically say, “Wake me in April.” For some of us, that means lying on the couch watching hockey, cuddling up with a good […]
Jul 8 2020 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — Government programs and events are famously known by space-saving acronyms such as CERB for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit payments to more than 8 million Canadians, or CEBA for Canadian Emergency Business Account loans to small businesses. Or, more permanently, EI for employment insurance. There’s no abbreviation for a fiscal update — certainly not FU, […]
Jul 6 2020 — Lisa Van Dusen — Policy Magazine — There are few prerogatives of prime ministerial or presidential power that are more creative than the ability to change a life and perhaps the course of history by appointing the right person to the right job. There’s an element of matchmaking to it, of major-league coaching and of Hollywood casting. For high-stakes titles, such as […]
Jul 2 2020 — Policy Magazine — Brian Mulroney is having a moment, and it’s not a senior moment. He is stirring things up and speaking out on the most important public policy challenges facing our country. It is time to reflect upon his domestic and foreign policy achievements as prime minister and, more importantly, to listen to what this wise elder […]
Jun 19 2020 — Lisa Van Dusen — Policy Magazine — As the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th has given birth to a modern uprising for racial justice, one peculiarly antideluvian notion has spannered the spokes of the constructive public dialogue we all knew would be forthcoming as we white people rose to the occasion and began engaging in the uncomfortable conversations […]
Jun 18 2020 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial justice outcry produced by the murder of George Floyd, the Conservative leadership race has been all but knocked out of the news cycle. Which may be the best thing that could have happened to the Tories, in the sense that they’ve run the worst leadership campaign of any […]
Jun 18 2020 — Jeremy Kinsman — Policy Magazine — Canada’s loss in its quest for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council is sad for many Canadians, but their regret should be balanced against a few thoughts: The UN Security Council isn’t what it was, having been unable to even have a useful meeting on the world’s most recent security nightmares — Covid-19, […]
Jun 16 2020 — Kathryn Lemieux — Policy Magazine — Crowded stations, delays due to outages, and issues with replacement buses were the headlines following the first week of operation for Ottawa’s LRT system and have continued in the nine months since. After years of planning and construction, the project continues to fail to live up to resident expectations. The September 2019 opening was contrary […]
Jun 15 2020 — Kayli Avveduti — Policy Magazine — To paraphrase Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, crisis is an opportunity to do things that were believed to be impossible. The current COVID-19 crisis is providing an opportunity to do what was thought to be impossible, an opportunity for the government to introduce a First Nations specific Universal Basic Income (UBI) program. The pandemic […]
Jun 12 2020 — Policy Magazine — As with so many contests these days — the 2020 US presidential campaign, the war of narratives over who started the COVID-19 pandemic, who best managed it and who runs WHO — Canada’s bid for one of two rotating United Nations Security Council seats being assigned on June 17 is about more than a horse […]
Jun 2 2020 — Lisa Van Dusen — Policy Magazine — In the wake of Donald Trump’s postponement of the Camp David G7, Policy Magazine Associate Editor Lisa Van Dusen interviewed Senator Peter Boehm, former ambassador and Canadian Sherpa for the 2018 Charlevoix G7, by email.
May 29 2020 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — It is no longer very surprising to read about living conditions in long-term care residences for seniors, but that doesn’t make it any less shocking or scandalous. The element of surprise was essentially removed by the publication on Easter Weekend of Aaron Derfel’s explosive Montreal Gazette story of a private seniors’ home in Dorval, where residents were […]
May 28 2020 — Doug Anderson, Allan Gregg and Stephanie Constable — Policy Magazine — More than two months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began briefing Canadians daily on the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that has now killed thousands of Canadians, Earnscliffe Strategy Group can report on the mood of Canadians expressed in a recent national poll. As with many other studies, we found remarkably broad national consensus on a variety […]