Think Tanks

Jan 24 2023 — Tegan Hill and Bacchus Barua — Fraser Institute — The Ford government recently announced plans to use more private clinics to help with Ontario’s surgical backlog. Ontario wouldn’t be the first province to do so, and based on the experience of other jurisdictions, it would be a positive step forward to help Ontario’s struggling health-care system. But for long-term improvements, such initiatives must be […]

Jan 24 2023 — Policy Magazine — Climate change, COVID-19, and the war in Ukraine are just some of the crises that have exposed an unfortunate new reality — our global food supply is perilously insecure. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, whose food exports directly and indirectly impact almost two billion people, has impacted many in the poorest countries. Inflation that has […]

Jan 16 2023 — Canadian Global Affairs Institute — “Given the deteriorating world situation, we need the defence industry to go onto a wartime footing and increase their production lines to be able to support the requirements that are out there, whether it’s ammunition, artillery, rockets, you name it.” Highly unusual comments from Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Wayne Eyre to the […]

Jan 15 2023 — Steven Staples — Monitor Mag — The federal government’s announcement on Jan. 09 that Canada is buying a fleet of U.S.-built F-35 Lightning II fighter jets came as no surprise. Opposition parties decried the Liberals’ reversal of their pledge to never buy the F-35, spoken by then-election candidate Justin Trudeau in the 2015 campaign. But the writing was on the wall. […]

Jan 10 2023 — Monitor Mag — International trade remains a battleground in 2023, as a growing number of countries question the sustainability of the current rules-based international trading order. Supply chain resilience, reshoring manufacturing, “inclusive” trade, labour rights and decarbonization are the new themes driving economic thinking, especially here in North America. Canada, Mexico and the United States have all, in […]

Jan 5 2023 — Zach Paikin — For a country that has not undertaken a comprehensive foreign policy review in nearly two decades, Canada has been fortunate to have two visions for its international engagement articulated this autumn alone. The first took the form of a speech delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC on […]

Dec 15 2022 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine, Policy Options — What’s next? Is there an end in sight to the recent period of economic turbulence? “Is the future made of the same stuff as today?”, to quote the French philosopher Simone Weil, or are we on the threshold of a new global order and economic period shaped by a pandemic and geopolitical tension? Is Canada […]

Dec 9 2022 — Policy Options — The National Capital Commission (NCC) is on the brink of an exciting project that will present an opportunity to conserve and restore an excellent work of modern architecture. The NCC’s move to new headquarters at 80 Elgin St., a prime site in downtown Ottawa, could create a climate-responsive space for staff and the public to […]

Dec 9 2022 — Thomas Axworthy — Policy Magazine — All great cities have their seasons. For London, the city where Charles Dickens reinvented Christmas with the publication of his spooky morality fable, A Christmas Carol, in 1843, this is it. When John Betjeman published Christmas in 1954, more than a century and two world wars later, it was as if he was telling the […]

Dec 7 2022 — Steven Staples — Canadian Health Coalition — Public health care advocates are watching developments closely as the Supreme Court of Canada considers a private corporation’s request to appeal its failed constitutional case against the British Columbia Medicare Protection Act.

Dec 7 2022 — IRPP — As Canada heads toward what is likely to be another recession, the country’s Employment Insurance (EI) program seems no more ready to deal with the expected increase in demand for benefits than it was when the pandemic hit in early 2020. The proportion of unemployed Canadians able to collect EI has fallen from 80 percent […]

Dec 7 2022 — IRPP — There is no one set of solutions to address the challenges of EI modernization and financing reform that will satisfy everyone. Those who want to avoid increasing premiums will need to accept compromise solutions that limit increases and provide greater premium stability. Those who want to return to the generous EI system that was in […]

Dec 7 2022 — Marc Lee — Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — The run-up of interest rates since March, led by the Bank of Canada in a bid to tame inflation, represents a substantial economic shock, one that is now pushing the country towards a recession. The bank’s overnight, or policy, interest rate is now at 4.25 percentage points, up from 0.25 per cent in February. This […]

Dec 2 2022 — Lisa McLaughlin — Nature Conservancy of Canada — We are now two years into the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which was launched in 2020 to urge the world to take action to slow, halt and even reverse nature loss. This UN call to action challenges the nearly 200 participating countries to embrace nature-based solutions for climate mitigation, reverse biodiversity declines and […]

Nov 27 2022 — Mary-Jane Bennett — Policy Magazine — On November 22nd, Massey College hosted a conference: Responsible Economics: Are Canadian Fiscal and Monetary Policies Appropriately Aligned? Panelists looked at ways to get Canada out of the spiraling debt and inflation crisis. Time is running out to avoid a painful recession — and the job losses, business closures and lost opportunities that would come […]