Think Tanks

Oct 28 2020 — Niels Veldhuis and Jason Clemens — Fraser Institute — Much ink has been spilled on the narrative that Millennials and other future generations of Canadians may experience lower living standards than preceding generations. A recent study on wealth inequality, however, challenges this narrative. In reality, from 2010 to 2019, Millennials have enjoyed greater increases in wealth than other generations of Canadians. Which raises the […]

Oct 26 2020 — Zach Paikin — Global Brief — Last week, 21CQ and GB held a two-day conference to probe the state and future of Canada after the pandemic. Along with UBC’s Michael Byers, Université Laval’s Anessa Kimball, former senior advisor to Canada’s minister of foreign affairs Jocelyn Coulon, and the Munk School’s Anvesh Jain, I was one of the participants featured on the […]

Oct 8 2020 — Alex Whalen and Elmira Aliakbari — Fraser Institute — Newfoundland and Labrador’s energy sector, already struggling from the downturn in world oil markets and the COVID recession, has taken another blow—this time directly from Ottawa. The Trudeau government recently imposed new rules—known collectively as the Strategic Assessment of Climate Change (SACC)—that requires certain projects (including mines and oil and gas projects) to describe how […]

Sep 26 2020 — CSIS — After spending most of the 1990s and early 2000s rebuilding their state, regime, economy, and military after the traumatic Soviet collapse, Russia’s return to a central—and often disruptive—place in world politics has laid bare the folly of many scholars and policymakers who ignored Russia during those years or dismissively argued that the country was irrelevant […]

Sep 24 2020 — IRPP — Today, the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) officially launches its Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, a permanent research body that will build a deeper understanding of Canada as a federal community. With the provincial and federal governments focused on their responses to COVID-19, and all eyes turning to Ottawa as Parliament […]

Sep 22 2020 — Bacchus Barua — Fraser Institute — According to reports, the Trudeau government may unveil a national pharmacare program in Wednesday’s throne speech in Ottawa. The program may be based on last year’s Hoskins’ report, which recommended an expensive top-down Medicare-style approach that would artificially set drugs prices, restrict patient choice and limit private alternatives. Not only would such a program drive […]

Sep 22 2020 — IRPP — Despite federal, provincial, and territorial governments devoting a lot of effort on plans to reduce poverty in recent years, too many Canadians continue to struggle to meet their basic daily needs on incomes that fall far below the poverty line. And, among all household groups, single persons without dependants are most likely to find themselves […]

Sep 22 2020 — Marc Lee — Policynote.ca — Public policy in Canada remains haunted by large deficits that prevailed in the 1980s and early 1990s. With COVID-19 economic response pushing the federal deficit to an estimated $343 billion in 2020/21, some pundits are starting to beat the deficit hysteria drum again. Don’t let big numbers scare you. Here’s why we shouldn’t be worried. […]

Sep 18 2020 — Elmira Aliakbari and Jason Clemens — Fraser Institute — Gerry Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Trudeau, is at the heart of a new group, the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery, which recently released a series of recommendations for massive investment in green projects. These recommendations seems to be influencing the prime minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, in terms of how […]

Sep 17 2020 — Public Policy Forum — New digital frontiers have renewed old problems: conspiracy theories, hate speech and disinformation. This conversation with Peter MacLeod, founder of public engagement firm MASS LBP, and Amira Elghawaby, journalist and human rights advocate, gives us insights on the health of our democracy and explores innovative approaches to civil dialogue in a social media age – […]

Sep 15 2020 — Public Policy Forum — Canada must come to grips not just with a massive fiscal shortfall but also consecutive deficits in our current account, a broad measure of our trading and investment relationship with the rest of the world. A government plan must be growth oriented if we are to get the twin deficits under control without resorting to […]

Sep 11 2020 — Public Policy Forum — Denise Amyot, CEO of Colleges and Institutes Canada, and Paul Davidson, President of Universities Canada, saw the move online of 1.4 million learners in the 10 days after the pandemic struck. Now those students are going back to school in new ways – ways we didn’t expect to be the norm for 10 years. Join […]

Sep 10 2020 — Fred McMahon — Fraser Institute — Two troubling questions lurk behind the results of the Fraser Institute’s 2020 Economic Freedom of the World report, released Sept. 10. This year’s report is based on 2018 data (the most recent available). By 2018, global economic freedom had recovered from the 2008 financial crisis and was at its highest level ever, albeit by just […]

Sep 3 2020 — Public Policy Forum — Optimistic that we will have a COVID-19 vaccine soon, Dr. Alan Bernstein joins former health minister Anne McLellan and host Edward Greenspon for a cautious discussion about the four-way deal Canada just signed to manufacture a vaccine, public trust in a vaccine, and the political tensions that might affect getting a vaccine to those most […]

Sep 2 2020 — Alex Whalen and Ben Eisen — Fraser Institute — Earlier this summer, the four Atlantic provinces formed the “Atlantic Bubble” as the region works toward freer movement of people amid the COVID crisis. And clearly, the pandemic’s effect on the economy underscores the value of free movement of people and goods, which—on the bright side—presents some opportunity. For example, as the Atlantic provinces cooperate […]