Urban Violent Crime Report, Volume 2: Comparing crime across Canadian cities
Violent crime in Canada’s cities has not only risen – it has become a growing threat affecting urban communities across the country. While headlines often focus on year-to-year fluctuations in crime, the Urban Violent Crime Report, Volume 2 reveals a deeper and more troubling reality: over the past decade, violent crime has increased significantly across Canadian cities, spreading beyond Toronto...
Some Thoughts on Budget 2025
Dubbed a “generational investment” that will help define the next century, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal Budget, tabled on November 4, includes broadly anticipated themes. The 400+ page document proposes trimming day-to-day operational government spending, increasing investments in capital projects and the military, and introducing measures to make Canadian businesses more competitive. The goals are clear: “More than 75%...
Indo-Pacific Forum 2025: Charting Canada’s Next Phase of Regional Engagement
The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada held its inaugural Indo-Pacific Forum in Ottawa on October 1- 2, 2025, nearly three years after the launch of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). The Forum brought together stakeholders from the Government of Canada, academics, think-tank experts, private-sector leaders, and policy researchers from across the Indo-Pacific to assess progress and offer actionable advice on how...
ASEAN Summit: Managing the Bloc’s Expansion, Regional Conflicts, and Great-Power Rivalry
The 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 26-28, showcased both the bloc’s diplomatic strengths and its strategic vulnerabilities. U.S. President Donald Trump’s attendance dominated the proceedings, and featured the signing of legally binding trade agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia, framework arrangements with Thailand and Vietnam, and memoranda of understanding...
The growing government gap: Rising costs, shrinking returns, and the productivity crisis in the public sector
We commonly measure how much governments spend and how many people they employ but we rarely weigh the benefits taxpayers receive in return for their hard-earned dollars. This report introduces a basic framework and lays the groundwork for new indexes that will track the size and performance of governments in Canada over time, focusing on federal and provincial activities.
Most Canadians Say They Know Little of Asian Countries, Prefer Closer Trade Ties with More Familiar Regions: Poll
As Prime Minister Mark Carney travels to Asia on a quest to build trade ties with more countries in the wake of an ongoing tariff war with the United States, new data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, finds favourable views from Canadians towards most Asian countries but little knowledge, especially...
China’s New Rare-Earth Controls Send Shockwaves Through Global Supply Chains
On October 9, Beijing unveiled sweeping new export controls on rare earths and related technologies, marking a major escalation in its use of critical minerals as a geopolitical tool. The move tightens China’s grip on the supply chains that underpin global defence and advanced manufacturing. In response, the U.S. and its allies — including Canada — are accelerating efforts to...
Indigenous consent is an objective, not a standard, for resource development
In Canadian resource development, the concept of “consent” has become a litmus test for ideological and philosophical divides. While such debates may be intellectually stimulating, they pose a serious obstacle to project development. Proponents seek clear expectations and standards when committing capital and building things. The Canadian legal and political systems have plodded along inelegantly on the question of Indigenous...
Canada is right to re-engage India. And Canadians support that
Last Thanksgiving, Ottawa was expelling Indian diplomats; this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is in New Delhi. The contrast captures how far relations have come – and how fragile the progress remains. Ms. Anand’s visit, Canada’s first ministerial-level trip to India in two years, also signals that the diplomatic reset launched by prime ministers Mark Carney and Narendra Modi...
Budget 2025: Financing Canada’s Hinge Moment
Budget 2025 will be tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne on November 4th. It is an opportunity for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to set a new policy direction for Canada. Uncertainty is high. Stakes are high. Will the government meet the moment – the hinge moment, as Carney would say? Will Budget 2025 be fiscally responsible? James...
Canada’s generative AI wake-up call – From leader to laggard
Canada risks falling dangerously behind in the global race to harness the productivity-enhancing power of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Despite its world-class universities, highly educated population, and a history of AI research excellence (particularly emanating from the Greater Toronto Area), Canada’s workplace adoption of GenAI is currently less than half that of the United States.
Half of Canadians say Restoring Diplomatic Ties with India was 'Right Move' as Economic Issues Take Priority: Poll
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is making Canada's the first ministerial-level trip to India in two years in mid-October 2025 as the Canada-India relationship continues to thaw after a lengthy freeze during the end of previous Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s time in office. New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada...
What the new Canada-Indonesia trade agreement means in practice
The signing of the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) last week is a significant boost to Canada’s economicdiversification agenda.
Distorted reality: Putin’s media on the North American Arctic
Alexander Dalziel examines how Russian media presents and frames the North American Arctic as a factor in Russian defence and security to the Russian public.
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy at Three: Presence, Partnerships, and the Next Turn
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) has passed the crucial three-year mark. On balance, the record thus far has been positive: Canada is more present, more visible, and more plugged into regional networks than at any time in recent memory. New offices have opened, ministerial and prime-ministerial travel has become routine, Team Canada trade missions are drawing large delegations, and the Canadian...
Canada-China Trade 2024 Annual Report: Shifts Beneath a Stable Facade
Canada–China trade’s center of gravity shifted decisively westward in 2024, with Alberta emerging as a leading export hub on the strength of energy and commodity shipments. Whether this shift endures into 2025 remains uncertain amid tariff turbulence. To monitor these dynamics more closely, The China Institute will launch quarterly Canada–China trade reports beginning in Q3 2025, using updated methods to...
Pragmatism Over Wishful Thinking: Crafting a New China Strategy
Perhaps the strongest indication that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s UNGA meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang last week signalled a new era in bilateral relations was the Xinhua coverage. “China and Canada have been promoting the improvement and development of their bilateral relations in a practical and constructive manner, which has been widely welcomed by all sectors in both countries,”...
Subsidies without markets: Canada’s unravelling EV strategy
Canada’s $52-billion effort to build a domestic electric vehicle (EV) industry has so far failed to deliver on its promises. Designed as a bold plan to secure a full EV supply chain, from mining and processing to batteries and assembly, the strategy has stumbled under the weight of subsidy-driven, top-down industrial policy. The federal, Ontario, and Quebec governments set out...
The Hidden Cost of Economic Downturns: ‘She-cessions’ and the Surge in Intimate Partner Violence
As Canadians grapple with the possibility of an impending economic downturn, the public debate has understandably focused on U.S. tariffs and their devastating impact on the manufacturing sector. Steel, aluminum, copper, automobiles – protecting these and other industries and their mostly male workers from financial distress and unemployment is fundamentally important. And yet, there are other aspects of an economic...
Budget 2025: The Role of Federal Spending Review and Reallocation
The 2025 federal budget will be tabled in Parliament on November 4, 2025. It will be close to a year since Canadians have had an updated fiscal plan. A lot has happened during that year, much of it carrying economic implications for Canada and the world. Relations with the United States, our closest ally, have deteriorated due largely to trade...
How the West wins: Alberta’s legal pathway to greater power within Canada
If Alberta hopes to achieve greater autonomy within Confederation, it will be won not through grievance or defiance but by lawful and responsible assertion of political will within Canada’s existing constitutional framework. By framing autonomy as an exercise of responsible government – a core doctrine of Canada’s constitutional tradition – the discourse will shift from political protest to institutional legitimacy...
How Canada Can Meet the China Challenge in Critical Minerals
Canada’s critical minerals strategy needs to move past broad ambition to systematic, prioritized, and partnership-focused action. We need an approach that right-sizes the China challenge, adjusts to the evolving environment south of the border, embeds within a national industrial strategy, and updates our 2022 critical minerals strategy with targeted tools and deeper partnerships across the Indo-Pacific, Europe, North America, and...
Nepal’s Gen Z Protests Expose Deeper Frustrations, Regional Stakes
Nepal witnessed one of its most violent episodes in decades on September 8, when a youth-led uprising against the government’s ban on 26 social media platforms — including YouTube, Facebook, X, and Instagram — left 34 people dead and thousands injured. The demonstrations in Kathmandu and other cities forced four-time prime minister KP Sharma Oli to resign and triggered widespread...
At the Crossroads: India’s Relations with the U.S., China, and Russia
Over the past two decades, India-U.S. relations have made steady strides, buoyed by bipartisan support in both countries and thriving in areas such as trade, technology, and strategic convergence in the Indo-Pacific. Yet the bilateral partnership has suffered an unprecedented setback in recent months. Beginning August 27, Indian exports to the U.S. face a steep 50 per cent tariff, including...
The federal government’s coming “red tape review” is bad news
According to the news release, “ministers will review regulations in their portfolios and propose actions and measures to eliminate red tape –– including removing outdated regulation.” The press release contained a reference to the role of regulations in protecting Canadians’ health and safety. But if history is any guide, when they clash with corporate interests—given the corporate capture of regulations—the...
The cost of silence: How Canada is falling short in the global fight against antisemitism
Time and again, Canada has responded to international antisemitism with political half measures, equivocation, and a troubling willingness to play along with institutions where anti-Israel bias is deeply entrenched. Demonization of Israel simply because it is a Jewish state is itself a form of antisemitism, one that is becoming increasingly normalized on the world stage. Antisemitism today appears in two...
Military Cooperation, Trade Talks Reflect Ottawa’s ‘Integrated Approach’ to Indonesia
Canada has formalized its defence relationship with Indonesia through the recent signing of a Military Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), establishing structured collaboration in joint exercises, maritime security, capacity-building, and professional exchanges. Combined with the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement — which is expected to be signed in 2025 — the defence MoU reflects Ottawa’s integrated approach to Southeast Asia...
Japan: A Steady Ascent: Innovation and International Collaboration in Space
In December 2024, LignoSat — the world’s first wooden satellite — was launched by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) into the Earth’s orbit from the International Space Station (ISS). The satellite, constructed from magnolia wood and without screws using a traditional Japanese technique, was developed to make space more sustainable. Traditional satellites burn up upon re-entry when deorbited, creating...