William Watson: Where were you on Sept. 11, what was your reaction, and when do you think you began analyzing it all as a philosopher? Will Kymlicka: I was teaching that morning, Tuesday morning. It was …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: Where were you on Sept. 11, what was your reaction, and when do you think you began analyzing it all as a philosopher? Will Kymlicka: I was teaching that morning, Tuesday morning. It was …
Read MoreAfter the last year and a half's melodrama on the Rideau, Canadians now have an idea of what, in centuries past, it must have been like to live in a non-constitutional monarchy. The dauphin is …
Read MoreWriting this, I am surrounded by cartons half-filled with my family's worldly goods. By the time you read it, we'll be back in Montreal, a one-year sabbatical in France's Haute-Savoie département (south and west of …
Read MoreDo think-tanks matter? This month, as our use of colour suggests, something special. Thirty years ago ”” April 11, 1972, to be exact ”” the letters patent of a new Canadian research institute were filed. The …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: Where were you when you heard about the attacks on Sept. 11th and what were your first thoughts? Janice Gross Stein: I was in the car, driving to work. I had just stopped at …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: Where were you when you heard about the attacks on Sept. 11th and what were your first thoughts? Janice Gross Stein: I was in the car, driving to work. I had just stopped at …
Read MoreEn France, ouÌ€ je passe l'année uni- versitaire en sabbatique, on peut voir une nouvelle annonce pu- blicitaire tré€s rigolote aÌ€ la télé. On y entend les paroles immortelles de Freddie Mercury et Queen (« You …
Read MoreOh, the perils of magazine publishing! I closed this column last month with the wish that the Canadian Alliance would stick with their flat tax proposal at least long enough for our October issue, the first …
Read MoreAs this is written, with six weeks left in the US presidential elec- tion race, George Bush is ahead in the polls. The same wise commenta- tors who just a month ago were prais- ing …
Read MoreI have the kind of personality, essen- tial in a writer of newspaper columns, that when confronted with a questionnaire of the type devised by Policy Options and IRPP immediately quarrels with its implicit premises. What …
Read MoreSomething in the Canadian soul loves defeat. This paper was originally written for the University of Manitoba's “ Delta Marsh retreat.” Presenting it last October in a former hunting lodge perched on the bleak and windy …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: Andrew Sancton, what goes into your thinking about how big a city government should be? Andrew Sancton: I don't think we have any data, or even a theory, that suggests what the ideal or …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: David Rusk, you have been Mayor of Albuquerque and have written extensively on city government. How big do you think city governments should be? David Rusk: Well, I think that's not putting the question …
Read MoreIn the last issue of Policy Options, my fellow columnist Joseph Heath wrote an (as always) interesting piece advising Canada's political parties to beware their members whose ”œpolitical affilia- tions are grounded more in visceral …
Read More« Bienvenue en 1980 ! », lançait Pierre Elliott Trudeau le soir du 18 février 1980. Options politiques paraiÌ‚tra pour la premié€re fois, quelques semaines plus tard, une toute nouvelle revue pour un « nouveau-vieux …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: How did you first hear about the events of Sept. 11? Ed Morgan: I first heard about it in the car radio on my way down to work that morning. But there were only …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: How did you first hear about the events of Sept. 11? Ed Morgan: I first heard about it in the car radio on my way down to work that morning. But there were only …
Read More30 ans déjà ! Ce mois-ci, un numéro tout en couleurs pour marquer une occasion toute spéciale. Il y a trente ans ”” le 11 avril 1972 pour être précis ”” étaient en effet déposées les …
Read MoreTout récemment, j'étais invité aÌ€ la réunion annuelle de la société conservatrice Civitas, ouÌ€ j'ai prononcé une allocution que j'avais inti- tulée « Minority Squared : Anglophone et libéral au Québec ». Notez bien que …
Read MorePart of going to a foreign country is spending time in stores fumbling with change, trying to make sense of the local currency. Arriving in France last August to spend the academic year here, I found …
Read MoreTo commemorate the change in prime ministers, I've been re- reading Double Vision, Tony Wilson-Smith and Edward Greenspon's terrific book on the Chrétien govern- ment's first term, when all the hard work of deficit reduction was …
Read MoreMaybe the cupboard really is bare. In many ways the most interesting chart in Finance Minister Ralph Goodale's first budget, delivered March 23, was the table ”œChanges in the Status Quo Fiscal Outlook since the …
Read MorePermit me, as a university profes- sor, to let down the side a bit on the question of funding for higher education. If I were in charge of Canada's public finances ”” an eventuality (relax, bureaucrats!) certain …
Read MorePérilleuse, la publication d'une revue ! Le mois dernier, je terminais ma chronique par un voeu : que l'Alliance canadienne s'en tienne à son projet de taux d'imposition unique ”” au moins jusqu'à ce que …
Read MoreI was a nerd in high school. I read everything I could get my hands on and I generally outscored my teachers on the monthly current events quizzes that the now long defunct Montreal Star …
Read MoreIn some ways the unseemly cackle of glee in Jean Chrétien's birthday boast this winter that he was very glad his government had decided to keep Canada out of the Iraq war was understandable. After …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: How did you hear about the attacks? What was your initial reaction and when did you start thinking about economics? John Helliwell: I turned on the CBC radio news, about 7 a.m., or a …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: How did you hear about the attacks? What was your initial reaction and when did you start thinking about economics? John Helliwell: I turned on the CBC radio news, about 7 a.m., or a …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: How did you find out about the bombings? What was your experience? André Blais: I was in London. It was just after a conference. I was supposed to fly back on the following day, …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: How did you find out about the bombings? What was your experience? André Blais: I was in London. It was just after a conference. I was supposed to fly back on the following day, …
Read MoreThe last time Policy Options hosted a discussion of whether Canada should return to the fixed exchange rate it had during the Second World War and then again from 1962 to 1970, following the ”œDiefenbuck” …
Read MoreTout au long d'un demi-siècle de carrière, Claude Ryan s'est fait connaître comme un fervent défenseur de la cause de l'éducation, comme un des plus éminents éditorialistes du Québec, comme chef de l'opposition officielle de …
Read MoreEntré dans la fonction publique fédérale en 1941, Gordon Robertson a agit, pour la majeure partie de sa carrière, comme conseiller auprès de quatre premiers ministres, soit Mackenzie King, Louis St-Laurent, Lester Pearson et Pierre …
Read MoreEntré en 1959 dans la fonction publique fédérale, Michael Pitfield y a occupé jusqu'en 1982, année où il fut appelé au sénat, une grande variété de postes dont ceux de sous-ministre au ministère de la …
Read MoreMonique Jérôme-Forget a été présidente de l'IRPP de 1991 à 1998, remplissant ainsi le mandat le plus long à la tête de l'Institut. Auparavant, elle avait été sous-ministre adjointe au ministère fédéral de la Santé …
Read MoreC'est en 1968 que le gouvernement fédéral a demandé à Ronald Ritchie, qui était alors cadre supérieur chez Imperial Oil, de produire un rapport sur la possibilité de fonder un nouvel « institut de recherche …
Read MoreComme le savent sërement nos lecteurs, Tom Kent a été le tout premier rédacteur en chef d'Options politiques. Au cours d'une vie bien remplie, il a aussi été spécialiste du décodage de guerre, directeur de …
Read MoreIn a career spanning 50 years, Claude Ryan has been, among other things, an advocate for education. Quebec's most distinguished editorialist, the Leader of the province's Official Opposition, the leader of the Non forces in …
Read MoreThough Gordon Robertson joined the Public Service of Canada in 1941 in the Department of External Affairs he spent most of his career as adviser to four Prime Ministers of Canda: Mackenzie King, Louis St-Laurent, …
Read MoreMichael Pitfield served in the Public Service of Canada from 1959 to 1982, holding a variety of positions, including Deputy Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, and Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to …
Read MoreMonique Jérôme-Forget was President of the IRPP from 1991 to 1998, which makes her the Institute's longest-serving president. Before that she was Assistant Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare in Ottawa, President of Quebec's commission …
Read MoreIn 1968, Ronald Ritchie, then an executive at Imperial Oil Ltd, was asked by the federal government to report on the possibility of a new "institute for research on public policy," a construction that eventually …
Read MoreAs readers of this magazine know well, Tom Kent was the founding editor of Policy Options. Before and since he was: a wartime decoder, a newspaper editor, policy secretary to Prime Minister Pearson, founding deputy …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: Desmond Morton, you're a military historian and an historian of Canada. What was your first reaction to the events of Sept. 11th? Desmond Morton: I was going up in the elevator in the Leacock …
Read MoreWilliam Watson: Desmond Morton, you're a military historian and an historian of Canada. What was your first reaction to the events of Sept. 11th? Desmond Morton: I was going up in the elevator in the Leacock …
Read MoreThe mid-1990s were a period of remarkable transparency in Canadian politics. In 1993, the federal Liberals published their famous Red Book and, after an electoral tri- umph, went ahead and governed from it ”” more or …
Read More”œWell, welcome to the 1980s!” declared Pierre Trudeau the night of February 18, 1980. The very next month Canada got itself a brand new policy magazine to go with its not quite brand new government. …
Read MoreAs this is written, two days after the televised leaders' debates in the 2004 federal election, the news is filled with stories about a Liberal collapse and a Tory minority or even majority ”” although …
Read MoreThe blessing””and curse””of the Internet age is that even if you're living a quarter of the way around the globe, as I am this year in France, you can keep in touch with what's going on …
Read MoreI keep changing my mind about whether the recent federal- provincial deal on health care and its ”œasymmetrical” annex for Quebec is a good thing or bad. On the one hand, it's ridiculous and disheartening that …
Read MoreIf victory has a thousand fathers, defeat brings out millions of know-it-alls. After their defeat in the June 28 federal election the Conservatives are getting lots of advice on how to win next time round, …
Read More”œAvoid self-righteousness like the devil,” John F. Kennedy used to say, quoting British military historian Liddell Hart, ”œnothing is so self-blinding.” We haven't quite been following that advice in our trade rela- tions with the …
Read MoreIn game two of last fall's American League baseball championship, 56,000 crazed New York Yankee fans taunted Boston Red Sox ace pitch- er, Pedro Martinez, by chanting, as only leather-lunged New Yorkers can do, ”œWho's …
Read MoreWhat a year to be in France. This spring, in the diplo- matic end game on Iraq, the Franco-American friendship went through one of its roughest patches since relations between the two coun- tries began …
Read MoreEverybody says the Canadian constitution is hard to amend. Not impossible, but hard. Since giving ourselves an amending formula in 1982 we have managed to eliminate confessional schools in both Newfoundland and Quebec. But that's …
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