Parliament has finally resumed sitting, but it’s hardly a fresh start for Justin Trudeau. The regional and ideological fault lines of the last election aren’t going anywhere. And now, it’s on the prime minister – and of course, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Chrystia Freeland – to find points of common interest with all of Canada’s premiers.

So how will Trudeau and Freeland approach this balancing act? Today on the podcast, we’ve got some of the keenest observers of Canadian federalism discussing this very question. On Monday, January 27th, the IRPP came together with the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) and The Max Bell School of Public Policy to host an event on Justin Trudeau and the politics of federalism. What follows is a conversation between Chantal Hébert of the Toronto Star, Daniel Béland of MISC and Christopher Ragan of Max Bell, moderated by Charles Breton, executive director of the IRPP’s new Centre of Excellence on the Canadian.

Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

Photo: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick


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Chantal Hébert
Chantal Hébert is a political columnist for the Toronto Star, a panelist on CBC’s At Issue, and a lecturer at the Max Bell School of Public Policy.
Daniel Béland
Daniel Béland est directeur de l’Institut d’études canadiennes de McGill depuis janvier 2019 et professeur titulaire de science politique à l’Université McGill. De 2012 à 2018, il a été professeur à l’Université de la Saskatchewan où il détenait la Chaire de recherche du Canada en politiques publiques de la Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. Ses recherches portent principalement sur les politiques sociales, la réforme des soins de santé et la relation entre politiques fiscales et développement de l’État-providence.
Christopher Ragan

Christopher Ragan is an economics professor and is the director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. He was chair of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission and a member of the federal government’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth.

Charles Breton
Charles Breton est le directeur du Centre d’excellence sur la fédération canadienne à l’IRPP, et l'ancien directeur de la recherche à Vox Pop Labs. Il détient un doctorat en science politique de l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique.