Digital transformation of the Canadian economy
For the past four decades, a relentless wave of innovation in information and communications technologies (ICTs) has washed across the global economy. The embedding of microprocessors and sensors in...
Mood of Canada survey: Canadians positive about reputation abroad
The public’s views on Canada’s global reputation and on the functioning of the federation are emerging as the areas of greatest departure between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his...
Seasonal hunger, deprivation are under the radar
In agricultural regions of developing countries, it’s known as the lean season — that dangerous period between planting and harvesting when job opportunities are scarce and income levels plummet....
Walking a political tightrope on immigration
The usual Canadian peace on immigration has been shattered with major proposals from the Conservatives and the Liberals. One Conservative leadership hopeful, Kellie Leitch, has endorsed testing would-be immigrants...
How do the feds track diversity of appointments?
As I have been taking a closer look at diversity in Governor in Council and judicial appointments, the gaps in the available data have become much clearer. Documents I...
Global nightmare, false alarm, or new geopolitical order?
We have had a month now to calm our jangling nerves. President-elect Donald Trump sat down and had a civilized conversation with President Barack Obama. He promised to keep...
Un échec fort prévisible
En tant que genre littéraire, les rapports de comités parlementaires défient les cadres trop contraignants. Plusieurs visent avant tout à exprimer et à rationaliser une politique qui a fait...
Becoming a leader in inclusive trade and development
The term “development” often leads people to think of good causes and aid programs, but not necessarily matters of strategic and economic importance to Canada. One of the new...
Canadian stats and two-step immigration
Research examining the economic and social well-being of new immigrants as they integrate into Canadian society is critical for informing the policies that regulate their selection and settlement. This...
Federalism and climate change
The Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change is the largest intergovernmental project to combat climate change in Canada’s history. Meeting the goals laid out in the framework...
Forget about “one-size-fits-all” counter-radicalization policies
The term “radicalization” is used so much these days that people have come to assume that it refers to a single, undifferentiated process that every terrorist goes through. The...
Local governments are leaders in the climate fight
With a threat as existential as climate change, people tend to focus on national and international leadership, with its broad tools such as carbon taxes and emissions regulations. But...
The gap between ambition and action on climate
As momentum builds domestically and internationally to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change, a serious gap has emerged between our level of ambition and our...
Could private investment build better social programs?
If the federal government’s plans for a new infrastructure bank work out, bridges, transit lines and hospitals across Canada will soon be built using private money. Private investment is...
The promise and perils of collaborative federalism
The agreement signed between Ottawa and eight of the provinces to establish a national framework to price greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is an achievement. The merits of the plan...
An historic but inadequate climate change framework
The negotiation and finalization of the pan-Canadian framework on climate change is a big deal. No Canadian government to date has completed and implemented a climate change plan. And...
Put art-driven data in the Canadian content picture
The Canadian government is set to frame a new model to support the creation, discovery and export of Canadian content in a digital world. A new federal consultation paper...
Inadequate consultation on the Muskrat Falls project
The Nunatsiavut government lost in both the Newfoundland Supreme Court and the Federal Court of Canada when it challenged the federal government’s duty to consult and accommodate on the...
Demanding accountability for a judge’s failure
Last week, Professor Brenda Cossman lamented in the Globe and Mail that the Committee of Inquiry has advised the Canadian Judicial Council to “punish” Justice Robin Camp rather than...
How surveillance harms
Revelations that Montreal police have conducted covert surveillance on several investigative journalists in Quebec has prompted a public inquiry and led Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien to argue in the Globe and Mail...
Une unanimité de façade
Chronique d’Alain Noël
Aux États-Unis, Donald Trump a obtenu une victoire sans lustre, avec environ 2,5 millions de votes de moins qu’Hillary Clinton. Trump a tout de même récolté l’appui de 46,2...
Government appointments and diversity
The Liberal government promised a diversity and inclusion agenda, and made specific commitments to ensure more inclusive representation in appointments. A year later, how well have they implemented this...
Trudeau’s contradictions on environment, Indigenous rights
During his recent announcement on three pipeline decisions, Justin Trudeau said that his government had listened to the views of First Nations. This week, Trudeau met with national chiefs...
Canadians’ security and privacy don’t need to be at odds
The Toronto Star and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation recently released a series that highlighted the serious challenges facing our national, provincial and local police agencies in trying to investigate...
De la COP22 à la mobilisation des forces vives
Mercredi, 9 novembre 2016. Les négociateurs et participants à la 22e Conférence des parties à la Convention-cadre des Nations unies sur les changements climatiques (COP22), qui s’est ouverte l’avant-veille...
The next step forward on electoral reform
Let’s acknowledge that electoral reform is a tough issue, marred with all kinds of obstacles. So, a week after the Commons committee on electoral reform released their report, the...
Why proportional representation is doomed
Proportional representation (PR) at the federal level in Canada is doomed. This is because national leadership in North Atlantic triangle countries (Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States)...
The cross-party case for the Working Income Tax Benefit
Conservative Party leadership candidate Michael Chong’s carbon tax proposal has generated considerable political attention. What has received less consideration is his proposal to double the Working Income Tax Benefit...
Une nouvelle réalité francophone
Nous avons célébré le 18 novembre dernier les trente ans de l’entrée en vigueur de la Loi sur les services en français de l’Ontario. Cette loi a grandement changé...
Local media and the democracy deficit
As alarm bells ring across the country about the troubled state of Canadian media and local news, policy-makers have overlooked a surprisingly obvious and relatively accessible fix. That local...
A gutsy decision on pipelines
Prime Minister Trudeau’s decision to approve Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is really gutsy. In one fell swoop the Prime Minister has removed any doubt that his...
Canada’s clean growth century
The 150-year history of Confederation is but a speck of time compared to the lifespan of planet earth. Birthdays are a good time to look back, but an even...
The “noble failure” approach to electoral reform
We should take our collective hat off to all the members of the House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform, which worked in a spirit of civility and...
The report is in, let’s have the electoral reform referendum
The federal government’s Special Committee on Electoral Reform has recommended a referendum on changing Canada’s voting system. The ballot, they suggest, should ask voters to choose between a government-designed...
Le dilemme du carbone au Canada et en Alberta
L’Accord de Paris sur le climat est entré en vigueur le 4 novembre 2016. Quatre jours plus tard, les Américains ont élu Donald Trump à la présidence, dont une...
In First Nations, freedom of the press is unclear
Once every quarter, during each of the year’s four seasons, 39 elected representatives from the Nisga’a First Nation gather to discuss everything from health and education to lands and...