Inquiétudes face à la dette publique en temps de pandémie
Outre les aspects sanitaires, psychologiques, sociaux et économiques, la pandémie a des effets majeurs sur les finances publiques. À l’annonce de chaque nouvel investissement et encore davantage lors d’une...
Canada can prove it’s a leader in deliberative democracy
In the pandemic, Canadians are actually feeling better about their representative democracy. At the Samara Centre for Democracy, we looked at the Consortium on Electoral Democracy’s national public opinion...
Policy-makers must get up to speed on AI
When COVID-19 upended plans in the U.K. for secondary school graduate exams this year, a new system was introduced that created an uproar. Teachers assigned grades based on past...
In the Canadian federation, pandemic response is hyper-local
This article has been translated into French. Despite having markedly lower COVID-19 death rates than most G7 nations, Canada is on track to record 20,000 COVID-19 cases a day across...
The other lethal pandemic is worklessness
There is another pandemic. Depression, drug abuse, and suicide are its symptoms. Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer reported the grim story last month: “The situation is most stark in...
Les électrices : un bloc homogène ? Sondages postélectoraux aux États-Unis
Tenue dans le contexte de l’actuelle pandémie, l’élection présidentielle de 2020 n’avait rien d’ordinaire. Le taux de participation a été le plus élevé de tous les temps ― quelque...
COVID-19 and Canadian federalism
COVID-19 has tested Canada’s intergovernmental system. With the stakes as high as they are, it’s crucial that all levels of government continue to meet, communicate, and try to work...
Diversity isn’t a zero-sum game
Fostering Canada’s rich diversity continues to be a national priority, as emphasized in the latest speech from the throne. Yet, critics often view diversity as a zero-sum game. One...
Canada must adopt an emergency mindset to climate change
Even before the arrival of COVID-19, the history of the Second World War was making a remarkable comeback. Our movie theatres (remember those?), Netflix streams and bookstore shelves were...
Les États-Unis et le monde après Trump
La politique étrangère de l’administration Trump a été marquée par des revirements majeurs. Sous la bannière « L’Amérique d’abord », les États-Unis ont fragilisé les alliances traditionnelles, vu la Chine comme...
New privacy bill is a data protection reset for Canada
It is no secret that Canada’s data protection laws are lagging badly behind both the technological challenges to data protection and emerging international standards. Canada, in fact, faces an...
The nuclear ban treaty is entering into force. What now for Canada?
On Oct. 24, UN Day, the Central American state Honduras made history. It did so by being the 50th state to ratify the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of...
Without good data we can’t improve mental health care
The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked concern about the mental health of the population and the ability of health care systems to respond to treatment needs. Robust, valid data collected...
How supporting skills and training can fuel a resilient recovery
This article has been translated into French. This fall’s speech from the throne made very clear that helping Canadians gain access to training will be critical to Canada’s post-pandemic...
Making federalism work for energy efficiency
Energy efficiency figures prominently in proposals for how to recover from COVID-19’s economic impacts and in plans for achieving net-zero emissions. The International Energy Agency, Green New Deal proposals...
Le 117e Congrès et l’avenir des relations canado-américaines
Nul doute que la nouvelle de la défaite de Donald Trump a été accueillie avec soulagement à Ottawa. La Chambre des communes a d’ailleurs adopté à l’unanimité une motion...
Solitary confinement continues in Canada under a different name
Exactly one year ago, in November 2019, Structured Intervention Units (SIUs) were implemented by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) in federal prisons to replace the old solitary confinement...
Canada should reject the idea of deliberately infecting vaccine volunteers
More than 11,000 Canadians have died from COVID-19. As the number of deaths continues to rise, so, too, does the pressure on researchers and biotechnology companies to produce safe...
Will Biden test Mexico’s hand’s-off approach to bilateral relations?
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was one of the first world leaders to congratulate U.S. president-elect Joe Biden on his victory, the Mexican government has chosen to hold off....
Canada’s newest nuclear industry dream is a potential nightmare
This year, the federal government has made apparent its enthusiasm for the nuclear industry’s latest dream – small modular reactors (SMRs). Following up on an SMR “Action Plan” released...
Quelle politique étrangère pour le Canada après Trump ?
L’enthousiasme avec lequel le Canada a accueilli la victoire de Joe Biden ne devrait pas empêcher Ottawa de tirer toutes les leçons en matière de politique étrangère des quatre...
The U.S. 2020 Presidential Election
The 2020 U.S. presidential campaign was bitterly fought, and unfolded against the ominous backdrop of a worsening coronavirus pandemic. The aftermath has been just as acrimonious and turbulent, as...
Canada’s clean-energy gazelles are outperforming fossil fuels
There seems to be a view that Canada can’t compete in a global low-carbon economy. After all, who will want Canada’s fossil fuels or internal combustion engines as the...
Will the pandemic help shift the education system back to teaching?
Students are now routinely referred to as “learners” in the school system-bound world of K-12 education. Teaching is “facilitating learning,” the classroom is a “learning environment,” and pursuing continuing...
L’implacable discipline de parti aux Communes
Chronique d’Alain Noël
La Barbade, 287 000 habitants, annonçait en septembre qu’elle s’affranchira d’ici un an de la Couronne britannique pour devenir une république. Presque 55 ans après son indépendance, l’île des...
A guaranteed minimum income would be more effective than current government programs
When COVID-19 put the economy on hiatus in March, Employment Insurance (EI) was insufficient to ensure displaced workers had access to enough money to meet their basic needs. That’s...
Public servants can’t win for losing in these COVID times
During these COVID times, many workers are being lauded for their ability to adjust and adapt to the new world order. That is not necessarily the case for those...
The economic case for investing in renewable energy is strong and getting stronger
Alan Keeso makes some interesting points in his Policy Options op-ed of October 16, 2020. He is correct that Canada must absolutely increase its institutional accountability with regard to...
Les chemins qui restent pour le Québec : l’intégration ou l’indépendance
J’aimerais répondre ici à l’article de mon collègue Eric Montigny, publié récemment dans les pages d’Options politiques, en rappelant le superbe ouvrage d’Yvan Lamonde sur quatre figures de la...
After Trump, a struggle for shared truth
Almost four years ago, Donald Trump’s presidency began with a small, silly lie about the size of his inauguration crowd. On Nov. 7, as Joe Biden’s lead in the...
Why being a gracious winner is an essential strategy for Biden
The United States of America (along with the rest of the world) has exhaled. Americans made it through an election and appear to be making their way through the...
When science gets it wrong
This article has been translated into French. Public trust in science is crucial to the good functioning of contemporary societies. When used by elected officials and policy-makers, science supports...
Canada must play a role in renewing multilateralism for a changing world
The opening of the new session of the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September marked 75 years since the creation of the UN. In 1945, the...
Make the Canada Infrastructure Bank private sector-driven
The government is investing $10 billion in an infrastructure “growth plan” as a key element of its COVID economic recovery strategy. To support implementation of this plan, the Canada...
Reimagining the Canadian federation through an urban lens
Canada’s cities have borne the worst of COVID-19. Looking ahead, it’s clear they’ll need targeted support in any future recovery plans. But they’ll also need new tools to help...
Bill C-7 lacks adequate limits for advance MAiD requests
Agnes looks at the person asking her kindly to extend her arm. She does not remember when she arranged to end her life through medical assistance in dying. Nor...
What a Biden presidency means for climate change and Canada
As the dust settles on the 2020 US election, much remains uncertain, but the general outcome is clear: Joe Biden has won and will become president in January. This...
Le droit au logement pour les plus démunis est fragilisé
La situation du marché du logement locatif privé est alarmante dans certaines villes et municipalités du Québec : elles font face à une importante pénurie de logements abordables, qui touche...
Facial recognition is transforming our borders, and we are not prepared
When global travel emerges from the constraints imposed by the pandemic, travellers may find themselves returning to border crossings that are unfamiliar. Facial recognition is rapidly becoming embedded in...
Les universités et collèges sont des intermédiaires de l’innovation
Peu nombreuses sont les discussions sur l’innovation où l’on n’entend pas fuser le mot « rupture ». Pourtant, les organisations au Canada ont l’habitude de récompenser la prédictibilité et...
Canada’s actions around the Mi’Kmaq fisheries rest on shaky legal ground
Acting on treaty right recognized in the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision 21 years ago in R v Marshall, the Sipekne’katik First Nation launched its moderate livelihood fishery in...
How did Donald Trump do so well at the polls?
It didn’t take long after polls began to close in the United States on Nov. 3rd for hopes of a Blue Wave to crash against reality. President Trump was...
Le non-recours aux prestations : une menace pour l’État‑providence
Selon Jennifer Robson et Saul Schwartz, les citoyens qui n’ont pas produit de déclaration de revenus au fédéral en 2015 ont laissé sur la table des prestations d’une valeur...
Despite a polarizing US election, there are signs of political consensus
The voting has stopped, and many results of the election remain unclear. Yet I can confidently predict that peace and quiet will not return to Washington until inauguration day...
Canada can harness AI to help with post-pandemic recovery
Netflix’s documentary The Social Dilemma has many Canadians rethinking their intimate relationship with big tech. Among the many revelations, Canadians learned how these multinational firms deeply ingrain artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like...
What we can learn from COVID communications in other countries
Wise societies learn from others. In one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s daily press conferences on April 2, he said that “we’ve learned a lot from South Korea, Singapore,...
What American politics has taught us about democratic legitimacy
The sorry spectacle of the 2020 U.S. presidential election continued to play out Wednesday, with President Donald Trump falsely claiming that the election was a “fraud” even before all...
Le projet de loi 70 sur les thérapies de conversion doit aller plus loin
Cette semaine se tiendront à la Commission des relations avec les citoyens des consultations particulières et des auditions publiques sur le projet de loi 70, qui a été présenté...
Are students and educators learning during the pandemic?
The United Nations Secretary General has decried effects of the pandemic as a “generational catastrophe” in education. It’s clear, in the middle of the panic, politics and near-chaos of...
What #JusticeforJoyce should mean for policy-makers
Let’s start with the body, for so much is won and lost and lost and lost there. – Billy-Ray Belcourt Canadians in the fall of 2020 sit uncomfortably in...
Rebalancing and improving refugee resettlement in Canada
In 2019, Canada resettled 30,100 refugees, overtaking the United States and Australia in the number of refugees admitted that year. But about three in five refugees who have arrived...
Excising racism from health care requires Indigenous collaboration
Canada’s history of colonization has laid the foundation for the implementation of racist health policy and the delivery of culturally unsafe health care, resulting in health disparities that are...