Policy Options

Après le « retour aux sources conservatrices » lors de l’élection provinciale d’avril 2019, personne ne pouvait être vraiment surpris de voir que l’Alberta vote de nouveau massivement pour les conservateurs,...

The post-secondary education landscape in Canada, and in Ontario in particular, has changed considerably over the past two decades. Ontario colleges began offering four-year bachelor’s degrees in 2002 after...

When the ballots were counted, Canadians had elected a mere 10 more women in 2019 than they did in 2015, bringing up the proportion of women in the House...

Fake news, disinformation, foreign influence in elections: We’re starting to understand the ways bad actors attack democracy in Canada and around the world. But autocrats and other enemies of...

The 43rd federal election has come to a close. At his first press conference after election night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed that he and the Liberals have a...

There are few phrases more apt to create a chill than “hung Parliament.” It implies confusion, delay, obstruction and a general dither that no one is really in charge...

En décembre 2018, le magazine Maclean’s faisait sa une avec une photo de cinq hommes en complet cravate, sombres et en apparence fâchés. C’était, titrait la revue sans craindre...

“[T]his Parliament and this government will be and needs to be focused on Canadians, and that means we need to work together, we need to listen to each other,...

The 2019 campaign was a contentious period that revealed Canada to be more of a work in progress than the multicultural haven we claim to be. Still, on balance,...

When people are exposed to meat that could be contaminated with chronic wasting disease (CWD), there’s a risk for the development of human cases of CWD. This meat should...

It’s 2019, and people can use the internet wherever they are: on the bus, in a shopping mall, hiking up a mountain. But what city dwellers might not realize...

It is hard for outsiders to understand how gruelling, exhilarating, exciting, frustrating and physically demanding it can be for journalists covering an election. In the modern multi-media, multi-tasking universe...

A journalist covering the 2019 G7 Biarritz Summit in August caused a social media firestorm when she tweeted out a photo of four leaders in mid-embrace. The problem wasn’t...

The Toronto Police Services Board has approved an important policy that will see the Toronto Police Service begin collecting and publicly reporting race-based data on several types of interactions...

After the votes are counted tonight, 338 candidates will be headed to Ottawa to claim their seats as members of Parliament. The other 1500-plus candidates will be headed home....

(This article has been translated from French.) Under the Paris Agreement, Canada agreed to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30 percent compared to 2005 levels. While this goal...

International assistance has suddenly become a hot election topic with the announcement that the Conservative party would cut Canada’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) if elected. Other parties have expressed...

At the second event in Policy Options’ Election 2019 Breakfast Series, Shree Paradkar (Toronto Star), Taylor Owen (Max Bell School of Public Policy), Paul Adams (Carleton University School of Journalism) and...

Pensions and retirement income issues do not play a large role in the 2019 federal election party platforms. The shared assumption is that existing arrangements are working reasonably well,...

It is hard enough deciding who is a journalist without delegating the decision to a judge in the midst of an election campaign — or for that matter the...

Domestic issues are undoubtedly critical to voters in this election because they affect Canadians directly and in the short term. Foreign affairs rarely engage voters or affect choices at...

(This article has been translated into French.) The Quebec Superior Court recently expanded access to medical assistance in dying (MAiD). If higher courts uphold the decision or if the federal government...

With Canada’s population increasingly concentrated in a small number of large metropolitan areas, the question often arises: do the values, interests and concerns of citizens in cities differ from...

We are less than a week from the federal election, and the four main political parties have been pushing their plans to address climate change. Each has a vision...

Canada’s upper house has undergone a facelift since the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments was established in 2016. Whether these changes will mean genuine reform and have a...

Canadians will head to the polls October 21, 2019, to decide who will represent them in the 43rd Parliament. Our contributing writers share their insights on a range of...

What policy issues are shaping the federal election campaign, and how are the parties approaching them? Hear from Jennifer Robson (Carleton University), Tasha Kheiriddin (Ellipsum Communications), Mike De Souza...

In politics as in angling, the big ones are often deep in the weeds. The political ones include pressures, policies and decision-making practices of many kinds that operate beneath...

Quand il est question d’innovation, les municipalités sont rarement considérées comme des chefs de file. D’autant que pour plusieurs observateurs, l’innovation est d’emblée l’apanage des entreprises du secteur privé...

During an election campaign, there is no shortage of polls: voters now have access to new numbers about the ups and downs in party fortunes on a more or...

(This article has been translated into French.) Might a government owe financial compensation to the individuals it harms via use of the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of...

On Monday night, people across Canada tuned in to the first federal debate hosted by the new Leaders’ Debates Commission. If you were looking for measured discussions of policy...

Frederick Douglass was arguably the first person – I hesitate to say “politician” – to use photography for a political purpose. Douglass was an enslaved man who at about...

A majority of Canadian provinces are now seeking more autonomy from Ottawa. There is loud grumbling in the big Conservative family, now comfortably in power in many provinces from...

Parliament does not have the unilateral power to make changes to the Senate’s fundamental characteristics. That was made clear by two advisory opinions of the Supreme Court, one in...

With the two leading contenders locked in a virtual tie and “fighting to the death within the margin of error,” as one observer recently put it, a minority government...

Imagine a future where seniors are not hospitalized for chronic issues but instead live in the comfort of their own digitally equipped smart home. A home directly connected to...

In Germany in September, the coalition cabinet led by Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union announced a sweeping $74-billion climate policy package. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is working through...

C’est maintenant le lot des campagnes électorales au Canada : les électeurs assistent à une succession d’engagements électoraux ciblés qui permettent aux partis de mettre la table pour les débats...

Election 2019 has provided an illustration of what the American journo-wonk Ezra Klein once called the “revenge of the sources.” Whereas experts, including academics, were once dependent on journalists...

When Canadians head to the polls on October 21, they should ask themselves how Canada’s political parties will tackle inequality. Over the past two decades, the richest Canadians have...

In the lead up to the 2019 federal election, poll after poll has pointed to affordability as a top concern among Canadians. As such, many policy ideas have been...

Images of Justin Trudeau captured in brownface in 2001 stream across international media.  The outrage takes many forms. For some, his position as leader of our multicultural nation not...

Somewhat unexpectedly, the issues of discrimination and racism have moved to the forefront in the federal election. At the start of the campaign, answering a journalist’s question about Quebec’s...

With the publication of photos and video showing Justin Trudeau in blackface, his personal racism was there for the world to see – something that rightly causes many Canadians...

A major focus of this 2019 election for the various campaigns will be courting voters from immigrant and visible minority communities, who are a majority of the population in...

King’s Cross train station in London is a busy public space in the comfortable heart of a busy city. Within a short walk of the station, you’ll find a...

We’ve all heard that there are 12 years left to act to avoid a climate catastrophe. What does this mean for Canada? Are any of the federal parties prepared...