Policy Options

I regret that all too often new ideas are too rapidly rejected outright. There are forces in Canada and Quebec that have a deep-seated aversion to progress and that...

Small ideas seldom deliver big election victories. The  British election is the latest proof. In an unusual unanimity of teeth grinding, partisans, the press and aca- demic pundits denounced...

Life can only be understood backwards, Soren Kierkegard, the Danish philosopher reminded us. Unfortunately, it has to be lived forwards. Last year, for example, I was constantly asked whether the...

The week before the 1995 referendum on Quebec sov- ereignty, two very different political rallies were held. On Tuesday night, a large crowd of No sup- porters gathered at...

What do we know now that we wouldn’t have known if the Gomery Commission hadn’t been appointed? How much have we learned from Gomery that we haven’t already learned...

If there is one lesson we have learned from the governance scandals of the last few years, it is that integrity has no price, in either public- or private-sector...

Without adequate enforcement, political finance regulations ”” whether they involve limits, bans or simply disclosure require- ments ”” have little meaning and are unlikely to be respected. Because a...

Nearly twice as many Canadians believe Paul Martin should take responsibility for ”œactivities uncovered by the Gomery Commission” rather than Jean Chrétien, who was prime minister during the entire...

It is almost 15 years since the break-up of the Soviet Union, and Canadians still don’t know much about our northern neighbour, Russia, and its former satellite states. Unlike...

An important pattern of public finance, which first began to take hold 30 years ago, has since become deeply entrenched. It bids fair to continue to shape ”” I...

No government adviser can escape the worry that his recommendations will wind up gathering dust rather than guiding policy. Former Ontario premier Bob Rae, who presented his review of...

In the fall of 1934, a twenty-five- year-old Canadian economist freshly arrived at Harvard stood at a crossroads. How had he gotten there? What forces had propelled him, and...

First I read the book. Then I read the reviews. The early verdict was unanimous. It’s a good read if perhaps too long and its judgments a tad too...

Le 11 septembre 2001, pré€s de 3 000 personnes sont décédées tragiquement dans l’attaque du World Trade Centre. La mé‚me journée, comme aÌ€ chaque jour, plus de 20 000...