A paucity in punditry: political commentariat not matching the real-world stakes
CALGARY—Make politics more accessible. Again? Canadian political news is saturated by pundits, news media personalities, and political insiders that have their own language and shorthand for discussing politics that excludes the rest of us. Political news shows sound like a cliquey Skull and Bones order, only for those in the know to pat each other […]
If Biden wins, the clean-growth race will get a whole lot faster
Joe Biden’s climate plan is a departure from previous incremental or gradual approaches to climate policy in the U.S. It promises accelerated, large-scale action to reduce emissions, drive clean growth, and address pollution and climate impacts in vulnerable communities. If Biden wins the election, the primary risk for Canada is it would no longer be […]
Light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel remains rooted in science and clear communication
There has been some confusion with COVID-19 since March, but the second wave could bring even more perplexity. Making mistakes when faced with an unknown health problem may be understandable, but repeating them is just not acceptable. The Royal Society of Canada’s Oct. 30 policy briefing “Let’s Do Better: Public Representation of the Science of […]
What the Public Service Employee Survey breakdowns of visible minority and other groups tell us about diversity and inclusion
Following the 2019 Employment Equity Report provision of disaggregated representation for visible minorities, Indigenous people, and persons with disabilities, the 2019 Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) similarly lays out these breakdowns for the four employment equity categories along with LGBTQ2 persons, to assess whether or not the public service is inclusive to all groups. With the availability of disaggregated […]
Let’s not read too much into byelection results
Following last week’s byelections in Toronto Centre and York Centre, political pundits were quick to analyze how the results may impact the next federal general election. But while I can appreciate the temptation to read more into the outcomes, byelections have always been a different beast. For one, they’re incredibly unpredictable. The low voter turnout, […]
Who wants a green recovery most? Low-income earners, that’s who
The environment versus economy. It’s a tired tale in need of a serious rewrite. For years, fossil fuel lobbyists painted a picture of environmentalists as latte-sipping, electric car-driving, elitist bogeymen out of touch with the average Joe trying to make a living. That may still play well in the back rooms of the Petroleum Club, […]
It’s time to abandon the ‘detect and react’ approach to managing crises
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role that underlying socio-economic and political factors—often called social determinants—play in health outcomes. But while factors like poverty, education, and access to health care have been well understood for decades to have a serious, and combined, impact on the state of our health, the role that the health […]
Government suppressing dissent on nuclear energy
FREDERICTON—Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan recently announced a $20-million grant for an Ontario company to develop a prototype “small modular nuclear reactor” (SMR). The move aligns with NRCan’s SMR Action Plan scheduled to be published in November. During the announcement, O’Regan stated that SMRs “have the potential to play a […]
Azerbaijan won the war, but hardly anybody noticed
LONDON, U.K.—The month-old war between Azerbaijan and Armenia is so low on everybody else’s list of concerns that when Azerbaijan won the war last Monday morning, hardly anybody in the media elsewhere even noticed. Shortly after 8 a.m. local time on Monday, Azeri troops gained control of the road through the Lachin Pass. That is […]
Bloc Québécois tries to influence narrative 50 years after the fact
OTTAWA—October is a huge month in Quebec history. It has been a half century since the October Crisis, which saw a deputy premier murdered and a diplomat kidnapped by the Front de libération du Québec. It has been a quarter century since the referendum which took Quebec to the brink of a divorce from the […]
