Canadian universities routinely use demographic criteria to restrict who is eligible for a faculty position. How do these policies shape public attitudes towards the university sector?
In September of 2023, Michael Miltenberger, former deputy premier of the Northwest Territories, spoke at a Massey College-Forum for Leadership on Water conference called The Future of Freshwater. Miltenberger described how just weeks earlier, wildfire had forced the evacuation of his own community of Fort Smith (yes, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s hometown). As he prepared to escape the Wood Buffalo...
Canadians rarely stop to think that everything they own, from their homes and savings to their farms, vehicles, and small businesses, exist only so long as government allows it. A single regulation, order, or policy change can erase a lifetime of work, uproot families, and disrupt lives. Indeed, across Canada, property owners have watched livelihoods disappear overnight through land-use restrictions...
When Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, it launched a national experiment in health, safety, and economic policy. Seven years later, the results are clear enough to measure and complex enough to debate. Cannabis has moved from the margins of public life and to the mainstream of the Canadian economy. Yet much of the federal framework that governs it remains frozen...
The COP30 Global Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil marked the 10th anniversary of the landmark Paris Accord, where countries agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. The world is now anticipated to heat up by 2.6 C above preindustrial levels by the end of the century.
Expectations were high as trade ministers of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific (CPTPP) gathered in Melbourne, Australia, in late November 2025, during what has been an unprecedented year for global trade. U.S. President Trump’s tariff spree has shaken the foundations of the multilateral trade order. China’s newly tightened export controls on critical minerals have threatened to grind global...
Canadians feel it – higher taxes, longer wait times, and public services that don’t serve us well. Yet behind these frustrations lies a deeper problem: Canada’s government sector has grown in size while becoming less and less productive. Over the past two decades, government spending has increased, but the return on our tax dollars has declined. From 2007 to 2023...
Violent crime in Canada’s cities has not only risen – it has become a growing threat affecting urban communities across the country. While headlines often focus on year-to-year fluctuations in crime, the Urban Violent Crime Report, Volume 2 reveals a deeper and more troubling reality: over the past decade, violent crime has increased significantly across Canadian cities, spreading beyond Toronto...
Dubbed a “generational investment” that will help define the next century, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal Budget, tabled on November 4, includes broadly anticipated themes. The 400+ page document proposes trimming day-to-day operational government spending, increasing investments in capital projects and the military, and introducing measures to make Canadian businesses more competitive. The goals are clear: “More than 75%...
The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada held its inaugural Indo-Pacific Forum in Ottawa on October 1- 2, 2025, nearly three years after the launch of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). The Forum brought together stakeholders from the Government of Canada, academics, think-tank experts, private-sector leaders, and policy researchers from across the Indo-Pacific to assess progress and offer actionable advice on how...
The 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 26-28, showcased both the bloc’s diplomatic strengths and its strategic vulnerabilities. U.S. President Donald Trump’s attendance dominated the proceedings, and featured the signing of legally binding trade agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia, framework arrangements with Thailand and Vietnam, and memoranda of understanding...
We commonly measure how much governments spend and how many people they employ but we rarely weigh the benefits taxpayers receive in return for their hard-earned dollars. This report introduces a basic framework and lays the groundwork for new indexes that will track the size and performance of governments in Canada over time, focusing on federal and provincial activities.
As Prime Minister Mark Carney travels to Asia on a quest to build trade ties with more countries in the wake of an ongoing tariff war with the United States, new data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, finds favourable views from Canadians towards most Asian countries but little knowledge, especially...
On October 9, Beijing unveiled sweeping new export controls on rare earths and related technologies, marking a major escalation in its use of critical minerals as a geopolitical tool. The move tightens China’s grip on the supply chains that underpin global defence and advanced manufacturing. In response, the U.S. and its allies — including Canada — are accelerating efforts to...
In Canadian resource development, the concept of “consent” has become a litmus test for ideological and philosophical divides. While such debates may be intellectually stimulating, they pose a serious obstacle to project development. Proponents seek clear expectations and standards when committing capital and building things. The Canadian legal and political systems have plodded along inelegantly on the question of Indigenous...
Last Thanksgiving, Ottawa was expelling Indian diplomats; this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is in New Delhi. The contrast captures how far relations have come – and how fragile the progress remains. Ms. Anand’s visit, Canada’s first ministerial-level trip to India in two years, also signals that the diplomatic reset launched by prime ministers Mark Carney and Narendra Modi...
Budget 2025 will be tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne on November 4th. It is an opportunity for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to set a new policy direction for Canada. Uncertainty is high. Stakes are high. Will the government meet the moment – the hinge moment, as Carney would say? Will Budget 2025 be fiscally responsible? James...
Canada risks falling dangerously behind in the global race to harness the productivity-enhancing power of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Despite its world-class universities, highly educated population, and a history of AI research excellence (particularly emanating from the Greater Toronto Area), Canada’s workplace adoption of GenAI is currently less than half that of the United States.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is making Canada's the first ministerial-level trip to India in two years in mid-October 2025 as the Canada-India relationship continues to thaw after a lengthy freeze during the end of previous Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s time in office. New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada...
The signing of the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) last week is a significant boost to Canada’s economicdiversification agenda.
Alexander Dalziel examines how Russian media presents and frames the North American Arctic as a factor in Russian defence and security to the Russian public.
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) has passed the crucial three-year mark. On balance, the record thus far has been positive: Canada is more present, more visible, and more plugged into regional networks than at any time in recent memory. New offices have opened, ministerial and prime-ministerial travel has become routine, Team Canada trade missions are drawing large delegations, and the Canadian...
Canada–China trade’s center of gravity shifted decisively westward in 2024, with Alberta emerging as a leading export hub on the strength of energy and commodity shipments. Whether this shift endures into 2025 remains uncertain amid tariff turbulence. To monitor these dynamics more closely, The China Institute will launch quarterly Canada–China trade reports beginning in Q3 2025, using updated methods to...
Perhaps the strongest indication that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s UNGA meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang last week signalled a new era in bilateral relations was the Xinhua coverage. “China and Canada have been promoting the improvement and development of their bilateral relations in a practical and constructive manner, which has been widely welcomed by all sectors in both countries,”...
Canada’s $52-billion effort to build a domestic electric vehicle (EV) industry has so far failed to deliver on its promises. Designed as a bold plan to secure a full EV supply chain, from mining and processing to batteries and assembly, the strategy has stumbled under the weight of subsidy-driven, top-down industrial policy. The federal, Ontario, and Quebec governments set out...
As Canadians grapple with the possibility of an impending economic downturn, the public debate has understandably focused on U.S. tariffs and their devastating impact on the manufacturing sector. Steel, aluminum, copper, automobiles – protecting these and other industries and their mostly male workers from financial distress and unemployment is fundamentally important. And yet, there are other aspects of an economic...
The 2025 federal budget will be tabled in Parliament on November 4, 2025. It will be close to a year since Canadians have had an updated fiscal plan. A lot has happened during that year, much of it carrying economic implications for Canada and the world. Relations with the United States, our closest ally, have deteriorated due largely to trade...
If Alberta hopes to achieve greater autonomy within Confederation, it will be won not through grievance or defiance but by lawful and responsible assertion of political will within Canada’s existing constitutional framework. By framing autonomy as an exercise of responsible government – a core doctrine of Canada’s constitutional tradition – the discourse will shift from political protest to institutional legitimacy...
