-
Doug Ford’s War on the Universities
If you look at the Ford Government’s policies towards Ontario universities and connect the dots, the inescapable conclusion is that it has declared war. It wants to reshape the universities to conform to a radical vision, and it is trying to use funding cuts, incentives, and regulations to achieve it. That vision is a university…
-
For the People: Booze, Gambling, and Fast Driving
The Ford Government’s standard justification for its actions is that they are “for the people.” The government’s policies are, apparently, what the people want, an expression of the will of the people. Three such new initiatives are making alcoholic beverages more widely available, increasing opportunities for gambling, and increasing the speed limit on major (400-series…
-
Emmanuel Macron, Be True to Your School
Decades ago, the Beach Boys urged their audiences to “be true to your school.” Emmanuel Macron is committing the ultimate act of disloyalty to his school: he’s trying to shut it down! Now I hope I’ve caught your attention for what may seem like public administration inside baseball. President Macron last week announced his intention…
-
Sounding an Alarm
The Ford Government is showing in the Budget Implementation Act (Bill 100) how it intends to deal with post-secondary institution staff who receive both a salary and a pension. Its proposed legislation for “reduction, limitation, and alteration of compensation” is on pages 132 and 133 of the pdf (or 116 and 117 of the bill).…
-
From Scapegoating to Mandatory Retirement?
I find it deeply ironic that the Ford Government, which intended to appoint a 72 year old to a three year term as Commissioner of the OPP, is expressing concern about the increasing average retirement age of university faculty. This concern appears in the 2019 Ontario budget under the rubric of “ensuring a dynamic university…
-
Jody Wilson-Raybould: The Seventh Federal Party Leader
Observing the dramatic trajectory of Jody Wilson-Raybould’s (JWR’s) ministerial career leads me to consider a counter-factual. How would it have played out in a proportional representation legislature, like Israel’s Knesset or Denmark’s Borgen? Under proportional representation, Canada would likely have an Indigenous People’s Party (IPP). With 1.6 million Canadians of indigenous background, or 5 percent…
-
Choosing the Commish: One Bad Process Begets Another
In my previous post, I expected that, following Ron Taverner’s stepping down, the Ford Government would establish a fair and impartial selection process in which neither Premier Ford nor Deputy Minister of Community Safety Mario di Tommaso were involved. I certainly got that one wrong! According to iPolitics on March 11, Deputy Minister di Tommaso…
-
Ron Taverner Did the Smart Thing
Ron Taverner’s decision to withdraw his nomination at Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police is a wise one. Actually, we don’t know whether or not it was his decision, as he might have been pushed by the Premier’s Office. Maybe the Integrity Commissioner informally let the Government know that his findings would not be to…
-
Ford’s Anti-intellectual Populism
In my public management class, I discuss how government’s priorities originate. In some rare instances, prime ministers chose priorities that matter to them personally. One example is Jean Chretien’s higher education agenda, described in Eddie Goldenberg’s 2007 book The Way it Works Inside Ottawa. Chretien presented himself as a populist, “un petit gars de Shawinagan.”…
-
Ontario’s Cabinet of Nobodies
I realize I haven’t been very active on my blog for the last month. I have been occupied working on the second draft of my book Public Representations and also starting the semester teaching two courses. The theme of today’s post arises from my public management course. The Government of Canada website provides the titles…
-
Great Review of Negotiating Business Narratives
A very complimentary review of my new book (co-authored with Beth Herst) Negotiating Business Narratives has just been published online. The reviewer is Michael Jones, one of the leading scholars in the related field of narrative policy analysis, and the review is in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, which is the top-rated…
-
Police Independence Under Attack
Today’s Globe and Mail and Toronto Star contain extremely troubling revelations of the Ford Government’s widespread attack on police independence. OPP Deputy Commissioner (and interim Commissioner) Brad Blair has written a nine-page letter to the Ontario Ombudsman and hired Julian Falconer, a high profile lawyer and expert on government accountability, to represent him. According to…
-
Ron Taverner: Set Up to Fail?
There has been widespread criticism of the appointment of Doug Ford’s crony Ron Taverner as Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police. Taverner’s current position is superintendent of 3 units in Toronto. In the hierarchy of Canadian policing, there are 6 ranks: inspector, staff inspector, superintendent, staff superintendent, deputy commissioner (or deputy chief), and commissioner (or…
-
Questioning Doug Ford’s Character
Readers may notice I’ve been on radio silence for over a month. I was completing a first draft of a chapter on American political narratives for my latest book. My work time, apart from teaching, was absorbed in analyzing the exploits of characters in recent dystopian fictional series about politics: House of Card’s Frank and…
-
Doug Ford’s Pursuit of Ignorance
In previous posts (“Doug Ford will devastate Ontario universities,” last May 2, and “Ford: attack and defund universities),” last May 18) I warned that a government headed by a college dropout would swing a wrecking ball at Ontario’s universities. It’s now begun – but in a way that is both surprising and counter-productive in terms…