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A PC Party Platform for Canada in the 80s
A major part of my involvement with Joe Clark’s campaign for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976, which I began to discuss in last week’s post, was the preparation of policy papers. Four advisers – me, Carole Uhlaner, Ian McKinnon, and Mark Krasnick (of blessed memory) – did the drafting, and Joe…
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Campaigning with Joe and Maureen
I was recently interviewed by Matthew Hayday, an historian at the University of Guelph who is writing a biography of Joe Clark, Canada’s sixteenth prime minister. My then wife (Carole Uhlaner, now an emerita professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine) and I were deeply involved doing policy work and speech…
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The Last Thing Toronto Needs Now
Recently I became aware of a proposal by Nieuport Aviation, owner and operator of the terminal at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (BBTCA), to spend $69 million upgrading it, including the construction of a US Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance hall. The Background I’ll unpack the wordy first sentence with some background. Nieuport Aviation opaquely…
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Messiah: From Concert Hall to the Street
On a holiday season that has quickly shifted from joy to wariness, I have turned to Handel’s Messiah for consolation. Last year I wrote about some of Handel’s techniques (vivid imagery, contrasts, repetition) and motifs (sheep and lambs, corruption, the king). This year I listened to two contrasting versions. The Original Original Instruments Messiah In…
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Attacking Doug Ford on Science
Two days ago (Wednesday December 15) the Ford Government announced it would step up vaccinations and testing. Socially distancing? Hardly at all, the only change being that events of more than 1000 attendees will be reduced to 50 percent capacity. Yesterday the independent Ontario Science Table argued that, with cases of the Omicron variant doubling…
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Attacking Doug Ford on Covid
The reaction to my previous message attacking Ontario Premier Doug Ford on climate change was positive as readers encouraged me to record and post it. Here is my message attacking his handling of the pandemic. I’m also planning messages on democratic values and respect for science. My plan is to record and post all of…
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Finding Our Carbon Footprint
Fighting climate change requires action in the areas of politics and personal practice. Last week’s post was about political action – mobilizing to defeat a premier who is a notorious climate change malefactor. This week’s is about personal practice. My undergraduate class’s climate change action group referred me to the University of California at Berkeley’s…
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Attacking Doug Ford on Climate Change
After a flurry of election ads in October, Ontario is now in the quiet period before the 2022 election campaign, when spending on election advertising by political parties is limited and by third parties is prohibited. This provides an opportunity for individual citizens using social media to get out their messages about the coming election.…
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Read our New Article
I’m delighted to announce that Beth Herst and I have just published a new article entitled Canadian Political Storytelling: Back to a Future?” It is available in its entirety in the online journal New Area Studies. The article is the basis for the chapter about Canadian political narratives on film or television from 1960 to…
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Tony Downs and Heroic Bureaucrats
Tony Downs, a truly original economist, recently passed away at 90. Downs is most renowned for his doctoral thesis, published in 1957 under the rubric An Economic Theory of Democracy, which has a stellar 37,000 citations on Google scholar. Downs pioneered the application of self-interested rational choice to the behavior of voters and politicians, and…
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Flora! Deserves The !
The just-released (auto)biography of the eminent Canadian politician Flora MacDonald – Flora!: A Woman in a Man’s World is an inspirational presentation of a life of great achievement and feminist trail-blazing. Not only that, but the book launch sponsored by the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre, now posted on YouTube, is the most enjoyable book…
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Previewing Party Narratives in Ontario
Ontario’s next election will be held on June 2, 2022. There are no limits on spending by parties on advertising before November 2 so we are now seeing the first round of the ad war. The parties are previewing their narratives for the campaign that will officially begin next May. Ontario has a competitive three-party…
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Winning a Teaching Award
I’m delighted to announce that I won the 2021 Pierre DeCelles Award for Excellence in Teaching, given by the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) and Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC). CAPPA is the national organization for post-secondary programs in public administration, so this is a national award. The late Pierre…
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Defending Taiwan
The recent incursions by the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) air force into Taiwan’s air space, coupled with Premier Xi’s rhetoric hinting at unification by military force, have the Taiwanese and their western supporters worried. A New York Times analysis argues that China’s military is now so strong that the US might be reluctant to…
- I am Professor of Public Management Emeritus at the University of Toronto, having retired in July 2020 after a 45-year academic career.
- My latest book, Public Representations: Screen Stories, Narrative, and the Public Sphere, co-authored with Beth Herst, was published in April 2026 by University of Toronto Press (open access).
- On this website I post blogs about politics, narrative, and my life experiences.
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