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Bolivar: An Admirable Docudrama
As part of my studying of Spanish, in addition to grammar exercises, I have been watching Spanish-language movies and television programs. This is what brought me to the 2019 Columbian docudrama Bolivar: una lucha admirable (Bolivar: an admirable fight), available on Netflix. I sampled several of Netflix’s Spanish offerings and realized that many of them…
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Ontario’s Vaccination Situation: A Rant
Today’s post is unexpected. I participate in a list-serv with my Harvard undergraduate classmates. After reading so many of their stories about getting vaccinated for Covid – 19, I posted with the news that my 97 year-old mother has finally been vaccinated, but my own vaccination is not imminent. And I ranted a bit about…
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Building UTSC Management: My Story
In a recent interview for the University of Toronto at Scarborough’s (UTSC) oral history project I discuss my two terms as Chair of the Department of Management (1991 to 2003). The interview has now been posted online. In 1991 UTSC was officially Scarborough College and its faculty perceived it as a mall liberal arts college.…
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A Tale of Two Marks
Last Thursday night I was listening to central banker Mark Carney’s Reith Lectures, originally given on the BBC and rebroadcast on the CBC, and hearing the news about Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) CEO Mark Machin’s vaccine tourism to the UAE. Machin’s trip didn’t end well. He was forced to resign the next day.…
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Bill Gates and his Writing Partners
I’ve just read Bill Gates’s How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. I’ll begin by making clear my enormous admiration for Gates. He could have used his enormous wealth in the idiotic or narcissistic ways some of his fellow billionaires have (buying sports team, building the biggest toys, dabbling in personal cryonics) but he has used…
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Porque y Como Aprendo Espanol
I have been studying Spanish for several years now and want to discuss the why – porque – and the how – como. Porque Espanol In recent years before the pandemic I visited Mexico, Peru, Spain, and Cuba, in every trip enjoying myself. The Spanish-speaking world is vast and I’m optimistic that I will be…
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Podcast on My Academic Career
Alex Rascanu, one of my best public management students, is a true public sector entrepreneur. Alex recently graduated with an M.P.A. from Dalhousie, after doing a B.B.A. at the University of Toronto Scarborough, which is where I had the honour to be his instructor. We’ve also kept in touch since then. He’s had a wide…
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‘O Canada’ Op-ed: Replying to Critics
Last weekend, I published an op-ed in The Globe and Mail entitled “’O Canada’ without the cross – why it’s time to revisit the lyrics of the national anthem.” It got many comments, a considerable number of them critical. In this post, I will reply to the major arguments raised by the critics. Quite a…
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Pushing Against the Glass Ceiling
Returning to the book chapter about Canadian political narratives, I realized that I hadn’t paid sufficient attention to National Film Board of Canada documentaries. A look through the online catalogue revealed over 100 documentaries in English that deal with politics or politicians. Breaking them down thematically, one group that stood out is women in politics.…
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My Own Hundred Acre Wood
Having long ago delighted my children with the wisdom and humour of A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh tales, I intended to visit the Royal Ontario Museum’s special exhibit about Winnie-the-Pooh. Through an over-abundance of Covidian caution I didn’t do it last summer; by fall the Museum closed and the exhibit was dismantled and returned to the Victoria…
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Highway 413: What Would Bill Davis Do?
The Ford Government is planning to build a fourth east-west highway in the Greater Toronto Area: the GTA West Corridor (GTAW). It would run parallel to, and north of, the existing highways 401 and 407, starting at Highway 400 to the east and linking to the 401/407 interchange in the west. (Copious details including route…
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Presentation on Innovation to Brazilians
Two months ago I gave a Zoom presentation on public sector innovation to Brazilian public servants organized by Brazil’s Escola Nacional de Administracao Publica. The presentation has now been posted on YouTube. Here is a time-line of the presentation: 0 – 9 minutes: introduction by my hosts 9 – 16 minutes: my introduction 16-18 minutes:…
- 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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