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Trump Says Cheese But We Won’t Smile
Like many Canadians, I was disgusted by the tactics Trump and his administration used in the Nafta 2.0 negotiations: bullying with tariffs justified on specious grounds of “national security,” dishonesty about the current trade balance between Canada and the US, and hypocrisy about American restrictions on trade, particularly in the dairy sector. The Trump Administration…
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Exploiting Ontario’s Snitch-Line®
My mentor Allan Blakeney often said that two questions should be asked about any proposed law, regulation, or policy. The first is “what is it intended to do?” The second is, “what else will it do?” The Ford Government set up its snitch-line to enable parents to complain about teachers who are straying from the…
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Why Not Negotiate in Ottawa?
It was becoming clear last Thursday night that Canada–US NAFTA negotiations would not “get to yes” by the Friday deadline imposed by the Liar-in-Chief. As it became evident that the deadline was phony and there would be another round of negotiations this week, I wondered if the two teams ever negotiated about where these negotiations…
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What are We – Chopped Liver?
This week’s rushed NAFTA negotiations are a sorry spectacle. The US and Mexico took six weeks to cut a complicated deal involving the full range of issues at stake while excluding Canada from the negotiations. Then the liar-in-chief announces it, gives Canada 100 hours to get on board, and threatens to impose immediate tariffs on…
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Moving Fast and Breaking Good Things
The Ford Government has done so many ill-advised things in its first few weeks in office that one hardly knows where to begin. As a social scientist, I think one of the worst things it has done is cancelling the basic income pilot. The pilot was a three-year experiment intended to determine the impacts of…
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Parks Canada’s Soft Power: Pacific Rim
Soft power refers to a nation’s appeal and attraction to the rest of the world due to its culture, broadly defined. In my view, Parks Canada is an essential component of Canadian soft power. I was recently at the Pacific Rim National Park Preserve, on the west coast of Vancouver Island between the fishing villages…
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Interview about Negotiating Business Narratives
I was recently interviewed by the University of Toronto Bulletin about my new book Negotiating Business Narratives. Here is a link to the interview. People associated with the University of Toronto can access it in its entirety as an e-book through the University of Toronto library website. Here is a link to its page on…
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Ford, You’re No Mike Harris
One of the great put-downs in the history of political debates was Lloyd Bentsen’s of Dan Quayle, “I knew Jack Kennedy. … Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” I never thought I would be applying similar logic to praise Mike Harris, but here’s why it fits. One of the Ford Government’s first moves was to fire…
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Political Messaging and a Carbon Tax
Premier-designate Ford has decided to take Ontario out of the cap-and-trade carbon pricing agreement with California and Quebec, without specifying a clear alternative. As discussed in an article (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-if-not-carbon-pricing-in-ontario-which-works-well-then-what-mr/) in The Globe and Mail by Beugin, Drummond, Hodgson, and Cappe on June 22, this destroys with the stroke of a pen almost $3 billion in…
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The Most Incredible Thing
This is an allegorical story written by Hans Christian Andersen. When I heard the economic historian Alexander Gerschenkron apply it to student protesters of the Sixties, I thought he was far-fetched and paranoid. Then I learned that Danes took it to heart during the Nazi occupation, and it made sense to me. A king, who…
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The New American Imperialism
I’ve been thinking about this post for quite a while, but have been focused on the Ontario election for the last few weeks. It’s definitely top of mind now. The idea of American imperialism is essential to explaining the Trump Administration’s seemingly bizarre parting shot at the G7 summit. Wikipedia defines American imperialism as “a…
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Ford: Open Deco’s Books Now!
In my post of April 8 (“Questioning Doug Ford’s Resume), I wrote that if Doug Ford wanted to prove his business acumen, he would release audited financial results for the family business (Deco Labels and Tags). Of course he hasn’t, but Renata Ford’s bombshell lawsuit has provided what she claims is evidence of his mismanagement.…
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Ontario Liberals: A Party Worth Saving
Duverger’s Law is one of those empirical generalizations in social science that doesn’t have the force of laws of physics. It states that plurality-rule elections (such as first past the post) structured within single-member districts tend to favor a two-party system. The US conforms to this law while Canada is an exception. Right now, Duverger’s…
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Proffy, Chippy, Bullshitty
Though party leaders’ debates are intended to inform voters about the party’s policy positions, what voters often take away is an overall impression of the candidates. In my view, Kathleen Wynne came across as “proffy,” Andrea Horwath as “chippy,” and Doug Ford as “bullshitty.” By “proffy,” I mean that Kathleen Wynne was knowledgeable, measured, thoughtful,…
- 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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