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Why I am Not a Porter Supporter
When a firm goes to the government for a bailout, it is universally recognized that it must open its books to public scrutiny. But when Porter Airlines goes to the City of Toronto for authorization to fly jets from Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (BBTCA) and to pay for infrastructure, because Porter is privately held,…
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How to Fix U of T’s Online Course Evaluation System
This post is the first I have ever done about an administrative matter at this university, but this merits it. I have always been passionate about teaching. I have long experimented with ways to engage my students, moving from the “sage on the stage” to the “guide on the side” approach. As a department chair,…
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A Guide for Innovative Public Servants
The IBM Center for the Business of Government has just published my report The Persistence of Innovation in Government: A Guide for Innovative Public Servants. In it, I discuss both shifts and continuities in public sector innovation over the last two decades, using applications to the Harvard Kennedy School’s innovation awards as well as sources…
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Who Will Rally the Anti-Ford Nation?
Watching the first Toronto mayoral debate, I was impressed by the ability of Mayor Ford to stay on message, and I was disappointed by the inability of the other candidates, especially during the discussion of leadership, to hold him accountable for his behavior. What we heard were euphemistic criticisms of the “circus at City Hall”…
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Big Data for Budget Discussions
I notice it has been over a month since my last post. I’ve been very busy with my teaching – in particular the budget simulation I’ll discuss in this post – and with my research. I’ve been reviewing the copy-editing and page proofs for my next book (The Persistence of Innovation in Government) and its…
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A Clash of Grumpy Old Men or a Multi-faceted Teachable Moment?
Occasionally an event occurs that has so many aspects that it can be used to represent most of the issues raised in a university course. The conflict that surfaced between Veterans Affairs Minister Fantino and Canadian war veterans brings out many of the issues that I discuss in the public management course I am teaching…
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Memo to David Soknacki: Get Personal With Rob Ford. Today.
Some years ago, I saw David Soknacki in action, when he was a member of Scarborough City Council before the 1999 amalgamation. He impressed me as both forthright and intelligent. After some years on Toronto City Council, including a stint as chair of the budget committee, and a career in small business, he is now…
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First, Look in the Mirror Madame Secretary
I’ve been following the stories about healthcare.gov. The managerial aspect of the discussion has focused on what was wrong with the site when it went live on Oct. 1 and what caused these problems. The political aspect has dwelt on the question of oversight, who at the political level should have been monitoring the development…
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Assessing Rob Ford’s Political Leadership (This is Not a Joke)
Though Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has become the butt of jokes the world over, we who live in Toronto have had to suffer through his mayoralty. It seems reasonable, therefore, to evaluate his political leadership to understand both why he was elected and why his administration has collapsed under its (his?) own weight. In my…
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Two Perspectives on Alice Munro
My curiosity stimulated by Alice Munro’s receiving this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature and having previously read only one of her short stories, I bought her most recent collection “Dear Life.” My intellectual and emotional reactions were quite at odds. Intellectually, I found the stories well-constructed, subtle, and occasionally surprising in their resolutions. Emotionally, I…
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I Confronted Rob Ford. Will City Council?
In my way, I confronted Rob Ford. On a mid-March Sunday, my nine year-old son and I were leaving the ROM while the Mayor was grand marshal for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. From the sidewalk I shouted “crook,” “idiot,” and “fat pig.” My son was astounded at his dad’s unruliness. The few other bystanders…
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Captain Phillips: In a Different Course
I saw the movie Captain Phillips a few days ago, curious about whether it would be appropriate for my narrative and management course. It’s a great movie, telling a true story of survival with drama and suspense. The movie portrays each of three interacting organizations – the crew of the container ship Maersk Alabama, the…
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Susan Delacourt’s Shopping for Votes
Over the last few nights, I devoured Susan Delacourt’s well-written and thoughtful history of political marketing in Canadian federal politics. The title makes the important point that marketing ideas have now moved into the political realm through election campaigning and the communications function of government. Delacourt traces the history of political marketing back to the…
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Our Man in Tehran: A Revised Story
The original story of the rescue of six US diplomats from Tehran in 1980, recounted in the media at the time and a year later in Jean Pelletier and Claude Adams’s book The Canadian Caper, heroicized the Canadian embassy officials, most notably Ambassador Ken Taylor, who sheltered the diplomats and helped them escape. These accounts…
- 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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