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Bouncing the Treasury: Classic or Edgy?
In my public management course this term, I showed an episode from Yes Prime Minister and an episode from the BBC’s 2005 political satire The Thick of It, both on the topic of bouncing (i.e. outsmarting) the Treasury. The Yes Prime Minister episode “The Smokescreen” involved Prime Minister Hacker’s stratagem to overcome the Treasury’s opposition…
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Where Stimulus Packages Come From
Now that both Canada and the US have adopted economic stimulus packages – the one in the broader context of a budget, the other part of a package involving both legislation and executive orders – I want to step back a moment and look at how these packages came about and think about their implications.…
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Highway 407 East: Will they still come?
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has announced its intention to build extend Highway 407 East to its natural terminus in Clarington, where it would like with Highway 35/115. This would achieve the government’s goal of a complete multi-lane divided highway route ringing Toronto. Highway 407 is now a privately operated toll-road, with 90 years left…
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In A Quandary about Web 2.0
Last month we witnessed a clear demonstration of the power of web 2.0 organizing. On November 16, 2008, the Ontario Government introduced a number of restrictions on young drivers, one of which would have prohibited drivers in the first year of their licence from transporting more than one unrelated teenaged passenger. Within a few days…
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Talk Politics: Honouring Bruce Doern
Last weekend, I participated in an extraordinary academic gathering in Ottawa, a conference to honour Carleton University public administration professor Bruce Doern on his retirement. In his prolific writings, he has developed what could be referred to in brief as the 5i theory of public policy, namely interplay among institutions, interests, ideas, and individuals. Doern…
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The Election Online: An Overnight Analysis
No, online politics weren’t as important in the Canadian election as they were in the Obama campaign. But US presidential campaigns, which run for almost two years, necessitate a focus on online campaigning, and Obama developed a particularly powerful model that combined a charismatic stage presence with online organizing – which I will say more…
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The Campaign Promise that Must be Broken
Breaking a campaign promise at the start of a mandate can lead to heavy and long-lived criticism. Just ask Dalton McGuinty, who, facing a large and unexpected deficit, broke his promise not to raise taxes when he took office in 2003. Whoever becomes prime minister after the October 14 election will immediately be confronted with…
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Harvard Beats Yale 29-29: I Was There
The 1968 Harvard-Yale game was a curious classic. Both teams were undefeated, and as it was the last game of the season, the Ivy League championship was at stake. Yale, led by quarterback Brian Dowling and halfback Calvin Hill, both of whom would go on to NFL careers, was heavily favoured. In the first half,…
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The President: Richard Neustadt’s Wisdom
In this presidential election year, I revisited the PBS series on the American presidency originally broadcast in 2000. One reason was personal. The commentator on the series was one of my mentors, Harvard professor and dean of scholars of the American presidency of a previous generation, Richard Neustadt. Neustadt passed away in 2003. Watching the…
- 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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