-
Doug Ford: All Hat, No Cattle
It’s no secret that Doug Ford has been planning to call an early election for some months. That would explain, among other things, the $200 per person handout to Ontario taxpayers due to arrive this month. But he has decided to use President Trump’s tariff threat to justify the election. In effect, he is trying…
-
Greed is Back
Listening to Donald Trump’s inaugural address as a Canadian, indeed as one of the more than 95 percent of humanity who are not U.S. citizens, I was reminded of the iconic “Greed is good” speech in the movie Wall Street. To quote from its peroration “Greed works, greed is right. … and greed, mark my…
-
Ontario’s Kafkaesque Freedom of Information Regime
This post is coauthored with Elsa Lam, Editor of Canadian Architect, so we refer to ourselves jointly in the plural and individually in the third person. Sir Humphrey Appleby, the fictional senior public servant in the iconic satire Yes Minister knew that one of the best ways to hide embarrassing information was to bury it…
-
Auschwitz, Third Time
The third time I encountered Auschwitz was at the exhibition Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away that opened at the Royal Ontario Museum on January 10 and that will be there until September 1. It was developed by the Spanish exhibition producers Musealia, using a variety of sources, most notably the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.…
-
Speaking to Americans
When Justin Trudeau resigned, I was invited to contribute a post on a college classmate’s blog, explaining why and what would be the implications for the US. The classmate, Peter Sage, had a distinguished career in public service and investment advising, now operates a family farm and winery, and still has time to write a…
-
Churchill at War: A Docudramentary
One of my holiday entertainments was the new Netflix docudramentary four-part series Churchill At War. What is a docudramentary, you ask? It is a mixture of documentary and docudrama. As a documentary it employs archival footage and talking heads with varying degrees of expertise about Churchill and World War II, its chronological focus. It is…
-
Why Government Budgeting Has Gotten So Hard
The part of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s resignation letter that most resonated with me was her declaration about the importance of “keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks we can ill afford, and which make Canadians doubt…
-
Ontario, Canada: Your Junior Partner?
A week ago, the Government of Ontario began an ad campaign in the US. It was planned in anticipation of a new administration and is not an explicit response to President-elect Trump’s (in)famous tariff threat. As I mentioned in my previous post, a government that spent $105 million on feel-good ads about itself for Ontarians…
-
Ford to Auditor-General: Drop Dead
In 1975, the City of New York was on the verge of bankruptcy, but President Gerald Ford refused to consider a bailout. The New York Daily News summarized the situation with a famous headline: Ford to City: Drop Dead. Yesterday, the Ontario Auditor-General released a report that, among other things, was scathing in its criticism…
-
How to Bias a Budget Survey
I just completed the Ford Government’s latest online budget consultation survey. I discovered it when I was looking at the government’s fall economic statement, which includes the $200 demogrant I discussed in my blog post two weeks ago. My conclusion after completing the survey is that the government has slanted it to enhance support for…
-
Death by a Thousand “Efficiencies”
Conservative populist parties have a real hate on for universities, for two reasons. The one that has received the most attention is that university faculty tend to be liberal and support liberal causes such as diversity, equity, and inclusion and what disparagingly is called wokeness. The second, which I think is more fundamental, is that…
-
The Apprentice: Moving the Needle?
In an interview in the print version of The New York Times last Sunday, Jeremy Strong, who plays Donald Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn remarks on the timing of The Apprentice’s recent release in the US – “incredibly fortuitous that it can come out at a moment where it has the potential to illuminate something about…
-
Great Design is the Best Response
Eighteen months ago, the owners of the property that borders our backyard to the west received city approval to build a much bigger house than is the norm in our neighbourhood, aka a monster home. (The links are to previous posts about the biased committee of adjustment process and plans for the house.) The house…
-
Disputing Doug Ford’s Facts about the Therme Spa
After over a year of stonewalling, the Ford Government has finally released the full 297-page lease to Therme Canada for the spa at Ontario Place, accompanied by a four page “fact sheet“ (scare quotes mine). The reason for this reversal is that the Auditor General is doing an audit of the Therme lease, so 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.
Proudly powered by WordPress