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Should we Trust the Trustees?
In the week after the Ford Government’s surprise announcement of the closing of the Ontario Science Centre building, there has been an even more surprising amount of blowback. In addition to members of the local community and policy wonks like me, the architectural and IT communities and Toronto City Council have voiced strident opposition. I…
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Gov Nixes NYC Road Tolls: Why it Matters
(This blog was posted earlier this month but somehow disappeared from my website, so I am reposting it.) New York City was to start collecting tolls on June 30 for a road pricing system that would charge cars $15 (and trucks more) to enter downtown Manhattan. It was intended to reduce congestion and collect $…
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Without the Science Centre, What About the Building?
The eternal triangle of architecture – program, budget, and aesthetics – is an essential guide for thinking about the fate of Raymond Moriyama’s iconic building now that the Ford Government has decided to vacate it. The brutalist aesthetic of the structure remains, but it no longer has a program, and it will be expensive, though…
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Convocation (Almost) Without Kafiyas
I just attended convocation for my home department, University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) Management. I was wondering how the University of Toronto’s ongoing encampment and the elevation of the Palestinians to a cause celebre in some parts of academe would affect our convocation. Rather than simply using the front entrance to Convocation Hall on King’s…
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The Encampment’s Faculty Cheerleaders
On April 26 this year, University of Toronto Provost Trevor Young issued a memo to senior administrators strongly discouraging [my italics] institutional, divisional, and departmental statements about local or global events. The memo approvingly quoted the University of Chicago’s iconic Kalven Report and concluded that “[the university’s] role is not to act as an arbiter…
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UTFA’s Coming Cash Crunch
The University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) has become a high-profile participant in the conflict about the Occupy for Palestine (OfP) encampment. Two days after the administration warned students against forming an encampment, UTFA went on record supporting a then-hypothetical encampment. When the encampment became a reality a few days later, some UTFA leaders began…
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Define Your Terms, by Beth Herst
Today’s post is about the encampment at The University of Toronto. It is by my spouse Beth Herst, who is also my co-author in studies of narrative and politics, in particular the book we are writing on films and series about politics in the US, England, and Canada. This post represents her views, though it…
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Meric’s Mixed Messages
I’m watching the situation regarding the encampment play out as I write. What struck me about this morning’s statement by President Meric Gertler is that it contains a totally mixed message. On the one hand, the university is seeking an urgent injunction from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to end the encampment. On the…
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Visiting the Encampment
The day before yesterday I completed the draft of a chapter of my book slightly ahead of schedule, so I decided to reward myself by visiting the Occupy for Palestine (OfP) encampment at the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus. The encampment occupies almost all of the grassy King’s College Circle. It is surrounded by…
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End the Encampments Now
I have just signed a letter by an international group, Academics Against University Occupations, that argues that encampments are inconsistent with reasoned dialogue that is essential to academic discourse and disruptive of academic life and should be disbanded voluntarily or cleared. The letter was posted yesterday and has been signed by some 200 people. Here…
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Learning from the Ontario By-Elections
The Ford Government held two by-elections last week. The Conservatives retained the seats of Milton (a swing riding in the 905-region) and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex (a safe rural riding). I took a close look at the results to see if there were any indications of shifts in popularity between the government and the opposition parties, or among…
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Is Bonnie Crombie a Fighter?
In the broadcast of last Saturday’s Maple Leafs game, the national anthems were preceded by an Ontario PC Party attack ad (in Ontario but not nationally). The ad criticizes Bonnie Crombie for her previous support of the federal carbon tax and observes that she had raised taxes several times while mayor of Mississauga. It ends…
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The People’s Solar Eclipse
The tracks of solar eclipses across our planet are essentially random and, because human populations occupy a small proportion of the earth’s surface, one usually must travel far to see them. Therefore, it is mainly the cognoscenti who go eclipse chasing. I did this twice in small professionally organized groups. I saw my first in…
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Fiscally Responsible Environmentalist
Last week I was at a presentation about Ontario politics sponsored by Toronto’s Empire Club. In the meet-and-greet, someone asked me to describe myself politically. Thinking about the letter by Canadian economists supporting the carbon tax that had been released that day, the self-description that popped into my head was “fiscally responsible environmentalist.” Their response…
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2024 Ontario Budget: Populism and Favoritism
I have two propositions to explain the Ford Government’s new budget. First, as an avowedly populist government it attempts to follow public opinion in its broad strokes. Second, in the details it rewards its electoral base of primarily rural and suburban voters. Let me explain. The budget consultation survey I discussed in a recent post…
- 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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