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Andre Rieu and the Power of Music
I didn’t expect to write this post. I was preparing posts about politics in Ontario and about the Toronto Police Service’s consultation about protests and demonstrations. But my posts about these topics will wait for a few days. I realize that most of my posts in the last year have been about fraught topics, in…
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Decant or Destroy the Ontario Science Centre?
Since the Ford Government announced the sudden closure of the Ontario Science Centre last June 21, it has taken the rhetorical line that it wanted to keep the beloved, iconic Moriyama building in operation until the new Science Centre at Ontario Place opens, but the recent discovery of decay in the roof forced it to…
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Strategic Voting in Ontario?
I recently saw the case made for strategic voting in Ontario in a column by TV Ontario’s Steve Paikin and in a media release by the citizen’s group Cooperate for Canada. Both are anticipating that Doug Ford will call an early election and suggest that the three progressive parties (Liberals, NDP, Greens) should agree among…
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The Only Answer is An Election
What is the question? The question is how can the Ford Government be persuaded to reverse course on closing the Ontario Science Centre and developing Ontario Place with the Therme Spa and a new, smaller, science centre. Even though Ford has often changed course over his six years as premier, this does not appear to…
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Retirement Four Years On
I’ve now been retired for four years, equal to the length of a political mandate in many countries. My inclination to stocktaking was reinforced by a recent article in the New York Times by Ron Lieber, who writes about personal finance. Lieber, still in his early fifties, develops his own mission statement for retirement, which…
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Abandoning Heritage Architecture
A redeveloped Ontario Place, housing the Therme Spa and the Ontario Science Centre, has become Doug Ford’s legacy project for his hometown. Those who were wondering if he would reconsider abandoning the Moriyama building in the face of loud protests from the architectural and technology communities received their answer this week. That answer consisted of…
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Better a Prime Minister than a President
President Biden’s disastrous debate performance has sparked agonized discussions among Democratic Party insiders and the American public at large about whether he should contest the election. Beyond that, it should raise questions about the institutional design of the presidency. How is it that a president whose mental acuity is failing can stay in office and…
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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…
- 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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