Futureproofing Canada

On Monday night, people across Canada tuned in to the first federal debate hosted by the new Leaders’ Debates Commission. If you were looking for measured discussions of policy alternatives, you were out of luck. Instead, viewers got a taste of the parties’ brand management, followed by the usual media narratives: who’s up in the polls, who scored a hit on whom, who “won.” While the messaging may be familiar, there’s no doubt the media landscape itself has changed. Parties and voters are turning more and more to social media. Individuals now have a forum to actively engage with what they’re reading and to hear directly from experts or MPs. But they can also be subject to mis- and disinformation in ways we’re still trying to account for. Today on the podcast, we’re sharing the conversation from the second event in Policy Options’ election 2019 breakfast series, in which Shree Paradkar, Taylor Owen, Paul Adams and moderator Jennifer Ditchburn discuss media coverage and the campaign online. This event series is held in partnership with the Max Bell School of Public Policy, sponsored by the CBC, and broadcast by CPAC. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

The 2019 election campaign is under way. The parties have made major policy announcements. But so far, much of the commentary has focused on political bombshells. When we don’t talk policy as much as we should, that’s a shame. First, because the announcements leaders make are good markers of their party’s election strategy. But more than that, because whoever forms government is going to be making good on a number of these election promises. And a healthy policy debate is crucial for citizens looking to make informed political choices. That’s why, over the next several weeks, we’ll be highlighting the policy issues on the campaign trail by covering the three panel discussions in Policy Options’ new Election 2019 Breakfast Series. The events are being held in Ottawa in partnership with the Max Bell School of Public Policy and sponsored by the CBC. This panel explores emerging policy themes. It features Mike De Souza, Tasha Kheiriddin, and Jennifer Robson, and is moderated by Jennifer Ditchburn. For more information, go to: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/po-events/election-2019-breakfast-series/ Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

When the Senate expenses scandal hit in 2012, it left the parties scrambling to reform the deeply unpopular institution. Then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper had taken small steps over the past several years, but was hitting major constitutional roadblocks. Justin Trudeau took a different approach: in 2014, he removed the Liberal senators from caucus and asked them to sit as independents. Then in 2016, his government introduced a nonpartisan appointment process. These attempts to decrease the Senate’s partisanship and increase its legitimacy have had mixed results. On one hand, the Senate is operating less on party lines, with senators from all groups more active in introducing legislative amendments; on the other, the process by which legislation moves through the senate has become much more complex. Walking us through the effect these changes are having on Canada’s upper chamber is an all-star panel of guests: Yonah Martin, the deputy leader of the opposition in the Senate; Ratna Omidvar, one of the first new senators with the Independent Senators Group; Emmett Macfarlane, associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo and author of the IRPP study, "The Renewed Canadian Senate: Organizational Challenges and Relations with the Government;" and Leslie Seidle, director of the IRPP research program Canada’s Changing Federal Community. For more information on the Senate renewal, check out the IRPP’s studies: Emmett Macfarlane, "The Renewed Canadian Senate: Organizational Challenges and Relations with the Government": https://irpp.org/research-studies/renewed-canadian-senate-organizational-challenges-relations-government/ Paul G. Thomas, "Moving Toward a New and Improved Senate": https://irpp.org/research-studies/moving-toward-new-improved-senate/ And our round-table report, "Renewal of the Canadian Senate: Where to from Here?": https://irpp.org/research-studies/renewal-of-the-canadian-senate-where-to-from-here/ Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

On October 21, Canadian voters will head to the polls to decide who will represent their riding and their country in our 43rd federal election. The parties have just released their campaign slogans, and after the writ drops in September, we can expect election coverage to take over our TV screens and social media feeds. Among that coverage, can we expect to hear about issues that will affect Indigenous people? That’s the question we pose to Karyn Pugliese on this week’s podcast. Pugliese has an award-winning career in political reporting, and was with APTN for seven years as its executive director of news and current affairs before becoming Canada’s most recent Nieman fellow at Harvard. Here, she walks us through how to report on elections with Indigenous people and policy in mind. But the issues go far beyond that. Earlier this summer, the way Canada’s columnists and editorial boards responded to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls served as a reminder that it’s not just our elections coverage that needs more Indigenous perspectives. On the second half of the podcast, Sheila North joins in to discuss how newsrooms can do a better job of covering Indigenous perspectives. North is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker who has served as the grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. She has told the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls through the documentary 1200+ and as a Cree host of APTN’s Taken. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

When it comes to how Canadians feel about federalism, it turns out there aren’t easy answers. Some provinces and territories are feeling shortchanged while their neighbours are satisfied; our identities are growing even more layered; and our preferred federal-provincial balance of powers is different for every issue and every place. So says the Confederation of Tomorrow, a landmark survey of public opinion on the federation. It’s a joint effort by the Environics Institute, the former Mowat Centre, the Canada West Foundation, the Centre D’Analyse Politique sur la Constitution et le Fédéralisme at UQAM, the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at St. FX University, and the IRPP, with the first two of three reports released earlier this year. Today on the podcast, we’re joined by Andrew Parkin, one of the masterminds behind the project. He’s the executive director of the Environics Institute and former director of the Mowat Centre, with a lengthy career researching and advising on policy before that. We discuss how policymakers can speak to the country’s complexity and tap into our willingness to work together. For more info: https://www.environicsinstitute.org/projects/project-details/confederation-of-tomorrow---2018 Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

Tax-Free Savings Accounts were designed to help lower-income Canadians put money away for retirement. But a decade into the program, new research shows that TFSAs are primarily benefitting higher-income savers. A saver’s credit and other tax changes could be the keys to fixing this flaw, writes Richard Shillington in a widely read study for the IRPP. Richard Shillington is a statistician specializing in poverty measurement, tax policy and low-income supports. He joins us on the podcast to discuss his study and its implications for low-income savers. His study is available here: https://irpp.org/research-studies/are-low-income-savers-still-in-the-lurch-tfsas-at-10-years/ Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

Although economists favour carbon pricing as the most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the policy has taken an unpredictable path in Canada. With four constitutional challenges and even more provincial opposition, the near-consensus on carbon pricing has fallen apart. Joining us to discuss is Kathryn Harrison, a professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in Canadian and US environmental and climate policy. Her featured talk for the 2019 Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities inspired our series on the evolution of carbon pricing in the provinces, for which she has written about the pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Energy and Climate Change and the BC carbon tax. The fleeting Canadian harmony on carbon pricing: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2019/the-fleeting-canadian-harmony-on-carbon-pricing/ Lessons from British Columbia’s carbon tax: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2019/lessons-from-british-columbias-carbon-tax/ Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

June 12 marked the release of the Final Report of the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare. The Council recommended that Canada adopt universal, single-payer pharmacare, and set out a plan for how to go about it. Currently, Canada is an outlier: we have among the highest per capita pharmaceutical spending in the world, and are the only OECD country to have universal health insurance without drug coverage. We know the issues, and we’ve been debating them since the dawn of Canadian medicare. So why hasn’t there been more movement on this file? The IRPP’s own Colin Busby, who heads up the Faces of Aging research program, joins the podcast to discuss the history of pharmacare in Canada and the hurdles to implementation. For a summary of some of his main points, check out his piece for Policy Options: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2019/big-hurdles-remain-in-pharmacare-implementation-plan/ Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

A move for closure on the debate and a marathon weekend session at the Quebec National Assembly saw the contentious Bill 21 finally pass, 73 to 35. The legislation prohibits public-school teachers, government lawyers, judges and police officers from wearing religious symbols to work, and mandates that citizens uncover their faces while receiving certain public services. And, for the next five years, it can’t be struck down by the courts due to the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause. Premier François Legault says Quebecers are on his side, but the bill is already facing challenges. On Monday, Montrealers took to the streets in protest, while earlier that same day the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed a motion for an injunction in Quebec Superior Court. Today on the podcast, we’re joined by Eric Mendelsohn, Robert Leckey, Jack Jedwab and Bochra Manaï, who unpack and critique some of the key dimensions of the bill – including the identity debate, the disproportionate effect on Muslim women, and the legal grounds on which it can – or cannot – be challenged. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP, @jbugiel or @JRicardoBM.

Countries around the world are grappling with how to identify and prevent a host of new threats to the integrity of their elections and democratic systems. With the next general election around the corner in Canada, is our policy framework up to the task of dealing with the deliberate spread of false information? We put this question to three experts: Elizabeth Dubois (University of Ottawa), Jennifer McGuire (CBC News) and Taylor Owen (Max Bell School of Public Policy). They spoke with Policy Options editor-in-chief Jennifer Ditchburn at our pre-election breakfast on May 7, held in partnership with the Max Bell School of Public Policy and sponsored by CBC and Microsoft. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.