Louise Perry: It’s time to complicate the West’s account of progressivism The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-11 | For decades, we’ve been told that freedom means throwing off restraint. But what if the sexual revolution didn’t liberate us, and instead left us lonelier, unhappier, and adrift?Our culture’s promises of autonomy and self-creation have left young people disconnected from family, tradition, and purpose. That's left us missing something deeper: what it means to love, belong, and build a life that lasts.To explore this, journalist Louise Perry joins Inside Policy Talks. Perry is the author of the bestselling book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, which presents a bold challenge to modern sexual ethics. She's also the host of the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast, and co-founder of The Other Half, a think tank focused on pro-woman, pro-family policy.On the podcast, she discusses with Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a "key historical claim" that progressivism makes about the "shape of history." It's been argued that "history is linear and has just got better," says Perry, but now it's time to challenge "this belief that the sexual revolution was obviously good."
A forward vision for Taiwan-Canada cooperation The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-16 | In November 2025, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute hosted an event in collaboration with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada. The event, “Strengthening Taiwan’s resilience: a forward vision for Taiwan-Canada strategic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific,” featured a keynote address by Dr. Chen Ming-chi, Taiwan’s deputy minister of foreign affairs. Following his remarks, he was joined on stage for a discussion with MLI’s Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley.
Which are Canadas most productive provinces? The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-15 | Big government doesn’t always mean better government, and new data show which provinces are getting it right.On December 15, 2025, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute hosted a panel discussion: Canada’s Productivity Divide.Building on the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s national analysis, the discussion presented insights from the third report in MLI’s “Government Productivity and Value for Money” series: “Ranking the Size and Productivity of Provincial Governments in Canada.”The panel featured Philip Cross, an MLI senior fellow; Michael Keenan, Canada’s deputy minister of transportation; Tim Sargent, director of domestic Policy at MLI; and Stephen Tapp, CEO and chief economist, at the Centre for the Study of Living Standards. The panel was moderated by Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at MLI.
Daly & Mancini: Fixing Canada’s internal trade woes is a national economic imperative The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-11 | Canada’s economic future increasingly hinges on a deceptively simple question: how free is trade within Canada itself?For decades, economists and policymakers have warned that Canada’s internal market—fragmented by duplicative rules, sector-specific carve-outs, and a thicket of provincial exceptions—acts as a drag on growth and competitiveness. Even the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, heralded as a breakthrough, is riddled with loopholes.To dig deeper, Inside Policy Talks brings together legal scholar Paul Daly and MLI senior fellow Mark Mancini for a conversation with Peter Copeland, MLI’s deputy director of domestic policy.Daly explains the central irony: removing regulatory barriers requires a mechanism with real authority to do it. Without a body empowered by both Parliament and the provinces, “what you're going to get is what we have, which is a mosaic of different provisions.” Canada needs a national coordinating agency with the power to set standards, enforce mutual recognition, harmonize where necessary, and “raise [barriers] to the ground,” as Daly puts it. Mancini agrees, stressing that skepticism toward new agencies is understandable—but the status quo simply cannot solve the problem. This wouldn’t be “an agency for the sake of an agency,” but an institution designed to tackle a precise challenge: the inability of governments to coordinate regulatory reform on their own. With nationwide buy-in, such a body could finally move Canada beyond one-off bilateral deals toward a genuinely integrated economic union. Together, Daly and Mancini make the case that fixing Canada’s internal trade system is not a technocratic curiosity—it’s a national economic imperative.
Woke culture in Canada The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-10 | At our November 2025 Voices That Inspire event in Vancouver, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley asked Lt.-Gen. (ret’d) Michel Maisonneuve why he sees woke culture as one of the biggest domestic villains threatening the future of Canada.
Canadas foreign influence blind spots The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-08 | Canada needs to mind its "blind spots" when it comes to foreign interference and proxy influence efforts, says MLI Senior Fellow Marcus Kolga."That means holding accountable those who carry out these operations and, where appropriate, using sanctions laws to impose meaningful costs," he told the Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Dec. 2.Watch Kolga’s full appearance at PROC as part of its study on foreign election interference here: parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20251202/-1/44087?mediaStartTime=20251202120627&viewMode=3&globalStreamId=29
Expectations for newcomers The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-07 | "We need to do a better job of telling people what the expectations are when they come to Canada," MLI Senior Fellow David Thomas told a House of Commons committee on Dec. 2."I don’t think we should feel any shame about that."Watch his full testimony before the Citizenship and Immigration Committee here: https://lnkd.in/g63iG8xm
Paul Warchuk: There’s a lot of resistance to property rights The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-04 | Across Canada, some of the most heated disputes — from housing restrictions to Indigenous land claims — turn on this question: how secure are Canadians’ property rights?The answer may surprise you.Canada is one of the only developed democracies where property rights have no constitutional protection. That gap has real consequences. It can lead to family farms shuttered by regulation, homeowners caught in civil forfeiture, or even recent court decisions like Cowichan Tribes v. Canada which upended long-held assumptions about ownership itself.To unpack these issues, University of New Brunswick law professor Paul Warchuk joins Inside Policy Talks. Warchuk is the author of a powerful new MLI paper on property rights in Canada, titled Beyond patchwork protection: Towards comprehensive property rights in Canadian law. In it, he traces the philosophical and legal evolution of property from early philosophers up to the Charter era. He argues that property is not only a private entitlement but a public trust that safeguards liberty and prosperity alike.On the podcast, Warchuk tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at MLI, that “there is a lot of resistance to property rights,” perhaps stemming from the fact that not all Canadians believe these rights serve and protect them.He added that while most Canadians feel their property rights are secure, the situation is “precarious” because despite some basic protections “it's very easy for government to override them.”“If you find yourself in the circumstance of one of the unlucky few that is affected in this way,” says Warchuk, “your perspective would change completely, and you'd feel a little bit more of the injustice.”
We need immigrants that will assimilate into our culture: Michel Maisonneuve The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-02 | Immigration was on the agenda at our November 2025 Voices That Inspire event in Vancouver. Watch the full conversation here: youtu.be/5CBmAYKGMh0Lieutenant-General (Ret’d) Michel Maisonneuve told MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley that “it's important to have immigration, but it's important to have the right kind of immigrants coming in—immigrants that will assimilate into our culture.” He said right now immigration has "gone out of control" in Canada.
Canadas once strong immigration consensus has unraveled The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-12-01 | MLI's deputy director of domestic policy Peter Copeland at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
DEFENDING Canadian identity and values: Michel Maisonneuve The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-27 | In November 2025, Lieutenant-General (Ret’d) Michel Maisonneuve was the featured guest at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Voices That Inspire speaker series in Vancouver.One of Canada’s most respected military leaders, Maisonneuve brings decades of high-level service experience in the Canadian Armed Forces and NATO, and unmatched insight into the critical questions shaping Canada's future.In a conversation with Brian Lee Crowley, MLI's managing director, Maisonneuve tackles issues ranging from the impact of DEI initiatives on military culture to the CAF’s sorry state of preparedness to rising threats. He says for Canada to thrive, we must cultivate a culture of patriotism, service, and duty – one that strengthens our national resilience.
No-fault divorce: Louise Perry’s view The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-25 | At the latest instalment of our Voices That Inspire speaker series in Vancouver, Andrea Mrozek asked Louise Perry if state policies had played a role in declining marriage rates. Perry said they had. One factor she pointed to was no-fault divorce.
Michael Barutciski: Canadas out of control immigration system The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-25 | Canada's out of control immigration system:"We have witnessed in the last few years what is arguably one of the country's biggest public policy failures this century..." MLI's senior fellow Michael Barutciski before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Immigration and Citizenship.
Is Canadas government too big? The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-24 | Canada’s governments keep growing—but are taxpayers getting real value in return?On November 14, 2025, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute hosted a panel in Ottawa as part of its ongoing research series on “Government Productivity and Value for Money.”The panel was moderated by Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at MLI. It featured the following speakers, Jean-François Perrault, chief economist at Scotiabank, Tim Sargent, director of domestic policy at MLI, Munir Sheikh, research professor at Carleton University, and Stephen Tapp, CEO and chief economist at the Centre for the Study of Living Standards.The event brought together the insights from the project’s first two reports: “Capturing Public Sector Productivity: Overview and Conceptual Approach” and “Assessing the Size and Productivity of Governments in Canada.” Together, these studies provide the most comprehensive look yet at how Canada’s government sector has expanded – in employment, spending, and scope – and how to measure what taxpayers receive in return.The discussion introduced MLI’s new Size of Government Index (SGI) and Government Productivity Index (GPI), explored key data trends from 1997–2024, and examined cross-sector differences in productivity across health, education, and government services.Panellists examined the tension between a growing public sector and stagnating productivity. They discussed how evidence-based measurement can strengthen accountability, fiscal discipline, and long-term prosperity.
Rob Huebert: Canadas Coast Guard The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-21 | Canada's Coast Guard won't fight, but it has a role to play in addressing the growing threats to Canada's Arctic. MLI's Rob Huebert testified on C-12 before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.
John Gilmour: Canadian law enforcement can’t get the basic data it needs The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-20 | Canada faces a growing array of national security threats—from foreign interference networks to money laundering operations and organized crime groups exploiting modern digital tools. Yet many of our laws designed to protect Canadians were written for a different era. As hostile actors adapt faster than our institutions, gaps in Canada’s legal framework have become opportunities for adversaries to operate with alarming ease.What should Canadians understand about the risks created by outdated security legislation? And how should policymakers balance the need for lawful access to electronic data with the privacy protections guaranteed under the Charter?To break down these complex challenges, Dr. John Gilmour joins Inside Policy Talks. A senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Gilmour is an expert in terrorism, counterterrorism, and intelligence. He has served in the security and intelligence branch of the Privy Council Office, worked with CSIS, and now teaches at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute and Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.On the podcast, he tells Christopher Coates, MLI’s Director of Foreign Policy, National Defence, and National Security, that Canada is now “in a race it cannot afford to lose.” Criminal syndicates and foreign adversaries are exploiting digital communications at a speed that far outstrips current investigative powers. Without modernized tools—such as those proposed in Bill C-2—Canadian authorities risk being permanently outpaced.
Louise Perry reveals how her worldview changed since publishing her first book The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-18 | Watch Louise's appearance on the MLI podcast with Peter Copeland where she first discussed these changes in her worldview: youtu.be/PE_rMhRf__MWatch the full video of the above conversation here: youtu.be/6dJMpCD_0q4 This clip is taken from Louise Perry's October 2025 appearance as the featured guest at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Voices That Inspire speaker series in Vancouver.Perry is the author of the bestselling book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, which presents a bold challenge to modern sexual ethics. She’s also the host of the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast, and co-founder of The Other Half, a think tank focused on pro-woman, pro-family policy. She was joined on stage for a live conversation with journalist Andrea Mrozek, a senior fellow at the Cardus Institute.
Hillel Neuer: The UN matters whether we like it or not The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-13 | The UN Human Rights Council contains members like China, Cuba, and Qatar – states criticized for systemic abuses. Yet citizens of Western democracies still view the UN as a highly trusted institution. That's the paradox: nations accused of violating rights are the ones charged with setting global human rights standards.What should the public know about what really happens inside the UN? And how can Western democracies confront the organization’s shortcomings?To examine major concerns about the UN, Hillel Neuer joins Inside Policy Talks. Neuer is a lawyer, writer, and activist, and the executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO based in Geneva, Switzerland. Neuer testified several times before the United Nations and is a widely cited expert on its deficiencies and contradictions.On the podcast, he tells Casey Babb, director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Promised Land project, that public opinion surveys continuing to demonstrate widespread public confidence in the UN amongst those living in Western democracies. He says that means what happens at the UN matters “whether we like it or not.”“What’s said at the UN influences the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of people,” says Neuer.That’s why he’s focused on turning a mirror on some of the UN's worst human rights abusers, while highlighting the hypocrisy of the body's treatment of Israel: It “turns a blind eye to human rights abuses happening in China,” he points out, while making Israel a “scapegoat for everything they're not doing on catastrophes around the world.” He says Canada and its Western allies must use their “moral gravitas” to challenge this moral imbalance at the UN.
Canadas defence industrial base The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-12 | "A key part of understanding the defence industrial base today is understanding that it is the product of over five decades of inattention to the actual defence needs of Canada." -MLI's Richard Shimooka before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology.
Nathan Pinkoski: If you change the institutions, it changes the people inside them The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-07 | Across the Western world, migration, identity, and belonging have moved from policy questions to existential ones. The political and moral assumptions that held our societies together for decades are starting to unravel.Now, there is deep tension between those who want to defend the open, liberal order, and those who believe its openness has gone too far – eroding belonging, stability, and moral coherence.What comes next? Are we watching the liberal order evolve, or decay?To reflect on this, Nathan Pinkoski joins Inside Policy Talks. Pinkoski – a Canadian-born, US-based a political theorist whose work traces the decline of liberal constitutionalism – is a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America. He's taught at the Universities of Florida, Princeton, and Toronto.On the podcast, he tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, that much of today's discourse on liberalism's unravelling has centred on the role played by ideas. However, Pinkoski says he views institutions as another vital part of this conversation."Something else that changed at the latter part of the 20th century is we stopped thinking about liberalism as a system that required us to have a particular set of institutions," says Pinkoski."We love the grand story of these different ideas that are kind of moving through time," he says. "But we have to remember that for Plato, for Aristotle – when they are describing the character of a regime, what matters is how the law shapes the soul. And if you change the law, if you change the institutions, you're going to change the kinds of people that are inside them."
The COST of a culture without limits: Louise Perry The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-11-05 | In October 2025, journalist and author Louise Perry was the featured guest at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Voices That Inspire speaker series in Vancouver.Perry is the author of the bestselling book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, which presents a bold challenge to modern sexual ethics. She’s also the host of the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast, and co-founder of The Other Half, a think tank focused on pro-woman, pro-family policy.In a live conversation with journalist Andrea Mrozek – a senior fellow at the Cardus Institute and co-author of the book "I…Do? Why Marriage Still Matters" – Perry discussed the social and cultural aftermath of the sexual revolution.
Yves Giroux: Soaring spending demands effective parliamentary oversight The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-31 | It’s been more than 10 months since Canadians got a close look at the federal finances in last fall’s economic statement. At that time, they learned the deficit for the 2023–24 fiscal year had ballooned by over 50 per cent.Now, as the Carney government prepares to table its first fiscal blueprint, there’s talk once again of rising spending and soaring deficits. A recent Desjardins forecast estimated the deficit for the current fiscal year could exceed $70 billion. That’s a more than 65 per cent increase from what was forecast in Fall Economic Statement 2024. This news comes amid government promises for “generational investments” but also a request to ministers to find “ambitious savings.”So, what should Canadians be watching for in the November budget? And, more importantly, as billions of dollars continue to flow from federal coffers, are parliamentarians well positioned to give this spending the scrutiny they’re meant to deliver on behalf of Canadians under our Westminster system?To discuss this, former parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux joins Inside Policy Talks. Giroux served seven years as PBO, finishing his term just last month.On the podcast, he tells Ian Campbell, digital editor at MLI, that it's less important which fiscal anchor the government chooses, but simply that it picks one and sticks to it over a period of time. With many forecasts predicting that Ottawa is set to drop yet another one of its fiscal anchors – this time, a declining debt-to-GDP ratio – Giroux says this "erodes the confidence of financial markets in the seriousness or the control that the government has over its own finances."Campbell and Giroux also discussed a number of long-standing issues with the federal fiscal cycle that make it difficult for parliamentarians to exercise a high degree of scrutiny over government spending. Giroux said with only two people in Ottawa holding real sway over what ends up in the budget – the prime minister and finance minister – it's vital to make improvements to the fiscal cycle so parliamentarians can exercise a greater degree of oversight in this process.
The Productivity Puzzle: Why Canada Struggles to Build Its Way Out of the Housing Crisis The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-28 | Canada isn’t short on builders, yet it’s building less than ever. Despite record numbers of workers and billions in public spending, housing output per worker hasn’t kept pace. Home prices may be softening, but affordability remains out of reach and construction backlogs keep growing.A new Macdonald-Laurier Institute study, Measuring Productivity in Canada’s Residential Construction Sector, examines an overlooked aspect of the affordability and supply issue: construction sector productivity. The findings raise hard questions about whether government housing targets are even possible under the current system, and what needs to change to make building faster, smarter, and more affordable.This panel discussion will explore why total construction times and productivity have stalled and how better policy, smarter regulation, and modern building methods can help break through the bottlenecks. If Canada wants to solve its housing crisis, it must first fix how it builds – and that starts with productivity.
Heather Exner-Pirot: The umbrella term ‘critical minerals’ is good for messaging but bad for policy The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-24 | On October 22, 2025, MLI’s director of energy, natural resources and environment testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources.
John Adams: Rare diseases expose Canada’s healthcare gaps The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-23 | Rare diseases affect only a small number of Canadians, but a lack of adequate testing and treatment reveals some of the key weaknesses in our health care system.These illnesses – which affect about one in 12 Canadians – raise hard questions about health care costs, access, and fairness, and test how well Canada’s fragmented health governance systems can adapt to new challenges.For a closer look at Canadian rare disease policy, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow John Adams joins Inside Policy Talks. Adams is a management consultant and one of Canada’s leading advocates for patients with rare diseases. Adams is the co-founder of CanPKU and chair of the Best Medicines Coalition, which represents millions of Canadian patients. His personal journey as a parent and caregiver for his son, who has a rare disease, has left Adams with unique insights on drug access, rare disease policy, and health care reform.On the podcast, he tells host Shawn Whatley, a physician and senior fellow at MLI, that one of the key steps Canada could take to better serve patients with rare diseases is passing an orphan drug law like the one that exists in the United States. These laws incentivize the development of new drugs for rare diseases that are otherwise unprofitable due to small patient populations.
Tim Sargent: fentanyl, organized crime and the Canada-US relationship The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-22 | Behind President Trump's concern with fentanyl entering the US through the Canadian border is Canada's very real failures on organized crime and money laundering.Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Tim Sargent explains at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), CSIS Americas Program.
Leuprecht: Canada-US Border The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-22 | "Canada is no longer living up to its end of the bargain. Specifically, they [the Biden and Trump administrations] are concerned that Canada has become a high value low-risk back door to the United States whose proliferating legislative and structural weaknesses are being exploited by powerful and dedicated state and non-state actors to undermine the social fabric, economic prosperity and territorial integrity of the United States."Macdonald-Laurier Institute and Center for North American Prosperity and Security senior fellow Christian Leuprecht before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.
One of the biggest obstacles to Middle East peace The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-21 | Andrew Fox says "Palestinianism" probably has nearly 100 per cent support in Gaza.
Dean Baxendale: China is engaged in hybrid warfare to undermine democracy The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-17 | Watch our latest podcast on China's elite capture strategy: youtube.com/watch?v=jrrcz5p-F78On October 8, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, in partnership with Optimum Publishing, hosted a panel event in Ottawa to expose and discuss solutions to Chinese interference, money laundering, and elite capture on Prince Edward Island.The event featured the Hon. Wayne Easter, former solicitor general of Canada and PEI native, former MP and MLI Senior Fellow Kevin Vuong, former RCMP officer Garry Clement, Dean Baxendale, president of Optimum Publishing International, and Christopher Coates, MLI’s director of Foreign Policy, National Security, and National Defence.
Andrew Fox: ‘Palestinianism’ threatens Middle East peace The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-16 | There's rapid change happening in the Middle East.In a ceremonial show of unity, world leaders headed to Egypt for an Oct. 13 peace summit in support of United States President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.All living hostages have been returned to Israel, though Jerusalem is still working to secure the release of some deceased hostages.It's been a historic week, but questions remain about the future of Hamas, and what it will take to deliver long-term security in the region.To discuss what happens next, Andrew Fox joins Inside Policy Talks. Fox served 16 years in the British Army, completed three tours in Afghanistan, and further tours of Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East. A prominent expert on the Israel-Hamas war, Fox was a senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is currently an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and an associate fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.On the podcast, he tells Casey Babb, who leads the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Promised Land project, that it's difficult to gauge what level of support Hamas retains in Gaza. However, he says the deeply rooted ideology of "Palestinianism" will remain a problem in any scenario."This idea of the from the river to the sea – it's not about having your independent Gaza Strip or your independent West Bank and a Palestinian polity," says Fox. "It's about getting rid of Israel and replacing it with this brand new country called Palestine that's never existed before.""I would suggest that's got a near 100 per cent approval rating across the Palestinian territories."
Wayne Easter: Chinese interference in PEI The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-15 | On October 8, 2025 the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, in partnership with Optimum Publishing, hosted a panel event entitled Shadows Over Canada: Confronting foreign influence and domestic vulnerabilities. The Hon. Wayne Easter, former solicitor general of Canada, spoke about the need for a federal public inquiry into Chinese interference in PEI. Against the provincial land use laws, there's an estimated 17,000 acres of land under the control of a Buddhist organization and its affiliates in PEI, allegedly acquired through duplicitous means.
How Chinese influence narratives work The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-11 | Dr. Stephen Nagy, a professor at Tokyo’s International Christian University, and an MLI senior fellow, explains the different types of Chinese foreign influence operations.
Stephen Nagy: Canadians should be wary of Chinese influence operations in the West The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-09 | With the Canada-United States relationship at an all-time low, China has moved quickly to position itself as a beneficiary of the fallout. Canadians should be wary.Beijing is seeking to court Canadians with trade deals. But it is simultaneously punishing Canada for adopting anti-Chinese trade laws, which – as the Chinese are quick to point out – were implemented by Canada in response to American pressure to crack down on unfair Chinese trade practices.Now, we’re seeing growing numbers of Canadians twisting the logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” They’re taking this to mean that the enemy of Canada is the United States, and by that logic, the People’s Republic of China must be Canada's friend.To offer his perspective on how Canadians should view these developments, Dr. Stephen Nagy joins Inside Policy Talks. Nagy is a professor at Tokyo’s International Christian University, and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He’s studied and written extensively about China and its influence operations in the West.On the podcast, he tells Jamie Tronnes, executive director of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security (CNAPS), that the Chinese government has "invested very heavily" in a strategy of "elite capture" focused on political and business leaders, "giving them preferred access to the Chinese market.""This is to lock them into a kind of dependent relationship," says Nagy. "And I think that this has made Canada have tremendous challenges in terms of confronting a country that really wants to change the global order in a way that is contrary to Canadian interests."
One of the core impediments to Canada-US relationship The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-08 | Canada and the United States were “tardy” in their initial response to years of nuclear forces build up by China and Russia, says MLI’s Richard Shimooka.In the past decade, the North American neighbours have begun to tackle this challenge, but more action is needed, Shimooka told the House of Commons National Defence Committee on Oct. 7.He said “the relatively limited state of Canada's contribution to NORAD must be addressed.”“A deep, bipartisan consensus in the United States has pushed Canada to do more in this area,” said Shimooka. “It is one of the core impediments to the bilateral relationship today.”Watch the full committee appearance here: parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20251008/-1/43646
Canada and U.S. should solve “cross-border irritants with a Grand Bargain strategy” The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-07 | At an Oct. 6 appearance before the House of Commons International Trade Committee, CNAPS Executive Director Jamie Tronnes said “the current uncertainty in the trade market is wreaking havoc on investment globally.”She said that a comprehensive agreement between Canada and the Unites States that includes a fiscal, social, and security strategy would make it harder for any single president or prime minister to back out of aspects of the agreement—because he or she would be giving up all other gains promised under the deal.Watch the full committee appearance here: parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20251007/-1/43641
The Aftermath of October 7: What the future holds for Israel, Gaza, and the Middle East The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-07 | Two years after the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel, join us for an essential conversation with leading experts Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, Casey Babb and Einat Wilf. They will examine the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Israel’s defence against escalating Islamist terror, and the global forces reshaping the region’s future. With rising antisemitism in the West, including in Canada, this session will provide vital insights into the Israeli-Hamas conflict, shifting Arab political thought, and a roadmap for a more secure future for Israel.
Ottawa’s emissions plan is “hampering the Canadian economy The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-06 | At an Oct. 6 House of Commons committee appearance, MLI’s director of energy, natural resources and environment, Heather Exner-Pirot, said Ottawa’s goal of “becoming an energy superpower” is not compatible with its Emissions Reductions Plan.Watch Exner-Pirot’s full appearance at the Environment and Sustainable Development committee here: parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20251006/-1/43627
Geoffrey Sigalet: What’s at stake in the fight over the notwithstanding clause The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-02 | Constitutional law is often seen as the domain of courts and legal scholars, but one provision—the notwithstanding clause—has become a flashpoint in Canada’s ongoing debate over the balance of power between legislatures and the judiciary.Once a political safety valve that sealed the deal for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, section 33 is now at the center of a national conversation about who should have the final say on fundamental rights.To unpack the history and stakes of this debate, Professor Geof Sigalet joins Peter Copeland to explain how the notwithstanding clause was born out of provincial insistence on preserving democratic self-government, and how its use has evolved in response to rising judicial activism and federal-provincial tensions.Sigalet delves into the recent controversies surrounding Quebec’s Bill 21 and the federal government’s intervention, highlighting the clause’s role as both a shield for provincial autonomy and a lightning rod for national debate. As courts and governments clash over the limits of the notwithstanding clause, the future of Canada’s constitutional balance hangs in the balance.
The role of government in shaping universities: Reforming Higher Ed conference—Panel 3 The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-01 | This panel was presented at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Rethinking Higher Education conference, held in Ottawa from Aug. 28-29, 2025.In this panel, titled The Role of Government in Shaping Universities, panellists whether reform should come from within universities, or from external factors like government.The panel featured Ryan Alford, a law professor at Lakehead University; Ian Brody, a political science professor at the University of Calgary; and Peter MacKinnon, a former University of Saskatchewan law school dean and author of the book "Confronting Illiberalism: A Canadian Perspective." The panel was moderated by Mark Harding, a University of Guelph political science professor.
Fifteen years of fighting for a better Canada The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-10-01 | For fifteen years the Macdonald-Laurier Institute has stood in the gap for Canadians.As trust in media, the universities, and government plummeted we established ourselves as an independent, non-partisan, and serious voice. We’re out for one thing and one thing only: to help make Canada the best governed country in the world.Not too long ago a very senior (now former) PMO staffer admitted that we’d been “a real pain in the ass” that nevertheless could not be ignored. We’ve made our mark on the national conversation and Canada’s leaders know they must grapple with our ideas.
“Activism undermines the search for truth” The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-26 | Earlier this week, MLI Senior Fellow Dave Snow testified at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research about the granting agencies that fund most Canadian research.He talked about his recent MLI study which found that “EDI has been infused into these granting agencies.”Read his full study here: macdonaldlaurier.ca/promoting-excellence-or-activism-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-at-canadas-federal-granting-agencies
Brenda Shaffer: Global institutions are choosing energy poverty over fossil fuels The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-25 | Energy is always a hot topic. Yet there’s one aspect about energy that barely attracts attention these days: energy poverty.Development used to dominate discussions about emerging economies. But in the past ten years it seems to have fallen off the radar, replaced by climate change concerns and renewable energy advocacy.One region in particular has been hard hit by this trend: sub-Saharan Africa, where access to electricity has declined.To help put this issue back on the agenda, Brenda Shaffer joins Inside Policy Talks. Shaffer, an international energy and foreign policy specialist, is a faculty member at the US Naval Postgraduate School and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center in Washington, DC. She’s also the author of a new paper published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, titled (Dis)empowering Africa: How the West’s energy policies fuel poverty in the continent.On the podcast, Shaffer tells Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources, and environment at MLI, that societies without access to fuels like oil and gas are left using energy sources like coal, wood, and dung - fuels that cause the highest carbon emissions, have greatest negative impact on human heath, and require mass deforestation."No matter what, people are going to consume energy" for uses like cooking, heating, and water purification, says Shaffer. Yet a religious-like opposition to oil and gas has made it so international institutions "just can't think of funding fossil fuels," she explains, even in regions where they would serve as alternatives to the most polluting forms of energy.
Restoring merit and teaching critical thinking: Reforming Higher Ed conference—Panel 2 The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-23 | At MLI’s August 2025 Rethinking Higher Education conference, the second of three panels – titled Restoring Merit in Higher Education and Teaching Critical Thinking in an Age of Polarization – tackled what factors are holding up university reform and how can these be overcome. In particular, the panel discussed various equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) policies at Canadian universities, and their impact on higher education.The panel, moderated by Trent University history professor Christopher Dummitt, featured Paige MacPherson, associate director of education policy for the Fraser Institute; Waller Newell, political science professor and co-director of the Centre for Liberal Education and Public Affairs at Carleton University; Zachary Patterson, an associate professor of geography, planning, and environment at Concordia University; and Dave Snow, associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph.
Mary Harrington: I needed to make a feminist case against progressivism The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-18 | We live in a time of mounting cultural confusion. Social roles are in flux. Technology fragments our attention. And the idea of human nature itself is up for debate.Beneath our daily political debates lies a deeper crisis: a broken picture of the basic elements of the world and our place in it.Are we just collections of small parts, infinitely malleable and divisible – ‘meat lego’, as our guest would call it – ready to be arranged and rearranged through technology in the pursuit of individual aims, and all aspects of life commodified in the pursuit? Or, are we more embodied and interdependent than we like to think?Until we grapple with some basic questions about the worldviews animating our lives – like how we see the role of individuals and their connections and responsibilities to the broader society – many of our most important political debates—from gender to productivity, family to freedom—will keep missing the mark.To offer her perspective on these issues, Mary Harrington joins Inside Policy Talks. Harrington is a columnist at UnHerd and the author of Feminism Against Progress. She's one of the most incisive voices challenging core aspects of the dominant modern western worldview – from its assumptions about autonomy and equality, to its blind spots around embodiment, gender, and the limits of technology.On the podcast, she tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at MLI, that despite the fact that most women become mothers, woman are told that "the core sort of desiderata of feminism are a set of aspirations which ... conceptually exclude this whole domain of experience." She said that led her to "questioning the idea of liberal individualism," including "the feminist difficulties with it" and "how well it fits with being a physically embodied person."
The much unfairly maligned Sir. John A. Macdonald The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-17 | Nigel Biggar says that Canada’s founding prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, has been much unfairly maligned.Biggar joined us in Vancouver earlier this year as part of our Voices That Inspire speaker series.Watch his full conversation with MLI’s Brian Lee Crowley here: youtube.com/watch?v=ERIIpS3sD7o
Alternative education models: Reforming Higher Ed conference—Panel 1 The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-16 | This panel was presented at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Rethinking Higher Education conference, held in Ottawa from Aug. 28-29, 2025.In this panel, titled Alternative Models of Education and the Future of Learning, panellists discussed alternative models for teacher training and credentialing, as well as some of the regulatory barriers that create hurdles to the establishment of charter schools.The panel featured Joanna VanHof, director of the Cardus Institute's education program; Caylan Ford, a documentary filmmaker, writer, researcher, and Alberta charter school founder; and David Livingstone, chair of the Liberal Studies program at Vancouver Island University. The panel was moderated by Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at MLI.
Nigel Biggar: There was constant displacement of one people by another The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-10 | At our July 2025 event in the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s "Voices That Inspire" speaker series, Brian Lee Crowley asked author and scholar Nigel Biggar if they were sitting on stolen land. This was Biggar’s response.Watch the full conversation here: youtube.com/watch?v=ERIIpS3sD7o
Michael Shires on launching UATX: Rethinking Higher Education conference The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2025-09-09 | At the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Rethinking Higher Education conference, held in Ottawa from Aug. 28-29, 2025, Michael Shires, who served as chief of staff for the University of Austin (UATX), described the process of launching the university.
