Wonk – Details, episodes & analysis

On lists of influential people to watch, Sean Speer is often described as a guide, an influencer and a conservative who is committed to policy. He was senior economic adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Today, he's an editor-at-large at The Hub, the conservative leaning news and opinion website. And he's a leading thinker on the ideas behind conservatism as a political movement. He talks to host Edward Greenspon about what's driving political instability in the world and breaks down the increasingly pressing question of state capacity.

If you are a Canadian who's interested in the world, then you are almost certainly a Canadian who has encountered Professor Janice Stein. She’s Canada’s preeminent interpreter of global issues through her teaching, academic research and regular media appearances. She is the founding director at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, and she's a good friend of PPF. She talks to host Edward Greenspon about Israel, Ukraine and the deepening conflict between China and the United States.

David Shoemaker is the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, the organization tasked with promoting Olympic values and helping get Canadian athletes onto the podium. He talks to host Edward Greenspon about why he expects big things in Paris, the challenge of making sport safer in Canada, and the delicate balance of international competition in a time of war.

In the fourth episode of our Policy Speaking podcast, host Edward Greenspon is joined by Bruce Lourie, President of the Ivey Foundation to discuss the speed of the response to COVID-19 and how it can inform Canada's battles with further public health risks and climate change.

Host Edward Greenspon is joined by Canada’s pre-eminent energy economist and energy historian, Peter Tertzakian as he explains the factors and the impacts of Covid-19 on the energy sector – economically and policy-wise.

Host Edward Greenspon is joined by two formed Deputy Prime Ministers of Canada, the Hon. Anne McLellan and Hon. John Manley. They provide insights from the cabinet table during 9/11 — Anne was Justice Minister and John Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time — and share how this COVID-19 crisis is different. Plus what comes next? They share what their experience with responding to past global crises such as SARS tells us about the world after COVID-19.

Join the Public Policy Forum for a new podcast, Policy Speaking, which looks at the management of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as its collateral impacts in areas such as: the economy, the energy sector, income support programs, the geopolitical order; and the nature of leadership.

In the first episode, PPF President & CEO Edward Greenspon is joined by one of Canada's great economists, academics, & former Governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge to help us wrap our head around the reality of the current financial situation. From 9/11 to the 2008 financial crisis, Dodge compares COVID-19 to economic shocks of the past and helps us re-imagine what the other side of this crisis could look like.

Canada is perhaps the most successful immigration nation in the world. But its system is showing some cracks, as immigration is twinned in the public mind with housing shortages and high rental costs. Rupa Banerjee, Canada Research Chair in Economic inclusion, Employment and Entrepreneurship of Canada’s Immigrants, talks to host Edward Greenspon about what Canada’s getting wrong and why it’s unfair to blame foreign students for housing woes.

The longest-serving Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, and the first woman to hold the position, weighs in on the good and the bad of the federal government’s long-awaited online harms bill. She talks to host Edward Greenspon about anti-hate laws, freedom of expression and why some provisions in the new bill will likely end up before the courts.

JP Gladu is one of Canada's visionary leaders in the national dialogue around Indigenous ownership in the economy. He has decades of experience bringing Indigenous communities together with industry and governments in pursuit of their economic sovereignty. He joins host Edward Greenspon to talk about the rise of Indigenous business, getting the government to say 'yes', and overcoming fear and ignorance of Indigenous ownership.