Category: Government

The 2019 Election: A Final View

Ok, everyone.  We’re at the finish line.  Among the things we’ve looked at in preparation for this day are: A history of Canadian PSE through election manifestos. A summation of the Liberal record on PSE, skills and science. A comparison of the Trudeau and Harper records on PSE, skills and science. A summary of the 2019 Green, New Democrat, Conservative, and Liberal plans on PSE, skills and science. Two quick updates on things announced.  First, the Greens.  After my piece on the Greens, leader Elizabeth

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2019 PSE Platforms-NDP

One of the tricky things about evaluating platforms in this election is that there is no way for anyone to know when a party is “done” with its announcements. They all get the PBO to cost bits of their platform, and that’s great. They can even, as the NDP has done, release a set of “commitments” (uncosted) and a vague “fiscal plan” (which basically says the party is going to stick to the Liberal formula of decreasing the deficit over

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2019 PSE Platforms – Liberal Party

The governing Liberal Party released its entire platform all at once on Sunday (the costing document is here), and there are a bunch of interesting things pertaining to PSE.  Let’s dig in. (For those of you looking for extra thoroughness, you may want to review my assessment of the Liberal record over the past four years first.  Finished?  Ok, onwards.) Without question, the most disappointing thing in the platform is the scientific research plank.  It consists of a $30 million commitment for pediatric cancer research

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Canadian PSE History Through Election Manifestos: 1997-2011

This is part IV of a series.  Catch up with Part I, Part II and Part III.  We have arrived at the modern, post-Redbook manifesto period, where promises get costed, fiscal frameworks are explicit, and parties hew more closely to their promises.  At least in theory. During the Chretien-Martin years, the Liberals were, well, inconsistent.  In 1997 they talked small (their only real promise was the introduction of a small set of grants for students with dependents) but in office

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PSE History Through Election Manifestos: 1979-1993

Late to this incredibly hip party on Canadian PSE history?  Catch up with the previous two installments here and here. The late 70s to mid-90s were maybe the ghastliest period in Canadian history.  Economically, they were full of unemployment, inflation and debt.  Yet our politics were driven not by economics, as they would have been in normal countries, but by national unity: a referendum in 1980, constitutional conferences in 1981, repatriation in 1982, the Meech Lake Accord in 1987, three

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