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Category: Politics

Chicago to Lethbridge

A couple of weeks ago, a philosophy professor at the University of Lethbridge named Paul Viminitz invited Frances Widdowson to speak.  Widdowson, a historian, was fired from Mount Royal University a little over a year ago mainly, I gather, because of her determination to air in class her view that Residential Schools were actually kind of good.  The invitation was not just for her to expand on these views (as well as, more generally, her odious idea that Indigenous knowledge

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February 7, 2023 7 Comments

Laurentian (Really the Last This Time)

OK, I thought this was all over with the AG’s report.  But on Monday the very last shoe dropped, so here I am again.   What happened?  Well, you may recall that in the initial affidavit submitted by Laurentian to the Companies Creditor Protection Act (CCAA) proceedings, two exhibits – labelled “EEE” and “FFF” – were kept sealed from the public.  The former was a letter from the Minister of Colleges and Universities, Ross Romano, to Laurentian University, dated 21 January

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November 30, 2022 1 Comment

Canada’s New and Wasteful Student Loan Interest Policy

In the Fall Economic Statement last Thursday, Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that the government will eliminate student loan interest not just on loans going forward, but also retroactively. This was not out of the blue – the government promised this in the last election.  It remains, however, a disastrous idea.  Hundreds of millions of dollars a year for no real net benefit (at least in the field of education).  I have already laid out why this is a

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November 7, 2022 No Comments

Another Australian Fee Revolution?

To Australia, where big things may be afoot.  One thing about Australian higher education politics is that they tend not to do small reforms, regardless of which party is in power.  Where undergraduate fees are concerned, it looks like there might be another big shift, so let’s look at the current state of play. Here’s the first thing you need to understand about undergraduate fees in Australia: they don’t work like fees anywhere else in the sense they are not

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November 3, 2022 No Comments

Quebec Election Manifestos 2022

Quebec goes to the polls next Monday, and while I do election manifesto analysis for all provinces, the one for Quebec is a bit extra special, both because of the sheer number of parties and because Quebec’s one of the few places in the country where we have seen consistent increases in investment, even if the current government does have some funny ideas about things like “academic freedom”.  In reverse order of current polling results: Parti québécois.  Remember when they

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September 29, 2022 No Comments

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One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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