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Category: Politics

Saskatchewan/ BC Manifesto Double-Header

Y’all know I usually do a full blog on manifestos for every provincial election.  And we have two of those coming up – BC on Saturday and Saskatchewan on Monday – so it seemed natural to publish these two today and tomorrow.  But for reasons which will shortly become apparent, I decided to combine them into one.  Both elections speak to bigger issues at play that need attention. Let’s start in Saskatchewan, where the right-of-centre Saskatchewan Party (SP) looks poised

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October 21, 2020 3 Comments

How Many Universities are too Many?

Yesterday, we discussed whether a university can have too many faculties (answer: yes, but just try reducing them and see how far you get).  Today, I thought I would ask a similar question about universities.  It’s a familiar problem in many parts of Canada.  In Nova Scotia, arguments about whether there are “too many” institutions have been going on for almost a century.  Fifteen years ago, significant parts of BC went a bit bananas when the provincial government decided to

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October 7, 2020 1 Comment

The Throne Speech and Why We’re in Deep Trouble

Last week, the Governor-General delivered the Speech From the Throne (SFT). I argue it is a very ominous document for post-secondary education.  Since March, the Government of Canada has spent about $250 billion on various types of direct and indirect support for Canadians.  Very roughly, a third of that went to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), other third went to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), and the balance went through three or four dozen targeted programs, among the largest of which

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September 30, 2020 No Comments

New Brunswick Election 2020

Next Monday, New Brunswick will go to the polls in the first of two likely provincial elections in this academic year (Saskatchewan looks set for October; BC could conceivably go early in the new year, but could also go the full four years and vote in fall 2021).  So, let’s take a look at what the parties are saying. Let’s start with the People’s Alliance, which is basically the old Confederation of Regions why-do-the-frenchies-get-so-much-attention coalition with a little bit of Ross

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September 10, 2020 No Comments

That Alberta Transformation Contract

So, you may have seen on the weekend that the Alberta Government decided to award a $3.7 million contract to McKinsey & Company to conduct a review of the province’s post-secondary system. I have thoughts. The details of the contract are unavailable, but you can see the initial request for proposals here.  It’s actually a pretty cool set of research projects that might produce some interesting data.  I mean, admittedly they are things you’d expect your public service to mostly have

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June 15, 2020 1 Comment

One Thought to Start Your Day

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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