Public Policy at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy | University of Toronto

What policies have been truly transformative over the last 50 years? Which will be transformative over the next 50?

To mark Canada’s 150th anniversary, SPPG invited leading scholars and practitioners from across Canada to reflect on the big policy changes that have occurred since 1967, and to look forward to the policy changes that will come over the next half-century.

Canada is a fundamentally different country than it was 50 years ago. It is richer and more diverse. Its governments are larger and their programs more complex. And while the country is among the most well-placed in the world, it faces substantial challenges: mitigation and adaptation to climate change, deeper reconciliation with indigenous peoples, and maintaining record levels of immigration, to name a few.

These issues and more were addressed by speakers including Kevin Milligan, Michelle Alexopoulous, Antje Ellermann, Emmett Macfarlane, Mark Manger, John Myles, Jean Leclair, Marva Wisdom, Christa Scholtz, Sheryl Lightfoot, Carol Anne Hilton, Joe Heath, Daniel Béland, Jennifer Winter, Deborah McGregor, Kathryn Harrison, Jeremy Webber, Matti Siemiatycki, Stuart Soroka, Francois Pétry, Lisa Birch, Stéfanie von Hlatky, Aisha Ahmad, and Stéphane Paquin.

The symposium was organized by the University of Calgary School of Public Policy, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, Université Laval’s Centre of the Analysis of Public Policy, IRPP, Massey College, and the School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Toronto.

Videos of all presentations and complete coverage by the Public Policy and Governance Review will be made available soon.

Symposium Partners