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

Course Description

This course is intended to draw on the skills, analytic approaches, and policy knowledge that students have acquired over the course of the MPP program and to bring them to bear on the development of a coherent policy agenda for the current Canadian context.

The course is modelled after the Institute for Research and Public Policy’s Canadian Priorities Agenda (CPA) project, updated to account for the dramatic shifts in the policy environment since the original CPA exercise in 2007. The CPA brought together a group of “agenda-setters” to set priority areas for action, researchers who made proposals for particular policies within each priority area, and a panel of “judges” who recommended new policy agendas for Canada by choosing from among the proposals presented. In this course, the student will act as all three—agenda setters, proponents and judges—in developing and defending an agenda of three policies for their final course assignment.

Unlike in past years, there will be no policy menu from which students choose their options. Rather, the student will conceive, design, develop and justify their own policy options and integrated agenda for improving the economic and social well-being of Canadians. Invited speakers will suggest important policy areas, but they will not necessarily be included in a student agenda.

The course will ask students to showcase integrative thinking, and make reasoned policy choices in the face of budgetary realities and political constraints. Students are expected to engage critically and meaningfully with the material and information presented through course assignments and in breakout groups.

By the end of the course, it is expected students will be able to balance and articulate the political, economic, social, fiscal, and intergovernmental needs and constraints of policymaking in Canada. Additionally, it is expected that by the end of the course students will be able to moderate the complexities of policymaking to address the question: what mix of policy options will most improve the social and economic wellbeing of Canadians?

Term
Spring (2nd year)

Instructors
M. Cappe
A. Siddiqi
L. White
TBA

Notes
*Prerequisite: Successful completion of at least 5.5 FCEs in MPP1 courses
Required of all second year students.