Andrew Perez THE UNLIKELY NDP LEADER Last weekend Thomas Mulcair defied the odds. After four ballots delayed by a mysterious cyber attack against the NDP’s sophisticated voting system, the former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister sailed to victory garnering a decisive 57.2 per cent over Brian Topp’s 42.8 per cent among NDP members. Just how did…
Author: Andrew Perez
‘Drummond’s Roadmap to Austerity: A Watershed Moment in Ontario Politics’
Andrew Perez THE DIAGNOSIS Ontario is in a funk. Enter technocrat Don Drummond, the former federal mandarin tasked with writing a seminal report for the McGuinty government. The undertaking: revolutionize the way in which public services are delivered in Ontario. Never in recent memory has a government-commissioned report – a two-volume, 668-page document at that…
Is Ontario’s Ensuing Fiscal Squeeze Salvageable?
Andrew Perez The Backdrop Ontario just can’t get a break. Once the economic backbone of Canada, the province was paralyzed by the global economic crisis that ravished the globe three years ago. Fast forward to January 2012: the province is saddled with a $16-billion dollar deficit and a rate of growth that is slower than…
Race for Pink Palace unleashes mix of policy, politics, and the inevitable ‘wild card’
Andrew Perez The Public Policy and Governance Review asked current and former students to write a series of posts on the major policy events of the summer as we begin the fall semester. Today is the third of the series, setting us in the timely context of the Ontario provincial election. ____________ *The views expressed…
Election 2011: A Realignment of Historic Proportions?
Andrew Perez By all accounts, it was expected to be a status quo election, and one that would produce an almost identical result: a third consecutive minority Conservative government. The punditocracy and media establishment – confident Canadians would remain apathetic – had already begun to chime in on final seat counts before the opposition had…
A Liberal-NDP Merger: The Key Ingredient to a Rejuvenated Political Climate in Canada
[Ed: The opinions expressed are those of the author.] It’s not exactly the best of times to be a federal Liberal. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have the support of 40 per cent of Canadians, while Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals have plummeted to 27 per cent, a 13-percentage-point gap, according to a poll released last week. It is…
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