Sunday, June 28, 2009

Issue Search 2009: Because We're All Policy Wonks At Heart

With this being Canada Day Weekend 1 (of 2) this year, I'd say we are well into summer. With the news cycle likely to be lighter (Honduran coups notwithstanding), I figure I'd delve into summer series of posts. I've been noticing over the last few months of breathless election speculation that there are no big issues on the Canadian political landscape, at least nothing tangible. I mean the economy is a mess and Canadians would like to see it improve but the stimulus package is generally popular and there's not enough day light between two major parties on the economy to kill a vampire. So, what I want to explore over the next few posts (with the news of the day in between when appropriate), is what are the major issues facing Canada today and tomorrow? What are the problems? What are the possible solutions? If we are going to drag Canadians to the polls in the next year we should probably figure out some reasons for doing so. Hopefully, I can offer some possibilities. So, for a start here are some of the issues I'm going to discuss in no particular order:
  1. The Death of Canadian Manufacturing and the Future of the Canadian Economy
  2. The What and Where of Canadian Trade
  3. The Role of the Federal Government and Canada as a United Country
  4. The Looming Demographic Health Care Crisis
  5. The Climate Crisis and Canada's Role in its Resolution
  6. The Role of the Canadian Military After Afghanistan/2011
  7. Childcare
  8. East-West Infrastructure
  9. The Role of Cities in Contemporary Canada
  10. Civic Engagement in the 21st Century
Topic suggestions are more than welcome.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Suggestion for another topic: The democratic deficit, esp.the erosion of the role of the MP and of Parliament in general.

Anonymous said...

You can't avoid law and order issues. The tories are making it pretty clear that they are ready to push that issue to the point of being an election issue.

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