Sean Speer

Sean Speer: Charest against Poilievre is a proxy for boomers against millennials

As the Conservative party’s leadership race takes shape, there’s been an early tendency to frame the campaign along ideological and temperamental lines. It’s been mostly portrayed as a contest between conservative and more moderate candidates or…

Sean Speer: Elite silence on Trudeau government's lawsuit against the speaker is a threat to public trust

In the 2006 federal election campaign, Stephen Harper was widely criticized for stating the obvious: even if Conservatives win elections, they must still govern in a political context in which virtually every mainstream institution — including…

Sean Speer: The keys to Jordan Peterson’s success

Article content This week marked the much-anticipated release of University of Toronto Prof. Jordan Peterson’s latest book, “Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life.” If his last book, which has sold more than five million copies, is any indication, the…

Sean Speer: Farming industry is cutting edge, but Trudeau and O'Toole prefer to celebrate smallness

Article content A common theme of this column is the lack of ambition and the role of complacency in Canadian politics and our broader society. We are too often apprehensive, self-conscious and inclined to cast our sights on the local and familiar…

Perceived differences could erode cohesion and unity unless policy-makers are prepared to build bridges and cultivate a politics of empathy.

Perceived differences could erode cohesion and unity unless policy-makers are prepared to build bridges and cultivate a politics of empathy. Canadian policy-makers and citizens must be more attuned to the potential for rising political polarization…

Sean Speer: Vaccine deficit exposes structural flaws in our government

This week’s news that Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine supply is essentially drying up is bound to have major political ramifications. We’re now 33rd in the world for vaccinations per 100 people — just below countries such as Poland, Portugal and Cyprus —…

Sean Speer: The struggle for the moral foundations of the Conservative party

New polling this week from the Angus Reid Institute tells us that the Conservative party continues to struggle to break out of its low 30s trap. What is the low 30s trap? It refers to the party’s ongoing challenges in breaking free from a narrow band…

Good Ideas that Might Find Favor In a New Era

The evidence from places that use regulatory budgeting (which include the U.K., Canada and a handful of U.S. states) is fairly clear: regulatory budgeting lowers the costs of regulation without sacrificing the benefits.

Sean Speer: There's a danger in trying to root out extremism from mainstream politics

The effects of the Capitol Hill riot in Washington, D.C., continue to reverberate more than two weeks later. They were the backdrop of President Joe Biden’s inaugural speech (“violence sought to shake the Capitol’s very foundation”) and have since…

Sean Speer: After Donald Trump the role of government will never be the same

Four years after his unconventional inaugural speech in which he painted a dark picture of “American carnage”, Donald Trump’s presidency has officially come to an end. How should we think about his legacy on matters of policy and…

Sean Speer: How Barstool Sports is taking pandemic aid into its own hands

There’s been so much discussion and debate about the government’s response to the pandemic that it might leave the impression that our only options in such a crisis are a hyperactive (and underperforming) state or a sort of Hobbesian world in which…

Sean Speer: Chaos in Washington highlights the dark side of populism

Wednesday’s chaos in the U.S. Capitol building was a shocking display of political extremism in action. A relatively small yet radical group of Americans who were no longer satisfied to merely traffic in fringe ideas online. As a joint session of…

Sean Speer: It took a pandemic to realize what we had

It’s an oddity of human nature that we often have to lose something in order to fully appreciate it. The coronavirus and the accompanying restrictions on travel and gatherings have separated many of us from family and friends, including over the…

Podcast: The Impact of and Response to Globalisation an Interview with Sean Speer

Concerns about the impact of globalisation on the quality of life have been growing in recent years. While it is usually agreed that most nations have benefitted economically from the growth of globalisation, there has been increasing recognition…

Sean Speer: A hockey mystery, and a story of my hometown

Growing up in Thunder Bay, Ont., involved a lot of hockey. My brother, friends and I played or watched hockey every chance that we could. As I’ve previously written, it was basically a way of life for us. I remember how excited we were when the city…

Sean Speer: The case against forgiving student debt

Joe Biden hasn’t even been sworn in as president and yet he’s already facing considerable pressure to move forward with various left-wing priorities including the forgiveness of student debt. Progressive Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren and Ilhan…

Sean Speer: MPs voting their conscience shouldn't be a big deal

When the House of Commons passed the Trudeau government’s contentious medical assistance in dying (MAID) bill this week, two Liberal MPs, Marcus Powlowski and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, notably broke ranks and voted against the legislation. Their votes…

Sean Speer: Hillbilly Elegy is sympathetic to a part of America that elites long ignored. No wonder critics don’t like it

The disconnect between elite and popular sensibilities is hardly new. But it seems even more pronounced in our current populist age. Recent cultural analysis, including British writer David Goodhart’s pithy yet useful distinction between the…

Reforming fiscal federalism must address intergovernmental entangling of services and policies. The Council of the Federation could play a key role.

COVID-19 has contributed to unprecedented deficits for Canadian governments and heightened concerns about the long-term fiscal sustainability of several provinces. In response, Canada’s premiers are calling for increases to Canada Health Transfer and…

Sean Speer: Tories need a 'reset' to call their own

Recent Conservative criticism of the Trudeau government’s alleged plan to “reengineer” the economy has certainly struck a chord. There’s been plenty of subsequent debate about whether the claim is justified or conspiratorial, or even if the Liberals…