The Harper Decade

The Harper Decade is a digital series featuring expert commentary on the changes that have occurred in Canada over the past decade of Conservative rule.

Canada Has Changed

Richie Assaly, Amy Sanderson, and Avnish Nanda offer a concluding overview of The Harper Decade, and examine what is at stake on October 19.

10-15
20:25

Impeding Access to Healthcare: Harper’s Crusade Against Harm Reduction

Nazlee Maghsoudi argues that Harper's drug policy and aggressive opposition to harm reduction strategies have put the health and safety of Canadians at risk.

10-13
09:34

La lutte de Stephen Harper contre l’environnement

Face aux changements faits par le premier ministre Stephen Harper en environnement depuis son arrivée à la tête du gouvernement en 2006, Eve Bourgeois discute des répercussions de ces politiques sur la scène nationale et internationale.

10-01
10:12

Foreign Posturing: How does Harper’s foreign policy stack up?

Paul Heinbecker, a Canadian diplomat and former chief foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of Harper's foreign policy record.

09-28
24:26

Under Attack: Canada’s Public Service Under Stephen Harper

Canadian politics scholar Dave Whitson explains how the Harper government's stubborn idealogical distaste for social science has undermined both the effectiveness and spirit of Canada's once robust public service.

09-24
08:35

No history of colonialism? Well, we’ve got one now!

Political philosopher Richard Day offers a stirring overview of the Canadian state's ongoing colonialism, both within our borders and abroad.

09-17
07:51

The Harper Decade: Housing First, but affordable housing last/ La décennie Harper: Logement d’abord, mais logement abordable dernier

Carey Doberstein and Alison Smith argue that the federal government's ambitious plan to tackle homelessness in Canada has been rendered impotent by the pitiful scale of financial investment by the federal government.

09-10
10:45

Harper’s Anti-Politics Machine: Canada’s Mining Industry and International Development Assistance

Trina Moyles shares a personal account of her development experience in Central America, and reports on the harmful environmental and ethical consequences of Canada's international extractive industry.

09-03
11:27

Canada: A Dishonest Broker for Peace in the Middle East

Micha Kurz provides a unique perspective on Canada's controversial embrace of Israel, and its perilous implications for the Palestinian population.

08-27
15:10

A Fierce Attachment: Canada, Israel, Palestine and the Harper Years

University of Western Ontario Professor of Law Michael Lynk weighs in on Canada's increasingly close relationship with the State of Israel.

08-25
18:16

The Conservative Take on Crime Policy

Prison and sentencing expert Lisa Kerr and criminology scholar Anthony N. Doob detail the Conservative's peculiar and politically polarizing attempt to reform Canada's criminal justice policy at a time when crime is in a longstanding state of decline.

08-20
18:35

What We Don’t Know Will Hurt Us: Ignorance In The Information Age

Dr. Ryan Meili explains how the loss of information, the muzzling of government scientists, and federal cuts to health care have compromised the health and wellbeing of Canadians.

08-13
06:19

Harper's Surveillance Decade

Surveillance expert David Murakami Wood explains how the Conservative's steady expansion of security and control, including the passage of the controversial Bill C-51, has eroded the right to privacy in Canada.

08-06
12:07

Our Home and Native Lilliput

Award-winning journalist and author David Macfarlane wryly grapples with what he considers Prime Minister Harper's most essential quality — smallness.

07-30
06:44

The Harper Record: A Mixed Bag

Aaron Wudrick, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, evaluates the Conservative government's tangled fiscal record

07-23
05:19

Harper’s 10 Year War on First Nations

Pamela Palmater explains how the Conservatives’ abysmal relationship with First Nations has exacerbated the socio-economic gap separating Canadians and Indigenous peoples.

07-16
07:56

Energy and Climate in the Harper Decade

Marc Lee measures the success – and heavy cost – of the Conservatives’ ambitious energy policy

07-09
05:30

Forecasting Change: Restoring Canada's Right to Know

Chloe Shantz-Hilkes details the struggle for information and access to science under the tight watch of the Conservative government.

07-02
03:41

Ten Years of Shifting Sands for Refugees and Immigrants

Raj Sharma and Ram Sankaran outline the Conservative government’s contentious immigration and refugee policy, and the alarming legacy it will leave behind.

06-25
07:22

The Harper Decade: A Miserable Ten Years

Peter H. Russell argues that deliberation in Canada’s parliament has been stifled, paving the way for a transformative period of “lean and mean corporate management.”

06-18
06:43

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