Inside Policy Talks

For decades, we’ve been told that freedom means throwing off restraint. But what if the sexual revolution didn’t liberate us, and instead left us lonelier, unhappier, and adrift? Our culture’s promises of autonomy and self-creation have left young people disconnected from family, tradition, and purpose. We’re missing something deeper – about what it means to love, belong, and build a life that las...

Multiculturalism has been a policy and a political ideal for over 50 years in Canada. It’s shaped our immigration system, institutions, and the way Canadians see themselves. Yet its meaning has shifted dramatically since then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau introduced it. It began as a national unity strategy. But for many, it’s become a slogan about diversity for its own sake. That’s left us divide...

Canadian culture is at a crossroads. For over 70 years, Canada's arts and media funding framework has remained largely unchanged, even as the country has become more diverse, more digital, and more disconnected from a unifying cultural vision. Canada now faces a patchwork system riddled with duplication, inefficiency, and uncertainty of purpose – from the CBC to the CRTC, and from municipal arts g...

 As birth rates fall and family formation grows increasingly fragile across the developed world, understanding the forces driving these trends has never been more urgent. In this episode of Inside Policy Talks, we explore the complex interplay of policy, culture, and economics shaping family life in Canada and the United States. Patrick T. Brown, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Cente...

The importance of the Arctic is increasing, both for Canada and for our allies. That means it's critical to better understanding it. While Canadians sense that the Arctic is part of their identity, few are deeply familiar with the region — its environment, its vastness, its diversity, or its challenges. In that context, understanding the Russian Arctic — which is very different from the Canadian A...

Free speech was once considered a bedrock democratic value. Now it's become one of the most contested issues in our culture-shaping institutions. Over the past decade, debates about what can and can’t be said have intensified across universities, schools, newsrooms, and corporate boardrooms. In many Western democracies, including Canada, speech codes, cancel campaigns, and ideological conformity h...

Science is often seen as the gold standard in policymaking – objective, rigorous, and self-correcting. But what happens when the science itself is uncertain, contradictory, or unreproducible? Over the past two decades, concerns about replication, statistical misuse, and institutional bias have shaken public confidence in science – from medicine to psychology to public health. On the other hand, in...

On this episode, we tackle one of the most contested—and consequential—issues in public life: the rise of gender ideology and the erasure of biological sex. Over the past decade, the idea that gender is self-declared and disconnected from biology has reshaped our laws, schools, medical systems, and public discourse. But there’s growing pushback. In the United Kingdom, we’ve seen a remarkable rever...

Across the Western world, we’re seeing a crisis in youth mental health, a collapse in family formation, and growing confusion about sex and gender. At the same time, more young people than ever report feeling lonely, directionless, and disconnected. In this episode of Inside Policy Talks, Dr. Leonard Sax—a family physician, psychologist, and best-selling author of The Collapse of Parenting—joins M...

In this episode, Peter Copeland, deputy director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Domestic Policy Program, speaks with Cameron Field, a Toronto Police veteran and financial crimes expert. Field explains that there are three types of mortgage fraud in Canada. First, there's fraud for shelter, whereby some homebuyers committ fraud to obtain a mortgage. Next, there's fraud for profit, in which ac...

Ken Coates, director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Indigenous Affairs Program, is joined by journalist and economist Edgardo Sepulveda, an expert data storyteller. Sepulveda's new study for MLI analyzed data for church arsons in Canada and around the world. He found that following reports in 2021 of unmarked graves at residential schools, Canada saw a spike in church arsons compared to othe...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks, where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada's future! In this episode, Ken Coates, director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Indigenous Affairs Program, speaks with Sheila North, a journalist, storyteller, and former Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. When it comes to post-secondary education, North tells Coates that some of the greates...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada's future! In this episode, Peter Copeland, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Program at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, sits down with Ryan Manucha, a leading expert on interprovincial trade. Manucha offers a compelling vision of how Canada's provinces can recognize each other's professional licenses, b...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada's future! In this episode, Balkan Devlen, Studio Fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, sits down with Peter Hefele, Policy Director at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. Hefele pulls back the curtain on Europe's high-stakes challenges: Can Germany reboot its economic engine? Will Europe fi...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada's future! In this episode, Peter Copeland, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), sits down with Peter Menzies, MLI Senior Fellow, former publisher of the Calgary Herald, and past Vice Chair of the CRTC. Menzies offers a provocative analysis of the CBC's futur...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks, where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada's future! In this episode, Peter Copeland, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, sits with Ross McKitrick, professor of economics at the University of Guelph. In a recent commentary series for MLI, McKitrick looks at income levels, demography and population change,...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada's future! In this compelling episode, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Director of Indigenous Affairs, Ken Coates, sits with Dallas Smith, spokesperson for the First Nations for Finfish Stewardship (FNFFS) and a member of the Tlowitsis First Nations in Campbell River, B.C., to unpack the nuanced world of sal...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada today! In this episode, Peter Copeland, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Program at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, sits down with Tim Carney, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In their discussion, Carney provides a comprehensive overview of the alarming trends around declining marria...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada's future! In this episode, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Ken Coates sits down with Linda Sams, biologist with over 37 years of business and management experience in the aquaculture sector, and an expert in the Canadian salmon farming industry.  In this insightful discussion, Sams shares her extensive back...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we dive into the ideas and policies shaping Canada's future! In this episode, Peter Copeland, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Program at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, sits down with Cardus' Senior Fellow Andrea Mrozek and Program Director Peter Jon Mitchell. The discussion covers the trends and social effects surrounding marriage and family formatio...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we discuss the ideas and policies shaping Canada today! In this episode, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Ken Coates sits down with Brian Kingzett, Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farming Association, to discuss the future of salmon farming in British Columbia. Kingzett provides a comprehensive overview of the salmon farming industry - its history, econo...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks , where we discuss the ideas and policies shaping Canada today! In this episode, Senior Fellow Alex Dalziel is joined by a panel of experts to examine Greenland's pivotal position at the intersection of global superpowers vying for influence in the North American Arctic. Guests Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen of the Royal Danish Defence College, Christian Keldsen, Director of...

Welcome to Inside Policy Talks, where we discuss the ideas and policies shaping Canada today! In this episode, Peter Copeland, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Program at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, sits down with Dave Snow, MLI senior fellow and associate professor at the University of Guelph, to discuss the growing influence of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at Can...