Inside Policy Talks

Macdonald-Laurier Institute
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Inside Policy Talks is the premier video podcast of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Ottawa's most influential public policy think tank. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute exists to make bad public policy unacceptable in our nations capital.

  1. 12/11/2025

    Daly & Mancini: Fixing Canada’s internal trade woes is a national economic imperative

    Canada’s economic future increasingly hinges on a deceptively simple question: how free is trade within Canada itself? For decades, economists and policymakers have warned that Canada’s internal market—fragmented by duplicative rules, sector-specific carve-outs, and a thicket of provincial exceptions—acts as a drag on growth and competitiveness. Even the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, heralded as a breakthrough, is riddled with loopholes. To dig deeper, Inside Policy Talks brings together legal scholar Paul Daly and MLI senior fellow Mark Mancini for a conversation with Peter Copeland, MLI’s deputy director of domestic policy. Daly explains the central irony: removing regulatory barriers requires a mechanism with real authority to do it. Without a body empowered by both Parliament and the provinces, “what you're going to get is what we have, which is a mosaic of different provisions.” Canada needs a national coordinating agency with the power to set standards, enforce mutual recognition, harmonize where necessary, and “raise [barriers] to the ground,” as Daly puts it.  Mancini agrees, stressing that skepticism toward new agencies is understandable—but the status quo simply cannot solve the problem. This wouldn’t be “an agency for the sake of an agency,” but an institution designed to tackle a precise challenge: the inability of governments to coordinate regulatory reform on their own. With nationwide buy-in, such a body could finally move Canada beyond one-off bilateral deals toward a genuinely integrated economic union.  Together, Daly and Mancini make the case that fixing Canada’s internal trade system is not a technocratic curiosity—it’s a national economic imperative.

    46 min

  2. 12/04/2025

    Paul Warchuk: Property rights are 'precarious' in Canada

    Across Canada, some of the most heated disputes – from housing restrictions to Indigenous land claims – turn on this question: how secure are Canadians’ property rights? The answer may surprise you. Canada is one of the only developed democracies where property rights have no constitutional protection. That gap has real consequences. It can lead to family farms shuttered by regulation, homeowners caught in civil forfeiture, or even recent court decisions like Cowichan Tribes v. Canada which upended long-held assumptions about ownership itself. To unpack these issues, University of New Brunswick law professor Paul Warchuk joins Inside Policy Talks. Warchuk is the author of a powerful new MLI paper on property rights in Canada, titled Beyond patchwork protection: Towards comprehensive property rights in Canadian law. In it, he traces the philosophical and legal evolution of property from early philosophers up to the Charter era. He argues that property is not only a private entitlement but a public trust that safeguards liberty and prosperity alike. On the podcast, Warchuk tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at MLI, that “there is a lot of resistance to property rights,” perhaps stemming from the fact that not all Canadians believe these rights serve and protect them. He added that while most Canadians feel their property rights are secure, the situation is “precarious” because despite some basic protections “it's very easy for government to override them.” “If you find yourself in the circumstance of one of the unlucky few that is affected in this way,” says Warchuk, “your perspective would change completely, and you'd feel a little bit more of the injustice.”

    51 min

  3. 11/20/2025

    John Gilmour: Commercial encryption is a challenge for signals intelligence

    Canada faces a growing array of national security threats—from foreign interference networks to money laundering operations and organized crime groups exploiting modern digital tools. Yet many of our laws designed to protect Canadians were written for a different era. As hostile actors adapt faster than our institutions, gaps in Canada’s legal framework have become opportunities for adversaries to operate with alarming ease. What should Canadians understand about the risks created by outdated security legislation? And how should policymakers balance the need for lawful access to electronic data with the privacy protections guaranteed under the Charter? To break down these complex challenges, Dr. John Gilmour joins Inside Policy Talks. A senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Gilmour is an expert in terrorism, counterterrorism, and intelligence. He has served in the security and intelligence branch of the Privy Council Office, worked with CSIS, and now teaches at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute and Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. On the podcast, he tells Christopher Coates, MLI’s Director of Foreign Policy, National Defence, and National Security, that Canada is now “in a race it cannot afford to lose.” Criminal syndicates and foreign adversaries are exploiting digital communications at a speed that far outstrips current investigative powers. Without modernized tools—such as those proposed in Bill C-2—Canadian authorities risk being permanently outpaced.

    22 min

  4. 11/13/2025

    Hillel Neuer: The UN matters whether we like it or not

    The UN Human Rights Council contains members like China, Cuba, and Qatar. Yet it remains a highly trusted institution across Western democracies. What should the public understand about the reality of activities going on at the UN? And how should Western democratic governments address the organization’s shortcomings? To discuss some of the major concerns about the UN, Hillel Neuer joins Inside Policy Talks. Neuer is a lawyer, writer, and activist, and the executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO based in Geneva, Switzerland. Neuer has often testified before the United Nations and is a widely cited expert on its activities. On the podcast, he tells Casey Babb, director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Promised Land project, that with public opinion surveys continuing to demonstrate widespread public confidence in the UN amongst those living in Western democracies, what happens at the UN matters “whether we like it or not.” “What’s said at the UN influences the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of people,” says Neuer. That’s why he’s focused on delivering his message about the stark reality that the UN “turns a blind eye to human rights abuses happening in China” while making Israel a “scapegoat for everything they're not doing on catastrophes around the world.” He says Western democratic governments, like Canada’s, must use their “moral gravitas” to speak out on this imbalance at the UN.

    29 min

  5. 11/07/2025

    Nathan Pinkoski: What’s behind faltering liberalism?

    Across the Western world, migration, identity, and belonging have moved from policy questions to existential ones. The political and moral assumptions that held our societies together for decades are starting to unravel. Now, there is deep tension between those who want to defend the open, liberal order, and those who believe its openness has gone too far – eroding belonging, stability, and moral coherence. What comes next? Are we watching the liberal order evolve, or decay? To reflect on this, Nathan Pinkoski joins Inside Policy Talks. Pinkoski – a Canadian-born, US-based a political theorist whose work traces the decline of liberal constitutionalism – is a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America. He's taught at the Universities of Florida, Princeton, and Toronto. On the podcast, he tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, that much of today's discourse on liberalism's unravelling has centred on the role played by ideas. However, Pinkoski says he views institutions as another vital part of this conversation. "Something else that changed at the latter part of the 20th century is we stopped thinking about liberalism as a system that required us to have a particular set of institutions," says Pinkoski. "We love the grand story of these different ideas that are kind of moving through time," he says. "But we have to remember that for Plato, for Aristotle – when they are describing the character of a regime, what matters is how the law shapes the soul. And if you change the law, if you change the institutions, you're going to change the kinds of people that are inside them."

    1h 8m

  6. 10/30/2025

    Yves Giroux: Soaring spending demands effective parliamentary oversight

    It’s been more than 10 months since Canadians got a close look at the federal finances in last fall’s economic statement. At that time, they learned the deficit for the 2023–24 fiscal year had ballooned by over 50 per cent. Now, as the Carney government prepares to table its first fiscal blueprint, there’s talk once again of rising spending and soaring deficits. A recent Desjardins forecast estimated the deficit for the current fiscal year could exceed $70 billion. That’s a more than 65 per cent increase from what was forecast in Fall Economic Statement 2024. This news comes amid government promises for “generational investments” but also a request to ministers to find “ambitious savings.” So, what should Canadians be watching for in the November budget? And, more importantly, as billions of dollars continue to flow from federal coffers, are parliamentarians well positioned to give this spending the scrutiny they’re meant to deliver on behalf of Canadians under our Westminster system? To discuss this, former parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux joins Inside Policy Talks. Giroux served seven years as PBO, finishing his term just last month. On the podcast, he tells Ian Campbell, digital editor at MLI, that it's less important which fiscal anchor the government chooses, but simply that it picks one and sticks to it over a period of time. With many forecasts predicting that Ottawa is set to drop yet another one of its fiscal anchors – this time, a declining debt-to-GDP ratio – Giroux says this "erodes the confidence of financial markets in the seriousness or the control that the government has over its own finances." Campbell and Giroux also discussed a number of long-standing issues with the federal fiscal cycle that make it difficult for parliamentarians to exercise a high degree of scrutiny over government spending. Giroux said with only two people in Ottawa holding real sway over what ends up in the budget – the prime minister and finance minister – it's vital to make improvements to the fiscal cycle so parliamentarians can exercise a greater degree of oversight in this process.

    53 min

  7. 10/23/2025

    John Adams: Rare diseases reveal hard truths about Canada’s healthcare gaps

    Rare diseases affect only a small number of Canadians, but a lack of adequate testing and treatment reveals some of the key weaknesses in our health care system. These illnesses – which affect about one in 12 Canadians – raise hard questions about health care costs, access, and fairness, and test how well Canada’s fragmented health governance systems can adapt to new challenges. For a closer look at Canadian rare disease policy, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow John Adams joins Inside Policy Talks. Adams is a management consultant and one of Canada’s leading advocates for patients with rare diseases. Adams is the co-founder of CanPKU and chair of the Best Medicines Coalition, which represents millions of Canadian patients. His personal journey as a parent and caregiver for his son, who has a rare disease, has left Adams with unique insights on drug access, rare disease policy, and health care reform. On the podcast, he tells host Shawn Whatley, a physician and senior fellow at MLI, that one of the key steps Canada could take to better serve patients with rare diseases is passing an orphan drug law like the one that exists in the United States. These laws incentivize the development of new drugs for rare diseases that are otherwise unprofitable due to small patient populations.

    49 min

  8. 10/16/2025

    Andrew Fox: 'Palestinianism' remains a threat to Middle East peace

    There's rapid change happening in Middle East In a ceremonial show of unity, world leaders headed to Egypt for an Oct. 13 peace summit in support of United States President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza. All living hostages have been returned to Israel, though Jerusalem is still working to secure the release of some deceased hostages. It's been a historic week, but questions remain about the future of Hamas, and what it will take to deliver long-term security in the region. To discuss what happens next, Andrew Fox joins Inside Policy Talks. Fox served 16 years in the British Army, completed three tours in Afghanistan, and further tours of Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East. A prominent expert on the Israel-Hamas war, Fox was a senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is currently an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and an associate fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. On the podcast, he tells Casey Babb, who leads the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Promised Land project, that it's difficult to gauge what level of support Hamas retains in Gaza. However, he says the deeply rooted ideaology of "Palestinianism" will remain a problem in any scenario. "This idea of the from the river to the sea – it's not about having your independent Gaza Strip or your independent West Bank and a Palestinian polity," says Fox. "It's about getting rid of Israel and replacing it with this brand new country called Palestine that's never existed before." "I would suggest that's got a near 100 per cent approval rating across the Palestinian territories."

    34 min
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About

Inside Policy Talks is the premier video podcast of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Ottawa's most influential public policy think tank. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute exists to make bad public policy unacceptable in our nations capital.

Information

  • Creator
    Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    109
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023 Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Show Website
    Inside Policy Talks

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