Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greets premiers at the start of a first ministers’ meeting as B.C. Premier David Eby (back left) and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (back right) attend virtually in Ottawa on Jan.15, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Why Alberta’s Danielle Smith is rejecting the Team Canada approach to Trump’s tariff threats

The largest exporting province rejecting a ‘Team Canada’ approach against Donald Trump doesn’t position the country well to negotiate with a second Trump administration.
Graduates listen during a convocation ceremony at Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, B.C., in May 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Arts graduate education in Canada should be redesigned around students’ and society’s needs

Canada needs the arts, with its insights into human behaviour and thinking, more than ever. But governments and funding agencies should shift funding models for arts graduate education.
UCP Leader Danielle Smith makes her victory speech in Calgary on May 29, 2023. Alberta’s United Conservative Party rode a wave of rural support to win a renewed majority in the provincial election — but not before the NDP took a big bite out of its support. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

What Danielle Smith’s remarkable comeback means for Canada

Danielle Smith’s win in the Alberta election can be traced to her decision to moderate her stance on some extreme issues that had helped her win the leadership of the United Conservative Party.
Danielle Smith celebrates after being chosen as the new leader of the United Conservative Party and next Alberta premier in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

How Danielle Smith won in Alberta and what it means for Canada

Danielle Smith’s win in the UCP leadership race follows the populist playbook. Will her time in office be a brief interlude, or the start of a significant challenge to national unity?
Edmonton demonstrators gather to protest against COVID-19 measures and support the ‘freedom convoy’ in February 2022. Research suggests Alberta separatist sentiments have as much to do with antipathy about the federal government and Justin Trudeau as actually leaving Confederation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

What the spectre of Alberta separatism means for Canada

Even though they lack the profile of Québec sovereigntists, Alberta separatists are positioned to exert significant political influence on intergovernmental relations in the years to come.
Universities face pressure to ensure their graduate programs have a clear return on investment both for students and for taxpayers. Here, the Vancouver skyline behind a Canadian flag in North Vancouver, B.C., March 24, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Coronavirus halted years of research and Canada needs a strategy to fight back

Graduate students are suffering, public investments in research are at risk and we need to face implications of growing reliance on international graduate students when borders are harder to cross.

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