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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦

@jbroschek.bsky.social
2.6K followers 962 following 1.4K posts

Political Science Prof and Laurier Research Chair | Federalism/Multilevel Governance | Political Economy | (Active) Transportation and Infrastructure Policy | Kitchener/Waterloo Region More at tinyurl.com/4pzjpykm

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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 7h
What is the PM's understanding of federalism to begin with?
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John Michael McGrath @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social · 11h
One of the important parts of @justinling.ca's recent piece that set off alarm bells for me personally was the bit about Carney trying to govern around the bureaucracy with new agencies instead of doing civil service reform. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
theglobeandmail.com
Ottawa to turn defence procurement agency into Crown corporation, sources say
Move will give Defence Investment Agency and chief executive Doug Guzman far more authority in decision-making
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 12h
....many of us have been saying for a while that Forward Guidance alone won't cut it. policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/03/roya...
policyoptions.irpp.org
Open letter to the next prime minister: We need a royal commission on Canada’s future
(Version française disponible ici) Sign up for A Stronger Canada for The Trump Era. A temporary newsletter with the latest Canada-U.S. analyses from Policy Options. There is no longer any room for dou...
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 12h
"Justice Minister Sean Fraser told the courtroom full of dignitaries that provinces, communities and groups of people are asking questions about their roles within the Canadian federation." Well.... www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/politics/chi...
thecanadianpressnews.ca
Chief justice stresses need to protect democratic institutions as pressures grow
OTTAWA - Canada's democratic institutions need protection in the face of unrelenting pressures, Chief Justice Richard Wagner said Monday as the Supreme Court of Canada opened a new judicial year.
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Kai Arzheimer @kai-arzheimer.com · 13h
NB: the #AfD state party in Saxony-Anhalt is not just #farright: it has been classified as a right-wing extremist organisation since 2023. What could possibly go wrong?
dw.com
Germany news: Far-right AfD gets first house speaker in a German state parliament
For the first time since World War II, a far-right party has a house speaker in a German state parliament. And Germany's foreign minister has warned that the climate crisis could fuel extremism. DW has more.
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Luc Turgeon @lturgeon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Carney likely has even less knowledge of Quebec than Harper had. He’s popular now in the province. Will be interesting to see if that holds with a PQ government constantly criticizing him.
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Waterloo Region Record @therecord.com · 05/10/2026
The secret isn’t just high-speed rail or massive infrastructure projects, it’s making public transportation so affordable the alternative seems ridiculous. www.therecord.com/news/waterlo...
therecord.com
I'd trade my car for Germany's transit system
The secret isn’t just high-speed rail or massive infrastructure projects. It’s making public transportation so affordable the alternative seems ridiculous.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It's possible to compare apples and oranges, which is why I am planning to connect - despite all differences - some dots between the Sachsen-Anhalt election in Germany and the Alberta referendum in a panel discussion next week.
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Jared Wesley @jaredwesley.ca · 03/10/2026
More confirmation and details of the deep ties between Alberta separatists and Trump Republicans. They are part of the same far-right populist movement. And the Americans are deeply involved in promoting disunity in Canada. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
theglobeandmail.com
The elephant in the room
Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
...yes, other levels of government are an important part of the explanation. But a lack of transformative leadership is equally important. www.thespec.com/opinion/cont...
thespec.com
Municipal elections are crucial for voting in transformative leaders
More than ever before, we are in dire need of councillors and mayors committed to propel transformative change, Jörg Broschek writes.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In my ward (city council level) there is one candidate who has a credible climate plan, and it's not the incumbent. Serving six years on a municipal advisory committee has not changed my view that I wrote down in the context of the 2022 election.... www.therecord.com/news/municip...
therecord.com
Local climate plans are stalling — and the 2030 goal is slipping
The climate group says local progress is too slow to halve emissions by 2030, with provincial and federal policy shifts undermining key measures.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Yes, he seems to be doing “lüften” while attending the G7 summit.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
While Friedrich Merz seems to join from his attic home office in Arnsberg in the Sauerland region?
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Cooperative federalism?
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Armine Yalnizyan @armineyalnizyan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Holy cow "government’s huge subsidization of this project – up to 90 per cent of a $40-billion pipeline with ownership split evenly between Ottawa and Edmonton – ....." What kind of a deal is that? esp cuz we're subsidizing the past world of energy markets www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...
theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: Is it really a good idea for the government to subsidize a pipeline?
Designating the West Coast pipeline as a project of national interest exposes a global reality: Fossil fuels haven’t just lost to clean energy – they’ve already lost
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Great work by the Star. Leaving aside that it showcases the widespread culture of secrecy across the board, the piece also confirms that the lack of coordination among orders of government is a very substantial problem of Canadian federalism. www.thestar.com/news/gta/cit...
thestar.com
We fought 2 years to see the Ontario mayors’ group chat. Here’s what we found
One organization fought ceaselessly, with the help of a large, well-respected Bay Street law firm, to conceal this correspondence from the public.
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Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
My colleagues and I proposed a Royal Commission in part to avoid just this situation. We need many voices, discussing and debating the best way forward, precisely because of the changes we’re facing, not just one voice. Depending on the wisdom of one (fallible) person is bad policy.
policyoptions.irpp.org
Open letter to the next prime minister: We need a royal commission on Canada’s future
(Version française disponible ici) Sign up for A Stronger Canada for The Trump Era. A temporary newsletter with the latest Canada-U.S. analyses from Policy Options. There is no longer any room for dou...
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Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“There’s a fundamental contradiction between the tone Carney has struck at the summit and while globe-trotting, and the anger he showed this week after the Stelco news.” This is exactly correct. Another way of putting this is that Carney has been trying to run the old FDI playbook in a new world.…
thestar.com
Why laying off 500 workers at Hamilton's Stelco is an unpleasantly familiar warning for Mark Carney
From Stelco to Stellantis to shuttered factories, a pattern keeps repeating — and Carney's summit buzz won't fix it.
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John Muller @mrjohnmuller.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I really love this show, and the second season has been excellent so far. Strongly reccomend checking it out if you haven't already.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
...which - ideally - elites find more difficult to manipulate. I can't deny that I read a lot of Habermas back in the days.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Yes, that's why I was careful in wording this. The argument in favor of having a constitutional debate though would be that a broader, well designed deliberative process with meaningful public engagement can develop discursive power....
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
....it could work. But agreed - I don't see anyone capable of facilitating this. Arguably, another lost opportunity.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I see this risk. Neither do we need more centralization nor decentralization (both zero-sum). What we need is a deliberative setting for debating meaningful visions about how we want to manage interdependencies and shared sovereignty. I think if political leadership would recognize this....
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Wondering, however, if there's anyone left in the federal arena capable of articulating a meaningful constitutional vision(s) for Canadian federalism.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Maybe it's time to get over the constitutional odyssey of the 1980s and early 1990s and - assertively - open this can of worms. And perhaps this is exactly the historical moment when Canadians can try to "become a sovereign people", to quote the late Peter Russell.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Not sure if it's wise to let a bad faith actor drive, instrumentalize and pre-empt the constitutional space while all others (Ottawa included) remain silent.... www.thestar.com/news/canada/...
thestar.com
Premiers keeping cards close on constitutional changes pitched in Alberta referendum
EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's counterparts across the country are keeping their cards close to their chest on where they stand on the major constitutional reforms Smith is sending
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My IRL friends call me Chris @christyceeck.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Canadians deserve a voice in our country's direction -- and no matter what the CEO of Canada Inc. believes, our voice wasn't a one-and-done in a polling booth on April 28, 2025. #GiftLink 🎁 #CdnPoli www.thestar.com/gift-redeem?...
Carney has been keen to grab the lectern and discuss lofty issues — from Canada’s place in the world to the nature of global co-operation itself — at international forums such as the World Economic Forum and the European Parliament. But rather than merely address global policymakers and CEOs, he should talk to Canadians about these issues, too. Because the world can’t be changed by one man operating the machinery of one government: change comes from whole populations acting in common purpose.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
With @bhaggart.bsky.social @prleblond.bsky.social and Erick Duchesne. policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/03/roya...
policyoptions.irpp.org
Open letter to the next prime minister: We need a royal commission on Canada’s future
(Version française disponible ici) Sign up for A Stronger Canada for The Trump Era. A temporary newsletter with the latest Canada-U.S. analyses from Policy Options. There is no longer any room for dou...
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Confirms what motivated our call for a Royal Commission in early 2025, which could have facilitated this form of engagement: "Global Canada’s report should serve a more meta purpose: it clearly shows that Canadians are informed and interested, and that they want to be engaged on these questions."
thestar.com
Justin Ling: Mark Carney may appeal to vast swathes of the country, but there are some things about Canadians he doesn’t seem to get
Rather than merely address global policymakers and CEOs, the prime minister needs to talk to more everyday voters.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
So the challenge would be to specify the causal mechanism behind this rather cynical approach to politics....food for thought for sure....
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Ah, understood. Good question, no easy answer, but I would probably start by arguing it has a lot do with shifting mindsets of political leadership over time. A bit elusive, but strikes me as plausible, esp. if one compares how leaders perceived and articulated challenges in the past vs. today.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
economics + a technocratic version of public policy analysis became more often influential. This article covers some of this by focusing on how disciplinary developments within polisci contributed to this - applies more to the US than Canada but nevertheless lawliberty.org/book-review/...
lawliberty.org
Why Political Science is Boring – Lee Trepanier
Private philanthropic foundations like Ford and Rockefeller played an instrumental role in changing the practice and values of political science.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I'd say this more technocratic approach essentially took off in the 1960s influenced by the behavioural revolution in the social sciences. Since the 1980s, the social sciences then generally became more marginalized in policy-making and
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Main takeaway: neither centralization nor deregulation is the answer, but: institutional reforms that strengthen the capacity of the public service, govts + stakeholders to coordinate the development and implementation of policies. The Carney government is going exactly in the other direction.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
In his contribution for the Macdonald Commission, A. Cairns (1985) explained this problem inherent to the "embedded state", and federalism further complicates it. Today we understand it even better based on quantitative + qualitative research. For many: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Policy growth and maintenance in comparative perspective
Policy growth comes with multiple challenges for policy implementation. Congested policy portfolios increase the likelihood of interactions and contradictions between different policy objectives and ....
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
In short, governments in office create more policies than they terminate (for good reasons). On balance, and over decades, this has led to a cascade of problems resulting from complexity and interdependencies for those involved: public service, other levels of government, stakeholders etc.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
There's yet another reason why Bill C-39 misses the point: We know from an abundance of research that it is not regulation per se, but policy "accumulation" that creates structural challenges esp. in the implementation process of projects and programs. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
thestar.com
I’m a former federal labour minister. This is what Mark Carney is forgetting about ‘Canada Strong’
Mark Carney is right that Canada must change. But there’s a key thing he needs to do first
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thanks for sharing - very useful!
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Brian Doucet @briandoucet.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Kitchener-Waterloo screening of 'Thinking Beyond the Market: a film about genuinely affordable housing' Tuesday 29 September 7:00pm University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy (10A Victoria St N, Kitchener) Co-hosted by @therecord.com Info & free registration here: www.eventbrite.ca/e/thinking-b...
eventbrite.ca
Thinking Beyond the Market: a film about genuinely affordable housing
Film Screening followed by Q&A with director Dr Brian Doucet and editor-in-chief of the Waterloo Region Record
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Less than a week ago, in his brilliant speech in Strasbourg, the PM quoted Goethe: "Goethe understood that ideals must be fought for, that values do not defend themselves".
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
...while simultaneously displaying the fragmented nature of Canadian sovereignty itself.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yes, history rhymes but maybe sometimes it even repeats itself.... The standardization of measures, time zones etc. is nineteenth century stuff. From a historical point of view, it's (almost) fascinating to see how we're embarking on a reversing trajectory in 2026.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Also telling about the capacity of Canadian federalism to harmonize basic standards conducive to building the One Canadian Economy.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Unlike in Canadian federalism, in Germany Land elections still have important implications for federal politics and the federal government itself. p.dw.com/p/5MpIa
p.dw.com
Germany's Merz under pressure as AfD eyes second state win
Exit polls have the far-right AfD leading the Social Democrats in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Left Party ahead in Berlin. Merz referred to the outcome as "a disaster". DW has more.
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Rahel Freiburghaus @rfrbrghs.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
79% (!) turnout in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Turnout is rising in Germany, largely due to the AfD mobilising former non-voters en masse. Meanwhile, in Swiss regional elections, where constituent units actually have much greater fiscal power, turnout is falling, hovering ≈30% bsky.app/profile/tage...
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
How infrastructure ownership and governance matters. Textbook example for "path dependency", literally. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
In Canada's 'Railway City' the tracks end in the grass. Why a passenger rail revival isn't so simple | CBC News
Canada is spending billions to expand passenger rail after decades of decline, but torn-up tracks, lost corridors and a surviving network built around freight means communities trying to bring trains ...
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Most people know about the Berlin-Kitchener thing but there is much more. 13+ years here and I am still discovering new fascinating stuff by occasionally stopping in small towns that we were passing through many times before
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Reminds me of the reaction of our visitors when we take them on a short trip through Waterloo Region on their first day here and we pass through Mannheim, Heidelberg and Bamberg.
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
That's my understanding too....
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