Julian Beltrame / Canadian Press

Employment Minister Jason Kenney says the Harper government has no intention of backing away from its income splitting pledge, despite a new report concluding the plan would exacerbate income inequality and bestow the most benefits to the West.

Charlie Smith / Strait.com

The Broadbent Institute has been promoting progressive policies from its Ontario base since 2011, but tonight it will hold its inaugural event in Vancouver to launch its B.C. arm.

Special guests from New York City showcase winning strategies for democratic renewal

VANCOUVER—The Broadbent Institute today expands west with a B.C. launch as part of its commitment to build a progressive agenda right across the country.

VANCOUVER—The Broadbent Institute will be holding its British Columbia launch with one of New York City’s top organizers as a special guest and hosting a luncheon with a leading NYC civic engagement leader as part of the Institute’s inaugural events in BC. The Broadbent Institute is a national progressive policy and training organization dedicated to promoting democracy, equality and sustainability.

Edward McClelland / Salon.com

A few summers ago, I spent six weeks in Canada, as part of a 10,000-mile Great Lakes Circle tour. From Pigeon River on Lake Superior to Kingston on Lake Ontario, I drove and camped my way across Ontario. On Manitoulin Island, I went on a fishing charter captained by a retired nickel miner named Tom Power. The Nickel Belt is a stronghold of Canada’s most socialistic party, the New Democrats. When the conversation turned to politics (as it often did with Canadians during the George W. Bush years), Tom made a statement that would have tabbed him as a Marxist crank on the other side of the lakes.

Though Preston Manning likes to point out that the etymological root of “conservative” and “conservation” are the same, Canada’s right-wing political parties seem to be going out of their way these days to prove him wrong. In fact, wherever you look around the world, the alienation of conservatives from anything vaguely “green” is nearing completion.

Aaron Wherry / Maclean's

At one point last Saturday afternoon in the main ballroom of the Delta hotel in downtown Ottawa, epicentre for the Broadbent Institute’s first annual Progress Summit, Alex Himelfarb, a former clerk of the privy council and now co-editor of a book entitled Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word, recalled being at a dinner party and wondering aloud about “how nice” it would be to have universal daycare in this country.

Broadbent Institute names Ms. Monk Honourary Board Member

OTTAWA—In recognition of her outstanding service as founding Executive Director and Senior Advisor, the Broadbent Institute is pleased to name Kathleen Monk as its first Honourary Board Member.