150!Canada Conference
It started as a talk and then it grew. Two weeks ago, we welcomed more than three hundred delegates from across the country to the 150!Canada Conference at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The first big event to begin imagining and planning Canada’s Sesquicentennial, it featured 25 speakers — including Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, Senator Romeo Dallaire, and beloved author Roch Carrier — and 15 roundtable discussions that explored everything from new public works to how Canada could host a truly global party in 2017. A wrap-up report is on its way… while it moves through production, read Helen Davies’ terrific new book Politics of Participation: Learning from Canada’s Centennial year or watch any of the 25 talks online here.

Northumberland Hills Hospital
Last month Northumberland Hills Hospital released its plan for balancing its budget — based on the recommendations made by a 28 member Citizens’ Advisory Panel created for the hospital by MASS LBP. One of the most ambitious and thorough public consultations conducted by an Ontario hospital, the Panel was charged with identifying more than $1 million in savings and met on five Saturdays throughout the fall to determine the hospital’s core services.

National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy
We’ve been retained to help the National Roundtable to think about how it can engage Canadians in a new conversation about climate policy. We’re busy brushing up on a wide range of initiatives that have taken place around the world in recent years. We’ll be reporting back with recommendations soon.

Shape Burlington
Last week we submitted our final report to the heads of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Community Engagement in Burlington. The report was the result of extensive conversations over three months with hundreds of Burlington residents and dozens of city staff. Our recommendations focus on how the city can work to change local attitudes and assumptions ahead of formal municipal structures.

United Way & Laidlaw Foundation
Young people deserve a say in the development of provincial policy. But how? That’s the question we’ve been asked to tackle by the United Way and Laidlaw Foundation. Building on the progress of the Ontario Youth Matters! campaign, we’ll be working throughout the summer to develop more effective mechanisms for bringing young Ontario voices into the development of provincial policies.
 

Why Empathy Matters by J.D. Trout
Maybe you don’t need to be told why empathy matters, but psychologist J. D. Trout clearly disagrees. According to Trout, elite skepticism towards empathetic responses, and our resistance to cultivating those responses – either among policymakers or the public — is the source of too many policy failures and too much political deadlock. Overcoming the emotional distance that settles in between warring factions is the first hurdle to developing more effective and humane governance. Among Trout’s recommendations: Bring groups of citizens closer together so they can learn from one another while deliberating on shared concerns. Okay. So we like that one. But we’re sure you’ll find much else to like in this book too. For Trout, the personal is political — and so much the better.

Here’s an author interview and book review.

The BBC is cutting its budget for online broadcast and publishing in half. The second most visited news website on the planet, the BCC has long been on the vanguard of new media news — but with a Tory government likely only weeks away, expect a fierce new debate on public subsidies for the post-broadcast world.

Who here loves Tom Rand? We do and we admire his spunk in putting out a new video to back his book Kick the Petrol Habit. A successful VC, philosopher and engineer Tom runs the CleanTech practice at Toronto’s MaRS and recently opened Planet Traveler, North America’s greenest hostel.

South Korea: In 1992 3.2 percent of those who passed the public service entrance exam were woman, in 2009 it was 47 percent.  Gender equality in action or something else?

Big Bang. Constitutional Amendment 108 reserves one-third of seats in Parliament and State Assemblies for women.

It seems that modern libraries are busy with everything but books. Coffee shops, art shows, concerts, community meetings, you name it. Many libraries are busier than ever, but it has some people asking, just what are today’s libraries really for?

You can’t make this up. The good city of Topeka, Kansas is changing its name to Google. Later this year, the city will change its name for one month as part of its bid to convince the good people at web giant Google to make Topeka a test bed for the company’s new high-speed fiber-to-home system. 

Okay. But why do you leave the lights on? When it comes to energy consumption, we know that conservation is king. To understand the psychology behind conservation, Congress wants the Department of Energy to get serious about the science behind behaviour change.

“Magazine publishers are spending their money to tout the value of reading magazines to people who are already reading magazines. If this is the best they can come up with, magazines really are in trouble.” Enough said.

We often lament voter turnout in public elections — but shareholder turnout during company AGM’s is just as bad or worse. Proxydemocracy.org believes society benefits when investors exercise their voting power and thinks it's got a fix.

Reach in to your pockets, the paywall is back. According to reports, the Financial Times has cracked the code for a system that is not only driving up online subscriptions, but it is somehow-someway increasing advertising revenue as well.

Where does civic engagement stop and civic entitlement start? On the small leafy street where Jane Jacobs’ once lived, citizens are busy busy-bodying about childcare and home renovations. A parable of high-minded engagement enters the realm of small-minded obstruction.

Google Your Power Meter

How Paul Krugman found politics

Americans prefer CBC

Teaching Democracy

MacLeod on Unger

Breaking Down the Vote on Health Care Reform

Canada’s Tea Party Over Health Care

Unusual Protests

Moving Museums

Shaking up Copyright Reform

My dream. Your dream. A Coffee Inhaler.

The USSR’s revenge… economic collapse.

Adult Fans Of LEGO Documentary = YES!