As Canadians prepare to vote in another federal election, the country’s economy faces a sobering reality. As the (OECD) notes, productivity is stagnating, our innovation performance lags global peers and high-potential startups often fail to scale.

Despite these warning signs, innovation policy remains largely absent from political discourse. Canadians hear a great deal about how political parties are going to spend money, but .

This is a critical oversight. Canada’s enduring productivity gap is the social programs, such as health care and education, that Canadians value.

If Canadians want to maintain their standard of living, Canada must close that gap through a more deliberate, strategic approach to innovation.

Innovation is economic strategy

In today’s knowledge-based economy, as business executive , power flows to countries that own digital data and their “value-added applications” (like apps or platforms) and intellectual property.

Countries like , have embedded innovation into national strategy, investing in sectors like artificial intelligence (AI), clean technology and biotech to drive growth and resilience. Canada, by contrast, has taken a fragmented, reactive approach.

Canada’s over-reliance on research and development (R&D) spending and patent counts has failed to translate into commercial success. According to the OECD, such as productivity growth and technology adoption.

Canada also often conflates research with innovation. While both are vital, innovation is about turning knowledge into use through deployment, adoption, commercialization and scaling. Much of today’s transformative innovation, particularly in AI and software, (related to things like user insights, execution experience and expertise in a particular domain) not just codified knowledge (for example, patents, technical drawings and licenses).

Why innovation policy fails

Governments struggle with innovation because it defies conventional policymaking:

• It requires failure tolerance. Innovation is iterative. But political systems fear failure.
• It demands long-term vision. Results may take years, beyond typical electoral cycles.
• It’s technically complex. Few policymakers have deep expertise in emerging technologies or understand the research and development process.
• It’s often misunderstood. Funding research is not the same as building innovation capacity or developing innovation processes.
• It’s hard to quantify. Quantifying innovation outcomes is complex and challenging to measure, making it also difficult to measure return.

As economist and innovation policy expert Mariana Mazzucato argued in The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths, from failure. Canada’s current model lacks these ingredients.

Breaking the cycle of failure

To break this cycle, Canada needs a non-partisan national innovation institution — an agency empowered to advise on strategy, evaluate outcomes and embed technical expertise into policy at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.

Models like from the U.S., from Sweden and the show how long-term, high-impact innovation can be achieved with the right institutional scaffolding and appropriate knowledge.

Canadians have created a number of innovation organizations with national implications, such as the , the , and the , which closed in 2019.

Yet none have been national organizations that addressed the broad proposed mandate to explicitly advise governments on technology and policy strategy, evaluate innovation outcomes and embed technical expertise into recommendations.

A non-partisan national innovation institution must:

1. Track outcomes more than inputs. Innovation success can be measured by a number of project- or industry-specific outcomes, such as productivity, firm growth and export revenue. The ICP proposed measuring the comparing innovation performance to peer jurisdictions.
2. Support long-term strategic objectives, focusing on Canada’s strengths in critical areas like AI, clean technology, energy health-care technology, and leveraging expertise and experience in these and other areas.
3. Embed technology experts alongside health-care and education experts in the decision-making process. Recruit scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to anticipate technology and market trends, guiding both implementation and policy development.
4. Differentiate innovation from research. Support both, but recognize the differences and explicitly link innovation to adoption and new use cases.
5. Promote value capture. Ensure Canadian firms and the country benefit from and retain control of key technologies that enable them to scale domestically.
6. Recognize the inherent risks in innovation and the potential for failure. Evaluate and build on impact and learn from failure to enhance innovation processes and improve future outcomes.
7. Align our educational institutions with innovation goals revising programs, creating more flexible learning options so that more research outcomes .

These steps aren’t hypothetical. They’re backed by evidence .

Why now?

Canada’s economy is and vulnerable to technological disruption. Meanwhile, the global AI and clean tech races are accelerating. Canada is at risk of falling further behind — not just economically, but geopolitically.

But Canada also has strengths: world-class researchers, diverse entrepreneurial talent and global partnerships. What’s missing is a cohesive national strategy to harness this potential. Creating a non-partisan innovation institution would be a powerful first step.

If Canadians want to provide revenue for governments decide how to fund education, health care and climate adaptation, they must grow their economy. And to do that, Canada needs smarter innovation policy.

It’s time to stop celebrating activity and start rewarding outcomes. Let’s build the structures that allow Canadian ingenuity to thrive — not in theory, but in practice.

By Bergeron Chair in Technology Entrepreneurship Andrew Maxwell, Lassonde School of Engineering, 91��ɫ

The post Canada is lagging in innovation, and that’s a problem for funding the programs we care about appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

91��ɫ experts are available to comment on the upcoming Canadian federal election from party strategies and polling to campaign issues, including immigration, border security and trade relations.

Electoral strategy, polling and voter sentiment

, a professor of political science and Chair of the Department of Politics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LA&PS), is focused on issues of democratization and democratic reform in Western countries. In 2007 he published The Politics of Voting: Reforming Canada’s Electoral System, in 2009 he co-edited British Columbia Politics and Government, and in 2013 he published Wrestling with Democracy: Voting Systems as Politics in the Twentieth Century West. Pilon has acted as a consultant on election issues for legal firms, political parties, trade unions, community groups, and the Auditor General of Canada. He is a member of the National Advisory Board of Fair Vote Canada, a citizens’ group focused on gaining more proportional methods of voting for Canadian elections, and sits on the editorial board of Canadian Dimension magazine.

Pilon is available to comment on:

• election administration
• electoral strategy
• political parties, including party branding and strategies
• voter reactions
• ��DZ������Բ���
• election results from the perspective of voters

Public policy proposals and Canada-U.S. relations

is a professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration in LA&PS. His research interests are public administration and public policy, including bad policy and digital public administration as well as financial services sector policy. He previously worked on anti-money laundering and terrorism financing policy, and foresight in government. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming book at Bristol University Press (April 2025), as well as the recently released .

Roberge is available for interviews in both English and French. He can offer political analysis and comment on:

• federal politics
• federal-provincial relations
• the federal election campaign
• Canada-U.S. relations

National identity and regional tensions in the election

, professor of Canadian Studies at 91��ɫ’s Glendon College, is an expert on the history of nationalism in Canada. He received the Governor General's International Award for Canadian Studies from the International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS) in recognition of his work in the field, as well as a Certificate of Merit from the ICCS. He has researched the trade of dairy products between Canada and the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when American tariffs restricted Canadian access to southern markets. 

Coates is available for interviews in English and French. He can comment on:

• the role national identity is playing in the election campaign
• how regional identities and tensions could influence the federal election
• the history of Canadian attempts to expand into other markets when Americans have raised tariffs in the past

Employment and labour policies, retirement, pensions and income insecurity

is a professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration in LA&PS. His focus is on Canadian social and labour policy, including employment, and income security (unemployment insurance and pensions). A particular area of expertise is labour market policy, including the transition from school to work and the role of training and education. 

He is available to speak on:

• employment and labour in Canada, including labour market and income security policies
• retirement and pensions
• dynamics of the upcoming federal election
• Canada-U.S. relations

Energy, environment and climate change: policy and Canada-U.S. relations

is a professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, co-chair of the Faculty's Sustainable Energy Initiative, and coordinator of the Joint Master of Environmental Studies/Juris Doctor program offered in conjunction with Osgoode Hall Law School. He has published articles, book chapters and reports on a range of topics from climate change and environment to energy law and policy in Canada and North America. He is a co-editor of the book . He has taught U.S. Government and Politics in the past, and is currently co-editing a volume on carbon federalism in Canada, the U.S., Australia and the European Union.

Key areas of expertise:

• energy and climate change policy
• environment and natural resources policy
• critical minerals and impact assessment
• Canada-U.S. energy trade and relations
• electricity, nuclear energy and Ontario politics

Patriotism and immigration, and changes in U.S. policy

is an assistant professor in the Department of Equity Studies in LA&PS and the director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at 91��ɫ. Su is a specialist in forced migration, climate change-induced displacement and queer migration. She has worked extensively with vulnerable communities in Southeast Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, including refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, trans sex workers, indigenous communities, and 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. She has published 26 peer-reviewed works in journals like Third World Quarterly, Journal of Gender Studies, and International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction as well as more than 40 opinion pieces, newspaper articles and academic blogs in The Washington Post, The Conversation, and The National Observer.

Su is available to comment on:

• Canadian patriotism and immigration issues
• the Canada-U.S. border
• immigration, temporary migration and refugees
• politics related to international students, and the issues facing them
• changes in U.S. policy, including mass deportations

Border security and surveillance, and migration

is a lawyer and anthropologist specializing in border technologies. She is the associate director of the Refugee Law Lab at 91��ɫ and is a faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She is the author of , which was a finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards in Nonfiction.

Molnar is available for interviews in both English and French. She can comment on:

• border security and surveillance
• the role of private companies
• migration issues in general

For experts available to comment on trade, tariffs and the economy, see: /news/2025/03/13/york-experts-trump-tariffs-trade-agreements/

The post Federal election and party politics: 91��ɫ U experts available for media opportunities appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

Ontarians are heading to the polls today after a quick but heated campaign triggered by Premier Doug Ford’s call for a snap election. With tensions rising over U.S. tariffs, Ford is seeking a strong mandate to take on President Donald Trump. While trade and the economy have been front and center, the newly led NDP and Liberals have been bringing focus back to traditional issues like health care.

91��ɫ experts are available to weigh in on the election results and key issues:

Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Politics is available to comment on election results from the perspective of voters, party strategies, party branding, voter responses, election administration, and electoral strategy. His research has focused on issues of democratization and democratic reform in Western countries. In 2007 he published The Politics of Voting: Reforming Canada’s Electoral System, in 2009 co-edited British Columbia Politics and Government, and in 2013 published Wrestling with Democracy: Voting Systems as Politics in the Twentieth Century West.

Pilon has acted as a consultant on election issues for legal firms, political parties, trade unions, community groups, and the Auditor General of Canada. He is a member of the National Advisory Board of Fair Vote Canada, a citizens’ group focused on gaining more proportional methods of voting for Canadian elections, and sits on the editorial board of Canadian Dimension magazine.

, associate Professor at 91��ɫ’s School of Public Policy and Administration, is available to comment on election results. Spicer serves as head of New College and is a faculty affiliate with the City Institute and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies. Outside of 91��ɫ, Spicer is a member of the Digital Mobilities Lab, an associate at the University of Toronto’s Innovation Policy Lab, a member of the Laboratory on Local Elections, a member of the study team for the Electronic Elections Project, and an affiliate member of the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy at Wilfrid Laurier University. He has served as a consultant or advisor to dozens of governments and professional associations across Canada, including working as a senior policy advisor for the province of Ontario with both the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Professor in the School of Administrative Studies is available to comment on what the election means for Premier Doug Ford’s mandate, and the certainty of planning by Ontario businesses. He can also comment on Ford’s toolbox of potential targeted reciprocal tariffs against U.S. industries and businesses as well as the possibility of aid packages by the Government of Ontario to businesses and workers, pending U.S. tariffs, and conditions those packages should have. He can also speak to considerations for Ontario-based boards of directors of companies when responding to imposed U.S. tariffs.

An expert in corporate governance and ethics, Leblanc’s commentary is grounded in his extensive research and work with boards of directors and the training and development of leaders and managers.  An award-winning educator, lawyer, consultant and author, he has guided leaders of organizations through his teaching, writing and direct consultation.

, associate professor of economics, was indirectly involved in the original Canada-U.S. free trade negotiations. He is available to speak on tariffs, the economic impact a trade war could have on Canada’s economy, and the threat of recession. An expert on international trade agreements, Lazar wrote a book on the Tokyo Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the GATT), The New Protectionism: Non-Tariff Barriers and Their Effects on Canada, in the early 1980s. He can provide context for why Canada pursued a free trade deal with the U.S. in the first place, the negotiation strategies involved in brokering it, as well as the U.S. Constitution, which makes domestic legislation supreme to any international agreements where there might be a conflict, as is the case today.

, distinguished research professor in Sociology and fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is available to comment on the key issue of health care in the election. Armstrong held a ten-year  Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF)/Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) chair in Health Services and Nursing Research and chaired Women and Health Care Reform, a group funded for over a decade by Health Canada. She was principal investigator of a ten-year study “Reimagining Long-term Residential Care: An International Study of Promising Practices.” Focusing on the fields of social policy, of women, work and health and social services, she has published widely, authoring or co-authoring such books as The Labour Force Crisis in Long-Term Care (2024), Care Homes in a Turbulent Era: Do They Have a Future? (2023), Unpaid Care in Nursing Homes: Flexible Boundaries (2023), The Privatization of Care: The Case of Nursing Homes (2020) and many others.

Distinguished Research Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change is a political scientist working on local, urban and regional politics, with a focus on urban geography and urban studies. He is a founding director of 91��ɫ’s City Institute (CITY), former 91��ɫ research chair in Global Sub/Urban Studies, and presently a fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) in their program Humanity’s Urban Future.

Keil’s research areas are urban political ecology, cities and infectious disease and global suburbanization. He led the large international project on “Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land and Infrastructure in the 21st Century.” Recently, he published a comprehensive collection of core texts by key contributors to the field of urban political ecology, Turning Up the Heat: Urban Political Ecology for a Climate Emergency. Keil is available to comment on urban infrastructure, transportation (including the Highway 401 tunnel expressway), the Greenbelt, planning processes, and municipal-provincial relations.

The post 91��ɫ experts available for Ontario election commentary appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

In this , 64 countries will be heading to the polls. Among them is Venezuela, which will hold its presidential election on July 28. Venezuelans across the country will be voting in the election that will see President Nicolás Maduro seek another term.

However, Venezuelans abroad have . Only . This poses serious problems for the country’s electoral and democratic processes.

Venezuela has experienced the  in recent decades. Economic instability has seen millions leave the country. Figures indicate that close to  — over one-quarter of the population — have left the country.

Given the high number of Venezuelans who live outside of the country, it is crucial that those in the diaspora are able to take part in the country’s electoral process. However, many face significant challenges when seeking to exercise their right to vote.

Legal and diplomatic barriers

Whether the election will be free and fair remains to be seen. Maduro has pledged to allow democracy to function. . Opposition politician Maria Corina Machado has been disqualified from running and the government has .

In a world where transnational movement is widespread, protecting international voter participation is essential. Most South American countries have enacted legislation allowing citizens abroad to participate in presidential elections.

, that allowed citizens abroad to use a valid identification card or passport to register and vote at a Venezuelan consulate or embassy. The 1998 election, which saw Hugo Chavez elected president, was the first time Venezuelans abroad could vote. In 2009, during Chavez’s third term,  that allows the National Election Council to determine, for each election, the processes for Venezuelans to vote from abroad.

Current legislation establishes that only individuals with legal residence or “” can vote abroad.

However, the term “legal residence” is not defined in the current legislation nor has it been defined by the National Election Council. This has resulted in different Venezuelan diplomatic missions using various interpretations. It has been used as a tactic to impede voter registration.

For example, millions of Venezuelans live legally in neighbouring Colombia. However,  because it .

Some diplomatic missions now require solely a valid passport to register and vote, something many Venezuelans abroad do not have. If their passport has expired, renewing it is often too costly and requires a trip to a distant embassy or even to Venezuela.

A lack of diplomatic missions is another major impediment. In the past decade, the government has severed diplomatic relations with various countries that host large numbers of Venezuelans.

Venezuela closed consulates  and  in 2019 (though it has since reopened some) and its embassy and consulates in .

The Venezuelan government typically argues . It closed its embassy in Ecuador (a country that ) in solidarity with Mexico after Ecuadorian authorities raided the Mexican embassy in April 2024.

Regardless of the reason, these closures deprive Venezuelans abroad of access to a voting location in their country of residence. They are also denied the ability to  required to register and vote.

For those seeking to vote, the remaining option is to return to Venezuela. But that can be costly, and for those vocally critical of the government, potentially dangerous.

Venezuelans pessimistic about the election

In June and July we spoke to Venezuelans in Brazil and Colombia who we interviewed for ongoing research into the humanitarian reception of vulnerable migrants in Brazil and Colombia.

Their comments on the election reflected both pessimism and hope for change. Blanca Montilla, President of Casa Venezuela, an NGO that supports Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Sao Paulo, said: “Although we are seeing some disruptions and persecution to the opposition candidate, many things that make us think this election is not free, we still have hope.”

Venezuelans living abroad also expressed distrust in the process of voting from outside the country. Romulo Bordones said: “Those who count votes in this election process are the same people from the government, so there is not much to say.” Symone Eman told us voting abroad raises a lot of doubts about the legitimacy of your vote. He fears his vote might not be counted and worries about whether or not it will remain secret.

It is essential to address barriers that hinder diasporic communities from participating in elections back home. The Venezuelan experience illustrates how governments can too often suppress the rights of voters abroad. It highlights the critical need to enhance and protect voters’ rights for those outside their country.

Democracies must establish and follow consistent criteria for voter registration abroad, preserve and expand diplomatic missions in countries with large diasporas and strengthen voter trust by allowing international observers and independent auditing.

The International Organization for Migration, for example, is an agency that  of various countries. By learning from these experiences and implementing accessible trans-electoral policies, the democratic rights of all citizens can be protected, regardless of location.

By Assistant Professor Yvonne Su, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, 91��ɫ

This article is republished from .

The post The votes of Venezuelans abroad are being suppressed appeared first on News@91��ɫ.