photo of diverse group of seniors planting a tree

Taking a Complexity Perspective on Canada’s Challenges, Part VI: Parting Thoughts on Our Public Service and Wrap-Up

Returning to the Public Service Before closing this series, I want to return to the federal government’s spending review initiated by the Prime Minister. He has urged the Public Service to focus, simplify, and become more accountable.…
Word cloud of social issues

Taking a Complexity Perspective on Canada’s Challenges, Part V: Addressing Social Concerns

Most of us are deeply concerned about what is happening in our country and the wider “polycrisis” we face. The question is: what can we do about it? As I noted in Part I, what happens in our world emerges from the countless interactions…
Photo of a balance scale with an individual on one side and several people on the other.

Taking a Complexity Perspective on Canada’s Challenges, Part IV: Who Are We Becoming?

In this part of my series, I want to consider a question that complexity theorist Doug Griffin often said was central for any group trying to get things done in a complex world: “Who are we becoming?” The key word here is ‘we’.…
Picture of two railway tracks diverging

Taking a Complexity Perspective on Canada’s Challenges, Part III: Why Complexity Means Our Actions Are Not Reversible

In Part I of this series, we looked at research from the Complexity and Management Centre at the University of Hertfordshire, which shows that what happens in society emerges from the web of our collective actions, inactions, and intentions.…
a picture of the scales of justice showing gold bars and money on one side and people and the planet on the other

Taking a Complexity Perspective on Canada’s Challenges, Part II: A Spotlight on Neoliberalism

Introduction In Part I of my series Taking a Complexity Perspective on Canada’s Challenges, I explored some of the significant issues Canadians and our new government are facing. I argued that we need to adopt a perspective informed by…
image of murmuration from BOIDS simulation

A Complexity Perspective on Canada’s Challenge – Part I

Congratulations to our new Prime Minister—and to the Canadians who rejected the negative campaigning and dubious claims of the Conservatives and their Trump-lite leader. We can take a moment to pat ourselves on the back, but we are by no…
Picture of Mark Carney in front of Canadian Flag

Carney’s (and Canada’s) Next Task….

To those of you who agree with me that we dodged a bullet in our recent federal election, we now must make sure that we don’t follow the pattern south of the border and find that the Carney years are just a temporary reprieve. So, while recognition…
Pictures of Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre

Canada’s Choice This Election

Later this month, Canadians will be voting in what is effectively a referendum on the future of Canada. The overriding issue is President Trump and the global economic uncertainty he has unleashed at home and abroad. Canada, as one of the US’s…

Avoiding Surprises in an Uncertain World

My recent article published in the Winter 2025 edition of the Canadian Government Executive speaks to the challenges of uncertainty in the government (or any) workplace. Magazine Winter 2025 – Canadian Government Executive
Tim Houston Premier Nova Scotia

We need a statesman not an authoritarian

Dear Premier: It is very sad that I feel I need to write this letter to you. This is a time when we need to be coming together to deal with the many existential crises facing us at home and abroad. Now, more than ever, we need transparency,…