Jim Bradley, longtime Ontario MPP and ‘Dean of the Legislature,’ dies at 80

Kildare 🇮🇪

Happy to share my new paper w/ @zacspicer.bsky.social & @IStedman.bsky.social on councillor-perpetrated sexual violence in Canada published in State and Local Government Review. In it we offer recommendations for municipal govts on how to combat this problem. doi.org/10.1177/0160... #gendersky

An excellent piece from Eric Lombardi thehub.ca/2025/05/28/e...

New study maps Canada’s municipal democracy 🇨🇦🗳️ 📊 First full dataset of electoral systems across 3,500+ local gov’ts ⚖️ Ward vs at-large vs hybrid systems 👥 Council sizes & rep ratios 🔬 Opens doors for causal research on policy, admin & representation 📖 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Female economists are less likely to receive letters of recommendation that emphasize their ability. Female economists are more likely to receive letters of recommendation that can be called grindstone letters--that is, they emphasize their hardworking tendencies.

That’s a shame. Congress is a massive expense for the host university so I’m not super shocked. Given the scale of the event, Congress could be held at a hotel or conference centre like most American conferences.

There is value in asking big questions about Alberta’s future and doing so in a way that brings people together. However, the “Alberta Accord” and “Alberta Next Panel” are likely to do the opposite. My latest. open.substack.com/pub/drjaredw...

Hot off the heels of yesterday's Canadian federal election Jack Lucas @jacklucas.bsky.social and I have updated our estimate of the size of the urban-rural divide in party support. The punchline: it hasn't gone away!

It’s that part of election night when we dive deeply into Atlantic results and speculate wildly about what it all means.

okay sure so it worked in Denver and in Austin and it worked for downtown Oakland and for Sacramento and yes, it’s worked for decades in Tokyo but how can we be *sure* that building a lot more homes will make California a more affordable place to live??

Another terrific talk coming up on Friday in the Canadian Municipal Barometer online research workshop, featuring @erintolley.bsky.social and @tariajadi.bsky.social. Send me an email if you'd like to attend and I'll share the link.

A warm welcome to the folks at @imfgtoronto.bsky.social (Institute for Municipal Finance & Governance) at the University of Toronto, who just joined BlueSky moments ago - coincidentally about half an hour after I had gone looking to see if they were here. :)

Auckland went all in on YIMBY, and the results are clear: 43,500 new homes in 10 years, and rents down 28% relative to peers. www.population.fyi/p/beyond-ske...

Just sent back copy edits on this manuscript. Excited for it to be out in the world (and off my desk 😅).

Very sad to hear. He was a remarkable scholar. “The High Cost of Free Parking” is a must read

Some fantastic local news for your Friday: Kitchener is going to build a new fire station downtown and make it mixed use by putting 150 affordable housing units on top. I hope this becomes a test case that can spread throughout the region. www.therecord.com/news/council...

New Bills fan in our house. Really hoping he’s not in for a heartbreaker tonight

A remarkable story that everyone should read. A good reminder that most people are a lot closer to homelessness than they can possibly imagine.

Thanks to Joey for providing the most comprehensive coverage of this case available. This is the exact development the area needs, sadly caught up in the Greenbelt scandal and the persistent NIMBYism of council.

Univ Laval is hiring at the junior prof level in municipal and local politics. This fall we became the dept with the largest doctoral program in the faculty. Québec City is the provincial capital and home to the largest civil service in Canada :) www.rh.ulaval.ca/emploi/HCM/9...

Quite the meltdown here from a member of Sarnia's City Council. Although this is extreme, treatment of staff and other councillors is worsening in local government across the country www.youtube.com/live/jCOYgbE...

An abrupt end for the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...

some people really try to make housing policy more complicated than it needs to be, when the crux is actually quite simple: if you make it easier to build more housing (through financing, zoning, building codes, etc.), more homes will be built and rents will go down

Absolutely hilarious way to present data to councillors. Some not so subtle nudges from the Finance Department here

If you're wondering just how absurd NYC parking minimums are, consider this: these apartment buildings, located directly next to Jamaica Station in Queens—which handles over 1,000 trains per day—were required to include hundreds of parking spaces.

Good piece on Ontario universities looking at cutting domestic student enrollment by 100,000 because of the caps on foreign enrollment … takes a while to get to the why (funding formula) but the numbers are staggering www.thestar.com/news/ontario...

Postdoctoral position: We’re hiring! If you know someone who is near completion or has completed a PhD, & who has a strong understanding of Canadian Parliament & MPs, please pass this along to them. tinyurl.com/bdf6mhd9

Rare to have a research subject come to life like this, but The Master Plan is really well done and enjoyable for not just those who spent years following and writing about Quayside and Sidewalk Labs

NEW - Former BC Premier John Horgan has died following a 5 month battle with thyroid cancer. He was 65 years old. #bcpoli

Started on here a year ago, left and now I'm back. Still wondering what to make of this place.

Another year of productive discussions and insightful research at the LISPOP housing forum

Really enjoyed this new piece by @stevelafleur.bsky.social: "Mississauga is a public policy problem" www.northofbloor.ca/p/mississaug... If you haven't already, subscribe to his substack!

Build, baby, build...

Another day, more regional government reports

Is regional government reform back in style? Maybe it’s just me…

“Running ChatGPT is very expensive for [OpenAI]. Each query costs roughly 4 cents.” I read this a couple days ago and can’t stop thinking about it. www.reuters.com/technology/c...

"Are you ok babe? You didn't open any new social media account last week."

When the open access journal fee bill comes due

Unearthing little gems in the archives today