I looked down at the paper and read the words again: “George feels bad about himself, is frustrated with himself, is feeling discouraged, is not happy with his life, and is feeling incompetent.” It wasn’t untrue, but to hear my own feelings so succinctly relayed back to me was a…

We all watched it, as far as I can tell. If we were sneaking a glance at our phones while at the checkout counter, or found that perfect angle where our phones could rest off-screen during a Zoom call, or maybe we just told the kids to be quiet for…

Summary: Climate action remains critically important, especially as we look at the long-term implications of COVID-19. The Vancouver Climate Emergency Action Plan has tangible, real-world benefits for Vancovuerites, including cleaner air, more space to have fun, and making it easier and faster to get around. It will influence the next…

I am very, very nervous about the finances of cities as we enter into the sixth week of the national crisis precipitated by the Coronavirus threat. As Frances Bula wrote for the Globe and Mail on last weekend, many cities are facing catastrophic budget gaps, and, despite the shoot-from-the-hip takes…

On Friday the 10th, I submitted a letter to the Provincial Government on the climate readiness (i.e., adaptation) plan that is currently under development. …

There’s something imperceptibly quiet about the kind of of city that Chicago is. Perhaps it’s the fact that Chicago is such a large urban centre in North America, and yet its status as an almost-megacity is rarely reflected on by folks from the West Coast like myself. Having seen it…

In the effort to share the work I am doing more effectively, since I don’t always do a great job of cross-posting, I wanted to post about a recent experience I had with the Canadian Ambassador for Climate Change, Patricia Fuller, at the 2019 Clean Energy Ministerial in Vancouver. I…

Summary: Vancouver is going to be a large(ish) global city at some point this century, and most of our discourse doesn’t seem to acknolwedge this. Thinking about this, I explore six things we could do to “grow up:” (1) massively expand our transit and transportation system, (2) dramatically change how…

The below proposal was written for the 2016 Global Affairs International Policy Ideas Challenge. The report was written with Aliya Dossa and Chiyi Tam. We were selected as one of the top ten entries and we are going to give a presentation to representatives from the Ministry of Global Affairs…