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Eugene Lang

Adjunct Professor

People Directory Affiliation Category

PolicyOptions

Canadian Global Affairs Institute

Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, Trinity College, University of Toronto

Eugene Lang teaches the core courses MPA 802 (Approaches to Policy Analysis) and MPA 810 (Introduction to Public Administration), as well as the elective course MPA 876 (Instruments and Institutions of Public Finance).  He teaches in both the full time MPA and the mid-career professional program.  For several years he coached the Queen’s team to the National Public Administration Case Competition. 

Lang began his career in the federal government and served in both the public service and in Minister’s offices.  He was Policy Advisor to the Solicitor General of Canada; Senior Policy Advisor (Economic) to the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada; Senior Economist, Finance Canada; Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State (Finance); and Chief of Staff to two Ministers of National Defence.  He has extensive experience advising and working with Cabinet Ministers and senior public servants on policy analysis and development, implementation and strategic communications. 

Lang has also worked for nearly twenty years in the private sector, first at Bell Canada Enterprises and subsequently as a consultant advising domestic and multinational companies and business associations on public policy and interface with government.

A Senior Fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, Trinity College, University of Toronto, and Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Lang was previously Visiting Fellow at the Munk School of International Studies, University of Toronto, and BMO Visiting Fellow, Glendon School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), Glendon College, York University. At Glendon College Lang taught mandatory and elective courses in the Master of Public and International Affairs program and served as Interim Co-Director of the GSPIA.

He is the co-author of two books, including The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar (co-authored with Janice Stein), a national best-seller which won the Writer’s Trust Cohen Award for political writing, was short-listed for the Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy, was named one of the Globe and Mail’s top one hundred books of the year, and was the basis for a documentary film produced by Global Television.

Lang’s published writings have appeared in various edited books as well as Policy Options, Policy Network, International Politics and Society, International Journal, Policy Perspectives (Canadian Global Affairs Institute), The Global Exchange, Walrus and The Conversation.  He has also published hundreds of columns in most of Canada’s major newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Winnipeg Free Press, Edmonton Journal, Halifax Chronicle Herald, Calgary Herald and many other newspapers. 

Lang has spoken at various universities and think tanks in Canada and abroad and has testified as an expert witness to federal government commissions and inquiries.  He has appeared as a commentator on CBC radio and television, CTV and Global Television, and is quoted regularly in print media.

Educated at the University of Western Ontario (B.A., M.A., political science), Queen’s University (M.P.A.) and the London School of Economics (M.Sc. International Political Economy), where he studied as a Chevening Scholar, Lang lives in Ottawa with his wife and children.

  • Policy analysis
  • Public administration
  • Public finance
  • Economic Policy
  • Defence/foreign policy nexus