Event Details
The inaugural director of the School of Policy Studies, Tom Courchene (1940-2025) was a master at bridging scholarship and public policy. He made striking contributions to Canadian policy debates, and his contributions were recognized with the highest honours the country can give. He was an Officer of the Order of Canada, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a recipient of the Canada Council Molson Prize for lifetime achievement, and a winner of the Donner Prize twice.
This Symposium asks two questions:
1) Why was Tom such an effective contributor to policy debates?
2) Does his approach to public policy remain relevant today?
Confirmed participants include Robin Boadway, Kevin Lynch, Lisa Powell, Bob Rae, Kyle Hanniman, Olivier Jacques and Jennifer Ditchburn.
Lunch will be provided and a catered reception will follow.
This event is made possible by the generosity of the Courchene Family and the Margie and Tom Courchene Endowment Fund.
Parking information can be found on the University Club’s website. There are a very limited number of parking spaces available in the parking lot in front of the University Club, accessed off of Stuart Street. We recommend that you plan to arrive early to ensure you have ample time to find parking on campus. The event will begin promptly at 11:00 am.
Agenda
10:30 – 11:00 Registration | Coffee and Tea available
11:00 – 11:15 Welcome and Opening comments
11:15 - 12:45 Session One: Economic and Social Policy
- Speakers: Robin Boadway, Kevin Lynch, Lisa Powell
- Moderator: Keith Banting
12:45 - 2:00 Lunch
2:00 – 3:15 Session Two: Federalism, Regionalism and Equalization
- Speakers: Kyle Hanniman, Olivier Jacques, Bob Rae
- Moderator: Jennifer Ditchburn
3:15 Closing Remarks
3:30 Reception
Participant Biographies
Keith Banting is Stauffer-Dunning Fellow in the School of Policy Studies and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. His research focuses on the politics of social policy and the politics of multiculturalism. He is the author of The Welfare State and Canadian Federalism (MQUP) and co-editor of Inequality and the Fading of Redistributive Politics (UBC Press). In the field of multiculturalism, he is co-editor of Belonging: Diversity, Recognition and Shared Citizenship in Canada (IRPP), Multiculturalism and the Welfare State (OUP), and The Strains of Commitment: The Political Sources of Solidarity in Diverse Societies (OUP). Professor Banting is a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has received an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University, and a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2016, he was awarded the Mildred A. Schwartz Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association. In addition, he has held the Willy Brandt Guest Professorship at Malmö University.
Robin Boadway is David Chadwick Smith Emeritus Professor of Economics. Born and raised in Saskatchewan, he studied at the Royal Military College, Oxford and Queen’s. He is Past President of the Canadian Economics Association and the International Institute of Public Finance. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Economic Studies at the University of Munich and has honorary doctorates from Uppsala University and University of Barcelona. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Economics Association. His research interests are in public economics and policy, redistribution and fiscal federalism. Recent books include Fiscal Federalism: Principles and Practice of Multiorder Governance (Cambridge Press, 2009), From Optimal Tax Theory to Tax Policy: Retrospective and Prospective Views (MIT Press, 2012), and Tax Policy: Principles and Lessons (Cambridge Press, 2022).
Hailing from Cape Breton, the Honourable Kevin Lynch has been a leader in both the Canadian public and private sectors. A distinguished former federal public servant with 33 years of service, Dr. Lynch was the 20th Clerk of the Privy Council, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Public Service of Canada. His government career also included serving as the Deputy Minister of Finance, the Deputy Minister of Industry and the Executive Director for Canada at the International Monetary Fund. Following his government service, Dr. Lynch served as Vice Chairman of BMO Financial Group from 2010–2020. At the same time, he was active in a number of influential international organizations including the World Economic Forum, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Institute of International Finance, and the Bretton Woods Committee, among others. He has also co-authored a book published in 2025 (“A New Blueprint for Government: Reshaping Power, the PMO and the Public Service”) and written over 250 policy Op Eds and opinion articles. Dr. Lynch was made a Member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada in 2009, an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2011, has received 11 honorary doctorates from Canadian universities and was awarded the Queen’s Platinum, Diamond and Golden Jubilee Medals for public service.
Lisa M. Powell is Distinguished Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Administration, Director of the Policy, Practice and Prevention Research Center, and Director of the Food Policy Research Program at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. Dr. Powell’s research assesses the importance of economic and contextual factors on labor markets and health behaviors and outcomes, including related disparities. Her research particularly contributes to evidence on food policy, health taxes and child-directed marketing. Dr. Powell’s research has been funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Arnold Ventures, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and she serves on national and international expert advisory committees. Dr. Powell received her PhD in Economics from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
Jennifer Ditchburn is the President and CEO of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. She is a not-for-profit sector executive and seasoned communicator working to make complex public policy issues and politics better understood by Canadians. From 2016 to 2021, she was the Editor-in-Chief of the IRPP’s influential digital magazine, Policy Options. Prior to joining the IRPP, Jennifer spent two decades covering national and parliamentary affairs for The Canadian Press and for CBC Television. She is the winner of three National Newspaper Awards, the recipient of the prestigious Charles Lynch Award for outstanding coverage of national issues, and three Canadian Online Publishing silver awards for her columns. In 2015, she was named one of the 10 most influential Hispanic-Canadians. Jennifer sits on the board of the Banff Forum, an influential Canadian leadership network. She is also a fellow at Carleton University’s Political Management program, and an inductee in the Hall of Distinction at CEGEP John Abbott College. Jennifer is the co-editor with Graham Fox of the 2016 book The Harper Factor: Assessing a Prime Minister’s Policy Legacy (McGill-Queen’s University Press). Her research on the history of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery appeared in five chapters of the 2016 book Sharp Wits & Busy Pens (Hill Times Publishing). She has a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia University and Master of Journalism from Carleton.
Kyle Hanniman is Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations and Associate Professor of Political Studies at Queen’s University. His research spans Canadian and comparative fiscal federalism, the political economy of fiscal and monetary policy, subnational borrowing, and central banking. He holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a BA from St. Thomas University and was previously a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance. His work has been published in the British Journal of Political Science, Canadian Journal of Political Science, and Socio-economic Review, among other outlets.
Olivier Jacques is Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the School of Public Health of the Université de Montréal. He received his PhD from the Department of Political Science at McGill University and has been the Skelton-Clark postdoctoral fellow at Queen's University. His research concerns the political economy of public finance, health policy, fiscal federalism and public opinion on the welfare state. His research projects are currently funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé. He has published two books in the last year: Territories of Inequality: How Federalism and Redistribution Interact (with Alain Noël, McGill Queen’s University Press) and Financing the Welfare state: Taxation and Social Policy (with Michal Koreh and Daniel Béland, Cambridge University Press)
The Honourable Bob Rae has been deeply engaged in a full range of public policy issues at the international, national, and provincial levels of government throughout a career that stretches for more than half a century. He now serves as The Visitor of Massey College, a Distinguished Fellow of the Munk School at the University of Toronto, a Matthews Fellow in Public Policy at Queen”s University and consults and speaks widely on issues of global affairs and public policy. Most recently he served as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York from 2020-2025, including a term as President of the Economic and Social Council. Mr Rae was Premier of Ontario from 1990-1995, and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011-2013. He was elected to federal and provincial parliaments 11 times between 1978 and 2013. He is the author of nine books and reports. Bob Rae is a Privy Councillor, a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario.
