Jeffrey Simpson

As The Globe & Mail's national affairs columnist since 1984, Jeffrey Simpson is one of Canada’s pre-eminent observers of domestic and international issues.

His career with the newspaper began at City Hall in Toronto in 1973. In 1977, he became a member of The Globe and Mail's Ottawa office and soon after was named bureau chief. From 1981 - 1983, Mr. Simpson served as correspondent based in London, England.

Jeffrey Simpson has won all three of Canada’s major writing prizes: the Governor-General's award for nonfiction writing; the National Magazine Award for political writing; and the National Newspaper Award for column-writing. He has also won the Hyman Solomon Award for excellence in public policy journalism, and the Arthur Kroeger prize for public discourse. Jeff was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in January 2000 for his contribution to journalism. His views have been published in Saturday Night, the Report on Business Magazine, The Journal of Canadian Studies and The Queen's Quarterly. He has lectured at Oxford, Edinburgh, Harvard, Princeton, Brigham Young, Johns Hopkins, Maine, and California universities and more than twenty universities in Canada. He has published six books, the latest being Hot Air: Meeting Canada’s Climate Change Challenge and is currently finishing a book on Canadian health care, slated for publication in 2012.

In 1993-94, Mr. Simpson was a John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He has also been a Skelton-Clark fellow and Brockington Visitor at Queen's University. He has been a John V. Clyne fellow at the University of British Columbia and a Distinguished Visitor at the University of Alberta and a member of the Georgetown University Leadership seminar. He has been an adjunct professor at the Institute of Policy Studies at Queen’s University and the Law faculty of the University of Ottawa, where is now senior fellow at the School of Public and International Affairs.

Jeffrey Simpson regularly contributes to television and radio programs in both official languages and is a sought-after speaker at major conferences in Canada and abroad.

Jeffrey Simpson's Blog Posts:

Time to Drag Canadian Health-care Into the 21st Century

• 7. What's Doing in Politics?

• 6. International Issues

• 5. How do we Make the Canadian Economy More Competitive?

• 4. Why Does Canada's Economy Lag that of the United States?

• 3. Can Canada's Health System Survive?

• 2. Where Should Tax Policy Go?

• 1. HOT AIR: Fixing Canada's Climate Change Catastrophe

  Many presentations on energy and climate change are: (a) terrifying or (b) academic or (c) quirky, advocating a single, neat solution like solar or wind power, or a population on bicycles. This presentation is different. It starts with an alarming brief description of the climate threat to Canada. Then it shifts to an equally alarming description of how Canadians have been betrayed by their politicians ("We're working on it!"), their industrialists ("Things aren't that bad, really, and voluntary guidelines will be good enough."), and even their environmentalists ("Energy efficiency can be profitable, and people can change their lifestyles, no problem!").
  
  All of this, of course, reinforces the myths that forceful policies are not needed.
  
  Having summarized the situation, and the trends we are facing, Hot Air then lays out in convincing and easily understandable terms the few simple policies that Canada must adopt right away in order to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next few decades. It shows how these policies can be designed to have minimal negative effects. It even provides results from a highly credible energy-economy model that has been used internationally by many authorities, including the most advanced think tanks, to assess the full economic impacts of different policies.
  
  With evidence from other countries that are successfully addressing climate change, Hot Air shows why these are the only policies that will work -- and why this is a matter of life and death for us all.

• Both your materials and your delivery were excellent and you can be proud of a job well done.
  Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council

• 
  September 2012

  Chronic Condition: Why Canada's Health Care System Needs to be Dragged Into the 21st Century

  In Chronic Condition, Jeffrey Simpson examines the tenets of the medicare system that Canadians cling to so passionately. Here, he finds that many other countries have more extensive public health systems, and Canadian health care produces only average value for money. In fact, our rigid system for some health-care needs and a costly system for other needs - drugs, dentistry, and home care - is really the worst of both worlds. Chronic Condition breaks the silence about the huge changes and real choices that Canadians face.

  
  
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  September 2007

  Hot Air: Meeting Canada's Climate Change Challenge

  Here’s a clear, believable book for Canadians concerned about our situation — and it offers a solution. Most books on energy and climate change are: terrifying, academic or quirky. This book is different. Hot Air lays the few simple policies that Canada must adopt right away in order to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next few decades. Hot Air shows why these are the only policies that will work — and why this is a matter of life and death for all of us.

  
  
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  October 2002

  The Friendly Dictatorship

  The Friendly Dictatorship demonstrates what has been happening in three areas that are vital to Canadian democracy: the parliamentary system, the political parties, and the electorate. What has occurred within each of these spheres has directly influenced developments in the others, and the combined effect has been to leave Canadian democracy in a worrying state. The Friendly Dictatorship delivers a message that is informed, articulate, and passionate, and that should be heard by all Canadians.

  
  
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  January 2000

  Star-Spangled Canadians: Canadians Living the American Dream

  Jeffrey Simpson explains the not-so different culture of Canadians living in the USA.  Simpson delves into the history of Canadian-American relations and the similarities that exist today through the experiences of Canadian expats in the US.