Thinking Government

Thinking Government investigates the key roles and duties of the Canadian federal government and its public services and highlights the policy and program debates that revolve around those responsibilities and obligations.

Political scientists David Johnson and Jan Hancock provide readers a core awareness of major issues shaping federal policies and programs. Their analysis includes extensive coverage of social and economic policy issues, French-English relations, regionalism and regional policy, Canadian-American relations, immigration, environmental policy, and Indigenous relations. This new edition takes a closer look at federal, financial, and human resource management; Equity, Diversity and Inclusion policies; the challenges and potential of artificial intelligence; ethics, accountability, and leadership; and how Prime Ministers and cabinet ministers interact. The fully updated text addresses the rapidly changing political environment of the mid-2020s including threats made to Canadian sovereignty, trade relations with the US under Donald Trump, the 2025 federal election, and the emergence of a majority Liberal government under Mark Carney in 2026.

Thinking Government encourages its readers to be smart citizens and knowledgeable critics of what governments do well, what they could be doing better, and how they, at times, fail to deliver effective policies and programs.