Stephen J. Toope, the president and vice chancellor of UBC, and Neil Gross, a sociologist at UBC, contribute an op/ed to Inside Higher Ed.
“Recently a remarkable development took place in Canadian public life that has implications for American prosperity. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, chose David Johnston, an academic, to be the nation’s next governor general.
“The choice of Johnston, a 69-year old Harvard-educated law professor who was formerly head of McGill University and the University of Waterloo, is significant… But the installation of Johnston, a lifelong scholar and teacher, in such a prominent role reflects a Canadian push on higher education – a move endorsed by parties across the political spectrum. That’s quite different from what’s happening in the States, where spending on higher education is a partisan issue and university budgets are being decimated.”