Welcome to the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), Canada’s only truly national public policy think tank based in Ottawa.
MLI is rigorously independent and non-partisan, as symbolized by its name. Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier were two outstanding and long-serving prime ministers who represent the best of Canada’s distinguished political tradition. A Tory and a Grit, an English-speaker and a French-speaker, each of them championed the values that led to the creation of Canada and its emergence as one of the world’s leading democracies and a place where people may live in peace and freedom under the rule of law.
Our ideas drive the national conversation:
- MLI is the most cited think-tank in Canada’s parliament and our experts are routinely called upon to testify at parliamentary committee.
- Our columns and op-eds appear in the national and international media on average once a day.
Canada’s adversaries fear the MLI spotlight which is why we have been blacklisted by both the Kremlin and Beijing.
Our goal is to be an indispensable source of reasoned and timely thought leadership for policymakers, opinion leaders, and Canadians at-large. We want to help make Canada the best governed country in the world.
Our work includes:
Initiating and conducting research identifying current and emerging economic and public policy issues facing Canadians, including, but not limited to, research into defence and security, foreign policy, immigration, economic and fiscal policy, Canada-US relations, regulatory policy, regional development, social policy and aboriginal affairs;
Investigating and analysing the full range of options for public and private sector responses to the issues identified and to act as a catalyst for informed debate on those options;
Communicating the conclusions of our work to a national audience in a clear, non-partisan way;
Sponsoring or organizing conferences, meetings, seminars, lectures, training programs and publications using all media of communication (including without restriction, the electronic media), for the purposes of achieving these objects;
To read MLI’s Statement And Resolution Regarding The Independence Of The Institute’s Research Effort, click here.
Canadian judges ran amok with the Charter: Rainer Knopff and Ted Morton for Inside Policy Talks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWq-x1ds6Hc Special episode: Peter Copeland, acting director of domestic policy at MLI, sat down last month with eminent Canadian...
Crime is down, but the crisis isn’t over – Understanding Canada’s new crime statistics: Dave Snow
By Dave Snow August 6, 2026 In late July 2026, Statistics Canada delivered something Canadians have not heard often...
Canada’s Big Tech shakedown failed. Now Carney retreats in the face of American pressure: Peter Menzies in The Hub
This article originally appeared in The Hub. By Peter Menzies, August 6, 2026 Poignantly, it was three years ago this...
What 6 years’ worth of corrections tell us about CBC’s progressive bias: Dave Snow in The Hub
Tis article originally appeared in The Hub. By Dave Snow, August 4, 2026 The CBC can be forgiven for breathing...
Canadians need to stop cutting down our tall poppies: Kevin Vuong in the Toronto Sun
This article originally appeared in the Toronto Sun. By Kevin Vuong, August 4, 2026 Canada has a productivity problem. We...
A veiled bet: The West Coast Pipeline and the case Canadians haven’t been shown
By Bryan Gould August 4, 2026 On July 2, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced...
