The Open Canada Podcast

The agenda to support democracy around the world requires efforts to make the entire global system more democratic, not just at the national level. While the Global South remains disempowered, conversations about the rights of the citizens of those countries are necessarily limited.

Ruth welcomes a guest who has extensive experience studying both global governance and democracy in the Caribbean and Africa. Dr. W. Andy Knight is Professor of International Relations at the University of Alberta, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world.

​The world's supply of refugees is greater than it has been in recent history, yet the Global North's collective willingness to resettle them is at an historic low.

New Open Canada Podcast co-host Ruth Mojeed Ramirez speaks with Craig Damian Smith, a researcher studying migration and politics, and the founder of Pairity, a data-driven platform to facilitate community-based refugee integration.

Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world.

As we approach the third anniversary of the global pandemic, Ben examines the cost of vaccine inequity. The hardest hit societies remain in the global south and are not receiving the vaccine doses needed to get the virus under control. Jean-François Tardif is a development economist and founder of Results Canada. Along with Robert Greenhill of the Global Canada Initiative, Mr. Tardif conducted groundbreaking research on the scarring left on the peoples, economies and societies of low income countries. Ben also introduces his new co-host Ruth Mojeed Ramirez, Chief Equity Officer of The Inclusion Project, whose first interview is coming up on the next episode of the Open Canada Podcast. Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world.

Do Latin America's autocracies deserve a seat at the Summit of the Americas' table? Some democratically-elected governments say they do. Host Ben Rowswell, Canada's former ambassador to Venezuela, discusses dilemmas of diplomacy in the Americas with Maxwell A. Cameron, professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at University of British Columbia, and author of the forthcoming book "Challenges to Democracy in the Andes: Strongmen, Broken Constitutions, and Regimes in Crisis". The second season of the Open Canada Podcast is coming this fall with conversations from Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations worldwide. Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world.

Canada has only produced one document outlining a comprehensive national security strategy, in 2004.

Open Canada host and CIC president Ben Rowswell was on the team of experts that designed it. His guest Wesley Wark, a national security expert and senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance (CIGI), recently completed a year-long proposal on how to revise the strategy – and to outline the important role citizens have to play.

Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world.

Open Canada co-host and Canadian International Council Distinguished Fellow Jeremy Kinsman was Canada's Ambassador to Russia from 1992 to 1996. In this special episode, new co-host and Open Canada Editor-in-Chief Kareem Shaheen speaks with Kinsman about the Russian president's invasion of Ukraine, his antagonism toward Europe and why he refuses to let go of the past. Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world. Special thanks to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for supporting The Open Canada Podcast.

Are Climate Change Conferences of the Parties (COPs) resulting in policy wins for the planet or only "blah, blah, blah"? Joining former Ambassador Jeremy Kinsman is Jen Allan, a Canadian climate policy specialist who lectures at Cardiff University and the author of The New Climate Activism: NGO Authority and Participation in Climate Change Governance. Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world. Special thanks to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for supporting The Open Canada Podcast.

Social networks have become agencies of disinformation, warns co-host Jeremy Kinsman, asking how citizens can manage their democracy when they are being exposed to such different versions of reality. The former ambassador is joined by Ulrike Klinger, professor of digital democracy at European New School of Digital Studies and associate researcher at Berlin's Weizenbaum Institute. Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world. Special thanks to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for supporting The Open Canada Podcast.

The notion that democracy is a form of government native to a certain part of the world, whether it be Europe or North America, that it's somehow endemic or culturally-aligned with certain societies, seems to fly in the face of the evidence. Some Western countries are moving away from democracy, while many Asian, African and Latin American countries have proud, resilient democracies.

Ben speaks with Sanjay Ruparelia, who holds the Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at Ryerson University on the universality of democracy, and how it might be time for the West to learn from the Rest for a change.

Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world. Special thanks to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for supporting The Open Canada Podcast.

The challenge of rebuilding a global democratic alliance to manage complex new transnational problems must be addressed outside of traditional circles and by an increasingly diverse array of actors, argues Thorsten Benner, co-founder and director of Germany's Global Public Policy Institute, who joins Ben from Berlin.

Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world. Special thanks to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for supporting The Open Canada Podcast.