McLeod Group blog by Pamela Branch, April 28, 2025

On January 20, the United States suspended virtually all its international development spending for 90 days, citing concerns with corruption and effectiveness. Other cash-strapped countries have followed: The United Kingdom is reducing its aid budget by 40% to boost defence and France plans to cut a similar-sized chunk. Germany had already axed billions of euros from the aid budget and the new centre-right coalition ...

McLeod Group blog by Stephen Brown, April 23, 2025

The recent turmoil in Washington has reshaped Canada’s 2025 election campaign, driving fundamental discussions on how Canada should position itself in the world. With election day looming, what are the contenders saying about foreign aid?

The Liberals, the current frontrunners, have not raised the topic much, other than leader Mark Carney’s promise that he “would not cut foreign aid or development financing”. The only thing he added during the ...

McLeod Group blog by Diana Rivington, April 22, 2025

Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre is a riveting read, and not just for policy nerds like me. The book’s author, lawyer and historian Mark Bourrie, chose the title after reading a column by David Brooks in the New York Times that identified Western politicians as either rippers or weavers. Weavers try to bring people together and try to fix things. Whether from the Right or the Left, ...

McLeod Group blog by Kirsten Van Houten and Diana Rivington, April 10, 2025

The Trump administration has banned a growing list of terms in relation to research, policy and programming, including gender, gender equality, women, LGBTQ rights, disability and race. These changes are emboldening other states to undermine global commitments to gender equality, including at the UN.

Over the years, Canada has become a leader globally in the promotion of women’s rights and gender ...

McLeod Group blog by Lauchlan T. Munro, March 27, 2025

Part 1 of this two-part blog is available here.

From 1945 until recently, the United States served as the cornerstone of the liberal rules-based international order in trade, finance and security. Sometimes, the US played this role unwillingly or half-heartedly, sometimes hypocritically. Occasionally, the US acted illegally and undermined that order, while ...

McLeod Group blog by Lauchlan T. Munro, March 26, 2025

Here is a sentence no one could have written in the 1980s: “Canada’s political parties and provincial governments are united in supporting free trade with the United States”. The 1980s featured a ferocious debate on whether free trade with the US would mean deindustrialization of the True North and perhaps even the end of Canadian nationhood or the beginning of a golden era ...

McLeod Group blog by Stephen Brown, March 19, 2025

The timing was unusual. After being delayed by well over a year, the Trudeau government finally released its Africa strategy, a mere eight days before a new government was sworn in and probably only a few weeks before new federal elections are called. Many outside observers weren’t sure the document was ever going to see the light of day – much like the long-promised feminist foreign policy, which ...

McLeod Group guest blog by S.L. Erikson, March 12, 2025

Aid can’t be run like a private equity or hedge fund. And yet, Benjamin Black, Donald Trump’s nominee to run the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), is eager to redirect USAID’s US$44 billion budget away from public civil servants to Wall Street financiers.

Black, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, “wants to repurpose USAID funds,” reported Forbes, Bloomberg and ...

McLeod Group blog by Lauchlan T. Munro, February 4, 2025

In a midnight post on his social media platform X, Elon Musk announced what appears to be the “shutting… down” of the 63-year-old US Agency for International Development (USAID), America’s main vehicle for delivering development and humanitarian assistance overseas. As I write this, the USAID website is unavailable. Multiple news Continue Reading →

How Haiti and Canada can turn the urban exodus into an opportunity to decentralize and build a sustainable future for Haitians

McLeod Group guest blog by Mary Durran, February 3, 2025

They flee the Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods that were once hubs bustling with traders, schoolchildren and colourful tap-tap taxis: women who have stuffed their lives into bust-up old suitcases piled on their heads and faded pillowcases stuffed full of clothes. Some don’t even have time to grab their meagre belongings before fleeing the ...