👋 Hi,
Writing with a little R2R update. For 2022, my goal is/was to publish 2x/month - scaled down from 4x/month. I benefit from a consistent writing practice and R2R is FUN as hell. BUT I really need to have the right MOJO + spark combo OR it feels forced and I’m fussed and use capital letters a LOT.
Three reasons for no newsletter(s) this month are:
the vibe hasn’t quite been there for me (it’s changing, etc.) because my brain has had to compulsively consume ALL convoy-related content with the ambition of sense-making;
I have a side project that I am working on with Jesse Hirsh which means I have joyfully re-allocated most of the “side of my desk” (night/weekend) time;
there’s been an avalanche of encouraging competition stuff in Canada.
Two weeks ago, Minister Champagne announced some competition-related objections in service of a “dynamic, fair, and resilient economy.” While the press release doesn’t explicitly mention a review, it was a key part of the exclusive announcement. 🤞
A couple of days later, I published this independent working paper with two co-authors, Robin Shaban and Ana Qarri. The paper was covered in the Logic and we ran the contract through Vivic Research, which is an economic consultancy focussed on social impact. 📝
📻 Around the report’s release, I participated in three podcast interviews, each of which touched on competition in some way: Georgian Partners (a venture-capital firm), IPSOS (a market research firm), and Policy Options (via the Institute for Research on Public Policy, a not-for-profit focussed on improving policy in 🇨🇦).
💃🏽 I also kicked off a new Policy Options series on competition in Canada.
Tag yourself! I am the baby fish. 🐟
I hope you’ll check out the series, it’s full of fantastic writing from fresh voices and runs until March 2nd.
🎸 AND I got to jam on a Twitter “Spaces” on competition and data w/ Robin + Dr. Jennifer Quaid - big thanks to writer, recovering journalist, rookie shinny player & friend James McLeod for hosting us and muddling through the report. 🏒
I was also named a Senior Fellow at CIGI (the Centre for International Governance Innovation). This means that I will be collaborating with members of their global network on small, high-impact policy projects as well as taking on more writing opportunities to translate digital governance issues for a wide, wonky audience.
To kick off my fellowship, I published a piece on personalized pricing in iPolitics after I got agitated about new research from the Mozilla Foundation and Consumers International that looked at Tinder’s pricing scheme.
So like, I’m here and I’m doing things (*typing is my pandemic coping mechanism, plus Swiffering…I am a Swif-fluencer) - just not newsletter stuff; mostly my core work at McMaster plus some competition championship + cheerleading. THE USHE.
I guess I just wanted *you* to know I do have some R2R in the works, like:
how a teeny provincial policy change in 1991 raises big questions for health tech;
putting child labour and video games in a Canadian policy context;
and looking at whether we’re over-relying on payment processors as platform regulators in lieu of a cohesive platform regulation approach.
I will look forward to sharing them when they are ready. ✌️
🐏 sheep + glow-in-the-dark beer + woolly mammoths + eliminating hangovers 📚 🔬 🧬
I’m interviewing the authors of The Genesis Machine next week “at” the Toronto Public Library. The book is all about synthetic biology: what it can help us accomplish, and what governance + policy obstacles might impede innovation.
In Budget 2021, the federal government announced $400 million for a new Pan-Canadian Genomics Strategy, including $136.7 million for Genome Canada to kickstart the Strategy, with further investments to be announced in the future.
Vass Bednar is a public policy powerhouse.🏋🏽♀️