The passing of the Queen will lead to new conversations that now is the time for Canada to get rid of the anachronistic monarchy. It will also spark responses that the system works fine and/or is too hard to change anyway. These often seem to be siloed from each other....🧵... A hereditary monarchy in the 21st century is weird. Now, weird can still work, and even work quite well. But it does represent values and history that are no longer part of who we are or where we want Canada to go. Let's recognize all of the above.

In personal news, I turn 50 today. In celebration, I am posting 50 things that I’ve learned over the years. (0/50) The second beer is never as good as the first. (1/50)

We learned a little more today about the relative rankings of provincial elections in Central Canada, as the BC election made the (bottom) front page of my Globe today, well ahead of NB's inner page showing last month. We will see tomorrow where SK ranks...

https://twitter.com/JonathanMalloy/status/1305848086703607808

...though with two Toronto-area federal byelections also held today, the competition for Laurentian Elite notice may be futile.

It’s September 1. I’ve often called the last week of August “the week of broken dreams” for academics, because it’s our nature to have big research and writing plans for the summer that inevitably never quite pan out. (Adjust dates as necessary for southern hemisphere.) 1/7 Nothing to be ashamed of. Whether in grad school or in contingent or permanent positions, academics constantly wrestle with how to manage their time and projects, and the tradeoffs with the rest of their lives, including leisure and vacation time. It is always challenging. 2/7

I started as an assistant professor at @Carleton_U twenty years ago on July 1, 2000. We had email, but ‘teaching with technology’ mostly meant using an overhead projector. Here are a few thoughts on what I’ve learned as a faculty member over twenty years: 1/21 I learned the best thing about being a faculty member is that no one tells you what to do all day. The worst part is that no one tells you what to do all day. 2/21

I like thinking about institutions. I have been thinking what the pandemic is showing us about institutions. 1/13 "Institution" can mean many things: a large public organization, a widely shared tradition like marriage, etc.

To me, institutions are entities that combine written RULES with unwritten NORMS. They have structure, but also a larger shared, non-material, meaning. 2/13

Like many political scientists, I get calls from journalists and producers looking for commentary on politics, especially now during #elxn43 in Canada. So here is a series of tips for political scientists (and others) on doing media commentary: Now, by "commentary" I specifically mean reactions to political news and developments, not features on one's own research.

Political scientists can get a lot of calls on issues in their general area (e.g. Canadian politics), even if it's outside their specific research focus.