Congratulations to Janice MacKinnon, who has been named Chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, an independent, national, nonprofit think-tank based in Montreal and dedicated to improving Canadian public policy by generating research, providing insight and sparking debate.

As part of her work trying to nudge public policy debate along, Janice will be speaking at the University of Prince Edward Island's Confederation Centre of the Arts, on"Canada's Health Care System: Why the Long Waiting Lists and High Costs?" on Thursday, July 20, as part of the 2006 Dr. Frank MacKinnon Lecture Series. "In a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision," she says, "Canada's health care system was criticized for having some of the longest waiting lists in the developed world despite the fact that Canadians are among the biggest spenders on health care. Facts like these are especially troubling since health care is sometimes seen as an essential part of Canada's identity, even though the evidence suggests that other developed countries have been more successful in creating affordable and effective health care systems." Janice will address these issues by looking at the origins and evolution of Canada's health care system and comparing it to other health care systems, like those of Western Europe.