Ringing The Bell on Summer

Making good policy is complicated, but sometimes you need to take a break

AFTER SIX MONTHS OF THE BELL, this newsletter is taking a pause for the summer. While the quest for good public policy never stops, your editors certainly do. For Emily Nickerson and Mariel Aramburu, this means graduating from the Master of Public Policy (MPP) program at the Max Bell School of Public Policy, and bidding farewell for the first season of The Bell. 

While for some of us the summer months bring new hope in the pandemic recovery, many countries, including India as amplified by Nayantara Sudhakar, are still grappling with COVID-19’s devastating effects. Rudayna Bahubenshi and Leonardo Lozano’s piece on vaccine equity remains at the forefront of navigating the pursuit of a just, equal, and inclusive recovery. Anil Wasif presented us the case for on-demand alcohol to continue post-pandemic in Canada while Mikayla Zolis proposed redefining what we mean by smart cities. And, Alexandra Ages demonstrated how burnout and hustle culture need to be addressed if we are going to achieve this type of recovery.

While managing the pandemic and supporting the recovery was, for obvious reasons, at the forefront of our concerns, many of The Bell’s writers also drew attention to other pressing issues. Rym Cheriet underscored the important risks of increased police presence in enforcing pandemic measures while Ellen Rowe discussed how cybercriminals are exploiting the pandemic. Ricardo Chefjec challenged us to consider how governments can increase the adoption of open-source software and how vaccine appointment booking could have been involved.   

Near the start of the newsletter, Adele Brawley framed a new era for America through the eyes of President Biden’s new cabinet. Chunhong Chen provided measures for how to address anti-Asian racism in the United States and Emily Nickerson wondered about the place of women’s rights in the ongoing quest for peace in Afghanistan. 

Beyond the pandemic, Mariel Aramburu proposed reimagining the way statutory holidays are defined in Canada and James Samimi Farr called on the country to denounce Iran’s persecution of the Baha’i community. And, in one of our best-read pieces, Dorothy Kwok called for more heritage conservation in Hong Kong.  

These writers presented innovative approaches to policy making around the world and back, and we look forward to seeing how these policy leaders continue to lift up conversations that deserve to be amplified in their careers.

We are grateful for our writers, but we also want to offer a special thanks to all of you, the readers, for coming on this journey with us. Week after week you have read, shared, and engaged with our writers' pieces and the stories that they told. When The Bell returns in the fall, it will be under the stewardship of new editors and writers drawn from the incoming cohort of students in the MPP program at Max Bell. We are confident they will continue to explore the complexities of making good policy, both here in Canada and abroad, in ways that engage and challenge our readers.  

Thanks again everyone, and have a safe and wonderful summer! 

Sincerely, 

Mariel Aramburu and Emily Nickerson, Editors

Here are a few more highlights:

• Most viewed article: Alexandra Ages’ "Let's stop glorifying hustle culture"

• Most opened article: Anil Wasif's "Keep bringing the booze"

• Most signups to the newsletter: Dorothy Kwok's "Before the bulldozers: The last-ditch efforts to save Hong Kong's heritage"

• Most comments: Nayantara Sudhakar's "The world has to step up for India"

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The Bell is edited by Emily Nickerson, Mariel Aramburu, and Andrew Potter of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. If you have any feedback or would like to contribute to this newsletter, please send an email to the editors at newsletterthebell@gmail.com