The Max Bell School of Public Policy is pleased to announce the fourth edition of an essay competition in honour of Jack Layton, a proud Â鶹AV graduate who went on to be a scholar and academic, and then an activist, and eventually a political leader at the municipal and federal levels.
Jack Layton had abiding passions—for the urgent need for climate action; for an end to violence against women; for economic and social equality; for affordable and liveable cities; and for an end to homelessness. Layton witnessed homeless people freezing to death on Canada’s winter streets, and that filled him with rage. He worked across party lines to try to do something about it, with some success—which filled him with hope. He was successful in his political career, leading the NDP to official opposition status in the 2011 federal election. He was, alas, not successful in his battle with the cancer that then took his life—leaving much still to be done. In a memorable final letter, Layton urged young people to carry on.
This essay competition, launched in 2021 on the 10th anniversary of Jack Layton’s passing, is designed to encourage emerging Â鶹AV scholars and policy practitioners to engage—with similar hope, optimism and passion—in the leading issues of our times. The competition’s prize of $5000 is provided by a donation from the Douglas-Coldwell-Layton Foundation.
The Essay Topic
The topic for the 2025 essay competition is immigration, broadly conceived. Since the lateÌý1990s there has been something close to a Canadian consensus around immigration, with surveys consistently showing a substantial majority of the population in favour of relatively highÌýlevels of immigration. But that consensus has come under strain in the past few years, and pollsÌýare starting to show increasing unease about the purported costs of immigration, and skepticismÌýabout its alleged benefits. Many critics have blamed excessive immigration on a number ofÌýproblems including the high cost of housing, the difficulty in finding a family doctor, the threat toÌýthe French language in Quebec, and Canada’s relatively poor economic growth and productivity.
The rising concern over immigration has also implicated a number of related policy areas,Ìýincluding temporary foreign workers, refugee resettlement, and student visas.ÌýWe are looking for essays that address any of these or related policy issues, under the generalÌýrubric of answering the following questions: What should be the goals of Canada’s immigrationÌýpolicy? What policies could be implemented or changed, by which levels of government to bestÌýserve those goals?ÌýStudents are encouraged to be as creative as they like within this general framework, butÌýsubmitted essays should:
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Demonstrate a strong understanding of Canada’s current immigration system and its history.
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Appreciate the changing trends in support for immigration in Canada and the drivers of that support.
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Put forth a concrete policy proposal or set of proposals.
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Anticipate the likely outcomes of those proposals.
2025 Judges
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Andrew Potter: Associate Professor and Interim Director, Max Bell School of Public Policy
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Brian Topp:Ìý Lecturer and senior practitioner in the Master of Public Policy program. Founding partner at GT & Company.
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Taylor Owen: Beaverbrook Chair and Director of the Centre forÌýMedia, Technology and Democracy
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Leslie Fierro: Sydney Duder Professor of Program Evaluation at the Max Bell School, former Co Editor-in Chief of New Directions for Evaluation, Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, member of the American Evaluation Association’s Evaluation Policy Task Force.
Competition Rules for 2025
- The essay competition is open to any student(s) registered in a Â鶹AV graduate program during the Winter term of the 2024-25Ìýacademic yearÌý
- Essays must be between 2300 and 2500 words in length and must be submitted as a Word file to this form no later than March 9, 2025, 11:59 PM ET.
- All references in the essay must appear as links and as such will automatically be part of the word count. No footnotes are permitted.Ìý
- Essays can be single-authored or can be written by a group of no more than three co-authors (all of whom must be currently registered Â鶹AV graduate students).Ìý
- The winner(s) of the essay contest will be announced April 3, 2025 at the 2025 Annua;
FAQs
Q: Can a co-author have already graduated or be a student from another university?
ÌýA: Only Â鶹AV graduate students are eligible.Ìý
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Q: Are BCL/JD students eligible to participate?
A: No, the BCL/JD is an undergraduate degree in the Faculty of Law. Graduate degrees in the Faculty of Law are LLM and DCL.
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Q: Can graphs, tables, or illustrations be added to the essay?
A: Yes, a limit of three graphs or tables or illustrations can be added to the essay.
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Contact
Please contact adriana.goreta [at] mcgill.ca (subject: 2023%20Jack%20Layton%20Prize%20for%20a%20Better%20Canada) (Adriana Goreta) with any questions.
