SecondStreet.org

We’re a think tank that conducts research and tells stories about how government policies affect everyday Canadians.

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Our latest documentary on education is here! In this video, follow our Outreach Director Paula Iturri to London, England, where the introduction of academies, or "free schools" has helped raise student achievement levels and been of particular benefit to underprivileged kids.

As two of the politicians interviewed in our documentary will testify, the bi-partisan nature of these reforms were crucial to their success. Could these positive changes be replicated in Canada?

Watch below to find out ⬇️

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Canadian think tank https://t.co/zUEKXhpWIT released poll results today that examine several preventative health care issues, including: the new federally required food packaging warning labels, access to personal health records and access to approved treatments from the U.S. and EU.

See the results here: https://t.co/YZzlwheqLi

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Have you seen these labels?

We commissioned Leger to ask Canadians what they thought about the Government's new preventative health measures (which include food labelling). Check out the poll results here:

https://t.co/ZPNDKd7Ngz

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Excellent column on Ottawa potentially raising the cost of your canned vegetables -

[Scott Hennig @ScottHennig]

The Finance Minister has a request on his desk to make canned vegetables more expensive for Canadian families. He should reject it. I penned an op-ed in today's Globe and Mail explaining why.

https://t.co/rpsTW1kUEP #cdnpoli

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

What does former Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil think about Canada's health care system? Having had a first hand look at how a province delivers services to its residents, his insights are a valuable addition to our upcoming Prescriptions for Health Care Reform Conference.

Join us in Toronto to hear from Stephen and many others on November 5-6. Register here: https://t.co/yFCQjyOyoN

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Looking for something to watch?

"Broken Country" is a great documentary that examines many of the policy questions facing Canada.

Mike and Mira have done a great job shining a light on, and getting Canadians' perspectives on some major issues we desperately need to address.

[Mike Werry @mjwerry]

I have been amazed by the response to @BrokenCountry_ so far. I send a thank you message still to each and every viewer. Some of the responses are heartbreaking (similar issues with healthcare, affordability, etc) and many are thankful and there are viewers around the world.

First - if you have watched the film THANK YOU! It means the world to us.

Second - my one and only goal is to get everyone to watch this film - if you have seen it, please tell 5-10 people to watch. If you are deliberating, please go watch.

Change starts one person at a time and we cannot change until we understand the problems - that is what https://t.co/JytP40FDL9 does best. It diagnoses the issues clearly and plainly. Only then can we start to fix our country and the west.

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Alberta is the only province where parents can choose to send their child to government-funded, non-profit schools known as charter schools. Because these schools are run by non-profits, they get to decide how they teach, school rules, etc. Best of all, there's no tuition!

New research by https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl found Alberta’s charter school students scored 10.5 percentage points higher on provincial achievement tests in 2024-25 than students at government-run public schools. They scored 9.2 points higher than students at government-run Catholic schools. They came out ahead in all seven subjects that could be compared.

Charter schools teach the same provincial curriculum and charge no tuition. Some focus on STEM, and others on classical subjects like math and history.

The model works in Alberta. Parents in other provinces should have the same option.

Learn more about how to fix Canada’s education system at https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl
Read more from the source: https://t.co/PZNPaMnOV5

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Teachers think a lot of the homework they’re marking wasn’t done by the student.

Paige MacPherson of the Fraser Institute sat down with Colin Craig to talk about her new survey of grades 6 to 12 teachers. Almost all of them (95.6%) said at least some of their students use AI for homework, and 42.2% believe more than half of their students do.

Teachers were also asked how those students use it. They believe more than half (55.9%) use AI to do the work for them, not as a research tool.

As Paige put it, if students aren’t building these skills in the K to 12 system, they’re going to have trouble later in life.

Learn more about how to fix Canada’s education system at https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl
Read more from the source: https://t.co/gWJTE8HOg6

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Don't miss out on joining https://t.co/zUEKXhpWIT this November in Toronto! We've got four excellent panels prepared for you all about health care reform. Speakers include former premiers Christy Clark and Stephen McNeill, Drs. Brian Day and Shawn Whatley, and more.

Register here: https://t.co/UeP4Y2ffi5

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

One province already sends some of its waiting list to clinics outside the hospital, and patients don't pay.

According to the Fraser Institute, the share of Quebec's publicly funded day surgeries done in non-government clinics grew from 6.1% in 2011-12 to 17.1% in 2022-23. Hospitals there can send surgeries to these clinics when their own waits run past provincial targets.

Hospitals taking part brought their wait times well below the provincial average, and Quebec does all of this while following the Canada Health Act.

Every province has the same option. The patient keeps their coverage and simply gets seen sooner.

Learn more about how to fix Canada's health care system at https://t.co/ZU5gIoc0Rj

Read more from the source: https://t.co/d2imJMFlHz

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Teachers see it in the work students do at their desks.

In a Leger survey of grades 6 to 12 teachers commissioned by the Fraser Institute, 83.6% reported a decline in students' critical thinking skills compared to five years ago. 72.9% said in-class writing and analysis had gotten worse, and nearly four in five said some students' in-class work is weaker than what they hand in from home.

42.2% believe more than half their students use AI for homework. Only 42.3% said their school has a policy on student AI use.

How much of this problem do you think is due to AI versus a decline in the system itself or other factors?

Learn more about how to fix Canada's education system at https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl

Read more from the source: https://t.co/gWJTE8HOg6

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Our latest findings were covered by the @EpochTimesCan. Read below:

https://t.co/v1U3bZoGmY

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

3.6M Canadians are waiting. Though the true number is likely closer to 5M due to missing data from Quebec, Manitoba and Newfoundland.

Is this acceptable?

View the latest numbers here: https://t.co/PNoWAfoobN

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Canada has a lot to learn from better-performing health care systems such as Sweden, France, Denmark, Japan and many others.

We have been to the countries above to see their systems firsthand and you can watch videos about them below. (Denmark video coming soon)

This doesn't have to be the tired old debate between Canada's system or the U.S.

https://t.co/CXAr04oSdw
https://t.co/8mBsWXdkv1
https://t.co/5akG2FV40A

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Canadians are waiting for over 3.6 million surgeries, diagnostic scans or appointments with specialists.

That's what partial data shows. The true total is likely around 4.9 million.

https://t.co/PNoWAfoW1l

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

When you compare the numbers with where we were coming out of COVID, the backlog is roughly the same.
(Adjusting for some provinces providing data for areas they didn't have before)

It's true Canada's population has increased but wait times have also increased (see Fraser Institute Waiting Your Turn reports).

So is it a lack of money?

Not according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Canadian teens have been sliding for nearly 20 years, and the way they’re taught changed over the same stretch.

According to the OECD's latest results, Canadian 15-year-olds are now about a full school year behind where 15-year-olds were in 2006 in reading and math. Canada still scores above the average developed country, but the slide is real.

Over the same years, many schools moved away from phonics and times tables toward "discovery" methods, where kids are expected to work things out on their own.

Some schools went the other way. Michaela Community School in London is a government-funded, non-profit school that teaches the traditional way, and about 70% of its students earned top grades on their final exams. Alberta's charter schools, which are tuition-free and run by independent non-profit boards, outscored regular government schools by 10.5 percentage points on provincial tests last year.

Every province can give parents that kind of choice.

Learn more about how to fix Canada's education system at https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl

Read the full article from https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl: https://t.co/doDu9wVEsS

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

The rule is on the books. Getting it into the classroom is the hard part.

A national survey from the Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University found 87% of Canadians support restricting phones in schools, a record high. Yet one in two parents said their child used a phone during class at least once in a given week.

How strict the rule is makes the difference. Under full-day "bell-to-bell" bans, 57% of parents said their child never used a phone in class. Where phones were limited only during lessons, 27% said never. Where each teacher decides, 15%.

Provinces can tighten their rules without waiting for anyone. Parents with a real choice of school can also pick one that enforces the rules they believe in.

Learn more about how to fix Canada's education system at https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl

Read more from the source: https://t.co/lUhfYYYFjB

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Strict rules, longer days, traditional lessons. And results that rival England's most expensive private schools.

Michaela Community School opened in 2014 near Wembley Stadium in London. It's government-funded and run by a non-profit that sets its own curriculum, teaching methods and school hours. Students get detention for being late, and the school day runs longer than most.

On this year's "A-level exams," about 70% of its students earned an A or A*. The national average was 28.5%.

Canada has a version of this already. Alberta's charter schools are publicly funded, run by independent non-profit boards, and charge no tuition. Last year their students outscored peers at regular government schools by 10.5 percentage points on provincial tests. Other provinces could let parents have the same choice.

Learn more about how to fix Canada's education system at https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl
Read the full article from https://t.co/zUEKXhpoTl: https://t.co/doDu9wVEsS

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

Nearly ten years after serving as British Columbia's 35th premier, what does Christy Clark think about the direction Canada's health care system is headed?

Find out at the Prescriptions for Health Reform Conference in Toronto, happening November 5 & 6. Join us if you can! Register here: https://t.co/yFCQjyO0zf

[SecondStreet.org @SecondStreetOrg]

A little humour from Alberta :)

[Courtney Theriault @cspotweet]

Mom and dad aren't mad, they’re just disappointed that you experimented with separation.