opencanada.org/how-canada-can-help-promote-democracy-abroad/

David Gilles has just published in Open Canada an insightful update on the long march towards a Canadian democracy agency.

(Last year on the CIC blog site, I published a background story about the agency going back to a seminal article in 2005 by Thomas et al., and a subsequent PM Harper initiative for which I did research. https://spacez.ca/test-post/)

As Gilles describes the progress, all options remain on the table and the lead minister, Melanie Joly, will be making decisions this year.

He also pointed out room exists for nonprofits to move deftly and with latitude. He did note the vulnerability of nonprofits dependent on a sole government contribution. We, at Opposition International, share his view.

Against the backdrop of the Canadian discussion and President Biden’s Summit of Democracies, OpI soft-launched in January to assist a neglected aspect of democratic support, the role of Opposition political parties to hold governments accountable and to offer evidence-based policy alternatives.

We also stress diversity in geographic scope and partners. As a result, we have an office in Toronto — which we envision one day as the oppositions’ global capital — and Dhaka. Our next site will be Bogotá. After an internal discussion, we describe OpI as an independent all-party support organization rather than a nonpartisan one.