Family

Encouraging Faith and Family

Ray Pennings

June 27, 2019

The issues of social isolation and loneliness in Canada are important challenges in our times, writes Cardus Executive Vice President Ray Pennings. Instead of doing away with family life and religiosity as an attempt at social progress, we should recognize the good these factors play in our lives.

Social isolation and loneliness are some of the most important challenges of our times – one that governments alone can’t fix. Frankly, the problem is too big for the politicians. Consider some of the basic findings from a new Angus Reid Institute (ARI) stu...

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Cultivating A Culture of Fatherhood

Peter Jon Mitchell

June 14, 2019

Involvement in faith communities helps support and encourage healthy fatherhood and family life, writes Cardus Family program director Peter Jon Mitchell. And our culture's veering away from these spaces is a risk.

Dads once were considered the forgotten contributor to their children’s development as noted psychologist Michael Lamb observed in the mid-1970s.

In the past, fathers were portrayed as the ones grilling red meat on the barbecue, teaching kids to ri...

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The Art of the Home

Brittany Beacham

May 24, 2019

Homemaking is setting up our homes to be places that are restful, where we can be refueled and renewed. Hospitality is inviting others into that, writes Brittany Beacham.

Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved to bake and I’ve wanted to be a mom. I grew up in a community that places a high level of importance on hospitality and that has always been a value in my life. For a time, I viewed hospitality as the same as hosting, a...

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Ontario Budget Shifts the Child Care Debate

Peter Jon Mitchell

April 12, 2019

Peter Jon Mitchell, acting director of the Cardus Family program, sees a lot to like in the Ford government’s offer of tax rebates to make child care more flexible and affordable.

The tug of war over child care funding in Canada is entering a new phase thanks largely to Ontario’s latest provincial budget. The province has announced new tax rebates for child care costs – almost irrespective of the type of care chosen.

While the...

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Saying "I Do" Does Matter

Peter Jon Mitchell

March 15, 2019

Peter Jon Mitchell, acting director of think tank Cardus’ family program, reports on new global and Canadian data showing marriage brings significantly higher family life satisfaction than does cohabiting.

As surely as spring arrives later this month, wedding season won’t be far behind. But the peal of wedding bells signifies more than just the formalization of a relationship, according to new data from ...

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Daycare Double Standard

Andrea Mrozek

December 19, 2018

Childcare activists are attacking the Ontario government for changes to ratios for independent providers but praise even lower standards in Quebec and Sweden, notes Cardus Family Program Director Andrea Mrozek. The price of raising a child, she argues, is eternal parental vigilance.

It's been called shocking and disgusting. Last week the Ontario government moved to change how many children can be cared for by independent child care providers—three children under two instead of two, and home care providers don’t need to include their ow...

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Late To Find Love

Peter Stockland with Peter Jon Mitchell

November 14, 2018

Senior researcher Peter Jon Mitchell talks with Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland about a Cardus Family study released yesterday showing a steep decline in young Canadians tying the knot or even living together.

Peter Stockland: Your latest research paper is called “Living La Vida Lonely.” Who is lonely and why?

Peter Jon Mitchell: It comes ou...

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Parent-free Nation?

Amy Guliker

October 16, 2018

If children are doing poorly—parents need to be part of the solution

In September, Children First Canada, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about children’s welfare and “mobilizing government, lawmakers and influencers to change the status quo” released a...

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The Graying Of Cohabitation

Peter Stockland with Peter Jon Mitchell

June 21, 2018

Senior Researcher Peter Jon Mitchell talks with Convivium about a new report from Cardus Family on data showing a doubling of the number of middle-aged Canadians choosing to cohabitate rather than marry. There are risks, Mitchell says, for the couples and for society.

Convivium: There’s fascinating data from Statistics Canada about shifts in marriage among middle-aged Canadians. What’s happening, and what drew your attention as a researcher?

Peter Jon Mitchell: There's been a dra...

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Speaking Up for Marriage

Peter Jon Mitchell and Andrea Mrozek

May 14, 2018

New poll numbers show more than half of Canadians no longer believe marriage is necessary. But as Cardus Family’s Peter Jon Mitchell and Andrea Mrozek point out, leading Canadian voices backed by impeccable social science research are debunking that destructive myth.

Canadian supporters of marriage are speaking up, and not a moment too soon. In a recent survey done by the Angus Reid Institute, about 56 percent of Canadians said “marriage is simply not necessary” to form a lifelong relationship. They went on to say when ...

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#YourBudget Does You No Favours

Andrea Mrozek

March 2, 2018

The federal budget released this week purports to give women a hand up when in reality it gives men the brush off, contends Cardus Family Program Director Andrea Mrozek.

Back in the day, it was a success when women changed the workforce such that working part-time was more acceptable. We also used to look down upon, for example, the legal profession where becoming partner involves a cot in the office with a pillow of legal ...

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Unmarried With Children

Peter Stockland, with Andrea Mrozek, Peter Jon Mitchell

February 20, 2018

Cardus Family has unearthed a startling new statistic: fewer than two-thirds of Canadian children now have married parents. Program director Andrea Mrozek and senior researcher Peter Jon Mitchell tell Convivium how they discovered the number, and what it means for Canadian family life.

Convivium: In its latest research report, Cardus Family has made public census data showing a record low...

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Who Ever Expected?

Peter Stockland

February 2, 2018

As the federal government digs in its heels on rule changes in the suddenly controversial Canada Summer Jobs program, a pro-life group is counting the benefits of being excluded.

Jonathon Van Maren knows better than to count on funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program to help the pro-life Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform financially this year.

After all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself has pinpointed CCBR as a ...

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Spice of Life

Andrea Mrozek

January 29, 2018

Even in the industrial décor aisles of Costco, Cardus Family director Andrea Mrozek discovers, lurk hopeful encounters able to produce a lifetime of meaning.

I’ve taken to adding cinnamon to my coffee almost every morning (to the grounds, before you make the coffee, not after, very delicious). It means I’m using up cinnamon at a rapid pace. This is how I found myself in the Costco spice aisle, looking for the la...

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It’s Wrong To Call Abortion A Right

Andrea Mrozek with Faye Sonier

January 23, 2018

Citing the Supreme Court’s historic Morgentaler decision, Andrea Mrozek and Faye Sonier show why Prime Minister Trudeau gets so-called abortion rights so wrong.

In listening to our political leaders, you’d be hard pressed to know there is no right to abortion in Canada. Take the Prime Minister’s recent comments regarding the Canada Summer Jobs program, which now requires prospective employers, from soup kitchens to...

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Eight Myths of Choice

Andrea Mrozek

November 24, 2017

In this talk to a group of interns on Parliament Hill last week, Cardus Family program director Andrea Mrozek offered a new way to see familiar pro-choice arguments

There’s a myth embedded in a new status quo on Parliament Hill around women’s issues and it’s this: that women support the right to choose and the right to choose supports women. Yet this opinion, that of the woman who supports access to abortion, is no mor...

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My Great Grandfather

Jeff Lockert

November 2, 2017

For Jeff Lockert, President of Catholic Christian Outreach and a member of the Faith in Canada 150 Cabinet of Canadians, time with Grandpa Henry was always a brush with greatness.

I received the call from my father, “Grandpa Henry passed away last night.” While it wasn’t unexpected - he was 94 and I was aware he had been declining – it was still sad news, as I loved him dearly.

My Grandpa Henry was a farmer. His family were ho...

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Poverty Needs More Than Just Policies

Peter Stockland

October 18, 2017

Peter Stockland sits down with Andrea Mrozek and Peter Jon Mitchell to discuss Cardus research showing that exclusively pursuing policy options misses critical elements in combating poverty.

Canada’s premier policy publication has shone the spotlight on Cardus research showing that exclusively pursuing policy options misses critical elements in combatting poverty.

“The default assumption of many, (seems to be) that only more tax dollars ...

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Waiting Women

Andrea Mrozek

August 29, 2017

Andrea Mrozek hears recent media clamour about women having to wait too long for abortions and wonders why there are no voices concerned for women who must wait, endlessly wait, just to conceive a beloved child.

There are the Canadian women whose waiting doesn’t matter. And then there are the Canadian women whose waiting is especially terrible and reported on at regular intervals.

The Canadian Press reported on August 15 that a 29-year-old whose birth contr...

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Debating Data on Gay Marriage

Peter Stockland

August 4, 2017

Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland reveals a new direction in the recently released family Census data.

Last week’s release of census data on Canadian families proved that advocates for legalizing gay marriage were at least partly right.

Proponents of what came to be characterized as “marriage equality” insisted, during the debates of the early 2000s, ...

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Avenues of Absent Children

Andrea Mrozek

June 6, 2017

In the second of our series from Cardus’ What Makes A Good City forum, Andrea Mrozek ponders the intersection of the hotel-style condo and the empty playground in her own neighbourhood.

There's a condo development down the street from me in my urban Ottawa community. It’s about four kilometers from Parliament Hill. When they were selling those units, they advertised them as hotel style living. For those of you who may travel quite a bit fo...

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Hand It To Atwood

Josh Nadeau

May 18, 2017

Convivium Contributor Josh Nadeau reports on the carefully layered nuance of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid’s Tale and makes the case for why readers should give it a closer look.

In 1985, the same year the Titanic was discovered, Steve Jobs quit Apple, and Nintendo unveiled their first game console, Margaret Atwood released what would not just become her most successful novel, but one of the more haunting dystopias of the 20th twent...

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The Empty Daycare Dilemma

Andrea Mrozek

April 26, 2017

Data obtained by Cardus Family shows a shocking number of subsidized daycare spots sit empty even as the federal government, Ontario and Toronto promise billions of tax dollars to create even more.

This week, the Ontario government and the City of Toronto pledged increased spending for new daycare spaces. In March, the federal government promised $7.5 billion over 10 years to create additional childcare spaces nation...

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At the Heart of Health, Continued

Andrea Mrozek

April 5, 2017

In the second installment of a two part article, Cardus Family's Andrea Mrozek sits down with Dr. Sue Johnson, creator of a highly effective strategy for relationship repair called Emotionally Focussed Couples Therapy and author of several books, among them Hold Me Tight (2008) and Love Sense (2013). Together, they discuss attachment, health, and relationship.

Building on research released last fall by Cardus Family on the importance of emotional relationships to physical well being, program director Andrea Mrozek sat down with Dr. Sue Johnson to learn about a cutting-edge approach at the Ott...

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