Family

  • At The Heart of Health

    At The Heart of Health

    Andrea Mrozek

    April 4, 2017

    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), to learn about a cutting-edge approach to emotional relationships and physical well being at the Ottawa Heart Institute..

    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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  • New Shoes. Old Leather.

    New Shoes. Old Leather.

    Peter Stockland

    March 23, 2017

    A bold first step towards falling behind. Cardus Family Program Directors Andrea Mrozek and Brian Dijkema reflect on Budget 2017 and the impact that it will have on the Canadian public. 

    The 2017 federal budget tries hard but is undermined by its contradictory objectives, say Cardus experts in fields heavily affected by the spending plan released yesterday.

    Andrea Mrozek, program director for Cardus Family, and Brian Dijkema, who hea...

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  • Nobody Babies

    Nobody Babies

    Peter Stockland

    March 15, 2017

    In an interview with Convivium, Andrea Mrozek, program director for Cardus Family, says Ottawa’s recent pledge of $650 million to make abortion more widely available overseas as part of a reproductive health initiative is another marker of Canadian society’s generalized disdain for having babies. 

    Convivium: What's the concern with the federal government giving money to ensure access to abortion outside of Canada?

    Andrea Mrozek: The new funding influx is in part, I'm sure, to overcome the fact that U. S. is re...

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  • Palliative Care: Time for a Compassionate Approach

    Palliative Care: Time for a Compassionate Approach

    Ray Pennings

    May 31, 2016

    Palliative Care is commonly but mistakenly understood as medical care provided when death is imminent. A broader understanding of this care as including social, psychosocial, and spiritual dimensions most often delivered outside of the health system needs to be cultivated. The reality has not matched the rhetoric in providing palliative care.

    A February 2015 Nanos Poll of Canadian public opinion suggested that 73% of Canadians were concerned that they will not receive the comfort and support they would hope to receive if they or a loved one was facing a life threatening illness and nearing death...

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  • Changing Politics for a Changed Country

    Changing Politics for a Changed Country

    Michael Van Pelt

    March 7, 2016

    Saying “government should not” is as simplistic as saying “government should” if there is nothing else that follows. Yes, conservatives believe in limited government. But this requires more than arithmetic requiring the size of government. What government should do, it should do well and enough resources need to be dedicated to those tasks.

    Co-authored by Michael Van Pelt (President), and Ray Pennings (Executive Vice-President) of Cardus, a Canadian think ta...

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  • A Deadly Form of Normal

    A Deadly Form of Normal

    Peter Stockland

    February 3, 2016

    Or there soon might be, the executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association told a joint Senate-Commons committee this week. The committee is studying legislative responses to replace the Criminal Code prohibition on helping someone end his or her life. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association led in the battle to have the old law struck down. Not surprisingly, BCCLA representatives argued in front of the joint committee that any new law should be as minimalist as possible. By no means, executive director Josh Patterson contended, should there even be a requirement for a second medical opinion when a patient asks a doctor to end life prematurely.

    Euthanasia? Assisted suicide? There’s an app for that.

    Or there soon might be, the executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association told a joint Senate-Commons committee this week. The committee is studying legislative responses to replace ...

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  • Rethinking Christmas Charity

    Rethinking Christmas Charity

    Ray Sawatsky

    December 1, 2015

    Christmas ought to be a time for thoughtful giving, not giving that is easy or benefits the giver.

    The generosity of people at Christmastime is amazing. There is something about the season that, well, warms the hearts and leads us toward generosity. It is, after all, the celebration of the gift of the birth of Jesus, which led to the greatest single act ...

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  • Taking Care of Our Own

    Taking Care of Our Own

    Doug Sikkema

    May 15, 2015

    Why? One narrative—the dominant one—is that we don’t get what we want because our universal healthcare system has failed to properly provide for the influx of greying baby-boomers. The system has failed to create new and better programs and to financially prop up natural caregivers with better Compassionate Care benefits—though the recent federal budget’s allowance is a step in the right direction. And there is truth to this narrative: Better end-of-life care will likely mean we need to have more robust institutions and better systemic strategies.

    This past month, Cardus entered into the discussion about end-of-life care in Canada. One of the striking things in many of the reports is that a lot of Canadians want to be taken care of by their own—tha...

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  • NDP Landslide a Family Story

    NDP Landslide a Family Story

    Peter Stockland

    May 6, 2015

    In the wildest of dreams, I could not have imagined a day when Notley’s daughter Rachel would bury the most dominant dynasty in Canadian political history.

    On an October day three decades ago, I watched, aboard a plane taxiing for takeoff at Edmonton’s Municipal Airport, as the body of then-NDP leader Grant Notley was off-loaded from another aircraft.

    In the wildest of dreams, I could not have imagined ...

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  • A Manufactured Choice

    A Manufactured Choice

    Peter Stockland

    October 31, 2014

    “I don’t fight crazy people,” Ali is said to have replied. “And anyone who wants to fight me is crazy.” We don't know if he will ever be considered Canada’s greatest prime minister—only history will judge and there’s a long line of coulda-been contenders—but Harper is certainly proving one of the toughest to beat. The combination of family support initiatives his government unveiled yesterday shows why.

    The greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, was reportedly once asked how he managed to avoid the bar fighters and street corner challengers who were the bane of his trade.

    “I don’t fight crazy people,” Ali is said to have replied. “And anyone who ...

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