the School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Toronto with $5M in seed funding from the Government of Ontario. The Mowat Centre had a mandate to advance evidence-based policy solutions relevant to Ontario and informed by issues facing the province. The Mowat Centre became a leading voice in debates over labour market policy, social policy, fiscal arrangements, energy policy, democratic institutions, the not-for-profit sector and public sector reform. It has been credited with delivering policy solutions to a wide variety of problems faced by governments, including health care reform, the drawing of electoral boundaries and skills development programs. It became best known for controversial papers on Equalization, Employment Insurance and the National Hockey League. Mendelsohn became well-known for his analysis of the negative impact of federal policies on Ontario, Toronto and cities. Its most cited report was its Task Force Report on unemployment insurance. By 2014, the Mowat Centre had 30 staff members and an annual operating budget of $2.5M, consisting of $900,000 in government and the rest in private funding. It was closed in 2018, three years after Mendelsohn’s departure, attracting media attention. The Munk Centre at the University of Toronto continues to maintain the Mowat Centre website. Public Service Career Ontario Government Mendelsohn was recruited by Premier Dalton McGuinty and Cabinet Secretary Tony Dean to head up the Democratic Renewal Secretariat in 2004. The main accomplishment of the DRS was the establishment of the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform, widely hailed as an innovative experiment in deliberative democracy. The Assembly was followed by a referendum on a proposal for a Mixed Member Proportional electoral system. The conduct of the referendum was widely criticized as being stacked against change, and the proposal went down to defeat. Mendelsohn became Ontario’s Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental and International Affairs in 2005, leading Ontario’s ‘fair share’ campaign and re-negotiating many intergovernmental agreements with the federal government. Liberal Premier McGuinty and Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper were involved in an often bitter political battle at this time, with Harper and his Ministers leveling a variety of attacks on McGuinty, calling him the small man of Confederation and urging international investors to avoid investing in Ontario due to McGuinty’s policies, including aggressive climate policies and increased taxes and social spending. The battle culminated with repeated efforts from Prime Minister Harper to redraw the electoral map to give Ontario voters less representation in