Paul Wells in conversation with Ian Shugart

The Munk School's inaugural journalist fellow-in-residence, Paul Wells, joined in conversation with Ian Shugart, former Clerk of the Privy Council of Canada and incoming professor in the Master of Global Affairs and Master of Public Policy programs.

About the Speakers:

Ian Shugart is a Professor, Teaching Stream, at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. He teaches in the Master of Global Affairs and Master of Public Policy programs. Shugart’s time at the Munk School follows 30 years in the public service, most recently as Canada’s top civil servant, the 24th clerk of the Privy Council of Canada and secretary to the cabinet. He was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2019 as the successor to Michael Wernick. Prior to that, Shugart was Chrystia Freeland’s deputy minister of foreign affairs at Global Affairs Canada, where he developed a reputation for his deep knowledge and devotion to Canada’s interests. Shugart’s career has included deputy minister positions at Environment Canada and Employment and Social Development. At Health Canada, where he served as visiting assistant deputy minister and senior assistant deputy minister from 1997-2006, Shugart was chair of the Global Health Security Action Group and the Health Task force of APEC as well as a director on the World Health Organization’s executive board. Shugart is an alum of the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, where he earned a degree in political economy. Following graduation, he worked as a constitutional policy advisor to then leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark, who is currently a Distinguished Fellow of the Munk School. Later, under the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney, Shugart took on the role of policy director for the Office of the Leader of the Opposition before shifting to the public service in 1991.

Paul Wells is the inaugural journalist fellow-in-residence for the 2022-23 academic year at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. Wells has been a well-respected political journalist for nearly 30 years. He wrote for Maclean’s magazine for 19 years and has written for the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the National Post and numerous other publications. His latest project, paulwells​.substack​.com, is a subscription-based newsletter that covers “politics and culture as though they mattered.” A frequent commentator on French- and English-language television and radio, Wells moderated the national political leaders’ debates in 2015 and 2019. He has won four Gold National Magazine Awards and a National Newspaper Award, and filed stories from 17 countries around the world. His book on Stephen Harper, The Longer I’m Prime Minister, won three major non-fiction book awards: The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize, the John W. Dafoe Book Prize, and the Ottawa Book Award. Wells studied at the University of Western Ontario and the Institut d’Etudes politiques de Paris.