Barry Cooper

Dr. Barry Cooper is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, author of 35 books and 200 studies, and is a senior fellow with the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy and the Royal Society of Canada.

Why Marshall McLuhan Matters Now More Than Ever

McLuhan was right. Media environments now shape thought, education, and public behaviour more powerfully than content itself.

Viewpoints April 26, 2026
Exposing the True Nature of ‘Campus Investigations’

Review of 'Professors Speak Out: The Truth About Campus Investigations,' by Nicholas Wolfinger.

Viewpoints May 14, 2025
The Shifting Sands of Liberalism: A Review of MacKinnon’s ‘Confronting Illiberalism’

Commentary Peter MacKinnon is a lawyer, former law professor, a former Dean of Law at the University of ...

Viewpoints February 21, 2025
Alberta’s Sovereignty Act Is a Sensible Step in a Chronically Dysfunctional Federation

Commentary Canada is habitually described as a federation (or sometimes “confederation”). Legally, of course, it is one. But ...

Viewpoints May 19, 2024
Book Excerpt: ‘The Democratic Politics of Fear’

Excerpt from “The Democratic Politics of Fear,” Chapter 7 in the newly expanded book "Canada’s COVID: The Story ...

Viewpoints March 4, 2023
Barry Cooper: Empire of Fear: How the Pandemic Made a Canadian University Lose Its Mind

Commentary Universities have traditionally been the home and sponsor of critics and commentators, but as institutions they are ...

Viewpoints July 12, 2022
‘It All Began in China’—Book Excerpt From ‘COVID-19: The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic’

Book Excerpt Timelines associated with the spread of COVID-19 have changed over the past several months and, with ...

April 9, 2021
‘COVID-19: The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic’ – Book Excerpt

Book Excerpt The economic cost of forcing nearly 3.3 million Canadians into unemployment by May 2020 is enormous ...

Viewpoints January 8, 2021
Fort McMurray Fire Seared in Our Memories

CALGARY—It's been a couple of months since the fire at Fort McMurray hit the news. The anecdotes and ...

Opinion July 12, 2016
Brexit: What Took the Brits so Long to Leave?

Having been in the U.K. for the last 10 days of the Brexit campaign, the victory of the ...

Opinion June 30, 2016
Obsession With Technology Just Plain Creepy

Something odd I’ve noticed about University of Calgary students and, having just returned from a big American university, ...

Opinion January 29, 2014