Eugene Lang

PolicyOptions

Canadian Global Affairs Institute

Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, Trinity College, University of Toronto

Eugene Lang is Assistant Professor (Continuing Adjunct) and teaches the core courses MPA 802 (Applied Policy Analysis) and MPA 810 (Introduction to Public Administration), as well as the elective course MPA 876 (Instruments and Institutions of Public Finance) in both the full time MPA and the mid-career professional program. 

He has served for several years as a coach for the Queen’s School of Policy Studies team to the National Public Administration Case Competition, coaching the team to a gold medal in 2024.  In 2023 Lang was named a Queen’s University Champion for Mental Health.  He is a member of the School of Policy Studies Admissions Committee and Program Committee.

Lang began his career in the federal government and served in both the public service and in Cabinet Minister’s offices.  He was Policy Advisor to the Solicitor General of Canada; Senior Policy Advisor (Economic) to the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada; Senior Economist, Finance Canada; Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State (Finance); and Chief of Staff the Minister of National Defence.  Lang has extensive experience advising and working with Cabinet Ministers, senior public servants and stakeholders, on policy development, implementation and strategic communications. 

Lang has also worked for twenty years in the private sector, first at Bell Canada Enterprises and subsequently as a consultant advising domestic and multinational companies and business associations on public policy and advocacy.

A Senior Fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, Trinity College, University of Toronto, and Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Lang was previously Visiting Fellow at the Munk School of International Studies, University of Toronto, and BMO Visiting Fellow, Glendon School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), Glendon College, York University.  At Glendon College, Lang taught mandatory and elective courses in the Master of Public and International Affairs program and served as Interim Co-Director of the GSPIA.

He is the co-author of two books, including The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar (co-authored with Janice Stein), a national best-seller which won the Writer’s Trust Cohen Award for political writing, was short-listed for the Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy, was named one of the Globe and Mail’s top one hundred books of the year, and was the basis for a documentary film produced by Global Television.

Lang’s writings have appeared in various edited books as well as Policy Options, Policy Network, International Politics and Society, International Journal, Policy Perspectives (Canadian Global Affairs Institute), The Global Exchange, Walrus and The Conversation.  He has also published hundreds of columns in all of Canada’s major newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Winnipeg Free Press, Edmonton Journal, Halifax Chronicle Herald, Calgary Herald and many other newspapers. 

Lang has spoken at various universities and think tanks in Canada and abroad and has testified as an expert witness to federal government commissions and inquiries.  He has appeared as a commentator on CBC radio and television, CTV, Global Television/Radio, BNN-Bloomberg and numerous podcasts.  He is quoted regularly in print media.

Educated at the University of Western Ontario (B.A., M.A., political science), Queen’s University (M.P.A.) and the London School of Economics (M.Sc. International Political Economy), where he studied as a Chevening Scholar, Lang lives in Ottawa with his wife and children.