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Greg Inwood

Professor
EducationPhD (Political Science): Toronto
Phone(416) 979-5000 x 556166

Biography

Dr. Greg Inwood is Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration. He completed a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Toronto. He also holds an M.A. in Political Science and an Honours B.A. in History, both from the University of Western Ontario.

Greg was appointed to a full-time faculty position in 1998 and achieved the rank of full Professor in 2007. He teaches courses on Canadian federalism and intergovernmental relations, the political economy of Canadian-American relations, and public administration.

Greg's research interests include Canadian federalism, the Canadian political economy, public administration and trade policy.

On 02 June 2006, the Canadian Political Science Association awarded Greg's book, Continentalizing Canada: The Politics and Legacy of the Macdonald Royal Commission (University of Toronto Press, 2005) it’s prestigious Donald Smiley Prize (external link) , which is awarded annually for "the best book published in English or in French in a field relating to the study of government and politics in Canada."

Greg’s 2011 book, Intergovernmental Policy Capacity in Canada: Inside the Worlds of Finance, Environment, Trade and Health (McGill-Queen’s University Press), which he co-authored with Carolyn Johns and Patricia O’Reilly, was short-listed for the Donald Smiley Prize.

Greg and Carolyn Johns edited a collection of essays published in early 2014 entitled Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: A Comparative Analysis, (University of Toronto Press).

In 2013, Greg published Understanding Canadian Federalism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, (Toronto: Pearson-Prentice Hall).

Greg is also the author of one of the leading textbooks in the field of Canadian public administration, Understanding Canadian Public Administration: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, 5th ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2025).

Greg helped build a partnership between the Department of Politics and Public Administration and the Department of Politics at Penn State University. Working with Professor Robert Speel of Penn State, a course in Canadian-American relations is offered to students jointly from both universities. Rob and Greg also co-authored The Same Only Different: Comparing Canada and the United States. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2025.

Greg is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Parliamentary and Political Law, a past Member of the Board of the Canadian Political Science Association, and is a past Director of the Ontario Legislature Internship Programme.

Born and raised in Toronto, Greg is proud of his Canadian heritage. Greg traces his paternal ancestry back to the earliest French and English settlers in Canada. The title Baron de Longueuil, the only currently-extant French colonial title that is recognized by King Charles III as King of Canada, was granted originally by King Louis XIV of France in 1657 to a Norman military officer, Charles le Moyne de Longueuil. The third Baron’s widow married British military officer William Grant in 1770, from whom Greg is descended. On his maternal side, his family roots in this country can be traced to Scottish merchants who settled in Québec City in the 1760s and were part of a small group of civic leaders who successfully lobbied the British Crown for the establishment of a parliament for Lower Canada (today's Assemblée nationale du Québec). Greg is also descended from Irish immigrants who arrived in Upper Canada in the early-to-mid-1800s.

Recent publications include:

  • Understanding Canadian Public Administration: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, 5th ed.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2025
  • The Same Only Different: Understanding Canada and the United States. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2025. Co-authored with Robert W. Speel.
  • “Disruption and Routine: Choosing a Speaker in the United States Compared to Canada,” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law. XVII: 1, Spring 2023. 7-10. (Co-authored with Robert W. Speel).
  • “Tools for Structuring Policy Advice: Commissions of Inquiry and Task Forces as Policy Formulation Instruments,” in Michael Howlett, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Policy Tools, London: Routledge, 2022. Co-authored with Carolyn M. Johns.
  • “Boring? Never! Clarksonian Perspectives on Nationalism versus Continentalism.” In Governance Dilemmas in Canada, North America, and Beyond. A Tribute to Stephen Clarkson, ed. Marjorie G. Cohen, Michèle Rioux, Daniel Drache, and Alejandro Angel.  New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, 41-51.
  • “Canadá: Más solo en el scenario internacional, más fragmentado internamente (external link, opens in new window) ” [“Canada: more lonely in the international arena, more internally fragmented”]. Anuario Internacional Cidobe [International Yearbook]. Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, June 2020.
  • “Intergovernmental Policy Capacities and Practices in Canada” in Michael Howlett, Adam Wellstead and Jonathan Craft, eds. Policy Work in Canada: Professional Practices and Analytical Capacities. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017. Co-authored with Patricia L. O’Reilly and Carolyn M. Johns.
  • “Nationalism Versus Continentalism: Clarksonian Perspectives.” Progressive Economics Forum. February 27, 2018 http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2018/02/27/nationalism-versus-continentalism-clarksonian-perspectives/ (external link) 
  • “Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Analysis.” In Laurent Dobuzinskis and Michael Howlett, eds. Policy Analysis in Canada. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press, 2018. Co-authored with Carolyn M. Johns.
  • “Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: Theory, Findings and Implications.” Canadian Public Administration 59, 3 (September, 2016), 382-404. Co-authored with Carolyn M. Johns.
  • Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: A Comparative Analysis (with Carolyn M. Johns, eds.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 2014.
  • “Why Study Commissions of Inquiry?” (with Carolyn M. Johns). In Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: A Comparative Analysis, ed. Gregory J. Inwood and Carolyn M. Johns, 3-19. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 2014.
  • “The Theoretical Framework: Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change” (with Carolyn M. Johns). In Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: A Comparative Analysis, ed. Gregory J. Inwood and Carolyn M. Johns, 20-48. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 2014.
  • “Of Leaps of Faith and Policy Change: The Macdonald Royal Commission.” In Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: A Comparative Analysis, ed. Gregory J. Inwood and Carolyn M. Johns, 113-29. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 2014.
  • “Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: A Comparative Analysis” (with Carolyn M. Johns). In Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: A Comparative Analysis, ed. Gregory J. Inwood and Carolyn M. Johns, 261-301. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 2014.
  • Understanding Canadian Federalism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Toronto: Pearson Canada Inc., 2013.
  • “Democratizing the Ontario Legislature: Change, but Change Enough?” Studies of Provincial and Territorial Legislatures, Canadian Study of Parliament Group. Co-authored with Tracey Raney and Sasha Tregebov. March 2013. http://www.studyparliament.ca/English/publication_en.htm (external link) 
  • Intergovernmental Policy Capacity in Canada:  Inside the Worlds of Finance, Environment, Trade, and Health (with Carolyn M. Johns and Patricia L. O’Reilly).  Montréal and Kingston:  McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012. 
  • Understanding Canadian Public Administration: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, 4th ed.  Toronto: Pearson Canada, Inc., 2012
  • Understanding Canadian Public Administration: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2009.
  • “Teaching Accountability and Ethics to Public Servants,” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law, 1, 1 (Fall 2008), 379-406.
  • “Formal and Informal Dimensions of Intergovernmental Administrative Relations in Canada” (with Carolyn M. Johns and Patricia L. O'Reilly). Canadian Public Administration 50, 1 (Spring, 2007), 21-41.
  • “Intergovernmental Innovation and the Administrative State in Canada” (with Carolyn M. Johns and Patricia L. O'Reilly). Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions 19:4 (October 2006), 627-49.
  • Continentalizing Canada: The Politics and Legacy of the Macdonald Royal Commission. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
  • “Intergovernmental Officials in Canada” (with Patricia L. O'Reilly and Carolyn M. Johns). In Canada: the State of the Federation 2002: Reconsidering the Institutions of Canadian Federalism, ed. J. Peter Meekison, Hamish Telford and Harvey Lazar, 249-284. Montréal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004. 

Research interests include Canadian federalism, the Canadian political economy, public administration and trade policy.

Dr. Inwood teaches courses on Canadian federalism and intergovernmental relations, the political economy of Canadian-American relations, and public administration.

Greg is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Parliamentary and Political Law, a past Member of the Board of the Canadian Political Science Association, and is a past Director of the Ontario Legislature Internship Programme.