Munk Debates Explained

The Munk Debates are a semi-annual series of debates on major policy issues held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are run by the Aurea Foundation, a charitable foundation set up by Peter Munk, founder of Barrick Gold, and his wife Melanie Munk. The debate series was founded in 2008 by Munk and Rudyard Griffiths, who moderates most of the debates.

The Munk debates are held in Toronto, at steadily larger venues as they have proven popular. Tickets are sold to the general public, and sell out shortly after being made available.

A poll is taken from the audience both before and after each debate. The winner of the debate is determined by how many people are persuaded to move from one opinion side to the other. The debates have been broadcast on CBC Radio's Ideas as well as CPAC. The more recent ones have also appeared on international broadcasters including BBC and C-SPAN.

Debates

DateTopicProConWinnerSwingVenue
May 26, 2008Be it resolved, the world is a safer place with a Republican in the White House...Charles Krauthammer and Niall FergusonSamantha Power and Richard HolbrookePro 17%Royal Ontario Museum
Dec 1, 2008Be it resolved, if countries like Sudan, Somalia and Burma will not end their man-made humanitarian crises, the international community should...Gareth Evans and Mia FarrowJohn Bolton and Rick HillierCon9%Royal Ontario Museum
June 1, 2009Be it resolved, foreign aid does more harm than good...Hernando de Soto Polar and Dambisa MoyoStephen Lewis and Paul CollierPro2%Royal Ontario Museum
Dec 1, 2009Be it resolved, climate change is mankind's defining crisis, and demands a commensurate response...George Monbiot and Elizabeth MayBjørn Lomborg and Nigel LawsonCon8%The Royal Conservatory of Music
June 7, 2010Be it resolved, I would rather get sick in the United States than Canada...Bill Frist and David GratzerHoward Dean and Robert BellCon7%The Royal Conservatory of Music
Nov 26, 2010Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world...Tony BlairChristopher HitchensCon13%Roy Thomson Hall
June 17, 2011Be it resolved, the 21st century will belong to China...Niall Ferguson and David Daokui LiHenry Kissinger and Fareed ZakariaCon22%Roy Thomson Hall
Nov 14, 2011Be it resolved, North America faces a Japan-style era of high unemployment and slow growth...Paul Krugman and David RosenbergLawrence Summers and Ian BremmerCon19%Roy Thomson Hall
May 25, 2012Be it resolved, the European experiment has failed...Niall Ferguson and Josef JoffeDaniel Cohn-Bendit and Peter MandelsonCon17%Roy Thomson Hall
November 26, 2012Be it resolved, the world cannot tolerate an Iran with nuclear weapons capability...Amos Yadlin and Charles KrauthammerFareed Zakaria and Vali NasrCon18%Roy Thomson Hall
May 30, 2013Be it resolved, tax the rich (more)...George Papandreou and Paul KrugmanNewt Gingrich and Arthur LafferPro12%Roy Thomson Hall
November 15, 2013Be it resolved, men are obsolete...Hanna Rosin and Maureen DowdCaitlin Moran and Camille PagliaPro28%Roy Thomson Hall
May 2, 2014Be it resolved, state surveillance is a legitimate defence of our freedoms....Michael Hayden and Alan DershowitzGlenn Greenwald and Alexis OhanianCon13%Roy Thomson Hall
November 5, 2014Be it resolved, Obama’s foreign policy is emboldening our enemies and making the world a more dangerous place…Bret Stephens and Robert KaganAnne-Marie Slaughter and Fareed ZakariaCon11%Roy Thomson Hall
April 10, 2015Be it resolved, the West should engage not isolate Russia…Stephen F. Cohen and Vladimir PoznerAnne Applebaum and Garry KasparovCon10%Roy Thomson Hall
Sept 28, 2015The Munk Debate on Canada's Foreign PolicyStephen Harper, Tom Mulcair, Justin TrudeauRoy Thomson Hall
November 6, 2015Be it resolved, humankind’s best days lie ahead...Steven Pinker and Matt RidleyAlain de Botton and Malcolm GladwellPro2%Roy Thomson Hall
April 1, 2016Be it resolved, give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...Louise Arbour and Simon SchamaNigel Farage and Mark SteynCon22%Roy Thomson Hall
September 30, 2016Be it resolved, Donald Trump can make America great again...Newt Gingrich and Laura IngrahamRobert Reich and Jennifer GranholmPro6%Roy Thomson Hall
April 28, 2017Be it resolved, the liberal international order is over…Niall FergusonFareed ZakariaCon5%Roy Thomson Hall
October 12, 2017Be it resolved, American democracy is in its worst crisis in a generation and Donald J. Trump is to blame…Andrew Sullivan and E. J. DionneNewt Gingrich and Kimberly StrasselCon3%Roy Thomson Hall
May 18, 2018Be it resolved, what you call political correctness, I call progress…Michael Eric Dyson and Michelle GoldbergStephen Fry and Jordan PetersonCon6%Roy Thomson Hall
November 2, 2018Be it resolved, the future of western politics is populist not liberal...Steve BannonDavid FrumTie*0%Roy Thomson Hall
May 9, 2019Be it resolved, China is a threat to the liberal international order...H. R. McMaster and Michael PillsburyKishore Mahbubani and Wang HuiyaoCon*2%Roy Thomson Hall
December 4, 2019Be it resolved, the capitalist system is broken. It's time to try something different...Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Yanis VaroufakisArthur Brooks and David BrooksCon2%Roy Thomson Hall
May 12, 2022Be it resolved, ending the world’s worst geopolitical crisis in a generation starts with acknowledging Russia’s security interests...John Mearsheimer and Stephen WaltMichael McFaul and Radosław SikorskiCon34%Roy Thomson Hall
November 30, 2022Be it resolved, don´t trust Mainstream MediaDouglas Murray and Matt TaibbiMalcolm Gladwell and Michelle GoldbergPro39%Roy Thomson Hall
June 22, 2023Be it resolved, AI research and development poses an existential threat.Max Tegmark and Yoshua BengioMelanie Mitchell and Yann LeCunCon3%Roy Thomson Hall
November 3, 2023Be it resolved, liberalism gets the big questions right.George Will and Jacob Rees-MoggAsh Sarkar and Sohrab AhmariCon14%Roy Thomson Hall
June 17, 2024Be it Resolved, anti-Zionism is antisemitismDouglas Murray and Natasha HausdorffMehdi Hasan and Gideon LevyPro5%Roy Thomson Hall

* Indicates a corrected count. The initial tally was incorrect; table includes the final, corrected accounting.

Debate histories

In 2018, the debates hosted Steve Bannon, resulting in calls by several Canadian politicians for that debate to be cancelled.[1] A rally outside Roy Thomson Hall over the debate resulted in the arrest of 12 people.[2] The debate was held anyway. The next day, the Munk Debates announced a correction: a "technical error" had led to releasing an inaccurate debate result, wrongly stating that Bannon's arguments had swayed the audience in favor of populism. Actually, there was no net change in audience opinion.[3]

In 2019, the debates continued to be "financially underwritten by the Canadian charitable foundation, Aurea."[4]

2019 proposed debate

Munk Debates proposed a leaders debate on foreign policy during the 2019 Canadian election. Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer, Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May were invited. Singh, Scheer and May agreed to attend.[5] Maxime Bernier was not invited.[6]

The debate was cancelled when Trudeau refused to attend.[7]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Real Lesson of My Debate With Steve Bannon . David Frum . November 4, 2018 . www.theatlantic.com . . October 6, 2020.
  2. Web site: Munk Debates blames 'technical error' for wrong results in Bannon-Frum faceoff . Stefanie Marotta . November 3, 2018 . www.thestar.com . . October 6, 2020.
  3. Web site: 'Technical error' blamed for wrong results at controversial Toronto Munk debate . . November 3, 2018 . www.ctvnews.com . CTV News . October 6, 2020.
  4. Web site: Munk Debates calls on federal leaders to sign up for foreign policy debate . Christian Paas-Lang . August 9, 2019 . www.nationalobserver.com . . October 6, 2020.
  5. Web site: Munk Debates. August 19, 2019.
  6. Web site: Munk Debates Pitches Another Foreign Policy Showdown During Federal Election . Paas-Lang . Christian . HuffPost. August 8, 2019. August 19, 2019.
  7. News: 2019-09-24 . Trudeau no-show leads to cancellation of Munk debate on foreign policy . en-CA . The Globe and Mail . 2024-01-01.