Marriage
We suggest:
- Marriage is a key institution that seeks to integrate sex, parenthood, economic cooperation, and emotional intimacy into a permanent union.
- Healthy and stable marriages and families are both a private and a public good.
- Canadians should understand, value, and promote healthy and stable marriages and families.
- We recognize and study Canada’s diversity of family structures.
- We recognize that family membership and relationships are a defining feature of the lives of most Canadians.
Supporting Research
Start Here
Susan Martinuk
September 29, 2016
As governments and individuals struggle to make informed and well-considered public policy decisions on the issue of healthcare it is becoming increasingly important that they take into account the state of Canadian marriages. Marriage is Good for Your Health examines more than 50 published, empirical studies on the correlation between marital status and health. An overwhelming majority of the studies indicates that married couples are happier, healthier, and live longer than those who are not married. Moreover, there is strong research to back the conclusion that the quality of a marriage is a critical variable in the health benefits that couples enjoy.
Peter Jon Mitchell,
Lita L. Day
October 21, 2021
Why do some young adults choose to marry and others do not?
Peter Jon Mitchell
February 28, 2023
For decades, the proportion of children with married parents has been dropping. But that drop has now stabilised. Since 2016, we’ve seen a steady six in 10 children in Canada live in married-parent families. That’s the key finding in our just-released report, Canadian Children at Home: Living Arrangements in the 2021 Census.
Explorations
June 11, 2020
Join us for a webinar to examine the changing Canadian family and explore what the pandemic may mean for the future of marriage.
Rebecca Darwent
July 17, 2019
Convivium’s Rebecca Darwent finds comfort that her wedding this spring wasn’t about saying “yes” to the dress. It was about affirming before God a faithful life with her husband-to-be.
May 29, 2019
Click here for an event summary.
Media Coverage
June 6, 2023
"The promotion of $10-a-day child care as economic policy illustrates the problem with Canadian family policy, which is that we don’t have one," writes Peter Jon Mitchell, Family Program Director at Cardus and author of the report Envisioning a Federal Family-Formation Policy Framework for Canada.
Photo by Juan Encalada on Unsplash
March 29, 2023
"The sudden trend among Canadian authorities to make contraceptives free reflects...an embarrassingly narrow focus on just one small slice of that wellbeing," writes Lyman Stone, a Cardus senior fellow and demographer. "That narrow focus rests on an extremely thin evidentiary base alongside a feckless disregard of such evidence as does exist."
Photo by DICSON on Unsplash
March 16, 2023
"Nearly one in five Canadian children witness the separation or dissolution of their parents’ relationship by age 18," writes Peter Jon Mitchell, family program director at Cardus. "Despite this high percentage, little public attention is given to family structure and child well-being as a result of family breakdown."
Photo by Benjamin Manley on Unsplash
Marriage
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What else are we working toward?
Strong Family Projects
Human Dignity Projects
Religious Freedom Projects
Healthy Community Projects
Formative Education Projects
Recent Projects
Strong Family Projects
Human Dignity Projects
Religious Freedom Projects
Healthy Community Projects
Formative Education Projects
Recent Projects
Strong Family Projects
Human Dignity Projects
Religious Freedom Projects
Healthy Community Projects
Formative Education Projects
Recent Projects
Strong Family Projects
Human Dignity Projects
Religious Freedom Projects
Healthy Community Projects
Formative Education Projects
Recent Projects
Strong Family Projects
Human Dignity Projects
Religious Freedom Projects
Healthy Community Projects
Formative Education Projects
Recent Projects
Strong Family Projects
Human Dignity Projects
Religious Freedom Projects
Healthy Community Projects
Formative Education Projects
Recent Projects