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"From the Hollowing Out of Corporate Canada, to the Productivity Challenge," interview with Gordon Nixon Gordon Nixon is president and CEO of RBC Financial Group, Canada’s largest bank and financial services institution. In Toronto recently, he met in his office at RBC headquarters with Policy Options editor L. Ian MacDonald for a discussion of economic public policy issues, notably the “hollowing out” of corporate Canada, productivity challenges facing the country, the exchange rate and the question of a common currency in an integrated North American market. Nixon also argues that bank mergers and resulting economies of scale and critical mass represent an important growth opportunity for Canadian banking in an increasingly globalized industry. "La fin du modèle québécois " by Mario Dumont Since last spring, the spectacular rise of the Action démocratique du Québec has set in motion a new dynamic on the Quebec political scene as well as an important debate on the “Quebec model”. From a speech given by Mario Dumont, leader of the ADQ, before the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal on November 21. "Canada in the Age of Terror-Multilateralism Meets a Moment of Truth" by Michael Ignatieff As a pluralist, secular, liberal democracy aligned with the United States in the war on terror, Canada is a secondary target of terrorists. The new realities of the post 9/11 world present multilateralism with a moment of truth—if Canada actually believes in the UN and the rule of international law, and the Iraqi dictatorship is flouting that law by possessing deadly chemical weapons and other forbidden arms of mass destruction, then we must be prepared to step up to the plate and defend those principles if necessary, argues renowned Canadian scholar, Michael Ignatieff, of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Moreover, he suggests that Canada has something America needs--the moral authority of a reliable ally that is nevertheless a proven independent voice in the international community. But Canada’s defence capacity is sorely neglected, our self-perception as peacekeepers dangerously out of date. "Coming to Terms with Uncle Sam: Managing Canada-US Bilateral Security After September 11" by Pierre Martin When can Canada just say “No” to the United States in the conduct of bilateral and multilateral security issues in the post 9/11 world? Canada enjoys both the blessing and the curse of unique proximity to the richest and most powerful nation on earth, a nation which has engaged in a war on terrorism in a way that Canada hasn’t, a nation obsessed with securing its borders in a way that Canada isn’t. Université de Montreal’s Pierre Martin, a graduate of Chicago’s Northwestern University, suggests that Canada has the problem of being rich and weak which, while better than being poor and weak, isn’t the same as being rich and strong, especially when the United States is the interlocutor. Without turning its back on its preferred path of multilateralism, in the UN and NATO, Canada has to come to terms with the necessity of maintaining a productive bilateral relation with its neighbour to respond to the unique security challenges of the world after September 11. "Defence and Security Challenges for Canada in Light of the Bush Mid-Term Sweep" by Michael A. Hennessy and Scot Robertson Canada’s defence capacity, degraded by decades of indifference, was on the verge of collapse when the events of 9/11 jolted the United States and the West. Canada’s military received another kind of reality check when George W. Bush’s Republicans swept the November mid-term elections, gaining control of both houses of Congress, giving the Bush administration a clear mandate in the war on terrorism, and “casting Canada’s dilemma in an even darker light,” suggest the authors, professors at Royal Military College. Since it is widely considered a matter of when, not if, Bush orders American forces in the Persian Gulf to move against Saddam Hussein, the question is whether Canada will join a US-led alliance and what role Canada might play. Does Canada’s leadership have the political will, does Canada’s military have sufficient assets, to follow the road to Baghdad and wherever else the US-led war on terror leads? "The 2002 US Election and Canadian Interests: Ottawa Must Get with the Reality of a Bush-Dominated Washington" by Michael Hart and Bill Dymond George W. Bush swept the US mid-term elections, leaving the Republicans in control of the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time since the Eisenhower era. No longer an accidental president, Bush is now a major political force with the power to shape the US policy agenda, from security to international trade. Ottawa needs to gets its mind around this new reality, and get with the program of a Bush-dominated Washington. For those Canadians still waiting for winning coalitions in Washington, forget it, suggest the authors, two of Canada’s leading voices on trade policy and relations with the United States. If Canadians want to change gestures into workable policies, they contend, they need to get Washington onside. "Canada-US Economic Relations: A Window of Opportunity" by Earl Fry Canada and the United States have forged the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, with some C$2 billion worth of goods and services crossing the border each and every day. This trade linkage, however, is only one small manifestation of the degree of interdependence which currently exists between the two countries. Fry, a longtime Canada-watcher and former US trade official, examines the various dimensions of Canada-US economic interdependence, discusses the special challenges facing the relationship in a period of unprecedented globalization and technology change, and ponders some of the policy choices which will be available to Canada over the next decade. "Getting the Eagle's Attention Without Tweaking its Beak" by John J. Noble Canada-US relations are seldom as harmonious as leaders pretend nor as bad as critics would have you believe. The institutional weight of the commercial relationship and the strategic partnership on security issues are simply too important to be neglected by either country. But there have been historic ups and downs between Canada and the United States, usually starting with the relationships between prime ministers and presidents. John Noble, a former senior Canadian diplomat, Harvard University Fellow and Visiting Fulbright Fellow at Michigan State University, considers the relationship from the top down over the last 40 years and concludes that while things have been worse, it’s time for Canada to mend fences with the Bush administration. "YO, Canada! A Wake-Up Call for Y'All Up There" by David T. Jones 2002 was a year of downward spiral in the bilateral relationship between Canada and the US, writes a former senior American diplomat who served in Ottawa in the 1990s. The “bilateral” has deteriorated from the high-water mark of the Mulroney- Reagan/Bush era and the camaraderie of the Chrétien-Clinton years to a new low when a Chrétien adviser called the president of the United States “a moron,” a comment that was widely interpreted in Washington as being indicative of the mindset in the PM’s close entourage about the Bush administration. Since the terrorist attacks, concludes David T. Jones, history has resumed, and is even on the march, at a US-dictated pace with which Canada finds itself badly out of step. "Romanow-A Defence of Public Health Care, But is There a Map for the Road Ahead?" by Antonia Maioni The Report of the Commission on the Future of Health Care reaffirms the importance of the public model of health care in Canada and calls for significant new federal investments in the system. This is not so much a call to arms as a wake-up call for public health care, where the options for reform are as much constrained by legacies as by latter-day realities, including available dollars and provincial jurisdictions. Romanow’s report is a ringing declaration of confidence, however framing it as "Building on Values" opens the report to unfair criticisms of ideological bias. Antonia Maioni, an authority on comparative health issues between Canada and the United States, considers the Romanow report an important turn in the road, but one still without a definitive map. "Le défi de la santé dans un contexte électoral : redonner aux Québécois un système public de santé à la hauteur de leurs attentes" by Jean Charest In September 2002 the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party introduced a government action plan in of which health care was the centerpiece. Here Jean Charest presents his party’s platform. The four major pillars of this platform are preservation of the principle of public insurance, involvement of the private sector in the delivery of services, decentralization toward hospital institutions and reinvestment. "L' « épineuse » question d'André Burelle et le rapport Romanow" by John Richards In attempting to impose a degree of harmonization of health policies in spite of the provinces’ jurisdiction in this field, the Romanow report has taken a centralized approach, recommending the creation of a health council and the adoption of targeted funding to force the provinces to respect the national standards decreed by Parliament. However, the only way to guarantee quality services that are comparable across the country and to put an end to the federal-provincial conflicts in this field is through co-decision making. Having failed to recommend the creation of a real mechanism which would involve the provinces and truly restrain federal spending power, it is unlikely that the Romanow Report will herald a new era in the administration of health care. "He Said, She Said: The Debate on Vertical Fiscal Imbalance and Federal Health-Care Funding" by France St-Hilaire and Harvey Lazar Who’s telling the truth in the fiscal imbalance debate between Ottawa and the provinces and territories? France St-Hilaire and Harvey Lazar look behind the numbers and conclude there has been a significant erosion of federal support in meeting provincial and territorial social programming needs over the last two decades. Already in a surplus position, Ottawa’s revenue raising capacity considerably exceeds its spending responsibilities including transfers, while the provincial share of all program spending in Canada is 62 percent, and increasing. Meanwhile, a Conference Board of Canada study indicates Ottawa will rack up continuing surpluses that could pay off 90 percent the federal debt by 2020, while the provinces are forecast to be in a cumulative deficit. It’s time, they argue, for Ottawa to return to the bargaining table of fiscal federalism in good faith and for the provinces to engage in constructive dialogue. "Health Care as a Commodity" by Joseph Heath [summary not available] "The NDP Leadership Challenge-Re-Connecting the Left to the Middle" by Graham Fraser In the run-up to the NDP leadership vote on January 25, party activists faced a difficult choice between two apparent front runners, the well known face of NDP House Leader Bill Blaikie of Manitoba, and Toronto city councillor Jack Layton, an interesting new face with national credentials as president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. While Blaikie represents the party’s deep roots in the West and the co-operative movement, Layton represents the possibility of taking the NDP back into the cities and union towns of southern Ontario, where it was strong during the era of Ed Broadbent from 1975-1988, a highwater mark in NDP history. Toronto Star columnist Graham Fraser, widely acclaimed for his books on Canadian politics, offers this situational update on a party confronting an agonizing choice. "Fighting the Good Fight" by Alexa McDonough [summary not available] "Dealing with Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sport" by Richard W. Pound The President of the World Anti-Doping Agency proposes a policy framework for dealing with athletes using performance-enhancing drugs and other substances. Though the medical technology for catching cheaters is highly developed, enforcement remains problematic—how do you catch cheaters if you don’t know where they are? And the policy issues have not really evolved beyond punitive measures of what countries and athletic federations do when their athletes get caught. The establishment of WADA, suggests Montreal lawyer Richard Pound, presents an opportunity to coordinate and fund scientific research to identify new performance-enhancing drugs and ensure the world-wide publication of research results. But in the long run, the solutions rests in changing the mindset of those who would cheat, counsel cheating or condone cheating. Book Excerpt: Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace by J. L. Granatstein What kind of army does Canada need for the 21st century? J.L. Granatstein, the renowned Canadian military historian, argues in Canada’s Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace, that land forces “must be able to help defend North America, preserve domestic order if called on to do so, aid the civil power in times of emergency, participate effectively in the ongoing war against terrorism, serve the United Nations in its peace efforts and fight alongside our allies when and wherever Western and democratic interests are at stake.” A pretty tall order given the neglected state of Canada’s armed forces. Book Review: Dan Middlemiss reviews Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace by J. L. Granatstein [summary not available] Book Review: Hugh Segal reviews The Search for Good Government: Understanding the Paradox of Italian Democracy by Filippo Sabetti [summary not available] "Les leçons de la controverse sur la série télévisée Le Canada : une histoire populaire" by Christian Dufour [summary not available] "Was That Premier Romanow Reporting?" by William Watson [summary not available] |
