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"Ce qui nous anime" by Jean Charest Premier Jean Charest received a confidence vote of 97 percent of delegates to the Quebec Liberal Party policy convention last month, the first such meeting since the March 2007 election returned a minority Liberal government. We offer an excerpt of the Premier’s speech to 2,500 delegates on the eve of the leadership vote. "NAFTA: time to plan, not panic" by Derek H. Burney With both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama calling for a re-opening of NAFTA, Canada's former ambassador to the United States writes that "NAFTA has become a convenient whipping boy for all that ails the US manufacturing sector these days, even though the competitive pressures stem more from technology and from emerging powers such as China and India than from trade with either of America's neighbours." It being an election year in the US, protectionist rhetoric is fashionable, especially with the Democratic contenders courting votes and trade union endorsements in Rust-Belt states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. "To combat the US protectionist mood and defend our own interests, Canada should look beyond NAFTA," Burney writes, to an agenda of border issues, energy and the environment. He calls for “stronger leadership on both sides of the border.” "NAFTA nonsense" by Robin Sears "Beggar thy neighbour" may not be good policy, but it is predictable in hard economic times, especially in election cycles. Thus, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, debating in the Rust-Belt state of Ohio, promised to reopen NAFTA and even cancel it if the Canadians and Mexicans didn’t agree to renegotiate. But then came “NAFTA-gate,” a silly episode in which the Harper government was accused of trying to derail the Obama campaign for the benefit of John McCain, followed by the leak of a low-level diplomatic note by Canadian consular officials, advising Ottawa to pay no heed to Obama’s rhetoric, which hurt Obama’s prospects on the eve of the Ohio vote. Robin Sears backgrounds an episode of spring fever. "The campaign will go on" by David Herle Looking inside the elected delegate numbers of the exciting race for the Democratic presidential nomination in the US, Contributing Writer David Herle concludes it is highly improbable that Hillary Clinton will overcome Barack Obama’s 170-vote lead in elected delegates in the remaining primaries and caucuses on the calendar between Pennsylvania in late April and Puerto Rico in early June. However, enough superdelegates could still break her way to deliver the nomination to her at the Democratic convention in August. Far from being obliged to follow the popular will, the ex-officio party officials should follow their sense of which of the two candidates is more electable against John McCain in November. While it’s definitely advantage Obama, the campaign goes on. "Renewing Canada's Afghan mission" by Mike Capstick In this article, Colonel (Retired) Mike Capstick, the first commander of Canada’s Strategic Advisory Team — Afghanistan, identifies the weakness of the joint Afghaninternational strategic vision and a consistent lack of coordination as the main causes of the lack of progress in Afghanistan. He makes the case for Canadian leadership on the international stage in Kabul and for the appointment of a prime ministerial envoy with a strong mandate to bring cohesion to Canada’s "whole of government" effort. Finally, he emphasizes the adverse impact a lack of human security has had on Afghans’ confidence in governance. The lessons of the past few years must be absorbed and our national strategy adjusted to honour both the commitment that Canada has made to the Afghans and the sacrifices that our nation has made thus far. "A life well lived - Simon Reisman" by Michael Hart and Bill Dymond In the annals of Canadian trade policy, Simon Reisman was a giant. Present at the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1947, he went on to negotiate the Canada-US Autopact in 1965 and the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement in 1987. Renowned for his public temper, he was equally known for his private courtesies and for mentoring bright young officials, such as the authors, who worked for him in the Trade Negotiations Office during the FTA talks. Hart and Dymond offer this fond appreciation of a legendary mandarin, and of a full life, well lived. "The Castonguay Report: Quebec's quiet revolutionary strikes again" by Antonia Maioni Claude Castongonguay was such an icon as the father of medicare in Quebec that the provincial health card was for decades known as la castonguette. When the Charest government coaxed him out of retirement to lead a task force on health care reform, it undoubtedly counted on his unique moral authority, but could not have imagined how radical his recommendations might be. He urged a 1 percent increase in the Quebec sales tax for health care, suggested user fees, and proposed allowing doctors to practice privately after hours. The government knocked down his most controversial ideas, and others failed to see the light of day in the March 13 budget. Antonia Maioni, a leading authority on the politics of health care in Canada and North America, holds the Castonguay Report up to the light. "Did Albertans really want change?" by Todd Hirsch [summary not available] "This just in: surpluses across the board" by Thomas J. Courchene The achievement of budgetary surpluses in Ottawa and in all provinces and territories simultaneously was 60 years in the making. This brief commentary on budgetary federalism adapts the informative charts in Budget 2008 and traces the fiscal/budgetary fortunes of the two levels of government over the past two decades. The near collapse of provincial finances in the wake of the 1995 budget has now been offset by a huge influx of federal cash transfers (Canada Health Transfer, Canada Social Transfer and equalization) and by resource revenues. When combined with federal tax cuts, the result is that the excess of provincial over federal revenues has never been larger. "A funny thing happened on the way to the federal budget" by Stanley H. Hartt The 2008 federal budget was a pale shadow of the economic statement delivered on October 30, 2007, so much so that some have called the October statement the "real budget." This happened because, in an effort to ensure electoral readiness in a minority situation, the Conservative government blew its fiscal wad on its first two budgets and the October statement and had relatively little manœuvring room left by February, as the economic outlook darkened and available surpluses diminished. The strategy of "spend big, spend early" seems to be working as the Liberals continue to shrink from a trip to the polls. "Tax policy and economic growth" by Jean-François Tremblay Significant reforms of the tax system are required to make the Canadian economy more productive. The introduction of tax-free savings accounts, announced in the 2008 federal budget, will improve the treatment of savings by the personal income tax system and will likely result in higher capital accumulation and productivity. On other fronts, the current and previous budgets have not made as much progress. Inter-industry variations in the effective taxation of capital investments and the lack of sales tax harmonization remain, and are highly detrimental to the efficiency and growth of the Canadian economy. Tax reforms to address these issues should be a high priority. "Guaranteed annual income: why Milton Friedman and Bob Stanfield were right" by Hugh Segal In this article, former IRPP president Hugh Segal considers the merits of a guaranteed annual income or a negative income tax, an idea whose time may never come, but which always generates a good debate. It’s a concept where thinkers on the left and right have found some common ground, from conservative economists such as Milton Friedman in the United States, to Red Tories such as Robert Stanfield in Canada. "If it is done right," Segal argues, "instituting a basic floor income could diminish federal-provincial and labour-management tensions" and could even, "over time, reduce the net burden of state spending while increasing aid to, and the privacy and dignity, of those who fall behind." "Budget fédéral 2008 : une occasion ratée de stimuler notre productivité" by Luc Godbout In its recent budget the federal government announced various fiscal initiatives, including the plan to lower corporate income taxes and support to the provinces to help them eliminate capital taxation. In this article, Luc Godbout deplores the fact that the budget did not to employ any of the 2007-08 surplus to address the cause of the investment shortfall by introducing a temporary fund to encourage companies to invest in new equipment, thereby stimulating productivity. "Out of its $10.2 billion surplus, the federal government could have created a temporary fund earmarked for modernization," he writes. "Coût économique de l'électricité vendue aux nouvelles alumineries" by Gérard Bélanger et Jean-Thomas Bernard Quebec's aluminium industry uses 50 terawatt hours of electricity per year; that is, 25 percent of the total consumed in the province. The industry was established here because of the low price of this energy source. However, the costs of new power plants are rising. And the price at which electricity is sold is below the costs of these new power stations. In this article, Gérard Bélanger and Jean-Thomas Bernard assess the profitability of new industrial projects that need large quantities of electricity. They look at the cases of two new aluminium plants, and conclude that they are very expensive for the province. According to the authors' estimates, the cost of each permanent job created ranges from $255,357 to $729,653 per year. "Politique hydro-électrique et développement régional" by Luc Boulanger Hydro Quebec’s policy on rates for large energy consumers comes back onto the agenda every time new blocks of electricity are granted to large companies. “The options in this debate,” writes Luc Boulanger, “come down to a choice between transforming our electricity locally, when we agree to grant these blocks to large companies, most of which are in the regions, or just selling it on the external markets.” The author, who is the executive director of the Association québecoise des consommateurs industriels d’électricité, examines which option would be most profitable for Quebec, taking into consideration the price that can be obtained on the markets when a large quantity of electricity is exported at once, and the economic spin-offs for large firms in the regions. "Media infrastructure for multicultural diversity" by Catherine Murray Do Canada’s ethnic media serve an integrative role? How can communication policy improve the integration process? Catherine Murray reports on a study of British Columbia’s ethnic media conducted by Simon Fraser University. The results show that ethnic media have little national or provincial news focus and little intercultural reporting, but compared with other media elsewhere they do have healthier "translocal" hybrids of local and international news. She observes that the niche strategy segregating ethnic media, which until recently predominated, is unravelling. In terms of policy, she says attention is urgently needed to induce a stronger selfregulatory culture among ethnic print media and to allow more flexibility for ethnic broadcasters, while preserving the level of media competition. "Employee voice in the non-union setting" by Dan Cameron Union density reached its peak in Canada in the mid 1980s and since then the percentage has gradually declined to approximately 29 percent. This decline usually results in questions concerning the relevance of unions and the appropriateness of traditional adversarial collective bargaining practices. But to Dan Cameron, former Chief Spokesperson for the Employer in Public Service Negotiations in Saskatchewan, this erosion raises more fundamental issues related to providing employees with a representative "voice" at the work place and some influence over their terms and condition of work. Canadian labour laws governing the recognition of unions and regulating the collective bargaining process, he says, are largely a product of the 1940’s. In this article, he explores some of the options for reform that may be appropriate to reflect and accommodate significant changes in economic and social circumstances. Book Review: Adam Daifallah reviews Comeback:Conservatism That Can Win Again by David Frum [summary not available] "Affamer la bête" by Alain Noël [summary not available] |
