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"Memo to Martin - engage Canada-US relations as one of PM's 'overriding responsibilities'" by John Manley In a major address to the Canadian Institute of International Affairs in Calgary on March 23, former deputy prime minister and finance minister John Manley had some forthright advice for Paul Martin on re-engaging Canada-US relations at the highest level and as a top priority. “I know that George W. Bush is not an easy sell in Canada — it doesn’t matter,” Manley said. “He is the elected leader of our neighbour, the country that is our biggest customer by far, and millions of Canadian jobs are affected by his decisions.” Other advice to Martin: join with the US in continental missile defence, since they will build it whether Canada joins or not, and name an ambassador to the US who has the ear and the confidence of the prime minister, and who sits at the table of the new Canada-US cabinet committee. Ironically, Manley declined Martin’s offer to name him ambassador to Washington, and is not running in this election. "Turmoil in post-Saddam Iraq: Speed bumps or roadblocks?" by David Romano Following his “Letter from Iraq” in our February issue, David Romano provides this view from the ground of an intensified insurgency and worsening security situation through the month of April, featuring more suicide bombings and the kidnapping of foreigners, all of which have hampered the economic and political reconstruction of post-Saddam Iraq. Apart from inadequate post-war planning and corruption cases such as Halliburton overcharging for fuel, the Coalition Provisional Authority is seen as distant and aloof. Every governing mistake increases the alienation of Iraqis, and the insurgency only magnifies it. “In this kind of vicious circle,” Romano writes, “brutal dictatorship or theocratic authoritarianism will seem preferable to a beastly Hobbesian state of nature.” With the June 30 date for transfer of limited sovereignty looming, the stakes are very high. Romano, leading a McGill University team of researchers in Kurdish northern Iraq, concludes “freedom-loving people throughout the world, including the harshest critics of George Bush, should fervently wish the coalition forces and liberal Iraqis success in this struggle now playing itself out.” "The trouble with Canada's game - goons and bumper cars on ice" by Paul Stothart Canada’s game is in trouble. While today’s hockey players are bigger and faster, they have consequently shrunk the size of the ice. With so little room to move the puck, hockey has become “bumper cars on ice,” writes hockey aficionado Paul Stothart, a former university hockey star. And where Canadians comprised the entire entry draft 30 years ago, they account for little more than half of young players selected today. Increasingly, the skilled players come from Europe and the former Soviet Union, while Canadians have become “the dump-and-chase corner men.” Driving opponents through the boards, and their heads through the glass, has become all too common in both professional and junior hockey. Interestingly, the US now provides nearly one NHL player in five, most of them graduates of a university system that favours a more open and cleaner style of hockey, not unlike the way our game is played in Europe. In his diagnostic, Stothart provides a disturbing picture of a game gone wrong, and in his prognostic, some proposals for how it can be put right. "Saskatchewan in the Calvert era: between continuity and change" by Tom McIntosh and Howard Leeson Going into the election last November, the Saskatchewan Party appeared poised to form the new government. Yet the NDP managed to secure a fourth successive victory, a feat not accomplished since Tommy Douglas. Political scientists Tom McIntosh and Howard Leeson review the latest developments in Saskatchewan and discuss the most pressing issues and challenges facing the province. Demographics, agricultural crisis, the future of Aboriginal populations and equalization are all top government priorities. But since these issues all have intergovernmental dimensions to them, resolving them will require more than local action. And in order to get what it needs from Ottawa, “Saskatchewan may well have to move away from its former role as a ‘fixer’ between the federal government and more hardline provincial governments and adopt a much harder line with Ottawa,” conclude the authors. "Ethics at home and abroad" by Thomas S. Axworthy The sponsorship scandal and other revelations, such as the human resources scam, have corroded public trust in government as seldom before in Canadian history. In seeking accountability in these affairs, there is a recurrent pattern of plausible deniability among both politicians and public servants, who denied both knowledge of and responsibility for the waste and disappearance of public funds. Or worse, as in the case of Chuck Guité, the public servant in charge of the sponsorship funds, the end justified the means. Thomas Axworthy, former principal secretary to Pierre Trudeau, begs to differ. “Necessity knows no law, the perfect Machiavellian argument,” he writes, noting: “We make our choices and our choices have consequences…Understanding the primacy of responsibility is the starting point of ethical conduct.” He endorses recommendations of a conference hosted by Seneca College and York University for putting responsibility and accountability back into the system, in Parliament, politics and the public service. "In praise of public service - the vanguard against corruption" by Donald Johnston “A strong public service is the best guarantee against corruption undermining the effectiveness and integrity of democracy,” writes Donald Johnston, Secretary- General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Paris-based club of the world’s 30 leading economies. It is one thing to have high standards of governance and accountability, but only an incorruptible public service can enforce them. “In governance,” he writes, “theoretical models and attractive organigrams by themselves accomplish nothing. I have always believed that when we put the right brains to work in the right jobs, we will succeed.” Attracting the best and the brightest to public service requires “remuneration, recognition and public respect…but public service will never compete with the private sector on the basis of pay alone. However, good career management, stimulating public policy challenges, combined with reasonable pay and public respect and recognition, can make a difference.” "Ensuring supreme confidence in judicial appointments" by William Johnson An independent judiciary is essential to confidence in the integrity of our justice system. “Judicial independence,” writes the president of the Canadian Bar Association, “ensures that the courts guard our Constitution and the democratic process.” And nothing ensures an independent judiciary more than a nomination process that is free of patronage and political manipulation. The present appointment process of judges, involving extensive but private consultations between the federal justice department, provincial attorneys general, and the Bar, should be the basis for any initiative that would include the involvement of parliamentarians, particularly on nominations to the Supreme Court. While MPs from the Standing Committee on Justice could well play a relevant role, they should not conduct public hearings, which would risk degenerating into the kind congressional farce seen in nominations to the United States Supreme Court, notably in the cases of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Very few judges who cared for their reputations would allow their names to stand for such an inquisition in this country. CBA President William Johnson suggests the prime minister build on the success of the present consultative process, notably with the imminent appointments to fill two Ontario vacancies on the Supreme Court. "Federal ombudsman would reduce democratic deficit" by Donald C. Rowat Paul Martin has long been an advocate of reducing the democratic deficit, but one of the most effective means of doing so would be the appointment of a federal ombudsman as an independent officer of Parliament. A national ombudsman is now in place in some 65 democratic countries, including Australia, as well as in the Canadian provinces, but not as yet in Ottawa. It is now five years since provincial ombudsmen urged Ottawa to create such a position, “so far to no avail,” writes a longtime Canadian ombudsman scholar. “Why the federal government has so far failed to adopt a scheme to match the provincial ones is somewhat of a mystery,” writes Donald Rowat. “Now that he is leading the government, Prime Minister Martin has a golden opportunity to reduce the democratic deficit and to leave a permanent legacy by instituting this important democratic reform.” "Democratic deficit? What democratic deficit?" by Charles Caccia The so-called democratic deficit suggests MPs are not performing a useful role and “creates a false impression,” writes long-serving Liberal MP Charles Caccia, “that the current situation with elected MPs is somehow undemocratic.” But MPs have abundant opportunities to influence policy agendas and political outcomes, from House of Commons debates to committee work amending government bills. Occasionally, even private members’ bills are accepted, as was the case with a 1964 bill changing the name of Trans-Canada Airlines to Air Canada, proposed by a freshman member named Jean Chrétien. “Individual MPs,” Caccia concludes, “are already in position to make a difference and to participate in many ways in the policy process.” "Comment mettre fin au patronage à la Commission de l'immigration et du statut de réfugié ?" by France Houle Administrative justice plays an important role in the regulation of contemporary societies. Nevertheless, observes France Houle, the process of selecting and nominating administrative judges is often flawed, thus undermining their credibility, their legitimacy and their independence. In this regard, she believes that the recently adopted guidelines to better manage the selection of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) commissioners will not resolve the numerous problems that have undermined the IRB since its creation. There is a risk that the new consultative committee responsible for evaluating candidacies and making recommendations to the minister will again become subject to patronage, while the candidate selection criteria do not guarantee that all the members will possess the qualifications necessary to fulfill their duties. To deal with the most flagrant flaws in the system, she notably recommends the creation of an independent committee whose composition would be public; the addition of criteria to evaluate candidates’ knowledge and expertise relating to immigration issues; and the adoption of a fixed, seven-year, non-renewable mandate with a one-year probation period. "Les commandites : un scandale essentiellement politique" by Yves Boisvert and Jean-Patrice Desjardins Since the auditor general tabled her report last February, the sponsorship scandal has dominated the front pages of the newspapers and fed people's cynicism toward politicians and political institutions. And the hearings of the House of Commons public accounts committee are not doing much to improve the situation, claim Yves Boisvert and Jean-Patrice Desjardins, who take stock of the committee's work at the half-way point. According to them, the testimony heard to date indicates that this is a political rather than an administrative scandal. Hopefully, they say, the special commission chaired by Justice Gomery will really shed light on the issues. In the mean time, Prime Minister Martin has to break his silence and explain how, as vice president of the Treasury Board, he could have allowed this to happen. "A toast to the independent audit" by Joseph Heath [summary not available] "Good policy is good politics - why Canada needs bank mergers now" by Stanley H. Hartt With Ottawa scheduled to announce its new policy on bank mergers by June 30, it’s time to bite the bullet and permit consolidation in the financial services industry, or wave goodbye to an increasing number of Canadian corporations, who will finance their international growth abroad rather than at home. “This works to deprive Canada of head-office type jobs for our next generation, not only in the banking sector,” writes a prominent Canadian investment banker and former finance mandarin, “but in all the businesses which need financing from banks capable of executing at a global level.” Already, in 2003, foreign investment banks received 43 percent of investment banking fees paid by Canadian companies on international transactions. While Canada’s major banks have grown in the last decade in terms of their capital, every one of them has fallen off the list of the world’s largest banks. “We had three banks among the top 50 global banks in 1990, none in 2003,”Hartt writes. Only mergers will enable Canadian banks to leverage the critical mass needed to be players in a global industry. "FTAs and sovereignty" by Thomas J. Courchene [summary not available] Book Excerpt: Who Killed the Canadian Military? by J.L. Granatstein The eminent Canadian historian Jack Granatstein frames a provocative question in the title of his timely book Who Killed the Canadian Military? His answer: every prime minister since Diefenbaker has de-emphasized or degraded the role and relevance of the Canadian armed forces as instruments of national security and the national interest. Even from post-Cold War strengths of 90,000 in the early 1990s, Canada’s forces have declined by half in the decade since, in which a new and unpredictable threat, global terrorism, has emerged. Quite apart from the mustering out of Canada’s forces and the rusting out of their equipment, Canadians have seen Canada primarily in a peacekeeping role, ever since Lester B. Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for proposing the United Nations Emergency Force in the Middle East in 1956. What was peacekeeping then has become today a very different and more dangerous vocation. In this exclusive excerpt from his new bestseller, Granatstein asserts that “Mike” Pearson inadvertently played a role in diminishing the strength of Canada’s military. Book Review: Lawrence McDonough reviews Who Killed the Canadian Military? by J.L. Granatstein [summary not available] Book Review: John J. Noble reviews On Six Continents: A Life in Canada's Foreign Service by James Bartleman [summary not available] "Our attitude on Iraq is clear: What's our policy?" by William Watson [summary not available] |
