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"From the editor's desktop" by William Watson "The Chrétien legacy" Jean Chrétien became Prime Minister of Canada on October 25, 1993. As this is written, almost exactly seven years later, rumours are swirling about Ottawa that the next federal election is imminent. Whether it is or not, conventional wisdom is that, one way or another, Mr. Chrétien will take his leave of politics in the next year or two. Given his legendary political resilience, his combative nature, and the long history of Canadians’ affection for him, there is no small risk in making such a prediction. But Policy Options decided to plunge ahead in any case and asked eight experienced observers of the Canadian scene to assess Mr. Chrétien’s legacy as his prime ministry nears its end. Here are their answers. "Are we better off now than we were ten years ago?" by Christopher Sarlo Well-being is hard to measure. It includes both economic and non-economic factors. In economic terms, the 1990s were not a period of extraordinary growth. Most measures of per capita income have been either flat or only gently rising, though measures of consumption do show greater growth. In terms of non-economic variables, the record is even more mixed. Life expectancy, most environmental indicators and educational qualifications have increased, but crime rates are higher than they were a generation ago and families are much less stable. All in all, it is quite possible we are worse off than we were ten years ago. "Canada and the US in the Chrétien years: Edging toward confrontation" by David T. Jones Despite being much smaller and less powerful than its southern neighbour, for a number of years Canada has gotten the better part of its relationship with the United States. It managed to persuade the US to change its traditional mantra on Canadian national unity to vigorous support for the federalist side, apparently without giving any quid for the quo. Under André Ouellet, the Chrétien government’s relations with the US were largely harmonious. Lloyd Axworthy, however, apparently enjoyed going out of his way to annoy the US. So far, the 800-pound gorilla has been largely placid, but there are worrying signs that may not continue much longer. "20 years of prime ministers in Policy Options" This year marks Policy Options’ 20th anniversary. To celebrate we are running excerpts from the archives. In this issue, to accompany our cover story, we look at how different prime ministers have been treated in our pages over the years. With excerpts by Hugh Segal, Jeffrey Simpson, George Bain, David MacDonald, G. Bruce Doern, Norman Ward, R.A. Young, Michael Meighen, Ed Roberts, Stan Roberts, David Smith, Tom Kent and Arthur Andrew. "La justice et les pays du sud" by Pierre Elliott Trudeau Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his policies were much written about in Policy Options in its first days, which coincided almost exactly with his final term in office. But the late Prime Minister appeared only once in these pages on his own account. It was in the September/October issue of 1981. Mr. Trudeau had been invited to provide his thoughts on the problems of economic development in the world’s poor countries. But before the article could be written the then-Prime Minister led a House of Commons debate on this problem. In the event, it was agreed that Policy Options would publish the remarks he made on that occasion. Here they are again. "Coming soon to an economy near you: The business cycle" by Daniel Schwanen Amid all the cheery forecasts about endless economic growth in the United States, there is an ominous sign: The growth rate of real M2, a common definition of the stock of money, is about to fall below the growth rate of real GDP. The last six times this has happened, real GDP has subsequently suffered a serious slowdown. Many people seem to believe that won’t happen this time because of the influence of the “New Economy” on productivity. While it is true that higher productivity growth can reduce the amount of inflation the economy experiences when unemployment is low, it is still too early to tell whether recent high rates of growth of productivity are permanent, or mainly a cyclical phenomenon. "'We the people': Reinforcing liberty in Canada" by Irving Brecher and Tom Velk A prime minister with a majority in Parliament exercises enormous power. If Canadians’ are to remain free in the face of such power, some fundamental political reforms are needed. The most important is to establish a greater separation of powers. We need: a president as well as a prime minister; an elected Senate; judges and other officials whose nomination must be vetted by the legislature; term limits; elimination of the “notwithstanding clause” from the constitution, and a number of other constitutional reforms. Our new institutions could be crafted with distinctively Canadian features, but their goal should be to provide US-style checks and balances against the arbitrary exercise of political power. "Two casualties of the Child Tax Benefit: Truth and the poor" by Richard Shillington If public policy is to be debated sensibly, governments should describe the basic facts of what their policies will do as truthfully as possible. The Child Tax Benefit is a good example of how not to go about such impact studies. Since 1985, reforms of our arrangements for getting money into the hands of low-income families have always been cast in the best possible light by the federal governments of the day. That the various changes have caused many families to experience a reduction in the real value of their welfare receipts has never been mentioned by official sources. We should raise the standard of what we demand from governments so that misleading marketing of this sort will no longer be tolerated by the public. |
