Policy Options

Our goal is to put Canada at the forefront of a world that is moving quickly, and to do this, we are going to have to bring in fundamental...

Let me begin with the worst moment in my life as press secretary to Robert Stanfield. This tribute to him can only improve from there. The 1974 federal election...

In Suleimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan, I first heard the news when my for- mer student, whom I brought with me to conduct research in Iraq, called on the phone....

Now I wonder if you gentlemen and ladies who run the cities, whether you realize how much the cities have meant to the world. I suppose all the great...

During the last 10 years much attention has been paid to the governance of Canadian cities. In eastern Canada the issue has, at one time or another, dominated provincial...

While Canada has long since ceased to be a rural society, only recently have cities emerged as policy centre-stage. On the economic front, ”œglobal city regions” (GCRs) are now...

Canadian cities are vital to Canada’s future pros- perity. What happens in our cities fundamentally affects GDP, the way we understand ourselves, and how we interact with the natural...

Canadian cities are back on the public agenda. Prime Minister Paul Martin has declared that there is ”œno question that the path to Canada’s future runs through municipal governments...

Day in, day out, news media bring us echoes of the battle that is raging among critics and defenders of contemporary suburbs. For the former, urban growth on the...

How can we sustain our cities? The short answer is by keeping our city centres healthy and viable. A major threat to our downtowns is congestion, an economic and...

Contrary to what heritage groups, New Urbanists, and many architectural critics today would have us believe, modern architecture and planning have pro- vided Canadian cities with their most lively...

In 1951, Samuel Bronfman, president of the House of Seagram, commissioned 22 artists to paint the cities of Canada. To select the participants he relied upon the expertise of...

One of the most extraordinary sights in Canada is the DVP expressway in Toronto. ”œDVP” stands for ”œDon Valley Parkway,” but it is better known among locals as the...

January 1, 2004, marked the 15th anniversary of the implementation of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which largely formed the basis of the North American Free Trade Agreement...

The first days of the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancún, Mexico, in September 2003, revealed the small margin of manoeuvre of the government rep- resentatives present. The United States...

When Paul Martin asked Jim Peterson to be his trade minister and separated the trade portfolio from foreign affairs, Peterson no doubt thought about the offer carefully, not long, but carefully....

The release of Statistics Canada’s five-year census data on knowledge and use of official languages has often served as a catalyst for impassioned debate over the future of the...

Chapters Inc. has transformed the Canadian retail book mar- ket so radically that it’s startling to recall the corporation has existed only since 1994. But before its red and...

First, by way of disclosure, I am acquainted with Roy MacSkim- ming. During my two terms as president of the Association of Canadi- an Publishers (ACP) in 1989 and...

Lloyd Axworthy has done what very few of his predecessors have done. He has written about his time as Canadian foreign minister. For that alone he deserves credit. He provides...

In the last issue of Policy Options, my fellow columnist Joseph Heath wrote an (as always) interesting piece advising Canada’s political parties to beware their members whose ”œpolitical affilia-...