Policy Options

It has not been a good year for Canadian foreign policy, a year highlighted by further deterioration in relations with the United States and punctuated by a series of...

When I served as Canada’s ambassador to the United States, I learned very quickly that I had about 30 million advisors at my disposal on any given day. Almost...

How are we to define a new place for Canada in the world? That requires only the identification of an alternative other than the only two alternatives that seem...

When Paul Martin assumes the leadership of the Liberal party, he will face an enormous challenge, and enormous expectations. The last eighteen months of torpor and drift have resulted...

”œThere is no government…that does not understand that the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil in which our food grows are not free goods; that...

Congratulations on your election as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and your accession as Canada’s 21st prime minister. You already have made your mark in...

The 21st prime minister of Canada, Paul Martin, ascends to the highest office in the land amidst a remarkable and enviable conjuncture of circum- stances, some, but not all,...

One of the prerogatives that Paul Martin will inher- it as leader of the Liberal party and prime minister of Canada is the right to design the formal struc-...

In his acceptance speech as the new Liberal leader on 14 November, Paul Martin promised that the traditional Liberal stance of helping the underprivileged would not be forgotten. But...

In recent decades, Aboriginal political leaders, writers, and artists have come to centre stage in Canadian society. Many more Aboriginals have good jobs than a generation ago. These accomplishments...

In the run-up to taking office as prime minister, one of the central issues on which Paul Martin has focused is the importance of better intergovernmental relations. To under- score...

To commemorate the change in prime ministers, I’ve been re- reading Double Vision, Tony Wilson-Smith and Edward Greenspon’s terrific book on the Chrétien govern- ment’s first term, when all the...

Many years ago a friend of mine ”” a man of scrupu- lously centrist political con- victions ”” told me that although he found both the left wing and...

The worlds of politics and bureaucracy are so different that one wonders how the two could possibly learn to work with one another. Politics is, by definition, bot- tom-up,...

Donald Savoie has been doing a service to Canada in his series of books on adminis- trators and politicians. Building on his Governing from the Centre, which examined central...

When I toiled, and I really mean toiled, for John Turner as his communica- tions director, we were all hunkered down like jackrabbits in a Prairie hail- storm. It...

In the mid-1950s there was little hope a Conservative Government would or could be elected in Ottawa. By 1955, the Liberals had ruled with little effective opposition for 20 years....

According to Robert Kagan, Americans and Europeans have travelled divergent roads since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the European Union. Europe, Kagan argues, has...

For Canada and the United States, the post-Cold War world offers unique opportunities and daunting challenges. We begin from a common heritage of democratic tradi- tions and a common...

Au moment où l’on discute notamment de mariage entre personnes de même sexe et d’euthanasie, on se rend compte après plus de 20 ans d’application, à quel point la Charte...

In an important speech delivered to Osgoode law students on October 21, 2002, Paul Martin articulated a central theme of his leadership campaign ”” the demo- cratic deficit ””...

« Je crois qu’il est fondamental de reconnecter les Canadiens aux débats et aux décisions qui sont prises en leur nom. Cela commence en redonnant le pouvoir et le...

Dans un récent sondage réalisé à l’été 2003 par l’Institut de recherche en politiques publiques auprès d’un panel formé d’experts de la politique canadienne, il ressort que c’est Lester...

”œAs some of you might remember, I spoke with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) last May, and three days later found myself out of a job.” That’s how...

During the House of Commons debates over hospital insurance in the 1950s, members of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation accused the federal government, including the Minister of pensions and nation-...