Study
| EST. READ TIME 2 MIN.International Leadership by a Canada Strong and Free
In this fifth volume of the Canada Strong and Free series, Mike Harris and Preston Manning call for Canada to reclaim its leadership role in the international arena. They focus on three foreign policy priorities which would enable Canada to significantly advance its national interests and international influence across a broad front.
International Trade Liberalization
Freer international trade offers the most effective means of increasing Canadian prosperity and sustaining essential social services. Manning and Harris propose eliminating protectionist measures from supply management to business subsidies, systematic privatization of government export promotion and development programs, elimination of ideologically driven efforts to diversity trade patterns and partners, and fully opening up the domestic market to international competition.
Maximizing the Benefits of Strong Canada-US Relations
Whether Canadians like it or not, Canada's influence in the world depends to a large extent on its ability to gain and exert influence in Washington. Harris and Manning propose a Canada-US Customs Union involving a common external tariff, a joint approach to the treatment of third-country goods, a fully integrated energy market, a common approach to trade remedies and border security, and an integrated government procurement regime.
Better Approaches to Reducing Global Poverty
Harris and Manning recommend the adoption of the Tools of Wealth Creation approach to attacking poverty - focusing not on the redistribution of wealth but on a broader distribution of tools for creating wealth such as property rights, access to capital, human capital development, access to technology, and access to trade markets. They also propose greater use of public-private partnerships for infrastructure and vaccine development, reforming CIDA, completely untying food aid from any requirements that it be provided from Canadian sources, and the new paradigm of providing aid and peacekeeping simultaneously in conflict and post-conflict situations.
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The Hon. Michael Harris
former Premier of OntarioThe Honourable Mike Harris became the twenty-second Premier of Ontario following a landslide election victory in June 1995, and servedthe people of Ontario until 2002.His plan-the Common Sense Revolution-struck a chord with people across the province who were tired of big government, wasteful spending, rising welfare rolls, and rising unemployment. In his first term as Premier of Ontario, he proved that he was not afraid to make tough choices needed to put Ontario back on track. Four years later the voters of Ontario re-elected Mike Harris, making him the first Ontario Premier in more than 30 years to form a second consecutive majority government.Mike Harris joined the Fraser Institute as a Senior Fellow in October 2002.… Read more -
Preston Manning
Former Leader of the OppositionPreston Manning served as a Member of the Canadian Parliament from 1993 to 2001. He founded two new political parties- the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance - both of which became the official Opposition in the Canadian Parliament. Mr. Manning served as Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2000 and was also his party's critic for Science and Technology. In 2007 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.Since retirement from Parliament in 2002, Mr. Manning has released a book entitled Think Big (published by McClelland & Stewart) describing his use of the tools and institutions of democracy to change Canada's national agenda. He has also served as a Senior Fellow of the Canada West Foundation and as a Distinguished Visitor at the University of Calgary and University of Toronto.Mr. Manning is currently a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute and President and CEO of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. The Manning Centre is a national not-for-profit organization supporting research, educational, and communications initiatives designed to achieve a more democratic society in Canada guided by conservative principles.Mr. Manning continues to write, speak, and teach on a variety of subjects including the revitalization of democracy in the Western world, the revitalization of Canadian conservatism, Canada-U.S. relations, strengthening relations between the scientific and political communities, the re-balancing of Canadian federalism, the regulation of the genetic revolution, and the management of the interface between faith and politics.… Read more