Study
| EST. READ TIME 2 MIN.Fraser Forum - March 2010: Canada - US Relations in 2010
In this issue:
HST will help, not hinder, Manitobans
by Niels Veldhuis and Charles Lammam
Implementing a harmonized sales tax in Manitoba would reduce costs for businesses and encourage investment in the province.
Global warming on trial
by Diane Katz
The Copenhagen Conference in December failed to yield a binding international agreement on reductions of CO2 emissions—and it’s just as well. Recent evidence shows that, contrary to the claims of global warming alarmists, the science is anything but settled.
Quarterly Research Alert
Our researchers summarize the findings of recent studies on important topics, including fiscal policy, entrepreneurship, and poverty.
Aerospace subsidies: The latest “distortion of competition”
by Mark Milke
Canada should renew its commitment to open, competitive markets by ending loan guarantees and subsidies for aerospace manufacturers such as Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney.
Canada-US relations in 2010
by Alexander Moens
This year, Canada should move beyond its past disputes with the United States and work towards strengthening its economic ties with its southern neighbour.
Change, continuity, or both?
by Alan W. Dowd
A closer look at Obama’s first year as President of the United States shows that there has been more continuity with the previous administration’s foreign policy than his supporters expected and less change than his opponents feared.
Deficits and debts
by Jason Clemens and Julie Kaszton
In 2009, the US federal debt reached an estimated $7.6 trillion. At some point in the near future, substantial fiscal reforms will have to be made in order for the United States to achieve some level of fiscal sustainability
The Canada-US softwood lumber dispute: A brief history
by Csaba Hajdu
Over the last 20 years, the Canada-US softwood lumber war has taken a serious toll on Canada’s forestry sector.
Stay the course? Let’s hope not
by Niels Veldhuis and Charles Lammam
The federal government needs to reconsider its plans to continue to spend money on ineffective “stimulus” measures. Instead, it should focus on cutting taxes and eliminating the deficit.
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Niels Veldhuis
President, Fraser Institute
Niels Veldhuis serves as President of the Fraser Institute, Canada’s most influential think tank.In his over 20-plus-year career in publicpolicy, Niels has authored six books and more than 50 peer-reviewed studies on a wide range of economic topics. In 2011, he was awarded (along with his co-authors) the prestigious Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for the best-selling book, The Canadian Century.Highly regarded for his opinions and perspectives on major economic and social issues, Niels appears regularly in the media across Canada and the United States. He has written hundreds of commentaries that have appeared in over 50 newspapers, including the Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal, National Post, and The Economist.Known for his ability to explain matters of economics and government policy in a down-to-earth and easily understood manner, Niels travels widely across North America. His speaking engagements extend to diverse audiences, including business groups, corporate gatherings, community organizations, and students.Niels has had the privilege of sharing the stage and moderating discussions with prominent business and political leaders from around the world. Notable individuals include Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and BC Premier Gordon Campbell. He has also moderated discussions with distinguished Canadian journalists such as Chantal Herbert, Andrew Coyne, and Rex Murphy, as well as diplomats such as Canada’s Ambassador to China and Israel’s Ambassador to Canada. Niels moderated a discussion between United States Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in 2011 and has facilitated conversations with impactful authors like Mosab Hassan Yousef (author of "Son of Hamas") and Lord Conrad Black.Niels Veldhuis is an alumnus of Simon Fraser University, was one of Vancouver’s Top 40 under 40 by Business in Vancouver in 2010, and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).… Read more -
Jason Clemens
Executive Vice President, Fraser InstituteJason Clemens is the Executive Vice President of the Fraser Institute and the President of the Fraser Institute Foundation. Hehas an Honors Bachelors Degree of Commerce and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Windsor as well as a Post Baccalaureate Degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University. Before rejoining the Fraser Institute in 2012, he was the director of research and managing editor at the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute and prior to joining the MLI, Mr. Clemens spent a little over three years in the United States with the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute. He has published over 70 major studies on a wide range of topics, including taxation, government spending, labor market regulation, banking, welfare reform, health care, productivity, and entrepreneurship. He has published over 300 shorter articles, which have appeared in such newspapers as The Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, National Post, and a host of U.S., Canadian, and international newspapers. Mr. Clemens has been a guest on numerous radio and television programs across Canada and the United States. He has appeared before committees of both the House of Commons and the Senate in Canada as an expert witness and briefed state legislators in California. In 2006, he received the coveted Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award presented by Caldwell Partners as well as an Odyssey Award from the University of Windsor. In 2011, he was awarded (along with his co-authors) the prestigious Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for the best-selling book The Canadian Century. In 2012, the Governor General of Canada on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, presented Mr. Clemens with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his contributions to the country.… Read more -
Charles Lammam
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Alan Dowd
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute, Senior Editor of Fraser Insight and Managing Director ofthe Institute's EFNA Network. In addition, Dowd conducts research into defence and security issues. He co-authored the Fraser Institute report Cybersecurity Challenges for Canada and the United States; has contributed to the Institute’s Economic Freedom of North America Annual Report (EFNA); helped launch the Institute’s EFNA Network in 2014; and continues to manage and coordinate the EFNA Network, which today enfolds more than 60 member-organizations in 47 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico. An award-winning writer, Dowd is a frequent contributor to American Legion Magazine, Military Officer, The American, Landing Zone, and American Outlook. In addition, his writing has appeared in Fraser Forum, Claremont Review of Books, Policy Review, Parameters, Journal of Diplomacy & International Relations, Diplomat & International Canada, World Politics Review, World & I, National Post, Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, Washington Examiner, Sacramento Bee, Indianapolis Star, Detroit News, Vancouver Sun, Wall Street Journal Europe, Jerusalem Post, Financial Times Deutschland, and the online editions of the American Interest, National Review, and Weekly Standard. Dowd has served as an adjunct professor at Butler University and Anderson University; was a founding member of the Sagamore Institute leadership team, where he continues to hold a senior fellow post; and was director of Hudson Institute’s corporate headquarters. He earned a B.A. with departmental high honors from Butler University and an M.A. from Indiana University.… Read more -
Diane Katz
Diane S. Katz is a Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy with the Heritage Foundation and the former Director of Risk,Environment and Energy Policy for the Fraser Institute. She has more than two decades of experience in research and writing about public policy, including six years as Director of Science, Environment and Technology for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and nine years as a member of The Detroit News editorial board specializing in science and the environment, telecommunications and technology, and the auto industry. Ms. Katz has been awarded several fellowships, including the Jack R. Howard Science Reporting Institute at the California Institute of Technology; the Paul Miller Washington Reporting Program; the Kinship Conservation Institute; and the Political Economy Research Center. She has testified before Congress as well as a number of state legislatures, and was appointed to represent the State Policy Network, a coalition of more than 50 think tanks across the United States, on the American Legislative Exchange Council. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal; The Washington Times; National Review; The Weekly Standard; Reason Magazine and dozens of regional and local newspapers. Ms. Katz graduated with a B.Ph. from Thomas Jefferson College and an M.A. from the University of Michigan.… Read more -
Mark Milke
Mark Milke was a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute between 2010 and 2015. Mr. Milke led the Institute’s workon Alberta-related issues as well as contributing to a broad host of national and regional studies. Mr. Milke is currently an independent analyst and consultant in Calgary.Mr. Milke has authored four books on Canadian politics and policy and dozens of studies on topics such as property rights, public sector pensions, corporate welfare, competition policy, aboriginal matters and taxes. Prior to joining the Fraser Institute, Mr. Milke was the research director for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and former B.C. and Alberta director with the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation. His work has been published widely in Canada since 1997 and in addition to the Fraser Institute, his papers have also been published in the United States by the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation and in Europe by the Brussels-based Centre for European Studies.Mr. Milke’s opinion columns appear regularly in the Calgary Herald and Globe and Mail, as well as in the National Post, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, and Victoria Times Colonist. Mr. Milke has a Master’s degree from the University of Alberta where his M.A. thesis analyzed human rights in East Asia; he also has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Calgary where his doctoral dissertation analyzed the rhetoric of Canadian-American relations. Mr. Milke is president of Civitas, and a past lecturer in Political Philosophy and International Relations at the University of Calgary.… Read more -
Alexander Moens
Professor of Political Science, Simon Fraser UniversityAlexander Moens is a professor of Political Science at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and a former Senior Fellow inAmerican Policy at the Fraser Institute. He teaches American Foreign Policy and the Political and Security Relations between Europe and North America. He is the author of Foreign Policy Under Carter, Boulder : Westview Press, 1990, and most recently The Foreign Policy of George W. Bush: Values, Strategy, Loyalty (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing, November 2004).His work on European Security includes Disconcerted Europe: The Search for a New Security Architecture (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994). Co-edited with Christopher Anstis; NATO and European Security: Alliance Politics from the Cold War's End to the Age of Terrorism (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2003), Co-edited with Lenard Cohen and Allen Sens; and Foreign Policy Realignment in the Age of Terror (Toronto: Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 2003), Co-edited with Lenard Cohen and Brian Job.In 1992, Moens served in the Policy Planning Staff of Canada's Foreign Affairs Department and in the Spring of 1999 he was a visiting fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He is also a researcher with the Council For Canadian Security in the 21st Century, and a Fellow of the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute.… Read more -
Csaba Hajdú
Principal, Paprika Consulting Inc., & co-founder, Fraser InstituteCsaba Hajdú is a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute. Mr. Hajdú is an economist with expertise in the field of market conditions, profitability, investment, productivity, and labour costs.