MLI Newsletter
Vol. II, No. 1
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Connect with MLI
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Don't miss...First Annual Macdonald-Laurier Soirée
|  Don't miss the First Annual Macdonald-Laurier Soirée on February 15, 2011. Help us celebrate Sir John A. and Sir Wilfrid.
Join former Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Joe Clark and Speaker of the House Peter Milliken as we honour Canada's political history and traditions.
It's on Flag Day...February 15th...
5:30 - 7:30 pm
At the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa.
We are planning a fun evening for all...so don't delay. Click here to register today and take advantage of our early-bird pricing!
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MLI launches National Security Strategy for Canadians
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MLI's latest study and the first in our national security series, To Stand On Guard, landed in a big way in late November and early December. Author and 25-year veteran of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Paul Chapin, and the study were featured in news across Canada.
The Toronto Star headlined, Canada in dire need of security strategy, as Star Bureau Chief Richard Brennan wrote,
"Canada needs a national security strategy to protect itself against growing dangers, both at home and abroad, former diplomat Paul Chapin warns in new paper to be released Monday by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute."
In the National Post, Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia's Carmen Chai noted,
"The 9-11 terrorist attacks prompted several countries to create thorough plans to protect their citizens, but Canadians remain without a national security strategy nearly a decade later, an international expert says in a new report."
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MLI highlighted in The Economist
|  MLI's influence continues to spread and has reached the heights of The Economist, one of the world's most prestigious and widely-read news magazines.
In its December 16 issue, The Economist cited our recent national security study, To Stand On Guard, in an article looking at Canada's immigration system. The essay investigated what is termed an "increasingly vocal debate about immigration" in Canada.
Part of that debate has been joined by MLI, as The Economist authors noted, "A report on national security published last month by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a non-partisan think-tank, listed "uncontrolled immigration" as one of three foreseeable threats to Canada."
Read the article, A Smaller Welcome Mat, here...
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Canadian Century in Wall Street Journal
| MLI's message of Canada's ascendancy continues to gain traction in the United States. The widest read newspaper in the US, the Wall Street Journal, highlighted Brian Lee Crowley, MLI and our best-selling book, Canadian Century, in an article in early December.
WSJ's Canadian correspondent, Phred Dvorak, wrote:
"Some Canadians are even suggesting  what would have been unthinkable just 15 years ago, when an editorial in The Wall Street Journal dubbed Canada an "honorary member of the Third World"; in many ways, Canada now stands to outshine its neighbor to the south.
"We don't have to accept being second fiddle," says Brian Lee Crowley, managing director at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa policy think tank, and lead author of "The Canadian Century-Moving Out of America's Shadow," published in May. "We have the potential of enjoying a very long run of higher levels of economic dynamism, prosperity, success than the United States."
You can read the entire column here... |
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Mortgage Insurance in Canada
|  On November 18, 2010, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute published a policy Briefing titled Mortgage Insurance in Canada.
Authored by University of Guelph Associate Professor of Marketing and Consumer Studies Jane Londerville, the study highlights an important flaw in this country's otherwise solid system of mortgage insurance and explains how to fix it. A flaw that harms home buyers by tilting the playing field unfairly and inefficiently in favour of the publicly-owned Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
Highlighting the weakness in the system, Londerville notes that CMHC has an unfair advantage in the form of a 100 per cent "sovereign guarantee" of its debts, while as a matter of deliberate policy the federal government extends only a 90 per cent guarantee to its private sector rivals. This forces banks whose customers insure their mortgages through private firms to set aside capital against the risk of default, making such mortgages less profitable. Especially since the financial crisis began in 2008, this unlevel playing field has dramatically harmed CMHC's private sector competitors.
Read the entire Policy Briefing here...
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MLI in the News and on the Go!
| In case you missed it...
Brian Crowley and MLI landed an Op-Ed in the National/Financial Post, Is the Piggybank Broken? A similar commentary also appeared in the Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, Winnipeg Free Press, Waterloo Record, Guelph Mercury, Saint John Telegraph Journal, Calgary Beacon and others.
Paul Chapin, author of To Stand On Guard, appeared on CTV's popular politics and public affairs show Power Play. Watch it here...
On the Road with MLI
Dr. Crowley will be in Vancouver January 20-21 to take part in pre-budget discussions with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
Brian Crowley will be in Chicago at the end of January to speak to the National Strategy Forum.
Dr. Crowley will be at a meeting of the Rx&D Policy Advisory Committee in Montreal later this month.
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