Lack of Continental Institutions, Border-Thickening, Threaten Autos and More

There is a remarkable contradiction between the reality of the North American economy, which is deeply integrated, and North American governance, which is weak, fragmented, and often uninformed.  That contradiction is threatening the competitiveness and indeed very future, not only of domestic auto manufacturing, but potentially of the many other integrated continental industries, according to the Commentary written for MLI by Stephen Blank, a leading authority on North American economic integration, and released in May.  Click here to read the full Commentary.

Two Takes on Osama bin Laden's Death

In his new regular column for the Ottawa Citizen, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley welcomes the news of the elimination of Osama bin Laden and questions why some commentators seem to feel that the west is always wrong when it defends its values, while radical Islamists and others are too frequently given a free pass when they attack the west.  Read more: We have a duty to defend our values.

Alex Wilner (MLI Fellow and Senior Researcher for the Center for Security Studies) also weighed in regarding the killing of bin Laden.  He warns "while we should cheer bin Laden's demise and praise US persistence in tracking him down, we shouldn't expect that our war with al Qaeda will have ended on 5/11."  Read his entire piece:  Killing bin Laden: From 9/11 to 5/11

Crime Stats Debate still a Hot Topic

Scott Newark's research on crime statistics for MLI
( Why Canadian Crime Statistics Don't Add Up) continues to reverberate around the country.  For instance, Scott appeared on CBC New's  Power and Politics on April 21, 2011, to participate in a debate on crime policies and issues in the federal election.  Then in the May 10^th edition of the Winnipeg Sun, journalist Mike Sutherland recounts how impressed he was when he had the opportunity to hear Newark speak in Ottawa the previous week.  He states that Newark makes sense and that "We need an honest and no-nonsense assessment of the data to unequivocally employ solutions to deal with it appropriately."  Read the article: Reworking the Numbers

Ottawa's diplomatic community is increasingly turning to MLI for insight into Canada's complex policy and political scene. For example, in early May we received a request from the German Embassy - would Brian Lee Crowley brief a delegation of CSU parliamentarians (the CSU being one of the parties in the current governing coalition in Berlin) on Canadian Politics and the federal election.  MLI was honoured to accept. The meeting occurred the day after the federal election, and so the discussion naturally revolved around the results and their significance, the likely policy stances of the government, the future of health care reform, and more.

MLI is strictly independent and non-partisan, but it is also one of the country's leading sources of informed commentary on important public policy issues. Thus it was that MLI was frequently solicited during the election campaign that just ended to comment on policy matters under debate as well as on the way Canada runs elections. Here is a sampling of some of those interventions.

What would Wilfrid Laurier Do?

When the National Post wanted to stimulate a debate about issues in the 2011 federal election, they devoted a half page to MLI's award-winning book, The Canadian Century, and asked "What would Wilfrid Laurier do?  The Canadian Century's authors, Brian Lee Crowley, Jason Clemens, and Niels Veldhuis, suggest that while Canadians may not be inspired by the current election and potential leaders, Canada already has a blueprint for success.  The article then goes on to describe Laurier's vision and how it is just as applicable today as it was in Laurier's time.  Click here to see the article in the National Post.

MLI's Brian Lee Crowley discusses election issues on Goldhawk Live

On Sunday, April 10, 2011, Brian Lee Crowley joined the discussion about the current election campaign on Goldhawk Live on CPAC.  The discussion centred around  the federal parties' election promises, problems of leadership, and how economically feasible the promises sound  in the context of a large deficit and a healthcare crunch that most agree is headed for a crisis in funding to support our aging population.

The program is archived on the Goldhawk Live web page on www.cpac.ca

Brian Lee Crowley in the Hill Times:  The Right Question to Ask in this Election

In all the bickering around the idea of a post-election coalition, nobody asked the only question that really matters: namely what the right kind of coalition would look like.  Brian Lee Crowley discusses what such a coalition would look like in his latest column in the Hill Times.

Let the People Choose the Leaders

The Globe and Mail asked Brian Lee Crowley for his One Big Idea to increase citizen engagement in the election process.  On Friday, April 28, 2011, the Globe and Mail published his Big Idea as well as those received from other prominent Canadians.  Crowley says, "Let's take away from political parties their near-monopoly over choosing the candidates who stand for election. We're supposed to be choosing who will represent us in Parliament. Why should our choice be limited to those people acceptable to party leaders? MPs already have little enough freedom of action and opinion, and party leaders get to veto candidates and even impose them on unwilling local constituency associations. Enough!"  How to Redesign a Tired Democracy