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On November 11^th, join us at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa starting at 6:30 PM to see historian Jack Granatstein and UBC professor Michael Byers debate the resolution: After Afghanistan the Canadian Forces should keep the peace rather than wage war. The debate will be moderated by Michael Bliss and a lively question and answer period will take place afterwards.

Get a sneak peek of what's to come by reading Granatstein's article on "What next for the Canadian Forces" in iPolitics and The Hill Times today, November 7^th.

Tickets to this debate are $30 each. Click here for more information and to register to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!

History Wars is MLI's series of four provocative debates exploring some of the most compelling subjects in Canadian history.

More food will be eaten over the next half century than has been eaten by human beings since the dawn of history. In MLI's new study released on October 17^th entitled, Canadian Agriculture and Food: A Growing Hunger for Change, authors Larry Martin and Kate Stiefelmeyer argue that Canada should be poised to capitalize on this opportunity to feed the world. They say, "We are uniquely positioned to benefit from the increasing demand for food due to our vast tracts of arable land, abundant water, infrastructure, and long experience in agriculture. However, despite these opportunities, Canadian agriculture is in serious decline." They outline a number of factors that contribute to Canada's poor performance.

Since its release, the study has received a great deal of media attention, including a Neil Reynolds column in The Globe and Mail which called the report "an excellent - even inspiring - piece of work." Other coverage included columns and op-eds that appeared in the Hill Times, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal. Co-author Larry Martin also appeared on John Gormley Live in Saskatchewan, the Dave Rutherford Show in Alberta, and CJOB's Night Hawk with Geoff Currier in Manitoba.

According to MLI author and former Crown prosecutor Scott Newark in the October 5th instalment of Straight Talk, the government's crime legislation neglects one of the single most effective reforms that Ottawa could enact to solve and reduce the most serious violent offences. It overlooks the opportunity to modernize laws regarding DNA forensic evidence. In this Straight Talk, Newark outlined several simple amendments that could be made to modernize the DNA database.

An op-ed based on this study appeared in newspapers across the country, while iPolitics published the entire Straight Talk issue and on October 21^st, Edmonton Sun columnist Mindelle Jacobs wrote about Newark's proposal. Newark also appeared on the Dave Rutherford radio show in Alberta and on CBC radio's Blue Sky with Garth Materie in Saskatchewan to discuss his recommendations.

No need for electoral reform

Recent provincial elections in Ontario, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island resulted in gaps between the popular vote and seat counts, causing some to revisit the idea of proportional representation. According to author John Pepall in the study Laying the Ghost of Electoral Reform, these calls for electoral reform miss the point of voting. Voting is a procedure for making decisions. First-past-the-post delivered governments that are able to make decisions and if we don't like them, we can "throw the bums out".

Following the release of the study, an op-ed on the same topic was published on iPolitics and Huffington Post Canada. Pepall also appeared on The Rob Breakenridge Show (Alberta) and on John Gormley Live (Saskatchewan) to discuss why calls for electoral reform misunderstand the strengths of our first-past-the-post system and would damage rather than improve Canadian democracy.

The federal government is currently pursuing a major trade deal with Europe that, if left unchecked, would perpetuate a flaw in Canada's trade model: the lack of safeguards of independence in those chosen to adjudicate disputes under trade agreements (known as dispute settlement or investor-state arbitration). In this context, MLI released a Commentary on September 28^th by Osgoode Law School professor Gus Van Harten who uses the person-to-government arbitration process under Canada's Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) to provide several recommendations to improve investor-state arbitration.

An op-ed by Van Harten based on his paper appeared in newspapers across Quebec and southern Ontario.

MLI in the Wall Street Journal - again! On October 5^th, the Wall Street Journal quoted MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley on the topic of Ontario's public finances ahead of the recent provincial election. He said, "Ontario has been adding debt faster than almost any other province in the country. Yet all the political parties have been making promises of new spending, and no one has in my view a credible plan for restoring public finances."

On September 24^th, MLI Senior Fellow Laura Dawson discussed the Buy American provisions included in the American Jobs Act in the Toronto Star. She argued that the Buy American measures will not only hurt Canadian manufacturers and suppliers, but will hurt the economic competitiveness of both Canada and the U.S.

On September 28^th, MLI Senior Fellow Benjamin Perrin's op-ed on the criminal justice reforms included in the Safe Streets and Communities Act appeared in the National Post.

In his October 8^th for the Ottawa Citizen, MLI's Brian Lee Crowley discussed the trend in Ontario and other provinces to put parties of opposing stripes in power in Ottawa and Queen's Park and predicted stormy times ahead for federal-provincial relations.

In his column for the Ottawa Citizen published on October 22^nd, Brian discussed how even with a majority, Quebec is a key challenge for Harper. Crowley's points were repeated in Chris Selley's Full Pundit feature in the National Post on October 24^th. Click here for the full article.