Ninety years ago, Senator Raoul Dandurand famously characterized Canada as a “fireproof house”. Today, many Canadians still assume that their country is largely insulated from the currents of the global political economy. The 2014 Policy Forum seeks to question this assumption by examining the ways in which global shifts affect Canadians and Canadian policy-makers at both the federal and provincial levels. The Forum will examine three major trends:

First, global economic power is shifting south and east; international commerce is increasingly driven by global value chains; and major shifts are under way in energy and resource markets. The 2014 Forum looks at the implications for Canadian firms, workers, regions and policy-makers.

Second, today foreign policy and security concerns increasingly originate not between countries, but within countries, usually at the nexus of poverty, oppression and insecurity, with effects spilling over to regions and geo-politics. The Forum asks about the implications for international security and development policy, and military and civilian responses.

Finally, the world is witnessing increasingly complex and protracted humanitarian crises that not only have implications for stability and economic development within countries but inexorably trigger waves of international migration. The 2014 Policy Forum will examine the challenges for Canadian public policy at home and abroad.

The day will conclude with our annual Donald Gow Memorial Lecture. This year we are pleased to announce that the Gow Lecture will be delivered by The Hon. Thomas Mulcair, M.P., Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP).

Chris Cornish
Conference Coordinator
Telephone: 613-533-6217
Fax: 613-533-2135
Email: chris.cornish@queensu.ca