In addition, the National Post follows up with another article today discussing Clark and DeVries critique on budget transparency. Click here to read it.
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CBC’s Power and Politics interview with Scott Clark – Interview begins at 1:42:35
October 12, 2012 – Our latest debate, Resolved: Canada no longer needs the CBC, featuring debaters Andrew Coyne and Mark Starowicz took place on October 4th to a sold-out crowd at the Canadian War Museum. In case you missed the debate, check out photos, video, the opening statements, and Ottawa Citizen’s live blog of the evening below.
While he was in Ottawa shortly before the release of his study From Rehabilitation to Recruitment for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, author Alex Wilner sat down with me to discuss his paper and the evolving face of terror worldwide, including the menace of modern high-seas piracy and its possible links to terrorist groups. We’re pleased to bring you video of Alex’s clear, frank discussion of these important questions.
To Stand On Guard, MLI’s latest paper authored by Paul Chapin, was the topic of discussion on CTV’s Power Play on Monday, November 29. Chapin explained to host Dan Matheson and Canadians that it is time for Canada to develop a national security strategy that would engage us more completely in the post-911 world.
On June 21, 2010, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute unveiled a new study, Citizen of One, Citizen of the Whole, calling for a Charter of economic rights. Below is the press conference.
January 20, 2012, Ottawa, ON – Less than 2 years old, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) has just been rated one of the top five new think tanks in the world and is the only Canadian institute on the list. This is the second year in a row MLI has made the list of the top 20 new think tanks globally, having debuted last year at Number 20 after a mere 6 months of operation.
The ranking was recently released as part of the 2011 Global Go-To Think Tanks Report conducted by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s International Relations Program.
According to MLI’s Managing Director, Brian Lee Crowley, “Being ranked one of the top five new think tanks globally drives home MLI’s central message: we are filling a hole in Canada’s democratic infrastructure created by the lack of a national think tank in the national capital working on the full range of national issues. Coming as it does on the heels of the Institute winning the big international prize for think tank publications (the Sir Antony Fisher Award) in 2011 for our first book, The Canadian Century, all of us at MLI feel more convinced than ever that the decision to launch the new Institute was the right one for Canada.”
Founded in 2010, the Institute has quickly become a source of timely and thoughtful ideas that challenge conventional wisdom and shape public policy for the better. Whether in the area of refugee policy, pension reform, fiscal discipline, healthcare transfers, or crime and justice issues, to name but a few, MLI has a proven track record of bringing the very best minds to bear on real problems, and seeing our recommendations reflected in policy changes. MLI is the only non-partisan, independent national public policy think tank based in Ottawa that focuses on the full range of issues that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Our funding comes from a wide range of private sector sources, including individuals, small businesses, corporations and charitable foundations.
The 2011 Global Go-To Think Tank Rankings is the fifth such annual report. The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s International Relations Program has relied on the indexing criteria and process developed by James G. McGann for ranking think tanks around the world. The Program’s Rankings remain the first and most comprehensive ranking of the world’s top think tanks and have been described as the insider’s guide to the global marketplace of ideas.
This Sunday from 7PM ET/ 4PM PT on CPAC, Dale Goldhawk probes theories raised by Canada’s former UN Ambassador Paul Heinbecker in his new book, Getting Back in the Game: A Foreign Policy Playbook for Canada. The show will tackle the question: “Is Canada maintaining its reputation at the UN?” MLI’s Brian Lee Crowley will join the discussion at approximately 7:15PM and provide his view on this and other elements of Canada’s foreign affairs policy.
These issues are top-of-mind for Dr. Crowley, as he recently was one of only two Canadians to take part in an international conference in Brussels that looked at the waning trans-Atlantic partnership. MLI released a Commentary, The Western Alliance: A Moral Superpower or Nothing, following that conference which was based upon remarks delivered by Crowley.
He’s had an impact too. Chris Edwards writes about Cutting Government the Canadian Way and points the compass northward as a lesson for Americans when he writes, “For more on the Canadian fiscal reforms, see The Canadian Century by Brian Lee Crowley, Jason Clemens, and Niels Veldhuis.”
Manny Jules discusses Beyond the Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights, by Tom Flanagan, Christopher Alcantara and André Le Dressay. At the Rideau Club in Ottawa, March 23, 2010. An event hosted by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
New MLI video shows that Euro-style debt crises can happen here if status quo continues
MEDIA RELEASE
OTTAWA, May 23, 2013 – Canadian taxpayers should not get too complacent about the country’s economic outlook, warns a new video by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Despite strong national fundamentals, many of Canada’s provinces are borrowing more than they can pay back, and that profligacy could lead to serious economic turmoil down the road.
“Debtbusters: Who’re broke provinces going to call?” is based on the MLI paper “Provincial Solvency and Federal Obligations” by Marc Joffre and demonstrates the increasing likelihood that at least some of Canada’s provinces will default on their debts in the next thirty years.
“There is a real danger that some of Canada’s biggest and most important provincial economies could default, dragging the national economy down with them” says Brian Lee Crowley, the video’s presenter and Managing Director of MLI.
“For example, people would be shocked to know that if Alberta does not get a handle on its deficits it faces the highest likelihood of all provinces of default in 30 years’ time” Mr. Crowley added “an 80% certainty due to high spending and reliance on volatile oil and gas revenue.”
MLI research examined hundreds of thousands of scenarios to calculate these troubling numbers, and looked at factors such as resource prices, aging demographics, interest rates and more.
But even those provinces with the lowest likelihood of default are still in jeopardy; Quebec – widely believed to be Canada’s chronic underperformer, actually has the lowest possibility of defaulting in the future.
As Crowley points out “remember, lowest doesn’t mean low. Quebec still has a 1 in 3 chance of defaulting on its debt in the next thirty years”.
Compounding the economic crisis that provincial defaults would cause are the political battles that would surely follow as Ottawa would face pressure to bail out bankrupt provinces.
Much in the same way that economic strife has gripped Europe as strong economies bail out faltering ones, demanding severe belt tightening in the process, Canada too could be racked by political convulsions fed by economic crisis.
The video makes it clear this is not just an issue for taxpayers in some provinces; provincial defaults would wound the national economy and federal bailouts would place unfair burden on all Canadians.
“Having Ottawa effectively backstop profligate provinces only encourages these risky levels of indebtedness and sets up the risk of the kind of economic and political crises seen in Europe happening here at home.” says Mr. Crowley.
December 19, 2012 – In an interview for Sun News, MLI author and security expert Scott Newark says Canada must improve its intelligence gathering and sharing so that individuals who pose a security risk to Canada are identified before they arrive at our borders. The interview follows the release of MLI’s latest Straight Talk interview on immigration and national security and resulted in a Sun News article and interview below.
Scott Newark also appeared on Toronto’s Newstalk 1010′s Live Drive with John Tory yesterday to discuss the problem with repeat offenders. Click here for more information.
For more information on MLI’s Straight Talk on immigration and national security with Scott Newark, click here.
Canada Live with Krista Erickson, Sun News Network, December 19, 2012
By Jessica Hume, Sun News Parliamentary Bureau, December 18, 2012
OTTAWA – A security expert says Canada needs to go beyond screening for terrorists landing on our shores and consider the religious beliefs of some prospective immigrants.
Scott Newark says Canada should be concerned about “Islamist” immigrants.
Newark served as executive officer of the Canadian Police Association and also worked as a security and policy advisor to both the Ontario and federal Ministers of Public Safety.
“We need to think hard about what I would call ‘Islamism’, the political Islam that has absolutely no interest whatsoever in integration, that is intolerant and unyielding and absolutely committed to eradicating Western values,” he said in an interview.
Newark says if Canada did a better job screening prospective immigrants, Omar Khadr might not be household name.
Canada knew of Omar Khadr’s father’s fundraising activities for al-Qaida, for example, and of his father’s taking his children to spend time with Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, Newark says.
“But we ignored that,” he said. “And that is contrary to what’s in our own national security interest.”
Newark, unsurprisingly, is a fan of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who has made significant changes to the immigration system to keep more undesirables out.
“We’re bringing in biometric visas on January 2nd and information sharing with the U.S. so that we can screen out the people who represent a security threat,” Kenney recently told reporters.
Dr. Salim Mansur, a political science professor at London’s Western University, wants Kenney to go a step further and introduce a moratorium on immigration from Muslim nations.
“This is not racist,” Mansur said, referring to Newark’s comments. “Their values, ideologies, politics and culture are completely incompatible with the values of Canada as a liberal democracy.”
In Postmedia outlets including the Ottawa Citizen, MLI’s Brian Lee Crowley writes that Western nations’ greatest protection against terror is to steadfastly punish culprits who cause or call others to cause violence, while simultaneously safeguarding and defending the freedoms and liberties that protect us all. Anti-Islam prejudice is no...
