What better place to unveil Western’s newly established Canada-U.S. Institute than in our neighbour’s capitol of Washington, D.C.
Don Abelson
The Canada-U.S. Institute, the first of its kind in Canada, is expected to become a focal point for exploring shared and conflicting values on issues such as health care, border security, domestic and foreign policy, and how they affect the two countries.
“I am very excited about the upcoming launch of the Canada-U.S. Institute,” says Don Abelson, director of the Canada-U.S. Institute and Chair of the Department of Political Science. He has been co-ordinating the formation of the institute.
“The ultimate goal of the institute is to generate timely and policy-relevant research on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues that will preoccupy policy makers for years to come.”
For the April 13 launch, Abelson will join President Amit Chakma at Washington’s Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
Several interdisciplinary research teams are focusing on important domestic and foreign policy issues of concern to Canadians and Americans. However, the first research under the auspices of the institute, conducted by Political Science professors Laura Stephenson and Cameron Anderson, takes the pulse of Canadians attitudes toward the U.S., and American attitudes toward Canada.
The study, “Moving Closer or Drifting Apart? Assessing the State of Public Opinion on the U.S.-Canada Relationship,” will be released as part of the opening, with Stephenson and Anderson on hand to take part in an expert panel discussing the findings.
“I have no doubt the inaugural study examining perceptions and attitudes of Canadians toward the United States and those of Americans toward Canada will raise some interesting questions among policy makers on both sides of the border,” says Abelson.
Also speaking at the opening will be John Dickson, Director for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, and Roy Norton, Minister of Congressional/Public & Intergovernmental Relations at the Canadian Embassy.
The Canada-U.S. Institute encompasses three existing Western research centres and five faculties including:
* The Centre for American Studies (Faculty of Social Science);
* The Canada-U.S. Law Institute (Faculty of Law);
* The Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management (Richard Ivey School of Business); and
* The faculties of Arts and Humanities, and Information and Media Studies.
With research, policy and education just some of the goals of the institute, Abelson expects experts from other universities in Canada and the U.S., as well as abroad, to be invited to join the institute as visiting fellows or contributors.
“The institute is in the process of assembling several interdisciplinary research teams that over the next year to 18 months will begin writing and disseminating occasional papers and policy briefs on issues ranging from health care and energy renewal to Canada’s position on Afghanistan to competing claims over Arctic sovereignty,” says Abelson.