|
In this fifth volume of the
Canada Strong and Free
series, Mike Harris and Preston Manning call for Canada to
reclaim its leadership role in the international arena. They
focus on three foreign policy priorities which would enable
Canada to significantly advance its national interests and
international influence across a broad front.
International Trade Liberalization
Freer international trade offers the most effective means of
increasing Canadian prosperity and sustaining essential social
services. Manning and Harris propose eliminating protectionist
measures from supply management to business subsidies, systematic
privatization of government export promotion and development
programs, elimination of ideologically driven efforts to
diversity trade patterns and partners, and fully opening up the
domestic market to international competition.
Maximizing the Benefits of Strong Canada-US Relations
Whether Canadians like it or not, Canada's influence in the world
depends to a large extent on its ability to gain and exert
influence in Washington. Harris and Manning propose a Canada-US
Customs Union involving a common external tariff, a joint
approach to the treatment of third-country goods, a fully
integrated energy market, a common approach to trade remedies and
border security, and an integrated government procurement regime.
Better Approaches to Reducing Global Poverty
Harris and Manning recommend the adoption of the Tools of Wealth
Creation approach to attacking poverty - focusing not on the
redistribution of wealth but on a broader distribution of tools
for creating wealth such as property rights, access to capital,
human capital development, access to technology, and access to
trade markets. They also propose greater use of public-private
partnerships for infrastructure and vaccine development,
reforming CIDA, completely untying food aid from any requirements
that it be provided from Canadian sources, and the new paradigm
of providing aid and peacekeeping simultaneously in conflict and
post-conflict situations.
|