Public Policy Forum and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy launch Canada-U.S. 'Matter More' project

TORONTO, April 29, 2024 /CNW/ - The Public Policy Forum and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto today announced an ambitious collaboration to develop a new strategy to guide Canada's relationship with the United States.

For PPF, the joint project will be led by PPF President and CEO Edward Greenspon and Mike Blanchfield, PPF Director of Energy and Global Affairs; for the Munk School, it is being spearheaded by Janice Gross Stein, Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management and founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and Drew Fagan, professor at the Munk School, former assistant deputy minister for foreign policy and former Washington correspondent for The Globe and Mail.

Canada has become "the indispensable ally that has allowed ourselves to dwindle into dispensability," Greenspon, Stein and Fagan wrote in an essay in the Globe on Saturday, emphasizing the urgent need to recalibrate Canada's relationship with the U.S. amidst a shifting geopolitical landscape.

They argue that Canada needs to find ways to 'matter more' to the U.S. by focusing on deepening, broadening and accelerating linkages:

• To deepen, they argue that Canada must identify bilateral opportunities of mutual benefit, such as critical minerals or Arctic security;
  
  
• To broaden, Canada must deploy domestic assets to help shared allies in a friend-shoring world with their economic and national security; and
  
  
• To accelerate, Canada must build more of everything that matters – from mines and carbon capture to ports and border crossings — as well as double down on investments in next-generation technologies, especially AI.

The 'Matter More' project acknowledges Canada's vulnerability to U.S. regression. The United States accounts for 78 percent of Canadian exports and a quarter of GDP. Against a backdrop of rising American nationalism and protectionism, the project will look for ways to re-energize the relationship to anchor critical transactions in a strategy that is fit for the stresses as well as the opportunities of the Canadian-American relationship in the 21^st century.  

"For all the handwringing over Canada being more alone in the world than ever, our good geography and better geology mean we are not without cards to play," according to the Globe essay. "These Canadian assets are made to measure for an era in which the 'friends' in friend-shoring efforts are desperate to reduce their exposure to the geoeconomic extortions of Russia and China."

The four leaders of the project, together with PPF Policy Lead Shweta Menon and Andre Fajardo of the Munk School, have been engaged in preparatory research for several months, holding consultations and roundtables with key stakeholders and experts in preparation for a report to be released as the U.S. presidential election draws near.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Lani Krantz
Communications and Media Relations Specialist
Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
e: [email protected]

Alison Uncles
Vice President, PPF Media + Communication
Public Policy Forum
e: [email protected]

SOURCE Public Policy Forum