Posts Tagged 'Trudeau Government'

LIFEBOAT DRILL: CANADA, TRUMP AND THE WIDER WORLD

LIFEBOAT DRILL: CANADA, TRUMP AND THE WIDER WORLD

McLeod Group Blog, January 23, 2017

Preparation for the incoming Trump administration is, understandably, a high priority for Canada. In this, the Canadian government needs to think beyond immediate self-interest, and consider not just the long game, but the fact that we are not alone in checking the lifeboats, the davits and the life preservers.

In advance of the inauguration, the Trudeau government has done some hasty redecorating and furniture rearrangement. Multilingual former journalist and author Chrystia Freeland, now a tested deal-maker, ...

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CIVIL SOCIETY’S ROLE IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

CIVIL SOCIETY’S ROLE IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Le français suit.

Blog by Stéphanie Bacher, December 7, 2016

Civil society is under attack. That is the main conclusion from the most recent report published by the international alliance CIVICUS on the state of civil society in the world. In many countries, whether authoritarian or democratic, a series of obstacles threaten civil society and hinder its ability to promote international development and basic human rights. In Canada, for example, the budgets of several international development organizations were drastically reduced in ...

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LOST IN THE MINEFIELD? CANADA AND THE OTTAWA TREATY

LOST IN THE MINEFIELD? CANADA AND THE OTTAWA TREATY

Guest Blog by Ted Paterson, October 3, 2016

Recent days have seen much ado concerning Canada’s renewed commitment to peacekeeping, but far less attention has been paid to our other diplomatic initiative that was worthy of a Nobel Prize, the Ottawa Treaty on landmines. This seems curious given the success of the Treaty and the accolades Canada received for its leadership twenty years ago.

Over 160 states have joined the Treaty, which has dramatically curtailed the use of anti-personnel landmines and virtually ...

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FRIGHT NIGHT: CANADA’S NEW PEACEKEEPING AGENDA

FRIGHT NIGHT: CANADA’S NEW PEACEKEEPING AGENDA

A McLeod Group Blog by Ian Smillie, Sept. 9, 2016

Even before Prime Minister Trudeau announced Canada’s new peacekeeping agenda, the media were awash with excited, not to say hysterical warnings. After the announcement, it was as though he had declared World War III.

The basics in the announcement: first, $150 million a year to a Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs)—as far as one can see, very similar to the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START) in place since ...

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HOW MUCH FOREIGN AID?

HOW MUCH FOREIGN AID?

McLeod Group Blog by Ian Smillie, July 22, 2016

Buried deep in the government’s discussion paper on its foreign aid review is a tiny comment about aid volumes. It is a warning that whatever you might want to tell the government about aid, don’t bother talking about numbers. The UN spending target of 0.7% of gross national income for rich countries is called ‘unrealistic… in the current fiscal context.’

This is almost verbatim what every Canadian government has said about the ...

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HUMANITARIAN DILEMMAS

HUMANITARIAN DILEMMAS

McLeod Group Blog by Hunter McGill, July 5, 2016

The government’s current consultation process on international assistance includes several questions about humanitarian (emergency) assistance. There is no denying that there is a pressing need for humanitarian aid in many parts of the world, with estimates of populations at risk and in need of help running as high as 125 million. The total budget for humanitarian assistance in 2015 reached US$25 billion. So it is no surprise that over 9000 ...

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OPAQUE TRANSPARENCY IN CANADA’S FOREIGN AID

OPAQUE TRANSPARENCY IN CANADA’S FOREIGN AID

McLeod Group Blog, June 30, 2016

By Liam Swiss and Stephen Brown

The Canadian government has been lauded for its efforts to increase the transparency of its foreign aid. The Aid Transparency Index has ranked Canada’s bilateral aid in the “Good” category for the past few years, below only a handful of the world’s top donor agencies. The government regularly publishes open data online, including its historical project datasets and contributions to the International Aid Transparency ...

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A Feminist Foreign Policy? What about Women, Peace and Security?

A Feminist Foreign Policy? What about Women, Peace and Security?

Guest Blog by Beth Woroniuk, June 27, 2016

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s declaration that he is a feminist, made while at a UN conference in March, attracted media coverage around the world. However, we have yet to see what a feminist prime minister means for Canadian foreign policy in general and how Canada approaches peace and security issues in particular.

The early indications are mixed.

The government’s decision to go ahead with selling military vehicles to Saudi Arabia does not Continue Reading →

Policy Coherence for Development: Putting it into Practice

Policy Coherence for Development: Putting it into Practice

McLeod Group Blog by Stephen Brown, June 23, 2016

Providing foreign aid is only one among many things that countries like Canada can do to promote international development. Official development assistance (ODA) on its own is not sufficient to help developing countries radically improve the lot of their poor and marginalized people, including achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 deadline.

A government’s policies beyond aid – including agriculture, fisheries, trade, investment, immigration, climate change, security and intellectual property ...

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THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND BUCKETS OF MONEY

THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND BUCKETS OF MONEY

McLeod Group Blog, June 20, 2016

A year ago, in July 2015, the great and the good of the world’s development community gathered in Addis Ababa to talk money at a conference on “financing for development”. It had become clear, in the lead up to the agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals, that the world’s foreign aid budgets were not going to come anywhere near the price tag. Action was required.

What emerged was an “Action Agenda” that had 134 paragraphs, ...

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