My guests today are Brian Lee Crowley and Jason Clemens. and our subject is “The Canadian Century and Moving out of America’s Shadow”

           

              Jason Clemens                                Brian Lee Crowley                         
                                                 
Brian Lee Crowley is the Managing Director, Macdonald-Laurier Institute. MLI is the only think tank in Ottawa dealing with the full spectrum of issues falling under the jurisdiction of the federal government. The Institute, which opened its doors officially in March 2010, fills a glaring gap in Canada’s democratic infrastructure. Canada is the only G7 country not to have such a full-service think tank in its national capital speaking to the national electorate, policy decision-makers and opinion leaders, about national policy.
Crowley has a long and distinguished record in the think tank world. He was the founder of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) in Halifax, one of the country’s leading regional think tanks. AIMS is one of the world's most honored think tanks. It is a four time winner of the prestigious Sir Antony Fisher Award, which recognizes excellence in public policy think tank publications and projects. No think tank in the world has won this honor more times than AIMS. Crowley is a former Salvatori Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC and is a Senior Fellow at the Galen Institute, a health care policy think tank also based in Washington. In addition, he is a member of the "Conseil scientifique" (Research Advisory Board) of l'Institut Turgot (Paris, France); the Research Advisory Board of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (Winnipeg); and the Nigerian Institute for Public Policy (Lagos, Nigeria).
 
In September 2009, Key Porter Books published Crowley's fourth book, Fearful Symmetry: the fall and rise of Canada’s founding values, which quickly found its way onto the Canadian best sellers lists. Among his many other books and other publications, Crowley co-authored two projects on the Canadian health-care system both of which won the Sir Antony Fisher Award. In recognition of his health-care work, he was named to the most influential recent provincial health-care inquiry in Canada, the Alberta Premier’s Advisory Council on Health (the Mazankowski Committee).

Other major policy areas where Crowley has taken a leadership role include its work on equalization, Canada-US relations, public school performance and accountability, EI reform, natural resources and public finances, and regional development policy.
 
From 2006-08 Crowley was the Clifford Clark Visiting Economist with the federal Department of Finance. This is the most senior independent economic policy advisory position within the federal government and carries with it the rank of an Assistant Deputy Minister. During his time in Ottawa, Crowley worked on a broad range of policy files and redesigned the pre-budget consultation process. In 2007 he was named one of the 100 most influential people in Ottawa by The Hill Times.
 
Crowley has headed the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC), taught politics, economics and philosophy at Dalhousie University, University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, le Collège Universitaire de Saint-Boniface, the City of London Polytechnic (UK) and the Université d'été at Aix-en-Provence (France) and been constitutional advisor to the governments of Nova Scotia (Charlottetown negotiations) and Manitoba (Meech Lake negotiations). He has been a Salvatori Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, a diplomat for the EEC Commission, an aid administrator for the UN in Africa, an advisor to the Quebec government on parliamentary and electoral reform and a Parliamentary Intern at the House of Commons in Ottawa.


        

                    Richard J. Garfunkel
 
Crowley is a frequent commentator on political and economic issues for the CBC, Radio-Canada and many other media, and is a former member of the Editorial Board of The Globe and Mail (one of Canada's two national newspapers). He holds degrees from McGill and the London School of Economics, including a doctorate in political economy from the latter.

Jason Clemens is the Director of Research at the Pacific Research Institute. He also directs strategic planning and budgeting for the Institute. Prior to joining PRI he held a number of positions at the Canadian-based Fraser Institute over a ten-plus year period, including the director of research quality, resident scholar in fiscal studies, and the director of strategic planning and budgeting. He has an Honors Bachelors Degree of Commerce and a Masters’ Degree in Business Administration from the University of Windsor as well as a Post Baccalaureate Degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University.

He has published over 50 major studies on a wide range of topics, including taxation, government spending, labor market regulation, banking, welfare reform, productivity, entrepreneurship, public choice economics, and economic prosperity. He has published over 250 shorter articles, which have appeared in such newspapers as The Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, The National Post, The Globe & Mail, and all major daily papers in Canada as well as in major U.S. papers and websites such as the Washington Post, L.A. Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune, Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Sacramento Bee, Human Events, Townhall.com, and the Flash Report. Mr. Clemens has been a guest on numerous radio and television programs across Canada and the United States, including ABC News. He has appeared before committees of both the House of Commons and the Senate in Canada as an expert witness and testified before state legislatures in California. In 2006, he received the prestigious Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award presented by Caldwell Partners as well as an Odyssey Award from the University of Windsor.
                                           

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