Adam Chapnick's Newsletter - September 2024
Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter. I hope to use it to update you on what I’ve been thinking and speaking about, where I’m speaking next, and people and issues that have caught my attention.
Teaching is in full swing here at the Canadian Forces College which has left me inspired and looking forward to the rest of the term.
I spent a fair bit of time liaising with the production team at Oxford University Press, and my book with Asa McKercher, Canada First, Not Canada Alone: A History of Canadian Foreign Policy is finally scheduled for release on October 16th.
In addition to putting the finishing touches on that textbook, I spent some time these past few months working with a former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister (NSIA), Vincent Rigby, on a new project that tracks the evolution of the office of the NSIA. We have now spoken (off the record) with almost everyone who has ever held the position, and we plan to start putting the material together into a coherent story in the new year. We aren’t quite finished the research yet, but we’re getting closer.
Publications
Along with Canada First, Not Canada Alone, I expect to be able to report on additional publications in my next newsletter. For now, you can find an essay I wrote about a new book alleging a Canadian military industrial complex in The Literary Review of Canada. I also wrote a short piece for the Canadian Historical Association’s magazine, Intersections about “Re-imagining the CHA’s annual conference,” that I hope will generate some discussion. The electronic version of the magazine does not yet seem to be posted to the CHA website, so if you are interested in why I have all but stopped going to more traditional academic conferences, please contact me and I’ll send you my essay as a Word document.
Blog
I was only able to blog twice this summer. The first one was about a debate among the governing Liberals over how to respond to the growing number of undocumented Canadian immigrants. The second was about the former federal Cabinet minister and public health care advocate, Dr. Jane Philpott. My lack of concentrated time for blogging has resulted in a longer than usual collection of “scattered thoughts” that will appear towards the end of this newsletter.
In the Media
Over the last three months, I spoke with City News Radio 1130 in Vancouver about the relevance of the US election debate to Canada and Canadians. I spoke to a reporter from The New York Times about Canada’s contributions to NATO. And I spoke to The Hill Times about the Government of Canada’s response to a recent Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade report on the future of the foreign service.
Upcoming Talks
Although I didn’t give any public lectures this summer, I have lined up a number of them for the 24-25 academic year. On October 9th, I’ll be speaking on a panel about the future of the Canadian Armed Forces at Toronto Metropolitan University as part of the International Issues Discussion Lecture Series. More information should be available on the IID website soon. In November, I’ll be speaking about Canadian trade policy to the Probus Club of Mississauga South and I’ll speak about Canada-US relations to the St. George Campus of the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies as part of their University Lecture Series. (I’ll be speaking to the other two campuses in December.)
As always, if you, or your organization, is looking for a speaker, you can contact me here. You can find a list of topics that I speak about here.
What I’ve been Reading
In addition to Jane Philpott’s Health for All: A Doctor's Prescription for a Healthier Canada, I just ordered Joshua R. Eyler’s Failing our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do about It. As some of you know, I use a variation of what is known as specifications grading in one of my classes at the Canadian Forces College and am always interested in new thinking around assessment in teaching.
I was extremely impressed by retired foreign service officer Roy Norton’s excellent chapter about the nuts and bolts of Canadian advocacy in the US in Donald Ableson and Stephen Brooks’ recently released History has Made Us Friends: Reassessing the Special Relationship between Canada and the United States. Regardless of the outcome of the next US election, if you are interested in Canada-US relations, Norton’s chapter is well worth your time.
I also came across what I believe is the best overall summary of Canadian efforts to prepare for the next US government. It was written by Politico’s Zi-Ann Lum. Anyone interested in Canadian foreign policy, and especially in Canada-US relations, should have a read. You can find it here.
Scattered Thoughts
Canada has been incredibly fortunate to have had David Cohen as President Biden’s ambassador in Ottawa. He has delivered Washington’s message on the need to increase spending on national defence with tact and appears to genuinely enjoy his job. Interviews with Cohen are always worth watching or listening to.
The situation in Ukraine is the ultimate Canadian foreign policy paradox. We have few more significant interests than seeing Russian aggression repelled and Ukraine’s independence maintained. At the same time, a weak Russia emboldens China in the Arctic. When Russia was strong, it shared the rest of the Arctic Council’s aversion to Chinese interference in northern affairs. Today, a weakened Putin has had little choice but to enable China’s Arctic aspirations in exchange for diplomatic and tacit military support.
Until recently, I had found Senate reform to be one of the Trudeau government’s greatest innovations. Removing partisans from the Senate freed up the Upper House to do what it was meant to do - provide humble, sober second thought on legislation that more often than not becomes politicized in the House of Commons. The prime minister’s recent appointments have undermined that positive record. Too many of them have partisan ties to the Liberal Party.
Perhaps my non-partisanship has prevented me from seeing something that is obvious to others, but if I were a Liberal, there would only be one obvious immediate potential successor to Justin Trudeau as leader. It wouldn’t be anyone in Cabinet (too closely tied to the current leader) nor would it be Mark Carney (untested and, it seems to me, unprepared for the brazen shamelessness of his political opponents). Christy Clark, the former premier of British Columbia would come to the party with provincial baggage and a need to dramatically improve her French. But she would also represent an overwhelming shift in the brand that seems to be so desperately needed. She is a fiscal conservative from the West who, having never completed university, is not vulnerable to charges of elitism. She’s articulate and capable of outlining a value proposition for the Liberal Party that frames fiscal stewardship as the path to social justice. She’s battle-tested and campaign-ready. Unless her French excludes her from consideration, I don’t see how any of the current candidates come close to measuring up to her at this particular moment in Canadian politics.