Formation | 1970 |
---|---|
Type | Public policy think tank |
Headquarters | 110–134 11 Avenue SE |
Location | |
Website | www.cwf.ca |
The Canada West Foundation is a non-partisan think tank based in Calgary, Alberta. It primarily conducts research on issues of concern in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but also on issues of national significance.
The foundation emphasizes it has an evidence-based, non-partisan approach to research. [1]
The foundation focuses on research and convening stakeholders to improve the prosperity, sustainability and quality of life for the citizens of Canada's four western provinces, and to educate Canadians on western Canadian contributions and aspirations. [2]
After a deep program review in 2012-13, the foundation decided to focus on three key areas of research: human capital, natural resources and trade and investment. In 2013, the Foundation established three new research centres: [3] the Natural Resources Centre, the Trade & Investment Centre and the Human Capital Centre.
Through its three centres, it looks for practical solutions to the challenges that face western Canada, including getting products to markets around the world; building a stronger, more versatile workforce; and finding ways to build public support for the region's key natural resource industries: forestry, agri-food, mining, and oil and natural gas.
The Canada West Foundation was founded Dec. 31, 1970. Founding members include George Maxwell Bell (1912-1972), Arthur Child (1910-1996), [notes 1] Frederick C. Mannix (1913-) and Honourable James A. Richardson.
The idea of a western-focused thinking tank emerged during the One Prairie Province? A Question for Canada Conference, co-sponsored by the University of Lethbridge and the Lethbridge Herald in Lethbridge, Alberta, on May 10–13, 1970. [4] [5] Three papers were presented, including Strayer's paper on the Constitutional processes for a Prairie union. [5] [6] David Elton political science at the University of Lethbridge. [7] published the conference proceedings in 1970 in the Lethbridge Herald.. Elton replaced Stan Roberts as president in 1980. He remained in that position until 1997 where he researched such topics as institutional reform and citizens' engagement. In this capacity he acted as witness in federal parliamentary committees on Finance advocating for zero deficit and cut-off income limits for social welfare funding. [2] [8]
Stan Roberts was president of the Canada West Foundation from 1976 to 1980. [2] In this capacity, he took a leading role in arguing for the position of the west in Canada's constitutional debates.
In 1987 Francis Winspear, [notes 2] financed the Western Assembly on Canada's Economic and Political Future, (Patten 1997:40) organized by Preston Manning, Stan Roberts and Robert Muirheld [9] and promoted by Ted Byfield, [9] in Vancouver in 1987. Organizational support was provided by the Canada West Foundation. It was at this assembly that the Reform Party of Canada was launched. [9] [notes 3] [notes 4] [10] Winspear who was convinced that "mainline political parties no longer served the interest of Canadians," played a crucial role in the "founding and sustaining of the Reform Party of Canada." [11] There were some within the Canada West Foundation who believed that Roberts himself was partly sympathetic to separatism; he never became affiliated with the movement, but was forced to step down as CWF President in December 1980 after some controversial statements on the subject. According to journalist, Norm Ovenden, under Roberts' presidency, by 1980, the Canada West Foundation had become a "powerhouse", a "prestige organization in just a decade." [2] Ovenden credits Roberts with transforming a "low-key research organization" into a "well-known, widely respected pulse-takers of the Canadian west" in four years. [2]
James K. Gray O.C., A.O.E., [12] co-founder of Canadian Hunter Exploration, "one of Canada's largest and most successful natural gas companies." [13] [14] served as chair of the Canada West Foundation from 1994 to 2009 and as honorary chair. [15]
Roger Gibbins, chairman and head of the political science department at the University of Calgary, served as president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation from 1999 until his retirement in June 2012. [16] [17] Gibbins was also a member of the Calgary School. [18] [19] [notes 5]
Dylan Jones was President and CEO of the Foundation, from June 2012 to May 2016. Jones was former Deputy Minister to Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall. [20] Jones was named Deputy Minister of Western Economic Diversification, effective June 20, 2016.
Martha Hall Findlay served as President and CEO of the Foundation from September 2016 to December 2019. [21] Findlay previously served as a Liberal Member of Parliament in the Toronto riding of Willowdale from 2008 to 2011. Findlay was named Chief Sustainability Officer for Suncor at the beginning of 2020.
Gary Mar was named President and CEO on March 31, 2020. [22]
The Foundation is a registered educational charity, funded through donations from charitable foundations, government, industry stakeholders and individual citizens. It also conducts research on behalf of clients. The Foundation has a reserve fund, from which it draws annual income. [2]
In late 1978, CWF President, Stan Roberts, expressed interest in Francis Winspear's proposed constitutional reforms, which included Senate reform and the equal treatment of all provinces. During this period, Roberts made several speeches warning about the possibility of western separatism. The four western provinces were vastly under-represented in Senate. In 2012 Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Albert and British Columbia has only six seats each in the 105-seat Senate chamber. [16] Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, despite much smaller populations than the West, had a combined 30 seats. Ontario and Quebec each had 24 seat. [16] The CWF promotes a Triple-E Senate that would be equal, elected, and effective. [23] [24] However, with Prime Minister Harper in power, "the West no longer wants in because it is in. Indeed, it occupies the Prime Minister's Office." [25]
In 2000 the CWF published a report entitled A Roof Over Our Heads: Affordable Housing and Urban Growth in Western Canada. In 2008 the research was updated in a publication entitled Affordable Housing and Homelessness Policy in Canada funded by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation, the Urban Development Institute Alberta and the cities of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina. [26]
In September 2011, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF Canada) and the Canada West Foundation established the Canada-Asia Energy Futures Task Force with Kathleen (Kathy) E. Sendall, C.M., FCAE, [notes 6] a former Governor and Board Chair of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and Kevin G. Lynch, a Canadian economist and former Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, Canada's most senior civil servant as co-chairs, to investigate a long-term Canada-Asia energy relationship. One of their recommendations was the creation of a public energy transportation corridor. [27] [28]
Edgar Peter Lougheed was a Canadian lawyer and Progressive Conservative politician who served as the tenth premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, presiding over a period of reform and economic growth.
Ernest Preston Manning is a retired Canadian politician. He was the founder and the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance in 2000 which in turn merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to form today's Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Manning represented the federal constituency of Calgary Southwest in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 until his retirement in 2002. He served as leader of the Official Opposition from 1997 to 2000.
Daniel Phillip Hays is a Canadian politician born in Calgary, Alberta. He was Speaker of the Senate of Canada from 2001 to 2006, when he became Leader of the Government (Liberal) in the Senate. Hays was the Leader of the Opposition in the 39th Canadian Parliament (2006-2007), and chair of numerous Senate committees.
Stanley Carl "Stan" Roberts was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1958 and 1962, and ran for the leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1961. He was later involved with the Liberal Party of Canada, and was a founding member of the Reform Party of Canada.
Joyce Fairbairn was a Canadian senator and was the first woman to serve as the leader of the Government in the Senate.
Elaine Jean McCoy was a Canadian politician from Alberta. She was a member of the Senate of Canada.
The Calgary School is a term coined by Ralph Hedlin in an article in the now defunct Alberta Report in reference to four political science professors – Tom Flanagan, Rainer Knopff, Ted Morton, and Barry F. Cooper – who became colleagues at Alberta's University of Calgary in the early 1980s. They shared and promoted similar ideas about how political scientists could shape the rise of a particular kind of conservatism in Canada – informed by theories based on Friedrich Hayek and Leo Strauss. Cooper and Flanagan had met in the 1960s at Duke University while pursuing doctoral studies, while Knopff and Morton were both mentored by Walter Berns, a prominent Straussian, at the University of Toronto. They were economic, foreign policy, and social conservatives who were anti-abortion and were not in favour of legalizing gay marriage. They supported Stephen Harper in his 1993 election campaign, and former Alberta premiers Ralph Klein and Jason Kenney. A fifth University of Calgary professor, David Bercuson, co-authored publications with Cooper but was more loosely associated with the group and, at times, disagreed with the others on these public policies and candidates.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), with its head office in Calgary, Alberta, is a lobby group that represents the upstream Canadian oil and natural gas industry. CAPP's members produce "90% of Canada's natural gas and crude oil" and "are an important part of a national industry with revenues of about $100 billion-a-year ."
James Francis Dinning is a Canadian Progressive Conservative politician and businessman. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (1986–1997), and now serves on the board of directors of a variety of Canadian companies. Dinning ran for the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives to replace Ralph Klein as Premier of Alberta. Dinning raised over 2 million dollars for his leadership bid but was ultimately defeated by leadership candidate Ed Stelmach when party members voted for Klein's replacement on December 2, 2006. In June 2010, he was selected as the 12th Chancellor of the University of Calgary. Dinning sits as an advisor to Canada's Ecofiscal Commission.
Alberta separatism comprises a series of 20th- and 21st-century movements advocating the secession of the province of Alberta from Canada, either by joining the United States, forming an independent nation or by creating a new union with one or more of Canada's western provinces. The main issues driving separatist sentiment have been the perceived power disparity relative to Ottawa and other provinces, historical grievances with the federal government dating back to the unrealized Province of Buffalo, a sense of distinctiveness with regards to Alberta's unique cultural and political identity, and Canadian fiscal policy, particularly as it pertains to the energy industry.
Gary Glen Mar, is a Canadian businessman and former politician in Alberta. He is currently the President and CEO of the Canada West Foundation.
Werner Schmidt is a former Canadian politician, teacher, and school principal.
William Francis Asbury Buchanan was a Canadian journalist, newspaper publisher and politician from Alberta.
Martha Hall Findlay is a Canadian businesswoman, entrepreneur, lawyer and politician who is now the Director and James S. and Barbara A. Palmer Chair at the School of Public Policy. She previously served as the president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation, a Calgary-based think tank, and as senior vice-president and chief sustainability officer with Suncor Energy. Previously, she was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as the Liberal Party of Canada's candidate in the Toronto riding of Willowdale in a federal by-election held on March 17, 2008, to fill a vacancy created by former Liberal MP Jim Peterson's resignation. She was re-elected in the 2008 general election but lost her seat in the 2011 election.
David Elton is Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Lethbridge, and past President of Max Bell Foundation.
Western alienation, in the context of Canadian politics, refers to the notion that the Western provinces—British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba—have been marginalized within Confederation, particularly compared to Ontario and Quebec, Canada's two largest provinces. Expressions of western alienation frequently allege that those provinces are politically over-represented and receive out-sized economic benefits at the expense of western Canadians.
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada–United States border namely British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The people of the region are often referred to as "Western Canadians" or "Westerners", and though diverse from province to province are largely seen as being collectively distinct from other Canadians along cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, geographic and political lines. They account for approximately 32% of Canada's total population.
The following is a bibliography of Alberta history.
Frederick Lee Morton, known commonly as Ted Morton, is an American-Canadian politician and former cabinet minister in the Alberta government. As a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, he represented the constituency of Foothills-Rocky View as a Progressive Conservative from 2004 to 2012. He did not win reelection in the 2012 Alberta general election. Morton was a candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Association in its 2006 and 2011 leadership elections. Morton is currently Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Calgary.
Kathleen Sendall is a Canadian engineer. In 2005, she served as president of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Throughout her career, which began in Alberta's oil and gas industry, she has held technical and executive positions and has actively promoted the participation of women in the profession of engineering. She is a member of the Order of Canada.
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