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The North American Forum is an annual meeting of U.S., Canadian and Mexican government and business representatives to discuss issues related to continental economic and social integration. The Forum is chaired jointly by former United States Secretary of State George Shultz, former Mexican Finance Minister Pedro Aspe, and former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed.
The inaugural North American Forum took place in October 2005 [1] in Sonoma, California. The Forum is tri-national in scope and design, but the agenda each year is designed by the organizing country. An October 27, 2005 article in the Financial Post contained a partial list of invited guests, which included former Canadian finance minister John Manley, Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Carlos de Icaza, Chevron CEO David J. O'Reilly, former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey, Jr., and a host of U.S. policy advisors to President George W. Bush.
The 2006 North American Forum [2] took place from September 12 to September 14 at the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada. It was hosted by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives with help from the Canada West Foundation. Under the title Continental Prosperity in the New Security Environment, the Forum included sessions on "North American Energy Strategy," "Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration," and "Border Infrastructure," among other topics.
Similar discussions regularly take place among North American government and business representatives through the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. And in a speech to the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance on October 10, 2006, U.S. Consul General John Nay referred to the North American Forum as a "sister organization" and "parallel structure" to the SPP.
The third meeting of the North American Forum was held October 12–14, 2007 [3] in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. The title was "North American Cooperation and Community" and the studied topics were demographic trends, migration and development, and regional approaches to addressing climate change.
2008 saw the return of the Forum to the United States, when the meeting was held June 15–17 in Washington, DC. [4] The theme was "Toward a More Resilient North America" and the Forum took stock of progress made among the three governments and in the private sector. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte all addressed the Forum. Secretary Gates' speech can be read on the Defense Department's website.
The most recent meeting of the North American Forum was in October 2009. [5] In Canada for a second time, the Forum met in Ottawa to discuss "Beyond the Crisis: Forging a More Resilient North America." The Washington Post Associate Editor Jim Hoagland attended the meeting and wrote about the meeting in an article that ran on October 25, 2009. [6] Mary O'Grady of The Wall Street Journal interviewed Forum Co-Chair and former US Secretary of State George P. Shultz about the drug war in Mexico, one of the many topics discussed at the meeting. Her interview ran in the Journal on October 11, 2009. [7]
The Council of Canadians acquired a copy of the 2006 agenda and guest list, which is posted below:
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