Perspective 2000

David Robinson is a professor of Economics at Laurentian University.

When is a conference volume a party? When the Economic Council of Canada
decides to “raise the consciousness of influential Canadians.”
Perspective 2000 is a collection of essays on Canada in the year 2000.
Canadians will avoid it in herds, unfortunately, but it is important,
useful, and fun.

There are four sections, each with three main papers and three
commentaries. Section 1 surveys the global environment, world politics,
and the global economy. Not surprisingly, the political analysis fares
worst. Section 2 deals with Canada’s place in the world economy to the
year 2000. The main papers are by Canadians. John Helliwell compares
Canadian performance to that of other industrialized countries, and
Marcel Coté gives his view of Canadian competitiveness. A piece by Lars
Osberg and the response by Tom Courchene present the alternatives for
Canada in a new light.

In Section 3, leading American scholars examine Canadian education and
the labor force in the light of international experience. Richard
Freeman examines the de-unionization of Canada’s major economic
partners; Thomas Kochan, human resource management and labor relations;
and George Psacharopoulos, international trends in education. In Section
4, Allan Blinder’s description of macroeconomic theory and policy is a
delight.

Preserving or strengthening the sense of community in Canada is a
recurrent theme. It is taken up by Osberg in Section 2 and again by
Stewart in the leading essay in Section 4. Helliwell, Courchene, Simeon,
Paquet, and Dobell all respond in their papers. Besides its obvious
audience of “influential Canadians,” Perspective 2000 could be a
useful text for a variety of university-level courses that examine
Canadian political and economic issues.