Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs, 1999

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom, Chile and the Nazis, and The Diplomacy of War: The Case of
Korea.

The Canadian Annual Review remains the best single contemporary source
on Canadian politics and diplomacy, and 1999 was a formidable year.
Nunavut became a territory, and Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy’s
treaty banning land mines took effect. Adrienne Clarkson became Governor
General. Mike Harris’s government announced plans to shorten the
high-school program by one year, then won a second majority in
Ontario’s elections. British Columbia’s legislature approved the
Nisga’a settlement, and off New Brunswick, David Marshall challenged
restrictions on Mi’kmaq fishing rights. Bernard Lord became Premier of
New Brunswick; John Hamm, of Nova Scotia; Gary Doer, of Manitoba.
Premier Ralph Klein threatened to use the notwithstanding clause to
block same-sex marriages in Alberta. Under the glare of television
cameras, the RCMP raided the home of British Columbia’s premier, Glen
Clark, who resigned shortly thereafter. Newfoundland’s Supreme Court
rejected a challenge from the Roman Catholic Church that would have
prevented secularization of provincially funded schools. Conrad Black
sued Prime Minister Jean Chrétien for preventing his appointment to the
British House of Lords. Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman summoned the Army
after a snowstorm, and Air Canada won qualified permission for the
absorption of Canadian Airlines International. Bell Canada transferred
jobs to less-well-paid U.S. workers. Eaton’s disappeared, and Algoma
Steel eliminated some 800 jobs in Sault Ste. Marie. Amid controversy,
Chrétien failed to attend the funeral of Jordan’s King Hussein. The
Clarity Bill was debated, and federal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps
boycotted a luncheon hosted by France’s Minister of Culture after
learning that her Quebec counterpart had received a similar invitation.
Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji visited Canada. Ottawa dispatched 800
soldiers to Macedonia, 500 to Kosovo, and 600 to East Timor. For weeks,
Canada was at war as the Canadian Armed Forces bombed Serbia. Yet U.S.
Ambassador Gordon Griffin publicly criticized Canada’s inadequate
military spending, as did NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson. This
was the year of the Bre-X scandal, and Canadians anxiously awaited the
millennium. Would computers crash and technology fail? David Milgaard
accepted $10 million as compensation for a wrongful conviction.

Highly qualified academics discuss these and other developments.