Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs, 2001

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.

Above all, “2001” means the events of September 11, but it was also
a year of economic setbacks. The airline Canada 3000 expanded in January
and went out of business in November. Nortel cut 45,000 jobs (more than
half its labour force); DaimlerChrysler cut 3,000. The Autopact expired
after the World Trade Organization declared it illegal, and the
U.S.–Canada softwood lumber agreement also expired. Iraq stopped
importing from Canada because of Canada’s support for U.S. and British
bombing. Bookseller superstores Chapters and Indigo merged, Sam the
Record Man went bankrupt, and a U.S. corporation bought Future Shop.

In terms of politics, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Foreign
Minister John Manley made separate trips to Washington to meet the newly
installed President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Lorne Calvert replaced Roy Romanow as NDP premier of Saskatchewan, Roger
Grimes replaced Brian Tobin as Liberal premier of Newfoundland, and
Jean-Bernard Landry replaced Lucien Bouchard as PQ premier of Quebec.
British Columbians ousted their NDP government, giving the Liberals a
77:2 seat advantage in the provincial legislature. Ontario Premier Mike
Harris denied any connection between his government’s cutbacks to the
Ministry of the Environment and Walkerton’s contaminated water, which
killed seven and rendered 2,000 ill. Fourteen Canadian Alliance Members
of Parliament left their party’s caucus because they could not
tolerate Stockwell Day as leader.

Conrad Black renounced his Canadian citizenship, and Nelson Mandela
became an honorary citizen. Sheila Fraser became Auditor-General of
Canada, and the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canada could not send
an accused person to a country that might execute him or her. The Summit
of the Americas took placed in Quebec City, and Canada committed forces
to the War in Afghanistan. The first Canadian ambassador to North Korea
presented his credentials, and a federal–provincial trade mission to
China signed 294 agreements with a value of $5.7 billion. Funds became
available for a new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

The Canadian Annual Review is usually a superb reminder of the year’s
events, and as 2001 was undoubtedly the single most pivotal year since
1989, this issue is required reading.