Canadian Conundrums: View from the Clifford Clark Visiting Economists

David Robinson is an associate professor of economics at Laurentian
University.

This is a tidy and informative little book—six short essays on
important topics—by those who have held the position of Clifford Clark
Visiting Economist in the federal Department of Finance. Each has
contributed to policy development in that most influential of federal
departments.

Among the six contributors we have a deputy governor of the Bank of
Canada; a leading economic historian; the editors of four economics
journals; two recipients of the Order of Canada, a president of the C.D.
Howe Institute; of chairs of numerous boards, commissions, and other
organizations; a Rhodes scholar; a university vice-president; and
several international consultants.

There may be some institutional self-promotion in a volume published by
the C.D. Howe Institute and featuring C.D. Howe members, but the book is
perfect for a serious lay audience. The level falls somewhere between
the best of the business press and most readable of the academic
literature. The essays are insightful and accessible.

The piece that is likely to have the most effect is by Ken Norrie. He
challenges the notion that there is a fiscal imbalance between the
provinces and the federal government. The idea has figured prominently
in recent federal–provincial discussions and even in the leaders’
debates of the last election. John Helliwell explores some implications
of the growing research on social capital, and Charles Freeman provides
a relaxed and precise description of the way Canadian monetary policy
has developed. Jack Mintz and Robert Brown, the authors most closely
associated with the C.D. Howe Institute, discuss Canadian tax and
expenditure policy. Peter Nicholson proposes that the Canadian public
sector should lead the information revolutions by developing world-class
information systems for the public sector.

Canadian Conundrums strikes me as a peculiarly Canadian volume—a
festschrift for the role of scholars in the Finance Department rather
than for a single scholar.