Canada Must Think for Itself

Analyzing the momentous shifts in international relations and domestic politics during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading policy expert and strategist Irvin Studin offers a road map for Canada’s survival and success in a post-pandemic world. Studin underscores the impact of Canada’s failure to think for itself as a nation prior to and throughout the pandemic. He also argues that Canadians have been all too willing to operate in the world as prescribed by first British, and now American, thinkers. To emerge as a fully independent and sovereign nation, Studin says Canada must set its own terms of engagement in a precarious post-pandemic world. It must act on the global stage as a nation of independent thought and purpose. Studin also addresses contemporary Canada’s policy challenges, including public health, education, demographics, economics, social stability, foreign policy and national unity. He highlights the country’s urgent need to define its own interests in the face of conflict and escalating rivalry among the world’s three great economic and military powers. At a time when new thinking is obviously needed, he offers a clear, innovative vision for the Canadian future. Studin sees Canada emerging from the multiple pandemic period challenges with the potential to be an equal to the great powers at its borders, with the North at the centre of the action.