Canada and the World, Ep. 23: Canada versus the United States

A new podcast series from OpenCanada.org and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

By: /
11 January, 2019
https://soundcloud.com/canada-world/trump-congress-and-everything

How do Canada and the United States compare when it comes to politics, responses to migration issues, and public discourse, including political discussions on social media? With the securitization of migration happening in the US under the direction of President Donald Trump, this episode delves into questions such as: To what extent does the “Trump effect” exist in Canada? Will migration be an election issue this year? What importance does language play in political discourse, especially on social media? And, what will Canada-US relations look like this year, with questions surrounding the state of the USMCA/CUSMA trade deal and a current US government shutdown?

Our host

Bessma Momani is professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. She’s also a non-resident senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. and a Fulbright Scholar. She has been non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and a 2015 Fellow at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She’s a frequent analyst and expert on international affairs in Canadian and global media. 

This week’s guests

Emmett Macfarlane is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo, specializing in Canadian politics and public policy. His research explores the relationships between rights, governance and public policy, with a particular focus on the Supreme Court of Canada’s impact on public policy and political discourse under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

Aaron Ettinger is also an associate professor at the University of Waterloo, specializing in international relations and US foreign policy. Aaron has published on US and Canadian foreign policy, and the private military industry. His current research project focuses on continuity and change in US foreign policy since 2001 and its implications for world order. 

Emma Dreher is a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University. Emma is a graduate of the Balsillie School of International Affairs where she earned her Master’s in International Public Policy. Her current research interests centre on the politics of US policymaking and the policy implications of (new) media polarization within contemporary politics.

Canada and The World is produced and edited by Matthew Markudis. Each episode can be found on iTunes and other podcast applications. 

Before you click away, we’d like to ask you for a favour … 

Journalism in Canada has suffered a devastating decline over the last two decades. Dozens of newspapers and outlets have shuttered. Remaining newsrooms are smaller. Nowhere is this erosion more acute than in the coverage of foreign policy and international news. It’s expensive, and Canadians, oceans away from most international upheavals, pay the outside world comparatively little attention.

At Open Canada, we believe this must change. If anything, the pandemic has taught us we can’t afford to ignore the changing world. What’s more, we believe, most Canadians don’t want to. Many of us, after all, come from somewhere else and have connections that reach around the world.

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