ABOUT THE MUNK DEBATES ORGANIZERS
RUDYARD GRIFFITHS is a co-host of the Business News Network television show SqueezePlay and a columnist for the National Post. He is the co-director of the Munk Debates and the Salon Speakers Series. He is a co-founder of the Historica-Dominion Institute, Canada’s largest history and civics NGO. In 2006, he was named one of Canada’s “Top 40 under 40” by the Globe and Mail. He is the editor of twelve books on history, politics, and international affairs, and the author of Who We Are: A Citizen’s Manifesto, which was a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2009 and a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. He lives in Toronto.
PATRICK LUCIANI is the co-director of the Munk Debates and the Salon Speakers Series. He was a former Executive Director of the Donner Canadian Foundation, and he has authored two books on economic issues. He is also the co-author of XXL: Obesity and the Limits of Shame (2011) with Neil Seeman. He lives in Toronto.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Munk Debates are the product of the public spiritedness of a remarkable group of civic-minded organizations and individuals. First and foremost, these debates would not be possible without the vision and leadership of the Aurea Foundation. Founded in 2006 by Peter and Melanie Munk, the Aurea Foundation supports Canadian individuals and institutions involved in the study and development of public policy. The debates are the foundation’s signature initiative; a model for the kind of substantive public policy conversation Canadians want and need. Since their creation in 2008, the foundation has underwritten the entire cost of each semi-annual event. The debates have also benefitted from the input and advice of members of the board’s foundation, including Andrew Coyne, Devon Cross, Margaret MacMillan, Anthony Munk, Nigel Wright, and Janice Gross Stein.
Since their inception the Munk Debates have sought to take the discussions that happen at each event to national and international audiences. Here the debates have benefitted immeasurably from their partnership with Canada’s national newspaper the Globe and Mail and the counsel of its former editor-in-chief Edward Greenspon. The country’s public broadcaster, the CBC, and Executive Producer of CBC Radio’s Ideas, Bernie Lucht, have created an enthusiastic and growing national radio audience for the debates. The Internet has also played a key role in disseminating the debates. Their online popularity is in large part the result of the expert advice and services of web firm ecentricarts inc. and its principals, Michel Blondeau, Keith Durrant, and Sean Kozey.
With the publication of this superb book, House of Anansi Press is helping the debates reach new audiences in Canada and abroad. The debates’ organizers would like to thank Anansi Chairman, Scott Griffin, and President and Publisher, Sarah MacLachlan, for their enthusiasm for this book project and insights into how to translate each spoken debate into a powerful written exchange.
As the moderator of the Munk Debates, I would like to especially thank the Aurea Foundation’s Senior Policy Adviser, George Jonas, and its President, Allan Gotlieb. Both have been instrumental in guiding the debates in three short years from a concept into arguably one of Canada’s most influential public venues for the discussion of domestic and global public policy issues. Finally, as the co-organizer of the debates with my colleague, Patrick Luciani, I would like to acknowledge the team effort that has driven this initiative since its inception. In this regard, Patrick and I owe a great debt of gratitude to event organizer Deborah Lewis, who spearheaded the early debates. Vital to the debates’ continuing success is event manager Sherry Naylor and her entire team at MDG & Associates, and Taylor Owen, our research director.
Rudyard Griffiths
Editor, The Munk Debates
Toronto, July 2010
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi’s commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada’s pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.”
1 The term “government in a box” refers to General Stanley A. McChrystal’s plan for the Marja campaign in Afghanistan.
2 The Climatic Research Unit, founded in 1972, is part of the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.
3 The study appeared in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Vol. 49, no. 9 (September 2008), and is called “PET Changes Management and Improves Prognostic Stratification in Patients with Recurrent Colorectal Cancer: Results of a Multicenter Prospective Study.”
The Munk Debates Page 24