Canada's Strong Connection with the World 

Investing in communications technologies and linking centres of knowledge across the world to promote the sharing of information can address the critical needs of developing countries and bring significant benefits to Canada, according to a report from a task force headed by Maurice Strong. 

Connecting with the World, Priorities for Canadian Internationalism in the 21st Century, contains recommendations aimed at moving Canada towards being a "knowledge broker" to developing countries. 

According to Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, "Knowledge-based economies will dominate the 21st century and Canada will be obliged to earn its way in large part through its intellectual capacity and global leadership". 

John Evans, the new chair of the Canada Foundation for Innovation stated, in a guest column in the Financial Post on February 12, 1997, "Current investment to address critical needs of developing countries will bring significant economic and political return to Canada over the next decade.... As scientific and technological relationships deepen so will commercial and other relationships" 

That point is echoed in an editorial in The Globe and Mail from November 25, 1996. "Canada's strategic advantage is most likely to lie in its potential as a knowledge broker.... The core idea - knowledge is influence - remains sound. The government should act on it." Connecting with the World, which can be found below, was sponsored by three Canadian Organizations, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the North-South institute (NSI). The task force was comprised of nine leading Canadian experts in international development and foreign affairs. The Report was released on November 18, 1996. 

Task Force Members: 

• Maurice F. Strong (Chairman)
• Jack Austin 
• Tim Brodhead
• Margaret Catley-Carlson 
• John Evans
• Yves Fortier
• Gerald K. Helleiner
• Pierre Marc Johnson
• Janice Gross Stein 

Sponsoring Institutions: 

• International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
• International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
• North-South Institute (NSI) 

Secretariat: 

• Ian Smillie 
• Danielle Vinette