Intent for a Nation: What Is Canada For?

by Michael Byers

Douglas and McIntyre
248 pages, hardcover
ISBN 9781553652502

With Intent for a Nation, UBC professor Michael Byers lays out his "relentlessly optimistic manifesto" for an across-the-board realignment of Canadian foreign policy.  He champions a firmly progressive stand on issues ranging from human rights and nuclear proliferation to northern sovereignty that he argues would position Canada as a world leader. 

Here's how Douglas and McIntyre describe the book and its author:

"Why do Canadians think so small? ‘We're a serious country. But our clout-we don't use it,' says Michael Byers, who argues it is time for a clear-eyed appreciation of our strengths and weaknesses, of all we have and all we could be. Instead of emulating our increasingly isolated neighbour, Byers says we should be advancing the Canadian model, an idealistic, fiscally prudent, socially progressive vision of foreign policy that has never looked so good.

Playing against George Grant's seminal Lament for a Nation, Intent for a Nation is his informed and opinionated overview of where Canada stands in the world and what aggressive and progressive social, environmental, and governmental policies are needed to carry the country forward in an ever more competitive and volatile world.

Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He has written several books, including War Law (Douglas & McIntyre, 2005). Byers is a regular commentator on CBC on programs such as The Current and The National, and a frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail as well as other national and international periodicals."

For Ezra Levant's LRC review of Intent for a Nation, click here.

Discussion Questions:

1.    In Chapter 1, Byers argues that terrorism's threat to Canada is over-stated, even as the measures taken to prevent it at home and abroad are relatively ineffective.  How concerned are you about terrorism, compared to other social, economic and environmental problems?  Do we all just need to relax?

2.    Byers strongly supports foreign peacekeeping and military intervention in order to protect human rights and security abroad; at the same time, he acknowledges that humanitarian arguments have helped justify conflicts like the Iraq war, which he opposes.  Assuming Canada continues to send troops overseas for humanitarian reasons, how should we determine when to act?      

3.    Byers cites the UN Declaration of Human Rights and International Criminal Court as admirable Canadian-led efforts, arguing that we've had our greatest influence in the world while working independently from the US to forge principled consensus among nations.  Does this seem an accurate assessment?

4.    Making the case that climate change represents a tremendous threat to both Canadians and billions of the world's poorest people, Intent for a Nation advocates a tough program of taxes and regulation to cut back our country's greenhouse gas emissions.  But how much are Canadians actually willing to sacrifice to fight climate change?  And given Canada's relatively low share of worldwide emissions, what can be done to influence other countries' decisions? 

5.    Chapter 10 quotes novelist Pico Iyer's suggestion that "Canada has become the spiritual home...of the very notion of an extended, emancipating global citizenship." What do you think of Byers' definition of a "global citizen"?  Is it something that seems particularly Canadian, or that you aspire to?  And if so, how?