Jeffrey F. Collins

Every decade or so, Canada competes for a coveted spot on the fifteen-member United Nations Security Council. We have a respectable six-and-two record in these contests, which are organized on a regional basis, having last held a two-year term that ended in 2000 (we lost in 1946 and, most notably, in 2010). This year’s election will be held in…

This year marks the seventieth anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and to say that the celebrations will likely be subdued is an understatement. Co-­founded by Canada in 1949, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the transatlantic alliance has grown from a membership of just twelve countries to twenty-­nine following Montenegro’s entry in…

It has been (half) jokingly said that the perennial misfortune of Newfoundlanders is to be governed by Newfoundland politicians. Sadly, anyone looking at the political climate of the province over the last half decade would be hard pressed to disagree with such sentiment. With a collapse in oil prices accentuated by poor fiscal policy, the people of the province affectionately known as the Rock are having to contend with one of the worst economic climates since Ottawa imposed a cod moratorium in…

Newfoundland came into Confeder­ation with no familiarity of federalism. The new province had experienced bankruptcy and a loss of responsible government in 1934, suffering the humiliation of being just one of two British colonies to do so (the other being Malta in 1933). In lieu of Newfoundland governing itself, its leaders opted for rule-by-committee in the form of a British-appointed…