news > Progressive Canadians: A vision for Canada

September 29 , 2008: Progressive Canadians: A vision for Canada

Newmarket, Ontario- The Commonwealth of Nations represents one-third of the world’s population, extends to all four corners of the globe and has a combined GDP second only to that of the United States­growing at a rate that outpaces the U.S. and even China.

Given the right partnership network, the Commonwealth has the potential to become the most significant socio-economic affinity group of nations on the world stage.

From 23 to 24 March 2007 a Commonwealth Connects International e-Partnership Summit was held in India. In his inaugural address  Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, President of India had this to say about the power of partnership networks:

In the modern digital economy driven by knowledge products, bits and bytes traverse the network and create wealth . . . This power of networking can definitely be used by Commonwealth countries for sharing their core competencies and building a knowledge platform for serving the development aspirations of the individual nations through collective wisdom… [and for] developing knowledge products and systems for serving the global market in education, healthcare and e-governance.

Canada attended this Summit.  Nothing has been heard of it since. The opportunity has not been taken for Canada to be the first to step up to the plate to establish, facilitate and leverage a new era of Commonwealth Collaboration and usher in a new age of global prosperity.

The PC Party’s Prosperity Canada Program recognizes Canada’s natural leadership role among member nations by forming new links for Commonwealth Collaboration and creating new levels of global prosperity.

Economically speaking, Canada has the knowledge that the emerging economies of the Commonwealth need, while those countries have the fast-growing market opportunities sought by Canadian exporters. Key countries like India and Pakistan provide especially heady growth opportunities for Canadian exporters. Not only do they have large markets, but their businesses offer excellent partnership opportunities for Canadian corporations. There are dozens of areas where Canadian expertise and resources match the growth requirements of Indian and Pakistani companies.

Canadian expertise in resource development, for example, is spawning alliances around the world. There are companies in Calgary helping India develop its energy resources. Other companies are leading mining development projects in India and Pakistan. One of Canada’s most successful CEO’s, Magna Chairman, Frank Stronach, is partnering with auto manufacturers in the region. Canada’s whole Information Technology sector offers expertise across a spectrum of services that are needed internationally. Developing and sharing key healthcare, education and e-governance knowledge and technology within the 53 Nations of the Commonwealth with a combined population of 2 Billion people is a resource waiting to be tapped.

Politically speaking, the member states of the Commonwealth cut across social, religious and regional blocks, representing a new, yet tested model of multilateralism for Canada to lead and the rest of the world to follow. Just as Canada is a regional microcosm of the world’s people living in relative harmony, the Commonwealth­with Canada in the lead­is a global microcosm of the world’s nations (and religions) working collaboratively toward shared prosperity: developed and developing, rich and poor, north and south. India’s Industry Minister Kamal Nath, calls the Commonwealth “the new paradigm.” The PC Party calls it “Canada’s opportunity, responsibility and platform to extend its positive influence and prosperity worldwide through collaboration.”

Practically speaking, establishing new collaborative links electronically will be relatively easy considering that the leading countries in the development of I.T. (outside of the U.S.) can be found in the Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia, Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan and India.

Perhaps even more significant, there are more residents living in Canada from Commonwealth nations than any other country in the world. The PC Party can appeal to these Commonwealth ex-patriots-turned Canadian voters and gain their support for our Commonwealth Collaboration initiative.

Via such collaboration, our Prosperity Canada Platform, will work to promote and share innovative approaches to solving major issues facing governments at all levels throughout the Commonwealth and the world.

For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Hon. Sinclair M. Stevens, Leader
E-mail: info@pcparty.org
Phone: 1-888-666-3821

back to top