"Canada is an alternative. It is not the northern United States nor the North American Switzerland or Belgium. Canadian studies will give students in this country an opportunity to examine the alternatives we have, by our history, our geography, our climate, our mistakes, and our victories, created." Thomas H.B. Symons, 1975.
The Canadian Business Studies Program at Texas A&M University, founded in the Fall of 1989, aims to promote greater understanding of Canadian culture, institutions, and issues among TAMU business students, faculty, and the public they serve. Canada shares the longest and the most peaceful border with the United States and is our most important trading partner. Therefore, promoting understanding and empathy for the Canadian people, their institutions and culture, and for the vital issues that most concern our northernmost neighbor becomes a truly important goal for both education and research here in the United States and especially in Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. Texas A&M and the Southwest, fortunate by virtue of their location and philosophy, favor free and open dialogue and freedom for both ideas and markets. They also serve as an important conduit for the flow of Canadian products, technical know-how, and culture toward the Southwest and toward Mexico and its neighbors in Central and South America. Indeed, recent redevelopments in Canada and neighboring countries to the South suggest there are even stronger prospects for rapid economic growth and development of Canadian-Southwestern Linkages in the future, benefiting the people of all the Americas.
An Overview
The
Canadian Studies Program at TAMU has brought together the skills and interests
of many teachers, students, and businessmen and women for the benefit
of multiple audiences. TAMU's Canadian-related research output, focusing
upon many business and public policy issues of interest to Canadians,
has expanded significantly each year, supplemented by educational programs
and the development of many new international courses to ensure the exposure
of our students, who are enrolled in one of North America's largest business
schools, to Canadian culture, institutions, and employment opportunities.
Along with the extensive research activities and the creation of new international
courses has come frequent travel by A&M faculty to Canada and by Canadian
business and government leaders to the A&M Campus including the Canadian
Ambassador to the United States, Raymond A. J. Chretien, who visited Texas
A&M University. The Canadian Studies Program also issues twice yearly
a call for new research proposals to all members of the faculty of Mays, thus promoting new knowledge
and understanding of Canada's changing view of the world and its role
in that world.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the president said, "Canadians came to the aid of men and women and children who were worried and confused and had no place to sleep ... and you asked for nothing in return.
"Thank you for your kindness to Americans in an hour of need...
"Our two peoples are one family and always will be." Text and photo taken from Canadian Broadcasting Company web page.
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- Christopher Kirkey is trying to sell students on studying a foreign country, one whose social and economic policies profoundly influence the United States.
The country is Canada, and the problem, Professor Kirkey said, is that many students do not recognize the value of studying America's northern neighbor.
Many simply regard it as the cold expanse up north that exports hockey, doughnuts and Labatt beer.
Canadian studies is a small and aging discipline at American colleges and universities, and many professors and program heads are retiring and few are in line to take their places. To combat this, Professor Kirkey -- who heads the Center for Canadian Studies at the State University of New York here, about 20 miles south of the border -- is working with the Canadian government to create Canadian studies programs at institutions throughout the United States. Read New York Times article here!Canada-US Smart Border Declaration
"Improving the secure flow of goods and people at the border is a key priority for Canada and the United States. With more than $1.9 billion in goods and more than 300,000 people moving across the Canada-US border each day, both countries have a critical stake in each other’s economic security.
On December 12, 2001, then Foreign Minister John Manley and U.S. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge signed the Canada-US Smart Border Declaration. This Declaration outlines our shared commitment to develop a border that securely facilitates the free flow of people and commerce, and that reflects the largest trading relationship in the world." Text taken from Building a Smart Border for the 21st Century June 7, 2002. See the Smart Border Declaration.