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Saturday, July 04, 2009
Who is Jennifer Welsh?
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach announced Thursday a 12-member Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy. This is the Premier’s new go-to team for advice on Alberta's ailing economy.
One member of this illustrious team is Jennifer Welsh. Welsh has an impressive resume, but none of her experience or education makes her particularly suited to offer practical economic advice to the Premier on economic matters.
Here’s the biography provided by the Alberta government:
Professor Jennifer Welsh is Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Somerville College and a Trudeau Foundation Fellow. She is a former Jean Monnet Fellow of the European University Institute in Florence, and was a Cadieux Research Fellow in the Policy Planning Staff of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Welsh has taught international relations at the University of Toronto, McGill University, and the Central European University (Prague). She is the author, co-author, and editor of several books and articles on international relations. She also sits on the Board of Trustees of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.
Her current research projects include the evolution of the notion of the ‘responsibility to protect’ in international society, the ethics of post-conflict reconstruction, the authority of the UN Security Council, and a critique of conditional notions of sovereignty. She is a frequent commentator in Canadian media on foreign policy and international relations.
So Welsh is a foreign policy expert of the soft power, internationalist variety. Fine. When Alberta separates, raises its own army, and needs a policy on Darfur, someone in the provincial government might want to give her a call. Until then, I have no idea what practical advice Welsh might have for the Premier of Alberta on economic policy. Or why she might have been selected for this Council over other intellectuals and policy experts.
The closer one investigates the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy the less it makes sense as a genuine advisory council or even as a political showpiece.
(By the way, Welsh co-authored a book on Edmund Burke titled Empire and Community. Anyone read it?)
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by Western Standard on July 4, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Interesting and curious choice. Dr. Welsh went to Oxford at the same time as I did, so we crossed paths often at Canada Club and "ice hockey" events. We didn't discuss politics, though.
From what little I have read in the popular press, I suspect she is not properly classified as a "soft power" type. If I recall, she came out quite strongly in favour of beefing up Canada's military after decades of neglect, arguing that you can't play a significant role on the international stage unless you carry a big stick.
I don't know what she might have to contribute in the area of economics - maybe she knows something about the geopolitics of oil and the various objectives and strategies of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venuzuela, etc. with respect to this key commodity. That would be helpful, if it were possible to plan based on the ever-chaging geopolitics of oil...
There are other just as curious picks for the advisory team, too. Landslide Annie? She's a law professor, and a great dud as a justice minister, among other things. And a big-L Liberal - which only reinforces my long-held view that the Stelmach government is actually Liberal-leaning-NDP in conservative drag.
Posted by: Grant Brown | 2009-07-04 1:02:05 AM
Small world, Grant.
I find her interest in Burke very interesting, but didn't have the time to investigate it further.
As for the soft power comment, in a interview with Foreign Affairs she expressed some sympathy for this view.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-07-04 1:21:34 AM
Someone else said in another post that our politicians are doing their best to "look busy" in this time of a sagging economy. Fact is there is nothing they can do. Or, conversely, they have already done too much. This murky appointment might be seen as yet another useless move by a useless government trying to justify itself.
For sure the Stelmach government has an agenda of its own that is being clouded over by the appearance of mere incompetence.
So, are they truly incompetent or are they advancing a cause designed to break us? The latter would seem to be in line with the overall agenda of crashing the economy wouldn't it?
Just think, what is going to happen when we suddenly, as taxpayers, have to fund all of these stimulus packages and bail outs. Interest rates will soar and deflation will kick in big time.
I give it 3 to 4 years and then God help us.
Until then, enjoy the show.
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-07-04 8:14:34 AM
How much are we paying these people?
Posted by: jt | 2009-07-04 1:27:55 PM
I dunno - she has Trudeau-this and Univ of Toronto-that on here record. People like her tend to be anti-Alberta.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-07-04 1:49:32 PM
Why isn't Brad Wall on the Advisory Panel?
Posted by: epsilon | 2009-07-04 3:56:17 PM
This is the Premier’s new go-to team for advice on Alberta's ailing economy.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Unless this council of "experts" can figure out some way to get oil to go to $200 a barrel it's simply a way to hide what's really going on in the Alberta economy. It's kaput.
Posted by: The Stig | 2009-07-04 5:17:25 PM
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