neighbourhood interests.

This afternoon, I went to the University of Alberta's launch of the Institute for United States Policy Studies. The launch included a well-attended panel discussion, titled Sharing a Continent. The panel included Naim Ahmed, United States Consul-General in Calgary, Amira de la Garza, Acting Director of the North America Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, Michael Hawes, Executive Director of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program, and Jeffrey Simpson, the National Affairs Columnist at The Globe & Mail.

Some of the notable attendees I noticed included former Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, U of A Political Science Professor Linda Trimble, Alberta Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Gary Mar, and U of A President Emeritus Rod Fraser, and what looked like nearly the entire U of A Political Science department...

It was really an interesting panel discussions. Though I've seen him speak a number of times, and had a nice little chat with him at the Public Interest Alberta PSE conference a couple months back, I thought Jeffrey Simpson was more articulate that I have seen him before - in his thoughts about border issues and US-Canada relations.

As well, I was very interested to hear what Michael Hawes had to say, as he sounded like he had a wealth of information he wanted to speak to (though he only had 10-12 minutes to get it all out).

Overall, it was an interesting event and I'm glad I went.