I see a better informed citizenry and an audience share of seven or eight times what our own Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio have been able to muster, and then only with tedious fundraisers. Were your system not in place, the English language CBC would not be playing on channel six in all the dormitories, hospitals and hotel rooms of Duke University to provide a sane alternative. Were your system not in place, something tells me I know where all your TV shows would come from. It is through more formal co-operation and collaboration, more openness, not through a closing of borders, that we can both best thrive. The free trade in knowledge is no less central to our mutual progress than the free trade of goods and services.
Globalization is about minds and ideas, too.
I think most Canadian university presidents would agree with me when I say that if a solution to the supposed problem of the flight of educated Canadians is wanted, that solution is investing more in basic research and education, including higher education. I've followed with both dismay and hope the efforts of the Canadian Association of University Teachers to focus attention on the crisis affecting your colleges and universities as a result of government cutbacks. This is surely a big step in the right direction.