On Friday, April 5, I will be at the British Library in London to participate in the 38th annual conference of the British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS).  This year’s conference theme is “Crediting Canada: Canada as an economic world leader?” and BACS has asked participants to explore the “triple-A” image that Canada has enjoyed since avoiding the worst of the recent financial crisis.

My own presentation will draw mainly on my recent article in Northern Public Affairs, “Political vision and fiscal reality in Canada’s North,” in which I criticize Canada’s approach to funding social services in its northern territories — especially Nunavut.  A recent study applying the UN’s Human Development Index to Canada’s provinces and territories put Nunavut in the same league as Paraguay and the occupied Palestine — hardly consonant with Canada’s “triple-A” image.