Into the Unknown

Then, as now, there is a profound divide between the orthodoxy-challenging values and aspirations of the young and the insecurities of the entitled. [...] Scanning the Horizon In March of 2015, the Institute provided a scan of major current socio-economic trends and developments, at local, provincial, national and international scales, relevant to the work of The Calgary Foundation (TCF). [...] Most of the trends covered in the more elaborate 2015 scan are still very much in play – shifts in how we think about education, the poverty trap, the need to invest in community leadership, the rise of social innovation and the new mega-trends in philanthropy, to name a few. [...] Add to this the strengthening of economic and political power in the Pacific basin (along with the rise of Chile, Peru, Malaysia, the Philippines and Mexico), the precarious state of Canadian allies like Ukraine and the Baltic states, and it seems inevitable that Canada will carry many new demands with respect to our engagement in global policy, with a Security Council seat almost certainly in the [...] While the honeymoon phase of the Trudeau government may be coming to an end, particularly with respect to Federal-Provincial relations, and while certain cracks and vulnerabilities are starting to set in (for example, with respect to the quagmire of pipeline politics and the electoral reform file), the Conservative and NDP parties are both in a very weakened state.