Nation building recordings

[Art Hunter]

In August we've held three Nation Building informal meetings that were recorded during our regular informal Friday Hangout sessions.

This email formally makes them available to anyone who has the links.

1.  https://youtu.be/kfVQVw13mQI

During the weekly CACOR hangout on Friday afternoon, 01 Aug 2025, many members discussed Nation Building Projects. The session was facilitated by Jean Dougherty, former chairperson and secretary of the CACOR Board of Directors. We all know that nation-building projects (NBPs) have recently been top-of-mind for Canada's political leaders. That has been in response to the recently elected American federal government's reversal of long-standing trade and intergovernmental relations. The new American administration has said their country needs nothing from Canada, has been abused by us, and ought to become their 51st state. It appears Canada plans to respond, at least in part, by starting NBPs. There is a profound danger in Canada embarking on NBPs. It is not just the risk of eventual take-over, if not invasion, by the Americans, which may will remain no matter what course Canada follows. The danger includes, perhaps is most importantly, that we may exacerbate our ecological problems. In fact, most of our citizens, let alone our leaders, do not recognize the nature and extent of our ecological challenges. CACOR would serve Canadians well if it undertook a project to: * Define a set of criteria concerning what should be seen as constituting an important NBP. * Summarize our ecological situation. * Present a list of potential NBPs. We can leave evaluation and choice of which NBPs to pursue up to the country's various governments—they will surely bicker over them. This session will start a conversation among our members concerning NBPs. We can't now predict all the questions we may face and the decisions we may make. Early on, we will need some principles by which to judge future projects. Here are a few—there should be more. * Paramountcy of Indigenous rights. * Protection of individual rights to a healthy environment. * Precautionary principle. * Minimization of pollution (I doubt we can eliminate it). * Maximization of resource reuse and recycling. As the summer progresses, political parties across Canada will be in warm back rooms discussing what projects they want to kick-start this fall. CACOR may be able to produce and circulate a report that can influence their thinking and their choices. No better opportunity has lain before us. We hope to continue engaging members in on-going discussions this summer so that we can quickly get a useful document into the public sphere. A series of report-style documents will be prepared based on the exchanges.

2.  https://youtu.be/tWFiYlMlVGw

During the weekly CACOR hangout on Friday afternoon, 08 Aug 2025, many members conducted a follow-up discussion of Nation Building Projects. The session was facilitated by Jean Dougherty, former chairperson and secretary of the CACOR Board of Directors.

3. https://youtu.be/3__v7C9MeT4

During the weekly CACOR hangout on Friday afternoon, 15 Aug 2025, many members conducted another follow-up discussion of Nation Building Projects. The session was facilitated by Jean Dougherty and David Dougherty.

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David Dougherty is now preparing a presentation on nation building projects as part of our regular CACOR Live series.

Unfortunately the Dougherty's will be on travel status and unable to attend this live luncheon event in Ottawa.   I would step forward and be the presenter but fear that I will have my hands full setting up and keeping the live recording operational.   Is there any Ottawa area member willing to step forward and fill this presenter position?   Please give this serious consideration as this is an important topic and David is planning on being available, remotely, for the entire session including the Q&A.    We need a live presenter.

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Art Hunter- Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (canadiancor.com)

What we do  (436) CACOR Splash v5 - YouTube

YouTube postings CACOR YouTube - Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (canadiancor.com)

[Cacor Canada]

David Pollock will have received your messages.  He'll certainly consider how to integrate them into our work.

I have created a file from your list of possible NBPs and linked it to the relevant page on the CACOR website.

Dave Dougherty

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From: cacor-...@googlegroups.com <cacor-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Fernande Faulkner <fernande...@gmail.com>
Sent: August 18, 2025 7:39 PM
To: cacor-eve...@googlegroups.com <cacor-eve...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Cacor Events <cacor-...@googlegroups.com>; cacor-public <cacor-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [cacor-events] Nation building recordings

 

I am responding to the same address I originally sent the 10 principles for evaluating Nation Building Projects.  I don’t see them included in the corpus of background inputs to the Friday group.  After I sent them they were they instead sent to the two other  discussion groups. I also do not see them in the corpus of our background inputs. 

At the last meeting it was decided that David Dougherty and David Pollack would integrate both sets of principles.  As I did not see their results yet,  I did some work on integrating the two sets and it would require more work to arrive at trenchant primary principles that could be used to evaluate NBP’s in many domains.  I suggest that we put the principles to the test by reviewing our suggested projects using the criteria.

I did do a first shot at integrating them.  The top are the five principles, the bottom line are the alignment of the ten princiciples where they fit.

1.   Earth System Integrity

5.   Uphold our national and international agreements 

2.   Future- centred Resilience

       No matching principles

3.   Circularity and Resources Sovereignty

2.    Reduce Canada’s reliance on the US and diversify our trading markets

4.    Equity and Reconciliation

6.     Develop our North respecting Indigenous rights and environmental concerns

 8.   Increase well-being for Canadians

5.   Precautionary innovation

 3.  Develop new skills and expertise for Canadian workers for long term use

4.    Select transformative projects to position Canada in future ecosystems of advanced technologies and space.

The stress on engagement, in youth and in the Canadian population are two other criteria to be considered.

Fernande

 

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 18, 2025, at 1:54 AM, Art Hunter <art....@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Fernande Faulkner]

[Fernande Faulkner]

I suggest a panel of those who took part in the discussion to present the finalized principles. I would see dividing the principles between three or four persons who in turn would present one or two principles, elaborating on how they were arrived at and illustrating how they are used in evaluating a proposed nation building project. 

I could also venture to do the presentation.  

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 18, 2025, at 1:54 AM, Art Hunter <art....@gmail.com> wrote:



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