IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v2y2012i2p162-185d17126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Past Fame, Present Frames and Future Flagship? An Exploration of How Health is Positioned in Canadian Foreign Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald Labonté

    (Globalization and Health Equity, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
    Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Vivien Runnels

    (Globalization and Health Equity, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Michelle Gagnon

    (Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, 1 Stewart Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

Abstract

Canada has been regarded as a model global citizen with firm commitments to multilateralism. It has also played important roles in several international health treaties and conventions in recent years. There are now concerns that its interests in health as a foreign policy goal may be diminishing. This article reports on a thematic analysis of key Canadian foreign policy statements issued over the past decade, and interviews with key informants knowledgeable of, or experienced in the interstices of Canadian health and foreign policy. It finds that health is primarily and increasingly framed in relation to national security and economic interests. Little attention has been given to human rights obligations relevant to health as a foreign policy issue, and global health is not seen as a priority of the present government. Global health is nonetheless regarded as something with which Canadian foreign policy must engage, if only because of Canada’s membership in many United Nations and other multilateral fora. Development of a single global health strategy or framework is seen as important to improve intersectoral cooperation on health issues, and foreign policy coherence. There remains a cautious optimism that health could become the base from which Canada reasserts its internationalist status.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald Labonté & Vivien Runnels & Michelle Gagnon, 2012. "Past Fame, Present Frames and Future Flagship? An Exploration of How Health is Positioned in Canadian Foreign Policy," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-24, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:2:y:2012:i:2:p:162-185:d:17126
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/2/2/162/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/2/2/162/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Isabel Ortiz & Matthew Cummins, 2012. "DESIGUALDAD GLOBAL:La distribución del ingreso en 141 países," Working papers 1104, UNICEF,Division of Policy and Strategy.
    2. International Labour Office., 2011. "Global employment trends 2011 : the challenge of a jobs recovery," Global Employment Trends Reports 994619083402676, International Labour Office, Economic and Labour Market Analysis Department.
    3. Ravallion, Martin, 2006. "Looking beyond averages in the trade and poverty debate," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1374-1392, August.
    4. Audrey R. Chapman, 2009. "The Divisibility of Indivisible Human Rights," Economic Rights Working Papers 9, University of Connecticut, Human Rights Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Honeck, Dale, 2012. "LDC export diversification, employment generation and the "green economy": What roles for tourism linkages?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2012-24, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    2. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2013. "Environment, Health, and Human Capital," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 689-730, September.
    3. Marinov, Eduard, 2012. "Кризата В Европа – Последици За Африка [The EU Crisis – Impact on Africa]," MPRA Paper 60296, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2012.
    4. Li, Bing & Liu, Chang & Sun, Stephen Teng, 2021. "Do corporate income tax cuts decrease labor share? Regression discontinuity evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Daňová Monika & Vozárová Ivana Kravčáková, 2021. "Does the instability of economic development affect the elasticity of the labour market?," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 21(3), pages 291-308, September.
    6. Andrei, Jean & Saša, Stefanovic, 2011. "Especially vulnerable groups in EU and Serbian labor market," MPRA Paper 35285, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Oct 2011.
    7. Skribans, Valerijs, 2012. "European Union Economy System Dynamic Model Development," MPRA Paper 49170, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Marinov, Eduard, 2013. "Кризата В Ес – Финансови Рискове За Африка [The EU Crisis – Financial Risks for Africa]," MPRA Paper 60315, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Cullati, Stéphane, 2014. "The influence of work-family conflict trajectories on self-rated health trajectories in Switzerland: A life course approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 23-33.
    10. Njang Vera Anweh & Ndamsa Dickson Thomas, 2017. "Employment Vulnerability in Cameroon's Private Sector," Working Papers 333, African Economic Research Consortium, Research Department.
    11. Ndonga Dennis, 2013. "Increasing Africa’s Share of Vertical Investments through Single Window Systems," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 181-215, August.
    12. Lenuta Carp, 2012. "The Impact of FDI on the labor market in Central and Eastern Europe during the international crisis," Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, Pro Global Science Association, vol. 3(1), pages 43-54, July.
    13. Christopher Hartwell, 2022. "Institutions and trade‐related inequality," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 3246-3264, July.
    14. Andreas Bergh & Irina Mirkina & Therese Nilsson, 2016. "Do the poor benefit from globalization regardless of institutional quality?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(10), pages 708-712, July.
    15. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2012. "The Impact of Pollution on Worker Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3652-3673, December.
    16. Margitic, Juan & Ravallion, Martin, 2019. "Lifting the floor? Economic development, social protection and the developing World's poorest," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 97-108.
    17. Concepción Moreno-Maldonado & Antonia Jiménez-Iglesias & Francisco Rivera & Carmen Moreno, 2020. "Characterization of Resilient Adolescents in the Context of Parental Unemployment," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(2), pages 681-702, April.
    18. Cabral, René & García-Díaz, Rocío & Mollick, André Varella, 2016. "Does globalization affect top income inequality?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 916-940.
    19. Jeong-Soo OH & Phouphet Kyophilavong, 2015. "Trade Liberalization and Poverty in Developing Countries: Literature Survey," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 3(2), pages 86-94, Fabruary.
    20. Moana S. Simas & Laura Golsteijn & Mark A. J. Huijbregts & Richard Wood & Edgar G. Hertwich, 2014. "The “Bad Labor” Footprint: Quantifying the Social Impacts of Globalization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-27, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:2:y:2012:i:2:p:162-185:d:17126. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.