Quick: Who is Canada”s Head of State?
If you don”t know, you”re not alone. Although Canada and the United States are major trading partners and share a border almost 4,000 miles long, many of us living south of that border lack knowledge about the Great White North.
“Often we take Canada for granted,” says Jeff Stier, a professor of forest ecology and management in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. “We think it”s just like us, but farther north.” To help enlighten UW-Madison students about the Maple Leaf State, Stier will teach a new class this fall about Canadian environmental policy. Canada is especially important to students from his department, Stier says, because the U.S. imports large volumes of forest products from Canada, and Canadian trade and environmental policies affect consumers and the forestry industry in the United States.
Stier got the idea to create a new class when he realized that the UW-Madison offers no international studies classes that focus on Canada. Faced with an information void, Stier decided to fill it: he spent the spring 2004 semester on sabbatical developing a course on U.S.-Canadian environmental policy. The new fall course (Forestry 375, Section 10, or Environmental Studies 400, Lecture 3 in the timetable) purposely has no prerequisites; Stier wants to make it available to students from a variety of majors, including those who have a general interest in environmental policy.
In addition to the socioeconomic and political aspects of Canada, Stier plans to introduce his students to Canadian institutions, and make comparisons to agencies in America. He”ll explain how Canada handles issues like air and water pollution, environmental impact assessment, factory farm regulations, and endangered species protection. He also hopes to use his contacts at Canadian universities to pair his students with Canadian students to write a term paper. Each team will pick an issue and explore how it is handled in the U.S. and in Canada.
Stier says that developing a new course has been a great learning experience. “It”s been a lot of fun, and I”m enjoying it immensely,” he says. He received funding from the UW-Madison”s International Institute and from the Canadian embassy, which supports efforts to improve U.S.-Canadian understanding.
And, for the record, Canada”s Head of State is Queen Elizabeth; its Prime Minister is Paul Martin.