Fall Lecture 2024: Canada’s relationship with the U.S.

Claudette Commanda is an Algonquin Anishinabe from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation located in the province of Quebec. An alumna of the University of Ottawa faculties of Law and Arts, Claudette has dedicated the last 35 years promoting First Nations people, history, culture and rights in various capacities as a University of Ottawa student, professor, member and chair of the Aboriginal education council, and via public speaking events.

She is the chief executive officer of the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres, a national organization that protects and promotes First Nations culture, languages and traditional knowledge. She is also the CEO of Maclean Day Schools Settlement Corporation. Ms. Commanda has taught at the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Women’s Studies, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Law and the Indigenous Studies Program, teaching courses on First Nations Women, Native Education, First Nations People and History, Indigenous Traditions, and Decolonization. She was inducted into the Common Law Honour Society, served two terms on the Board of Governors for the First Nations University of Canada and three terms on the Kitigan Zibi band council.

In 2017, Claudette was the first appointed First Nation Elder in Residence for the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, and the first person of a First Nation heritage to be complete a full term on the Board of Governors for the University of Ottawa. She was also the Special Adviser on Reconciliation, for the Susan & Perry Dellelce Dean, Faculty of Law (Common Law Section). Claudette is a proud mother of four and a grandmother of 10.

In March 2020, Claudette received the 2020 Indspire Award for culture, heritage, and spirituality.

Ambassador Craft was sworn in as the Representative of the United States to the United Nations in September 2019 and held the position until January 2021.

While leading the US Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Craft’s highest distinction of service to her country was the implementation of the historic Abraham Accords – the most significant turning point in the Middle East peace process in fifty years.

Ambassador Craft served as the US Ambassador to Canada from October 2017 until 2019. During her time, she worked through the complex revisiting of the NAFTA treaty, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA.

Ambassador Craft has served on numerous boards including: Advancing American Freedom, the Canadian American Business Council and currently the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship and the Institute for the Study of War.

With Ambassador Craft’s expertise and experience in international affairs, she continues to speak at international forums including the Munich Security Conference, Doha Forum and the GZero Japan Summit. She is a staunch defender of Taiwan and was honored to speak at the Ketagalan Forum emphasizing the importance of regional security issues in the Indo-Pacific. In 2023, Ambassador Craft led the United States delegation to Taipei for an audience with President Tsai and in 2024, had a private audience with President Lai. Upon leaving her official post, the Chinese government-imposed lifetime sanctions prohibiting Ambassador Craft from travel to and business with China, Hong Kong and Macao.

In January 2024, Ambassador Craft and Mr. Craft were chosen by the Republican National Committee to lead the Presidential Trust, which raises funds for the eventual 2024 Republican Nominee for President and Republican candidates for the United States Congress and the United States Senate.

Ambassador Craft is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Morehead State University. She and her husband, Joe Craft, who is also a native Kentuckian, share six
children and twelve grandchildren.

Ambassador Gordon Giffin is a partner and Global Vice-Chair emeritus in Dentons, the world’s largest law firm. His practice is focused on international transactions, trade matters and disputes, government procurement, energy regulatory and policy matters, and federal and state regulatory matters and public policy. He maintains offices in Washington, DC and Atlanta, Georgia.

From August 1997 to April 2001, Ambassador Giffin served as the nineteenth U.S. Ambassador to Canada. As Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, he managed U.S. interests in the world’s largest bi-lateral trading relationship, as well as U.S. collaboration with Canada on global issues in international fora. He received the Superior Honor Award from the Department of State for negotiating a pre-clearance agreement.

From 1975-1979, he was Legislative Director and Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator Sam Nunn in Washington, DC.

Ambassador Giffin is a graduate of Duke University and Emory University School of Law and holds several honorary degrees. He was a recipient of the Emory University School of Law’s 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award, which recognizes outstanding alumni who have achieved distinction in legal practice, teaching, research or public administration. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at Emory University School of Law.

Ambassador Giffin currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Carter Presidential Center; is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission; and serves on the Board of Directors of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and CIBC US Bank. He served on the Board of Canadian National Railway from 2001-2021, the Board of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from 2001-2017 and as Chair of the Board of TransAlta Corporation from 2011 to 2020.

A.J. Nichols is BHP’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs for North America, overseeing external affairs, government relations, Indigenous and Aboriginal relations, and communications across the U.S. and Canada. Before joining BHP in 2024, he spent 17 years at Vale and Vale Base Metals, where he served as Global Director of Corporate Affairs. His leadership roles also included serving as the Chief Representative and General Manager of Corporate Affairs for Vale in China, based in Beijing, and Head of Corporate Affairs for Asia Pacific in Singapore. Earlier in his career, A.J. was Chief of Staff to the Canadian Ambassador in Washington and a variety of roles at the Canadian Consulate in New York City. He has a Bachelor of Arts and MBA from Dalhousie University and has also completed the Stanford University LEAD program from the Graduate School of Business.

Janice Gross Stein is the Belzberg professor of conflict management in the department of political science and the founding director of the munk school of global affairs & public policy at the university of toronto. She is a fellow of the royal society of canada and a member of the order of canada and the order of ontario. She was the massey lecturer in 2001 and a trudeau fellow. She was awarded the molson prize by the canada council for an outstanding contribution by a social scientist to public debate and has received honorary doctorates of laws from universities in canada and abroad. She is also an honorary foreign member of the american academy of arts and sciences and a senior fellow of the kissinger center at sais at johns hopkins university. Her current research focuses on technology and public policy in the context of great power competition. Last year, she co-chaired the national advisory committee on canada’s indo-pacific strategy for the minister of global affairs

Cliff Young is President of Polling and Societal Trends at Ipsos. Cliff’s career-long passion has been to understand public opinion as a critical stakeholder in society and to contextualize it for decision-makers. Cliff has run research and policy businesses both big and small in the US and Brazil.

Cliff is an expert on consumer and public opinion trends, policy trends and priorities, corporate reputation, elections and scenario construction. He also is an Ipsos spokesperson and oversees Ipsos media partnerships, including ABC News, Axios, NPR, Thomson Reuters, USA Today, and the Washington Post.

He is a frequent writer, analyst, and media commentator on elections, consumer behavior, and public opinion. He can be seen with regularity on Bloomberg, Fox, and CSPAN.

Cliff is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS and is an instructor at Columbia University where he teaches courses—at both institutions—on public opinion and forecasting. Cliff just released a book coming in September 2024: Polls, Pollsters, and Public Opinion: A Guide for Decision-Makers by Cambridge University Press

Mike Blanchfield comes to the Public Policy Forum as Director, Energy Policy after a decades-long career as an international affairs journalist for several major news organizations based on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Mike has covered a range of issues from trade, defence, the environment, legal affairs, politics, diplomacy, climate change, and armed conflict. His reporting has taken him across the world, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement that was foisted on Canada and Mexico by Donald Trump.

He has reported regularly from the United States, including the 2000 U.S. presidential election, 9/11, the 2008 rise to power of Barack Obama and the surreal encounters between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau.

He is the co-author (with Fen Osler Hampson) of the award-winning book, The Two Michaels: Innocent Canadian Captives and High Stakes Espionage in the US-China Cyber War and the author of Swingback: Getting Along in the World With Harper and Trudeau.

Most recently, Mike worked as a consultant for Bluesky Strategy Group in Ottawa.

He was the winner of the 2013 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship which allowed him to travel to Geneva and Laos to investigate the deadly, ongoing legacy of the U.S. cluster bombing of the South Asian country during the Vietnam War.

Mike has taught reporting techniques at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, where he received his Masters of Journalism.

Sara-Christine Gemson has worked in journalism, communications, and non-profit management.

She was previously Vice-President of Programs and Director Communications at Teach For Canada, a non-profit that partners with remote First Nations to recruit, prepare and support educators.

Sara-Christine also worked as a TV, radio and digital journalist for many years, primarily for Radio-Canada in Toronto and Regina. She was also an Aga Khan journalism fellow in Kenya, where she wrote for the Daily Nation.

Sara-Christine completed a B.A. in Philosophy and Communications at the University of Ottawa and an M.Phil in Comparative Government at Oxford University. She is an Action Canada alumna.

Edward Greenspon has worked at the intersection of journalism and public policy for more than 30 years. Before becoming President & CEO of the Public Policy Forum, Ed was a journalist with The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg News and newspapers in Western Canada. He is also the author of two books on Canadian politics, policy and public opinion.

At the Globe, Ed specialized in politics, economics, foreign affairs and business while serving as Editor-in-Chief, Ottawa bureau chief, European correspondent and managing editor of the Report on Business. He was an early proponent of digital transformation as founding editor of globeandmail.com.

At Bloomberg News, he was Editor-at-Large for Canada and global managing editor for energy, environment and commodities, a group situated in 22 countries on six continents.

Ed is the author of Double Vision: The Inside Story of the Liberals in Power, which won the 1996 Douglas Purvis Award for best public policy book, and of Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset. He was a winner of PPF’s Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism. In 2010, he chaired a 13-person panel for the Canadian International Council that produced a bold international policy strategy called Open Canada: A Global Positioning Strategy for a Networked Age.

Ed holds a combined honours degree in journalism and political science from Carleton University and was a Commonwealth Scholar at the London School of Economics, earning an M.Sc. (Econ.) with distinction.

Luiza Ch. Savage is an executive editor at POLITICO, an international news organization focused on politics and policy. Based in the Washington, D.C., area, she focuses on growing POLITICO’s digital journalism across video, audio, live events, newsletters, and thought-leadership. Luiza was responsible for the creation of POLITICO Canada, which now includes the daily Ottawa Playbook and POLITICO Pro Canada, an intelligence service for policy professionals. She is a Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center and a Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Prior to joining POLITICO, Luiza was the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Maclean’s, the national weekly news magazine of Canada. In that role, she covered several presidential elections, wrote and produced two television documentaries about Canada-U.S. relations, and was a regular commentator on television and radio news programs. She previously worked as a reporter for the New York Sun, the National Post, and the Ottawa Citizen. Luiza was born in Poland and grew up in Calgary and Ottawa. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College and a master’s degree from Yale Law School, where she was a Knight Foundation journalism fellow. She is married to New York Times reporter Charlie Savage; they have two children.