MONTREAL – The Montreal Economic Institute, a think-tank often viewed as promoting free-market views which have historically languished around the fringe in a province with a half-century of massive governments and powerful unions, is creating a push for that mainstream.
On Wednesday, the business announced that former Conservative finance minister Joe Oliver is joining its ranks like a “Distinguished Senior Fellow,” moving that might help MEI break to the national stage, setting itself as a type of Fraser Institute in Quebec.
Oliver says he hopes to be part of the bilingual organization’s push to promote “market-based solutions,” in their career post-2015 federal elections when his lost his seat to the Liberals in Ontario’s Eglinton-Lawrence riding.
“I think you need to hear voices across the full political spectrum and when that’s missing, it isn’t healthy for democracy or good public policy,” said Oliver in an interview using the Financial Post from his Toronto office.
This expanding geography can as well be observed in the organization’s rebranding: It now favours its acronym, MEI, downplaying its localization, in the same vein as BMO and TD Canada Trust.
“Included in that of that rebranding and a part of having that voice within the national debate, I think Mr. Oliver fits perfectly into that narrative,” said the think-tank’s CEO Michel Kelly-Gagnon.
MEI itself eschews titles such as “right-wing” and “libertarian,” saying they doesn’t truly capture the organization’s objectives.
“First and foremost, we do economic analysis – full-stop. Not free market. There’s good economics, there’s bad economics and that i hope we all do good economics,” Kelly-Gagnon said.
However, the business has had stances that aren’t well-liked by some politicians and activists in the home province – recently its analysts argued towards the power East pipeline, against mandating that Bombardier Inc. keep jobs in Quebec and criticized electric car subsidies.
“Is (our) flavour more towards entrepreneurship and freedom of choice? I would clearly agree,” said Kelly-Gagnon.
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Oliver, who’s bilingual and originally from Montreal, will take part in studies, particularly on files associated with public finances and natural resources, portfolios he held during office.
He has been an outspoken supporter from the pipeline projects including the rejected Keystone XL Pipeline, in addition to TransCanada Corp.’s controversial Energy East proposal.
“It’s obviously reverberating right across the nation and thus we want dispassionate or at least objective, comprehensive and in-depth studies on that issue, what this problem method for Quebec, in addition to what it really method for the country economically, socially and politically,” Oliver said.
Montreal Economic Institute was started by Kelly-Gagnon in 1998 from the mezzanine of his condo with a $15,000 budget. This past year MEI had a budget of $2.3 million. It currently employs a full-time staff of 12.
Kelly-Gagnon compared expressing capitalist views in Quebec in the ’90s like a little like being gay within the 1960s.
“You remained within the closet since it was too delicate to be released,” he explained.
Today, he says both attitudes and the economy in Quebec have changed.
“It’s getting difficult to increase Quebec’s debt infinitely and it’s hard to constantly increase taxes. Some of it is also that fewer people are afraid to state they think in those terms,” he explained. “I love to think a part of that transitional phase is due to the job we’ve done.”
Critics say the business supports a corporate agenda because it is funded by industries with interests which may be not the same as those of the population.
“Do they have a place in the conversation? Sure. But their statements should be taken with a grain of salt,” said Ethan Cox, a political organizer and writer from Montreal.
“MEI is part of the same problem they’ve with money in the U.S. political process: corporate interests who are able to outspend critics have too much influence within our political process.”
Kelly-Gagnon says 65 to 70 percent of MEI’s funding originates from foundations, with individuals contributing 15 to 20 per cent and also the remainder originating from corporations. The think-tank doesn’t accept funding from the public sector.
“Some people believe the vast majority of our funding originates from corporate (donors) but I would say unfortunately, that’s not the case,” he explained.
Although he would not disclose the person names of any donors, tax statements reveal that MEI has received funding from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, the Donner Canadian Foundation and The Chase Foundation of Virginia.
Kelly-Gagnon says that Oliver is the highest-profile fellow to become listed on they and he has plans to continue expanding the business by 30-40 percent within the next five years.
“I always insist that the first objective is not to develop, it’s to remain in keeping with ourselves and also to the style and voice that we’ve built,” he explained.
Financial Post
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