A general view of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, in Washington, DC, where the Wilson Center is located.
At a moment of historic difficulty in the Canada-US relationship, Donald Trump last week cut the funding of the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute, and he can likely block efforts to save it.
The think tank, which has studied the relationship and hosted events for visiting Canadian politicians since 2001, got a death sentence last week in the same Trump executive order that defunded Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Free Asia.
Former American Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman, who is co-chair of the institute’s advisory board, is hoping it can be saved.
“It has hosted prime ministers and ministers and leaders of every party in Washington, and it is a platform and a format that I think has been an important component of the bilateral relationships,” he said. “If this doesn't get resolved with the White House, I'm going to work with the Canada Institute to explore alternatives.”
Heyman thinks that the institute, which has relied on US government funding, could find funding from Canadian governments or businesses that want to maintain the link, but that may depend on permission from the US government, which seems uninterested in cooperating with Canada.
Finding funding should be possible, says Laura Dawson, former director, but that doesn’t mean it will be able to continue to occupy the primo real estate off Pennsylvania Ave.
“Lots of organizations would be prepared to step up and support the work of the Canada Institute, but its greatest value is it being situated within the Wilson Center and having such great access to US policymakers being right between the White House And the Capitol Building,” she said. “That is a really premium location and privileged access, and that would be very hard to duplicate.”
For now, the Institute’s many fans will have to wait for the White House to decide whether it wants to finish it off or let it continue its work in another form.