The Bissell-Heyd Professorship of Canadian-American Studies was established by, and is supported through, the generosity of the Associates of the University of Toronto in the Untied States. The Professorship honours Dr. Claude Bissell, President of the University of Toronto from 1958 to 1971. Following his presidency at Toronto, Dr. Bissell took a position at Harvard University where he served as an informal educational ambassador from Canada to the United States. To honour his significant contribution to North American education, the Professorship in his name brings to the University of Toronto each year a senior American or Canadian scholar with a distinguished record of research and teaching about the United States, Canada, or the relationship between them.

For the 1987-88 academic year, the Bissell-Heyd Professorship is being devoted to a program of research, lectures and conferences on the role of Canada, the United States, and their major partners in the annual Summit of the seven leading industrial democracies and the European Community. The Summit, which is being held in Toronto from June 19-22, 1988, reveals much about the importance of the wider world to Canada, and the United States to the world, and about the need for the two North American powers to co-operate, not only on their own continent, but also within the western and world communities as a whole. Moreover, the occasion of the Toronto Summit provides a unique opportunity to educate Torontonians and Canadians about the world around them, and the world about Toronto and Canada themselves.

Given the singular importance of the Summit, the University of Toronto, through its 1987-88 Bissell-Heyd program, has taken as its mandate the task of educating Canadians and the citizens of their Summit partners about the institutions, issues and members of the Seven-Powers Summit. In this task it is pleased to have co-operation of the York University Centre for International and Strategic Studies, the support of governments from the Summit countries and the advice of leading individuals in the business and media communities. Moreover in January of 1988, the University of Toronto was honoured to join with the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and the City of Toronto to mount a much- expanded program of Summit-related activities. The resulting "Municipal Program on the 1988 Toronto Summit", co-sponsored by the Bissell-Heyd Program and the Municipality and City, represents an innovative venture in University-Municipal government co-operation in public education. We gratefully acknowledge the leadership of Chairman Dennis Flynn, Mayor Art Eggleton, and their respective Councils, in this important initiative.

As part of the 1987-88 Bissell Program on the 1988 Toronto Summit, the Centre for International Studies organized a Research Group to examine in detail the institutions, issues, member countries and agenda of the Summit. As part of its activity, the Research Group prepared a series of country studies to explore the involvement of each member in the Summit over the institutions thirteen year history. This is the first such study. As with the others, it represents an initial effort to describe the historical record and overall pattern of a particular country's involvement in the summit, on the basis of secondary literature, and such readily available primary material as government documents, media reports and elite interviews. Although produced for the internal use of the Centre for International Studies Research Group, these studies are being made available to a broader audience as a stimulus to public education and follow up research.

John J. Kirton
Director,
The Municipal Program on the 1988 Toronto Summit

William C. Graham
Director,
Centre for International Studies

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Source: Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.