My academic background is in political science. I have a B.A. from Queen’s University, where one of my professors was the renowned federalism expert Ron Watts, who sparked my first interest in the subject. I went on to do an M. Litt. at Nuffield College, Oxford. As a young civil servant I had a year at the Ecole nationale d’administration in Paris and then as a senior official I had a sabbatical year as a fellow at the Center for International Affairs (now the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs) at Harvard University. In 2013-14 I was a resident fellow in the law faculty of New York University, where Sujit Choudhry and I started the large comparative project leading to our book Territory and Power in Constitutional Transitions. I am a non-resident fellow of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity at Queen’s University.
My main career was in the public service of Canada’s federal government. In the early years I served in the Privy Council Office (Cabinet Office), the department of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Treasury Board Secretariat, and the department of External Affairs. I went on to Assistant Deputy Minister positions in the department of Energy, Mines and Resources, the Department of Finance, the Privy Council Office, and the Department of Foreign Affairs. In 1995, I was named Deputy Minister (Intergovernmental Affairs) in the Privy Council Office and in 2002 I became Deputy Minister, Natural Resources. My career in government included a strong focus on issues of federalism (including the challenge of separatism) and of economic policy, notably relating to natural resources.
I left government in 2005 and became President and CEO of the Forum of Federations. This is an international NGO which is supported by 10 member countries: www.forumfed.org. While there I was engaged in activities in over twenty countries and oversaw the Forum’s production of five to eight volumes a year, as well as working papers and a magazine. The Forum had grown out of a major international conference on federalism that the Government of Canada sponsored while I was Deputy Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs. The Forum sponsored subsequent global conferences on federalism in India and Ethiopia. From its beginning, the Forum became involved in several countries that had recently transitioned to federalism or were considering such a transition.
My background in such work with the Forum, led to my engagement with the United Nations and various NGOs after I left the the Forum in 2011, I advised the UN Development Program during Somalia’s proposed transition to federalism and then joined the United Nations’ Stand-by Team of Experts in the Mediation Support Unit, to which I was attached in 2012-13 and then again in 2015. Since then I have worked as a consultant with the United Nations, the World Bank, International IDEA, Humanitarian Dialogue, the Kofi Annan Foundation, the Forum of Federations and others relating to conflict managment and transitions in post-conflict societies. The countries where I have worked as a consultant on constitutional transitions or change include Yemen, Somalia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ethiopia, Philippines, Iraq, Sudan and Myanmar. My opportunities to work in so many countries has enriched my thinking, not just about the opportunities and practice of federalism, but also about the challenges of successful transitions to federalism, notably in post-conflict countries. .
While at the Forum, I started writing about federalism and produced two books: Federalism: An Introduction and Fiscal Federalism: A Comparative Introduction, both of which have been widely translated and used as primers in constitutional transitions. I also edited volumes on oil and gas in federal systems and on internal markets and multi-level governance and co-edited a book on water in federal systems. Since leaving the Forum, I have continued to produce a wide range of materials. I bring a strong comparative perspective with a background both as a political scientist and a practitioner.
Almost all of my writings are available on this website.