Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Program News

• Canadian Studies welcomes new student intern, Lillian Liu

News from Canada

• Canada welcomes Mark Carney as new PM, but for how long?

Upcoming Event

• Special Colloquium on Indigenous AI, Language Reclamation & Data Sovereignty

Other Events

• RUBBERBAND: Vic’s Mix

• Canadian Heritage Hockey Night: Leafs vs. Sharks

• Canadian Movie Night: Une langue universelle

PROGRAM NEWS

Canadian Studies Welcomes New Student Intern, Lillian Liu

The Canadian Studies Program is excited to announce that Lillian Liu is joining our team as a social media and marketing intern.

Lillian is a third-year undergraduate at UC Berkeley, studying Environmental Economics and Policy with a dual degree in Comparative Literature. She is originally from Toronto, and went to school in the Greater Toronto Area. At Berkeley, Lillian has been a member of the Undergraduate Marketing Association and served as a Mental Health Executive for a senator in the ASUC, Berkeley’s student government. She was also a research apprentice for the Canadian Studies Program last semester.

Lillian previously interned at the US Consulate in Toronto in the Foreign Commercial Service under the US Department of Commerce, as well as for a biotech startup in the UK. She is currently considering pursuing grad school or law school. Lillian is looking forward to helping promote Canadian Studies at Berkeley, so please join us in giving her a warm welcome!

NEWS FROM CANADA

Canada Welcomes Mark Carney as New PM, But for How Long?

Mark Carney was officially sworn in as the 24th prime minister of Canada on Friday, in a ceremony presided over by Governor General Mary Simon. The new prime minister assumes office at a time of great uncertainty for the country, which faces a fundamentally changed political landscape due to increased tensions with the United States. He also faces an imminent election, which may decide his political future as early as next month.

Carney, a former central banker who has never held any elected office, won a landslide victory in the Liberal Party leadership elections earlier this month, convened to choose a successor to outgoing PM and party leader Justin Trudeau. Carney garnered nearly 86% of the vote, easily defeating second-place candidate Chrystia Freeland.

Carney’s sudden rise to power may surprise many outside of political circles. Born in the Northwest Territories, he is the first prime minister from any of Canada’s territories. He completed his undergraduate education at Harvard, and holds an MPhil and PhD in economics from Oxford.

Carney has extensive experience in banking and finance. He served as 8th governor of the Bank of Canada and 120th governor of the Bank of England, in addition to 13 years in the private sector at Goldman Sachs. Carney’s term at the Bank of Canada coincided with the 2008 global financial crisis, and his leadership was praised for helping Canada avoid the worst of that recession.

Carney’s rise may have been helped by his status as a relative outsider in Ottawa, without strong ties to the unpopular prime minister Trudeau. However, it is not unprecedented in Canadian history. While most of Canada’s prime ministers held seats in the House of Commons at the time of their election, this is only by custom, not law. While rare in the modern era, five previous prime ministers have held the position without being MP’s (two being senators, and three holding no elected seat.) All of them, however, led short-lived governments lasting less than two years. The most recent example was fellow Liberal Party member John Turner, whose replaced Pierre-Elliot Trudeau in 1984; his government lasted only 79 days.

It remains to be seen whether Carney will be able to break this pattern. While he is required to call an election by October of this year, current trends suggest it may be in his favor to call one as early as possible. At the beginning of this year, the Liberals seemed destined for electoral annihilation, bottoming out at 16% of voters in one Angus Reid poll. But today, the party has experienced a dramatic reversal of fortune, and recent polls suggest Carney now enjoys the possibility of a Liberal majority government.

Two key factors were critical in reviving the party’s chances. The first is Justin Trudeau’s retreat from the political scene. The former PM’s personal unpopularity (reaching as low as 22% approval in recent polls) was a millstone around the neck of his party, and an easy target for his Conservative opponents, who blamed most of Canada’s current problems on Trudeau’s mismanagement. Carney himself has been unafraid to distance himself from Trudeau. His first action as PM was to eliminate Trudeau’s unpopular consumer carbon tax, one of the Conservatives’ key electoral targets.

The second factor is the dramatic increase in tensions with the United States under the Trump administration, which has overtaken all other issues in Canadian politics. Due to Trump’s tariffs and his rhetoric about making Canada the 51st state, relations between the two countries have reached an unprecedented low and Canadian patriotism is in a marked upswing. Trump’s apparent hostility to Canada has been especially damaging to the Conservative Party, key leaders of which have previously expressed admiration for the president and his incoming administration.

The new prime minister has himself taken a firm line against Trump’s actions. He has emphatically denied that Canada will ever be part of the United States. Carney’s experience in banking is perceived as an asset in a potential trade war. He has emphasized the importance of diversifying Canada’s economy, which is heavily dependent on US exports. Carney’s first official foreign trip was to Europe, where he met with his British counterpart Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron. The visit made a statement that Canada is seeking alternative trade and security commitments from European allies, now that it is unable to rely on the United States.

UPCOMING EVENT

Special Colloquium on Indigenous AI, Language Reclamation & Data Sovereignty

Friday, April 11 | 4:00 pm | UC Berkeley | RSVP

Canadian Studies is excited to announce an upcoming special colloquium featuring two leading AI researchers who are combining cutting-edge technology with Indigenous knowledge frameworks. Michael and Caroline Running Wolf are co-founders of First Languages AI Reality (FLAIR), housed at Mila – Canada’s foremost AI research institute. FLAIR partners with Indigenous communities across the Americas to drive the next chapter in Indigenous language reclamation. The Running Wolfs will discuss their work to revitalize endangered Indigenous languages through artificial intelligence and immersive technology. In addition, the project envisions a future where Indigenous people attain technological sovereignty while addressing data ownership issues and systemic barriers to Indigenous AI. Their work has received multiple awards, including the 2024-25 The Tech for Global Good award and the Patrick J. McGovern AI for Humanity Prize.

About the Speakers

Michael Running Wolf (Northern Cheyenne and Lakota) was raised in a rural prairie village in Montana with intermittent water and electricity. Naturally he has a Master of Science in computer science, was an engineer at Amazon’s Alexa, and former faculty at Northeastern University. Michael is an AI ethicist who envisions an Indigenous future where Indigenous communities, alongside reclaiming their languages, attain technological sovereignty while addressing data ownership and systemic barriers to Indigenous AI. He co-founded and is Board President of IndigiGenius, a nonprofit in the USA dedicated to increasing the representation of Indigenous people in computer science. Among other awards, Michael has received an MIT Solve Fellowship, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Centri Tech Social Justice Innovation Award. He is currently pursuing his PhD at McGill University.

Caroline Running Wolf, née Old Coyote (Crow) is a language activist and XR producer dedicated to supporting Indigenous languages and data sovereignty. Caroline serves on multiple advisory boards where she champions the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges. As co-author of the Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Position Paper and in speaking engagements, Caroline is an advocate for Indigenous data sovereignty, data justice, and AI ethics. She co-founded and serves as treasurer of IndigiGenius. Her PhD research at the University of British Columbia partners with Kwakwaka’wakw communities and explores applications of immersive technologies (AR/VR/XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance Indigenous language and culture reclamation.

OTHER EVENTS

RUBBERBAND: Vic’s Mix

Sunday, March 23 | 2:00 pm | San Francisco, CA | Buy tickets

The pioneering Montreal-based dance company RUBBERBAND makes its San Francisco debut with a special afternoon performance. Founded in 2002 by Victor Quijada, RUBBERBAND is recognized for its innovative methods and its role in the development of a new dance style inspired by break dancing, hip-hop, classical ballet, and dance theater. They will present “Vic’s Mix” spanning the immense creative territory from the company’s repertoire.

With both humorous and serious moments, Vic’s Mix is a kind of “best of” spanning the immense creative territory explored by Quijada, extracting jewels from the choreographer’s repertoire. In a remix of his own work, orchestrating the clash between urban pop and classical composition, Quijada goes further in his experiments defying notions of theatricality and audience expectations, while making sure that each body gravitating onstage in the highly athletic segments exemplifies the RUBBERBAND Method.

Canadian Heritage Hockey Night: Leafs vs. Sharks

Thurs., March 27 | 5:00 pm | San José, CA | Buy tickets

The Digital Moose Lounge invites you to the ultimate hockey night as the Leafs face the Sharks in a spirited rematch! Enjoy a VIP experience in the Terrace Suites featuring catering by Augie’s Montreal smoked meats and poutine, as well special fan experiences and post-game pictures with the Sharks’ Canadian players.

This event is co-sponsored by the Canadian Consulate and is sure to sell out, so buy your tickets early!

Canadian Movie Night: Une langue universelle

Thurs., March 27 | 6:00 pm | San Francisco, CA | RSVP

As part of the Francophonie month, the Alliance Française de San Francisco welcomes you for a very special screening: the Canadian movie Universal Language by Matthew Rankin! In this surreal comedy set in an alternate Persian-speaking version of Winnipeg, the lives of multiple characters interweave with each other in surprising and mysterious ways. Grade-schoolers Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in ice and try to claim it. Meanwhile, Massoud leads a group of increasingly befuddled tourists through the city’s monuments and historic sites. And Matthew returns home to visit his mother after quitting his meaningless job with the government of an independent Québec. The film was Canada’s official entry at the Oscars and was named to TIFF’s Top Ten films for 2024.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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