A broad overview of Canadian high-tech activities that suggests insights concerning the direction and scope of such industries as well as public policy. Includes a study of Canada's competitiveness in the manufacturing sector, and the use and production of new technology; an examination of the characteristics of the information technology sector and the likely patterns of development and economic prospects, the role of multi-national corporations, and their corporate decision-making; government policies that may stimulate Canadian high technology and enhance competitiveness; a brief history of GATT tariff negotiations, subsidies and possible agreements to limit their use; the use of government procurement policies to assist domestic high-tech firms; regulation in the context of high-tech policies; the protection of intellectual property and education and research as the basis of a new high-tech strategy, particularly the Canadian record.

Studies in political economy are now at a crossroads. The revival of political economy as an important area of research in Canada began in the early 1970s with the publication of Kari Levitt's Silent Surrender. In 1976 it was launched in earnest by the first session on Canadian political economy at the meetings of the Canadian Learned Societies in Quebec City. While many academics now classify themselves as political economists, not until The New Canadian Political Economy has there been any attempt to systematically survey, review, and assess the scores of books and articles which can now be considered as belonging in this field.

The international competitive position of Western Canada and each of the four western provinces within a Canadian context are the focus of this study. Through trade profiles of major commodity exports and their spatial markets, a situational assessment of the region and its continued heavy dependence on natural resources is offered.

This paper argues that growth in modern economies is inherently unbalanced because labour productivity grows at different rates in the different occupation sectors. It examines the relative shift within industries towards knowledge-based occupations. It also demonstrates that higher education does not imply higher individual earnings for those employed in the goods and personal services sector, but post-secondary education is strongly rewarded within the information economy. Finally, it discusses the educational policy, research and development and international trade issues raised by the pattern of unbalanced growth characteristic of the information economy.

The seminar for which the papers in this publication were prepared was the first in a series of workshops intended to link senior public policy researchers from around the Pacific Rim in order to open up channels of communication through which researchers from Asia Pacific nations can exchange views on problems and reforms in the area of governance and public sector management. Paper titles include: The Changing Shape of Government in the Asia-Pacific Region; Korean Politics in a Period of Transition; The Unfinished Political Reforms of the Hong Kong Government; Demi-democracy: Thai Politics and Government in Transition; Government and Governance in Multi-Racial Malaysia; Controlled Democracy, Political Stability and PAP Predominance: Government in Singapore; Entrenched "Strong Man" Rule: The Governmental System in Bangladesh; Australian National Government, 1987; Toward More Effective Government in the US; and, Some Issues of Governance in Canada.

The service sector is steadily growing as services that previously were undertaken within the family unit, now show up in social accounts as health care, education and public sector services. Technological changes make possible a process of intermediation in service activities, a separation in space or time of the recipient of services from the original producer, and the increase of v̀alue-added' services. This conference met to discuss implications of the growing service sector, with the larger goal of identifying frameworks for policies to support an efficient and expanding system for production and exchange of services domestically and internationally.