Coming of Age in the Asian Century: The Need for a National Conversation

Author(s): Sarah Eaton

Published: 27 Avril 2011  

Op-Ed

Coming of Age in the Asian Century: The Need for a National Conversation

By Sarah Eaton, Post‐Graduate Research Fellow, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

Political pundits tell us this federal election will be fought not over big ideas but along a narrow set of economic wedge issues. Judging by the debate so far the election will indeed be dominated by a small number of domestic policy concerns: job creation, tax cuts and deficit management.

As important as these matters are to Canadians, our leaders’ characterization of the critical issues of the day leaves much to be desired. Noticeably absent from the discussion is a sense of how Canada’s economic fortunes are bound up with the world beyond our borders. A world that is quite literally shifting under our feet.

Danny Quah at the London School of Economics cleverly depicts how Asia’s meteoric rise is steadily pulling the globe’s economic center of gravity eastward. His calculations of the average location of economic activity place the global economy’s center of gravity circa 1980 in the chilly depths of the mid‐Atlantic. Currently, that economic center hovers somewhere above Eastern Europe and, by 2050, he expects it to have travelled more than 9,000 kilometers and come to rest between India and China.

How well‐prepared are young Canadians—the demographic for whom these changes are most significant—for a more Asia‐centred world? A new national opinion poll on Canadians’ views of Asia conducted by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada suggests that while young Canadians appreciate the importance of this gravity shift, along with older Canadians, many of us are struggling to wrap our minds around the fast‐changing world.

The poll suggests that, of all Canadians, young people are most attuned to the rise of Asia. Unsurprisingly, Canadians under 40 have much denser personal and professional ties to Asia than their older counterparts. And whereas just 3% of Canadians aged 55 or older report having academic or study interests in Asia, this number rises significantly to 12% in the under 30 cohort.

And yet, young people’s image of Canada’s place in the world suggests that, for most of us, Asia remains “over there,” a place of interest, perhaps, but far‐removed from the concerns of our daily lives. In fact, the longitudinal data suggest that Asia is growing increasingly distant in our mental maps. Among the most striking findings of the poll is that fewer than 1 in 5 Canadians under the age of 30 see Canada as part of the Asia Pacific region, a dramatic contrast with the more than half of Canadians aged 55 and older who do. Even more striking is that the percentage of young Canadians who see Canada as an Asia Pacific country has fallen significantly from 24% to 18% over the past year.

What accounts for this trend? On the face of it, young people’s growing doubts about Canada’s status in the Asia Pacific region is puzzling given the reality of our ever‐deepening ties with the region. Yet the trend is consistent with the poll’s overall findings which reveal a growing sense of unease among Canadians about the rise of Asia—China in particular—and Canada’s relations with the region. Tellingly, while 66% of Canadians believe the influence of China will surpass that of the US in ten years, the number of Canadians who view the economic rise of China as more of an opportunity than a threat has dropped from 60% in 2008 to 43% in 2011.

Canadians’ fears about the dizzying pace of global change are legitimate, understandable and worthy of open and honest discussion. The poll results have galvanized the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada to initiate a National Conversation on Asia (NCA), a three‐year civil society project which aims to position Asia front‐and‐center in Canadian public discourse and collectively generate ideas about how to

ensure that Canadians stand to benefit from Asia’s rise. Engaging youth is a cornerstone of the NCA and provides a forum for young Canadians to explore what it means to come of age in the Asian century.

While our fears are understandable, the costs of turning inward are simply too great to ignore.

Sarah Eaton is a Post‐Graduate Research Fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Toronto. This article was first published in Embassy Magazine on April 27, 2011.