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The initiative is purely political, part of Justin Trudeau’s plan to showcase Canada internationally as a welcoming place, quite different from what he sees as the closed worlds of Theresa May’s United Kingdom and Donald Trump’s America. Unfortunately, Trudeau is playing politics in a manner that is also a slap in the face to young women and men right here. He does not believe they have the talent needed to make Canada’s universities world-class.

Trudeau is telling our young graduates that they are not good enough to be considered among the brightest in the world. As the minister of youth and prime minister, did he not make youth one of the themes for Canada 150 commemorations? Yet, he is now telling Canada’s young scholars they must stand aside so foreign-trained researchers can teach in their universities. It is not as if these bright women and men from our graduate programs have many other opportunities. Advertisements for university positions regularly draw dozens of applications and hundreds of our scholars are either underemployed or unemployed. Many have left the academic world.

Excluding young Canadian scholars at a time when they need opportunities is only one of the problems with the Canada 150 program.

There is no evidence to suggest the brightest minds at Harvard, Oxford, MIT and other leading international schools are eager to vacate their posts for Saskatoon, Sherbrooke or St. John’s. Even if potentially bright minds are withering away in the U.K. or U.S., eager to seek refuge in Canada, why not have them compete with the brightest minds in Canada? Because of the Trudeau government’s exclusion of Canadians it is possible universities may be forced to select professors from second- or third-rate international institutions. By imposing exclusionary policies for the Canada 150 research chairs, Duncan might actually be weakening the quality of our universities. And, ironically, some of those Canadians who are being excluded now may be recruited to work in the U.S.A. and be lost to Canada forever.