Fixing the Future

Book excerpt: In 1993, most Canadians believed that big government deficits were permanent and that the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) was in such deep trouble that younger Canadians would never collect a retirement pension. They believed too that Canada's politicians were incapable of dealing with either problem. Yet by 1998, both were essentially solved. While the deficit battles have been recounted many times, the story of the reform that rescued the CPP has gone almost entirely untold. In Fixing the Future, Bruce Little explains the CPP overhaul and shows why it stands as one of Canada's most significant public policy success stories, in part because it demanded an almost unparalleled degree of federal-provincial co-operation. Providing an overview of the CPP's entire history from its beginning in 1965, Little pulls together published, and new unpublished, material relating to the CPP reform, and interviews over fifty politicians, government officials, and others who were deeply involved in the reforms for their recollections, insights, and observations. A superbly told history of one of Canada's most important public policy issues, Fixing the Future will be of interest to political scientists, historians, economists, and anyone concerned about their retirement.