1. MANAGING CANADA’S RURAL REGIONS IN A KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY
Charles Conteh
Department of Political Science
Brock University
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
cconteh@brocku.ca
Abstract
The paper analyzes rural economic development policy governance in Canada in the context of
a globally integrated economy and the attendant structural shifts in industrialized economies.
Alongside globalization, there has also been a trend towards institutional decentralization in
Canada and other industrialized countries as various sub-national regions employ disparate
means for adapting to the threats and opportunities of global economic change. The
implications of these transitions suggest the need for certain institutional capacities for
horizontal collaboration in rural economic development between policy stakeholders as well as
among agencies across various levels of government. The cases of New Brunswick and
Manitoba over the past two decades illustrate some of the complexities and challenges of rural
economic development policy governance as non-metropolitan regions struggle to carve their
niche in the global economy.