IWFC: HOT TAKE: Canada/US Trade Relations WH#!%$T The….?

As Executive Director of Future Borders Coalition, Laura Dawson works with government and industry leaders in to facilitate Canada-U.S. cooperation on supply chains, travel and digital technology. In recognition of this work, she was named one of Canada's Top 50 Foreign Policy Influencers of 2024 by the Hill Times. She has been an advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Team Canada Initiative in the United States and is a technical advisor to the Canada U.S-Trade Council.

Prior to her work at FBC, Dr. Dawson led the North America office of the Amazon Web Services Institute, facilitating public sector digital transformation in the cloud. Other posts include director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., the only Congressionally-mandated international affairs think tank in the United States. She founded Dawson Strategic, an economic policy consultancy based in Toronto, Ontario, and was senior economic advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Canada during the Obama administration.

Dawson serves on the teaching faculty at the Master of Public Policy program at McGill University and is a board member of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. She is a member of the Government of Canada's Public Sector Productivity Working Group and was jury co-chair for the Government of Canada's New Frontiers in Research Fund (2021-2023).

Dr. Dawson holds a PhD in Political Science. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia and is married to U.S. Ambassador (ret) Charles Shapiro.

Deanna Horton is a Distinguished Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto​; other affiliations include the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, Asia-Pacific Foundation, Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Commentary on issues related to Canada-Asia-USA relations, including trade policy, trade negotiations, investment access, digital economy; organizing and moderating conferences, webinars on Asia, Canada-US. Recent publications include Less Together and More Apart? Canada, the US and the World under Trump 2.0​ and a podcast episode of The FOMO Nation, titled Canusa Street Intersecting the Canada-US Relationship​.

Contributed chapter on the digital economy in Asia in "The Indo-Pacific: New Strategies for Canadian Engagement with a Critical Region". Currently co-chair of the Committee in support of the East Asia collections at the Royal Ontario Museum; previously served on the Board of Trustees. Also Board member, Stratford-Perth Museum. Member of the Friends of the Festival and Playwrights Circle at the Stratford Festival.

Foreign service career: Washington, DC as Minister (Congressional, Public and Intergovernmental Affairs); Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; also Hamburg, Tokyo, and Washington D.C. Served as negotiator on technical barriers to trade for the North American Free Trade Agreement (1991-93)

Education: McGill (Honours BA Political Science); Carleton (MA International Affairs); Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna Center (Diploma International Studies); US State Dept Foreign Service Institute Yokohama, Japan.