ABSTRACT
On a bitterly cold day in Toronto in March of 1999 a group of academics met at York University to discuss the launch of the euro. This disparate group was a small band of scholars who collectively are known as the European Community Studies Association-Canada (ECSA-C). Amy Verdun, of the University of Victoria, and I had planned this colloquium on the euro as both of us realised that there was little being done in Canadian academia to increase awareness of the important events that were taking place in the European Union (EU). Several of the papers in this volume had their first airing at this seminar, and the discussion and debate was lively and entertaining. Contributors Malte Krueger, Alison Meek, Mitchell Smith (who was at Middlebury, as was I at this time), Amy Verdun, David Long, Eric Helleiner, Tim Le Goff and Xavier de Vanssay all attended the colloquium, along with John Murray from the Bank of Canada, Edelgard Mahant and Chris Paraskevopoulos from York University and our erstwhile President, Steve Wolinetz (Memorial University, Newfoundland), plus a dedicated band of graduate students from University of Toronto, McGill University and York University. I realised at that seminar that what was taking place was quite unique in the academic world-a group of academics from disparate disciplines and backgrounds were coming together to present and discuss their viewpoints on an issue that was taking place on another continent. While it is not unusual for North American economists to discuss international issues, or for political scientists to debate the nature of European integration, it is unusual for a multi-disciplinary panel of North American academics to come together to debate a single European project happening thousands of miles away.
