Halifax – For the fourth time since its inception, the work of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies has been recognised by the international think tank community, through the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for excellence in public policy work.

On Thursday 24 April, AIMS was presented with the Award at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation’s Third Annual Liberty Forum, in New Orleans. Over 125 institutes in more than 40 countries were eligible to be nominated for the Fisher Award this year. Nominations were received from institutes in 17 different countries, including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, France, India, Israel, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, the UK, the USA, and Yugoslavia. Three Fisher Awards were made. In addition to AIMS, the CATO Institute in Washington and Libertad y Desarrollo (Chile) were also honoured.

AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley seized this opportunity to celebrate the ongoing success of Atlantic Canadians on the international stage. “This award is just one more proof of how Atlantic Canadians, when they put their minds and hearts to the task, can be world leaders in any field.”

AIMS was presented the award for its innovative project on Canadian health care reform. Definitely NOT the Romanow Report: Achieving Equity, Sustainability, Accountability and Consumer Empowerment in Canadian Health Care draws the research in AIMS’ Health Policy Background Papers together into a comprehensive proposal for fundamental reform of the Canadian health care system. The report was released in November of 2002.

With this award, AIMS is recognized for its innovative project design, communications strategy, policy impact and inter-institute collaboration. AIMS’ strategic matching of its own internal research program with movements in the larger policy world produced an outstanding model for the international think tank community.

The report was written by: Dr. Brian Lee Crowley, PhD, the founding President of AIMS, Brian S. Ferguson, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at University of Guelph, Dr. David Zitner, MD, a family doctor and Director of Medical Informatics at Dalhousie Medical School and Brett J. Skinner, a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario.

In his acceptance speech, Dr Crowley thanked the many people responsible for the report’s completion. “I must acknowledge the strong support that we received from the Max Bell Foundation, its President, David Elton, and Programme Officer Allan Northcott and of course my deepest thanks go to all the authors of the background papers: David Gratzer, Carl Irvine, Betty Newson and Julia Witt. I also wish to extend my gratitude to the Lotte and John Hecht Foundation for their support of the paper by Gratzer and Irvine. ”

The Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding work by independent public policy research institutes. The Award commemorates the life and work of Sir Antony Fisher, one of the founders of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, one of the first economic and social policy think tanks in the world. Sir Antony later founded the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which helps new think tanks to become established around the world.

For his defence of freedom and dedication to liberty, Antony Fisher was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988. Only weeks after this great honour was bestowed upon him, Sir Antony passed away. In 1990, through the generosity of his relatives and many friends, The Atlas Economic Research Foundation established the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Awards to commemorate their founder’s ideals and achievements.

This years judges for the Sir Antony Fisher Award for innovative projects were: Nigel Ashford, Senior Program Officer at the Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University; and Bridgett Wagner, Director Coalition Relations at the Heritage Foundation, Washington DC.

For further information, please contact:

Jordi Morgan
Director of Communications and Development
Atlantic Institute for Market Studies
AIMS (902) 429-1143
Direct (902) 446-3532
Fax (902) 425-1393
[email protected]