The Northern Plains and Prairies: From Frontier to Borderland

Randy William Widdis | BIG Research Reports | #24

Accounts of historical evolution deepen “understanding of current issues by placing current problems in their broader temporal context” and provide “a basis for comparison with past situations which may enlarge the range of policy options to be considered” (Rennie, 1998: 289-290). Because borders are imagined, contested, constructed, and reconstructed through time, the historical approach is absolutely essential to border related policy-making. As well, historical insights facilitate crossborder conversations that are knowledgeable of and sensitive towards the positions advanced on both sides on a number of matters including security, trade, governance, labour mobility and environmental concerns.

Randy William Widdis