Book excerpt: In The Sterling Public Servant professional colleagues and friends pay homage to a remarkable woman and her enormous span of activities, both academic and governmental. Ostry's interests and scholarly writings range from labour economics to development and growth, to consumer protection, external trade and payments, and eventually to the question of whether, in today's world dominated by transnational economic giants grouped into three big political economic blocs, there can be harmonious equilibrium and coherent policies designed to maintain growth, balance the labour market, and not upset the natural environment beyond repair. In order to mark Sylvia Ostry's seventy-fifth birthday, a group of some twenty of her friends and professional colleagues were invited to provide papers closely related to her work. Among the contributors are other national representatives at the G-7 Economic Summit who overlapped with her term of service, academics with whom she collaborated or broke friendly lances during her scholarly career, and fellow senior civil servants who were colleagues and counterparts during her years of service. The Sterling Public Servant marks a milestone in her career and reflects the relevance and importance of her contributions. It includes congratulatory letters from all living prime ministers. Sylvia Ostry reached the rank of deputy minister of the Canadian Public Service at the young age of forty-five and served with distinction in three different Federal departments as well as directing the Economic Council of Canada. She also spent four years as chief economist at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and was appointed the prime minister's personal representative for Economic Summit froms 1985 to 1988. After leaving the Public Service of Canada she became successively chairman of the National Council of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, chancellor of the University of Waterloo, and chairman of the Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto where she is currently a distinguished research fellow.