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While there has been considerable attention paid to Canada's anti-woman abuse policy framework, much of this attention has neglected its implications for women's resistance to abuse. This paper attempts to address this gap by using the lens of women's resistance to analyse the anti-woman abuse policy in Canada. I begin by exploring the ways in which the policy framework constructs the 'problem' and considering its implications for women's choice in resistance strategy. Using the Canadian General Social Survey on Victimization (1999), I apply independent samples tests to explore women's (non)usage of various strategies, as it varies by class, race, and ability. I conclude with suggestions for policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the party systems of contemporary mature democracies are very resilient, the failure of new parties to become major actors on the political stage is not preordained. Founded only a decade ago, the Reform Party has played a significant role in reshaping Canada's national party system. Using data from a large representative national survey, this paper investigates the beliefs, attitudes and behavior of members of Reform. Most Reformers joined their new party in response to purposive incentives, multivariate analyses indicating that such incentives are significant elements in a larger set of factors encouraging members to work actively for their new party. The ability of purposive incentives, rather than the lures of 'fame and fortune', to attract members and stimulate them to work on the party's behalf gives Reform important organizational advantages in its efforts to solidify and expand its position in the national party system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explain the appeal direct democratic instruments hold for contemporary right-populist parties by drawing on recent experience in Canada. Our thesis is that a particular approach to direct democracy - which we label 'plebiscitarianism' - complements right-populist parties' broader ideological commitment to a scaling back of the welfare state, and of public life more generally. Starting with a theoretical approximation of plebiscitarianism, we trace this complementarity with reference to the democratic ideas and practices of right-populists in Canada, both historically and in the present context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the conditions under which significant changes can occur in the structure and composition of a party system in a contemporary mature democracy. The empirical focus is Canada. Although one of the oldline Canadian parties, the Liberals, won a parliamentary majority in the most recent (1993) national election, two others, the governing Progressive Conservatives (PC) and the social democratic opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), suffered disastrous defeats. Two new parties with regionally concentrated bases of support, Reform and the Bloc Québécois, enjoyed marked success. Analyses of national survey data reveal that although economic issues generated by a serious, protracted recession were the principal proximate forces eroding PC and NDP support, dissatisfaction with all oldline parties was widespread. This disaffection, the virtual devastation of two of these parties, and the continuing strength of the two new parties in their regional bases, suggest that 1993 was a type of 'critical election' that significantly altered Canada's national party system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are parties "high discipline, low cohesion" in Westminster legislatures? This study applies network analysis to voting behavior among members of parliament (MPs), a novel approach that measures not deviation from party-line voting, but rather whether MPs with similar voting patterns are co-partisans. We study the Canadian Parliament from 2006 to 2015, during which time the governing party under Prime Minister Stephen Harper maintained tight central control and discipline, a likely source of elevated cohesion. We find that "low cohesion" generally holds, and parties do not always conform to commonsense expectations about how cohesively they "should" behave in various parliamentary situations, though they show themselves capable of learning over time. Moreover, we find that party cohesion stems less from shared voting behaviors and more from simple partisan identity. Further research should consider to what extent parliamentary behavior is based mainly on party alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two margins of political party life in Canada since Confederation (1867) are analyzed—the extensive margin involving entry and exit (together with party turnover or churning) and the intensive margin determining survival length. The results confirm many hypotheses advanced to explain entry and exit—the importance of social and religious cleavage, election institutions, and economic circumstance. More novel are the findings that public election funding and periods with larger immigration flows have reinforced established parties at the expense of entrants and smaller sized parties. The intensive margin uses a discrete hazard model with discrete finite mixtures to confirm the Duverger-type presence of two distinct long-lived political parties surrounded by a fringe of smaller parties. Both parametric and semi-parametric models concur in finding that public funding and higher immigration flows are as successful in extending the life of established parties as in discouraging entry and exit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article discusses some of the most important factors of oppression related to international and Canadian policy and practices and the issues that ought to be addressed by social work practitioners. To understand the plight of asylum seekers in Canada, social workers have to have a general understanding of the international context as it relates to asylum seekers, and the policies and practices that have been put in place. It also means understanding policies and practices in Canada that have a direct impact on the lives of asylum seekers both as a marginalized group and as individuals seeking help. Asylum seekers find themselves part of an international scene which comprises large migration movements and efforts by nation-states to stop the flow of unwanted migrants. The article informs that until the early 1990s Canada perceived itself as a country of resettlement and not as a country of first asylum. Canada considered refugees selected overseas or privately sponsored to be the most important group of refugees to resettle. Faced with large migration movements and increasing asylum claims, Canada has now recognizes that asylum seekers are an important subset of refugees entering the country.

Theories of contemporary social democracy suggest parties of the left may have to alter their views on the welfare state and shift their emphases in policy priorities to remain electorally competitive. In this article, we examine the structure of opinion within the New Democratic Party with regard to conventional welfare state policies, ideas on equity and post-materialist issues. We find no evidence of a muted egalitarianism or increasingly selective support for the redistributive agenda of the welfare state, and little evidence of internal party divisions rooted in a middle-class defection from the traditional programs of the welfare state. Nor is there a materialist-post-materialist division within the party. Our data show that post-materialist inclinations increase with support for a class redistributionist, materialist policy agenda. Our findings cast doubt on the 'new politics' thesis that post-materialist agendas will crowd out materialist policy issues and add to skepticism concerning an imminent post-materialist redefinition of social democratic strategic and policy choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]