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The article offers the author's perspective, as a Canadian, on disaster capitalism. The author says that foreign aid is one of the instruments of the nation's foreign policy, but voters seldom contemplate capitalism's priorities when they decide how to vote. He adds that Canadians are entitled to derive benefits from such aid. He also argues against the idea of reshaping such policy to prioritize capitalism's interests abroad.

During the first half of the twentieth century, northern Quebec was under federal jurisdiction. Tired of English Canadian supremacy and increasingly aware of northern Quebec’s considerable natural resources, which could provide a solid basis for future moves toward independence, the Quebec government began to take over responsibility for its northern territories in the 1960s. It established a regional administration to take charge of its northern affairs and sent officers to northern Quebec’s remote communities. For two decades, both governments administered the region and imposed two political systems on the local Inuit. This article is based on lengthy fieldwork and archival research. The historical background is described to show how Nunavik has developed as a political and social entity through its relationships with the Quebec and Canadian governments. This conflictual situation has created tensions in the Inuit community, resulting in political dissensions over the goal of self-government. Finally, this article details how the Inuit have exploited federal–provincial tensions to further their own interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In light of recent interest in the theoretical foundations of policy paradigms, this paper aims to specify the qualities that differentiate paradigmatic from non-paradigmatic policy ideas. While the incommensurability thesis that underlies the concept of paradigms has been the target of much criticism, there is something intuitively appealing about the incommensurability of policy alternatives that is not yet fully understood. Hesitant to abandon completely the notion of incommensurability, this paper emphasizes the relative nature of ideational commensurability and provides an account of how the exclusivity of a paradigm may wither in relation to competing perspectives. The empirical section demonstrates this pattern of paradigmatic policy-making by examining solutions advanced to alleviate problems in Canadian trade-industrial policy between 1975 and 1995. Contrary to the popular perception that paradigmatic ideas yield policy stability, the findings suggest that even in areas where clearly articulated paradigms initially exist, strictly paradigmatic thinking is often fleeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regionalization tendencies have often been regarded, in academic and political debates, as a serious challenge for Canadian federalism and the national unity of Canada. This article argues that regionalism—and increased regionalization processes in the context of neoliberal globalization tendencies—is not a contradictory force that threatens federalism and national unity, but that it is and has historically been a decisive feature of Canadian civic nationalism from the beginning of the nation-building project. As a consequence, and for better or worse, processes of devolution under the current politico-economic regime will stabilize Canadian national unity rather than undermine it: regionalization can strengthen civic nationalism in Canada by adding a cultural dimension as a vehicle that negotiates between individual citizens, identity groups, and state institutions. Regionalisms—such as Québécois nationalism—are malleable structures of belonging and provide institutional frameworks (e.g., informal constitutions) and forums of dialogue that enrich the political culture of federalism. We conclude that increased regionalization can help to strengthen Canadian (and other forms of) civic nationalism by preventing them from slipping into monistic unitarism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The provocative debate over the Canadian seal hunt features emotional imagery, selective use of facts, a media relations battle, and political lobbying. This paper explores different forms of propaganda employed in the sealing controversy by animal rights groups and by the governments of Canada and of Newfoundland. It argues that Newfoundland nationalism is a central variable. This perspective can help gauge the effects of propaganda and explain the government's defense of a controversial policy. It concludes that propaganda, nationalism, and political marketing are independent categories that bear strong similarities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Educational publishing sits at the intersection of industry, culture and education. Pedagogical aims must be balanced with the need for publishers to make a profit, while also acknowledging Canadian national identity and culture. The events of central interest are related to the tensions between two publishers’ associations in the wake of the sales, in 1970, of Canadian publishers Gage and Ryerson Press to American interests. The Canadian Book Publishers’ Council was comprised mainly of American branch plants and the Independent Publishers Association membership was Canadian-owned publishing companies. The two associations became bitter rivals, engaging in ‘fratricidal warfare’, as they lobbied the provincial and federal governments and fought to maintain their places in the textbook market. About 65% of total sales revenues from publishing in Canada came from textbook sales in this period. Both governments and commercial interests had to balance Canadian sovereignty with commercial gain and educational goals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study assesses the impact of majority and minority governments on legislative activity in the Canadian House of Commons. The quantitative analysis spans the 22nd to the 40th Parliaments (1953–2009) and examines legislative productivity and success by government type. The analysis of descriptive data confirms that minority governments are somewhat less productive and successful than their majority counterparts. However, the analysis emphasizes significant variation for majority governments. Neither governing context guarantees success or failure as contextual factors largely condition legislative activity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Citizenship and Immigration Canada's new citizenship guide, Discover Canada, received significant coverage in the national media and among popular bloggers when it was released in late 2009. Among the more controversial responses were allegations that the guide served a partisan political purpose. It was 'an incremental step in the rebranding of Canada into a conservative country, full of people more inclined to vote Conservative.' This paper investigates the veracity of this claim by documenting the historical evolution of Canada's citizenship guides. It finds that while Discover Canada departs notably from its immediate, Liberal-sponsored, predecessors, it is not so different from the initial documentation produced under the Liberal governments of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. To suggest that the new guide has fundamentally altered the national image is therefore a profound exaggeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments, upon assuming office, most often seek to refocus foreign policy according to the preferences of the new prime minister and the primary means of accomplishing this has been to release a white paper outlining the priorities of the new government. This article will demonstrate that discussions of trade issues reinforce existing studies questioning the innovation and impact of white papers. The purpose of this analysis, however, is not to dwell on the utility of white papers and foreign policy reviews but instead search for a deeper understanding of why trade policy is discussed in an unoriginal and superficial manner. The focus of the article is on the period from 1968 to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most influential tools that the state wields in developing citizenship is public education. The 19 royal commissions and major reports on education completed in provinces across Canada between 1947 and 1994 offer valuable insight into what the Canadian state conceives as ideal citizenship. The following work attempts to answer two research questions: (1) When do provincial governments desire to change the direction of education (and construction of citizens)?; and (2) How do provincial governments define the ideal citizen once reform is initiated? This essay finds that through three eras of reform, the pedagogical focus on citizenship moved from the individual to the community to a diluted form with no unifying vision. The sum of these attempts at change and conceptions of ideal citizenry leads one further from an accepted meaning of the continually elusive notion of Canadian citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication of Small Worlds in 1980 constituted a landmark in the study of Canadian politics. This contribution re-assesses the central findings of regional similarity and convergence in opinion preferences on public policy as observed in the original chapter by Richard Simeon and Donald Blake. Using public opinion data from the past 30 years, three central findings emerge: the presence of non-trivial levels of regional variation in public policy preferences; policy preference heterogeneity tends to be comparable to or greater than differences based on other socio-demographic features of Canadian society, and; regional preference heterogeneity since 1980 has increased and remains prominent even when separating out the effects of the Quebec issue. As a result, the contribution concludes that region is an important source of heterogeneity in Canadians' public policy preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will examine Canadian politicians' and administrators' leadership in the realm of education-related international activities. In the era between the 1960s and the 1980s, it became increasingly difficult for educational leaders to walk the line dividing federal and provincial responsibility in this field. Educational authorities at the federal and provincial levels were collectively ill-prepared to address the question of 'diplomacy' in a field of provincial responsibility. Instead, there were a whole series of mis-steps on one or other sides of the line. Moreover, the executive level interaction that characterized this period was marked by developing federal authority, a federal government increasingly focused on power, and one which wanted greater control over the issue. Additionally, as is the case when having difficulty with 'walking the line' and passing a sobriety test, this was a federalism characterized by misunderstandings, provisional accords, and last minute compromises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]