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Comments on Albert Breton and Thomas Courchene's papers on the constitutional change in Canada. Important questions to ask about constitutional arrangements and about their design and redesign; View of Breton on the codification of a Charter of Rights in the 1982 Constitution; Inconsistencies in Courchene's theory.

Comments on Tom Courchene's informative analysis of the central role played by the Canadian Economic Union issue in the constitutional debates of 1982. Discussion of balkanization; First order of business for any producer seeking rents via the political process; Dominant feature in the Canadian political system.

This paper assesses the diversity of the judiciary in Canada's most diverse urban centres of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and it measures the gap between the demographic composition of the judiciary and the population that it serves. The paper then considers the factors that contribute to and perpetuate the homogeneity of Canadian courts, and it addresses the arguments that an identity-conscious appointment process could compromise meritocracy, or that it would challenge the presumed objectivity of judicial decision-making. We argue that reliable public data on the composition of the bench and a clear government vision and strategy are crucial for the administration of justice in Canadian courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First Nations in Canada have developed tripartite arrangements with federal and provincial governments in a range of service areas. Some scholars classify the arrangements as "mere" devolution; others debate whether they mark an emerging, more collaborative Crown/ Indigenous relationship. There is also the pressing question of impact. Do tripartite service arrangements promote positive changes for affected First Nations and their members? This paper examines the character of these arrangements, as well as their impact on both services and relationships among the signatories. Analysing regional tripartite arrangements concluded over the past decade in First Nations policing, child welfare, and primary/secondary education, it then draws on evaluations, and scholarly and other "grey" literature to identify common challenges and successes. Throughout, the paper seeks to discern potential lessons from the past decade for negotiating and implementing tripartite service arrangements in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the establishment of Canadian National Sports Centres (NSCs) and examines the benefits of these sports centres to Canadian society. Details are provided about the release of the Canadian National Sports Centres Position Paper by the organizations Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Association (COA), and the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC). According to the article, these NSCs are essential to the proper training and development of Canadian athletes. The political, economic, and discursive factors which contributed to the development of these NSCs are also described.

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Examining multi-level vertical party linkages in Canada’s largest province, this paper makes two primary contributions to the literature. First, drawing on data from a unique survey of constituency associations, the paper focuses on an often unexplored aspect of parties: their local organisations. Second, the paper offers an exploratory analysis of constituency level factors in order to determine which types of constituency associations are the most likely to be integrated. The results of the logistic regression demonstrate the possibility of non-party-based factors such as electoral strength that may contribute to vertical party integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cet article examine l'existence d'un paradoxe de facilitation/contrôle dans le cadre des efforts gouvernementaux de contrôler la migration des époux. La littérature sur le jugement discrétionnaire et les fonctionnaires de proximité est utilisée pour analyser comment les agents canadiens des visas décident quelles relations de couples sont 'vraies' ou 'fausses'. Cet article démontre que les agents des visas utilisent plusieurs cadres de référence pour construire des modèles types de ce que sont les relations 'normales' entre époux. Ces modèles types permettent aux agents des visas de construire des cas comme crédibles ou non crédibles, et ce processus établit les bases des décisions concernant l'exclusion et l'inclusion d'immigrants. This paper questions whether there is a facilitation/enforcement paradox associated with state efforts to control spousal migration. The literature on discretion and street-level bureaucrats is used to analyze how Canadian visa officers make decisions about which spousal relationships are 'real' and which are 'fake.' The paper shows that visa officers use various cultural frameworks to construct typifications of 'normal' relationships. These typifications allow visa officers to construct cases as credible or not credible, and constitute simultaneous bases for decisions about immigrant exclusion and inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to present a categorization scheme and use it to classify Canadian Government (federal and provincial) competitive intelligence (CI) programs and to also look at the impact of these programs on sectoral and regional economic development.Design/methodology/approach Based on the author’s 25 years of experience designing, running, and studying Canadian Government CI programs, a classification scheme to classify these programs has been developed and used. Also, by using program review information, this paper looks at evidence for program impact on regional and sectoral economic development.Findings This paper identifies a broad range of federal and provincially sponsored CI programs aimed at helping both government officers and those outside the department make better decisions. The review identified several roles that the government can play in using CI: creator of CI (both for their own purposes and also for helping Canadian companies), CI environment skills builder (helping Canadian companies develop skills in developing their own CI) and CI partner (working jointly with Canadian companies in developing CI). While there have not been many formal program reviews of the CI programs sponsored by Canadian Government departments and agencies, anecdotal evidence (from training program participant evaluations) and a comprehensive review of a small community CI-based economic development program support positive sectoral and regional economic development results arising from these programs.Practical implications CI programs can be used as part of a government’s regional and sectoral economic development approach. CI can be used to assist with decision-making both within and outside the government. This paper identifies several different kinds of programs that can be used to further a government’s economic development agenda.Originality/value There are very few articles that examine how governments have helped companies to develop CI and how they have used CI, and none has looked at the impact of these on regional and sectoral economic development. This paper, based on the author’s experiences, provides a view of the Canadian programs and their impact on regional/sectoral economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In October 2012, supported by veteran advocacy group Equitas, Canadian Forces veterans of the Afghanistan campaign filed a class action lawsuit against the Federal Government. The case, Scott v. Canada, is named after lead Plaintiff Daniel Scott. In Scott, the Plaintiffs allege that under the recently enacted Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act, commonly known as the New Veterans Charter (NVC), many veterans receive less support than under the previous Pension Act. Further, they allege that the New Veterans Charter is a contravention of the 'social covenant' between Canadian citizens, the Canadian government, and past and present Canadian military members and their families. While the limited scope of this paper cannot determine if a legally binding social contract in fact exists, it will engage with the surrounding literature and suggest that there is a well-documented history of veterans enjoying a special relationship with the federal government and Canadian people in the form of legal and social entitlements. This paper will track the many reiterations of Prime Minister Robert Borden's speech leading up to the creation of the NVC, while illuminating a historic tension between the influences of political, economic, and social policy trends and the upholding of a unique obligation towards those who have served this country militarily. The covenant has always been contextualised by the morality of the times. But it is not just moral; it has legal aspects as well. The reason that veterans are due special treatment is intimately tied to their legal status as a member of the military with exposure to unlimited liability and regulation under the military justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien is the property of Gesellschaft fuer Kanada Studien e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper addresses the Conservative Party of Canada's three-phase effort (2007–2012) to amend theYouth Criminal Justice Actto prioritise public protection, accountability and victims' rights over prevention and rehabilitation. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and criminology and critical policy scholarship, the paper situates this tough-on-crime initiative in relation to a US-led punitive turn that Canada is belatedly catching-up on, positions this catch-up effort in relation to the Conservative's larger transforming Canada agenda, and explores cultural, institutional and political contingencies salient to its impacts on Canadian law and society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines a complex bureaucratic process of remembering that was central to the Chinese head tax system in Canada known as C.I.9s (Chinese Immigration 9). The C.I.9s constitute the first mass use of identification photography in Canada. Unlike any moment in its prior history, the Canadian Government isolated one specific group of people, purely on the basis of race and ethnicity, in order to identify each individual member of that group through the creation of a massive apparatus that would systematically correlate their identity with a photographic image. This system was developed so that the government of Canada could remember these migrants in order to continue to exercise the processes of their exclusion from citizenship. Using the theoretical work of an early internet pioneer on surveillance, Philip Agre, and new media theorist, Wendy Chun, I suggest that the C.I.9s function as a technology of mass capture through which noncitizens are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical analysis of Canadian media content (The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, Huffington Post, CBC, and CTV), from September 2015 to April 2016, of the coverage of the Canadian resettlement effort of Syrian refugees, including representation of the refugees and the Canadian government and public. The analysis is informed by theories of orientalism, neocolonialism, neoliberalism, and feminism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twitter is the latest social networking tool said to be reshaping politics. Twitter allows subscribers to write a 140-character status update, called a ‘tweet'. This research analyzes the intersection of microblogging and Canadian politics. There is little scholarship on the political aspects of Twitter. This paper seeks to fill this gap through a content analysis of the most popular Canadian political hashtag, #cdnpoli. Designated by a ‘hash' symbol (#), a hashtag is a keyword assigned to information that describes a tweet and aides in searching. With 50 million tweets per day, hashtags are central to organizing information on Twitter. Hashtags organize discussion around specific topics or events. Political hashtags came to prominence in events like the 2009 Iran presidential election. Indeed, #iranelection was the number one news topic on Twitter in 2009. The popular literature suggests that Twitter is a democratic media because it allows for on-the-ground reporting of breaking news and democratic activism. This analysis shows that informing is the primary function of a political hashtag such as #cdnpoli. Political dialogue and reporting is rare. Contributors scour the internet for relevant online information on Canadian politics and use #cdnpoli as a dissemination feed. The value of a political hashtag derives from the real-time nature of the information shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Canadian Muslim women, as opposed to their Australian counterparts, have attained prominent social status not only in terms of their contribution to electoral politics but also in other political spheres. With its focus on the Sharia debate, this paper investigates one potential explanation for this difference. Challenging Okin's feminist perspective, which claims that multiculturalism is an undesirable policy for emancipation, it is argued that multiculturalism facilitates agency of female members of Muslim communities. A comparative examination of the Sharia debate between the two secular countries of Canada and Australia demonstrates that the former's more robust multicultural polity in terms of responding to requests to adopt the Sharia have not only culminated in Muslim women's empowerment but have enhanced their political representation. In contrast, Australian Muslim women have neither had the opportunity to articulate their position with regard to Sharia nor to contribute to an important issue that could have empowered them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Could a growing transatlantic rift regarding the use of military force outside Europe propel the political break-up of Canada? The first part of the paper argues that, in addition to its liberal-democratic values, Canada's bicultural national identity accounts for much of its Atlanticist international security policy. The second part of the paper examines the prevalence of this Atlanticist strategic culture in the face of two contemporary cases of transatlantic (dis)unity, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to assess the potentially disruptive nature of transatlantic discord on Canada's political unity. It finds, somewhat counter-intuitively, that transatlantic unity - rather than disunity - could more probably generate national unity crises in Canada in the event of continuing 'out-of-area' military operations undertaken by NATO allies. This is mainly because of a growing tendency among Quebec's sovereignist political elites' to mobilise Quebecers' distinct attitudes regarding overseas military expeditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on climate change policy and politics has become increasingly focused on the actions and influence of subnational governments. In North America, this attention has been particularly focused on why subnational governments have taken action in the absence of national leadership, what effect action might have on future national climate policy, and whether the collective action of networks of municipal governments are reshaping and challenging the character of national and global climate governance. This paper examines Canadian municipal climate in light of the absence of a comprehensive and effective climate national strategy. The paper considers various reasons why local governments in Canada have not been central players in national plans, and why their actions have not been more influential nationally. The paper argues that the potential influence of Canadian municipalities on national climate policy is weak, given the loose nature of the network and the long-held structural view that municipalities are not significant units of political analysis in national political and policy debates. The paper concludes by considering the constraints and opportunities of subnational climate networks and municipal network analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's 2005 International Policy Statement announced that the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces were committed to “whole of government” interventions in failed and fragile states. This led both the Canadian government and outside observers to declare that Canada was successfully harmonising the aims and practices of its internationally focused departments and crafting a synergised approach to interventions in failed and fragile states. Drawing on Halperin and Clapp's organisational theory of bureaucratic politics, this paper argues instead that the foreign affairs and defence departments embraced the idea of failed and fragile states to reinforce their organisational essences and recycle their existing missions, roles, and capabilities. In addition, the departments used a “whole of government” approach to secure their autonomy, fence their respective functions, and enlarge their unique capabilities, under the guise of greater efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In light of a major study on educational outcomes, this paper explores how Aboriginal language dominance and virtually exclusive use of oral communications in one Aboriginal group has been affected by its interaction with Western institutions. For several years negotiations have been undertaken among the Innu Nation of Labrador, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the federal government over band status for the Innu, reserve creation and the development of locally controlled institutions. As part of the negotiations, a series of studies with Labrador Innu children, their families and teachers have produced rare data on Aboriginal children in relation to their schooling. The paper sketches factors relating to the history and practice of formal, Western schooling in Canada, followed by indicators of Canadian Aboriginal people's responses to schooling. A brief description follows of the Innu of Labrador, emphasising their unique history relative to Canadian Aboriginal groups in general. Following this, data from the recent study are outlined, providing evidence of almost complete failure of schooling for the Innu. Finally, these data are discussed as insights into how the Innu, and those responsible for providing schooling for them, value and react to factors in the situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Studies in Population is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As the realities of austerity agendas exert pressure on adult education around the globe, this paper attempts to map the developing, albeit small, field of anti-austerity adult education in Canada. In doing so, I attempt to trace the connections between anti-austerity education and existing fields of adult education. I argue that the cases we see of anti-austerity education have distinctive features of new political realities. While not unrelated to popular pedagogical projects of the past, anti-austerity adult education sits in compulsory opposition to what Albo and Fanelli describe as the austerity initiated ‘disciplinary democracy’ project of neo-liberalism. As a result, new adult educators and educational initiatives are emerging in relation to a morphing political-economic hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien is the property of Gesellschaft fuer Kanada Studien e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Several theories of legislative organisation have been proposed to explain committee selection in American legislatures, but do these theories travel outside the United States? This paper tests whether these theories apply to data from the Canadian House of Commons. It was found that the distributive and partisan models of legislative organisation explain committee composition in Canada. In many cases, committees in the House of Commons are made up of preference outliers. As predicted by partisan models, it was also found that the governing party stacks committees with its members, but this is conditional upon the strength of the governing party. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While Senate reform is a continual topic of interest for partisans, academics, and the media in Canada, the nature of the Senate's legislative activity is less widely reported. That the Senate provides sober, well-researched political advice through its committee work is the refuge of ardent Senate defenders. However, what type of policy work do Senate committees accomplish and in what volume? This paper investigates Senate committees' policy reports and legislative output with an original dataset covering the 34–40th parliaments (1988–2011). The findings highlight committees' contributions to the legislative process, empirically testing long-held hypotheses about the Senate's legislative behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Political actors in Canada are using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The Canadian government has been lauded for its success in the online delivery of services, but it has been criticized for not employing the Internet for more democratic purposes, and little attention has been paid to this most recent development. This article examines the extent to which Twitter is being used by Canadian government departments and agencies. It asks whether governmental use of Twitter fits into previous patterns of service delivery oriented e-government or whether it is taking advantage of the possibility for democratic interaction afforded by social media. Based on a content analysis of Government of Canada tweets, the paper finds that service delivery characterizes government tweets and shows how nominal a commitment the Canadian government has made to using Twitter as part of its well-established and lauded e-government strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Review of Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Inter-party voting coalitions in three minority cabinets were analysed: the 38th (2004–05), 39th (2006–08) and 40th (2008–11) Federal Canadian Parliaments. The paper begins by developing a simple theory to explain the formation of voting coalitions. The theory predicts that electoral incentives and policy issues drive minority government support. The main contention is that voting coalitions are more likely to form along ideological lines, as proposed by Axelrod [(1970) The Conflict of Interest (Chicago: Markham)]. However, the analysis also demonstrates that voting coalitions form along a second dimension in the Canadian Parliament, mainly on issues related to federalism and the province of Quebec. Some evidence is also provided to show that expected electoral gains could explain why certain parties choose to support the government more, despite ideological incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While the use of public policy to construct a Canadian identity has been established in the literature, what is less well understood is whether national identity, once established, might shape Canadians' feelings about these same public policies. This article examines the extent to which citizens' national identities influence their pride in Canada's social security system, and how this relationship may be changing over time. Using data from the International Social Science Programme's 1995 and 2003 National Identity Modules, the article argues that citizens' national identities help explain the contours of social security attitudes in Canada, and that this relationship persists despite significant policy change in the field. Additionally, the paper suggests that political actors may successfully increase public support for their social security policies by “framing” them in ways that appeal to citizens' definitions of Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the United States and Western Europe are often presented as contrasting models of religion and politics, countries like Canada fit somewhere in the middle. This paper looks at evangelical Christian political activity in Canada, which features a modified version of American-style religious activism on a terrain closer to European politics, with parliamentary institutions, state church legacies and a largely secular political culture. It pays particular attention to developments since 2000 and links between evangelicals and the governing Conservative Party of Canada. It argues that, while these recent developments may signal a shift toward the American model, the Canadian case still suggests alternatives beyond a simple dichotomy between American and secular European models of religion and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As part of a larger e-health strategy, Canadian governments have invested millions in online health information services for the lay public. These services are intended to reduce demands on the primary health care system by encouraging greater individual responsibility for health and are often promoted using the language of personal empowerment. In this paper, we describe how lay searchers generally look for online health information and discuss the disempowering challenges they are likely to face in (a) locating Canadian government-sponsored health information sites and (b) finding useful information on these sites to address everyday health concerns. We conclude with several recommendations for policy changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]