Search

This article explores the nature of parliamentary opposition on issues affecting Indigenous communities at Canada's national parliament. Content analysis is performed on all oral questions asked on Indigenous issues in the 37th, 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st parliaments. The findings reveal a particular preferred frame for approaching Indigenous issues, centred on a poverty-based problem statement. In contrast, more particularistic Indigenous issues, such as historical restitution, resolution of competing claims to territory or increasing self-determination, are underrepresented in parliamentary discourse. The article explores the implications of this finding for Indigenous issue representation, and the representation of other groups in parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon data collected from an online voting experiment to test the implications of “going negative” in a multiparty election campaign. Specifically, we investigate two sets of questions: First, does the attention and vote share that candidates receive vary according to the tone (positive/negative) of their election campaign? Second, does the attention and vote share that candidates receive vary according to whether or not all candidates engage in similar (positive/negative) campaigns? While studies of “negative campaigning” have been prominent in the American context, our work builds upon this literature by using an experimental design to test for their effects in a multiparty setting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The issue of conscription for overseas service was a hugely contentious issue in both Australia and Canada during the First World War, and the repercussions of it were felt for many decades. With a focus on the political rhetoric of the parliamentary conscription debates in the two countries, this article shows how this reflected the way Australians and Canadians saw themselves as peoples. The conflicting positions between English-speaking Canadian and French-Canadian parliamentarians on the issue highlights the bicultural nature of that country - as a criticism often made by the latter was that the former were British rather than Canadian. In contrast, in Australia there was no question about assisting the 'mother-country'; the differences arose over which method: volunteerism or conscription would be the most effective tool to do this. In terms of the impact that the parliamentary debates had on broader society, conscription led to Labour organisations being in battle against business and industry over the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While serving as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada between 2008 and 2013, Jason Kenney likened the detention facilities used to house an increasing number of asylum seekers and non-status migrants to hotels. And yet, when addressing the responsibilities of citizenship, he repeatedly argued that 'Canada is not a hotel.' However contradictory, Kenney's references to hotels and, implicitly, to the comforts and privileges they represent, draw on the idea of Canadian hospitality: the suggestion is that we detain asylum seekers in hotels or hotel-like conditions because we are an hospitable people but that our reputation for hospitality leaves us vulnerable to migrants who construe themselves as hotel guests with privileges rather than citizens with responsibilities. Paying particular attention to recent legislative reforms that will almost certainly result in the incarceration of more asylum seekers, this article asks how Canadian hospitality is defined and practiced today. More generally, it uses discourse analysis to explore the tension between the Canadian ideal of hospitality and the realities of an expanding immigration detention system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the traditions of the Westminster system, prime ministers and ministers give countless public speeches each year, while their loyal public service quietly and anonymously carries out the daily business of public administration. Current practice suggests that this traditional picture no longer holds true. In the 21st century, bureaucratic leaders are prepared to give public speeches on their own authority - adopting a 'public face' as contributors to public debate. This article examines the extent to which key bureaucratic leaders in Canada have adopted an independent public face through public speeches, and how the Canadian experience compares to other Westminster jurisdictions. It argues that contemporary Canadian practice has taken a middle road between independent policy advocacy and quiet anonymity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An examination of the speeches of modern Canada's "founding fathers" lays bare their openly anti-democratic outlook. How did a regime founded on anti-democratic ideas come to be positively identified with democracy? Drawing on the examples of similar studies carried out in the United States and France, this analysis of the history of the term "democracy" in Canada shows that the country's association with "democracy" was not due to constitutional or institutional changes that might have justified re-labelling the regime. Instead, it was the result of the political elite's discursive strategies, whose purpose was to strengthen the elite's ability to mobilize the masses during the world wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines public statements by female candidates for the leadership of major federal parties in the period 1975-2006, with reference to the conceptual literature on political representation. Was the willingness of women politicians to voice feminist rhetoric more closely related to extra-parliamentary dynamics, notably the changing fortunes of feminist and antifeminist movements, or to parliamentary factors, including the ideological as well as competitive circumstances of their parties? The empirical discussion suggests feminist content was particularly strong in the language of Rosemary Brown for the NDP in 1975, Kim Campbell for the PCs in 1993 and Martha Hall Findlay for the Liberals in 2006. Overall results point toward the utility of a two-pronged perspective that merges a parliamentary view that centre-left through centre-right parties, as well as those in an opposition or weak governing position, were more likely sites of feminist discourse than hard right and firmly competitive parties, with a movement-focused approach that explains the diminished use of representational rhetoric during this period, even in relatively hospitable parties, with reference to the declining legitimacy of organized feminism. Unlike in the US, women candidates in right parties in Canada did not use their campaigns as vehicles for voicing strong antifeminist positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's comments on the speech delivered by Louis Saint Laurent, Canada's former secretary of state for international affairs, on Canadian Citizenship Act. According to the author, Laurent's speech in Toronto, Ontario, concluded a weeklong campaign designed to promote the new Act--an act that made qualified residents "citizens of Canada" as opposed to just nationals or British subjects--and to increase the interest and involvement of Canadian youth in political affairs.

Comparatively few studies have looked at debates in other countries besides The United States. This study replicates past research using Functional Theory to analyze electoral debates from two countries with parliamentary systems, i.e., countries in which citizens cannot directly vote for their Prime Minister. Content analysis was employed to investigate the four 2006 Canadian prime minister debates-two held in English, two in French-and the 2007 Australian prime minister debate. Candidates in these debates acclaimed, or praised themselves, more than they attacked, or criticized opponents, and defended, or refuted attacks from opponents, least. The incumbent candidates produced more acclaims and defenses and made fewer attacks than the challenger candidates. In particular, the incumbents used past deeds, or record in office, to acclaim their record in office; challengers tended to use past deeds to attack the incumbent's record rather than to acclaim themselves. These candidates discussed policy more than character. Candidates, in general, acclaimed more than they attacked on general goals and ideals. These patterns are generally similar to those observed in Israel, South Korea, The Ukraine, and The U.S., which suggests that some features of political debates transcend national and cultural borders [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]