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Early optimism saw possibilities for social media to renew democratic discourse, marked by hopes for individuals from diverse backgrounds to find opportunities to learn from and interact with others different from themselves. This optimism quickly waned as social media seemed to breed ideological homophily marked by "filter bubbles" or "echo chambers." A typical response to the sense of fragmentation has been to encourage exposure to more cross-partisan sources of information. But do outlets that reach across partisan lines in fact generate more civil discourse? And does the civility of discourse hosted by such outlets vary depending on the political context in which they operate? To answer these questions, we identified bubble reachers, users who distribute content that reaches other users with diverse political opinions in recent presidential elections in Brazil, where populism has deep roots in the political culture, and Canada, where the political culture is comparatively moderate. Given that background, this research studies unexplored properties of content shared by bubble reachers, specifically the quality of conversations and comments it generates. We examine how ideologically neutral bubble reachers differ from ideologically partisan accounts in the level of uncivil discourse they provoke, and explore how this varies in the context of the two countries considered. Our results suggest that while ideologically neutral bubble reachers support less uncivil discourse in Canada, the opposite relationship holds in Brazil. Even non-political content by ideologically neutral bubble reachers elicits a considerable amount of uncivil discourse in Brazil. This indicates that bubble reaching and incivility are moderated by the national political context. Our results complicate the simple hypothesis of a universal impact of neutral bubble reachers across contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the history of the political right in 20th-century Canada requires analyzing the most visible political expression of right-of-center policies and views of the post-Second World War period: the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party of Canada. For its first five decades, it was the de facto government-in-waiting when the Liberals were in office. It won six federal elections, governing 1957–1963, 1979–1980, and 1984–1993. While sometimes derided as centrist by commentators on the far right, its members defined themselves as conservatives, and their beliefs and policies incorporated elements of this ideology. The party had a more progressive wing—sometimes referred to as Red Tories—who believed the better off in society had responsibilities to care for the less fortunate. This article considers the role that progressive values and policies played within the PC Party, and how the party and its leadership responded to changing understandings of what it meant to be progressive in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The considerations of how Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to global climate action under the Paris Agreement are ambitious and fair, or equitable, is expected to guide countries' decisions with regards to the ambition and priorities of those contributions. This article investigates the equity aspect of the NDCs of four cases (Canada, the EU, Kenya, and South Africa) utilizing a combination of document analysis and expert interviews. It interrogates both the NDC documents themselves and, uniquely, the role of international and domestic equity considerations within the domestic policy processes that led to the formulation of the NDCs. For this, 30 participants and close observers of these processes were interviewed. We find countervailing effects of equity on ambition, with an enabling, or ambition-enhancing, effect resulting from international equity, in that these four Parties show willingness to do more if others do, too. In contrast, tempering effect appears to result from domestic equity concerns, for example with regards to real, perceived, or anticipated adverse distributional impacts of climate action across regions, sectors, and/or societal strata. Political cultures differ across the four case studies, as do the key actors that influence domestic policies and the preparations of NDCs. This paper also demonstrates that research on equity in NDCs can benefit from expanding its scope from the contents of NDC submissions to also examine the underlying decision-making processes, to generate insights that can contribute to future NDCs being both equitable and ambitious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Political Science Review is the property of Canadian Political Science Review 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 examines how Canadian political science portrays Atlantic Canada, along with some of the consequences of persistent misrepresentations. I first explore traditional portrayals of Atlantic Canada as well as arguments challenging those conceptions, demonstrating that it is no longer appropriate to treat Atlantic Canada as primarily defined by either economic processes or common political culture. I then survey the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Public Administration and Canadian Public Policy to determine the extent to which discussions of Atlantic Canada still, (a) emphasize economic phenomena, and (b) assume a common Atlantic political culture. I find that, while political scientists are now less likely to study the region in terms of economic phenomena, they still perpetuate outdated depictions of Atlantic political culture. This tendency results in a certain degree of methodological imprecision and reinforces problematic assumptions about Atlantic political life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weakness of the antigun lobby in the United States is attributed to the "collective action problem" of trying to mobilize "free riders" behind a public purpose. But the Coalition for Gun Control emerged in Canada to successfully lobby for the Firearms Act of 1995. If the "collective action problem" is not limited to the United States, then are its effects "mediated" by political culture? To address this research question, we content analyze (1) media coverage, (2) party platforms, (3) presidential, and (4) ministerial rhetoric. Three frames represent "restrictive" gun policies that ban or regulate firearms, "punitive" gun policies that penalize the person for the unlawful use of firearms, or "lenient" gun policies that encourage gun ownership and gun rights. Marked differences in framing the gun debate help explain why an antigun coalition emerged in Canada but not the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past" that served the varied interests of predominantly white Protestant businessmen, politicians, and colonial officials. As in the Marquette commemorations in the Midwest and the missions revival in California, the Philippines brought white U.S. Catholics and Protestants together in the common cause of defending and advancing U.S. territorial and commercial imperial ambitions. While Harris demonstrates Canada's distinctiveness, he also offers lessons for understanding settler colonialism as a global phenomenon. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the contribution and legacy of subscription libraries in relation to the development of Canadian public libraries. From 1775 to 1850 membership associations acted as public libraries dispensing educational resources and recreational reading to users on a general-community or common-interest basis. Although Canada followed familiar British and American exemplars, regional settlement, political culture, religion, and language were influential arbiters in library development. The variety, number, and collective status of subscription libraries ushered in the persistent nineteenth-century concept of the semi-private ‘public library’ administered by trustees and populated by members who voluntarily agreed to accept entry charges, annual dues, and fundraising. The collegial space provided by the subscription library fostered a greater sense of publicness in an emerging Canadian nation before 1850. It also forged numerous associative identities in localities for like-minded reading groups. Subscription library development reveals that significant attributes of post-1850 municipal public libraries were inherited from Canada's colonial library era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Leaderless resistance” and “lone wolf terrorism” are concepts that have steadily gained importance in the study of oppositional subcultures and terrorist groups, being used to describe the operational realities of a variety of terrorisms, from groups like Al Qaeda to Anders Breivik. In this article, I seek to describe leaderless resistance as a rhetorical construct, a meaning-conferring “ideology of effervescence” that lifts the spirits of both movement progenitors who advocate the strategy as well as incipient lone wolves who consider responding to their exhortations. Through an examination of the case of Wiebo Ludwig and the EnCana pipeline bombings of 2008–2009, I show how these rhetorics emerge in the interactions between activists and their political enemies. With this conception, we can (a) understand more fully the discursive/rhetorical dynamics involved in asymmetrical struggle, (b) problematize the acceptance of the organizational reality of leaderless resistance in the terrorism literature, and (c) question the assertion of some terrorism scholarship that refers to leaderless resistance and other ideologies of effervescence as hallmarks of the “new terrorism.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to make three methodological and substantive contributions to the literature on substate cleavages in political values. Considerable controversy characterizes this literature. The paper argues that this controversy is due to how indicators representing political values are chosen and constructed. The paper proposes to use factor analysis to select and construct indicators of political values. The analysis identifies five dimensions, which collectively account for 57% of Canadians’ political values. They include support for moral traditionalism, egalitarianism, pluralism, openness to immigration and personal responsibility. Second, the paper shows that there is only limited variation across provinces in political values. Third, the paper shows that this result holds when considering regional variations rather than provincial variations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to explain the surprisingly short lifespan of the Quebec government's central unit for promoting public-private partnerships (PPPs), the Agence des partenariats public-privé du Québec (APPP). I used a theoretical framework based on neo-institutional analysis informed by empirical research including interviews with key actors, a review of all briefs submitted to the Quebec legislature and pertinent parliamentary debates, and a partial review of the media coverage. The government severely underestimated the strength of the opposition to its plan. Electoral cycles and elements of the dominant political culture in Quebec also help to explain its demise. However, the prospects for PPPs may not be as negative as the rise and fall of the APPP might suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I will disentangle the real-existing suburbia from some of its enduring myths. I will do this mostly through a discussion of densities. Based on international experiences but also encouraged by recent developments in Canadian suburbs, I will argue that densities in suburbs have always been mixed and diverse. But the emphasis on a particular form of US-style individualized suburbanization has led to a focus on a cultural politics of social conservatism, property ownership and privilege which has obscured not just alternative social and built forms in suburbia, but has disempowered other, more progressive, labour and collective consumption-oriented and social justice-seeking forms of everyday suburbanism and the politics that result from it. It has also obscured some of the pathways through which post-suburban metropolitanism has to find solutions to some of the most pressing social, economic and environmental issues we confront in urban regions today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Canadian Election Study data, we explore the relationship between income inequality and popular support for redistribution in Canada between 1993 and 2008. We demonstrate that the relationship between inequality and attitudes toward redistribution tends to be positive within provinces but negative across them. We argue that two markedly different mechanisms explain this discrepancy. First, within any particular political and economic context, people are more likely to benefit from redistribution, and hence support it, when inequality is high. Second, both inequality and attitudes toward redistribution are affected by characteristics unique to provincial political cultures, which results in attitudes toward redistribution having a different baseline depending on the province. We end with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the act of adopting a new portfolio raises a number of interesting queries, little attention has been paid to portfolio adoption, what motivates and what conditions predicate it. The Canadian case provides an excellent laboratory to test some broadly held assumptions about portfolio adoption, particularly given the contrast of the ten provinces’ unique political cultures with their shared jurisdictional roles. We illustrate our case using a dataset that contains information on 85 portfolio adoptions in the Canadian provinces since 1982. Findings suggest little by way of a clear set of partisan or institutional motivations for portfolio adoption, although there is some evidence that governments are more likely to adopt portfolios in the first 100 days of governing and they are more likely to do so when elected with larger caucuses, possibly because of the need to find larger roles for party loyalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the significance o f American political ideas within the political culture of the right in Alberta and Canada. While other parts of Canada distrust this influence from south of the border and have frequently denounced it, things are different in Alberta. In fact, Alberta is seen as being closest to the United States, especially from a political perspective. Drawing on work on political culture, the author will explore the nature of this American influence. Specifically, the author will analyze both its historical dimension dating back to the birth of the province, as well as its contemporary dimension within political parties, such as the Reform Party under Preston Manning and the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper, including a consideration of the question of neo-conservatism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the anarchist commons in Montreal, Canada using participatory action research interviews with 127 participants, we find that anti-authoritarian groups and networks addressing disparate but connected struggles are building an anarchist commons, constructing a loose grouping of spaces, networks and collectives united by a shared political culture. Key debates are explored, centering on: intentional development of the commons; mixed labour models; and anti-oppression practices of calling in vs. calling out. Participants indicate an understanding of the anarchist commons through theories and practices beyond capitalism, including feminist, queer, trans and anti-racist commitments. Finally we argue that the shared anti-authoritarian political culture provides a certain resistance to enclosure of the anarchist commons through the processes and practices used to construct it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US and Canada have taken significantly different paths to the legalization of same-sex marriage. Canada legalized it in 2005, while the US, despite progress, has yet to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. Recently, scholars have emphasized the primary role played by institutions in explaining policy differences between Canada and the US. This approach rejects political culture as an explanatory variable. Using the issue of same-sex marriage, this article demonstrates how political and legal culture, along with institutions, best explains policy divergence between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the Northwest Territories' consensus system, as in the party system, a government is appointed by the formal executive and members of the executive council are accountable to the House. However, the selection of executive council members in the two systems differs significantly and perhaps consequentially for the confidence convention in responsible government. In this article, born out of a debate between the authors sponsored by the Northwest Territories Regional Group of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, David M. Brock and Alan Cash explore some of the factors to consider if and when the convention is put to the test in a consensus system. They conclude by noting that with recent changes to the Northwest Territories Act as well as emerging conventions regarding the removal of members of the Executive Council, one may now safely argue that the confidence convention could be applied in the Northwest Territories in a manner similar to the application found in party systems. However, the prerogative of the House, emphasized and codified in consensus government, limits the discretion of the first minister and mitigates the power of the executive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As governments develop open data strategies, such efforts reflect the advent of the Internet, the digitization of government, and the emergence of meta-data as a wider socio-economic and societal transformational. Within this context the purpose of this article is twofold. First, we seek to both situate and examine the evolution and effectiveness of open data strategies in the Canadian public sector, with a particular focus on municipal governments that have led this movement. Secondly, we delve more deeply into—if and how, open data can facilitate more open and innovative forms of governance enjoining an outward-oriented public sector (across all government levels) with an empowered and participative society. This latter vantage point includes four main and inter-related dimensions: (i) conceptualizing public value and public engagement; (ii) media relations—across traditional intermediaries and channels and new social media; (iii) political culture and the politics of privacy in an increasingly data-centric world; and (iv) federated architectures and the alignment of localized, sub-national, and national strategies and governance mechanisms. This article demonstrates how each of these dimensions includes important determinants of not only open data's immediate impacts but also its catalytic ability to forge wider and collective innovation and more holistic governance renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Graduate Journal of Sociology & Criminology / Revue Canadienne des Études Supérieures en Sociologie et Criminologie is the property of Paladin Academic 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.)

Social justice education ( SJE) is a ubiquitous, if inconsistently defined, component of contemporary education theory and practice. Recently, SJE has come under fire for being politically biased and even 'brainwashing' children in the public education system. In a liberal democracy such as our own, it is important that state-sponsored actions and essential public goods can be justified to all citizens, not only to those with a particular set of beliefs. To defend SJE against its detractors, therefore, it is insufficient to argue over the concrete values that SJE seeks to inculcate; it is instead necessary to develop a philosophical argument situating SJE within a conception of democratic liberalism. This article provides such an argument by reviewing competing conceptions of liberalism, analyzing the political culture in Canada, and applying an interpretation of comprehensive liberalism to specific educational initiatives. Rather than defining or justifying all instances of SJE, the goal is to show how some, but not all, substantive political views can be coherently espoused in the Canadian education system without turning into 'brainwashing.' Five specific criteria are offered for discriminating between legitimate and illegitimate forms of education within Canadian liberalism. I use these criteria to show that much of what we recognize as SJE is justifiable, not because every citizen endorses the concrete values it represents, but because and only insofar as it reflects a democratic political culture that does. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since previous research has shown that nation-states take the acts of other states in consideration when making decisions about their policies, this article focuses on analyzing national decision-making in actual practice by studying the justifications used in debating new legislation. The data comprises second readings of bills from Canada and the UK and House debates of US bills from 2001 to 2011. The total amount of bills analyzed is 208. The results show that the acts of governments and other agents in the global system are an essential part of the factors to which actors refer in their argumentation. The analysis also shows that the US political culture is less receptive to considering cross-national differences or policies adopted in other states as justification for domestic reforms than the other two countries, whereas Canadians are most sensitive to the international community and their position and reputation among the nations. From these differences in national political cultures we cannot deduce, however, that the United States is immune to external factors or the center of a unilateral system. Although decisions are less often justified by policies adopted in other countries, the global community and economic competition are an essential part of the environment to which US politicians place themselves as decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten years ago an enterprising Ph.D candidate at the London School of Economics spent four months touring nearly 100 of Canada's federal constituency offices - what he calls perhaps "the country's most dramatic if accidental parliamentary reform" - in an attempt to better understand a political culture where voter participation and trust in government were on the decline. In this article Peter MacLeod reflects on some of the subtle insights he picked up during his journey and looks to future innovations. He concludes by asking if in the digital age, new generations of MPs will be more inclined to think of their offices and local budgets in terms of open platforms for community building and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an analysis of the Canadian case, this article explores the tension between the universal and the particular in modern constitutional imagination, arguing that the points of friction between these two “logics” of constitutionalism are invaluable entry points into understanding the defining features of various constitutional cultures. The article argues that to understand Canadian constitutional culture, both at the structural level and also in the finer strokes surrounding given issues, one must appreciate that Canadians are the children of two constitutional logics: that of the local, the particular, and harmonious relations between diverse communities achieved through political compromise, and that of the universal, the metaphysical, and of a faith in the reason of legal principle. Examining issues of religious and cultural difference, judicial review, and indigenous rights, the article uses Canadian constitutionalism to illustrate that the points at which the march of the logic of universal reason meets resistance in the particular are key junctures for understanding a country’s constitutional culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the most challenging aspects of the study of Canadian political thought is its apparent lack of a clear consensus (perhaps in the form of a “grand theory”) that provides it with more structured analytical organization and parameters. This absence can be remedied through an explicit recognition of the competing traditions that have contributed to the mosaic of Canadian philosophical and political beliefs and values. The interplay between liberal and communitarian traditions of Canadian political thought could provide the basis for this sort of model, though other contributions also need to be acknowledged and considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Canadian Issues / Thèmes Canadiens is the property of Association for Canadian Studies 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.)

The global rise of arts and culture is transforming local politics. Though new to many academic urban analysts, this is a commonplace for many mayors and local policy makers around the world. We seek to overcome this divide by joining culture and the arts with classic concepts of urban politics. We offer an analytical framework incorporating the politics of cultural policy alongside the typical political economic concerns in the urban politics and development literatures. Our framework synthesizes several research streams that combine in global factors driving the articulation of culture into city politics. This frames our studies of the local processes through which this articulation occurs on the ground in Toronto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of economic and political development in Canada's provincial Norths will be determined in large part by how successfully decision-making processes accommodate Northern Aboriginal political culture. This paper examines Northern Aboriginal political culture through the case of Saskatchewan's Northern Administrative District. We argue that kinship organizational networks and family systems have shaped Northern Saskatchewan Aboriginal political culture. We also argue that current Northern Aboriginal political culture is a blended political culture, with two dominant generational subcultures co-existing and influencing political behaviour and attitudes. We explain how these subcultures arose, and discuss the implications of the current blended political culture for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the record of Canada's involvement in 4 areas of inter-American cooperation namely democracy and human rights, security and trade and development. It examines Canada's engagement in the region since it joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990 and after Canada's launch of the new strategy of engagement in 2007. The introduction is divided into 3 parts namely a recall of the context of Canada's interactions with the hemisphere, contributions to the volume and how they illuminate Canada's recent engagement the region and an examination of the current environment of inter-American relations. It cites the need for the Canadian government by more sensitive to the political culture and identity traits of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

This article examines the subtle and not so subtle shifts in Canadian political culture that have taken place in, through and alongside the so-called ‘return’ of the Canadian warrior. It begins from the contention that while the racialised dimensions of the post 9/11 Canadian security state have been well analysed elsewhere, the gendered dimensions have not been fully explored. This article explores the re-emergence of a sacrificial imaginary in Canadian culture through an examination of seemingly irreconcilable accounts that have emerged of the Canadian security state – one that reads ‘Canada’ through the story of the torture and repatriation of Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, and one that tells the story of ‘Canada at War’ through the warrior's return. It examines both in terms of the tensions and instabilities they reveal in the Western liberal imaginary and in terms of the ways in which they collectively operate to redefine the aesthetic borders of the Canadian political community. The article argues that the sacralisation of violence which has refound this political community has been enabled by a remasculinised aesthetic that delimits the ‘progressive liberalism’ which animated the Canada of Old – ostensibly in order to protect it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper compares the response to the hijab in France, Quebec and the rest of Canada to explore the different political cultures of those three polities, the ideals behind them and the modes of repression and tolerance which give meaning to those cultures. More specifically, the paper compares the Stasi Commission in France with the Bouchard-Taylor Commission in Quebec in terms of both process and conclusions. What role do public commissions play in the education of the public against a background of educational institutions charged with that task? In asking that question, the paper explores the role of daily practices in realising that ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles is the property of Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations 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 Socialist Studies is the property of Society for Socialist Studies 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.)

Public opinion is often said to affect the distribution of powers in federal systems, the legitimacy of the orders of government, and system functions. However, there is little comparative empirical and longitudinal research on public attitudes toward federalism. Using several years of surveys conducted in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, we examine public attitudes about the treatment of constituent units, trust in the various orders of government, government value, power distribution, and federal political culture. We find many similarities, as well as significant differences, between public attitudes toward federalism issues in these North American federations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Parliament, the ten provincial legislatures and the three territorial legislatures now host more than seventy-five independent or quasi independent parliamentary officers. Many political scientists have argued that the influence of parliamentary officers is a symptom of Parliament's decline. The popularity of these officers with the general public reflects the corrosive cynicism about party politics now pervading the Canadian political culture. This article explores the academic critique through a study of the federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (CESD) and the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a federal system, do citizens have varying amounts of trust and efficacy for different levels of government? Individuals might, for example, feel a greater sense of efficacy for the more proximate level. This contribution examines 40 years of Canadian Election Study (CES) data to determine whether and how citizens distinguish between levels of government to determine which level of government is deemed more important and whether one is more likely to prompt higher levels of trust and efficacy. After establishing that individuals do indeed hold varying levels of trust and efficacy for provincial and federal governments, the analysis takes advantage of innovative questions in the 1984 CES and makes clear that state and sub-state trust and efficacy exert an independent impact on general political attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether national differences in political culture add an explanatory dimension to the formulation of policy in the area of biotechnology, especially with respect to genetically modified food. The analysis links the formulation of protective regulatory policies governing genetically modified food to both country and region-specific differences in uncertainty tolerance levels and risk perceptions in the United States, Canada, and European Union. Based on polling data and document analysis, the findings illustrate that these differences matter. Following a mostly opportunistic risk perception within an environment of high tolerance for uncertainty, policymakers in the United States and Canada modified existing regulatory frameworks that govern genetically modified food in their respective countries. In contrast, the mostly cautious perception of new food technologies and low tolerance for uncertainty among European Union member states has contributed to the creation of elaborate and stringent regulatory policies governing genetically modified food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of midwifery in Ontario, Canada, offers rich insights into feminist policy and policy analysis, illuminating both challenges and opportunities for social change. In this article, I employ the discourse coalitions framework to investigate the claims-making process during early debates of midwifery. I argue that early midwifery advocates framed the debate around the issue of patriarchal politics, connecting the 'colonization of wombs' with gender inequality more generally. Once entering mainstream public dialogue, however, the rhetorical power of the scientific-medical discourse proved too strong, prompting midwifery advocates to employ frames congruent with its principles, including competence, safety, and expertise. The effect was twofold: first, it created an observable cleavage between pragmatic and radical midwives and midwife supporters; second, the resulting legislation, rather than offering a challenge to the scientific-medical model, actually served to reproduce it. In doing so, it has effectively objectified the birthing woman, replacing the physician as primary decision-maker with an 'expert midwife', while obscuring and potentially silencing claims for reproductive autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ESSACHESS is the property of ESSACHESS 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.)

Canada may be among the oldest federations in the world but this says nothing about the strength of federalism in Canada. Based on the results of public opinion polling and roundtables with provincial government officials, this article argues that the political culture of federalism in Canada is quite weak. With the notable exception of Quebec, Canadians in general and the provincial government officials who work on their behalf demonstrate little understanding of the basic logic of federalism or, when they do, are willing to trade off federalism values against concerns about efficiency, private goods, and meeting the needs of clients and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of political developments in Canada for 2008. It includes an analysis of the political motives of leading public figures, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and commentary on trends in public opinion regarding the events described. Various electoral results, institutional changes, and notable issues in national politics are discussed. These include the challenges faced by the government in handling the global financial crisis which began in 2008. The efforts of Harper to advance the agenda of his Conservative Party are discussed.