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Research on policy implementation in Canada and around the world is seeking to address the nexus of the mandates, resources, and cultures of public agencies and their wider institutional and socio-political context. This article examines the implications of the transition in the framing of policy implementation processes from 'administration' to 'governance' by looking at regional economic development policy implementation in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Manitoba since the mid-1980s. These two provinces are part of geographically determined regions classified under Canada's official regional development policy as socioeconomically disadvantaged in relation to the rest of the country. Regional development policy itself has undergone a noticeable shift in policy discourse among public managers over the past decade towards an emphasis on 'promoting innovation' as the rationale for policy intervention. The implications of these transitions suggest that policy implementation or program delivery tasks in complex intergovernmental systems are best viewed as strategic, and not merely operational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fewer Politicians Act (FPA), 1999 (Ontario) led to the creation of identical national and provincial electoral constituencies in the province. While the bill was intended by the provincial Conservative government to reduce costs and increase efficiency, the FPA has also had substantial unanticipated consequences for political party organizations in Ontario. I first review the introduction of the FPA and, second, draw on 60 interviews with party constituency association officials, including seven long-term participants with experience prior to the introduction of the FPA, and make a comparison of associations in Ontario and New Brunswick (where boundaries are not identical) to demonstrate that congruent boundaries facilitate integration and cooperation between national and provincial political parties in the constituencies. Congruent riding boundaries do so by merging the geographic and ecological contexts that both national and provincial party organizations structure themselves in response to, and by reducing the number of actors participating in national-provincial cooperation. The FPA can therefore be understood as a case study of legislation containing important unanticipated consequences, and I conclude the article by evaluating the FPA from this perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]