DISMEMBERING CANADA? STEPHEN HARPER AND THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF CANADIAN PROVINCES.

Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government has allegedly pursued a decentralized vision of Canadian federalism. This vision includes pledges to limit the federal spending power and the declaration of Québec as a "nation." Controversially, this commitment has also extended to the foreign relations of Canadian provinces. Québec recently negotiated a bilateral labour mobility agreement with France and was also granted formal standing in Canada's delegation at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Ottawa has also promised to support an autonomous subfederal role in trade promotion and the negotiation of international economic agreements. This study will argue, however, that Canadian provinces have exercised partial and signifi cant autonomy in terms of foreign offices, trade policy, cross-border functional relations, development assistance, and the environment, long before the arrival of Harper and the Conservatives. In fact, this policy capacity is due to long-term trends related to the intrusiveness of international trade agreements, federalism's response to these pressures, and the ongoing decentralization of federal-provincial relations in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]