Change and Continuity in Canadian Politics gets to the heart of key issues and provides important insights into contemporary Canadian government and politics.
The context in which environmental policy decision-making occurs has changed, resulting from widening environmental problems, increased demands from groups and citizens, continuing pressure on the continent's resources and normative shifts. The complexity of current issues is related to an even broader contextual shift: the globalization of environmental issues exacerbated by trade liberalization, especially on a regional level and the potential contradictions between trade and the environmental international agenda that this implies. This volume studies the new dimensions of resource conflict between Canada and the United States, accounting for the emergence of new bilateral environmental issues and detailing how trade liberalization has fostered both disputes and policy convergence. It also examines the recent shifts in America towards a unilateral foreign policy and how this affects active Canadian diplomacy Ideal as a resource tool for students and academics, this book will be a key resource in the areas of global governance, US-Canadian foreign policy and environmental policy.
On May 2, 2011, as Canadians watched the federal election results roll in and Stephen Harper’s Conservatives achieve a majority, it appeared that we were witnessing a major shift in the political landscape. In reality, Canadian politics had been changing for quite some time. This volume provides the first account of the political upheavals of the past two decades and speculates on the future of the country’s national party system. By documenting how parties and voters responded to new challenges between 1993 and 2011, this book sheds light on one of the most tumultuous periods in Canadian political history.
Review: "Change in arctic populations has not been a sudden phenomenon, but rather a gradual process that has occurred over a number of generations. In this longitudinal case study, McElroy introduces readers to four Baffin Island communities in the eastern Canadian Arctic and focuses on the challenges and hardships they face in transition from hunting-gathering lifestyles to wage employment and political participation in towns. Through long-term fieldwork, historical material, and life histories collected from elders, Nunavut Generations richly illustrates political and ecological change alongside native stability and self-determination."--BOOK JACKET
Absent Mandate develops the crucial concept of policy mandates, distinguished from other interpretations of election outcomes, and addresses the disconnect between election issues and government actions. Emphasizing Canadian federal elections between 1993 and 2015, the book examines the Chretien/Martin, Harper and Trudeau governments and the campaigns that brought them to power. Using data from the Canadian Election Studies and other major surveys, Absent Mandate documents the longstanding volatility in Canadian voting behaviour. This volatility reflects the flexibility of voters' partisan attachments, the salience of party leader images, and campaigns dominated by discussion of broad national problems and leaders rather than by coherent sets of policy proposals. The failure of elections to provide genuine policy mandates stimulates public discontent with the political process and widens the gap between the promise and the performance of Canadian democracy.
In Canadian Political Economy, experts from a number of disciplinary backgrounds come together to explore Canada’s empirical political economy and the field's contributions to theory and debate. Considering both historical and contemporary approaches to CPE, the contributors pay particular attention to key actors and institutions, as well as developments in Canadian political-economic policies and practices, explored through themes of changes, crises, and conflicts in CPE. Offering up-to-date interpretations, analyses, and descriptions, Canadian Political Economy is accessibly written and suitable for students and scholars. In 17 chapters, the book’s topics include theory, history, inequality, work, free trade and fair trade, co-operatives, banking and finance, the environment, indigeneity, and the gendered politics of political economy. Linking longstanding debates with current developments, this volume represents both a state-of-the-discipline and a state-of-the-art contribution to scholarship.
Party movements can be described as political organizations that both participate in the electoral process and have social movement qualities. They appear frequently in both Canada and the United States. Many of these movements face huge organizational problems, and yet they display remarkable resilience, signaling both continuing political dissatisfactions as well as possibilities for changing political outcomes. This book demonstrates how organizational theory can be useful for understanding party movements, and also expands on the idea of continuity, contributing new ways of thinking about how organizations change and survive in the face of recurring dilemmas. This look inside party movements, at the organizational problems they face and the strategies employed to deal with them, represents a new way of accounting for their history that contrasts with perspectives focusing solely on external conditions.
Continuities and Discontinuities assesses the making of Canadian social and labour market policy in the context of two factors—globalization and neoconservatism. Specialists from a variety of fields and disciplines examine the relation between Canada's changing political economy and its social welfare and labour market policy. These essays analysing continuities and discontinuities in policy emerged from research that initially was presented at the 5th Conference on Social Welfare Policy held at Bishop's University in 1991, and that since then has been revised to reflect the situation of the mid-1990s. Part I introduces the three broad areas explored in the volume. Part II addresses new trends in Canadian political economy and their relation to public policy. Part III analyses social welfare policy. Of the essays included, several investigate the democratizing of the Canadian welfare state and controversies in the conception and definition of poverty. Others address the AIDS crisis, health policy, and social policy issues that primarily affect women, children, and native peoples. In Part IV recent Canadian labour market policies are investigated and appraised, and alternatives suggested or evaluated. One essay argues that employment security and high wages could generate high productivity and international competitiveness; another examines the impact of the growth in part-time employment on the welfare state; a third probes the relation of organized labour to a guaranteed annual income; others investigate the impact of neoconservatism on labour market policy-making in various provinces and regions. Globalization and neoconservatism continue to shape change and require constant evaluation. These thought-provoking and informative essays are an important contribution to the ongoing debate on social welfare and labour market policy in Canada.
Wallace Clement and Glen Williams have ensured that all areas of the field are discussed, with chapters on the state, resources, industrialization, the provinces and regions, labour, gender, culture, Quebec, race and ethnicity, the legal system, capital formation, and Canada's position in the international sphere of political economy. The editors' introduction defines the field of political economy in the 1980s by comparing it to traditional studies of Innis and others and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the new approach. The New Canadian Political Economy suggests important new directions for continued study. Contributors include: Frances Abele and Daiva Stasiulis, Gregory Albo and Jane Jenson, Isabella Bakker, Amy Bartholomew and Susan Boyd, Janine Brodie, Neil Bradford, Wallace Clement, William D. Coleman, Paul Phillips, Ted Magder, Mel Watkins, and Glen Williams.
On 2 May 2011, Canadians watched as the Stephen Harper Conservatives won their first majority government. Jack Layton led the NDP to its best performance in history, and Michael Ignatieff and the federal Liberals had their worst showing to date. For most casual observers, this election marked a major shift in Canadian politics. In reality, the country’s political landscape and national party system had been changing for quite some time. Parties, Elections, and the Future of Canadian Politics offers the first comprehensive account of political change in Canada over the past two decades. It explores developments in the political landscape from both historical and contemporary perspectives and speculates on the future of the national party system. By documenting how parties and voters responded to new challenges between 1993 and 2011, this volume enhances our understanding of one of the most tumultuous periods in Canadian political history.