Canada: The State of the Federation 1997

The 1997 volume in the Canada: The State of the Federation series explores the theme of non-constitutional change. Contributors assess the progress of federal and provincial governments in renewing the federation through means other than constitutional change.Keith Banting (Queen's) deals with the lessons learned from the decline of the post-World War II social union, John Richards (Simon Fraser) lays out three propositions for a successful social union, and Harvey Lazar (Queen's) documents and analyses recent changes in the federal strategy toward the social union. Robert Knox (former executive director of the Internal Trade Secretariat) reviews progress on implementation of the Internal Trade Agreement. Patrick Fafard (Queen's) and Audrey Doerr (former official at Indian and Northern Affairs) focus on federal-provincial relations pertaining to environmental and Aboriginal issues respectively. Rejean Pelletier (Laval) analyses whether the change from Parizeau to Bouchard has affected Quebec's positions on non-constitutional files, Roger Gibbins (Calgary) explains factors that helped the government of Alberta become so influential in the intergovernmental arena in recent years, and Sid Noel (Western) looks at Ontario's radical refashioning of its approach to intergovernmental relations. Rob Howse (Toronto) analyses how the non-constitutional focuses fit well with the need to blend a community of association (Canada) with the different communities of identity that exist within Canadian borders. Harvey Lazar, in an introductory essay, provides an overall report card on the renewal process.