Abstract. I show that the strong electoral success of the Liberal party in Canada stems in great part from the strong support of Catholics and Canadians of non-European origin. In the absence of the fervent backing it enjoys among these two groups, the Liberals would not be among the most successful democratic parties in the world. Yet, we do not have a good understanding of why Catholics and non-Europeans vote Liberal. I argue that the group bases of Liberal support should lead us to question the common interpretation that the party's centrist policy position is the key to its electoral success.

Résumé. Je montre que le succès électoral du Parti libéral fédéral au Canada découle en bonne partie de l'appui des catholiques et des citoyens d'origine non européenne. Sans l'appui solide de ces deux groupes, le Parti libéral n'aurait pas remporté les succès électoraux remarquables qu'il a connus. Pourtant, nous n'avons toujours pas d'explication satisfaisante des raisons qui amènent les catholiques et les citoyens d'origine non européenne à voter pour le Parti libéral. Je soutiens que ces tendances sociologiques lourdes devraient nous inciter à remettre en question l'interprétation habituelle selon laquelle les succès libéraux sont attribuables aux positions centristes du parti.

Abstract. Public support for legal recognition of same-sex marriage increased markedly in Canada over the course of the 1990s. The argument of this paper is that a sequence of Supreme Court decisions in the realm of same-sex relationship recognition—and the legislative activity that followed as a result—played a pivotal role in shaping public opinion on this issue. It is argued that the impact of these institutions was twofold. First, by framing the issue as one of equal rights, the courts and legislatures induced many Canadians to weigh equality-related considerations more heavily in the formation of opinions on same-sex marriage. Second, legal recognition of same-sex relationships directly persuaded many Canadians that such recognition was legitimate. The paper uses data from the Canadian Election Studies for 1993, 1997 and 2000.

Résumé. Durant les années 1990 le soutien populaire aux mariages entre conjoints de même sexe s'est clairement renforcé. La thèse principale de cet article avance qu'une série de décisions de la Cour suprême portant sur les relations entre conjoints de même sexe, de même que les décisions adoptées par les pouvoirs législatifs en réponse à ces jugements, jouèrent un rôle crucial dans la formation de l'opinion publique sur ces questions. D'abord, en formulant le débat en termes d'égalité devant la loi, les appareils judiciaire et législatif ont amené les Canadiens à accorder plus de poids aux arguments liés à l'égalité dans leurs réflexions sur le sujet. En second lieu, la reconnaissance légale des unions entre conjoints de même sexe a persuadé les Canadiens de la légitimité de cette reconnaissance. Les conclusions de ce texte s'appuient sur les données des éditions d'Étude électorale canadienne de 1993, 1997 et 2000.

Résumé. L'apparence des politiciens, leur représentation visuelle pendant un débat télévisé a-t-elle un impact sur l'évaluation que font d'eux les électeurs? Le contexte d'écoute joue-t-il sur l'identification du gagnant de la confrontation? Le niveau de sophistication politique et la fermeté de l'identité partisane de l'électeur limitent-ils l'effet de la représentation visuelle des politiciens dans son évaluation de leurs performances oratoires? S'inspirant du débat théorique qui secoue la discipline depuis la diffusion du premier débat Kennedy-Nixon en 1960, cet article présente les données tirées d'une expérience menée auprès d'électeurs québécois lors de la diffusion du débat francophone de l'élection fédérale canadienne de 2000. L'analyse démontre que la représentation visuelle des politiciens et le contexte d'écoute du débat amènent les participants à évaluer différemment la performance des politiciens et agissent également sur la capacité des électeurs à identifier clairement le vainqueur du débat télévisé. Les données indiquent de plus que la fermeté de l'identité partisane agit comme rempart aux effets de la représentation visuelle sur l'évaluation des politiciens par les téléspectateurs, alors que le niveau de sophistication des électeurs, contrairement aux attentes théoriques, ne joue pas ce rôle. Tout comme le contenu de leurs interventions verbales, les composantes de la représentation visuelle des acteurs politiques représentent des pistes d'information qui alimentent également la réflexion des électeurs lors de l'écoute d'un débat télévisé.

Abstract. Does a politician's appearance, visual representation, during a televised debate influence voters' evaluations of her performance? Does the listening context of the debate impact a voter's capacity to identify a clear winner? Are political sophistication and partisanship strong barriers to the potential effects of politicians' images on voters' evaluations of their performance? Adding a Canadian perspective to the ongoing theoretical debate on the actual impact of leaders' visual representation in televised debates on voter preferences, launched in 1960 by preliminary assesments of the first Kennedy-Nixon debate, this article presents data collected during an experiment conducted with a sample of Québec voters during the broadcast of the French language leaders' debate of the 2000 Canadian federal election. The study shows that the leaders' visual representation during the debate and the listening context of the event bring voters to evaluate politicians participating in the broadcast differently and play on voters' capacity to easily identify a clear winner of the televised confrontation. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that partisanship is a strong barrier to the effect of visual representation in voters' evaluations of the leaders but that political sophistication, contrary to theoretical expectations, is not. Like verbal arguments brought forward by the politicians in a televised debate, their visual representation also carries information cues that help define voters' evaluations of the leaders participating in the broadcast.

Abstract. Many people in Canada are frightened by the right of local self-government, because they are afraid of the privatization of public authority. This article suggests that municipalities can be otherwise conceived, and that a right of local self-government can be vindicated without impairing the capacity of the state or encouraging a debilitating privatism. The key is to understand that municipalities can be non-exclusive public authorities, on a different register from the state or civil society.

Résumé. La crainte de la privatisation des pouvoirs publics mène de nombreux Canadiens et Canadiennes à redouter le droit à l'autonomie gouvernementale locale. Cet article suggère qu'il est possible d'envisager les municipalités autrement, et qu'on peut justifier le droit à l'autonomie gouvernementale locale sans faire entrave aux compétences de l'État et sans encourager un privatisme débilitant. L'important est de comprendre que les municipalités peuvent exercer un pouvoir public non exclusif dans leur propre zone de compétence, jouant sur un registre différent de celui de l'État ou de la société civile.

Abstract. Everyone familiar with the study of Canadian politics knows the joke about how a French national, an Englishman and a Canadian were asked to write an essay about an elephant: the French national wrote about the culinary uses of the elephant, the Englishman wrote about the elephant and imperialism, and the Canadian wrote a paper entitled, “Elephant: Federal or Provincial Responsibility?” Though simple, the joke conveys the essence of Canadian politics: always defined by jurisdictional disputes. The joke misses the boat, however, by ignoring the fact that indigenous people are now (as they always have been) engaging in jurisdictional debates in an attempt to challenge the Canadian constitutional order and to reaffirm their own constitutional order and autonomy. This paper examines one such dispute—the Mi'kmaw claim of rights and responsibilities for the salmon fishery—and presents it as a case of contested sovereignties and a resulting jurisdictional dispute. In so doing, I pose the question: Is salmon a federal, provincial or Mi'kmaq responsibility? In seeking an answer, this paper proceeds in an exploratory manner to map both constitutional orders, and the interrelation between these orders that results in the debate over responsibility for the salmon.

Résumé. Dans le milieu de la science politique au Canada, tout le monde connaît la blague du Français, du Britannique et du Canadien qui doivent écrire une thèse sur l'éléphant. Le Français disserte sur les usages culinaires de l'éléphant, le Britannique traite de l'éléphant et de l'impérialisme et le Canadien écrit une thèse intitulée : “L'éléphant : responsabilité fédérale ou provinciale?” Cette blague, dans sa simplicité, évoque l'essence même de la politique au Canada, car la politique canadienne a toujours été définie par des conflits juridictionnels. Mais, si elle illustre bien la nature de la politique au Canada, elle n'est cependant pas satisfaisante parce qu'elle ignore qu'aujourd'hui (comme autrefois d'ailleurs) les peuples autochtones s'engagent dans les débats juridictionnels pour contester l'ordre constitutionnel du Canada et pour réaffirmer leur propre ordre constitutionnel et leur autonomie. Cet article examine l'un de ces conflits : la revendication par les Mi'kmaq de leurs droits et responsabilités concernant les pêcheries de saumon – et le présente comme un cas de souverainetés contestées, et, par conséquent, un exemple de conflit juridictionnel. Je pose donc la question : “Saumon : responsabilité fédérale, provinciale ou Mi'kmaq?” En répondant à cette question, l'article explore les caractéristiques des deux ordres constitutionnels et leur connexions, ce qui mène à un débat sur l'attribution des compétences dans le domaine du saumon.

Abstract. The focus of this article is the theory of integration advanced by Alan Cairns in his book, Citizens Plus: Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian State. Cairns' theory has had a mixed reception since its publication. Like much scholarship and public policy in the Aboriginal rights field, Citizens Plus has attracted strong proponents and opponents. At present Citizens Plus remains one of the primary competitors vying for influence in guiding the postcolonial reconfiguration of the relationship between Aboriginal peoples, the Canadian state and civil society on terms of justice that may be perceived as legitimate by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. The prime alternative, as conceived by both Cairns and his critics, is the nation-to-nation constitutional vision of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The author provides a political theoretical reading of Citizens Plus. She seeks to disclose the normative and conceptual structure of Cairns' argument and to situate Cairns' theory in the context of debates concerning the future of Aboriginal peoples and the constitution of Canada. This reading foregrounds an alternative interpretation of the relationship between Citizens Plus and the constitutional vision of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which makes it possible to see them as complementary rather than opposed constitutional visions. The author also raises broader questions concerning the reasons for continuing the search, at the heart of Cairns' work, for a post-colonial theory and praxis of normative integration in diverse societies, and the conditions of the possibility of such a theory and praxis. Ultimately the author argues that whether one agrees or disagrees with Cairns' prescription, at a minimum Citizens Plus should be understood as raising a fundamental question to which multinational constitutional theory must respond.

Résumé. Le présent article a pour objet d'examiner la théorie avancée par Alan Cairns dans son ouvrage, Citizens Plus : Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State. Cette théorie est loin de faire l'unanimité; comme beaucoup d'autres ouvrages ou initiatives dans le domaine des droits autochtones, Citizens Plus a ses partisans et ses détracteurs. À l'heure actuelle, Citizens Plus demeure l'une des principales approches possibles de la redéfinition postcoloniale des relations entre les peuples autochtones et l'État et la société civile canadiens sur le fondement de conditions justes dont la légitimité est susceptible d'être reconnue autant par les peuples autochtones que par les non-autochtones. La vision de relations de nation à nation, telle qu'exprimée par la Commission royale sur les peuples autochtones, est, selon Cairns ainsi que ses détracteurs, la principale alternative à Citizens Plus. Dans le présent article, l'auteure interprète Citizens Plus dans une optique de théorie politique. Elle cherche à faire ressortir la structure normative et conceptuelle de l'argument de Cairns et à situer la théorie de Cairns dans le contexte des débats concernant l'avenir des peuples autochtones et de la constitution canadienne. L'auteure veut ainsi attirer l'attention sur une autre interprétation possible de la relation entre Citizens Plus et la vision de la Commission royale sur les peuples autochtones. Selon cette interprétation, il s'agit de visions complémentaires plutôt que contradictoires. L'auteure soulève également des questions plus générales, concernant les raisons de poursuivre la recherche d'une théorie et d'une praxie d'intégration normative au sein de sociétés empreintes de diversité, ainsi que les conditions de la possibilité d'une telle théorie et d'une telle praxie. Cette recherche est, par ailleurs, au cœur de l'œuvre de Cairns. En dernière analyse, l'auteure soutient que, peu importe que l'on souscrive ou non à ce que Cairns propose, Citizens Plus soulève, à tout le moins, une question fondamentale à laquelle la théorie constitutionnelle multinationale doit répondre.

Abstract. This paper considers why gender mainstreaming (GM), a strategy that many have claimed holds promise for transforming public policy and working towards social justice, is inherently limited and flawed. The paper begins with a brief overview of GM, specifically focusing on the Canadian context, and highlights current discussions in the literature regarding issues of implementation and best practices. It then moves on to reveal that a critical but overlooked dimension of GM is its theoretical foundation. In contextualizing GM within a contemporary feminist theory framework, the paper seeks to illuminate the problematic relationship that currently exists between GM and feminist theory and, moreover, demonstrates why the theoretical premises of GM need significant reworking. The argument put forward is that if insights of recent feminist theorizing are taken seriously, it becomes clear that GM should be replaced by an alternative and broader strategy of diversity mainstreaming. Through the use of practical examples, the paper illustrates how diversity mainstreaming is able to better capture, articulate and make visible the relationship between simultaneously interlocking forms of oppressions that include but are not limited to gender.

Résumé. Cet article étudie pourquoi l'intégration d'une perspective de genre (IPG), une stratégie dans laquelle beaucoup ont vu la promesse d'une transformation de la politique publique et d'un progrès vers la justice sociale, est en soi limitée et défectueuse. L'article débute par un bref exposé sur l'IPG, s'intéressant principalement au contexte canadien, et il met en évidence les discussions actuelles dans la littérature au sujet de problèmes de mise en oeuvre et de pratiques exemplaires. Il révèle ensuite qu'une dimension critique mais négligée de l'IPG est son fondement théorique. En contextualisant l'IPG dans un cadre de théorie féministe contemporaine, l'article cherche à éclairer la relation problématique qui existe actuellement entre l'IPG et la théorie féministe et, de surcroît, démontre pourquoi les prémisses théoriques de l'IPG nécessitent une révision significative. L'argument avancé est que, si l'on prend au sérieux les conclusions des théories féministes récentes, il semble évident que l'IPG devrait être remplacée par une stratégie plus vaste d'intégration d'une perspective de diversité. S'appuyant sur des exemples pratiques, l'article montre que l'intégration d'une perspective de diversité réussit à mieux capturer, mettre en rapport et rendre visible la relation entre des formes d'oppression qui s'entrecroisent simultanément et qui incluent mais ne se limitent pas au genre.

Abstract. Increased regulation of political ethics has not produced a growing satisfaction with the conduct of politics or the behaviour of politicians. We examine the proposition that regulation produces a convergence of attitudes and expectations between politicians and the public in the realm of political ethics. A distinction is drawn between political ethics conceived as a policy issue and as a process issue. Two models based on that distinction are derived and examined in the context of data drawn from Canada. We observe differences between politicians and the public on critical dimensions, differences that overpower partisan positions. Our conclusions support, with some reservations, the “worlds apart” model and caution against an overinvestment in ethics regulation as a means of restoring public faith in the political process.

Résumé. Les citoyens ne sont pas plus satisfaits du processus politique ni du comportement des politiciens depuis que l'éthique politique est plus réglementée. Nous étudions la prémisse selon laquelle la réglementation produit, en ce qui a trait à l'éthique politique, une convergence des attitudes et des attentes entre les politiciens et l'électorat. Deux conceptions distinctes de l'éthique politique émergent de notre propos: celle qui renvoie aux politiques en tant que telles et celle qui renvoie au processus politique. Sur la base de cette distinction, nous dérivons ainsi deux modèles et les examinons dans le contexte de données recueillies au Canada. Nous observons entre les politiciens et l'électorat certaines différences dans des domaines essentiels et ces différences transcendent les lignes partisanes. Nos conclusions soutiennent, avec quelques réserves, le modèle des “mondes à part” et mettent en garde contre une surenchère de la réglementation de l'éthique pour restaurer la confiance de l'électorat envers le processus politique.

Abstract. Despite widespread attention paid to issues of representation, how Canadians think and feel about different facets of representation are inadequately documented and understood. Using data from the 2000 Canadian Election Study (CES), the article addresses this dearth of systematic research through an examination of popularly held attitudes toward three dimensions of political representation: direct versus representative democracy, the role of the elected representative and territorial versus non-territorial bases of substantive representation. Particular attention is paid to the impact of political knowledge and the individualist/collectivist value cleavage on representational preferences. Results are discussed in light of current debates regarding institutional and representational change in Canada.

Résumé. En dépit de l'attention portée aux enjeux de la représentation, les sentiments et les idées des Canadiens par rapport aux différents aspects de la représentation sont mal documentés et compris. Cet article emploie les données de l'Étude électorale canadienne (ÉÉC) et cherche à combler cette lacune en examinant les attitudes populaires par rapport à trois dimensions de la représentation politique : la démocratie directe versus représentative, le rôle du représentant élu, et les bases de représentation territoriales versus non-territoriales. Nous accordons une attention particulière aux répercussions du niveau de connaissances politiques et des valeurs individualistes ou collectivistes sur les préférences en matière de représentation. Les résultats sont examinés à la lumière des débats récents sur le renouveau institutionnel et les modifications de la représentation au Canada.

Political Parties, William Cross, The Canadian Democratic Audit series; Vancouver, UBC Press, 2004, pp. 218.

Political Parties is part of the Canadian Democratic Audit series. The expressed aim of the series is to “examine the way Canadian democracy functions” using three benchmarks, “public participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness,” with the principle output being not so much a report card but the desire to “encourage ongoing discussion of how best to fashion Canada's democratic institutions and practices well into the new century” (http://www.mta.ca/faculty/arts-letters/canadian_studies/cda/pdf/demaudit_overview_15aug.pdf). Cross's short, readable volume achieves these objectives.

Pro-Family Politics and Fringe Parties in Canada, Chris MacKenzie, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp. 292.

MacKenzie's title is misleading, for the major focus of the book is not pro-family parties across Canada. Rather, he uses an intensive study of a single provincial pro-family party—the Family Coalition Party of British Columbia (FCP)—as a starting point for an ambitious and successful attempt to chart the conceptual morass that lies between the literatures on social movements and political parties. He makes a strong argument that small, ideologically driven parties on either end of the ideological spectrum face two distinct sets of challenges: those of political parties and those of social movements. Understanding how this double jeopardy affects the success of what he terms party/movements is important. In this respect, the book is an important contribution to the literature on what political scientists more usually call minor parties. The second focus of the book is new right ideology in the English-speaking world, with the FCP standing in as an example of this ideology. Here, the book is shakier, as it is not clear that the FCP is representative of this ideology or that MacKenzie is entirely objective in approaching this aspect of his topic.

Citizens, Elisabeth Gidengil, André Blais, Neil Nevitte and Richard Nadeau, Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2004, pp. vii, 214.

Citizens is one volume in a series designed to evaluate the democratic performance of the institutions and practices affecting public decision-making in Canada. The Canadian Democratic Audit (CDA) is based on the premise that declining levels of public confidence in those institutions and anemic participation rates in political and community life dictate the need for a performance review. In Citizens, the state of democratic citizenship is evaluated according to levels of public involvement in civic and political activities, the extent to which these participatory opportunities represent social diversity, and the potential for these activities to reflect the collective interests of all Canadians. The volume also assesses reform proposals to improve public participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness.

Second Growth: Community Economic Development in Rural British Columbia, Sean Markey, John Pierce, Mark Roseland and Kelly Vodden, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp. 352.

This theoretically rich, community economic development (CED) work, written by four members of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development (formerly the Community Economic Development Centre) at Simon Fraser University, is the product of a three-year participatory-action-based research project involving four “forest-based” British Columbia communities. Two Aboriginal communities and two municipalities were case studied as part of an action-learning exercise in order to gain “insight into the apparent conflict between the economic imperative and fluidity of capital versus the lived worlds of rural and small time places” (3). Through their empirical studies of the four communities, the authors argue that CED, fostered at the local level, can allow for the kind of capacity building that is needed to create diversified, sustainable economic futures for resource-based rural and small-town communities. They are careful, however, to distinguish between the use of CED as a “localized and palliative strategy” for marginalized communities caught in the throes of political and economic dependency, and the possibilities for a more robust (theoretically balanced) version of CED, which can become part and parcel of rural and small-town locally-based planning and development. While recognizing the appropriateness of CED in either situation, they argue that a host of negative economic and political factors, which are intensifying under the direction of neo-liberal ideological thinking, have resulted in a pressing need for the more robust form of community development and corresponding revitalization strategies.

Between Colliding Worlds: The Ambiguous Existence of Government Agencies for Aboriginal and Women's Policy, Jonathan Malloy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press/IPAC, 2003, pp. x, 217.

This book explores the complex relationship between “special policy agencies” created to address the needs of specific social groups, and the social movements that arise to advocate for these groups. Its main premise is that special policy agencies exist in a state of permanent—and highly useful—ambiguity, forming a conduit that enables the conflicting worlds of social movements and governments to articulate their highly distinct agendas in a manner comprehensible to both “worlds.”

Elections, John C. Courtney, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004, pp. ix, 201.

The expansion of the number of democratic regimes around the world and the decline of trust in government in established democracies have renewed interest in election laws and how these rules define the national community, allow citizens to express their preferences, and influence the composition of legislatures. In Canada, the study of electoral laws has frequently dealt with how electoral formulae translate votes into legislative representation.

Steps Toward Making Every Vote Count: Electoral System Reform in Canada and its Provinces, Henry Milner, ed., Peterborough: Broadview, 2004, pp. 319.

After some decades of a principally academic debate in Canada, electoral reform has become a topic of current political discussion and even, in some cases, concrete action. Henry Milner's Steps Toward Making Every Vote Count is a very useful follow-up to the widely read Making Every Vote Count (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1999). While the focus remains on trying to make the case that electoral reform is indeed necessary in Canada, the emphasis lies more on assessing the changes that are already under way. With five provinces directly engaged in electoral reform, this book provides a very welcome collection of essays to deepen our understanding of the subject.

The Formation of National Party Systems: Federalism and Party Competition in Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States, Pradeep K. Chhibber and Ken Kollman, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. xvi, 276.

Mining electoral data to arrive at theories about the relationship between political party performance and party system determination and electoral and governmental institutions forms the main stream of political science. And one of its most enduring puzzles is the explanation of the patterns and diversities of party systems. With the famous “Duverger's Law” about single-member plurality systems and two-party political systems forming its point of departure, political scientists have attempted to substantiate their discipline's status as a “science” by producing theories about relationships between measurable political variables.

A Unified Theory of Party Competition: A Cross-National Analysis Integrating Spatial and Behavioral Factors, J.F. Adams, S. Merill, III and B. Grofman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 311.

A Unified Theory of Party Competition continues the development of the important research agenda started by Merrill and Grofman's A Unified Theory of Voting: Directional and Spatial Proximity Models (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). This agenda focuses on integrating hitherto diverging streams of the literature in order to present sophisticated formal models that lead to empirically testable predictions with more realistic results than earlier models. As such, this book is at the cutting edge of developing the scientific study of politics. Although written with an explicit theoretical concern in mind, it presents a wealth of rigorous empirical tests, drawn from case studies of Britain, France, Norway and the Unites States, to demonstrate how well the theory travels across very different institutional and contextual settings.

Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State: Path Dependence and Policy Diffusion, Junko Kato, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 260.

This book provides a surprisingly interesting look at an understudied problem within the field of comparative welfare state research: the relationship between funding and welfare state regime characteristics. The author proposes that researchers take a second look at regressive taxation, specifically value-added taxes (VATs) such as Canada's GST. While it is commonly assumed that a sustainable and extensive welfare state goes hand-in-hand with a heavy reliance on progressive taxation, Kato seeks to demonstrate through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods that this is not the case.

Democratization Without Representation: The Politics of Small Industry in Mexico, Shadlen, Kenneth C., University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004, pp. vii–xvi, 208.

In this book Kenneth Shadlen addresses the important question of what democracy has really meant for civil society in Mexico. Mexico counts among the stragglers over the finish line of third-wave transitions, but, as elsewhere, hopes were high that democratization would magically result in political, social and economic betterment for all. Shadlen's book is among a growing number of studies drawing attention to the differences between electoral democracy—based on electoral turnover through relatively free and fair contests—and quality democracy—a more ideal regime type with intensive participatory and representative aspects. He challenges the perception that any kind of democracy always benefits all citizens more than other regimes, by offering an in-depth analysis of small business's interest aggregation and articulation difficulties, which have increased with the transition.