Why did the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) and the New Democratic Party (NDP) enter into a supply-and-confidence agreement in March 2022? Interparty cooperation among federal parties is rare during minority governments, and yet the agreement created a formal alliance in the House of Commons. In this article, we argue that ideational factors led to the 2022 agreement. We examine the role of programmatic beliefs and strategic learning during the COVID-19 crisis and the 2019-2021 election sequence to shed light on changes in federal parliamentary strategies in Canada. From ad-hoc voting coalitions to extended cooperation on social policymaking, the LPC and the NDP learned how to work together in the House of Commons while using the agreement as a tool to compete with each other in anticipation of the next federal election.

Do Indigenous peoples in present-day Canada display lower levels of diffuse support than non-Indigenous settlers? Given settler colonial relations (both historic and contemporary) and Indigenous peoples’ own political thought, we can expect that Indigenous peoples would have even lower perceptions of state legitimacy than non-Indigenous peoples. However, there are conflicting expectations regarding whether the descriptive representation of Indigenous peoples in settler institutions is likely to make a difference: on one hand, Indigenous people may see themselves reflected in these institutions and consequently feel better represented; on the other hand, these forms of representation do not challenge the underlying colonial nature of these institutions. Using data from the 2019 and 2021 Canadian Election Studies, our statistical analysis demonstrates that: (1) diffuse support is significantly lower among Indigenous peoples than non-Indigenous peoples, including people of color; (2) Indigenous respondents across multiple peoples have similarly low levels of diffuse support, and (3) being represented by an Indigenous Member of Parliament does not change the levels of diffuse support among Indigenous peoples. Overall, our research highlights the outstanding challenges to achieving reconciliation through the Canadian state and points to ways large-N analyses may be made more robust.

As Western society becomes increasingly digitally dependent and many older adults actively engage in the online world, understanding the experiences of those who largely do not use digital technology in their daily lives is crucial. Individual interviews were conducted (pre-pandemic) with 23 older adults who, based on self-identification, did not regularly use digital technology, exploring how their experiences as limited digital technology users may have impacted their daily lives. An iterative collaborative qualitative analysis demonstrated three main themes: internet concerns, frustrations with digital technology, and conflicting motivators to use digital technology. Findings suggest that addressing digital concerns and providing effective digital skill learning opportunities may encourage some older adults to become more digitally engaged. However, as people, including older adults, can be uninterested in using these technologies, organizations and institutions should work to offer ways to support people of all ages who are not engaged online.

Rock art can be useful as a factor in reclaiming Indigenous identities. One example of this phenomenon is work by contemporary artists who explore and integrate rock art in their creations. The author considers how and why a selection of artists in Siberia/Central Asia and Canada use these ancient images.

Les instruments auxquels un État peut avoir recours pour atténuer les risques que font peser les inégalités économiques sur la démocratie sont nombreux et peuvent prendre différentes formes. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à mettre en lumière la dimension normative des trois principaux instruments auxquels on a généralement recours pour mitiger l'influence de l'argent dans la compétition électorale, ainsi que le contexte dans lequel ils furent institués, remodelés – et parfois démantelés – au Canada. Ces trois mécanismes sont la limitation des dépenses électorales, le plafonnement des contributions privées et le financement public des partis. Il ne s'agit toutefois pas uniquement de décrire ces instruments, mais de réfléchir aux justifications normatives spécifiques à chacun, et d'en comprendre leur complémentarité. Plus largement, il s'agit d'offrir un cadre pour penser les enjeux de financement électoral en philosophie politique, un sujet trop souvent laissé dans l'ombre par la théorie démocratique.

Seven new species of Verrucaria are described from Finland: Verrucaria hakulinenii sp. nov., V. juumaensis sp. nov., V. linkolae sp. nov., V. lohjaensis sp. nov., V. norrlinii sp. nov., V. oulankajokiensis sp. nov., and V. vainioi sp. nov. Verrucaria linkolae is also reported from the Czech Republic, Germany and the United Kingdom, V. norrlinii from Norway and V. juumaensis from Canada based on a previously unidentified soil sample. Based on ITS sequences, V. hakulinenii and V. juumaensis probably belong to the Verrucaria hydrophila group whereas V. linkolae, V. norrlinii, V. oulankajokiensis and V. vainioi are closely related to V. hunsrueckensis and V. nodosa. The new species are characterized by a thin brown or green thallus, rather small perithecia and a predominantly thin involucrellum reaching the exciple base level. Verrucaria hakulinenii is characterized by a thin thalline cover of the perithecia, a green thallus and fairly large spores (18–22 × 8–10 μm). Verrucaria juumaensis, V. linkolae, V. norrlinii and V. vainioi are characterized by a predominantly brown thallus, often with goniocyst-like units. Verrucaria linkolae has densely occurring perithecia (100–330 perithecia per cm2) whereas in V. juumaensis, V. norrlinii and V. vainioi perithecia occur more sparsely (40–160 perithecia per cm2). Verrucaria juumaensis and V. vainioi usually have a minute thallus. Verrucaria juumaensis differs from V. vainioi by slightly larger perithecia (0.18–0.27 mm diam.) and longer and wider spores. Verrucaria lohjaensis is characterized by a mosaically dark brown and white, small areolate thallus and conspicuous ostioles. Verrucaria oulankajokiensis has small perithecia that are often thinly covered by thalline tissue and a thallus partly surrounded by dark lines. Most species occur on calcareous rocks, but V. vainioi is restricted to siliceous rocks. Verrucaria linkolae and V. norrlinii are widely distributed both on calcareous, serpentine and siliceous rocks, preferring pebbles. Epiphytic occurrences of V. linkolae and V. norrlinii are confirmed. A key to the new species and species with a similar morphology in Finland is provided.

This article examines two venues where historians of education have in the past addressed serious, publicly significant questions: commissions of inquiry and courtrooms where education rights and educational injustices are litigated. The article argues that these two examples demonstrate historians’ particular skills and abilities as evidence-gatherers, clear communicators, strong generalists, and experts in making sense of change over time. The article also suggests that these particular skills and abilities can be the basis for historians’ continued contributions to answering questions of public significance.

During the Second World War, Germans, Austrians and Italians living in Great Britain were designated as ‘enemy aliens’ and consequently interned. The worsening situation on the continent in May and June 1940 stirred up hysteria that spies and saboteurs could be amongst the Germans and Austrians. Mass arrests started in May 1940, and Italians were soon caught up in the detentions when Mussolini declared war on 10 June, thus filling internment camps to capacity. Canada and Australia agreed to take some of the ‘most dangerous characters’, facilitating the most controversial aspect of internment – deportation – which led to the ultimate tragedy when the SS Arandora Star was torpedoed and sunk on 2 July 1940. Building on previous scholarship that focuses on either German or Italian internment, this article examines both government policy towards and the internee experience of these two groups on an equal footing, thus furthering integration of the Italian narrative within internment historiography.

Using data envelopment analysis, we examine the efficiency of Canada's universal health care system by considering a set of labour (physicians) and capital (beds) inputs, which produce a level of care (measured in terms of health quality and quantity) in a given region. Data from 2013–2015 were collected from the Canadian Institute for Health Information regarding inputs and from the Canadian Community Health Survey and Statistics Canada regarding our output variables, health utility (quality) and life expectancy (quantity). We posit that variation in efficiency scores across Canada is the result of regional heterogeneity regarding socioeconomic and demographic disparities. Regressing efficiency scores on such covariates suggests that regional unemployment and an older population are quite impactful and associated with less efficient health care production. Moreover, regional variation indicates the Atlantic provinces (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick) are quite inefficient, have poorer economic prospects, and tend to have an older population than the rest of Canada. Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions suggest that the latter two factors explain about one-third of this efficiency gap. Based on our two-stage semi-parametric analysis, we recommend Canada adjust their transfer payments to reflect these disparities, thereby potentially reducing inequality in regional efficiency.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented numerous challenges to older adults in Canada, including the ability to volunteer. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the social context surrounding volunteering in Canada, by (a) determining changes in associations between human, social, and cultural capital and volunteering among older adults; and (b) examining the relationship between ethnic minority status and volunteering, using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), collected prior to and during the pandemic. This study utilized data from 24,306 CLSA Baseline, Follow-up 1 (FUP1), and COVID-19 Baseline Survey participants (aged 55+). Results confirm a decrease in volunteering during the early stages of the pandemic. Compared to pre-pandemic associations, volunteers during the early stages of the pandemic were more likely to be young–old, male, employed, and not involved in religious activities. Findings provide evidence of pandemic effects on volunteering among older adults in Canada.

In Canada, there is interest in expanding medical assistance in dying (MAID) to include advance requests (AR) for people living with dementia (PLWD). However, operationalizing the intolerable suffering criterion for MAID in ARs for PLWD is complicated by the Canadian legal context—in which MAID is understood as a medical intervention and suffering is conceptualized as subjective—and the degenerative nature of dementia. ARs that express a wish to receive MAID when the PLWD develops pre-specified impairments are problematic because people are unlikely to accurately predict the conditions that will cause intolerable suffering. ARs that express a wish to receive MAID when the PLWD exhibits pre-specified behaviors that likely represent suffering are problematic because they are inconsistent with the subjective conceptualization of suffering. Further research is required to determine whether adopting an objective conceptualization of suffering is justified in these cases and, if so, how to reliably identify intolerable suffering in PLWD.