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Canadian federalism, as a particular form of political organization for a complex society—with multiple economic, political, geographic, cultural, and national divides—faces important challenges. The political realignment that brought the Conservative Party to power in the last quinquennium has set in motion a significant transformation of the Canadian state and its federal system of governance.
The contributors in this collection focus on three recurrent themes: the issues arising from the management of ethno-cultural diversity; the existence of internal nations in Canada (the First Nations and the Quebec nation in Quebec), the presence of linguistic minorities (French and English), and the questions of identity linked to citizenship in a federal context that allows for the presence of multiple loyalties; and the specific challenges raised by globalization and the extension of economic integration, particularly between the United States and Canada.
This collection of studies on the role of the state reveals that our understanding of the evolution of the Canadian state, and of the ensuing impact on federalism and federal-provincial relations, is not as complete as it should be.
François Rocher is professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa where he served as director of the School of Political Studies from 2008 to 2013. From 1990 to 2006, he was member of the Department of Political Science and Director of the School of Canadian Studies (2002-2005) at Carleton University (Ottawa). He is one of the founding members of the Groupe de recherche sur les sociétés plurinationales (GRSP) at UQAM. His research interests focus on broad issues that inform the Canadian political dynamic, including the constitutional debate, Canadian federalism, Quebec nationalism, issues related to citizenship and immigration policies, and management of ethnocultural diversity. He holds three degrees in Political Science from the Université de Montréal: PhD, 1987; MA, 1982; BA, 1980.
Michael Behiels (Editor)
Behiels, a full professor with the University of Ottawa Department of History, is an internationally renowned specialist in the history of Canadian federalism and constitutional development and is currently President of the Organization for the History of Canada and Interim President of the Network on the Constitution. Over the past thirty years, Dr. Behiels has taught, researched, and published in three interconnected areas: political, ideological, and constitutional developments in Quebec since 1940 and how these transformed federal-provincial relations; the development of nationalisms in Canada and how these impact Canada's federal system of governance; and the development of individual and minority rights formalized in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution Act, 1982 and the subsequent transformation of federalism and constitutionalism, in all of their dimensions, in Canada.