At the outset I will freely confess that the preparation of this paper has caused me some misgivings. For one thing, the times beg to Heaven for a masterfully brilliant statement on the subject of federal-provincial financial relations, and few occasions could be more propitious for such a performance than the present. For another I was disturbed to find that my efforts this morning are itemized in the programme under the heading “Economics,” which suggests that I am an economist and that my subject falls primarily into that field of study.

As to making a brilliant analysis, the challenge that others might have felt was barely aroused in me and succumbed very quickly. I am beginning to feel that I now hold a record for having sustained complete sterility of new thought on federal-provincial relations over a longer period of active writing and study than any other person in Canada. Recently my score in this respect has been perfect, and the thought of abandoning this unique position was more than I could contemplate. I had somewhat more of a problem in making peace with the programme, however. I hesitate to classify the subject as part of “Economics,” but at least I am impelled to agree that it should fall within one of the social sciences. My own difficulty in deciding which one is that years of close contact with negotiations between the federal and provincial governments have shown me that in practice this subject is a compound of a great deal of simple arithmetic, a considerable element of practical politics, and a modicum of pretentious nonsense. Whether these are the earmarks of “Political Science,” “Political Economy,” or simply “Economics” I will leave it to the adherents of these disciplines to decide for themselves. For my part I am content to leave the subject unclassified, allowing it to follow its own bent and speak its own language. I have tried, however, to extract it from the heat of political skirmishing so that we can look at it in some detachment, and as well for the most part the all-important question of federal arithmetic has been left in abeyance.