The heuristic model commonly used to explain Canada's interests in development assistance is the mixed-motives approach. These motives are assumed to be philanthropic, economic, and politico-strategic, though there is little agreement among students of Canadian development assistance about which of the three is the most important. The purpose of this article is to examine the orthodox model; it concludes that these motives have little utility in accounting for contemporary aid policies. Instead, drawing on realist and statist theory, this study advances an alternative set of motives that it is argued more accurately accounts for the level and nature of Canada's development assistance policies. Elaborating on “politico-strategic” motives, the article suggests that the Canadian state's interests in prestige, organizational maintenance and limiting real expenditures provide a more proximate explanation of aid policy.

The picture superiority effect suggests that a single photograph can communicate a significant amount of political information to voters. Accordingly, politicians must make strategic choices in their self-presentation, particularly when considering how to respond to gender-based stereotypes. Strategic stereotype theory suggests that politicians will either emphasize or rescind gender-based stereotypes depending on whether they believe them to be advantageous to their political image. While the literature on gendered self-presentation is largely confined to television advertising, there is a growing literature focused on the online environment. In this research note, we develop a methodological framework to assess gender-based stereotypes in a purely visual environment. We test the framework using photographs from the Twitter feeds of the main party leaders in the 2018 Ontario election. The note concludes by reflecting on the methodological challenges of examining gender in visual political content online.

This article addresses the overlooked subject of party switching in the Canadian House of Commons for the period 1945–2011. We estimate a model that explores how and why MPs engage in the otherwise risky behaviour of abandoning their party labels in a system characterized by a low personal vote. Our findings suggest that the electoral consequences for MPs who switch parties for policy reasons are indistinguishable from MPs who do not switch at all. By contrast, MPs who switch parties for office-related reasons, such as to accept a seat in cabinet or vote-related reasons, experience large electoral penalties. We also find that MPs who are expelled from caucus face the strongest electoral penalties of all party switchers, indicating it matters whether an MP jumps or is pushed. Our findings suggest that voters recognize opportunistic behaviour among their legislators and punish them accordingly and that under some circumstances, party switching may be both strategic and rational.

This research note tests the hypothesis that lobbying activities in Canada are primarily aimed at the members of the executive branch. It uses the data of the Canadian lobbying registry to measure the number of contacts between lobbyists and public office holders between the summer of 2008 and the summer of 2013. The results indicate that the majority of lobbying activities are aimed at the executive branch. However, it appears that the House of Commons is one of the most popular targets of lobbying activities. In fact, empirical evidence shows that numerous lobbying organizations are engaged in integrated strategies that consider both the legislative and executive institutions.

This article critically analyzes Carole Pateman's novel and provocative reading of social contract theory in her now-classic work, The Sexual Contract. Pateman posits the existence of a sexual contract prior to the social contract which she argues has been suppressed in the tradition of Western political thought. The article indicates some of the potential weaknesses with constructing a gendered critique of contract theory through the lens of a sexual contract. The author specifically focuses on Pateman's re-interpretation of the patriarchalism of Hobbes and Locke to make this case.

Abstract. This paper examines the relationship between social group identity and the level of political information in explaining Canadians' issue attitudes and vote choices. Traditional accounts of Canadians' partisan political leanings have placed a great deal of emphasis on social group identity in explaining attitudes. However based on data from the Canadian Election Studies from 1988–2004, it is argued that both social group identity and information influence the nature of vote choice and public opinion in Canada. In fact, the level of voter information has two contradictory effects on the political attitudes of different social groups. In some cases voters' level of information reduces the role of social group identity in explaining attitudes and vote choices; information acts to bridge the differences between different social groups (for example Catholics/non-Catholics and urban/rural Canadians). In other cases, voters' level of information acts to amplify the importance of social group identity in predicting attitudes (for example women/men and religious/nonreligious). These findings suggest that not only is social group identity a less effective predictor of attitudes than has traditionally been thought but that there are also significant underlying differences between the so-called “old” and “new” cleavages in Canada when it comes to understanding their impact on political values.

Résumé. Cet article examine le lien qui existe entre l'appartenance à un groupe social donné et le niveau d'information politique lorsqu'il s'agit d'expliquer l'attitude des Canadiens et des Canadiennes devant certaines questions d'intérêt politique et leur choix de vote. Les analyses traditionnelles des tendances partisanes au Canada mettent surtout l'accent sur l'appartenance à un groupe social particulier pour expliquer les positions. Toutefois, en nous fondant sur les données des Études électorales canadiennes de 1988 à 2004, nous soutenons que l'appartenance au groupe social tout comme le niveau d'information exercent une influence sur le choix de vote et sur l'opinion publique au Canada. En réalité, le niveau d'information des électeurs produit deux effets contradictoires sur la position politique de groupes sociaux différents. Dans certains cas, le niveau d'information des électeurs affaiblit le rôle du groupe social dans l'explication des positions et des choix de vote; il permet d'outrepasser les distinctions de groupe social (par exemple catholiques vs non-catholiques et Canadiens en milieu urbain ou en milieu rural). Dans d'autres cas, le niveau d'information amplifie l'importance du groupe social comme facteur permettant de prédire les positions (par exemple femmes vs hommes et électeurs religieux ou non religieux). Ces découvertes suggèrent que pour prédire les positions politiques, le groupe social est un indicateur moins fiable que ne le supposent les analyses traditionnelles. De surcroît, il existe d'importantes différences sous-jacentes entre les soi-disant “anciens” et “nouveaux” clivages au Canada lorsqu'il s'agit d'interpréter leur incidence sur les valeurs politiques.

Introduction

At present, little is known about the role socialization of Canadian legislators, that is, the processes by which incumbents of legislative positions acquire “a set of values, skills, loyalties and cognitive maps.” Defined in this way, legislative role socialization involves not only the acquisition of role orientations in the narrow sense of “a pattern of norms making up a particular role,” but also the development of the total set of cognitions and evaluations which, in their entirety, constitute a legislator's image of his job. To the extent that existing research is relevant for understanding the development of these job images, the normal procedure has been simply to examine relationships between narrowly defined role orientation variables (for example, representational role style or focus) and a set of socio-demographic and political characteristics the potential theoretical significance of which is often left unarticulated. Not surprisingly, these inquiries have shed little light on the role socialization of Canadian legislators.

Observers of the development and evolution of Canadian environmental policy have noted evidence of what appears to be a pattern of lagged emulation of United States environmental initiatives by Canadian authorities. The record of recent Canadian court activities in the area of environmental assessments is cited as evidence that Canadian environmental policy is converging with that of the US. Other commentators, however, have failed to observe the increase in litigation required to justify the convergence hypothesis. Using evidence gleaned from a database of over 150 Canadian superior court decisions on the environment between 1980 and 1989, this article finds little evidence of a systematic pattern of convergence in the judicialization of Canadian environmental policy, and suggests that the reasons for this lie in the different institutional and constitutional structures which define the roles and relationship of the judiciary, legislators and administrative agencies in each country.

Abstract. Despite all the attention paid to the topic of policy analysis as a conceptual endeavour, empirically, the actual work of policy analysts is little investigated and little known. This is true generally of most countries and jurisdictions but it is most acute at the subnational level of government in multilevel states. Recent work in Canada, however, based on comprehensive surveys of analysts of provincial and territorial policy, on the one hand, and regionally and Ottawa-based federal policy workers on the other, has found many similarities with national-level work but also significant differences. This work has highlighted differences in the distribution of tasks across jurisdictions—mainly the extent to which policy work involves implementation as well as formulation-related activities—as key distinctions found in policy work across levels of the Canadian multilevel system. This article uses frequency and principal components analysis (PCA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to probe these dimensions of policy work. It shows provincial and territorial analysts to be similar to regionally based federal workers in task allocation, undermining a straightforward depiction of differences in policy work by level of government. The extent of autonomy enjoyed by policy workers in different jurisdictional venues, both from internal actors and those outside of government, is shown to be the key driver of differences in policy work across levels of government.

Résumé. Malgré toute l'attention accordée au thème de l'analyse politique comme un effort conceptuel, empirique du travail réel des analystes des politiques est peu étudié et mal connu. Ceci est vrai en général de la plupart des pays et juridictions, mais est le plus aigu au niveau sous-national de gouvernement dans les États multi-niveaux. Des travaux récents au Canada, cependant, basée sur des enquêtes complètes des provinces et des territoires, d'une part, et régional et basée à Ottawa analystes de la politique fédérale, d'autre part, a trouvé de nombreuses similitudes avec le travail au niveau national mais aussi des différences significatives. Ce travail a mis en évidence des différences dans la répartition des tâches entre les administrations – notamment la mesure dans laquelle le travail politique consiste à la mise en œuvre ainsi que la formulation des activités liées – comme les distinctions clés trouvés dans le travail politique à travers les niveaux de l'canadienne système multi-niveau. Cet article utilise la fréquence et analyse en composantes principales (ACP) et la modélisation par équations structurelles (SEM) pour sonder ces dimensions du travail politique. Il montre les analystes provinciaux et territoriaux à être semblables à l'échelle régionale basée sur les travailleurs fédéraux dans la répartition des tâches, minant une représentation directe des différences dans le travail politique, par niveau de gouvernement. Le degré d'autonomie dont jouissent les travailleurs dans les différents lieux de la politique juridictionnelle – à la fois par des acteurs internes et ceux de l'extérieur du gouvernement – se révèle être le principal moteur de différences dans le travail politique à travers les niveaux de gouvernement.

Abstract. Locke's teaching on executive power is widely seen as one of the most problematic features of his constitutional theory. It is generally interpreted to be either an endorsement of extra-constitutional prerogative or a statement of radical legislative supremacy. However, the primary assumption underlying both of these positions—namely, that Locke saw law and constitution as coextensive—is mistaken. On the contrary, Locke's treatment of executive power illuminates his conception of constitutional authority that is distinct from and superior to normal legislation, but also confines prerogative within fundamental legal limits. Locke thus adumbrated many of the key elements of liberal constitutionalism familiar to us today.

Résumé. On a tendance à voir dans la doctrine de Locke sur le pouvoir exécutif l'un des éléments les plus problématiques de sa théorie constitutionnelle. Le plus souvent, on l'interprète soit comme une validation de la prérogative extra-constitutionnelle, soit comme une expression de suprématie législative radicale. Cependant, l'hypothèse fondamentale sous-jacente à ces deux positions, selon laquelle, pour Locke, loi et constitution seraient coextensives, est erronée. Au contraire, la façon dont Locke traite le pouvoir exécutif met en lumière sa conception d'une autorité constitutionnelle qui est à la fois distincte de la législation normale et supérieure à elle et qui confine, en même temps, la prérogative dans des limites légales fondamentales. Il s'ensuit, donc, que Locke laissait pressentir de nombreux éléments clés du constitutionnalisme libéral que nous connaissons aujourd'hui.

The last third of the nineteenth century, covering the years from Confederation until the beginning of the era of rapid expansion on the Western prairies, was a formative period for Canada. It is surprising that this period has as yet received little attention from economic historians, for analyses of demographic and economic changes during these years may yield high returns in the form of a more sophisticated interpretation of Canadian development.

One of a number of important yet neglected aspects of these years in Canada is the business cycle, and the purpose of this paper is to report some new research in this area. A study of business cycles, as opposed to “panics,” implies the existence of a clearly defined cyclical sequence that becomes apparent once an economy has reached a certain state of commercialization. While the process of commercialization in Canada generally lagged behind that in the United States it is clear that even before Confederation a viable market economy had been created in the united province of Ontario and Quebec. There is good reason to believe that by the time of Confederation factor and product markets were functioning quite smoothly and that the price system was playing a prominent role in allocating resources.

The two most authoritative, though far from definitive, accounts of cycles and growth in the late nineteenth century are contained in the works of Breckenridge and Skelton. Other students of Canadian economic history have relied heavily upon Skelton's findings about the pace and nature of activity in the post-Confederation years. Skelton concludes that the short period from 1869 to 1873 was a prosperous one, despite the abrogation of reciprocity with the United States, because (1) exports to the latter were well maintained, (2) Canadian producers were successful in finding new domestic markets, and (3) there were expanding sales to the United Kingdom. In contrast the period from the mid-seventies through the mid-nineties he considered to be “Days of Trial” during which Canada waited grimly for a favorable turn in its economic fortunes. In the late nineties Canada's “hour had struck” with emerging opportunities for agricultural expansion in the prairie west.

Despite the fact that ethnicity is an important principle of social organization in Canada, there are very few studies that attempt to describe and analyse how it operates at different levels and in different parts of the social system. In this paper we suggest ways that might lead to a clearer understanding of the significance of ethnicity in the country and its communities. In its relevance to research, this paper is both methodological and programmatic. We hope that it will provide fruitful suggestions for research and for the clearer formulation of problems for study.

Students in the field of ethnic studies seldom consider more than one ethnic group or category at a time. Where the group selected for study forms an autonomous community, we get an exhaustive account of the group and its relations with the “outside world,” rather like the account of an individual's life history. Even where the people who are being studied make up a large element in our population and are dispersed both geographically and socially, there is a tendency to follow the same procedure and to deal with what is really a category as though it were an autonomous, discrete group; the picture we get is of individuals of such and such an ethnic group (as though their only identity were an ethnic one) and their relations with outsiders. This procedure is comparable to making an analysis of a small group by taking each individual in turn and describing him exhaustively without taking into account the structure of the group itself.

Abstract. There is considerable evidence that local campaign activity is positively related both to a party's constituency level vote share and to voter participation rates. In this article we consider the degree of variance of local campaign intensity at the constituency level in the Liberal and New Democratic parties in the 2008 Canadian federal election and consider the variables that may explain this variance. Utilizing data collected through a post-election mail-back survey of candidates, we find significant variance in local campaign activity and identify six factors that influence it. These are an objective measure of the local candidate's chance for victory in the constituency, the candidate's subjective view of their chances, whether the candidate was challenged for the local nomination, how involved the candidate is in his/her local community, whether the candidate contested the prior election and whether party notables from outside the constituency campaigned in the riding.

Résumé. Les preuves sont considérables au fait que l'activité dans les campagnes locales correspond à la part des votes dans la circonscription électorale ainsi qu'à la participation électorale. Dans cet article nous considérons le degré de variance de l'intensité des campagnes locales des partis Libéral et Nouveau Démocratique durant l'élection fédérale Canadienne 2008 et examinons les données qui expliquent la variation. En utilisant les données recueillies par des questionnaires postélectoraux des candidats retournés par la poste, nous trouvons une variance significative dans l'activité des campagnes locales et nous identifions six facteurs qui l'influencent. Ils sont: une mesure objective des chances de victoire du candidat, l'impression subjective du candidat de ses chances de gagner, si le candidat était mis au défi dans la nomination locale, la participation du candidat dans sa communauté locale, si le candidat avait contesté l'élection précédente, et si les notables du parti en dehors de la circonscription faisaient campagne pour le candidat dans sa circonscription.

This article formulates a model of alliance persistence and evolution to account for two aspects of behaviour that are largely neglected by traditional alliance theory. It argues that states that encounter common threats to military and nonmilitary interests (like political and economic stability) are likely to institutionalize their military pacts. This process raises material and normative obstacles to exiting the alliance, even as the performance of the alliance falters or the strategic context undergoes fundamental changes. The article tests several of the model's hypotheses by engaging in a comparative analysis of two Cold War alliance systems: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.

Abstract. Since the 1930s, Canadian policy makers have demonstrated an unusually strong commitment to a floating exchange rate regime. A fixed exchange rate regime was embraced for only two brief periods between 1939–1950 and 1962–1970. This article examines the political basis of Canada's longstanding “fixation with floating,” an issue that is unexplored in existing scholarly literature. Drawing on the growing literature examining the politics of exchange rate regimes, the article shows how Canada's longstanding commitment to floating has stemmed from a combination of distinct domestic private economic interests, the beliefs of state policy makers, and the unique nature of the US-Canada relationship.

Résumé. Depuis les années 1930, les responsables de la politique monétaire canadienne ont manifesté une prédilection soutenue pour un taux de change flottant. Le pays n'a connu de taux de change fixe que pendant deux courtes périodes, de 1939 à 1950 et de 1962 à 1970. Cet article examine les fondements politiques de cette préférence, sujet qui reste inexploré dans la littérature existante. S'inspirant des travaux de plus en plus nombreux sur la politique des taux de change, l'article démontre que la source politique de cette préférence pour un taux de change flottant réside dans les intérêts économiques des entreprises, les convictions des décisionnaires et la nature unique de la relation entre le Canada et les États-Unis.

If it be true that every generation selects and reads historical evidence in the light of its own aspirations and anxieties, one should expect one's contemporaries to take some interest in, and show sympathetic understanding for, periods of social stresses and strains. Having passed through three and a half decades of political and economic upheavals, and having little reason for believing that the time of troubles has come to an end, this generation is likely to feel some affinity with past epochs that appear to have suffered from similar symptoms of a deep-rooted social malaise. Perhaps the historian may derive some comfort from the knowledge that his age is not unique in having to contend with what, in moments of despair, appears to be an adverse trend of a secular nature.

At one time or another during his studies every economic historian must have come up against questions that should have shocked him into a realization of the vast methodological difficulties of his subject. If, as the theorists insist, inter-personal comparisons of utility are illegitimate, how can the historian justify his practice of using such concepts as group welfare? If he cannot form aggregates, how can he hope to be able to compare the wealth of nations at different times? But even assuming that such comparisons were possible: do we have properly defined criteria of economic growth and decline, or of prosperity and depression? And if not, are we entitled to use these and similar ill-defined terms for the purpose of characterizing and contrasting different periods of economic history?

Canada is unusual among advanced industrial democracies in having some provinces which regularly have greater voter turnouts for provincial than for federal elections. Provincial and federal turnouts by province in Canada are analyzed for the 1945-1998 period using multiple regression analysis, both for each set of elections and by comparing differences between the two. Federal turnout has declined over the years but provincial turnout appears to have increased slightly. Although the effects found here largely confirm previous findings about the relative effects of different types of variables found for the Canadian federal level only, several of the political explanations previously supported in cross-national research find less support. Instead, region, population density, months since the last federal or provincial election, and season of the year generally have greater and sometimes more consistent effects. This suggests the need for more studies of turnout in democracies at sub-central levels.