Although there exists a respectable literature on political thought in Canada, relatively little of this work has been done by political theorists or philosophers. Much of the research has been carried out by historians, sociologists, or more recently by political scientists working with sociological conceptions such as “political culture.” But there is still a place in the study of Canadian political thought for one of the traditional tasks of political theory, the critical analysis of significant texts. This paper examines one such document, which deserves to be better known than it is, the “Declaration of the People of Rupert's Land and the North West,” of December 8, 1869. The text is presented in both English and French versions, the background of the document is briefly discussed, and its argument is analyzed at some length.

Mechanism-based explanations are gaining in popularity in the social sciences. Canadian political science has somewhat embraced these debates. Recent work has explicitly identified with mechanismic explanation and, at the same time, there is a point to be made about the compatibility of CPS's cannons with a mechanism-based understanding of causation. In this paper, we survey past and recent work aligned with this ontological approach. We demonstrate a heterogeneous engagement with the methodological literature regarding mechanisms and different understandings as well as uses of mechanisms in political analysis. This survey allows us to argue for the potential of mechanism-based explanations for CPS while also forcing us to advocate for a sober and discerning use of this approach.

By taking a historical perspective on the higher education and the housing sectors in Quebec, we demonstrate how the political cleavage around the national question has had long-term effects on the dynamic of contention in these two sectors. At a general level, the presence of this cleavage has favoured the adoption of institutional arrangements related to funding that have allowed the reproduction of social protest over time. Nevertheless, the institutional arrangements vary from one sector to another: in the case of higher education, Bill 32, adopted in 1983, facilitated the division of the student movement into two branches and, to some extent, its dynamism; in the case of housing, the AccèsLogis program and the contribution au secteur, implemented in 1997, ensured the selection of claims for social housing and favoured the grouping that leads this issue. In both cases, the national question is at the heart of the process that led to the adoption of these policies.

Abstract. Despite the development of electoral studies in Canada, by-elections have received little attention from researchers. We believe that these are important political events. This research note examines the 121 federal by-elections held between general elections from 1963 to 2008. Our analysis indicates that turnout in by-elections is driven by the larger societal determinants of turnout and not the characteristics of each race. We also find that the support of the government party in a by-election is affected by changes in national opinion towards the government, but only in the third-party system. We find that minor parties and independent candidates perform better in by-elections than in general elections. And we find no difference in the re-election rates of by-election winners and those who enter parliament through general elections.

Résumé. Malgré le développement des études électorales au Canada, les élections partielles ont reçu très peu d'attention de la part des chercheurs. Nous croyons qu'il s'agit pourtant d'événements importants dans la vie politique canadienne. Cette note de recherche examine les 121 élections partielles fédérales survenues entre les élections générales de 1963 à 2008. Notre analyse indique que le taux de participation aux élections partielles est davantage influencé par des déterminants sociétaux que par des caractéristiques propres à chacune. Nous constatons aussi que les fluctuations de l'opinion publique canadienne à l'égard du gouvernement influençaient la performance du parti gouvernemental lors des élections partielles avant le réalignement partisan de 1993, mais que ce n'est plus le cas dans le système partisan actuel. Nous observons également que les petits partis et les candidats indépendants enregistrent de meilleures performances lors des élections partielles et qu'il n'y a pas, aux élections générales qui suivent, de différence notable entre le taux de réélection des gagnants aux élections partielles et celui des autres députés sortants.

This article investigates how Canadian voters react to a perceived lack of quality provided by their most preferred parties and how the anticipated election outcome conditions the reactions. The central argument is that a lack of quality motivates voters to signal their discontent by voting insincerely—that is, they cast a protest vote. The effect is expected to be moderated by the anticipated constituency result. The arguments are tested with two-wave panel survey data from the 2015 Canadian federal election, collected by the Making Electoral Democracy Work (MEDW) project. The results support the central argument but remain inconclusive about the expected moderating effects.

This paper examines public attitudes towards aboriginal policy in Canada, focusing on evidence from two surveys conducted in Saskatchewan, a province with a large and growing Aboriginal population. We show that although non-Aboriginals are collectively divided on Aboriginal public policies, expressing considerable support for some, but strong reservations when it comes to others; the individual-level evidence indicates that there is a single Aboriginal policy agenda in the minds of non-Aboriginal Canadians. Support for, and opposition to, the privileging of Aboriginal claims is structured in part by prejudice toward outgroups but also by non-Aboriginal people's more general position on the role of government in society. Moreover, the impact of positions about the role of government in society on attitudes toward Aboriginal policies is moderated by people's level of political sophistication: the more educated and politically interested they are, the greater the impact of those ideological views.

Abstract. The last two decades have witnessed dramatic downswings in voter turnout. Turnout decline among the youngest voters has been particularly pronounced, even discounting for normal life-cycle effects. Voting and abstention are habitual, so initial turnout decisions set the course for the life span. Consequently, greater attention to the immediate pre-adult years is necessary. This is the task we undertake using survey data on Ontario adolescents' attitudes toward voting.

Résumé. Les deux dernières décennies témoignent d'un déclin dramatique de la participation électorale. Chez les plus jeunes électeurs, cette tendance s'avère particulièrement prononcée, même en tenant compte des effets habituels du cycle de vie. Le fait de voter ou de s'en abstenir sont une question d'habitude, de sorte que la décision initiale de pparticiper ou non tend à déterminer le comportement pour la vie. Il importe donc d'accorder plus d'attention aux années précédant immédiatement l'âge adulte. C'est la tâche que nous entreprenons en nous appuyant sur les données de sondages portant sur l'attitude des adolescents de l'Ontario à l'égard du vote.

The article seeks to understand what is specifically modern about populists, why we have difficulty in agreeing on who and what they are, and—importantly—how we can address the formidable challenge they present to contemporary democratic politics. It does so by detailing the classical conception of the demagogue and by showing how modernity, in its liberal and counter-liberal aspects, sought to solve conclusively the problem of the demagogue. It argues that modern populists face significant obstacles to their ambitions in the form of modern constitutionalism, yet are also armed with new weapons, including new concepts or “ideologies” for manipulation (such as “the people,” nation, race and class) and new rhetorical techniques (such as propaganda that exploits modern technology and mass media).

Much attention has been paid to the changing class cleavage that structured political conflict in the twentieth century. In contrast to most advanced democracies, class voting has traditionally been weak in Canada. Using the entire series of the Canadian Election Study (1965–2019), we find the historic pattern of working-class voting for the New Democratic Party (NDP) held outside of Quebec in recent elections, before suddenly falling off in 2019. Starting in 2004, we find a clear and distinct trend where the working class has increased its support for the Conservatives. Although greater partisan sorting is occurring over the economy, cultural issues such as moral traditionalism and anti-immigration are now significant drivers of working-class Conservative support. The findings carry important implications for class-party relationships and reveal that Canada, despite its comparatively weak nativist cleavage, is not immune from the tensions social democratic parties have recently experienced in maintaining cross-class coalitions amid socio-economic structural changes.

This article discusses the evolution of the role and the nature of the work that elected representatives in Westminster-type parliamentary systems accomplish in their riding. Drawing on recent data documenting the riding activities of Quebec's Members of the National Assembly and Members of Parliament, we re-evaluate the conclusions of surveys conducted more than 40 years ago. The new data points to gender-based differences in the way elected representatives understand their role and the expectations of their constituents. Today's elected parliamentarians are still primarily concerned with their function as representatives of the people, while they are less driven by personal ideas. We also find that the nature of riding activities varies according to each individual's profile. Finally, we note a strong degree of collaboration between elected representatives and observe changes in the types of issues with which they now concern themselves.

This article examines the constituency results in recent Ontario provincial elections in order to estimate the impact of incumbency on the percentage of the vote received by each party. Regression results indicate that incumbency had a significant impact in the three elections studied, adding between six and 12 percentage points to the popular vote for the incumbent's party in a given riding. Moreover, these results are robust, persisting overtime and across parties, and not varying significantly for a variety of specifications of the underlying model.

This article re-examines the main propositions which underlie Public Choice argumentation in respect to the growth of the state and evaluates their plausibility in light of current knowledge. The majority of the hypotheses are confirmed, at least partially. Their principal contribution is at the level of strategies which can be attributed to political and bureaucratic personnel, although the influence of the latter appears to be exaggerated.

The Public Choice explanations remain very partial. Taking state intervention as a theme, Public Choice shows well how once an activity is begun, it has a tendency to expand. However, Public Choice says nothing of the social dynamics responsible for the fact that the state has been induced to intervene from the start. Intervention has had as its first function the quelling of social conflicts. The argumentation of Public Choice can explain only the recent growth of the state at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s. The new trend of putting a ceiling on government expenditures rests largely unexplained. These gaps are not inherent in the model and can be corrected. When the Public Choice authors adopt a more historical perspective, which brings about a relative treatment of the phenomenon, they will be able to propose more convincing interpretations.

Abstract. Federal systems empower multiple policy actors from different levels of governments. For some scholars, the disagreements arising within such a diverse group of actors create policy stalemates. Others contend instead that new ideas are more likely to arise and diffuse from such a diverse group. This article is a contribution to this scholarly debate, proposing an original contribution on policy agendas. It argues that both perspectives are useful to understanding the dynamic of policy making within federal systems. Looking at change in policy attention in Canadian and British speeches from the throne, the article argues that federalism constrains change immediately following a party turnover in government. In the following years, however, federal arrangements encourage larger changes in policy attention than arrangements where power is centralized.

Résumé. Les systèmes fédéraux rassemblent plusieurs acteurs politiques issus de différents niveaux de gouvernement. Pour certains chercheurs, l'existence de potentiels désaccords entre de tels décideurs est susceptible de créer des impasses politiques. D'autres soutiennent au contraire que les nouvelles idées sont plus susceptibles d'émerger et de se diffuser à partir d'un tel groupe diversifié. Cet article s'inscrit dans ce débat sur le fédéralisme et propose une contribution originale en termes de mise à l'agenda des politiques publiques. Il soutient que les deux perspectives sont nécessaires à la compréhension de la dynamique de l'élaboration des politiques au sein des systèmes fédéraux. En mesurant le changement de l'attention politique dans les discours du Trône canadiens et britanniques, l'article affirme que le fédéralisme freine le changement de politique immédiatement après un changement de parti au gouvernement. Au cours d'une législature, toutefois, les institutions fédérales encouragent de plus grands changements dans l'attention des politiques que dans des systèmes unitaires où le pouvoir est centralisé.

Much attention has been devoted by sociologists and social psychologists to the question of the introduction of new members into a group or society. Preoccupation with this broad problem is visible, for instance, in studies of conversion to a religion, of movement from one social class to another, and of change of residence from one community or country to another. Not all studies, however, deal with the same aspects of the problem. Some focus on the factors which bring about such movement from one group to another. Others are concerned with the effects the movement has on both the group of origin and the group of destination. Finally, a good proportion of the studies purport to answer the following questions: What changes occur in the basic values, sentiments, and ways of behaving of the individual? To what extent are there such changes, and through what processes do they take place? This latter group of studies centres on concepts such as acculturation, integration, assimilation, adaptation, or absorption.

These concepts all refer to the same phenomenon, although perhaps from different angles. Park and Burgess, for instance, present the following general notion of “assimilation”: “A process of interpenetration and fusion in which persons and groups acquire the memories, sentiments, and attitudes of other persons or groups, and by sharing their experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common cultural life.” Blau has a very similar conception of the integration of the socially mobile into a new class. So does Eisenstadt with the concept of “adaptation,” although his definition is stated in terms of the final result rather than in terms of the process whereby it is achieved.

The machinery for providing medical services raises two kinds of problems for the sociologist. On the one hand these services involve various sorts of institutional structures, such as hospitals; these merit attention and analysis. On the other hand medical services involve a set of specialized occupations; these likewise merit study. These two classes of phenomena, that is, the social institution and the specialized occupation, represent two of the major subjects of present-day sociological investigation.

The machinery for providing medical services raises comparable problems for other branches of science. The biological and psychological sciences find many of their theoretical problems dictated by the practices current in the medical field. The financing of such services raises problems for the economist, and the control and distribution of such services are matters of concern for the political scientist. This paper can, therefore, at best deal only with one facet of a large field of inquiry.

In sociology in recent years a considerable body of literature has developed around the problem areas indicated above. Various parts of the work world have been explored in order to gain a better knowledge of work institutions, more specifically to understand them as going concerns. Concurrently many specialized occupations have been subjected to study, with the purpose of discovering the common characteristics of this feature of our society.