This article offers an improved understanding of the often-neglected religious cleavage in Canada. Using data from the 1988 Canadian Election Study, the authors examine the questions of voting intentions, opinion on abortion, support for unions and support for military spending. This article first shows that Roman Catholics have different opinions on these questions than Protestants, but that these differences disappear as Catholics' exposure to the news media increases. The authors also demonstrate that the more religious the Catholics, the more resistant they are to media messages. The largest differences between Catholics and Protestants are thus found between regular churchgoers with low media exposure, while the smallest differences are found between heavily exposed non-practisers.

In early 1996, Canada's federal government enacted a new constitutional amending process to provide provincial and regional vetoes over future amendments. This study compares the new process with the “7 and 50” formula found in the Constitution Act, 1982. Using the Banzhaf Index as well as separate measures for the power to prevent and the power to initiate amendments, the article examines the relative influence of the provinces under the two amending formulae. As well, it examines the relative voting power of each province's citizens in any future constitutional referendum. The results show that profound changes are produced by the regional veto amending formula, and the article discusses some remedies for the most negative effects.