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"Respecting responsibilities under the Constitution" interview with Jim Flaherty On March 27, the day after the Quebec election, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty sat down with Policy Options Editor L. Ian MacDonald for a half-hour conversation on Budget 2007, and how Ottawa has addressed the issue of the fiscal imbalance between the federal government and the provinces. Not all the provinces were as satisfied as Quebec, nor were all Canadians happy that their tax dollars went to finance a tax cut in the last week of the Quebec campaign. Flaherty addressed these issues in a characteristically straightforward fashion. "What is our edge? What is our unique thing?" by Bill Gates Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was in Ottawa on February 20 as the keynote speaker at the annual Can-Win conference and a lunch hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “This digital world,” he said, “is going to bring some exciting opportunities.” "A blueprint for fiscal federalism" by Thomas J. Courchene 2007 Remarkably, Finance Minister James Flaherty’s 2007 budget is every bit as much a political or federalism blueprint as it is an economic blueprint. With its move toward equal per capita cash payments for Canada’s vertical fiscal transfers, with its restoration of a formula-based equalization program for horizontal fiscal transfers, and with its respect throughout for the constitutional division of powers, Thomas J. Courchene argues that Flaherty and the Harper government have delivered on their philosophical commitment to “open federalism.” While Courchene finds some key aspects of the budget wanting, he nonetheless salutes Flaherty for repositioning Canadian fiscal federalism within a framework of a principles — fiscal, institutional, and political. "Rules-based fiscal federalism: clarifying federal-provincial roles" by Janice MacKinnon The focus on the issue of fiscal (im)balance obscures the fact that the 2007 federal budget brings stability, predictability and funding allocations based on rules and principles to federal-provincial fiscal relations, which helps to undo the damage done by the 1995 federal budget and the 2005 “side deals” with Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Predictable transfers until 2013-14, a clarification of federal-provincial roles, a rules-based, formula-driven equalization program and steps to allocate all transfers on a per capita basis may not bring “peace in our time” but should at least provide more stability in federal-provincial fiscal relations and reduce the bickering. "Virage à droite ?" by Alain Noël [summary not available] "When the undecideds became the unaffiliated: one in four Quebecers up for grabs provincially and federally" by Nik Nanos When we wanted to drill down beyond voting intention in the Quebec election, we turned to Nik Nanos and SES Research for an in-depth look at Quebecers’ attitudes on key leadership attributes and party branding issues. SES Research was in the field for two nights following the March 13 debate, and its sample of 500 Quebecers turned up some revealing numbers showing a decided Liberal advantage on leadership and on party strengths, which the Liberals never fully took advantage of as Jean Charest’s campaign struggled to defend their record in office. And while the ADQ was a distant third on party issues, Mario Dumont finished a competitive second on leadership issues, just as he did on election day. "A watershed election in a winter of discontent" by L. Ian MacDonald There were three storylines in the 2007 election: first, the collapse of the Parti Québécois vote, relegating the PQ to third place and their worst showing since 1970; second, the rise of Mario Dumont as disgruntled PQ and Liberal voters flocked to his Action démocratique du Québec; and third, the flat and dispirited campaign of Jean Charest, the best campaigner of his generation. Moving his election call up by nearly two months to take advantage of André Boisclair’s flameout in the polls, Charest and the Liberals didn’t see Dumont in the rear view mirror, let alone in their blindspot. The result, on March 26, was Quebec’s first minority government in more than 125 years, and only the second since Confederation. It was clearly a realignment election, and in the first truly competitive three-party race in modern times the Liberals barely hung on to form a minority government, while the PQ fell to third place in both the popular vote and seats. Dumont had broken the grip of the two old-line parties, which had for nearly four decades polarized Quebec elections around the national question. Our Editor provides a narrative of the campaign. "Le PQ au troisième rang et en remise en question" by Michel C. Auger The March 26 election resulted in a trainwreck for the Parti Québécois, which was relegated to third party status in the National Assembly, as well as finishing third in the popular vote with 28 percent, its worst score since 1970. The PQ also finished second in the francophone vote to Mario Dumont’s Action démocratique du Québec. How to explain such a disaster for the PQ, which had won four elections, and organized two referendums on sovereignty in the previous 30 years? As recently as its 2005 leadership convention, the PQ was cruising in the polls, and the ADQ was deemed to be in danger of disappearing. It starts with the leadership of André Boisclair. Columnist Michel C. Auger explains why. "The right place at the right time: the rise of Mario Dumont and the ADQ" by Tasha Kheiriddin The stunning election in Quebec is widely seen as a result of the Liberals’ failure to capitalize on the collapse of the PQ, resulting in a surge of dissatisfied voters to Mario Dumont and promotion of the ADQ to official opposition in a minority House. But, writes Tasha Kheiriddin, there is another story, a gradual shift “from a federalistseparatist paradigm to a left-right axis.” The ADQ’s “autonomist” ambiguity on the national question “opens the door to a different level of debate,” she writes, “one which much of the rest of the world has been indulging in since the late 1970s.” It is a debate on the appropriate role of the state in the economy and in society as a whole. "La spirale de la négativité dans les campagnes électorales" by Denis Monière Since the early 1990s, the discourse in political advertising has taken on a negative tone. In trying to rally voters, parties opt for messages that criticize and denigrate their opponents, rather than focusing on their own achievements and programs. Was the Québec campaign an exception to this new rule? Denis Monière, specialist in the analysis of political discourse and ideologies, examines the communications strategies of the three main parties and remarks that all of them criticized their opponents as often as they discussed their own priorities. The recent election campaign confirms that “when the competition is intense and several parties could form the government, the level of aggressiveness increases.” "The media: all horse race, all the time" by Stephen J. Farnsworth, Blake Andrew, Stuart Soroka and Antonia Maioni Content analysis of campaign news reports leading up to the March 2007 Quebec election in four of the province’s leading newspapers revealed an intense focus on voter surveys, and only limited coverage of key campaign issues, including national unity, immigration, education and the environment. News coverage of the three major parties and their leaders was overwhelmingly neutral in tone in all four papers, displaying an even-handed approach not always found in election news reporting. The ADQ, which went from 5 seats to 41 seats in the election, received slightly more positive news coverage than the more established political parties, a pattern that reflected the party’s rise in the polls during the campaign period. "Un tripartisme de transition" by Éric Bélanger Does the upsurge of the ADQ in the recent Quebec election signal a veritable realignment of the parties, or is it a passing manifestation of disatisfaction? McGill political scientist Éric Bélanger looks at some factors pointing toward the first option, and others that highlight a possible return to equilibrium between the Liberal Party and the Parti québecois in the not too distant future. According to him, three conditions will have to be met for this election to translate into lasting change: first, that the ADQ not be a temporary refuge for unhappy Péquistes and Liberals; second, that “public opinion has truly evolved and reached a kind of point of no return where it has renounced the idea of sovereignty”; and third, that open federalism continues to be successful. "With sovereignty and federalism off the ballot, voters had another choice: Dumont" by John Parisella For John Parisella, former chief of staff to two Quebec Liberal premiers, Quebec’s political realignment began with the 2003 election, the first in decades not dominated by the ideological polarization between the federalist and sovereignist camps. The trend accelerated in the 2007 election, with the referendum issue right off the ballot, and Mario Dumont capitalizing on discontent with André Boisclair’s leadership of the PQ and dissatisfaction with Jean Charest’s Liberals. Dumont may not be a separatist, but neither is he a federalist, and as an “autonomist” he is certain to push for more powers for Quebec without a referendum. Is Ottawa ready for that discussion? Does the rest of Canada have any tolerance for it? And what kind of parliament will Quebecers see in this minority House? "La dialectique de la souveraineté" by Jean-Herman Guay The 28 percent support obtained by the Parti Québécois in the recent election is culmination of a descent that began 10 years ago, when the sovereignist party achieved 49 percent in the 1995 referendum. For many, writes political scientist Jean- Herman Guay, this means that the Quebec question has been definitively settled. But in fact, he maintains, “the decline of the PQ could give way to a transformation of the social movement that has been at its core for more than 40 years. The movement could be moving into a less offensive, wait-and-see phase, a phase in which the idea of sovereignty could be ‘resynthesized’ within Quebec culture.” Here he explores the PQ’s options, and suggests that one possibility would be to reform Quebec’s Referendum Act to allow citizen-initiated referendums. "Shades of a minority" by Desmond Morton [summary not available] "La Charte à 25 ans : perspectives d'un acteur, d'un plaideur et d'un juge" by J. J. Michel Robert As counsel for Canada in the repatriation of the Canadian constitution, attorney in several Charter cases, and Quebec Court of Appeal judge, J.J. Michel Robert has been involved in the history of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms since the very beginning. Here he presents his point of view, which is formed both by his involvement in the constitutional negotiations that led to its adoption, as well as by the decisions he has handed down regarding its application. "Canadian federalism: adapting constitutional roles and responsibilities in the 21st century" by Donald G. Lenihan, Tim Barber, Graham Fox and John Milloy Since 1867, the clear trend has been toward deepening interdependence between the federal and provincial governments. In some ways, the history of federalprovincial relations is the story of their efforts to manage this growing interdependence. New technologies and globalization are taking this to a new level, far beyond anything we have seen before. As a result, traditional ways of managing the federation, such as the division of powers in the 1867 Constitution, executive federalism, or the courts, are no longer adequate on their own, say Lenihan et al. Governments need new guidance and direction to manage new forms of interdependence. The authors propose an approach that would give citizens a special role in helping to define the outcomes they want their governments to achieve together in key areas of interdependence. They call it “citizen-centred” federalism. "Upgrading Alberta" by Todd Hirsch [summary not available] |
