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William Watson, "From the editor's desktop" Sorry, an abstract of this article is not available. "Republican tendencies" by David E. Smith There is no longer any strong idea behind the Canadian monarchy and its representative in Canada. Left as it is, the monarchy will continue to atrophy. Canadians, who have often led Australia in constitutional change, would do better this time to follow the Australian lead, and adopt a minimal republican state, one that retains the essence of parliamentary government and changes only the way the head of state is chosen. Any reforms should take care to assure that those powers that still reside with the Sovereign should be transferred to the new head of state. "The monarchy: Gone with the wind?" by Reg Whitaker The monarchy's future is vigorously debated in Australia and even in Britain, but in Canada it is a non-issue. On the whole, mass indifference is probably a good thing. Abandoning the monarchy would require opening the constitution and re-visiting the nightmare of Meech and Charlottetown. Moreover, doing away with the Sovereign would raise the difficult question of where Canadian sovereignty then resided. Best let sleeping dogs lie. "The view from Auz" by Gerard Henderson Australia's debate on the monarchy has been characterized by cagy political maneouvring by monarchist Prime Minister John Howard. His constitutional convention split the republican movement on the question of how a president would be chosen, by direct election or by a two-thirds majority of Parliament. He has also proposed a diversionary referendum on a preamble to Australia's constitution. As a result, November's referendum on a new head of state may not pass, even though a growing majority of Australians seems ready to wish Her Majesty a friendly and respectful good-bye. "Any lessons for us in Australia's debate?" by David J. Elkins Australia's decision to hold a referendum on replacing the Monarch with a president reflects local concerns and timing, in particular its approaching centenary. A country which does not face a fundamental crisis of unity may well be able to afford a divisive debate on an essentially symbolic issue, but Canada cannot. If we do wish to take on the difficult task of constitutional reform, there are better things to fight for, such as proportional representation. But, on the whole, we would be well-advised to address real social problems with existing structures. "Don't mess with success - and good luck trying" by Michael Valpy It is simply silly to think that that doing away with the monarchy and replacing it with - what, exactly? - would get over the constitutional hurdle of unanimity among Ottawa, provinces, and, post-Charlottetown, the Canadian people. And a good thing, too. Constitutional monarchy is the most brilliant form of government yet invented and Her Majesty is just the kind of Sovereign a country would like to have in a political pinch, should one ever arise. "What do the Canada-US productivity numbers mean?" by Andrew Sharpe Is our productivity growth worse than the Americans' or better? It depends. In terms of output per worker, the US is growing more quickly. But we're doing better in both output per dollar of capital invested and total factor productivity. In manufacturing, the US is out-gunning us badly, but its advantage is concentrated in two industries, machinery and electronics, where output measurement is especially difficult. In the majority of other industries, our productivity has been growing faster than theirs, though it hasn't yet caught up. "Language skills hold back immigrant kids in math and science" by Arthur Sweetman Canadian-born children do significantly better than the children of immigrants in standardized tests in math and science. The gap is less in the higher grades, however, and in all grades tested it is less if both the child being tested and his or her classmates speak the language of instruction at home. This suggests there may be a big payoff to early language instruction. "L'immigration et la croissance des régions métropolitaines : implications politiques" by Jacques Ledent and Marc Termote Ninety-four per cent of recent immigrants have moved to Canada's 25 largest cities. Without them, the populations of Montreal and Toronto would be essentially stagnant. Though the advent of newcomers probably does lower the average age in Canada, the effect is not great: In Montreal, between 1992 and 1996, immigration reduced the average age from 36.7 years to 36.5. How immigration policy will respond to the baby-boomers' departure from their child-rearing years is a crucial policy question that remains unanswered. "Language practice and the economic well-being of immigrants" by Barry R. Chiswick and Paul W. Miller Some of the important educational and economic differences between Canadians born in Canada and those who have immigrated in fact depend more on language skills than on where people were born. The ability to speak one of Canada's official languages, and especially the habit of speaking it in the home, explain significant differences in the earnings of male immigrants. Policies that screen potential immigrants by language skill and help new immigrants improve their skills can therefore be expected to pay off in higher earnings. "Memo to Mr. Martin: For higher productivity, our financial sector needs more freedom" by Wendy Dobson Canada's leaders cannot wring their hands about Canada's faltering productivity performance and at the same time wash their hands of efficiency concerns in one of the country's most sig- nificant sectors. The Department of Finance's forthcoming report on financial institutions should grant the banks the freedom to set their own business strategies, including the freedom to merge. If protecting consumers against possible abuses of market power requires opening up the industry to foreign competition and ownership, let's get on with it. "Demography didn't change social policy. Ideology did." by Maureen Baker Governments intent on re-structuring - i. e., downsizing - the welfare state have often argued that it is a much-needed response to changes in social and demographic reality. In fact, as a brief review of Canadian and New Zealand experience shows, in many instances new realities should have led to new spending programs and greater expenditures. Instead, policy was dominated by neo-liberal doctrine. If the damage done as a result is to be repaired, policy-makers' attention will have to be re-focused. "The tundra's always greener: A response to Widdowson and Howard" by Graham White Neither corruption nor excessive bureaucratic influence is by any means unknown in southern Canada, where, unlike the North, political parties flourish. The North's consensus system of government does mean voters can't hold a government accountable at election time. But it greatly increases the power of individual MLAs, who as a result can hold them account- able between elections much more effectively than southern legislators can. Northerners should carefully consider all the pros and cons before adopting a party system of government. Book review: Dale Orr's and Thomas A. Wilson's The Electronic Village by Jeremy A. Leonard Sorry, an abstract of this article is not available. |
