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The Two Themes of Canadian Federalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
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Canadian federal experience has centred around two major themes. The first relates to cultural dualism, the desire and ability of French- and English-speaking Canadians to survive as such and to use the governmental institutions which they respectively dominate in order to ensure this outcome. The second involves public action to meet the material expectations of individuals and groups living within an economy where burdens and benefits have been determined largely by the economic policies of successive federal administrations. Those who have concerned themselves with Canadian federalism have usually believed, explicitly or implicitly, that either the cultural or the economic problem was the major challenge which the federal system faced. Thus there are two versions of what our constitutional arrangements are all about, and these are most strikingly illustrated by the divergent perspectives of the Rowell-Sirois and Tremblay Commission. The former was almost exclusively concerned with the reallocation of revenues, revenue sources, and functional responsibilities between the two levels of government and did not deal in any explicit way with the impact of existing or proposed arrangements on the survival of the two cultures. To the Tremblay Commission the great theme of our constitutional history since Confederation is the attempt of English-speaking Canada to subvert the original federal compact and the resistance of these attempts by French Canadians; its Report does deal in great detail with economic issues but its basic argument is that the essential and permanent value of Canadian federalism is to make possible the survival of the two cultural groups.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , February 1965 , pp. 80 - 97
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1965
References
1 Report of the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (Ottawa, 1940).Google Scholar
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17 There was a program of grants-in-aid of agricultural instruction and improvement under federal legislation enacted in 1912. However, this measure related to a field in which Parliament had concurrent jurisdiction, unlike the 1919 and most of the later shared-cost arrangements.
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19 A.-G. Can. v. A.-G. Ont. (1937) AC 355, and Angers v. Minister of National Revenue (1957), ExCR 83. For a discussion of the constitutional aspects of the federal spending power see Smiley, Donald V., Conditional Grants and Canadian Federalism, Canadian Tax Paper No. 32 (Toronto, 1963)Google Scholar, chap. 2. The general position has been asserted by Professor Bora Laskin in speaking of the Angers case: “… the rejection of an attack on the constitutionality of the Family Allowances Act lends emphasis to the view that the Courts have no concern with the disbursement of public funds which have been validly raised.” Canadian Constitutional Law (2nd ed., Toronto, 1960), 655.Google Scholar
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40 Switzman v. Elbling and A.-G. Que. 7 DLR 2d. 337.
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43 It is significant that French Canadians do not appear to regard federal control over broadcasting as a significant challenge to their culture.
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49 For other statements and analyses of left-wing nationalism in Quebec see Michael Oliver, “Quebec and Canadian Democracy,” this Journal, Nov. 1957, 504-15; issues of the monthly publication Cité libre; Drapeau, Jean, Jean Drapeau Vous Parle (Montreal, 1959)Google Scholar; 1962 and 1963 Budget Speeches of Premier Jean Lesage.