Prime ministers in parliamentary systems confront a challenging agency problem in leading cabinets toward cross-government priorities: ministers tend to prioritize departmental interests and may lack incentives and/or information enabling co-ordinated effort. In Canada, a novel mechanism for both increasing incentives and information provision has been developed in recent decades: the mandate letter. These letters are issued by Canadian prime ministers to their ministers, reinforcing government priorities, each minister's responsibilities, and specific policy expectations. This article examines mandate letters as mechanisms inducing interministerial policy co-ordination, focusing on the 2015–2021 period, under Justin Trudeau, as the first Canadian prime minister to release these letters publicly. Using topic modelling and social network analysis, I find that Trudeau has increasingly sought to strengthen ministerial co-ordination and ministers’ focus on crosscutting policy priorities. This case study contributes to our understanding of intraexecutive co-ordination and the agency problem in cabinet government.

This article offers a re-evaluation of Louis Riel's political, philosophical and religious writings by reconstructing these writings along utopian lines. In so doing, it supplements the existing literature on Riel's writings that tends to see Riel as either a prophetic figure or a practical man of action, but rarely, if ever, both. In its reconstruction of Riel's utopian vision, this article focuses on three aspects of his writings. First, it addresses his critical conception of Métis self-government before Confederation. Second, it examines his proposals for the overthrow of what he perceived as Anglo-Canadian tyranny in the North-West. Third, it considers his visions of an ideal—that is, utopian—society in the North-West. The article concludes by examining the implications of this reading of Riel's utopian vision for his legacy in Canadian political science.

Indigenous peoples continue to challenge Canadian colonial policies through nonroutine acts of resistance. Sustained scholarly attention on the frequency and characteristics of Indigenous resistance has dropped precipitously, with the time span of this scholarship typically ending by the early 2000s. Research on more recent acts of resistance is directed to small-n case studies. This research note examines Indigenous resistance in Canada between 2010 and 2020 as reported by news articles from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to identify key characteristics of salient Indigenous resistance: What issue areas were the subject of resistance movements? Which Indigenous communities or groups contributed to acts of resistance? What strategies were employed? The research note's findings suggest that salient acts of resistance rarely result in immediate policy change from the state; instead, resistance has transformative potential to develop Indigenous governance that departs from settler-colonial state processes.

Canadian election campaigns often see a proliferation of political signs at the start of an election, but are they worth the effort? We examined official results at the poll level (N = 785) from elections agencies and the quantities of household signs recorded in internal political party databases (Green Parties of Canada, Manitoba, and Ontario). Overall, the results suggest that the use of household signs is an effective form of political campaigning in Canada for nongoverning parties. Analyses suggest that every sign placed per 100 registered electors is associated with an increase of 0.5–1.5 per cent vote share. The presence of household signs was associated with an increase of 1.5–3.4 per cent vote share. Further, preliminary evidence also suggests a possible diminishing returns trend: the per-sign rate of increase in vote share may slow down at higher densities. We discuss the implications of the results, including the possible curvilinear trend.

Dans cet article, je propose une analyse critique de la réponse des trois principaux théoriciens de l'interculturalisme majoritariste – Gérard Bouchard, Jérôme Gosselin-Tapp et Michel Seymour – à la question des minorités internes. Cette question est de savoir comment protéger le droit des minorités religieuses de pratiquer leur religion (tel que créé ou facilité par le multiculturalisme ou l'interculturalisme) sans violer le droit des femmes en leur sein de mener une vie exempte d'oppression (tel que défendu par le féminisme). Je soutiens que la réponse de ces auteurs est ambiguë, en ce sens qu'elle embrasse simultanément deux postures – la fermeté et la flexibilité – qui, lorsque considérées ensemble, sont contradictoires et, lorsque considérées séparément, présentent des problèmes spécifiques. Si dans le cas particulier du foulard islamique, ces auteurs élargissent momentanément leur perspective, leurs arguments à ce chapitre commandent des nuances importantes pour le moment absentes de leur raisonnement.

Cinquante ans après la Conférence de Stockholm de 1972, la littérature est appelée à offrir un compte rendu sur le passé et informer les décisions à venir. Dans ce contexte, le présent essai critique propose une revue historique de la gouvernance mondiale de l'environnement, couvrant la période de 1945 à 2022. Pour ce faire, il réunit les processus et évènements marquants des dernières décennies et distingue les moments clés ayant façonné la gouvernance mondiale de l'environnement. Informé par la littérature scientifique et des documents officiels, l'article expose l’émergence, la mise à l'agenda et l'institutionnalisation de plusieurs enjeux environnementaux. Il contribue ainsi à situer les développements qu'a connus la gouvernance mondiale de l'environnement et contextualiser les processus en cours. La conclusion de l’étude invite à accorder une plus grande attention aux enjeux environnementaux et à repenser la gouvernance mondiale de l'environnement au-delà des frontières, tant étatiques que disciplinaires.