August 2013 Updates to Canadian Politics Concise Fifth Edition
Chapter 1 – Introduction
None
Chapter 2 – Geography, Economy, and Class
*With both the proposed Northern Gateway and Keystone XL oil pipelines running into political problems, a new west-to-east trans-Canada oil pipeline is currently under consideration.
*Statistics Canada projections indicate a current population of about 35 million, with Alberta and BC combined now exceeding Quebec, part of a shift of the centre of gravity toward the west.
*The Harper government signed a tentative deal with the Northwest Territories in 2013 under which the territory would receive an additional $130 million a year and gain greater autonomy over its resources. Nunavut is pressing Ottawa for more control over its resources, too.
*The proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast has created a serious division between those two provinces.
*Federal equalization payments to the “have-not” provinces in 2012-13were as follows:
Quebec $7391 000 000
Ontario 3 261 000 000
Manitoba 1 671 000 000
New Brunswick 1 495 000 000
Nova Scotia 1 268 000 000
Prince Edward Island 337 000 000
TOTAL 15420 000 000
*The impact of the oil sands on Alberta’s prosperity is also having political and economic implications for the rest of the country, including an increasing disparity between rich and poor regions and greater Western influence on national policies and values.
*The Harper government continues to avoid effective action on greenhouse gas reduction and climate change, especially because it does not want to clamp down on resource development such as Alberta oil sands production. It abandoned much of the federal government’s role in environmental protection in the 2012 budget.
*Many recentreports substantiated the claim that income inequalities in Canada continue to increase, even if the proportion of people below the poverty line over time has decreased.
*Concerned with the contradiction of labour shortages in many fields and many parts of the country coinciding with high unemployment rates, the Harper government revamped the EI system in its 2012 budget to put pressure on repeat claimants and seasonal workers to find employment instead of collecting EI. In 2013, Ottawa tried to provide more incentive to hire unemployed Canadians rather than temporary foreign workers.
*The CAW and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union have merged to form a new union, Unifor, becoming the third largest union in Canada.
Chapter 3 - French Canada and the Quebec Question
*The Mother Tongue statistics in the 2011 census were not changed significantly from 2006; both the French and official bilingual figures were slightly lower due to increased immigration.
*In the May 2011 election, Quebeckers suddenly turned their back on the Bloc Québécois and shifted massively to the NDP, electing 59 New Democrats, 7 Liberals, 5 Conservatives, and 4 BQs. Not having won his own seat, Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe immediately resigned, while Quebec was not strongly represented in the Harper government.
*In the spring of 2012, Quebec experienced widespread demonstrations ignited by a government plan to raise tuition fees. The protests led to clashes with police, property damage, violence, injury, and arrests, and the passage of Bill 78, which severely restricted further demonstrations.
Chapter 4 – Aboriginal Peoples, Ethnocultural Minorities, and Gender
*Retiring Auditor General Sheila Fraser reported that over her 10-year term, living conditions on First Nations reserves had actually become worse.
*Most First Nations, along with environmentalists, are opposed to the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline connecting the Alberta oil sands to the BC coast.
*Seven MPs of Aboriginal origin were elected to the House of Commons on May 2, 2011.
*The name of the Indian Affairs Department was recently changed to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.
*In 2011, the deplorable living conditions on the Attawapiskat First Nation drew national attention to the plight of Aboriginals on remote reserves, and in 2012, the Chief of that First Nation protested by means of a hunger strike in Ottawa.
*National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations,Shawn Atleo, was re-elected in 2012 and has called for a new relationship between government and First Nations; in addition to continuing negotiations over treaties and land claims, he wants more attention paid to economic development, education, and good government. Calling the AFN ineffective, however, the Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs created a new, more aggressive First Nations organization in 2013, the National Treaty Alliance.
*In 2013, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that Métis and non-status Indians are included in the term “Indians” in the Constitution Act, 1867, meaning that these two groups fall under federal rather than provincial jurisdiction.
*Also in 2013, it was revealed that shortly after the Second World War, the federal government engaged in nutritional experiments on a number of reserve communities and in several residential schools, denying vitamin supplements and dental services to many children involved.
*Canada now takes in almost as many temporary foreign workers each year as it does permanent immigrants; in 2010, for example, Canada accepted some 182,000 temporary workers and the number of permanent resident immigrants jumped to 280,000. Beyond this increased number, the Philippines surpassed China and India as the largest source country. Controversy over the Temporary Foreign Workers program led the government to make marginal changes in 2013.
*Visible minorities and recent immigrants figured even more prominently in the May 2011 federal election campaign, especially after having been so vigorously courted by the Conservative party.
*The Harper government has madesignificant changes to the immigration system, with further emphasis on selecting immigrants related to shortages in the labour force.
*On the question of whether a witness could testify in court with her face covered by wearing a niqab, the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the issue would have to be settled by the trial judge on a case-by-case basis.
*In the May 2011 federal election, 407 women were nominated as candidates (31%) and 76 were elected (25% of the 308 MPs), including 40 New Democrats (39% of its caucus).
*Canada has six new female premiers: Christy Clark in British Columbia, Kathy Dundurdale in Newfoundland and Labrador, Alison Redford in Alberta, Pauline Marois in Quebec, Kathleen Wynne in Ontario, and Eva Aariak in Nunavut.
Chapter 5 – The Global Context of Canadian Politics
*The world-wide economic meltdown and continuing problems with the global economy have had a dramatic impact on government finances and operations, while other global factors have also have increased external influence on domestic politics in such areas as defence and trade.
*The Harper government restored the “royal” prefix to the air force and navy, renaming them the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Canadian Navy respectively; meanwhile virtually every defence department procurement contract has been mired in controversy. Canada joined several other NATO countries to use force in toppling the Gadhafi regime in Libya, but Western countries are reluctant to intervene in the conflicts in Egypt and Syria.
*After a groundswell of opposition from Saskatchewan, the Harper government rejected the takeover bid for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan by an Australian firm. After approvingthe acquisition of the Canadian oil company Nexen Inc. by the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the government enunciated some general principles to guide future cases.Controversy also emerged over the government’s easing of foreign ownership restrictions in the telecom sector, and in allowing Amazon.com to set up its own book distribution centre in Canada.
*Canada signed a free trade agreement with Panama in May 2010, and negotiations continue on several other fronts, including the European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. China is now the second largest source of Canadian imports and the third largest market for Canadian exports.
*Some observers predict that the G20 will emerge as a more important body than the G8, reducing Canada’s international influence.
Chapter 6 – Political Culture, Socialization, and Participation
*While Prime Minister Harper has asserted that Canadian political values have become more “conservative” in recent years, some observers contend that it is the values of his party that have changed—toadhere more closely to the political culture embraced by most Canadians.
*It has also been suggested that “Western” Canadian values have now become increasingly dominant, at least in the government.
*The voter turnout rate in the May 2011 election was 61.1 percent.
Chapter 7 – The Mass Media and Public Opinion Polls
*Pierre-Karl Péladeau, owner of the Quebecor media empire, hasestablished a right-wing, all-news English-language television channel(Sun News Network), often referred to as “Fox News North.”
*As mentioned, Shaw Communications bought the electronic part of CanWest Global, and along with its other holdings, would now be one of the four conglomerates in Table 7.2.
*The role of “social media”—Facebook, Twitter, etc.—was greater than ever in the 2011 election, but did not displace traditional means of communication and electioneering. Perhaps more important was the massive Conservative television advertising prior to the election which primarily focused on attacking Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.
Chapter 8–Elections and the Electoral System
*The May 2, 2011 federal election was precipitated by a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons based on the Harper government’s contempt for Parliament in refusing to provide sufficient information on such expenditures as new prisons, fighter jets, and corporate tax cuts. The three Opposition parties joined forces to defeat the government on this issue, but it would likely have fallen on the simultaneous 2011 budget in any case. Thus, in the election campaign, the Conservatives emphasized the un-passed Budgetand the merits of the government’s economic performance, a message which apparently resonated with the electorate. On the other hand, the Liberals initially focused on the Conservatives’ many ethical breaches and abuses of power, but this issue proved to be of little interest to the voters. The Bloc emphasis on sovereignty was also misplaced, while the NDP argued that changes were necessary in the way politics operated in Ottawa. All three federalist parties emphasized their concern for families, with the Liberals and NDP unveiling platforms based on pensions, child care, and health care, etc.
*Conservative support hovered around the majority mark throughout the campaign, and the Liberals began in second place in the polls. Midway through, however, the NDP started to climb, especially in Quebec, but also in the rest of the country. In Quebec, it seems that voters were generally tired of the Conservatives, Liberals, and the BQ, finding NDP leader Jack Layton to be a breath of fresh air with an attractive social democratic message. The NDP ended up winning 59 of Quebec’s 75 seats, many of them with candidates who did not even campaign! The Conservatives put most of their effort in the Toronto area and it responded with enough new seats to give Stephen Harper a safe majority, some voters undoubtedly hoping to end the daily anxieties of minority government. The NDP also did better than ever outside Quebec, attracting many left-wing Liberal voters.
*The election thus witnessed a massive transformation of the Canadian party system. The Conservatives gained a majority of seats with 39.6% of the popular vote; the Liberals were decimated, returning with only 34 seats based on 18.9% of the vote; the Bloc was also nearly eliminated, with only 4 seats and 6.1% of the national vote; and the NDP rose to second place with 103 seats and 30.6% of the vote. The election revealed that it remains possible for one party to win a majority of seats, admittedly from less than 50 percent of the vote, and for a party to win a majority without much support in Quebec. With the sudden death of NDP leader Jack Layton a few months after the election, many speculated on whether that party would retain its Quebec support and its second-place position.
*Results of the May 2011 Election:
Conservatives NDP Liberals
Seats %Vote Seats %Vote Seats %Vote
Newfoundland/Labrador128.3232.6437.9
Prince Edward Island141.2015.4341.0
Nova Scotia436.7330.34 28.9
New Brunswick843.8129.8122.6
Quebec1516.5 5942.9714.2
Ontario 7344.4 2225.6 1125.3
Manitoba 1153.5225.8116.6
Saskatchewan 1356.3032.31 8.5
Alberta 2766.8116.80 9.3
British Columbia2 2145.6 1232.5213.4
North 236.4127.7026.4
Total 16639.6 10330.6 3418.9
1Quebec also elected 4 Bloc MPs, with the party collecting 23.4% of the Quebec vote and 6.1% of the national vote.
2BC also elected 1 Green MP, the party’s overall share of the national vote being 3.9%.
*In March 2011, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the Conservative Party broke election spending laws with their so-called “in-and-out” scheme in the 2006 election campaign. Many issues from the 2011 election, especially the “robocall scandal,” are still before the courts.
*The Redistribution scheme (for the 2015 election) outlined on p. 178 was slightly changed before being adopted. In the end, Ontario will gain 15 seats for a total of 121; B.C. will gain6 seats for a total of 42; and Alberta willgain6 seats for a total of 34. Quebec was given an increase of 3 to 78 seats so that its representation remained proportional to its share of the total population. The total size of the House of Commons will increase by 30 to 338.
*Once they had their majority, the Conservatives abolished the annual per-vote public subsidy for parties ($2 per vote), reducing it by one-third in each of the following three years.
Chapter 9 – Political Parties
*As noted in Chapter 8,the May 2011 federal election witnessed a massive transformation of the Canadian party system.
*The increasingly right-wing agenda of the Harper government mentioned on p. 223 was reinforced after it won a majority, and the 2012 Budget reduced program spending by $5.2 billion a year for three years. The government then slipped many other right-wing measures into the omnibus budget implementation bill.
*As a result of their parties’ disastrous showing in the May 2011 election campaign, both Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and BQ leader Gilles Duceppe immediately resigned, and Bob Rae was installed as Interim Liberal leader for two years. In August 2011, soon after leading his party to a historic breakthrough, NDP leader Jack Layton died of cancer, sparking an unprecedented outpouring of grief across the country and culminating in a state funeral. Tom Mulcair was chosen to replace him at a leadership convention in March 2012. Justin Trudeau succeeded Bob Rae as Liberal leader in April 2013.
*The NDP removed the label “democratic socialist” from the preamble to the party platform at its convention in 2013.
Chapter 10 – Advocacy Groups, Social Movements, and Lobbying
*Several groups—especially NGOs—that routinely depended on federal funding have recently been cut off, and often claim that this is because they were critical of or disagreed with the government. On the other hand, the Harper government had close ties with “Big Oil” – especially the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers – and the two cooperated to promote development of the Alberta oil sands.
*After it appeared that Rahim Jaffer had lobbied Parliamentary Secretaries without registering as a lobbyist, the government expanded the category of public officeholders under the Lobbying Act to include all MPs and senators. This would also involve prohibiting such officeholders from acting as lobbyists themselves for five years after leaving office. On the other hand, the existing provision on this subject in the Lobbying Act has proven to be ineffective, as many political aides have left government to join lobbying firms. A first conviction under the Lobbying Act occurred in 2013.
Chapter 11–The Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
*In the 2011 election campaign, NDP leader Jack Layton reminded Canadians that the country faced unfinished constitutional business, with Quebec never having agreed to the Constitution Act, 1982. Some observers saw this reminder as a component of the party’s success in Quebec.
*In another “hate speech” decision in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that “offensive” ideas are not sufficient to infringe on freedom of expression; the expression would have to expose the targeted group to “detestation and vilification.”
*Interesting Charter cases dealing with euthanasia, prostitution, electoral issues, and terrorism remain before the courts.
Chapter 12 –The Provinces and the Federal System
*The Harper government legislation to establish a national securities regulator (to regulate the buying and selling of stocks and bonds) was deemed to be beyond federal powers by the Supreme Court.
*Otherwise, the Harper government took a decentralist approach to federal-provincial relations, and preferred to keep each level of government in a separate compartment.