Constitutional Workarounds: Senate Reform and Other Examples
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1 Modernizing Canada's Electoral System: Instant Runoff Voting As The
Modernizing Canada’s Electoral System: Instant Runoff Voting as the Best Alternative By Maxime Dubé, as an individual Summary In the context of electoral reform brought about by the current government, many electoral systems come into contention for replacing the current first-past-the-post (FPTP) system. In this brief, it is argued that the instant-runoff voting (IRV) system is the best alternative for the current FPTP system in Canada. It solves most of Canadians’ issues with the current system, while presenting itself as the least challenging option for all bodies implicated in a federal election. Additionally, the IRV system does not produce coalition governments like other systems, thus allowing the state to remain strong and effective. The adoption of mandatory voting should only be considered after researching methods that will incentivize citizens to vote. Finally, online voting should not to be considered, due to potential security concerns. Introduction The present FPTP system is an electoral system that has been, and still is widely used throughout the world. It “is one of the oldest and simplest electoral systems”1 For instance, this voting system is presently used in all legislative elections in Canada, for national parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, as well as for India and most Caribbean islands2. With the election of the current majoritarian Liberal government in the 2015 general election, one of the electoral promises made by the party and its leader, Justin Trudeau, was that the general election of 2015 would be the last federal election to be held with the FPTP system3. -
Scanned by Camscanner
Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScanner IRONING OUT THE CREASES: RE-EXAMINING THE CONTOURS OF INVOKING ARTICLE 142(1) OF THE CONSTITUTION Rajat Pradhan* ABSTRACT In the light of the extraordinary and rather frequent invocation of Article 142(1) of the Constitution of India, this note expounds a constructive theory of perusing Article 142(1) by the Supreme Court. The central inquiry seeks to answer the contemporaneous question of whether Article 142 can be invoked to make an order or pass a decree which is inconsistent or in express conflict with the substantive provisions of a statute. To aid this inquiry, cases where the apex court has granted a decree of divorce by mutual consent in exercise of Article 142(1) have been examined extensively. Thus the note also examines the efficacy and indispensible nature of this power in nebulous cases where the provisions of a statute are insufficient for solving contemporary problems or doing complete justice. INTRODUCTION An exemplary provision, Article 142(1) of the Constitution of India envisages that the Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such enforceable decree or order as is necessary for doing ‘complete justice’ in any cause or matter pending before it. While the jurisprudence surrounding other provisions of the Constitution has developed manifold, rendering them more concrete and stable interpretations, Article 142(1) is far from tracing this trend. The nature and scope of power contemplated in Article 142(1) has continued to be mooted imaginatively. -
Economic Consequences of Constitutional Uncertainty: Evidence
SCOTLAND’s ECONOMIC FUTURE POST-2014 SUBMISSION FROM PROFESSOR AILSA HENDERSON, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Summary This paper relates primarily to economic reactions to the 1995 referendum on sovereignty partnership in Quebec. The following occurred in 1995: the performance of Quebec-based firms on Montreal and Toronto Stock Exchanges decreased, bond market ratings decreased, the cost of government borrowing increased, and exchange rates suffered. Inflation, however, did not move throughout the ‘period of uncertainty’, which was thought to be a reward for anti-inflation policies pursued by the Bank of Canada. Background Quebec is a province within Canada whose government has jurisdiction over education, health, welfare, municipalities and transportation. With a population of just over eight million, 78% of whom have French as their mother tongue, it has 125 members in its National Assembly. Since the late 1960s there have been two main political parties in Quebec, the independence-seeking Parti Québécois and the federalist Liberal Party of Quebec. At times smaller third parties have had sizeable representation in the legislature. The Parti Québécois was created in 1968 and won its first election as a majority government in 1976, during which it called a referendum on sovereignty association in 1980. It lost the referendum (60% No, 40% Yes) but was re-elected with a majority government in 1981. It was elected again in 1994 and called a referendum on sovereignty partnership in 1995. It lost the referendum (50.6% No, 49.4% Yes) but was re-elected with a majority government in 1998. The PQ formed a minority government in 2012, called an election for 2014 but lost to the Liberal party. -
The Meaning of Canadian Federalism in Québec: Critical Reflections
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert The Meaning of Canadian federalisM in QuébeC: CriTiCal refleCTions guy laforest Professor of Political Science at the Laval University, Québec SUMMARY: 1. Introdution. – 2. Interpretive context. – 3. Contemporary trends and scholarship, critical reflections. – Conclusion. – Bibliography. – Abstract-Resum-Re- sumen. 1. Introduction As a teacher, in my instructions to students as they prepare their term papers, I often remind them that they should never abdicate their judgment to the authority of one single source. In the worst of circum- stances, it is much better to articulate one’s own ideas and convictions than to surrender to one single book or article. In the same spirit, I would urge readers not to rely solely on my pronouncements about the meaning of federalism in Québec. In truth, the title of this essay should include a question mark, and its content will illustrate, I hope, the richness and diversity of current Québec thinking on the subject. There are many ways as well to approach the topic at hand. The path I shall choose will reflect my academic identity: I am a political theorist and an intellectual historian, keenly interested about the relationship between philosophy and constitutional law in Canada, hidden in a political science department. As a reader of Gadamer and a former student of Charles Taylor, I shall start with some interpretive or herme- neutical precautions. Beyond the undeniable relevance of current re- flections about the theory of federalism in its most general aspects, the real question of this essay deals with the contemporary meaning of Canadian federalism in Québec. -
Calgary Declaration Page 2 Freedom Flyer 33 June? 1998 Eec£6Ac We Get Fetters
THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE FREEDOM PARTY OF ONTARIO JUNE 1998 #33 Calgary Declaration Page 2 Freedom Flyer 33 June? 1998 eeC£6ac We get fetters ... Instead of bringing you our regular 'Openers' column this issue (which will return next issue), we thought we'd use this opportunity to let our readers do some of the talking, and to introduce you to a new regular feature of Freedom Flyer: Feedback. By no means exhaustive, the following selection of letters and e-mail represents a broad sampling of correspondence received by Freedom Pa~during the period January 1997 to May 1998. While many of these letters have already been personally responded to, others have not. Editorial responses, as they appear here, may be entirely new and/or edited versions of our original personal responses. To the greatest degree possible, original letters to Freedom Pa~ are left unedited, though there are exceptions with regard to length, structure and grammar (the latter applying particularly to e-mail and Usenet (news groups) correspondence). As always, we'd like to hear from you. Your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and occasional compliments are always welcomed. To contact Freedom Party, write: Box 2214, London, Ontario N6A 4E3, or fax us at (519) 681 -2857, or e-mail us at "feedback@freedomparty org". OJ NO DONATION up on freedom. To simply ignore the disastr· the text of Joe Armstrong's first-class ous consequences of drug prohibition and the speech to Kingston's Canadian Club. It's a Too bad you folks are still hung up on effect that such laws have on individual free· clarion call which, unfortunately, will not drugs! No donation. -
Debates of the House of Commons
43rd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION House of Commons Debates Official Report (Hansard) VOLUME 149 NUMBER 005 Wednesday, December 11, 2019 Speaker: The Honourable Anthony Rota CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) 263 HOUSE OF COMMONS Wednesday, December 11, 2019 The House met at 2 p.m. tude to the people of Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis for plac‐ ing their trust in me for the fifth time in a row. I would also like to thank our amazing team of volunteers, my Prayer family and my wonderful wife, Marie. My entire team and I are here to help the people in our riding. We are facing major chal‐ ● (1405) lenges, but, unfortunately, the throne speech was silent on subjects [English] such as the labour shortage, shipbuilding and high-speed Internet and cell service in the regions. The Speaker: It being Wednesday, we will now have the singing of O Canada led by the hon. member for Kitchener—Conestoga. People say that election campaigns begin on election night, but in Quebec, in Canada and in my riding, Bellechasse—Les [Members sang the national anthem] Etchemins—Lévis, we are rolling up our sleeves and focusing on sustainable prosperity. * * * STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS [English] [Translation] NEWMARKET—AURORA CLOSURE OF BRUNSWICK SMELTER Mr. Tony Van Bynen (Newmarket—Aurora, Lib.): Mr. Speak‐ Mr. Serge Cormier (Acadie—Bathurst, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I er, I am proud to rise in the House for the first time as the member want to start by thanking the voters of Acadie—Bathurst for giving of Parliament for Newmarket—Aurora in the 43rd Parliament. -
Oh, Oh! Modeling Parliamentary Interruptions in Canada, 1926-2015
Oh, oh! Modeling Parliamentary Interruptions in Canada, 1926-2015 Tanya Whyte Department of Political Science, University of Toronto Presented at Canadian Political Science Association Annual Conference Ryerson University, Toronto, May 27-June 2, 2017 Abstract Literature on the Canadian "democratic deficit" argues that parliamentary decorum in the Canadian House of Commons, including disruptive be- haviours like heckling and cheering, has been worsening over recent decades. Such questions of long-term change in parliamentary behaviour are amenable to text as data methods, a rapidly emerging field in quantitative social sci- ence. This analysis uses the Lipad dataset, a new machine-readable digi- tization of the complete text of the Canadian House of Commons Debates (Hansard), to investigate disruptive behaviour (measured via parliamentary interruptions) in the House of Commons from 1926-2015. Five hypotheses are tested using a multinomial logit model: that interruptions have increased in probability over time; that ministers are likeliest and backbenchers least likeliest to be interrupted; that women MPs are more likely to be interrupted; and that interruptions are more common under majority government condi- tions. Preliminary version: Please do not cite or distribute until a final version is posted. Thanks to Arthur Spirling for his advice and feedback. PARLIAMENTARY INTERRUPTIONS IN CANADA, 1926-2015 2 Introduction The conduct of elected representatives in the House of Commons has been a fre- quent target of criticism in the Canadian "democratic deficit" literature. One root of voter malaise in Canada and in other Westminster-style democracies, it is argued, is public re- pugnance for adversarial and crude political debate, particularly during Question Period (Docherty, 2005; Grisdale, 2011). -
The 1992 Charlottetown Accord & Referendum
CANADA’S 1992 CHARLOTTETOWN CONSTITUTIONAL ACCORD: TESTING THE LIMITS OF ASYMMETRICAL FEDERALISM By Michael d. Behiels Department of History University of Ottawa Abstract.-Canada‘s 1992 Charlottetown Constitutional Accord represented a dramatic attempt to transform the Canadian federation which is based on formal symmetry, albeit with a limited recognition of some asymmetry, into an asymmetrical federal constitution recognizing Canada‘s three nations, French, British, and Aboriginal. Canadians were called up to embrace multinational federalism, one comprising both stateless and state-based nations exercising self-governance in a multilayered, highly asymmetrical federal system. This paper explores why a majority of Canadians, for a wide variety of very complex reasons, opted in the first-ever constitutional referendum in October 1992 to retain their existing federal system. This paper argues that the rejection of a formalized asymmetrical federation based on the theory of multinational federalism, while contributing to the severe political crisis that fueled the 1995 referendum on Quebec secession, marked the moment when Canadians finally became a fully sovereign people. Palacio de la Aljafería – Calle de los Diputados, s/n– 50004 ZARAGOZA Teléfono 976 28 97 15 - Fax 976 28 96 65 [email protected] INTRODUCTION The Charlottetown Consensus Report, rejected in a landmark constitutional referendum on 26 October 1992, entailed a profound clash between competing models of federalism: symmetrical versus asymmetrical, and bi-national versus multinational. (Cook, 1994, Appendix, 225-249) The Meech Lake Constitutional Accord, 1987-90, pitted two conceptions of a bi-national -- French-Canada and English Canada – federalism against one another. The established conception entailing a pan-Canadian French-English duality was challenged and overtaken by a territorial Quebec/Canada conception of duality. -
Federal Spending Power: Practices, Principles, Perspectives
Reflections on the Federal Spending Power: Practices, Principles, Perspectives Thomas J. Courchene IRPP Working Paper Series no. 2008-01 1470 Peel Suite 200 Montréal Québec H3A 1T1 514.985.2461 514.985.2559 fax www.irpp.org Reflections on the Federal Spending Power: Practices, Principles, Perspectives * Thomas J. Courchene ** I: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW1 The federal spending power (FSP) has returned to centre stage in public policy debates, in large part due to Stephen Harper’s call for “open federalism” replete with a commitment to respect the constitutional division of powers on the one hand and the subsequent Parliamentary proclamation that “the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada” on the other. Watts (1999,1) defines the spending power as “the power of Parliament to make payments to people, institutions or provincial governments for purposes on which Parliament does not necessarily have the power to legislate, for example, in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction.” However, for the purposes of this paper the exercise of the federal spending power will be viewed more broadly and will encompass areas like federal regulation that can also affect the division of powers. In any event, the key issue here is that for Prime Minister Harper’s commitment to respect the constitutional division of powers to be credible it follows that the exercise of the federal spending power in selected areas must somehow be circumscribed. Not surprisingly, therefore, the October 2007 Speech from the Throne contained the following undertaking with respect to the narrower conception of the spending power: ...guided by our federalism of openness, our Government will introduce legislation to place formal limits on the use of the federal spending power for new shared-cost programs in areas of exclusive * This paper was prepared for the January 2008 symposium “Open Federalism and the Spending Power,” sponsored by Queen’s Law School and Queen’s Institute of Intergovernmental Relations. -
Confronting Family Poverty and Social Exclusion Ensuring Work–Family Balance Advancing Social Integration and Intergenerational Solidarity in North America
Confronting family poverty and social exclusion Ensuring work–family balance Advancing social integration and intergenerational solidarity In North America North American Expert Group Meeting Convened as part of preparations for the Twentieth Anniversary of the International Year of the Family (2014) In cooperation with the Focal Point on the Family (United Nations DESA) Mexico City 19–20 May 2014 Revised Version January 2015 The Expert Group Meeting convened in Mexico City on 19-20 May 2014 was held as part of celebrations for the Twentieth Anniversary of the In- ternational Year of the Family. Experts and practitioners from the three countries discussed about the proposals for recommendations of social policies that should be promoted from United Nations. The outcomes, in particular its conclusions and recommendations, will further guide the fol- low-up of the Twentieth Anniversary and will be used as inputs to the up- coming reports of the Secretary-General on family issues. The Meeting was organized International Federation for Family Develop- ment (IFFD), a non–governmental, independent, and non–profit federa- tion, founded in 1978. Its activities consist of family enrichment courses organized in 65 countries of the five continents, with a participative meth- odology based in the case study method. IFFD collaborates in local, na- tional and international institutions to promote and protect family values. It holds general consultative status with the Economic and Social Commit- tee of the United Nations. © International Federation for Family Development – January 2015. Produced by the International Institute for Family Research – The Family Watch CONTENTS INTRODUCTION A. FAMILY POLICY IN THE UN CONTEXT .......................................................................8 B. -
Analyzing the Parallelism Between the Rise and Fall of Baseball in Quebec and the Quebec Secession Movement Daniel S
Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2011 Analyzing the Parallelism between the Rise and Fall of Baseball in Quebec and the Quebec Secession Movement Daniel S. Greene Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Canadian History Commons, and the Sports Studies Commons Recommended Citation Greene, Daniel S., "Analyzing the Parallelism between the Rise and Fall of Baseball in Quebec and the Quebec Secession Movement" (2011). Honors Theses. 988. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/988 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Analyzing the Parallelism between the Rise and Fall of Baseball in Quebec and the Quebec Secession Movement By Daniel Greene Senior Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation Department of History Union College June, 2011 i Greene, Daniel Analyzing the Parallelism between the Rise and Fall of Baseball in Quebec and the Quebec Secession Movement My Senior Project examines the parallelism between the movement to bring baseball to Quebec and the Quebec secession movement in Canada. Through my research I have found that both entities follow a very similar timeline with highs and lows coming around the same time in the same province; although, I have not found any direct linkage between the two. My analysis begins around 1837 and continues through present day, and by analyzing the histories of each movement demonstrates clearly that both movements followed a unique and similar timeline. -
Monday, September 28, 1998
CANADA VOLUME 135 S NUMBER 127 S 1st SESSION S 36th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Monday, September 28, 1998 Speaker: The Honourable Gilbert Parent CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) All parliamentary publications are available on the ``Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire'' at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 8431 HOUSE OF COMMONS Monday, September 28, 1998 The House met at 11 a.m. how taxpayers feel on certain issues, for example, the credibility of political leaders in negotiating these types of deals. _______________ Even though it is taxpayer money that is used to find out what the taxpayers feel about particular situations, they are not being Prayers told. They are not being given the information. We have some _______________ serious problems with that. This is very reminiscent of what happened with Brian Mulroney in 1992 when the Tories refused to release the taxpayer-funded PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS polls on Charlottetown. It begs the question of why this taxpayer money is being spent. Why are these polls being held back? Why D (1100 ) are we not being apprised of the situation? [English] It boils down to a few reasons. One of the things the government likes to say is that somehow this will taint federal-provincial CALGARY DECLARATION relations. That was decided in court by Judge Rothstein. I will get into the quotes in a minute. In that case there was a determination Mr. Rob Anders (Calgary West, Ref.) moved: that the government did not have a legitimate case to deprive the That a Humble Address be presented to His Excellency praying that he will cause public of these documents.