Keeping Canada Running

Keeping Canada Running
Author: G. Bruce Doern
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-09-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0228007240

The federal government's promises to "build back better" and "build back green" highlight opportunities to reimagine Canadian infrastructure. In this groundbreaking study, authors Bruce Doern, Christopher Stoney, and Robert Hilton provide the first comprehensive overview of Canadian infrastructure policy, examining the impact and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and rapid technological change as Canada looks to recover and rebuild. Covering more than fifty years across many sectors, the authors identify numerous challenges that have contributed to Canada's growing infrastructure deficit and suboptimal outcomes including political interference in the choice of infrastructure projects; challenges for multilevel governance such as distortion of local priorities, blurred accountability, and unsustainable maintenance costs for municipalities; the growing reliance on public-private partnerships that limit transparency and public scrutiny; and increased corruption associated with infrastructure projects. Transforming infrastructure is notoriously difficult yet vital at a time of rapid technological change. It is estimated that 75 percent of the infrastructure that will exist in 2050 does not exist today. This makes it crucial that Canada invest in future-proof infrastructure with the capacity to facilitate economic growth and the expansion of urban centres, mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, and ensure resilience in response to crises and disasters. Keeping Canada Running offers a timely assessment of these issues, Canada's COVID-19 response, and the potential contribution of the newly launched Canadian Infrastructure Bank.

On Canadian Democracy

On Canadian Democracy
Author: Jonathan Manthorpe
Publisher: Cormorant Books
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2024-06-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1770867554

Using the decrepit state of 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada, as a metaphor for Canada’s democracy, Jonathan Manthorpe examines the foundations, supports, and systems that are meant to keep our parliament a representative body, an actual voice of the people, and he offers insight as to how this institution can be renovated to the benefit of all. Jonathan Manthorpe is the author of the national bestseller, Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada, and Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence.

The Canadian Federal Election of 2021

The Canadian Federal Election of 2021
Author: Jon H. Pammett
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2022-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0228013844

Media pundits and students of Canadian politics alike have strived to interpret the relevance of the 2021 federal election, held in the midst of a global pandemic and reinforcing the existing parliamentary balance of power. This timely volume explains the election's import, offering an insightful account of Canadian democracy in an age of increasing rancour and polarization and explaining why the Liberals did not win a majority government. In a unique collaboration, some of the country’s most distinguished political scientists, pollsters, and journalists examine the parties, issues, machinery, and media of Canadian electoral politics, teasing out the complexities and nuances of what was seen to be a premature federal election. The Canadian Federal Election of 2021 analyzes the campaigns of the major parties and the patterns of voting behaviour. A special feature of this book is its focus on issues of diversity and difference in the partisan theatre – the voting patterns of gendered, Indigenous, and newly immigrant Canadians, as well as the millennial generation. These chapters offer important lessons for the present and for the election to come. A must-read for students, journalists, those working at affiliated think tanks and institutes, and engaged citizens, this thoughtful exposé will interest international observers and anyone following the Canadian political landscape.

Cyber-Threats to Canadian Democracy

Cyber-Threats to Canadian Democracy
Author: Holly Ann Garnett
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2022-06-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0228012805

From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to overloaded internet voting servers to faulty voting machines, the growing relationship between democracy and technology has brought to light the challenges associated with integrating new digital tools into the electoral system. Canadian politics has also felt the impact of this migration online. This timely book presents the first comprehensive study of the various cyber-threats to election integrity across Canadian jurisdictions. Scrutinizing the events of the 2019 federal election, Cyber-Threats to Canadian Democracy examines how new technologies have affected the practice of electoral politics and what we can do to strengthen future Canadian elections. Through the disciplines of political science, law, computer science, engineering, communications, and others, chapters shed light on some of the most contentious issues around technology and electoral integrity. The contributors address current domestic and foreign threats to Canadian elections, evaluate the behaviour of actors ranging from political parties and interest groups to policymakers and election administrators, and assess emerging legal and regulatory responses while anticipating future challenges to the quality of elections in Canada and around the globe. Cyber-Threats to Canadian Democracy helps seed the study of digital technology’s security risks, providing insight into what reforms are needed and evaluating existing legal and policy frameworks in light of these threats.

Fiscal Federalism in Canada

Fiscal Federalism in Canada
Author: André Lecours
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2023-11-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1487551266

Featuring insights from some of the top specialists in the country, Fiscal Federalism in Canada unpacks numerous complexities of fiscal federalism in Canada. The book features key regional and provincial perspectives, while taking into account Indigenous realities, the three territories, and municipal affairs. The contributing authors go beyond the major federal transfers to examine the financing of education, cities, infrastructure, and housing. This volume shows that fiscal federalism is much more than simply an aggregate of individual programs and transfers. It highlights the role of actors other than the federal and provincial governments and recalls the importance of territoriality. The book pays close attention to the political dimension of fiscal federalism in Canada, which is at the heart of how the federation functions and is essential to its governance. Fiscal federalism is central to the funding of critical programs through intergovernmental transfers, but it is also the focus of political debates on territorial redistribution. In tackling essential questions, Fiscal Federalism in Canada contributes to the so-called second-generation fiscal federalism literature, taking stock of the critical sociological and political issues at its core.

Under the Weather

Under the Weather
Author: Stephanie Sodero
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2022-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0228015758

Humans and human mobility, including driving and flying, are entangled with the climate emergency. Fossil-fuelled mobility worsens severe weather, and in turn, severe weather disrupts human mobility. A shift to zero-emission vehicles is critical but insufficient to repair the damage or prepare communities for the coming disruptions severe weather will bring. In Under the Weather Stephanie Sodero explores the intersection between human mobility and severe weather. Anchored in two Atlantic Canadian hurricane case studies, Hurricane Juan in Mi'kma'ki/Nova Scotia in 2003 and Hurricane Igor in Ktaqmkuk/Newfoundland in 2010, the book contributes to contemporary cultural and policy discussions by offering five practical recommendations – revolutionize mobility, prioritize vital mobility of medical goods and services, embrace ecological mobilities, rebrand redundancy, and think flexibly – for how mobility can be reimagined to work with, rather than against, the climate in ways that also benefit the health, education, and economy of local communities. This ecological approach to mobilities sheds light on extreme mobility dependency and the impact of mobility disruptions on the ground in Canadian communities. Focusing on the entangled relationship between human mobility and the climate, Under the Weather examines how communities can transform their relationship with mobility to enable greater resilience.

Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups

Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups
Author: Ryan Manucha
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2022-10-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0228015499

Gerard Comeau, a retiree living in rural New Brunswick, never thought his booze run would turn him into a Canadian hero. In 2012, after Comeau had driven to Quebec to purchase cheaper beer and crossed back into his home province, police officers participating in a low-stakes sting operation tailed and detained him, confiscated his haul, and levied a fine of less than $300. Countries routinely engage in trade wars and erect barriers to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. Comeau, however, was detained by the full force of the law for engaging in commerce with a Canadian business on the other side of a domestic border. With Comeau’s story as its starting point, Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups tells the fascinating tale of Canadian interprovincial trade. Ryan Manucha examines the historical, political, and legal forces that gave rise to the regulation of interprovincial commerce in Canada, the trade-offs that come with liberalized domestic free trade, and Canada’s enduring pursuit of economic union. The pandemic laid bare the vulnerability of global supply chains, the fickleness of foreign trading partners, and the surprising slipperiness of domestic trade. In a global climate of increasingly isolationist geopolitics, the history and possibility of Canada’s economic union, quirks and all, deserve careful attention.

NORAD

NORAD
Author: Andrea Charron
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2022-11-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0228014948

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has undergone wide-ranging changes since 2006, when it was given a new maritime warning mission and the NORAD Agreement was signed in perpetuity. Andrea Charron and James Fergusson trace NORAD’s recent history, marked by innovations in technology and in command and control, but also by unprecedented threats. The shared defence of North America remains an important issue that should extend to other areas, such as the joint defence of the maritime and cyber domains. Fuelled by a deep curiosity about the command and its decisions made in the face of inevitable geopolitical and technological changes, this book uses a functional lens to evaluate NORAD’s options and the technological and organizational solutions needed to defend North America. The authors investigate the ways in which the NORAD command might adapt in the future as it struggles to modernize and keep ahead of new threats. This book comes at a critical time. The rise of new peer competitors requires a fundamental reconsideration of North American defence. As one of very few contemporary analyses of the command and its future, NORAD will be a vital tool for scholars and practitioners.

Multilateral Sanctions Revisited

Multilateral Sanctions Revisited
Author: Andrea Charron
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2022-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0228012619

Sanctions are back with a vengeance with new objectives, measures, challenges, and opportunities. Shaping the thinking of generations of scholars, Canadian visionary Margaret Doxey anticipated and analyzed these issues, making now the time to rediscover her seminal lessons and apply them to emerging sanctions practices that are taking shape in an increasingly geopolitically contested environment. Written by an international team of women, Multilateral Sanctions Revisited explores UN measures, regional sanctions, autonomous measures, and their interrelations. Informed by Doxey’s insights, the authors trace the evolution of scholarship surrounding multilateral sanctions. The first section analyzes how different actors, such as great powers and regional organizations, employ multilateral sanctions. Turning to contemporary issues, the book’s second section addresses the application and consequences of multilateral sanctions including the norms they enforce, the pernicious problem of evasion, and future challenges, such as sanctioning cryptocurrencies. Multilateral Sanctions Revisited is both a source for academics and a guidebook for practitioners written by leading and emerging sanctions scholars from three continents.