Procedure over substance? CETA and the political economy of subsidiarity

ABSTRACT

Competing notions of subsidiarity can help to understand the intricacies of new types of trade deals as concluded between Canada and the European Union. From this perspective the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) balances two fundamentally different models of economic distribution and decision making authority either giving priority to private actors and their domestic communities or to political institutions aiming for a social embedding within global markets. Examining CETA as an unusual compromise in international regulatory cooperation, this article focuses on the settlement of highly contentious issues through complex procedural innovation. While this eventually made a final agreement between trading partners with two different polities possible, it could not settle widely diverging assessments about the long-term economic effects of the new deal. As a consequence, and to build bridges between distinct spaces of subsidiarity, the final agreement represents a flexible and open-ended approach to future trade relations.     

Issue salience, issue ownership, and issue-based vote choice

According to the issue ownership theory of voting, voters identify the most credible party proponent of a particular issue and cast their ballots for that issue owner. Despite the centrality of this voter-level mechanism to ownership theories of party behavior, it has seldom been examined in the literature. We explore this model and offer a refinement to its current understanding and operationalization. Returning to the roots of ownership theory, we argue that the effect of issue ownership on vote choice is conditioned by the perceived salience of the issue in question. Through individual-level analyses of vote choice in the 1997 and 2000 Canadian federal elections, we demonstrate that issue ownership affects the voting decisions of only those individuals who think that the issue is salient.     

加拿大健康城市实践及其启示

健康城市目前已成为世界各国减少城市化进程中健康危害的新路径。作为健康城市诞生地加拿大,近几十年健康城市及健康城市项目在不断的实践和发展过程出现了一系列变化,如健康城市特征的变化,健康城市项目内涵的演变等;此外多伦多等地在实践过程中也经历了高潮和低谷的波动。结合大量文献资料以及实地考察,对加拿大健康城市运动进行分析和剖解,并重点介绍多伦多健康住宅,蒙特利尔城市交通等案例,为我国健康城市运动建设提供了借鉴性的框架。结合我国实际情况,提出了突破公共卫生领域,强调健康城市项目包容性,建立以政府为主导跨行业跨部门的健康城市战略框架,面向交通的城市土地利用规划(TOD)等若干建议。     

别具一格的加拿大宪法

从殖民者的统治到加拿大的主权独立 ,短短几个世纪的风雨历程 ,造就了一部风格独具的宪法。英国和法国殖民者不仅在这片北美土地上留下统治的痕迹 ,也给加拿大宪法打上了深刻的烙印。本文试图分析加拿大宪法的特点、历史演进 ,并将它与其他国家的宪法进行比较。加拿大宪法既是成文宪法 ,又具有不成文宪法的要素 ;既是相对柔性的宪法 ,又具有刚性的特色 ;既强调君主立宪 ,又体现了主权在民。     

Two Political Worlds? Multi-level Campaign Integration in Canadian Constituencies

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, using survey data from Canadian constituency associations, the article explores the extent to which federal and provincial parties engage in cross-jurisdictional coordination. In doing so, this study builds on and empirically tests findings that have been derived from earlier case studies (i.e. Koop, 2011). Far from inhabiting ‘two political worlds’ the data reveal that parties are much more connected than previously thought. Second, the article seeks to uncover why some parties and associations are more integrated than others. Examining organizational design, the article concludes that vertical party integration is not simply an organizational phenomenon, as organizationally truncated parties still engage in modest levels of informal integration. In addition, constituency level factors are also considered. The results of a multinomial logistic regression demonstrate that parties are significantly more integrated in districts where they are electorally viable compared to those where they are weak.     

加拿大社区矫正介评

为了减少迅速增长的监狱人口数量,加拿大在刑事司法程序的不同阶段,广泛实施各种切实可行的拘禁替代性措施,处于社区矫正的罪犯人数明显超过监禁人数,其社区矫正工作已取得法律、经济、社会三重实效。在中国社区矫正的发展过程中,有必要结合中国自身国情与加拿大的经验,坚定不移地将这一既有益于犯罪人重返社会、树立生活信心,又有利于社会和谐的社区矫正工作做好。     

浅析加拿大多元文化政策的发展

民族的多样,文化的多元是加拿大区别于其他国家的重要特点。1971年加拿大政府宣布实行多元文化政策,这使加拿大成为西方第一个将推进多元文化发展作为国策的国家。1988年加拿大政府颁布《加拿大多元文化法》,用法律的形式肯定了这一国策。多元文化政策的推行为加拿大处理历史上遗留下的民族问题提供了一个行之有效的方法,同时对其他国家认识和处理本国的民族问题也起到了一定的借鉴作用。     

Intergovernmental relations on immigrant integration in Canada: Insights from Quebec,Manitoba, and Ontario

ABSTRACT

The pattern of intergovernmental relations (IGR) on immigrant integration in Canada runs counter to core arguments in the extant literature. In particular, Canada's federal structures have not produced multilateral, institutionalized, and conflictual IGR; IGR in Canada has been predominantly bilateral and only moderately institutionalized. Moreover, IGR has been conflictual at times, while collaborative at others. Several factors explain this unexpected pattern. In an attempt to ward off separatism, the central government devolved authority over immigrant selection and settlement programmes to Quebec, creating a deep asymmetry between Quebec and the Anglophone provinces (and territories) in these areas. Interprovincial competition drove other provinces to seek powers over immigration and integration. The central government – driven by fiscal pressures and a philosophical commitment to symmetry – struck bilateral agreements with Anglophone provinces to fund and devolve settlement programming and some control over the selection of economic immigrants.     

The Dual Challenge of Integration and Inclusion

Abstract

The Government of Canada is leveraging the potential of the Internet and related technologies to offer Canadians user-centered, integrated services when and where they want them, no matter how they choose to access them (online, telephone, mail, in-person). The article provides insight into the Government of Canada's use of a “whole of government approach” to address the challenges entailed in ensuring that users' needs drive the service delivery agenda. It discusses the key enablers of service transformation, including information management, privacy, security, interoperability and performance measurement.