21 Apr 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lecture 2: Federal Provincial Relations
- Relations between the federal and provincial governments have passed through a number of
distinct periods since 1945:
o Cooperative federalism
o Competitive federalism
o Contested federalism
o Harper’s open federalism
o Future federalism: deeper or simpler
Federalism: the executive and the legislature
- Parliamentary and extra-parliamentary actors
- Problems of control and coordination
- Control problem: bureaucratic power
- Coordination problem:
o Avoiding duplication
o Inefficiency
o Waste
o Counter-productive measures
Parliamentary Actors
- The executive:
o Prime Minister and Cabinet
o Key decision makers
o Spokespeople for the regions
o Initiate policy making and legislation
o Control money and spending
o Organized into a committee system which is coordinated by the central agencies
o Supported by many civil servants
- The legislature
o The senate (home of privilege and patronage- the lobby within)
o House of Commons- a democratically elected, representative law passing legislature
o Weakened by party discipline
o Utilizes the committee system; Question Period and the power of the caucus to control
the executive
- The Judiciary
o Supreme court
o Federal court
o Essentially the courts have two kinds of power when it comes to control and
coordination