Vincent Chung / Edge Columnist
Federalism in Canada is a subject of much political and social discourse. There are many different opinions about Canada’s ideal system of governance, and those tend to be split among partisan lines.
For example, the current Liberal government under prime minister Justin Trudeau and his attitude regarding federalism have been quoted as “aggressive” by The Globe and Mail. Trudeau was often criticised for pushing through agenda items without ample consultation with provincial governments, causing backlash from premiers and even sparking political tension between multiple provinces.
Such efforts by Trudeau to centralise powers of the country to the capital city of Ottawa with a top-down governance style sharply contrast with the previous Conservative government of former prime minister Stephen Harper.
According to Maclean’s, Harper practised decentralisation or “passive federalism”, where provinces were given much political autonomy with no imposed programs or policies by the federal government. Such came from the agenda of “small government,” as advocated by Harper, to minimise the decision-making by the federal government and to off-load such to its respective regional governments or private enterprise.
However, in recent years, Trudeau’s unruly federalism started to see its breakdown.
Just recently, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, passed the controversial Keeping Students in Class Act to impose mandatory contracts on education sector unions and outlaw strikes. Though this was a direct violation of the right to collective bargaining protected by the constitution, Ford invoked the notwithstanding clause to bypass supreme court challenges.
In response, Trudeau explicitly stated that the clause should be used only in the “most exceptional circumstances,” expressing that the government was looking at “all different options” to combat the “pre-emptive use”.
In addition, the newly formed Alberta government under premier Danielle Smith is looking to introduce the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which would unilaterally vest more autonomy into the provincial government and limit federal interference in its internal affairs. There is much debate about whether the law is unconstitutional, and some even call for the government to intervene.
To understand the ongoing standoff and frosty relations between the two branches of government, one needs to understand precisely how Canada’s federalism works.
Federalism is a system of government that, in contrast to a unitary system, advocates for a division of power between multiple levels of government. The federal government and the ten provinces in Canada derive their authority from the Constitution of Canada.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a bill of rights entrenched in the constitution, contains a particularly powerful clause which states that provinces can override sections of the Charter, including the guarantee to fundamental civil liberties for five renewable years without meeting specific criteria.
Such authority held by the provincial governments is unheard of in other democratic federal nations and is perhaps what allows for lengthy intergovernmental power brawls. The Centre for Constitutional Studies described Canada as one of the most “decentralised federations in the world.”
The issues and headaches of Canadian federalism first caught mainstream attention during the patriation of the Canadian constitution in the early 1980s. Then prime minister Pierre Trudeau negotiated with provinces a fair amending procedure, along with the Charter, which Premiers opposed because it put too much power in the courts and not in their hands.
In fact, provinces used the negotiations as an attempt to “bargain power”, as Pierre Trudeau later recalled in an interview with CBC.
The notwithstanding was born on this occasion, as it was a compromise by then-justice minister Jean Chretien to move forward and secure the patriation deal, which took ten months of negotiation and political brawls.
There were attempts at even more decentralisation under Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney with the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord. It was a constitutional amendment package that tried to increase provincial governments’ sovereignty and entrench “special status” for Quebec to suppress its sovereignty movement. Still, the Meech Lake Accord broke down after provinces failed to ratify it, and the Charlottetown Accord was shot down after a no-turnout in a referendum.
Ever since, Canada’s decentralist policy hasn’t changed much throughout the Jean-Chretien-Paul Martin Liberal government and the Stephen Harper Conservative government.
As we enter the seven-year mark of Justin Trudeau’s reign, we see more polarisation in regionalism and provincial-federal government relationships with unruly and authoritative centralism. It is only a hope of ours to see more effort towards peaceful cooperation and coexistence.