Canada: The State of the Federation, 2008

Considering the use of federal spending power, from a variety of perspectives.

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Whether considered from the perspective of constitutional law or that of political science, few, if any, areas of Canadian politics are more contested than the use of federal spending power. Initially presented at a conference sponsored by the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations and the Faculty of Law at Queen's University in January 2008, the papers in this book consider the topic of federal spending power from a variety of perspectives - legal scholars, political scientists, economists, past and present senior public servants, federal and provincial viewpoints, and critics and supporters are all represented in this comprehensive and accessible collection. Whether one believes that the federal spending power is a necessary safeguard for the protection and advancement of national interests in a decentralised federation or a threat to provincial autonomy from a powerful federal government, one will find reasoned support and criticism in these papers from a distinguished array of contributors. Contributors include Marc-Antoine Adam (Quebec Bar, Government of Quebec), Marc Chevrier (Universite du Quebec a Montreal), Thomas J. Courchene (Queen's University), Tom Kent (Queen's University), Hoi Kong (Queen's University), Andree Lajoie (Universite de Montreal), Harvey Lazar (Queen's University), Roderick A. Macdonald (McGill University and University of Toronto), Alain Noel (Universite de Montreal), Andrew Petter (University of Victoria), and John Whyte (University of Saskatchewan).