Disallowance And Reservation Of Provincial Legislation

The controversy aroused by the Supreme Court's decision on offshore mineral rights emphsizes the importance of the public domain in the workings of the Canadian constitution. Public property is important to the provinces not only for its revenues, but also because it provides them with a powerful instrument for control of their economic and political destinies and strengthens their position in relation to federal authorities. The provisions of the British North America Act and other constitutional instruments relating to natural resources and public property are examined thoroughly in this series of lectures given to doctoral systems at the Faulte de droit of the Universite de Montreal. Professor La Forest studies ownership of mines and minerals, navigable waters, public harbours, fisheries and Indian lands, as well as the currently controversial offshore mineral rights. He notes the political imlications of the partition of proprietary rights and explores the areas of conflict between the federal and provincial governments. Also included is a discussion of the power of expropriation, and, because public property involves public monies, lending and spending powers receive attention. In these lectures, Professor La Forest traces public domain in Britain from the time when the monarch controlled all the land, to his surrender of this control to parliament in return for a civil list, and to the similar surrender to the legislatures of the British North American colonies in connection with the struggle of responsible government. The collection of lectures is essential reading for any serious student of the constitution and will be very useful to all who are interested in the increasingly important law of natural resources in Canada.

This study provides the first comprehensive text offering insight into the nature of the conventional rules that work in the Canadian constitution. Heard deals with the principal conventions governing prerogative powers of the crown, cabinet decision making and administrative behavior, parliament and provincial legislatures, federalism and federal provincial relations, the judiciary, and foreign relations.

In recent decades, the economic framework of Canada’s Constitution has been a subject largely neglected by judges, scholars, and commentators. Trade and Commerce fills this gap by bringing to light a lost understanding of how the Constitution structures economic relations. As Malcolm Lavoie reveals, the Constitution includes foundational commitments to property rights, local government autonomy, and the principle of subsidiarity. At the same time, it creates a platform for integrated national markets with secure channels for interprovincial trade. This economic vision remains a vital part of Canada’s constitutional order and is relevant to a purposive interpretation of the Constitution. But contemporary legal discourse has begun to lose touch with this vision, with regrettable consequences in a number of different policy areas. Exploring the implications of the economic Constitution in the context of contemporary issues – including disputes over interprovincial trade and jurisdictional tensions between federal, provincial, and Indigenous governments with respect to the environment and the economy – Trade and Commerce restores economic ideas to the forefront of constitutional thinking in Canada.

This book corrects an imbalance in Canadian political literature through offering a conservative account of Canadian political thought. Across 15 chronologically organized chapters, and with a mixture of established and rising scholars, the book offers an investigation of the defining features and characteristics of Canadian conservative political thought, asking what have Canadian conservative political thinkers and practitioners learned from other traditions and, in turn, what have they contributed to our understanding of conservative political thought today? Rather than its culmination, Canadian Conservative Political Thought will be the beginning of conservative political thought’s recovery and will spark debates and future research. The book will be a great resource for courses on Canadian politics, history, political philosophy and conservatism, Canadian Studies, and political theory.

The British North America Act of 1867 fashioned a Canadian federation which was intended to be a highly centralized union led by a powerful national government. Soon after Confederation, however, the government of Ontario took the lead in demanding a greater share of the power for the provinces, and it has continued to press this case. Professor Armstrong analyses the forces which promoted decentralization and the responses which these elicited from the federal government. He explains Ontario's reasons for pursuing this particular policy from 1867 to the Second World War. The author's sources are the private papers of federal and provincial premiers and other contemporary political figures, government publications, parliamentary debates, and newspapers. He has identified and developed three separate but related themes: the dynamic role played by private business interests in generating intergovernmental conflicts; Ontario's policy of promoting its economic growth by encouraging the processing of its resources at home; and the tremendous influence exerted by increasing urbanization and industrialization on the growth of the responsibilities of the provinces. During the 1930s, efforts to restructure the federal system were rejected by Ontario because it preferred to maintain the status quo,and was unsympathetic to greater equalization between the regions. Consequently, Ontario took a leading part in opposing the redivision of powers recommended by the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations in 1940. This book provides part of the historical context into which current debates on the question of federalism may be fitted. It thus will be of importance and interest to historians, students of Canadian history, and the general reader alike. (Ontario Historical Studies Series: Themes)