Suchergebnisse

A review essay on books by (1) Janet Ajzenstat, Paul Romney, Ian Gentles, & William D. Gairdner (Eds), Debats sur la fondation du Canada ([Debates on the Founding of Canada] Quebec: Presses U Laval, 2004); & (2) Janet Ajzenstat, The Once and Future Canadian Democracy (Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's U Press, 2003). This review of two books on Canadian political process and identity provides an historical overview of the difficulties faced by Canadians attempting to create a clear sense of national political identity. These difficulties have arisen in part because of Canada's evolving relationship with Great Britain, in part because of the influence, and proximity, of the United States. Further difficulties arise from the fact that various groups within the nation do not agree on the relationship between the people and their government and from the fact in this post-9/11 world the role of government shifts continually as both concepts of security and liberty are being renegotiated. However, a renewed emphasis on the Canadian constitution will help to resolve many of these problems since the constitution is not simply a "simple legal superstructure" but an "ideological matrix" that has the power to form the nation's political culture. D. Knaff

Although many elements of the Canadian political system were changed by the 1982 constitutional reform, the system has, in its limited capacity, managed to maintain the political regime. For instance, the organic duality of the written & unwritten law, which has always defined Canadian constitutionalism, remained unaltered. This article attempts to shed some light on how the Supreme Court of Canada has continued to lean toward the preservation of the "constitutional regime," exercising a fundamental function in a democracy of a monist type where formal resort to constitutional amendment is seldom used. The author demonstrates how the Court attempted to register the democratic changes of the regime & to harmonize them with its immutable principles. In doing so, the Court nevertheless diminished the value of constitutional written law & advanced an essentialist conception of judicial power. Adapted from the source document.