Search

Focused on the politics and policies of citizenship, immigration, and multiculturalism in Canada, this article employs the concepts of Kenneyism (Kenney-ism, named after Jason Kenney, Canada’s prominent former minister of citizenship, immigration, and multiculturalism) and neo-conservative multiculturalism to reconcile the Conservative Party of Canada’s long-term outreach efforts aiming to incorporate many new, ethnicized, and racialized Canadians into a “minimum winning coalition” with the exclusionary policies and creative discourses the party espoused and implemented during its time in office, 2006–2015. As forms of politics that Stuart Hall termed authoritarian populism, the emphasis on the “authoritarian” dimension of conservative populism foregrounds the often anti-democratic nature of the project both symbolically and substantively. This article outlines the roots of Kenneyism and neo-conservative multiculturalism within a discussion of the party’s evolution from its Reform and Alliance Party predecessors. It discusses five key characteristics and trends of the party’s political and governmental approach that demonstrate both their creative outreach and forms of disciplinary politics and social exclusion—particularly but not only with respect to Muslims, refugees, and temporary foreign workers. It concludes with reflections on the party’s record and the future of Kenneyism as a form of politics after the party’s 2015 electoral defeat and 2017 leadership contest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines connections between protest camps and artist interventions in the Canadian context, focussing on two cases. In October 20m, Occupy Toronto organizers set up a protest camp in St. James Park as part of a global movement in 950 cities to decry the effects of global capitalism. Six months later, another collective set up an artistic occupation consisting of 200 A-frame tents called The Encampment at Fort York National Historic Site. This intervention recast the military fort, which conventionally operates as an open-air living history museum depicting the social and military history of the War of 1812, as a space that showcased the war's civilian history. The author approaches each as a space of convergence dependent upon the calculated co-ordination of people and tents to signal calls for change. The author also takes into account significant differences between the two camps in that Occupy Toronto was a hard intervention that was ultimately evicted by order of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, while The Encampment was a soft one, co-commissioned by the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saskatchewan has long been viewed as possessing a unique form of social democratic politics that sets it apart from other Canadian provinces. Drawing on three separate academic surveys, the authors argue that Saskatchewan residents are in fact very centrist in their political values, while their policy positions depict less consistency. Moreover, Saskatchewan residents appear to hold values and support policy positions quite similar to those of residents of other Canadian provinces. This centrism means that Saskatchewan's political parties must be able to attract centrist voters while maintaining policies that motivate their social democratic or conservative electoral bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004 and 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a trilogy of decisions that outlined the doctrine of the duty to consult and accommodate, thereby changing how resource development occurs in Aboriginal traditional territories. As a result of these decisions, new avenues of economic development for well-resourced First Nations have opened up, with the hope of creating a new future for remote Aboriginal communities; but are these types of agreements meeting the expectations of First Nations and their members? The authors visited a First Nations community that recently negotiated impact and benefit agreements with large industrial proponents. The authors conducted in-depth, long interviews with 17 key informants: former chiefs and grand chiefs, executive directors of community agencies, program directors, business persons, spiritual persons and elders, property managers, and direct-service practitioners. Five themes, or areas of concern, emerged from the research: unemployment, employment, and economic stimulation; social and physical health concerns; negotiations and meaningful community involvement; corporate social responsibility, capacity building, and social capital; and environmental concerns and cultural relevance. Despite the concerns these agreements raised, 14 of 17 informants remained in favour of the impact and benefit agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ARUC Work History Project in New-Brunswick (LHTNB) aims to show that the labour experience is an important and essential part of New Brunswick's provincial heritage. Through partnerships with different community organizations, the research team organized public activities and participated in collaboration projects in many regions of the province. The aim of this essay is two-fold: first the author evaluates the nature and the efficiency of the partnerships developed in Madawaska, an Acadian region of New Brunswick. Did the research team succeed in developing genuine partnerships in Madawaska? Was there a real sense of "sharing authority" between the research team and its community partners in that region? What has been public's role since the project began? Second, the author analyzes the effect of public activities and collaboration projects on the Madawaska community and attempts to draw conclusions from what the research team has learned from these experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]