The Canadian federalist experiment : from defiant monarchy to reluctant republic / Frederick Vaughan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vaughan, Frederick.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Canada--Politics and government--1867-.

Canada.

Canada--History--Confederation, 1867.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (238 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

He then argues that Trudeau's 1982 Charter quietly undermined the monarchic character of the constitution by introducing republican principles of government. The result has been old institutional structures at odds with the republican ambitions, leaving Canada clinging to the wreckage of the old aristocratic order while attempting to provide a new order founded on republican equality. Vaughan shows how, at the time of Confederation, Edward Freeman, a Cambridge historian who convinced John A. Macdonald to experiment with what no one had ever heard of before, a "monarchic federation," and Jean-Louis DeLolme, a popular French authority on the English constitution, helped forge a new federal constitution with a strong central government and a chief executive armed with the powers necessary to govern. Vaughan examines how these principles were undermined by the judicial activism of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which paved the way for the significant expansion of judicial power under the Charter since 1982.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

Introduction: An Improbable Ambition

The Enlightenment and the Foundations of Modern Government in England and America

From Royal Prerogative to Responsible Government

The Foundations of Eddystone

An Object Much to be Desired

The Ambiguous Embrace of Federalism

The Courts and the Rise of Judicial Power

A Nation of Christians

The Charter Court and the Decline of Parliament

Epilogue: Clinging to the Wreckage

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-219) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-86111-5

9786612861116

0-7735-7101-9

OCLC:

76898625