Canada: The State of the Federation 1993

Joseph Garcea is an assistant professor of political studies at the
University of Saskatchewan.

Most of the articles in this excellent collection are devoted to the
process and substance of the Charlottetown Accord and the 1992
referendum. Among the topics covered are public participation and elite
accommodation in the constitutional negotiations; the relative merits of
comprehensive versus piecemeal approaches to constitutional reform;
Quebec’s response to the accord; and differences within the aboriginal
community in regard to both on the process and substance of
constitutional reform. Particularly good are two articles—one on the
evolution and future prospects of fiscal federalism, and the other on
the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments in
the context of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

This is a valuable reference to recent developments in Canada’s
constitutional reform history, fiscal federalism, and NAFTA.