Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History

Elaine G. Porter is an associate professor of sociology at Laurentian
University.

The word “practice” in the title hints at the author’s
political-economy approach. Throughout the book, Finkel maintains a
focus on social justice in terms of gender, class, and race/ethnicity;
in five of the book’s 13 chapters, he explicitly discusses the plight
of Natives. The struggles of various stakeholders to make and influence
social policies and programs are chronicled from the pre-colonial period
to the early 21st century. The Great Depression and the post–World War
II period of prosperity are seen as small windows of opportunity to sway
the political agenda toward universal social policies. Several policy
arenas are given detailed analysis in the halcyon period from 1945 to
1980—policies for the elderly, medicare, child care, housing, and
anti-poverty measures.

There is much to recommend this scholarly work as a primer on the small
margins of possibility (largely through co-optation by politicians) for
popular pressure groups to influence major policy debates. Policy
discourses are discussed from a critical perspective that provides an
evaluation of the social conditions leading to and emanating from policy
changes. As well, the effects of comparative social policy analyses are
considered. Although Finkel relies heavily on a vast array of secondary
sources, he evaluates their conclusions and augments these sources with
his own examination of historical records. His consideration of the
impact of various influences on policy decision-making is nuanced rather
than categorical as it takes into consideration the viewpoints of
various factions within groups representing labour, the women’s
movement, social work professionals, government bureaus, and a variety
of grassroots citizen’s groups. According to Finkel, by the 1980s,
elite groups were able to frame public policies in neo-liberal terms
that diffused the bases for solidarity among various interest groups and
portrayed social problems as individual shortcomings.

The book, however, ends on an optimistic note that popular movements
can change the neo-liberal climate. Before this can happen, he considers
it necessary for intellectuals to disconnect from their position as
mandarins of the state and take a more critical stance toward the
corporate agenda in Canada. His book takes a solid step in this
direction.