Colonial Leviathan: State Formation in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Canada

David E. Smith is a political science professor at the University of
Saskatchewan and author of Jimmy Gardiner: Relentless Liberal.

Although studies of the state are now popular, studies of the Canadian
state remain few. This is because federalism and cultural duality rob
Canada of a centre, without which the sense of cohesion necessary to a
concept of state-building is weak. But not absent. The 10 essays in this
book provide evidence that the Canadian state began to emerge in the
pre-Confederation period both in the valley of the St. Lawrence and in
the Maritime colonies.

The chief characteristics of this “colonial leviathan” are familiar
to modern Canadians: a powerful executive in control of a weak
legislature, and politicians in love with power and reluctant to
delegate it to bureaucratic “experts.” The essays offer the useful
reminder that responsible government was not only, or even principally,
about constitutional issues, but about the formulation and
implementation of policies. In this context, the rise of the
departmental inspectorate, the social and economic impact of railway
construction, and the experiments at organized financial management
become explicable and significant.

In this book, the focus of the period shifts from embryonic parties
(where it has been set for too long) to halting administration, and,
through early annual departmental reports and public accounts, the
lineaments of the emerging state are revealed. Taken together, these
coherent, lucid, and tightly organized essays offer a new and valuable
perspective on the development of Canada and its institutions of
government.