Republican Option in Canada, Past and Present

Penny E. Bryden is an assistant professor of history at Mount Allison
University, the author of Planners and Politicians: Liberal Politics and
social policy, 1957–1968, and the co-author of The Welfare State in
Canada: Past, Present and Future.

If this book were merely about republicanism in Canada, as its title
suggests, it would be a slim volume indeed. While continuous
constitutional negotiations, the rise of new parties like Reform with
their calls for a Triple-E Senate and Supreme Court reform, and the
sorry state of the modern British monarchy all point to the possibility
of more serious debates about republicanism in the future, Canada’s
monarchy is deeply embedded, and our past flirtations with republicanism
have been few and far between. The standard-bearer of modern
republicanism, the United States, has provided Canadians with ample
examples of the deficiencies of such a system and has served throughout
our history as a model of what Canada is not.

In reality, Smith’s book is as much an exploration of the extent and
limits of the Canadian political system as it is a consideration of the
suitability of republicanism to the Canadian environment. Smith
evaluates the nature of representation, participation, federalism, and
citizenship in Canada, and points to the opportunities the institutional
structure provides for access to politics from the outside rather than
just from the inside. Those interested in the republican option in
Canada will certainly find this book useful; as a broad-ranging study of
Canadian political institutions and political culture, however,
Republican Option in Canada should attract a wider audience than implied
by its title.