A Review of "Regional Ministers" and "Voice of Region"

Abstract

Last September the federal government tabled its set of unity proposals in Shaping Canada's Future Together (1991). At present these proposals are being debated and discussed, and negotiations over them are scheduled for yet-to-be-scheduled first ministers' meetings this year. One proposal on the table calls for the reform of the Senate. The federal government has also proposed a Council of the Federation, to formalize the current first ministers' conferences. Provincial and federal representatives could meet regularly to vote on issues pertaining to shared spending, fiscal harmonization, and economic union. Regional representation in federal government, consequently, forms a crucial part of constitutional discussions. So it is fortunate that two books have been recently published dealing with this issue: Regional Ministers Power and Influence in the Canadian Cabinet (by Herman Bakvis) and Voice of Region The Long Journey to Senate Reform in Canada (by Randall White). Carefully researched and well-documented, both books undertake lengthy historical and analytical reviews of regional representation in the federal Cabinet and the Senate, respectively. The two books are fair-minded in their treatment of each institution. Bakvis explains how some federal cabinet ministers still wield significant power in using departmental funds to divert patronage and pork-barrelling into their constituencies, provinces, and regions. Moreover, these powerful regional ministers can act as importa t spokespersons for the regions to gover ment. Randall White, correspondingly, argues that the Senate has been a major disappointment in Canadian government. In his view, it has failed to act as a voice for the country's disparate regions. Partly as a result, he argues, western Canada, Atlantic Canada. and the North have become alienated from the basic