Representation In Canada Research Articles

<em>Doing democracy differently: Indigenous rights and representation in Canada and Latin America</em>

Doing democracy differently: Indigenous rights and representation in Canada and Latin America, by Roberta Rice, University of Calgary, 2024

Sound Allyship? Straight Politicians and LGBQ Representation in Canada

How do heterosexual politicians who are allies perform LGBQ representation? Through the eyes of Canadian LGBQ parliamentarians, I uncover some heterosexual politicians’ motivations for becoming allies and some of their concrete practices in this regard. I also identify some criticisms voiced by LGBQ parliamentarians in relation to their heterosexual colleagues’ activities of LGBQ representation. Straight politicians become allies for ideological and lived experience reasons. However, beyond best intentions, heterosexual allyship is not without its critics among LGBQ parliamentarians. In conclusion, I contemplate some of the contributions that this article can make to substantive representation and argue for further work to address the voices and experiences of straight parliamentarians on their allyship activities of LGBQ representation.

Indigenous Political Representation in Canada

AbstractDespite long-standing academic interest in Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state, there has been little study of Indigenous elected officials as representational actors. We ask: What are the distinctively Indigenous forms of representation practised by Indigenous elected officials in Canada? And how does clarifying the role of Indigenous elected officials as representatives both contribute to and enhance our overall understanding of Indigenous politics, governance and sovereignty? We draw on the existing literatures on substantive representation as well as original interviews conducted with current and former Indigenous elected officials to develop an original conceptualization of Indigenous representation. These actors differ in their perceptions of themselves and their roles as representatives, the representational behaviours they engage in and the outcomes they seek. Our conceptualization of Indigenous representation engages with four themes: Indigenous perspective, Indigenous advocacy, balance with other imperatives including constituency representation and party discipline, and Indigenous nationhood.

Language Matters: The Study of Canadian Politics through an Exploration of Syllabi and Comprehensive Exams

AbstractThe representation of Canada's two main linguistic groups in the teaching of Canadian politics is crucial, but we know little about it. In this article, we analyze the systemic underrepresentation of francophone authors in Canadian political science by examining the research that students are exposed to. Based on data from 351 syllabi across 42 Canadian universities, as well as data from the reading list of the doctoral qualifying field exams in Canadian politics, our findings show that francophone authors are systemically underrepresented (when not totally absent). About 38 per cent of Canadian politics courses include no francophone authors in their reading lists. Our findings suggest that Canadian politics is not an inclusive and comprehensive field. This result entails important implications not only for current professors and students but also for the profession more generally, given that the students who will make up tomorrow's faculties in Canadian universities are shaped by these biases.

Shifting Sands: A View from the Centre in 2021.

After decades of growth and relative stability in professional nursing across the country, events of the past decade have generated unease across the profession as the very existence of some of our institutions is threatened. In this commentary, we describe factors leading to the erosion of historic membership models that were the backbone of professional nursing representation in Canada. We argue that clinging to old models of jurisdictional representation will not be fiscally sustainable in an all-voluntary membership model and suggest principles we believe could underpin a strong, united and pan-Canadian professional association representing all nurses in Canada.

Policy Ideology and Local Ideological Representation in Canada

AbstractTo enable new research on local ideology and representation in Canada, we construct a latent measure of the policy ideology of 37,500 Canadian Election Study respondents using 56 policy-relevant questions and then use multilevel regression and poststratification to estimate the average ideological position of each of Canada's 338 federal electoral districts and 250 largest municipalities. We use these local ideology estimates to examine ideological representation in Canadian municipal politics. Combining our municipal ideology estimates with elite survey data from more than 900 Canadian municipal politicians, we find evidence of a strong relationship between mass and elite ideology. This relationship is consistent across differing municipal population sizes and institutional structures. We conclude with additional detail on our publicly available individual and aggregate measures and describe their potential uses for future research on ideology and representation in Canadian politics at all levels.

Electoral Parity or Protecting Minorities? Path Dependency and Consociational Districting in Nova Scotia

Abstract: This article contributes to the study of electoral districting and minority group representation in Canada, Nova Scotia politics, and path dependency theory, through an analysis of electoral boundary commissions in Nova Scotia and relevant electoral boundaries jurisprudence. The concept of ‘protected ridings’ for historical minorities in Nova Scotia – specifically, Acadians and African Canadians – was introduced by the first provincial Electoral Boundaries Commission in 1992. This approach, referred to here as ‘consociational districting’, ran counter to the trend in electoral redistribution and apportionment exercises toward reducing the extent of population variance between electoral districts. When the continued application of this approach was rejected in 2012, its legality and validity were restored following a successful court challenge by the province’s Acadian federation. An analysis of this case study informed by historical institutionalism explores how path dependency has been a significant factor in the de facto constitutionalization of consociational representation for two historical minorities in Nova Scotia. In effect, history and institutions matter in the politics of redistricting, especially insofar as it concerns minority representation.

Context and Opportunities for Expanding Protected Areas in Canada

At present, 10.5% of Canada’s land base is under some form of formal protection. Recent developments indicate Canada aims to work towards a target of protecting 17% of its terrestrial and inland water area by 2020. Canada is uniquely positioned globally as one of the few nations that has the capacity to expand the area under its protection. In addition to its formally protected areas, Canada’s remote regions form de facto protected areas that are relatively free from development pressure. Opportunities for expansion of formally protected areas in Canada include official delineation and designation of de facto protected areas and the identification and protection of land to improve connectivity between protected areas (PAs). Furthermore, there are collaborative opportunities for expanding PA through commitments from industry and provincial and territorial land stewards. Other collaborative opportunities include the contributions of First Nations aligning with international examples of Indigenous Protected Areas, or the incorporation and cultivation of private protection programs with documented inclusion in official PA networks. A series of incremental additions from multiple actors may increase the likelihood for achieving area-based targets, and expands stakeholder engagement and representation in Canada’s PA system. Given a generational opportunity and high-level interest in expansion of protected areas in Canada and elsewhere, it is evident that as a diverse number of stakeholders and rights holders collaboratively map current and future land uses onto forest landscapes, science-based conservation targets and spatial prioritizations can inform this process.

Reconciling Shared Rule: Liberal Theory, Electoral-Districting Law and “National Group” Representation in Canada

AbstractCanada, like all representative democracies, apportions representation to individuals; also, like all federal states, it accords polity-based representation to federal subunits. But Canada is additionally a consociational state, comprising three constitutionally recognized “national groups”: anglophones, francophones and Indigenous peoples. These groups share power and bear rights beyond the bounds of the federal system. In recent decades, Indigenous peoples and francophones have appealed for representation as “national groups,” leading to constitutional challenges. Courts have either failed to address the constitutionality of “national group” representation or have rejected it as irreconcilable with individual voting rights. I suggest the former is unnecessary and the latter procedurally illogical. Drawing on the liberal principles of individualism, egalitarianism and universalism, I develop a framework contextualizing such representation within liberal theory. I then deploy this framework to analyze recent Canadian case law. I show that appeals for “national group” representation should be approached not through the lens of individual rights, but rather through the “constitutionally prior” lens of universalism.

The representation of canada in political discourse

The primary purpose of this article is to examine the Canadian image in political discourse, to identify the factors creating this image. Due to the most relevant political speeches, messages, government reports, analysis of statistical data there are being worked out some tools for building the image of Canada on the world stage. Lately, political discourse is becoming a subject of study for linguistics. The interest in the phenomenon is motivated by a wide range of linguistic instruments used as an effective tool to manage the public perceptions. Study and analysis of the mechanisms of political communication allow to decode pragmatic information hidden in the political texts. The subject of the work consists in highlighting the linguistic approaches to the representation of Canada in the international diplomacy. The object of the work is an examination of political discourse in the public statements made by political figures, government documents, which reflect social and political realities. The methodology has developed under the influence of cognitive linguistics of domestic and foreign scientists. Research study includes cognitive and conceptual analysis to reveal distinctive features of the social and political realities; interpretive and context analysis to select political texts. It exposes the ways of representation of Canadian image, demonstrates its weak and strong sides. A vast factual material reveals multi-faced nature of Canada and provides an identity set of lexical units which are reflected in political discourse. The material illustrates today’s image of the country and the perceptions of Canada throughout the world. The idea of multiculturalism is justified by the guiding ideology of ethno-cultural plurality. The main sources of information are official government documents (laws, acts, reports), statistical data, parliamentary debates, party agenda, political speeches. All the provided material combined mass-media information, the Internet.

Black Slavery in Canada: A Structuring Absence in Canada's (Hi)Stories

In national as well as international terms, Canada holds the image of a savior of African slaves, even though in the recent production The Book of Negroes (CAN/USA 2015) a more critical depiction of Canada is presented. The question, however, remains whether the miniseries, with its admission of discrimination and racism, actually rebuts previously established myths of Canada’s relation to slavery. Due to the virtual absence of Canada from the screen when it comes to slave narratives, very little attention has been paid so far to a Canadian perspective in analyzing such artifacts. By looking at the representation of Canada’s relationship with black slavery on film and television, I search for patterns and discursive moves which maintain a distance from addressing the country’s own slaving past. I apply a critical discourse analytical approach in order to unveil the meanings and cultural implications of information-omission from screen. The overall purpose of my argument is to show that by focusing exclusively on the significantly larger contribution of the United States to the practice, artifacts reinforce the popular notion of Canada’s innocence in the enslavement of human beings.

(De)valuing Intern Labour: Journalism Internship Pay Rates and Collective Representation in Canada

Unpaid journalism internships have attracted increasing media coverage, but they have received limited scholarly attention. This paper traces the connections between trade unions (in unionized media organizations) and the labour conditions marking journalism internships. While some unions can be complicit in sustaining the exploitation and devaluation of interns with regard to the standard market value of entry-level labour, other unions have fought to establish internships, locking higher salaries into collective agreements. Building on the concept of precarity, this article surveys internships at 19 mainstream English-language newspapers and magazines in Canada. It draws on documentary evidence from and personal communication with labour unions and journalism organizations, internship advertisements, and media coverage to offer a typology of the relationships between pay rates and collective representation within journalism internships: unpaid/low paid and not under union jurisdiction; unpaid/low paid and under union jurisdiction; paid at intern rates and not under union jurisdiction; paid at intern rates and under union jurisdiction; and paid at entry-level employee rates and under union jurisdiction.

La representación de un país de habla francesa en manuales europeos de francés lengua extranjera

This study analyzes stereotypes and generalizations about Canada obtained from a sample of European textbooks of French as foreign language. These stereotypes and generalizations have been classified according to the issues and social groups of Canada society they seem to refer to, as well as to the cultural approaches implied in them. The users of this type of textbooks will mainly find a twofold representation of Canada in these stereotypes and generalizations: on the one hand, representations of issues and social groups from Quebec, and then representations of the rest of Canada as a whole. As regards the cultural approach in these representations, the foreign one prevails, followed secondarily by the intercultural one. However, the latter centers on the relations between France and Canada. This study indicates that there is a tendency to reduce and limit the range of social issues and groups of Canadian society into the stereotypes and generalizations of these textbooks.

Unionism and non-union employee representation: The interwar experience in Canada, Germany, the US and the UK

The decline in trade union membership in a number of countries has led to concerns over a ‘representation gap’, where workers are deprived of a voice not only in regard to their workplace grievances, but also in regard to their contributions to productivity and the quality of working life. While a number of alternatives have been raised, including joint consultation and works councils, there are concerns that these alternatives may further weaken union organization by establishing rival forms of organization. This article examines the interwar experience with three types of workplace non-union employee representation in Canada, Germany, the US and the UK. Where management recognizes unions and unions actively ensure that they dominate these representation mechanisms, they can enhance union organization.

Fair Isn't Always Equal: Constituency Population and the Quality of Representation in Canada

Abstract.Is there a conflict between the principles of representation by population and the representation of communities of interest? In Canada, the legal requirement to design electoral districts based on pre-existing regions and communities of interest has produced large discrepancies in district populations. Several authors claim that this situation has a deleterious effect on the representational experiences of those citizens living in more populous districts. This paper examines whether the population of an electoral district affects the quality of political representation in that district. We first present survey data characterizing the relationship between constituency population and citizens' reported satisfaction with democracy and contact with politicians and parties. We then present audit experimental evidence from Canada demonstrating that the helpfulness of politicians towards citizens is not conditioned on constituency population. Our data indicate that constituency population has no clear impact on the quality of representational experiences in Canada, suggesting that it is possible to ensure the effective representation of communities of interest without harming the overall quality of Canadian democracy.Résumé.Y a-t-il un conflit entre les principes de représentation par personne et de représentation de communautés d'intérêts? Au Canada, des écarts importants entre la population de certaines circonscriptions électorales résultent de l'obligation légale de les délimiter en tenant compte des régions et des communautés d'intérêts préexistantes. Plusieurs auteurs soutiennent que cette situation entraîne des effets néfastes sur la représentation vécue par les citoyens qui habitent les circonscriptions les plus populeuses. Dans cet article, nous vérifions si la taille de la population influence la qualité de la représentation politique dans une circonscription électorale. Nous présentons d'abord des données d'enquête sur la relation entre la taille de la population d'une circonscription et (i) la satisfaction des citoyens à l'égard de la démocratie, (ii) leurs contacts avec les politiciens et (iii) les communications qu'ils reçoivent des politiciens et des partis. Puis, nous présentons des données d'une expérience menée au Canada qui indiquent que la propension des politiciens à aider les citoyens n'est pas influencée par la taille de la population de leur circonscription. Nos résultats indiquent que la taille de la population d'une circonscription n'a pas d'effet clair sur la qualité de la représentation au Canada, suggérant ainsi qu'il est possible d'assurer la représentation efficace des communautés d'intérêts sans nécessairement nuire à la qualité globale de la démocratie canadienne.

Electoral redistricting and minority political representation in Canada and the United States

This article compares the political representation of visible minorities in Canada and the United States, focusing on differences in federal redistribution (redistricting) practices and constituency composition. Although the two countries both use territorially‐based electoral systems, they operate under different legal standards and institutional environments for the creation of ridings (districts). In the US, redistricting is a highly political process, yet must respect strict population equality standards. Litigation over redistricting is common, and courts adjudicate voting and representation under a constitutional system enforcing strong individual rights. In contrast, Canada's redistribution process is relatively nonpartisan, permits large population variances among ridings, places more emphasis on community rights, and is seldom subject to extensive court challenges. Despite these differences, the two countries exhibit striking similarities in the overall level of visible minority representation relative to population share. Conversely, Canada's population inequalities among ridings create a systematic disadvantage for visible minorities. Political attention to visible minority representation is stronger in the US, but the means to achieve it are constrained both by the judicial limits on group representation and the constitutional limits on the use of racial identity. Canada has a framework for political representation that could easily accommodate significant visible minority representation but lacks the political imperative to use it, in part because doing so would run counter to Canada's multicultural image of these groups as immigrants rather than as non‐white minorities.

Aboriginal Representation in Canada: Reforming Parliament or Creating a Third Order of Government

In Canada, aboriginals are constantly searching for proper representation, voice and place within in society at large and more specifically, in the parliamentary system. This paper critically examines the creation and maintenance of a place for aboriginals within contemporary Canadian governance, specifically two venues for aboriginal represent in Canada: representation through parliamentary reform or self-government by Aboriginal groups.

Representations of Canada’s role in the War on Terror: the fantasized nationalist narrative

This multi-method study is based on data collected from 99 written narratives, four in-depth semi-structured interviews, and demographic questionnaires. It depicts a particular framework in which a diverse group of university students represent Canada’s role in the War on Terror. The study reveals how these representations assist in the imagining of Canada as a peacekeeper and peace-loving nation. These presumably benign representations of the war and peace produce banal nationalism, and have implications for both students’ imagination about war and peace and for peace educators. This contributes to the importance of critical peace pedagogy in teaching students the relationships of banal nationalism, wars and peace.

Foreign Aid as Gift: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Response to the Haitian Earthquake

This paper explores the construction of Canada as a benevolent nation through the distribution of aid as a “gift.” By analysing news media reports by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) during the period in which the Canadian government matched citizen donations (January 12 to February 12, 2010), I argue that Canada represents itself as a generous giver and Haiti as a sometimes ungrateful receiver of the “gift.” Understanding the gesture of gift giving as a project of self-construction, I argue that the media representations of Canada giving foreign aid made Haitians hyper-visible as poor, desolate, and violent while simultaneously rendering Canada's imperial project in Haiti invisible.

Nineteenth-Century English-Canadian Anthologies and the Making of a National Literature

The term “Canadian literature” was popularized by early Canadian anthologists who viewed their collections as evidence of the country’s coming of age. These editors were driven by a mix of evangelical nationalism, political allegiance, literary alliances, and the desire to profit from shifting perceptions of the country and its literature as Canada moved towards the twentieth century. The representation of Canada that emerges in these formative collections is intimately linked to the conditions surrounding their production, which impacted the anthologies as much as the editor’s religious, political, or aesthetic values. These conditions influenced the representation of nation and affected the ways in which readers came to understand the meaning of “country” as a textually constructed ideal. This essay examines seven anthologies of English-Canadian literature published in the nineteenth century in an attempt to determine the kind of values they promoted, the tensions their editors faced, and the extent to which they established canonical norms that would be inherited by their twentieth-century successors.