The 1981 Kent commission report on newspapers is discussed and contrasted with the MacBride (UNESCO) report. The former assumes that competition is the major safeguard of diversity; the latter, written from the perspective of Third World countries, regards social inequality as the primary obstacle to the free flow of information. Together they reflect contemporary controversies about modernization. Trends toward rationalization, professionalization and autonomy are examined. Neither approach, Kent or MacBride, provides a satisfactory interpretation of Quebec's francophone press. An alternative model based on access is, we suggest, closer to the realities of Canada's changing political culture and class structure.

In the 1870's, party attitudes to Canada's nascent labour movement were clearly reflected in the federal legislation of successive Conservative and Liberal administrations. Especially was this true of the Trade Unions Act of 1872 and the Breaches of Contract Act of 1877. The bill concerning trade unions was guided through the House a few weeks before a federal general election by Sir John A. Macdonald, conscious of the special contribution it would make to the success of his National Policy. It was passed in response to organized labour's outspoken demands and in the face of George Brown's determined efforts to destroy trade unionism. The Breaches of Contract bill was driven through the Commons for no clear electoral purpose by Edward Blake and Alexander Mackenzie, conscious of the special contribution they could make to the success of the Grand Trunk Railway Company. It was passed in spite of labour fears and in the face of stiff opposition from Macdonald, Irving and other leading Conservative and Independent politicians. Whereas the famous Trade Unions Act asserted the right of all workers to organize and to strike, the less well-known Breaches of Contract Act denied the right to strike to all employees of public utilities. Thus the seventies, while witnessing some major federal legislation directly affecting Canada's young trade-union movement, also saw labour inevitably moving within the orbit of Macdonald's Conservative party.

Throughout its history the Canada Post Office has faced substantially the same set of problems but the emphasis has shifted. For instance, technology, which formerly was mainly related to the use of railways and then of automobiles and airplanes, is now concentrated on the problem of sorting mail by electronic means. At one time the Post Office devoted much attention to extending postal services to all parts of Canada, however remote. Now it is increasingly concerned with providing service intensively, that is, with giving door-to-door delivery in suburban areas and in every community of 5,000 or more people. Postal authorities and the general public have always been interested in the relative rates on letters, magazines, advertising circulars, and parcels, as well as in the allied question of a surplus or deficit on the operation of the Post Office as a whole. In the last few years rising wage-rates and rapid growth in the volume of second- and third-class mail have made the matter of pricing for postal services more significant than ever before. This article deals first with the history of the Canada Post Office and then with problems of the postal service which remain unsolved.

Before 1851, all postal services in British North America were ultimately controlled by the Postmaster General in London. Even after the reforms of Rowland Hill, the Postmaster General’s policy for the colonies was to secure a profit which was remitted to Britain. After the colonies assumed control they rapidly increased the number of offices and the milage of postal routes. Internal postage rates, which had averaged 18 cents per half ounce and were graduated for distance, became uniformly 2d. sterling or 5 cents anywhere in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada. The colonists bore the resultant deficits without much complaint.

During the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth, the value-of-service basis for railway rates ruled unchallenged. Over the last forty years, and especially the last twenty, that system has been undermined from so many directions that it is rapidly becoming untenable. Willy-nilly, railways are being forced over to a cost-of-service basis by the competition of other carriers and by the relocation of industry. So long as they are expected to be self-supporting (and the logical problems of operating nation-wide utilities on any other basis are daunting), any traffic or service that does not pay its full costs must inevitably come under review. The cross-subsidization between different types of traffic which once took place as a matter of course is no longer possible, and railways are compelled to know their own costs and to sell their services in competition at rates based, to an ever-increasing extent, on cost. In the last fifteen years, for example, competition has converted the old class rate structure, which was the heart of value-of-service rates, into a mere shrunken survival, historically interesting, but no longer worthy of serious consideration.

There are other surviving specimens of value-of-service rates, but the Crow's Nest schedule for grain rates is the only one covering a major traffic. For historic reasons, the rates, in terms of current money, are now at or below those first established at September 1899, despite the change in prices and wages in the intervening period. There are, therefore, compelling reasons to examine them now.

This study tests explanations of the choice of policy instruments. The comparative analysis of the Canadian and United States energy policies for the period 1973-1996 concludes that the choice of a policy instrument is a function of (1) whether the degree of constraint involved is consistent with the ideological predisposition of the party in power, (2) whether the agency needed to implement the instrument already exists, thus reducing costs, (3) whether a policy transfer from other jurisdictions is possible or whether policy harmonization is required, and (4) whether the target groups affected by the use of the instrument are likely to oppose its use.

In 1946, after visiting Russia, Harold Innis remarked that the time had come to broaden the range of political economy by studying, first, the struggle for social supremacy between states, churches and commerce; and, second, the related competition between languages, religions, cultures and communications media. This, I argue, is what Innis accomplished. His early studies of Canadian economic history transcended conventional economics and laid the groundwork for a later political theory of communications. It expressly took up the 1946 challenge to address competing monopolies of knowledge and power, hence manipulating the space and time-binding properties of communications media. Innis' work reflected a materialist model of communications, a social ecology, a soft determinism or philosophic naturalism and it linked knowledge, freedom and power. Finally, I conclude, these insights permitted Innis to transcend bias and to search for a balanced culture.

Employing a rational choice perspective, this article seeks to explain the shift in the trade policy position of the Canadian province of Ontario during negotiations that led to the North American Free Trade Agreement. In doing so it highlights an important, though often overlooked, phenomenon: issue linkage in public policy construction. Early in 1993, Premier Bob Rae's New Democratic party government significantly shifted its position on the proposed agreement. While never actively supportive of the accord prior to 1993, the provincial government maintained close contact with federal trade negotiators as a means of advancing its core trade objectives. By February 1993, however, the government's position hardened perceptibly. Specifically, the government actively undertook to derail the proposed agreement. This article suggests that this shift cannot be understood in terms of growing dissatisfaction with the impending trade agreement, nor solely to a change in Ontario's trade policy preferences. Rather, it suggests that a broader perspective is needed, and argues that Ontario's position on NAFTA was linked to other priorities of the Rae government: namely, those in the fiscal policy arena.

The growing economic liberalization within, and interdependence between, modern states have limited the ability of state administrations effectively to pursue public policies without the “co-operation and self-restraint” of their citizens. The concept of citizenship will thus increasingly be a battlefield in the struggle for ideological hegemony between major political interests who attempt to define citizenship to enhance their respective political agendas. These debates over the nature of citizenship have been articulated most clearly in the United Kingdom, where the Speaker's Commission on Citizenship (report released in September 1990) has been a focal point in the discussion of what citizenship in a modern state entails.

Résumé. Cet article a pour objectif de présenter les racines intellectuelles de la politique étrangère canadienne promue par David Bercuson et Barry Cooper, deux membres de ce que d'aucunes appellent « l'école de Calgary », et à qui on attribue une certaine influence sur la pensée du gouvernement Harper. L'article montre que bien que leurs prescriptions puissent se résumer à première vue à un désir de rapprochement avec les États-Unis, leur politique étrangère repose sur des fondements plus complexes, qui combinent leur propre lecture de l'histoire canadienne et des intentions ayant présidé à la Confédération, une certaine conception des relations internationales, ainsi qu'une réflexion philosophique et anthropologique sur la violence, le tout ayant été fortement influencé par la conscience politique particulière de l'Ouest canadien.

Abstract. This article explores the intellectual roots of Canada's foreign policy as conceived and promoted by David Bercuson and Barry Cooper, two prominent members of the “Calgary School” and public intellectuals credited with influencing the Harper government's view of the world. While their notion of Canada's foreign policy can be simply boiled down to their belief that Canada should align with the foreign policy of the United States, it is, in fact, more complex. Bercuson and Cooper's vision of Canada's foreign policy blends in a distinct way their own understanding of Canadian history and the original intent behind Canadian Confederation; their particular conception of international relations; philosophical and anthropological reflections on violence; and their typically Western Canadian political consciousness.

Much of the literature on unconditional basic income considers reciprocity to be necessary for its success. From a normative standpoint, receiving without giving is unjust. From a technical standpoint, the absence of mechanisms that promote reciprocation invites free riding which threatens to erode the economic structure upon which the system of distribution depends. As a solution, it has been proposed that communities adopt social norms that encourage basic income recipients to contribute to the productive capacity of society by engaging in volunteer work. This article interrogates whether this alternative to conditionality is consistent with the rationale for implementing unconditional basic income and finds the instillation of stronger norms to be unnecessary for the project's success.

Abstract. This article aims to describe a forward-looking approach to the problem of property rights in transitional justice contexts. Undemocratic regimes violate property rights in various ways, from simple theft to violations of opportunities to appropriate. Therefore, post-transition situations entail an obligation to correct such injustices. However, returning to the status quo ante is complex, costly and requires information that is often not available. An alternative is the suggested FCR: forward looking, commensurable and redistributive. Such an approach emphasizes the creation of a baseline of ownership and welfare rather than an attempt to return to the status quo ante.

Résumé. Cet article tente de décrire un argument tourné vers l'avenir au sujet du problème des droits de propriété en contexte de justice transitionnelle. Les régimes non démocratiques violent les droits de propriété de multiple façons, de la simple usurpation à la violation des opportunités d'appropriation. Par conséquent, les situations post transitionnelles impliquent une obligation de corriger de telles injustices. Cependant, le retour au status quo ante s'avère complexe, coûteux et requiert de l'information qui, souvent, n'est plus disponible. Une alternative est l'argument suggéré FCR : prospectif, commensurable et redistributif. Une telle approche met l'emphase sur la création des conditions de base du droit à la propriété et du bien-être, plutôt que sur la tentative de restituer le status quo antérieur.

Résumé. Après plus de deux décennies, un tribunal manitobain a fixé une date pour entendre l'affaire FMM qui touche à la concession des terres aux Métis selon l'art. 31 de la Loi de 1870 sur le Manitoba. Le politologue Thomas Flanagan répète inlassablement que les Métis ne se sont jamais décrits comme peuple aborigène ayant des droits fonciers spéciaux pendant la résistance de 1869–70. Puisqu'il est fort probable que la Couronne se serve encore une fois de la recherche de Flanagan dans l'affaire FMM, le moment est opportun pour réexaminer les arguments de Flanagan. Dans ce but, l'auteur examine ici de plus près certaines des prétentions de Flanagan, notamment celles qui veulent que : 1) les Métis n'aient jamais revendiqué le statut de peuple autochtone ou des droits autochtones pendant les événements de 1869–70; 2) les listes de droits ne contiennent aucune référence aux droits aborigènes des Métis; et 3) l'abbé Ritchot i) n'ait eu aucun mandat de négocier l'extinction du titre aborigène des Métis et une concession de terres; ii) n'ait été qu'un délégué parmi trois.

Abstract. After more than two decades, a Manitoban court has set a date to hear of the MMF case which touches on the Métis land grant in s. 31 of the Manitoba Act, 1870. Political scientist Thomas Flanagan has continually repeated that the Métis never described themselves as an Aboriginal people with special land rights during the resistance of 1869–70. As it is quite probable that the Crown will use Flanagan's research in the MMF case, it is timely to reexamine it. To this end, the author takes a closer look at some of Flanagan's conclusions, most notably those that claim that: 1) the Métis never claimed status as an Aboriginal people during the events of 1869–70; 2) the various Bills of Rights contain no reference to the aboriginal rights of the Métis; 3) the abbot Ritchot : i) had no mandate to negotiate the extinction of Métis aboriginal rights and a land grant; ii) was but one of three delegates.

Canada's federation is distinct from the other two major federations in the English-speaking world in resting upon an alliance of two peoples and two cultures. Other differences exist, but this is fundamental. Since 1867 the dualism of culture has been slowly woven into the political fabric of the nation, although outside Quebec its implications are still not always appreciated or wholly accepted. With the appearance in 1956 of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Constitutional Problems, English-speaking Canadians have little excuse for misunderstanding the position of their French-speaking compatriots. The Commission was appointed by provincial statute in January, 1953, under the chairmanship of Judge Thomas Tremblay. Its bulky report is never likely to be widely read. It is prolix and sometimes repetitious to the point of tedium; its analysis would have been more telling had it been tidier and more compressed. Yet, despite such flaws, it is a landmark in the literature of federalism: it describes and explains more fully than any other public document the position and anxieties of Quebec in the federal state, and defends the concept of a strict federalism as the essential basis for the success of Canada's national experiment. For the Tremblay Commissioners the issue of Quebec in the federation and the issue of the French in the nation are one and the same. In harmony with their theme they submit numerous recommendations. We cannot, however, assess these or do justice to their premises, without first reviewing briefly the historical position of Quebec in Canadian federalism.