University of Northern British Columbia: Open Journal Systems
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Gendering Local Governing: Canadian and Comparative Lessons – The Case of Metropolitan Vancouver
Get PDFThe United Nations Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, Rachel Mayanja recently noted the slow progress toward gender equity in political representation in the world’s assemblies: while representation of women in national legislatures is up (now at 16.4% overall), there remain areas of slower progress, and the rate of change remains distinctly unhurried. Countries such as Canada offer a basis for some comparisons; so does comparing national, provincial/state/regional and local governments. What is posed here is some evidence from the Canadian case, with brief national comparisons with a variety of other countries. Central to this examination of Canada is a study, reported here, on women in local government in metropolitan Vancouver, providing lessons in terms of Canada and more generally
Canadian Ports: Trends and Opportunities
Get PDFThis paper offers an overview of the development of Canadian ports, with a particular focus on the impact of the container trade. The goal is to highlight the international context within which Canadian port development occurs and identify the attributes for port success in our dynamic global trade environment. The paper begins with a discussion of the growth and extent of the container industry and the impact on trade corridors, as considered from the perspective of ports and intermodal systems. Opportunities for Canadian ports to serve the growing North American container trade are outlined, and the paper concludes with an overview of the key elements crucial for the success of Canadian ports
Branding Cascadia: Considering Cascadia’s Conflicting Conceptualizations - Who Gets To Decide?
Get PDFThis article examines the notion of branding – or place marketing - through the experience of Cascadia – the transborder region of Pacific NorthWest North America. It assesses the Cascadia city-region ‘brand’ in the context of competing definitions about the cross-border region, asking whether a multiplicity of conceptualizations is a definitional disadvantage or strength. It concludes that the urban conception is the most sustainable ‘brand’, and one in keeping with the initial branding of Cascadia around ecological imagery. It examines some of the cooperative – and occasionally conflictual – activity in the Cascadia region and concludes with lessons for city regions – particularly those which are not ‘top- tiered’ in world city terms – from this Mainstreet Cascadia experience, noting that seven ‘globalist’ characteristics stand out as ‘best strategies’ for rebranding local-global relations in terms other than ‘globalized
The Antecedents to Cascadia as a Cross Border Region
Get PDFFor the short period from 1834 to 1863, the Pacific Northwest, centered in Cascadia, was an entity in the global economy. The region became a coherent economic unit under the management of the Columbia District of the Hudson’s Bay Company, which developed an economic hinterland, a coherent economic and trade strategy, an aggressive marketing agenda and control of marketable resources in the region. It strategically built a resource base to meet market needs and played an extensive entrepreneurial function, for example selling Finish boots in California in 1840 and Puget Sound grain in western Siberia by 1843. This paper traces the broad outline of the rise and fall of this economic empire and draws attention to the role of state power, manifested at the levels of identity and legal construction, in ending the coherence of that regional entity. In a time when the logic of Cascadia on environmental and regional grounds is apparent to many, this paper highlights how the border and the attendant identities of political actors divided and ended its coherence. Its demise may offer insight into the forces which bolster the border which divides it today
The 2007 Provincial Election in Quebec
Get PDFThe 2007 provincial election in Quebec may be considered a milestone in recent Quebec politics. For the first time since 1878, voters elected a minority government in the province (Jean Charest’s Liberals), a third party (ADQ) replaced the Parti Québécois (PQ) as Official Opposition, and the PQ had its worst showing in 37 years. The pre-campaign was marked by the “reasonable accommodations” debate, which gave the ADQ the boost it needed to rival the two main parties. The incumbent Charest government suffered from its low popularity, due to what was largely perceived as a disappointing record. The PQ’s loss of support was mostly attributable to its new leader André Boisclair’s lack of appeal and to the party’s insistence on holding another referendum on Quebec sovereignty. Quebec’s new three-party system may last for some time, due to each party having strong and relatively well-defined regional support bases
Cascadia Revisited from European Case Studies: the Socio-Political Space of Cross-Border Networks
Get PDFIn this paper, I seek to analyse how cross-border spaces are constructed through the activities and strategies of established and emerging cross-border networks. In order to observe cross-border actors and public policies, I use three case studies, two in the European Union, i.e. the Rhineland Valley, also known as Upper Rhine (France-Germany-Switzerland) and the Mediterranean Euroregion (France-Spain), and one in North America, i.e. Cascadia (Canada-United States). I propose to draw our theoretical approach from a model suggested by P. Bourdieu, so that it is possible to compare a series of factors that structure these borderlands. The ultimate goal of this paper is to sketch the socio-political space of these networks in each cross-border region and eventually to suggest new research lenses for Cascadia
The 2006 Provincial Election in New Brunswick
Get PDFComing just three years and a few months after one of New Brunswick's closest elections ever (2003), the 2006 election saw the Liberals and the PCs tiptoe through a campaign in which the smallest shift in votes would mean the difference between winning and losing. And this is precisely what happened: a very small shift of votes - some from the NDP, some because of riding reapportionment, gave the Liberals and their young leader Shawn Graham the victory, although the incumbent PCs under Bernard Lord received the most votes overall
Bridge Building and the New Federalism
Get PDFThe “Common Ground: Renewing the Federal Partnership in Quebec and the West” workshop explored, among other things, the prospect for building new bridges between Quebec and the West. This prospect raises two interesting conceptual questions: what is being used to build the bridge, and who is doing the building? My contribution to this bridge-building discussion focuses less on the building materials and more on who is doing the building, and on the durability of the bridge in the face of emergent challenges
A Proposal for a Borderland Dispute Settlement Continuum Mechanism
Get PDFThe malaise felt by both Canadians and Americans regarding several areas of trade does not exist in a vacuum. It is not difficult to surmise that besides the genuine tension owing to actual implementation of liberal trade principles in the trade practise between the two states, and to their diverging interpretations of these principles, lies also some political opportunism. Not only has the US pursued a unilateralist course in its trade relations with Canada; it did so also in matters security, which have created, at least a perception, of an unfavourable impact on Canadian economic interests. The US current beleaguered international reputation in matters foreign policy regarding both security and economic issues may therefore tilt the pendulum in Canada’s favour. From a power contest point of view, perhaps now is the time and opportunity for Canada to reap also international “moral” (juridical), in addition to economic, gains