Introduction to the Research Symposium: Common Ground: Renewing the Federal Partnership in Quebec and the West

Abstract

With the constant negotiation and renegotiation of political arrangements between levels of government in Canada, federalism and intergovernmental relations are never stagnant. From time to time, new political circumstances bring about sudden policy changes which redefine the federal partnership, perennial problems are cast in a new light as new solutions emerge. What used to be obvious no longer is, and unsuspected opportunities open up which political entrepreneurs can seize upon. In this context, the question raised at the workshop “Common Ground: Renewing the Federal Partnership in Quebec and the West,” held in Vancouver in March of 2007, was whether the election of the Conservative government, among other factors, has created a new climate for renewing Canadian federalism and, more specifically, whether Quebec and the western provinces will be able to work out their past differences in a new atmosphere of cooperation around issues of mutual interest.