INTRODUCTION
After the patriation in 1982, an amendment formula was added to the Canadian constitution. The condition to change the constitution was decided as ‘the constitution can only be amended when all provinces accept the proposal with more than 50% votes in their provincial governments’. In multicultural societies, it is more difficult to reach a consensus as every province has different requests and these requests usually affect other provinces’ interests therefore the constitutional negotiations are in a deadlock. There is very little room for change in the Canadian constitution. The process of constitutional reform has negative effects on Canadian political community because its amendment negotiations are in a deadlock as long as provinces have competing interests which deepens the polarization amongst them.
CANADA AS A MULTICULTURAL ENTITY
The Confederation in 1867 established two provinces: Ontario and Quebec. Ontario has an Anglophone community whereas Quebec has a Francophone community. The constitution had asymmetrical elements that recognizes Quebec as a distinct society as their culture and language is different from the rest of Canada. Quebec was given distinct powers that weren’t given to any other province because of their minority status as French speakers in a largely English-speaking country. (Burgess 1993 364)
Canada is a federal state where the provinces and the central government shares power. They each have different jurisdictions. Provinces are very powerful in Canadian state structure so Canada is described as ‘provincialized’ and ‘decentralized’ in contrast to other modern states. (Burgess 1993 364) This ‘provincialization’ can be explained with the multicultural structure of Canada because it is a huge territory with many different cultures residing in it mainly the English Canadians, French Canadians, and Indigenous Peoples. Therefore, every province needs its own governance focused on their communities and regional issues.
After World War II, federal governments acted against decentralizing trends to protect their authority. The conflict between federal and provincial levels started to become intense especially due to taxation policy and federal spending in provincial jurisdictions. Quebec as a distinct French society was not happy about federal government threatening their autonomy. The Quiet Revolution in 1960s emerged as the modernization and independence movement of Francophones in Quebec against federalists. Since then, Quebec has a rivalry against the federal state and they want their provincial powers to be maximized to be independent from the state as possible. (Burgess 1993 366)
HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION IN CANADA
1. Constitution Act, 1867
2. Constitution Act, 1982
There have been several attempts at patriating the Canadian constitution but the discussions were paralyzed in 1980 because Quebec wanted veto right and all provinces wanted more powers. Pierre Trudeau wanted to pursue the Pan-Canadian identity therefore was firm with patriation. The Prime Minister decided to act unilaterally if the provinces did not accept the conditions of patriation so all provinces except Quebec accepted the constitution. In 1982, The Canada Act was passed by the Parliament of Canada without Quebec’s approval to patriate Canada’s constitution and to end British Parliament’s amendment power over Canada.
The new amendment formula requires all 7 provinces to pass approval in their provincial parliaments by more than 50% of votes for general procedures while amending the amending formula requires all provinces and the Parliament’s approval. The amending process has caused constitutional paralysis as it made it very unlikely to make any changes to the constitution. 1982 Constitution was a huge step in cutting ties with Britain but it has failed to solve Canada’s domestic problems because the amending formula is ‘unworkable’ due to its flaws. (Stein 1997 308)
3. Meech Lake Accord, 1987
4. Charlottetown Accord, 1992
CONSTITUTIONAL DEADLOCK
Constitutional negotiations are about the allocation of resources therefore it is likely that any proposal favouring one of the actors will be objected by the other actors because the other actors will gain less if the proposal passes. This situation causes a continuous power struggle amongst the provinces and has negative effects on the Canadian political community because it drives the constitution into a deadlock. (Behnke and Benz 2008 215)
“Politics in a federal system must be flexible to react to changing conditions of policy-making. At the level of the constitution, the rules of federalism must be more stable than regular legislation and protected against too easy change. But in view of the dynamics of society and politics, it must be possible to adjust a constitution if the changing conditions require it. Otherwise, an overly rigid constitution jeopardizes the stability of the federal state in the long run.” (Behnke and Benz 2008 214 and Watts 1997 161)
Conflicts among provinces
Why do conflicts amongst provinces affect the governance?
EFFECTS OF THE DEADLOCK ON CANADIAN POLITICAL COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE
CONCLUSION