Right after he became Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau underlined that he would not reopen the Constitution. He said the constitutional wrangling would be “a laborious effort that would consume a lot of the dialogue between the federal government and the provinces.” And yet, on the eve of the next federal election, Canada is very much consumed by intergovernmental disputes – some of which are likely to shape the debate on the campaign trail. From pipelines to carbon taxes, and from irregular migration to equalization, the federal parties are likely measuring the way these issues will influence voting behaviour in October.
These complex dynamics were the subject of a panel discussion in March 2019 at the 24th annual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, hosted in collaboration with the IRPP. This short series of articles is based on the insights shared on the panel.
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