Interest Groups,Federalism, and Water Quality in the Great Lakes: Chasing a Moving Target

Federalism often creates additional decisions for interest groups in determining how best to advocate for their policy recommendations in the legislative process. Should they focus their advocacy at the local, state, or national level of government? This article examines interest group behaviors in water quality policy in the Great Lakes region from 1960 to 2000. I evaluate the reasons for interest group decisions about which level of government to target, using historical analysis of Great Lakes water quality policy in the United States and Canada. The results of this analysis show that in many cases groups are influenced in their decision-making based on the level of government that has the greatest jurisdiction over the policy, supporting a neoinstitutional argument.     

The Rush–Bagot Agreement: Canada–US Relations in Transition

In 1817, Great Britain and the United States concluded the Rush–Bagot Agreement to prevent a naval arms race on the Great Lakes. Despite frequent transgressions to the agreement, by the 1920s, the agreement was heralded internationally as a model to emulate. The predominant scholarly focus on the agreement in the nineteenth century fails to explain why a broken agreement in one century was praiseworthy in the next. This article argues that the twentieth-century narrative of the agreement is of critical important to explaining the agreement’s impact on Canada–US relations. Through the lens of three stages of Canadian political leadership, this article demonstrates that the Rush-Bagot Agreement shifted from a rigid compact to a symbolic agreement that not only reflected but aided the transition toward one of the most unique security relationships. The article concludes that this extant agreement reinforces the prevalent notion of the “undefended border” in Canada–US relations.     

The Influence of Problem Definitions on Environmental Policy Change: A Comparative Study of the Yellowstone Wildfires

In the summer of 1988, television viewers across the United States and Canada were transfixed by images of Yellowstone National Park seemingly consumed by flames as wildfires burned almost one million acres of land within the Greater Yellowstone Area. In the wake of the fires, the governments of the United States and Canada both reassessed their policy approaches to fire management and came to two very different conclusions. The purpose of this study is to explore how the wildfire problem was defined in Canada and the United States in the wake of the Yellowstone wildfires, why these definitions were so different, and what effects these different definitions have had on fire policy. As a subtext, this research also highlights the challenges inherent in science‐based decision making.     

Federalism and Entrepreneurship: Explaining American and Canadian Innovation in Pollution Prevention and Regulatory Integration

Conventional wisdom provides an increasingly strong endorsement of far-reaching decentralization and delegation of authority to bureaucratic agents as the most likely mechanisms to attain such central environmental policy goals as pollution prevention, cross-media regulatory integration, and development of reliable measures of environmental outcomes. Canada would appear an unusually fertile context for such Innovation, given its far-reaching deference to individual provinces and their environment ministries in environmental policy. Comparative analysis of select sub national governments in Canada and the United States suggests that the states in general are far ahead of their provincial counterparts in most of these areas of innovation. Despite all the opprobrium heaped on the American environmental policy system, a combination of federal policy tools and state policy entrepreneur ship appear to contribute directly to this innovation in some states and are almost completely absent in the Canadian system. These findings suggest a need for careful study of the mix of intergovernmental policy tools and principal-agent relations most likely to realize desired environmental policy goals.     

THE 'BLOB'

Canada will remember 1985 as the year of the ‘Blob,’ that mixture of toxic chemicals found in the St Clair River that attracted national attention. The ‘Blob’ was discovered by divers from the Great Lakes Institute (gli) of the University of Windsor, who were engaged in taking samples of sediment from the bottom of the river. The oily sludge was found to be a mixture of nasty chemical compounds - including dioxins. In the words of one government scientist, it was the most contaminated material ever found in the Great Lakes! Traces of the dread dioxin were found in the drinking water of municipalities downstream, and citizens demanded action from all levels of government. Did the chemicals come from spills from Chemical Valley industries? or industrial sewers? or seepage from deep wells where chemical waste has been stored? Do these toxic contaminants bioaccumulate in the food chain? And what is their effect on humans? No one knows the answers to these questions, but the problems have not gone away. One important result has been a great increase in research efforts. The Gli had been engaged for three years in research in the Essex region on four toxic contaminants — lead, cadmium, pcbs, and ocs (octachlorostyrene) under a contract with the federal Department of Environment. This research indicated that these contaminants are widespread in the sediments and clams of the rivers and Lake St Clair- and also in the soil and plants of the region. The latter finding is of concern, since recent research has shown that food (not drinking water) is the chief source of many contaminants to the human body. Since the ‘Blob’ findings, the Gli has received grants from the World Wildlife Fund and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to pursue its research into toxic contaminants in the ecosystem. The ‘Blob’ incident has been a justification for the existence of the Great Lakes Institute. It demonstrated that university institutes could bring to public attention environmental hazards that may be concealed or minimized by private companies and overlooked or condoned by government agencies. The multidisciplinary cli was formed at the University of Windsor in 1981 to provide an alternative to government research on the Great Lakes. In Ontario at that time there was no university-based organization doing Great Lakes research, though all the Great Lakes states had such university institutes.     

American and Canadian Environmental Federalism; A Game-Theoretic Analysis

To understand why environmental federalism is different in Canada and the United States, one might begin with the initial strategic realities that faced the Fathers of Canadian Confederation and the Framers of the Constitution of the United States. This essay examines federalism from a game-theoretic point of view, to integrate and expose the rational properties of the decision to federate and the logical entailments of that choice for environmental policy within two specific strategic contexts. Specifically, I suggest that American environmental federalism has arisen in response to the strategic reality of a Prisoner's Dilemma, while Canadian environmental federalism can be analyzed as an effort to regulate confrontations within a game of Chicken. In addition to the analysis of each federated structure, evidence from five case studies demonstrates the usefulness of games to the study of comparative federalism     

Canadian foreign direct investment in the United States by type: mergers and acquisitions, greenfield, real estate, joint ventures and investment increases

This paper provides an overview of Canadian foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States by type. Mergers and acquisitions (M&As), greenfield investments, joint ventures, real estate purchases and increases to existing investments are compared spatially, through time (using a data set that consists of transactions from 1977 to 1994) and by industrial classification. Over this study's time-frame, direct investors from Canada were most likely to perform a real estate or M&A transaction in the United States (and least likely to be involved in a joint venture). The most consequential years for real estate purchases were the 1970s and early 1980s; whereas M&A and greenfield transactions have gained in proportionate importance through time. M&As, greenfield and investment increases were most often enumerated as manufacturing transactions, but mining and consumer and business services were also very common. A series of bivariate regression models established that growing state economies significantly increased M&A, real estate, greenfield and investment increase activity from Canada. Relative regional specializations (as given by location quotients) provided additional spatial information. M&As formed a pattern of specialization that emphasized the Great Lakes region and also the central portion of the US (roughly following the Mississippi River). Greenfield and investment increase transactions favoured states along the east coast and those adjacent to the Canada-US border. Real estate investors were most attracted to the US south and extreme west.     

论二战后期中英美围绕香港战后地位问题的交涉与斗争

在第二次世界大战后期,美国、英国和中国围绕香港的战后地位问题展开激烈斗争。美国政府支持战后由中国收回香港主权。罗斯福总统为此作出许多外交努力。英国拒绝战后将香港主权交还中国。这样,蒋介石将希望完全寄予美国的支持上。但是在战争结束前夕,美国与苏联开始进行冷战,美国需要英国的支持,因此放弃了原来的政策。其结果是英国在战争结束时重新占领香港。     

Unravelling the Quebec-Canada- USA Linguistic Triangle

The choice of English and!or French as official languages in Canada is generally considered to be dictated by internal considerations of minority-majority relations and of the interplay of power between provincial—principally Quebec—and federal governments. While not denying this thesis, the present study demonstrates that language policies and attitudes are also largely influenced by the country's external relations, notably with the United States.     

“Lessons Learned” from the Security and Prosperity Partnership for Canadian–American Relations

The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) launched in 2005 by the three countries of North America presents an important case study in North American cooperation in the decade after the 9/11 attacks. The pro-integration arguments advanced by think tanks and the business community overplayed the pragmatic agenda of the governments. The SPP was unpopular and without legislative support in Canada and the United States. By 2009, the annual summit of leaders was the only survivor of the SPP initiative. The SPP process produced modest results for Canada and points to the need for a broader and more inclusive approach in terms of consultation. It also confirmed the Canadian view that a trilateral approach does not deliver on Canadian interests. If the Obama administration does not relaunch a rebranded SPP, the final lesson of the SPP experience would be a setback for the pro-integration approach in North America.     

Navigating the “International Dots and Dashes”: David W. McFadden's Great Lakes Suite and the Canada–US Border

In Great Lakes Suite (1997), David W. McFadden fictionalizes his travels around three Great Lakes bisected by the Canada–US border. McFadden both uses and subverts generalizations and stereotypes as the text destabilizes categories of sameness and difference, illustrating an unsettled and unsettling Canada–US relationship. McFadden demonstrates that the “hospitable” relations between Canada and the US are rife with power imbalances: the positions of host and guest, and relations of hospitality and hostility, do not remain fixed, often undermining the Canadian host position. Writing in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, at the time of US intervention in Nicaragua, and leading up to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), McFadden demonstrates that power constitutes the clearest distinction between Canada and the US. In the midst of Canadian struggles for political and economic power, McFadden uses an ironic humor to reclaim a cultural power for Canada as he argues in favor of maintaining the border.     

Hazardous Waste Site Cleanup and Neighborhood Redevelopment: An Opportunity to Address Multiple Socially Desirable Goals

The United States' hazardous waste site remediation programs are being challenged for lacking cost-effectiveness. We argue that these expensive programs will be more cost-effective and viable politically if economic and social analyses are included explicitly in risk analyses. Using data from surveys of people living within one-half-mile of seven hazardous waste sites, we show that some neighborhoods offer the opportunity for joint site remediation and neighborhood redevelopment programs. Mechanisms are suggested that would permit the United States Environmental Protection Agency to implement neighborhood environmental and redevelopment programs.     

Opération Amérique: Québec’s Soft Power Applied to French Language Teaching in the United States

ABSTRACT

Opération Amérique refers to the coordinated efforts of René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois government beginning late 1970s to promote Québec’s interests in the United States. The general goals and strategies of Opération Amérique suggest that it presents a case of soft power. However, the specific actions implemented as well as their effects have barely been explored. An analysis of original documents pertaining to Opération Amérique indicates that specific groups in the United States—namely, French professors—were targeted with the hope that they would improve perceptions of Québec in the United States. An examination of French textbooks used in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s shows an increase in Canada/Québec content, which may reflect the influence of Opération Amérique on French teaching practices.     

Defining maritime boundaries: 'the murky hand of history's oversight' in the Gulf of Maine

In this paper, an unresolved boundary dispute in the Gulf of Maine, between the United States and Canada, in an area known as the Grey Zone is examined. In the context of a juridically weak framework of principles for determining international maritime boundaries, the case of a small fishing community caught between conflicting national interests and a lucrative fishing zone being claimed by both countries is examined. Left unresolved with the 1984 International Court of Justice decision defining the 'Hague Line', this dispute is made more problematic because of ambiguous objectives and conflicting agendas between national governments, between state and community levels and within the community itself.     

Incomplete Sovereigns: Unpacking Patterns of Indigenous Self-Governance in the United States and Canada

ABSTRACT

In the early 1970s, both the Canadian and United States federal governments introduced modern land claim agreements as a first step forward in the states’ recognition of Indigenous goals for self-determination. Since then, both the United States and Canadian federal governments have incrementally expanded their recognition of Indigenous rights to include Indigenous goals for political self-determination. Yet, despite the fact that both countries began implementing broadly similar policies at approximately the same time, the degree to which Indigenous political and economic self-determination has been realized varies considerably both within and between the two countries. The variation in Indigenous self-governing power and authority suggests that the policy shift towards Indigenous self-determination is incomplete and has faced important barriers to implementation. This paper investigates two key aspects of this variation in Indigenous self-determination in the United States and Canada: (1) institutional histories embedded in geography, and (2) the temporal nature of policy frameworks. I argue that the full realization of Indigenous self-determination has been shaped in different ways and, ultimately, is limited by the intersection of embedded institutional legacies and federal political dynamics.     

Envisioning a Green Energy Future in Canada and the United States: Constructing a Sustainable Future in the Context of New Regionalisms?

A variety of actors in Canada and the United States are actively constructing a vision of a greener society that includes an environmentally sustainable energy future. Canadian provinces and states in the United States share environmental management, corporations collaborate to drive green development and implement local energy projects, and activists on both sides of the border share environmental protest strategies and mobilization frames. A transition to regionalism of greener energy resources along the Vermont–Canadian border is indicative of a larger “new regionalism” of sustainable identity, despite very concrete and pressing external pressures and energy challenges concerning global climate change, resource depletion, and energy sustainability challenges within the larger nations of both Canada and the United States. In this article, we aim to characterize this green visioning of a sustainable energy future, by focusing especially on the Vermont–Canadian border region, and additionally point to the benefits and contradictions that result.     

Neoliberalism in a Small Canadian City? Windsor City Council and the Reform of the Detroit River Border Crossing

This article examines the idea of the neoliberal city. Using the reform of the Detroit River international border crossing between Canada and the United States as a case study, the article explores the extent to which a small- to medium-sized Canadian municipality is capable of developing policy positions that challenge neoliberalism. The conclusion is mixed. Windsor City Council is not advancing policies that present a fundamental challenge to the economic status quo. It does not, for example, challenge the rationale that a new border crossing will facilitate freer trade. Nevertheless, neither are the municipal council's positions completely in line with arguments that municipal governments have no room to advance positions in opposition to major economic interests. The council is advancing policy positions opposed by major local, regional and international business interests. There is, therefore, some evidence of the possibility of local agency within the geography of neoliberalism.     

A Quiet Revolution in Diplomacy: Quebec–UK Relations Since 1960

ABSTRACT

Quebec’s modern international outlook and its current paradiplomacy can be dated largely from the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. Since then, the provincial government in Quebec City and the federal government in Ottawa have had to tread a fine line in accommodating each other’s constitutional rights in the field of international relations—a line that has occasionally been breached, especially in the years following the Quiet Revolution and in critical periods such as those prior to the 1980 and 1995 referenda. Foreign governments have also had to engage in careful diplomacy in order to avoid upsetting either Ottawa or Quebec City—and this has been especially true in the case of the countries historically most involved with Canada and Quebec—France, the United States, and Britain. But whereas there has been some academic writing on Quebec’s relationships with France and the United States, very little attention has been devoted to Quebec–UK relations since the Quiet Revolution. This article seeks to fill that gap and argues that the Quebec–UK relationship since the 1960s can itself best be characterized as a “quiet revolution” in diplomacy that has largely avoided the controversies that have sometimes dogged Quebec’s relations with France and the United States.     

Explaining Canada–US Differences in Attitudes Toward Crime and Justice: An Empirical Test of S.M. Lipset’s Account

Despite cultural similarities between Canada and the United States, some observers contend that significant differences remain in attitudes and values between the two countries. For example, Lipset has observed that “efforts to distinguish Canada and the United States almost invariably point to the greater respect for law and order and those who uphold it north of the border”. Lipset’s argument is that Canadian values are based on the nation’s founding principles of “Peace, Order and Good Government” while American values stem from the country’s revolutionary origins and are based on the values of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” We test Lipset’s observations, and those of some of his critics, using parallel surveys administered to university students in two institutions on either side of the Canada–US border. This is a very demanding test of his arguments so the supportive evidence we uncover for his arguments is significant.