Canada and the Constitution 1979–1982 / / Edward McWhinney.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: McWhinney, Edward,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1982
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)

The debate over ‘renewing’ Canadian federalism in response to the ‘Quiet Revolution’ in Quebec and the more recent economic demands of English-speaking provinces forms part of a great response to the challenging problem of rebuilding the federal system and the Canadian constitution in an attempt to meet new cultural, social, and economic demands. This volume follows on Professor McWhinney’s Quebec and the Constitution 1960-1978 but is more than a mere sequel. McWhinney draws on wide knowledge and extensive personal contacts to portray the players and the events in this last, complex chapter in the patriation drama. He shows how Quebec’s special claims have given way to a regional approach; how the prime minister sacrificed the possibility of a genuine Canadian-made constitution by trying the old ‘made-in-Britain’ amending route one last time; how the British government properly and firmly resisted the meddling in Canadian matters proposed by the Kershaw committee; how the Supreme court has taken an increasingly activist role in interpreting constitutional law; and how the people of Canada may yet take a major role in the coming second phase of constitution-making now that the BNA Act has finally come home.Extensive appendixes provide invaluable primary material: various versions of the constitutional resolution, including the complete final version approved by the Canadian and British parliaments; the Guy Fawkes Day accord between the prime minister and the nine premiers; and extracts from the Supreme Court’s decision on Senate reform, from the decisions on patriation by the courts of appeal of Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Quebec, and from the Supreme Court’s famous ruling on the ‘legality’ and ‘conventionality’ of unilateral patriation, which produced the final round of constitutional negotiations between Ottawa and the provinces.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: from dualism to regionalism -- 1. Constitutional interlude 1979-80 -- 2. Constitutional parameters -- 3. The Quebec referendum -- 4. Federal-provincial diplomacy summer 1980 -- 5. Unilateral federal action -- 6. The patriation package -- 7. Cutting the imperial Gordian knot -- 8. The premiers in court -- 9. The Supreme Court ruling -- 10. The Guy Fawkes Day . compromise -- 11. New players, new people's power -- 12. The constitution and the future -- 13. Constitutional postscript -- Appendixes: Introductions -- Notes -- Index