The republican option in Canada, past and present

At a time when opinions polls suggest that a majority of Canadians agree wi th the idea of substituting a president for the Queen as Canada's head of s tate, it initially strikes me as odd that the author of a book on the repub lican option in Canada should ask, "Why is there no republicanism in Canada ?" The reaction stems from an ambiguity that runs through the concept of re publicanism, and on which the author shrewdly builds. The "republican optio n" dealt with by David Smith is not the republicanism most readers probably have in mind-having a president rather than a Queen as head of state. Rath er, this republicanism is about what happened in Canada to classical republ ican theory, defined by "the extent to which all parts of the constitution promote popular participation in the affairs of the state" (p.8) and "the i nclination to balance the institutions of government in order to limit the exercise of power" (p. 111). Hence, this is a book of political theory, not an exploration, Australian style, of the various republican models and how they would fit in our own political landscape. Once this ambiguity has been grasped and accepted, and when the book is jud ged on its own terms, it repays close reading. The author displays impressi ve erudition in exploring little-known aspects of Canadian political though t. Hardly anything has escaped Smith's close scrutiny, including a speech b y Lord Grey to Saskatchewan students in 1905 (p. 114). Canada emerges as a country where republicanism never flourished, because the two major republi can models offered, American and French, were negatively perceived througho ut the nineteenth century. Instead, Canada emulated the British model and t he concentration of power it entails. Chapter 3, which explores republican ideas in pre-Confederation Canada, is especially useful. The directly elect ed legislative council of Upper Canada was a step in the republican directi on, and its demise signalled Canada's full adoption of the Westminster mode l. Republican ideas are discussed through the concepts of representation, p articipation, federalism and citizenship. There is also a discussion of the prospects of the republican idea in Australia, written before the failure of the 1999 referendum, in which the author displays much perceptiveness. The inaccuracies in the book are commendably few in number. I will however note two. The author states that "the 65 constituencies of Quebec were list ed in a schedule to the BNA Act, 1867," "and their boundaries could not be altered unless a majority of the affected members agreed" (pp. 165-66). Act ually, the BNA Act does not list Quebec's constituencies, because there was no reason for it: sections 40 and 80 simply provided that the existing rid ings in Quebec would be used for federal as well as provincial purposes. Th ose ridings whose boundaries could not be altered without a consent of a ma jority of their members were twelve English-language ridings listed in Sche dule 3 to the act. Second, one can debate whether the legislative council o f Quebec was abolished "only because it posed a threat to the government's nationalist credentials in the 1960s" (p. 166): the council was at that tim e dominated by the Union Nationale. It had served the nationalist cause in 1965 by torpedoing the Fulton-Favreau Formula, and its passing was lamented by right-wing nationalists in the Action Nationale. It would be fairer to say that republicanism in Quebec is one facet of nationalist thought (one t hat might have been explored somewhat more deeply) and that dumping the mon archy meets with approval in nationalist circles, and beyond. This book will be of interest not only to Canadian readers but also to Amer ican and Australian political theorists.