Expanding the Partnership: The Proposed Council of the Federation and the Challenge of Globalization

Abstract

There is an old maxim that army generals are frequently well-prepared for the last war, but ill-prepared for the next war. For the purposes of this paper, I shall play devil=s advocate and suggest that the council of the federation proposed by the provincial premiers is intended to resolve the sort of federal-provincial conflicts we have witnessed over the past few decades, but it may not be adequately designed to govern the federation in the decades to come. Peering into the future is by definition a speculative exercise, but it is important to contemplate future governance issues, if only to dismiss them, before a new institution is launched to govern the federation.