Authors:
Barry Ferguson, Robert Wardhaugh
Abstract:
This article examines the Rowell-Sirois Royal Commission on DominionProvincial Relations, the comprehensive study of federal government in crisis undertaken between 1937 and 1940. Based on new theoretical insights into the study of federal government, it argues that scholarly interpretations of Rowell-Sirois and mid-twentieth-century Canadian federalism have tended to dismiss their originality and continuing relevance. Here, the authors focus on the way the commissioners, particularly senior commissioner John W. Dafoe, arrived at a fresh concep (...)
This article examines the Rowell-Sirois Royal Commission on DominionProvincial Relations, the comprehensive study of federal government in crisis undertaken between 1937 and 1940. Based on new theoretical insights into the study of federal government, it argues that scholarly interpretations of Rowell-Sirois and mid-twentieth-century Canadian federalism have tended to dismiss their originality and continuing relevance. Here, the authors focus on the way the commissioners, particularly senior commissioner John W. Dafoe, arrived at a fresh concept of federal government for Canada. They show that Dafoe and his colleagues did not aim at or recommend greater constitutional centralization of powers or greater cooperative programming. On the contrary, the commissioners wanted to strengthen the fiscal basis of the provinces, to more clearly distinguish between areas of provincial and federal responsibility, and, in Dafoe’s case, to rebuild the basis of Confederation so that the longstanding subordination of the Prairie provinces would be undone. Abstract: Cet article se penche sur la Commission royale d’enquete sur les relations entre le Dominion et les provinces, aussi connue sous le nom de Commission Rowell-Sirois, etude exhaustive menee par le gouvernement federal en periode de crise entre 1937 et 1940. S’appuyant sur de nouvelles perceptions theoriques concernant l’etude du gouvernement federal, l’article soutient que les interpretations de la Commission Rowell-Sirois et du federalisme canadien du milieu du XXe siecle par les erudits ont tendu, dans l’ensemble, a negliger leur originalite de meme que leur pertinence qui est toujours d’actualite. L’article se concentre sur la facon dont les membres de la Commission, en particulier son commissaire principal, John W. Dafoe, en sont arrives a un concept neuf de gouvernement federal pour le Canada. 11 revele que Dafoe et ses collegues ne visaient ni ne recommandaient une plus grande centralisation constitutionnelle des pouvoirs ou un niveau accru de programmes en collaboration. Bien au contraire, ils voulaient renforcer l’assise fiscale des provinces, mieux demarquer les domaines de competence provinciale de ceux de competence federale et, dans le cas de Dafoe, rebâtir l’assise de la Confederation afin de renverser la subordination traditionnelle des provinces des Prairies.
(Read More)