Keith Brownsey

Executive styles in Canada : cabinet structures and leadership practices in Canadian government

Canadas political regime is centred on the existence of a federal system of government within the institutions of Westminster parliamentary democracy. This system places a great deal of political power in the hands of cabinet ministers, and while cabinet systems of government in Canada have evolved at different speeds in different federal and provincial governments, they have, over the last two decades, increased centralization of administrative and legislative control in ever fewer hands. This shift has been well demonstrated by scholars such as Donald J. Savoie regarding the federal system, but little examined in the context of provincial governance. Executive Styles in Canada places equal emphasis on both levels, explaining how and in what way cabinet systems have conformed to or diverged from this general pattern. This unique collection is the only systematic, cross-provincial study of its kind, and is certain to be of great benefit to anyone interested in the structure of government in Canada.

Integrated land management in Alberta: From economic to environmental integration

Abstract Alberta illustrates the obstacles to attempted policy transformation after years of deliberate policy drift. Despite being a pioneer of land use planning in western Canada, the province eventually relaxed its planning regime and failed to update plans that were perceived as an obstacle to resource-led development during a recession. When recession was succeeded by an oil-and-gas-driven boom, planning controls continued to be locally negotiated and relatively relaxed. The effect was to encourage damaging competition between resource industry and establish a pattern of clientilist politics, in which each industry looked to its departmental champion to resolve its land use problems. Whether the new provincial land use framework can change these deeply entrenched patterns or will merely layer new policies onto the old remains to be seen.

The Old Reality and the New Reality: Party Politics and Public Policy in British Columbia 1941–1987

Between July and November 1983, British Columbia witnessed a massive social upheaval. Along with its 1983-84 budget, the government introduced twenty three bills which, among other things, limited the powers of municipalities and regional districts, extended compulsory review of wage levels of organized workers, expanded management rights in the workplace, abolished rent controls, and dissolved the provincial Human Rights Branch.