The governing Liberals and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien enjoyed a honeymoon of unprecedented duration in 1994. Was it deft governance and leadership aplomb that inspired this sustained popularity? The Liberals would certainly have found the explanation appealing and there were reasons to think that voters might genuinely be impressed by the government’s acumen and accomplishments. In the first months of its mandate the government delivered with dispatch on some key promises made during the October 1993 campaign. Chrétien waded comfortably into the company of other leaders at home and in the international arena and was composed in the face of...

The 1993 federal general election turned on a number of issues, notably the unpopularity of then prime minister Brian Mulroney. While voter discontent with Mulroney went a long way towards destroying the Conservative Party as a national force, the more substantive issue over which the election was fought centred on the growth of federal and provincial debts and deficits and the apparent inability of the federal government to deal with its own internal finances.

Upon its election in October 1993, the new federal Liberal government of Jean Chrétien set out several priorities, of which deficit reduction was one. In particular,...

The new Liberal government of Jean Chrétien made good on its fall election promise to review both foreign and defence policy in 1994 and, while the government’s official statement on foreign policy was delayed until 1995, statements, reports, and papers on security policy poured forth in a torrent throughout the year. Critics from both left and right would complain that the reform process was not democratic enough or that it was too democratic, that it was poorly coordinated or overly manipulated by a government and bureaucracy that had already determined its main policy priorities and simply sought popular (or at...

In the fall of 1994, the NDP government entered the fifth year of its mandate. The conventional wisdom of Ontario parliamentary politics is that a government does not ordinarily allow its term to extend into a fifth year unless it is in trouble with the voters. With the NDP regularly polling a distant third in voter support, it was little wonder that they showed no haste to go to the people, but the year was nonetheless filled with anticipation and pre-campaign jockeying, since an election was required by the fall of 1995 and indeed was confidently expected no later than...

There was a changing of the political guard in Quebec in 1994 as Premier Robert Bourassa was replaced, without opposition, by Daniel Johnson. Johnson attempted to distance himself from the previous leader on constitutional and economic issues in order to increase his party’s popularity. Having attained power in September 1989, the Liberal Party of Quebec (LPQ) had no alternative but to call an election in the fall of 1994. Held on 12 September, the general election was won by the Parti Québécois (PQ), led by Jacques Parizeau. The government was sworn in on 26 September. The referendum process dominated the...

Queen Elizabeth made her first visit to Nova Scotia since 1976, and presided over commemoration of Province House, the seat of Canada’s first responsible government, as a national historic site on its 175th anniversary. High repair costs caused Bluenose II to be docked by the government, which began raising funds for a replacement; private investors launched a rival bid to build Bluenose Pride, a racing schooner. Prime Minister Chrétien announced that Halifax would host the 1995 summit of the Group of Seven industrialized countries. The osprey was chosen Nova Scotia’s official bird.

Residents of the former Halifax district of Africville...

Like the other nine provinces, New Brunswick spent the year coping with shrinking federal funds and cost-cutting measures by slicing its own expenditures and payrolls in the public sector while striving to find private job replacements. Only in the political sphere did this small entity seem different. Unlike many of his fellow premiers, Frank McKenna faced no scandals and a weak and fractured political opposition as he continued to dominate, issuing pronouncements almost daily when he was not in Toronto or New York promoting New Brunswick astheplace for firms, especially those in the telecommunications field. The response to...

The government recovered much of its lost popularity in 1994, but Premier Gary Filmon decided to defer an election until 1995, the year in which his mandate would expire. The economy showed some signs of at long last inching its way out of recession, and some controversial proposals in educational reform and penal philosophy were unveiled, while the government kept a steady course in its attempts to cut the deficit and reduce the size of government.

The Manitoba legislature seemed all but invisible in 1994. Following the virtual elimination of its majority following the by-elections the previous September (it was...

During 1994 British Colombia experienced higher economic growth than any other province or territory, attracted a record number of newcomers, and it devised new policies on land use and environmental regulation. A year of accomplishments included opening a new university in Prince George, hosting the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, and having a scientist from the University of British Columbia, Michael Smith, win a Nobel Prize. But there were losses as well. The largest riot in more than twenty years broke out in Vancouver after the Canucks lost the final game of the Stanley Cup. Over a million salmon disappeared...

A single theme dominated public affairs in Prince Edward Island in 1994: change. Like Canadians living elsewhere, Islanders experienced the practical public policy consequences of a movement to have governments do fewer things and reorganize the way in which they operate. Much of the incentive for these changes came from the continuing fiscal crisis of governments in Canada. In 1994, the government of PEI moved dramatically towards bringing its revenues and expenditures into balance, and began to prepare for further reductions in transfers from the federal government to provincial coffers. Citizens experienced reductions in the level of services provided by...

After several years of average crops and hard-hitting budgets, Saskatchewan residents in 1994 experienced an unusual sense of optimism. Perfect weather helped produce the fifth largest harvest on record, while higher prices and better quality boosted the gross value of all crops by 17 per cent over the previous year (Star-Phoenix, 30 September). In November the government revealed that the deficit had fallen farther and faster than projected in February; this announcement was followed by cautious talk of new expenditures, for example on expanded childcare services. News that Saskatchewan might still have a future was welcome indeed. Some commentators attributed...

The central theme of Alberta politics and public affairs in 1994, in a single phrase, was ‘Klein ascendant.’ After a come-from-behind win in the 1992 Conservative leadership race, and an equally dramatic turnaround that kept the Tories in power in the 1993 election, Klein followed through on his promises to cut provincial expenditures by 20 per cent over a three-year period. Through 1994 he kept his government steadily on course, stood off the criticism ‘without blinking,’ and ruthlessly consolidated his power within his own cabinet. Through it all, his standing in public opinion hardly wavered, and it was the opposition...

In Newfoundland and Labrador, 1994 was a year of transition and modest recovery. Several of the province’s key resource-based industries started to recover. The fishery, though significantly altered, also improved slightly. The provincial government promised to balance the budget as it continued its struggle to diversify the province’s economic base. It also pressed forward with its plans to transform the denominational educational system and to divest the province of its investments in certain sectors. It was another year filled with labour strife, though most of the unions eventually realized that wage increases were not possible as the government vigorously continued...

After nearly a decade of intensive constitutional debate at home and a broadening multinational politics around the new environmental problems of a pacified Arctic Ocean, the Canadian territories faced Confederation and the wider world on issues of long-standing military alliances and living off the land. On 26 January, the federal Parliament approved a Canada-U.S. agreement for cruise missile tests over the Northwest Territories (NWT). Cabinet approval for a brief spring test run came on 3 February; on 6 March, the first test ran from the Beaufort Sea, along the Mackenzie Valley, and east to CFB Cold Lake on the Alberta/Saskatchewan...