A book about republicanism in Canada labours under the handicap that there is no republican movement in Canada, no believers to extol its worth, no literature to advance the creed. Very occasionally, in the last century rather than in this, and then only temporarily, some individuals adopted a republican future as their own. But, with the notable exception of the Rebellions of 1837, constitutional change was expected to flow from achieving other objectives, most often economic, and usually believed attainable through annexation to the United States. Unlike countries with which she has much in common, Great Britain and Australia, Canada...

A choice without an explanation is no choice at all. Neither is there a republican option when the substance of republicanism remains unexplored. Just as door-step purchases of vinyl siding, for example, are covered by a buyerʹs protection act that demands full disclosure of the terms on offer, so citizens need information about republicanism in order to make an informed decision about its merits. References in the preceding chapter to parliamentary republicanism suggest little of the rich complexity found in the theoretical concept or embedded in the governmental forms derived from that concept.

This chapter will trace the genealogy of...

Responsible government is the rock of Canadaʹs political system. On it all else depends. Its ʹachievementʹ is the story of countless history textbooks, its importance invariably celebrated by a coda recounting the countryʹs long advance to autonomy in the Empire-Commonwealth. The combined work of English- and French-speaking moderates, responsible government symbolized Canada to the world and to itself. Reference to achievement implies adversity overcome. Lord DurhamʹsReportand, more particularly, the emphasis interpreters have placed on its recommendation of local self-government, confirm the source of that resistance – officialdom in the colonies and in the Colonial Office.

The translation of...

Republicanism is about representation, monarchy about participation. The first part of that assertion, which is the subject of this chapter, is easier to demonstrate than the second. Catharine Macaulay argued that the origins of republicanism could be traced to a first cause: in her time, to the great revolutions of the eighteenth century. Republics, in short, were created. Monarchies, on the other hand, most particularly of the English-British-Anglo-American-Imperial variety, emerged and evolved through the sharing of power; in the process, they incorporated and assimilated previously excluded partners. From the Great Reform Act of the reign of William IV, to Victoriaʹs...

American republicanism was depicted in the previous chapter as rule from outside, constitutional monarchy as rule from inside. The legitimacy of governmental institutions in the first instance depends upon the adequacy of representation structures, in the second upon the share of Crown power held by other parts of Parliament. A fundamental difference between the two forms lies in the orientation of the people to institutions of government. Republicanism posits an engaged public, not just (or even primarily) at elections, which come at regular intervals, but in between as well. If a republic truly signified ʹrepresentation from the people,ʹ it had...

The previous two chapters looked at representation and participation. This chapter looks at these subjects again, only this time in the guise of federalism. For the modern federal design, conceived at Philadelphia, took the form it did in response to demands rooted in concerns about representation and participation. This is not to say that the federal scheme the Framers agreed upon allayed all fears – the anti-Federalists rejected any claim that it did. It is to say that even the schemeʹs opponents concurred with the object – enhanced participation. With that as the goal, debate turned on the manner of...

Republicanism and citizenship are naturally related, whereas monarchy and citizenship are related only through adoption. For any one raised in the British parliamentary and monarchical tradition, the most arresting scenes inA Tale of Two Citiesare not those of the Revolution or the Terror that succeeded it, but of a society in which customary authority and guardians have vanished. The foreignness of that possibility is matched only by the impersonal attribution ofcitoyenandcitoyenneto one and every Frenchman, as if citizenship alone were the basis of society. Here, through depiction of mood and atmosphere rather than by...

As with so much in its history, Canadaʹs indigenous republican movement – Papineau, the Patriotes, and their heirs, for example – remained a regional phenomenon. Indeed, the very fact that republicanism was identified most often with French-Canadian nationalism underlined its foreignness for the rest of the country. The short-lived Rebellions of 1837, the early acquisition and mastery of the mechanics of responsible government, the repeated linkage of republicanism with annexation to the United States, and the efflorescence of British imperialism in the closing decades of the last century displaced republicanism as a subject of debate. (The expanded franchise under the...