As the bells on Parliament Hill chimed in the new year 2003, Jean Chrétien was in his ninth year as the Liberal prime minister of Canada, former prime minister Joe Clark was leader of the storied but troubled Progressive Conservatives, and the New Democratic Party was headed by Alexa McDonough. By the final day of 2003, Chrétien was without a job, Clark was without a party, and McDonough’s successor Jack Layton was without a seat in the House of Commons. This turnover within three of the five major political parties in Canada at this time symbolized a remarkable year in...

Canada’s international status appeared to present a mixed message in 2003. On the one hand, the editors of the widely readEconomistargued, in an article in their 27 September issue, that ‘a cautious case can be made that Canada is now rather cool.’ They pointed to Canada’s vibrant economy, largely driven by cross-border trade facilitated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). They could have also pointed out Canada’s international activism in places like Afghanistan. Moreover, to further support their case, they might have recognized Canada’s enhanced prestige after the International Olympic Committee (ICO), on 2 July, selected...

In 2003 Canadian municipalities were definitely on the federal agenda. Former Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) president Jack Layton won the NDP leadership in a campaign that focused on urban issues; more importantly, Paul Martin took the leadership of the Liberal Party from the retiring Jean Chrétien, pledging to carry through on the ‘new deal for cities’ that he had promised when he was the federal finance minister. When Martin became prime minister, in December, he established a Secretariat for Cities within the Privy Council, and appointed Toronto MP John Godfrey to a new position as Parliamentary Secretary, reporting directly...

The year 2003 opened with an apology from the premier of British Columiba and a mass protest during the Speech from the Throne, and it closed with a scandal, with the finance and transportation ministers’ offices being raided by police. The year was one of many storms with British Columbia’s dismal weather making national news headlines. Storms of controversy also occurred, as the Campbell Liberals intervened in at least three labour disputes during the year, forcing striking workers back to work.

On a positive note, Vancouver-Whistler won the bid for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games after a non-binding...

The year 2003 will be remembered as one of challenge for the province of Alberta. Particularly difficult was the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in Alberta, a development that gutted the mainstay of Alberta’s agricultural industry. Dealing with the challenge to the province’s rural economy preoccupied Alberta in 2003. This was not, however, the only challenge facing Alberta in 2003. The province wrestled with the future of education and post-secondary education in Alberta, the shape of automobile insurance, and the place of Alberta in the federal system. These challenges, combined with a number of other tragic events,...

Much of the excitement of 2003 in Saskatchewan was created by elections in the provincial, municipal, and Aboriginal sectors, the creation of the First Nations University of Canada, and a few controversies in the political and judicial sectors. Notwithstanding the vision articulated by the provincial government in the Speech from the Throne that Saskatchewan’s future was ‘wide-open,’ the prevailing view was that the near future was unlikely to be radically different from the recent past.

This was a year for those who enjoy elections. Contests were held in the provincial, local, and Aboriginal sectors. The elections in the provincial sector...

The Manitoba Legislative Assembly met for only thirty-seven days in 2003. There was a brief session in April and early May, basically to tackle the budget. The legislature was dissolved on 2 May. An election was held on 3 June, when the New Democrats were re-elected, and Gary Doer remained premier of Manitoba. The legislature reconvened in the fall, and heard a new Speech from the Throne on 22 November.

Finance Minister Greg Selinger delivered the budget on 22 April, which predictably, was immediately denounced by the Opposition as a pre-election exercise.l Yet, on the face of it, the budget...

After a decade dominated by the rapid devolution of federal powers to the territorial governments, the creation of Nunavut, and the restructuring of the Northwest Territories (NWT), the region continued along its rollercoaster path in 2003. Major decisions remained in abeyance, including prospective land claims agreements in the Northwest Territories, the long-debated construction of the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline, and the possibility of major resource developments in Nunavut. The territorial North remained largely off the national agenda in 2003, part of a disquieting pattern of growing southern neglect of northern issues and concerns. On the economic front, the Northwest Territories...

The year 2003 was a turbulent one for Ontario. As late winter turned to early spring in Toronto, the provincial capital was one of a handful of cities significantly affected by SARS, a worldwide epidemic of respiratory illness that in 2003 killed over 800 around the globe, forty-four of them in Ontario. The public health crisis disrupted life in Toronto and other urban centres for several months, and governments at all levels were called on to deal with the consequences. At the provincial level, the SARS crisis also served to divert attention from a constitutional question – whether the government had...

In 2003 the winds of change were definitely blowing through Quebec. In government since 1994, the Parti Québécois under Bernard Landry – its third leader in less than ten years – was clinging to power rather uneasily. Early in the year, on 4 February, Joseph Facal, president of the Treasury Board and a long-time, high-profile provincial cabinet member, announced that he was withdrawing from active political life and would not be seeking re-election. Facal cited personal and family reasons for his decision. But as he was the ninth Parti Québécois member of the National Assembly to leave politics or the party since...

In addition to New Brunswick’s perennial problems of rising costs for health care and power generation, the year 2003 presented the Progressive Conservative government of Bernard Lord with a third problem – automobile insurance. During the previous two years, automobile insurance rates had steadily increased, and in January that year, six more insurance firms filed with the Public Utilities Board for increases ranging from 19.9 to 35.6 per cent, a procedure that permitted them to go into effect sixty days later. Justice Minister Brad Green rejected a Liberal suggestion for a temporary freeze, calling it ‘both drastic and irresponsible.’ On 28...

Compared with the previous year, 2003 was one of little economic growth for Prince Edward Island across most sectors. Many significant government infrastructure expenditures were announced, and the provincial annual deficit increased almost four-fold from 2002. The Conservative government of Pat Binns was re-elected for a third mandate with a majority of twenty-three seats, on 29 September, the same day that Hurricane Juan hit the Island.

Prince Edward Island’s population, as of 1 July 2003, was estimated by Statistics Canada to be 137,781, representing an increase of 783 people or 0.6 per cent from a year earlier. Notably, 73 per...

The weather dominated the news in Nova Scotia in 2003. Spring floods in the Annapolis Valley, some of the worst on record, taxed insurance rates across the province. Compensation and relief costs threatened to upset the balanced provincial budget, announced the same week, which was central to the Conservatives’ re-election bid. Worst however, in late September, Hurricane Juan hit Halifax directly as a Category 2 storm, the worst in at least 100 years, leaving significant destruction in its path. Huge trees were bowled over into buildings and power lines, and boats were tossed from their moorings onto land. Fortunately, there...

Above all the year 2003 was one of intense political activity in Newfoundland and Labrador. Premier Roger Grimes began on a positive note, telling the St John’s Board of Trade Business Outlook 2003 meeting, on 15 January, that the province ‘embraced the new year with pride in our achievements’ and was confident that these would lead to prosperity. The economy was growing, the premier ventured to say, and was becoming much more diversified: ‘Employment is increasing. Unemployment is falling. Social assistance caseloads continue a downward trend. Out-migration is slowing. The trend line for all economic indicators is moving in the...