Does Canadian Federalism Amplify

Policy Disagreements?
irpp.org
Values, Regions and Policy Preferences

ric Montpetit, Universit de Montral, November 23, 2017

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 Argument
Fears that interregional disagreements
in Canada are harmful to policy-
making, policy acceptance and the
legitimacy of national institutions are
exaggerated.

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 The basic reasoning on policy
disagreement
Range of values Range of policy
preferences

Framing process

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 The effect of federalism on policy
disagreement
Range of policy
Range of values preferences
Framing process

Framing process

Framing process

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Visualizing the effect of federalism on
disagreement

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 The effect of Canadian federalism on
real policy disagreements?

Survey of 5000 Canadians conducted in the spring of 2015

Representative samples in five regions: BC, the Prairies, Ontario,
Quebec and the Atlantic
Focus groups in Montreal and Toronto to formulate 18 value
questions
Questions on five spending priorities: social welfare, the
environment, defence, the CBC, education and science
Questions on 12 specific issues: immigration, oil pipelines, balanced
budget, highway tolls, unions, the gun registry, religious symbols,
militaristic foreign policy, oil sands, policy power, workplace safety,
abortion
Questions to control various socio-demographics

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Values in Canada

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Distribution of values, by region

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Effect of values on preferences for
CBC spending, by region

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Effect of values on preferences for
defence spending, by region

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 Effect of values on support for
maintaining a gun registry, by region

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Effect of values on support for restricting
visible religious symbols, by region

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Effect of values on support for pipeline
construction (Energy East), by region

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 Implications for policy-making
Policy should be designed, framed and promoted to appeal
primarily to values, not to regions
Regional appeals should be limited to activating values that
are often overlooked by policy makers and advocates
Provincial policy-makers and advocates have much to learn
from one another

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