This second edition renews the promise of the first: it offers a fresh and comprehensive exploration of the complexity of Canadian federal politics. It begins with a comprehensive section on constitutional politics, which examines topics ranging from executive federalism to multiculturalism including new chapters on judicial review and the division of powers, Aboriginal governance and federalism, and the implication of treaty rights for self-governance. This is followed by seven chapters that both provide a select survey of public policy areas and explore the impact of federal-provincial relations on policy evolution and outcomes.  Updated chapters on trade policy, labour policy, the environment, regionalism, and, of course, health care are all to be found, alongside new work on social assistance and Canadian federalism and federation in comparative perspective. Throughout, the book reveals the visions that have animated Canada's longstanding constitutional debates, the role of executive federalism and the courts in relation to the evolution of federalism, and the essential dynamism of policy development. Together they demonstrate that, despite the lack of a formal constitutional agreement, important changes are occurring in the Canadian federal system.

François Rocher is Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. He has held a similar position at Carleton University, where he was also director of the School of Canadian Studies. He is the co-editor, with Miriam Smith, of New Trends in Canadian Federalism (University of Toronto Press, 2003) and has extensively published on constitutional politics, intergovernmental relations, immigration, and citizenship in Canada.

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Miriam Smith is Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Trent University. Her areas of interest are Canadian and comparative politics, in particular, political economy, social movements, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movements in Canada. She is the author of Lesbian and Gay Rights in Canada: Social Movements and Equality-Seeking, 1971-1995 (University of Toronto Press, 1999) and co-editor, with François Rocher, of New Trends in Canadian Federalism (University of Toronto Press, 2003).

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