Abstract
It would appear that the relationship between federalism and security and defence policy making in Canada has been overlooked. This paper is the initial work of an exploratory project that examines the impact of federalism on national defence policy by focusing on the Canadian federal government’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) and the efforts made by the Nova Scotia government to ensure Halifax is awarded a contract. Announced in June 2010, the NSPS entails building $35 billion worth of ships for the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Coast Guard over the next 20-30 years. The Canada First Defence Strategy outlines equipment as one of the four pillars where Canadian defence is based, making these new ships a key component of Canadian security. Using Banting’s (“The Three Federalisms” in Bakvis H. and Skogstad G. (ed) Canadian Federalism. Toronto: OUP, 2008) three models of federalism, this paper examines how the federal government and the government of Nova Scotia—home to one of the three competing shipyards—have interacted in this process. Though the federal government has the constitutional and financial powers to manage defence policy, it would appear that the democratic legitimacy found within Canadian provincial governments allows them to actively influence federal spheres of jurisdiction.
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Craigie, A. (2013). Defending the Federation: The Federal Challenge to National Defence Policy Making in Canada. In: López Basaguren, A., Escajedo San Epifanio, L. (eds) The Ways of Federalism in Western Countries and the Horizons of Territorial Autonomy in Spain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27720-7_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27720-7_12
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