Our voting system weakens Canada’s cohesion. It artificially amplifies the regional concentration of political party support at the federal level.

Since 1972, Hydro-Québec has received about 30 terawatt hours (TWh) per year of hydroelectricity from Labrador: enough to meet the electricity consumption of 45% of Québec households in 2012.

Among democratic federations, the Canadian Senate looks astonishing on more than one count. Its members are not elected, but appointed by the federal executive. Senators keep their seat until they turn 75.

Canada has been negotiating a comprehensive economic and commercial agreement with the European Union (EU) since 2009. CETA would be the first agreement of this type between rich countries, and would very likely serve as an international model.

Since the May 2, 2011, federal election there has been much talk about a merger between the New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party of Canada.

The exercise, inaptly named “repatriation of the constitution”, consisted of adopting a constitutional amendment procedure, since such a procedure had not been adopted in 1931 when Canada became independent.

The question of the political unity of multinational federations arises in a context where the accommodation of ethno-cultural minorities or historically disadvantaged groups is considered not only a moral norm, but a good strategy.

Since the federal elections on May 2 we have heard and read all sorts of explanations for the results of the Quebec vote. Unfortunately those explanations are not very convincing…

Nationalist movements that call for independence or greater political autonomy for their communities are bearers of an essentially political scheme.

Federalists have always maintained that the European monetary union will remain fragile as long as it is not matched with a political union.