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The Canadian FoundingJohn Locke and Parliament |
eBook Available
A new interpretation of confederation contends that the founding fathers were John Locke's disciples - champions of universal human rights and popular sovereignty.Winner - John T. Saywell Prize for Canadian Constitutional Legal History (2009)
Convinced that rights are inalienable and that legitimate government requires the consent of the governed, the Fathers of Confederation - whether liberal or conservative - looked to the European enlightenment and John Locke. Janet Ajzenstat analyzes the legislative debates in the colonial parliaments and the Constitution Act (1867) in a provocative reinterpretation of Canadian political history from 1864 to 1873.
Ajzenstat contends that the debt to Locke is most evident in the debates on the making of Canada's Parliament: though the anti-confederates maintained that the existing provincial parliaments offered superior protection for individual rights, the confederates insisted that the union's general legislature, the Parliament of Canada, would prove equal to the task and that the promise of "life and liberty" would bring the scattered populations of British North America together as a free nation.
Ajzenstat contends that the debt to Locke is most evident in the debates on the making of Canada's Parliament: though the anti-confederates maintained that the existing provincial parliaments offered superior protection for individual rights, the confederates insisted that the union's general legislature, the Parliament of Canada, would prove equal to the task and that the promise of "life and liberty" would bring the scattered populations of British North America together as a free nation.
Details
Part of the McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas Series (number 44 in series)
216 Pages, 6 x 9
ISBN 9780773532243
May 2007
Formats: Paperback, eBook
"Ajzenstat's body of work has shown the absolute necessity of returning to, and taking seriously, the words and deeds of the central figures of the founding period. Unless one does this, one cannot write responsibly about their thought and achievements. And when one does take them seriously, as Ajzenstat has done, the results are often surprising." Rainer Knopff, political science, University of Calgary
"This convincing study of the Canadian founding advances understanding of the influence of Locke while restoring understanding of the Canadian rights tradition." Filippo Sabetti, political science, McGill University
" [Ajzenstat] offers a wonderfully Lockean reading of the British North American Act - in the Sovietspeak of cultural constitutionalism now rendered as the Constitution Act of 1867 - that both inspires and lays fully and finally to rest constitutional collectivism and its illiberal cultural identity." The Canadian Historical Review
"This convincing study of the Canadian founding advances understanding of the influence of Locke while restoring understanding of the Canadian rights tradition." Filippo Sabetti, political science, McGill University
" [Ajzenstat] offers a wonderfully Lockean reading of the British North American Act - in the Sovietspeak of cultural constitutionalism now rendered as the Constitution Act of 1867 - that both inspires and lays fully and finally to rest constitutional collectivism and its illiberal cultural identity." The Canadian Historical Review
Janet Ajzenstat is professor emeritus, political science, McMaster University.
Preface xi
PART ONE: CONFEDERATION
1 Making Parliament 3
2 Popular Sovereignty in the Confederation Debates 22
3 Human Rights in 1867 49
4 Civic Identity 67
5 The Political Nationality 88
PART TWO: WHAT WENT BEFORE? WHAT I S HAPPENING NOW?
6 Celebrating 1791: Two Hundred Years of Representative Government 113
7 Canada’s First Constitution: Pierre Bédard on Tolerance and Dissent 124
8 Modern Mixed Government: A Liberal Defence of Inequality 145
9 Collectivity and Individual Rights in “Mainstream Liberalism”:
John Arthur Roebuck and the Patriotes 163
10 Parliament and Today’s Discontent 180
Index 195
PART ONE: CONFEDERATION
1 Making Parliament 3
2 Popular Sovereignty in the Confederation Debates 22
3 Human Rights in 1867 49
4 Civic Identity 67
5 The Political Nationality 88
PART TWO: WHAT WENT BEFORE? WHAT I S HAPPENING NOW?
6 Celebrating 1791: Two Hundred Years of Representative Government 113
7 Canada’s First Constitution: Pierre Bédard on Tolerance and Dissent 124
8 Modern Mixed Government: A Liberal Defence of Inequality 145
9 Collectivity and Individual Rights in “Mainstream Liberalism”:
John Arthur Roebuck and the Patriotes 163
10 Parliament and Today’s Discontent 180
Index 195
9780773544017
$37.95 CAD
Paperback
Winner
John T. Saywell Prize for Canadian Constitutional Legal History
(Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History) (2009)
Winner
Lipset Award
APSA (2012)
John T. Saywell Prize for Canadian Constitutional Legal History
(Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History) (2009)
Winner
Lipset Award
APSA (2012)
