Political Thought in Canada ed. by Stephen Brooks (review)

420 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW revenue,taxedcodfishlandedin Englandor Portugal.The Frenchkings extendedthepractice to the fur trade,asdid the Britishafter theConquest. Muchof thediscontent in BritishNorth Americaduringthemid-nineteenth centuryrevolvedaround the questionof the impositionof tariffs and the distribution of therevenues collected. Whenthecolonies finallywontheright of responsible government andgainedcontrolovertheirowncustoms duties, theybeganto debatethe concepts of free trade,customs union,reciprocity, andtariffprotection, anargumentwhichsustained ordefeated political parties untilthepresent day.An equallycontentious issue wasthestruggle whichthe provinces wagedto pry greatersubsidies out of the federalgovernmentas compensation for lostcustoms revenues. One of the few countriesto separatecollectors from imposers, Canada established a separate department,Customs and Excise, to enforceitstariff policy.In pre-Confederation days,customs collection wasa veryhaphazard, inefficient business, plaguedwithprimitiveadministrative procedures, sloppy bookkeeping, officerskeepingsecret records, andrampantsmuggling. Gradually ,however, the departmentbecamean efficientbureaucratic structure, gatheringthe tollsimposedby variousadministrations. Nevertheless, in the Northwest,the MountedPolicehad to handlecollections, prosecute, andjail smugglers. DaveMcintoshhaswrittenacomprehensive account of Canada's Customs and Excise.Much of his material is both entertaining and informative. Particularlystrongon the personalities workingon the frontier, he gives readers a goodsense of thehardships of customs collections in isolated areas. Byfar thebestpartof thebookisthegraphicaccount of theestablishment of Customs andExcise on theYukon frontier. Customs, according to Mcintosh, playeda crucialpartin Canada's claimon theChilkootPass. AlthoughMcintoshhad a closeconnection with the departmentwhile researching andwritingthiswork,hepullsnopunches anddetails itsfailures andscandals. The authorlaudably sets hischronicle withinabroadhistorical setting, butthenloses thesense of chronology bydividingthebookintofour notalways distinct subject areas. Thisdevice leads tomuchrepetition. In fact, theauthoroftendigresses intoirrelevantmaterial.A ruthless editorcouldhave turned The Collectorsinto an excellent work. ^.^.D•.• o,c•rwI• Memorial University PoliticalThought in Canada.Edited by sTwvvxw• BROOX•S. Toronto: Irwin Publishing 1984.Pp.vi,227.$14.95 This valuablecollectionof original essays reflectsand contributesto the growing interest in Canadian political thought.Asnineof theelevenauthors arepoliticalscientists, it alsoreveals a strengthening of thehistorical orientationinpolitical science which was interruptedinthegreatuniversity expansion REVIEWS 421 of the •96os.Finally,it bringstogetherthegeneralreinvigorationof political theory asasubfield withaspecific renewed concern for theclarification ofthe principles whichlie behindtheinstitutional arrangements of our civiclife. The essays, precededby a stimulatingintroductionby the editor, are groupedunder the headings'Religionand Politics,''DemocraticValues,' 'FrenchCanada,' and'HistoricalEvidence and Contemporary Insights.' This somewhat oddclassification system reflects 'theunsettled theoretical backdrop' to the essays (•o-• •) and the absence of agreement on whatthe studyof politicalthoughtin Canadashouldencompass. Thequality of theessays iswellabove average foracollection. RalphNelson ('Variationson the DemocraticTheme'), Janet Ajzenstat('Liberalismand Assimilation: Lord Durham Reconsidered'), andJennifer Smith ('Intrastate Federalism andConfederation') areparticularly insightful andprovocative. Two valuable articles by DenisMoni/•re('Currents of Nationalism in Quebec') andAlain Gagnon('The Roleof Intellectuals in ModernQuebec: The Drivefor Social Hegemony')revealtheQuebecintellectuals' compulsion toschematize, whichisconspicuously absent in theEnglish-Canadian authors. Somewhat inexplicably, federalistQuebecintellectuals suchas Trudeau, Pelletier,and Lamontagneare ignoredin thesetwoessays, and there isno mentionof theTremblayReport. The remainingchapters usefullyexplorethe themessuggested by their titles: Rainer Knopff ('ReligiousFreedom and Party Government:The Gait-WhiteDebateof •876'), GregoryBaum ('Beginnings of a Canadian CatholicSocialTheory'), Thomas R. Berger ('Towards the Regime of Tolerance'),Norman Penner ('The Developmentof SocialDemocracyin Canada'), andBarryCooper('Western Political Consciousness'). The constitutional controversy of recentdecades andouremerging future of life under the Charter should drive scholarsand practitionersto an examination oftheroleoftheory andprinciples inCanadian political life.Our constitutional discontents of thepastquartercenturyunderlinedtheprecarious normativeand intellectualfoundationsof our politicalexistence.One answer tothisdisarray maybefoundintheCharterwhich,fromitsvague and generalphrases, imposes on the SupremeCourt the taskof elaborating a philosophy of Canadianism andcitizen-state relations. In thistask,for which thechiefjusticehasrepeatedly askedfor academic assistance, theCourtwill haveto choose betweentheeulogyof theCharter'sblendof individualand minority grouprightsbyBergerandthescepticism ofAjzenstat thattheyare arecompatible. Anadditional factorpushes ustointrospection andintellectual clarification. The internationalization of domestic economies andsocieties undertheimpact of tidalforceswhichflowceaselessly across frontiersenlarges the scope of issues whicha comprehensive and relevantcorpusof Canadianpolitical thought mustaddress. Withonlyfragmentary exceptions, these essays ignore 422 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW the role of the Canadianstatein the internationalsystemand our North Americanco-existence with a powerfulsouthernneighbour.The scholarly separation of thestudyof international anddomestic politics arbitrarilycuts throughtheirrealworldinterdependence tobiasourunderstanding of both arenas. The developing studyof politicalthoughtin Canada,to whichthis volume makes asignificant contribution, should reach outtotheinternational dimension of Canadianexistence andblendit moreeffectively withdomestic concerns than has hitherto been the case. ALAN C.CAIRNS University ofBritishColumbia TheSupreme Courtof Canada:Historyof theInstitution. JAMES G. SNELL and Fa•r•ER•CK V^UCI-•AN. Toronto: Universityof Toronto Press for the Osgoode Society i985. Pp.xviii,319. $45.oocloth,$I7.5o paper That a historyof theSupremeCourtof Canadahadto wait I IO yearsto be writtentellsussomething notonlyaboutlegalandhistorical scholarship inthis country butalsoabouttheroleof thejudiciary.Hemmedinbyparliamentary supremacy ontheonehandandbythe doctrineof precedent on the other, Canadian judgeshavenotemulatedthe'activist' proclivities of theirbrethren southof the border...