Review: Continentalizing Canada
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200606100323 |
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| Author | P. E. Bryden |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| Reviews |
| 776 | International Journal | Summer 2006 |
better understanding, in the context of global politics, to improve global
governance effectively.
Bessma Momani/University of Waterloo
CONTINENTALIZING CANADA
The Politics and Legacy of the Macdonald Royal Commission
Gregory J. Inwood
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. xiv, 474pp, $75.00 cloth (ISBN
0-8020-8729-9)
Royal commissions are, as author Gregory Inwood notes at the outset of his
study, as “Canadian an institution as one can imagine” (3). Perhaps the
most common punch line in the pantheon of Canadian political humour—
“so they appointed a royal commission”—there have been almost 500
appointed since Confederation. But despite being struck to investigate all
sorts of Canadian problems, both big and small, surprisingly little is known
about how they work. We know relatively little about what prompts their
establishment, how the internal dynamics work during their period of oper-
ation, and what determines whether their recommendations will be imple-
mented or whether they will languish, ignored, on the shelves of the politi-
cal masters. Inwood’s exhaustive study of one of the most important royal
commissions in Canadian history—the Macdonald commission on eco-
nomic union and development prospects for Canada—offers answers to
some of those questions and sheds some much-needed light on the inner
offices of this peculiarly Canadian institution.
The Macdonald commission is perhaps second only to the Rowell-
Sirois commission of the 1930s in its significance for Canadian develop-
ment. Announced in 1982, it was designed to “inquire into the economic
prospects in Canada in the middle and longer term, and to look at the insti-
tutional arrangements which might be necessary for the strengthening of
the economic union” (65). The terms were both vast and nebulous, and the
13 commissioners faced an extraordinary task as they crossed the country
soliciting public input, received 736 written briefs, commissioned 72 spe-
cial studies from the academic community, and attempted to prepare a
cohesive report.
Inwood is at his very best when he investigates the inner workings of
the commission. He shows us Trudeau insiders Michael Kirby and Michael
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