POL490H1S L0101

Graduate Course Code: POL2102H1S L0101

Topics in Canadian Politics I

Canada in Question: A Country Founded on Incomplete Conquests

Themes

This courses examines the proposition that Canada as a political community is best understood as a country founded on two incomplete conquests. The course analyses the consequences of Britain’s incomplete conquest of New France in 1763 and its peace agreement with nations native to Northe Ameerica in 1764. Each session of the course will consider a landmark deveolopment or event in Canada’s constitutional development. These will include the impact of British loyalists, Confederation, the Riel Rebelllion, Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, Multiculturalism, Patriation, the Political Renaissance of First Peoples, the Charter of Rights, and the Decline of Parliamentary Democracy. Though much of the course material is historical, the historical narrative is examined through the lens of political science and political theory.

Texts

Peter H. Russell, Constitutional Odyssey: Can Canadians Become a Sovereign People, 3rd edition, University of Torornto Press, 2004.

Prerequisites

POL214H1 or POL214Y1 or POL215H5 or POL216H5 or POL224H1 or POL224Y1 orPOLB50Y3; 1.0 other POL credit in Canadian politics. See the Department's website http://politics.utoronto.ca/undergraduate/courses/fallwinter-timetable/ for POL courses by area group.