Lisa Birch

During the 2015 election, the Liberal Party of Justin Trudeau promised to make real change in the lives of all Canadians. It is a good opportunity, on the eve of the next election, to provide a rigorous and impartial assessment of how the Liberal government has delivered on its campaign promises. Under the direction of Lisa Birch and Francois Petry, twenty renowned academics investigate the fate of the 353 liberal campaign promises in fields as varied as international relations, energy and sustainable development, the economy, Indigenous Reconciliation and the legalization of recreational cannabis. Collaborators draw from a common set of documentary sources and rely on a common method to analyze and contextualize the pledge fulfillment verdicts that area accessible on the Trudeau Polimeter website. Contrary to popular belief that politicians make empty promises, it appears that the Liberals in power have fulfilled at least in part the vast majority of their promises. The book concludes with a reflection on the relevance and meaning of campaign promises for Canadian democracy. In particular, we ponder the paradox that fulfilling most of your campaign promises does not necessarily create a sense of enthusiasm among voters. Contributors : Antoine Baby-Bouchard, Daniel Beland, Karen Bird, Steve Jacob, Marcelin Joanis, Julien Lauzon Chiasson, Rachel McKay, Antonia Maioni, Alex Marland, Henry Milner, Martin Papillon, Mireille Paquet, Stephane Paquin, Michael Prince, Amelie Quesnel-Vallee, Vincent Raynauld, Francois Rocher, Thierry Rodon, Genevieve Tellier, Cheick Alassane Traore and Jared Wesley.

Most quantitative, comparative welfare state research assumes that subnational welfare regimes are irrelevant or identical to their national counterparts. Many qualitative case studies, on the other hand, have underlined the differences between subnational and national regimes. In this article, we attempt to build bridges between these two strands of literature by examining the case for a Quebec model, that is, a subnational welfare state regime that is distinct from its Canadian counterpart(s). We reviewed seven publications from which we extracted 188 quantitative results relevant to the distinct subnational regime hypothesis. Although not all these results are independent nor based on conclusive evidence, they generally agree that a distinct welfare regime exists in Quebec. We conclude this article by discussing the implications of the Quebec case for the study of welfare regimes at the subnational and regional levels.