Contemporary Issues in Canadian Politics Practice Questions
Course Introduction
This course examines the major contemporary issues shaping Canadian politics today, exploring topics such as Indigenous reconciliation, federal-provincial relations, party dynamics, media influence, multiculturalism, and climate change policy. Through case studies and critical analysis, students investigate how social, economic, and cultural forces interact with governmental structures and public policy. Emphasis is placed on understanding debates over national identity, regionalism, democratic reform, and the evolving role of Canada in the global context, preparing students to engage thoughtfully with the complexities of Canadas political landscape.
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Canadian Politics Critical Approaches 7th Edition by Rand Dyck
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The study of politics
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Q1) Which statement best describes the notion of the embedded state?
A)Elites cannot operate with total autonomy because of the fusion of state and society.
B)The state wields an enormous amount of power, unchecked by societal norms.
C)Individuals view the powers of the state to be entrenched within all aspects of society.
D)Politicians are unable to operate without the bureaucratic functions of the state.
Answer: A
Q2) What political decision is best described by the class analysis approach?
A)increasing airport and border security
B)adopting the North American Free Trade Agreement
C)increasing funding to universities
D)adopting a clean-air policy
Answer: B
Q3) Feedback is a communication of outputs back into the system, in response to which the pattern of demands and support is altered.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Institutional foundations and the evolution of the state
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Q1) The word "confederation" used by the Fathers of Confederation is actually the opposite of its intended meaning.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) In terms of initiating a bill, individual members of the House or Representative and the Senate have much less power than the members of the British parliamentary system.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Which of the following declared that a Dominion Parliament had the power to enact laws having extraterritorial operation?
A)Balfour Declaration
B)Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
C)Statute of Westminster
D)Constitution Act 1982
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Regionalism
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Q1) Globalization is one of the reasons for a decline in the manufacturing industry in Ontario.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Which of the following best exemplifies a public-private partnership (P3)?
A)the creation of Trans-Canada Airlines
B)the Construction of the Confederation Bridge
C)the National Energy Program
D)the Creation of the Trans-Canada highway Answer: B
Q3) Reciprocal payments are unconditional grants to have-not provinces based on provincial need.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) Crown corporations are created for the purpose of public-private partnerships.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 5
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Chapter 4: Aboriginal peoples
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Q1) What are some of the challenges that contemporary Aboriginal people in Canada are currently facing?
Q2) Compare and contrast the 1995 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the 1997 response of the Chrétien government.
Q3) The term "Indian" does not include the Métis and Inuit
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is meant by the term "Aboriginal self-government"?
Q5) Which statement best describes comprehensive land claims?
A)They are Aboriginal land claims primarily originating in the West.
B)They are Aboriginal land claims arising from alleged non-fulfillment of Indian treaties.
C)They are Aboriginal land claims based on traditional occupancy and use.
D)They are land claims made after the Calder case decision.
Q6) Which statement best describes the Indian Act?
A)It attempted to assimilate Aboriginals into the new white majority.
B)It is a model of Aboriginal self-government.
C)It is based on the Royal Proclamation of 1763.
D)It has no bearing on contemporary Aboriginal issues.
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Chapter 5: french canada and the quebec question
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Q1) The Supreme Court of Canada imposed official bilingualism in British Columbia.
A)True
B)False
Q2) According to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which province is officially bilingual?
A)Ontario
B)Newfoundland and Labrador
C)New Brunswick
D)Manitoba
Q3) Whose government established the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism?
A)Pearson
B)Trudeau
C)Duplessis
D)King
Q4) Pierre Trudeau opposed the "special status" or "distinct society" approach for Quebec.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are some of the characteristics that make Quebec distinct?
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Ethnocultural minorities
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Q1) In recent years, the bulk of immigrants to Canada have come from the Caribbean.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What are some of the key changes in immigration policy since the early 1900s? Is the current immigration policy assisting or hindering the wellbeing of current and future immigrants into Canada?
Q3) Which clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does NOT address the concerns of ethnocultural minorities?
A)the non-discrimination clause: 15 (1)
B)the affirmative action clause: 15 (2)
C)the multiculturalism clause: 27
D)the Minority Language Education Clause: 23
Q4) Which disadvantaged groups do Canadian employment equity programs normally give preference?
A)women, French, homosexuals, and people with disabilities
B)women, Aboriginals, visible minorities, and people with disabilities
C)women, Aboriginals, homosexuals, and people with disabilities
D)women, French, visible minorities, and people with disabilities
Q5) What were the basic objectives of Trudeau's multiculturalism policy?
Q6) Why was there a backlash toward immigrants and visible minorities in the 1990s?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Gender
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Q1) Pay equity represents "equal pay for work of equal value".
A)True
B)False
Q2) What was the significance of the Halpern v.Canada case?
A)The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Aboriginal fishing rights.
B)The BC Court of Appeal recognized the Nisga'a land title.
C)The Supreme Court ruled that women were not considered "persons" under the law.
D)The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled the immediate recognition of same-sex marriages.
Q3) How was sexual orientation added to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
A)through the Parliament of Canada
B)through the Supreme Court of Canada
C)through the constitutional amending formula
D)sexual orientation was not added to the Charter
Q4) Martha Black was the first woman elected to the House of Commons.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What were the major concerns of second-wave feminists?
Q6) What are some of the major challenges that women face regarding employment?
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Chapter 8: Class
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Q1) Which group does NOT belong under the petite bourgeoisie class?
A)small business people
B)affluent farmers
C)self-employed professionals
D)civil servants
Q2) The Liberal government introduced the Unemployment Act in 1940.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What are some of the significant differences between the "old" and the "new" middle class?
Q4) The Social Credit Party pioneered hospital and medical insurance at the provincial level in Saskatchewan.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Even though the House of Commons passed a resolution in 1989 to eliminate child poverty in Canada by 2000, the number of children living in poverty increased by 50 percent during the 1990s.
A)True
B)False
Q6) List five suggestions for how governments could improve the lot of the poor.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Other cleavages and identities: urban/rural location,
religion, and age
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Q1) The Liberal party has essentially been a rural party for generations.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What percentage of the Canadian population lives in Ontario and Quebec?
A)52
B)55
C)62
D)72
Q3) Historically, religious cleavages and identities within Canada coincided to a considerable extent with those of language and ethnicity.The interests of French-Catholics were often at odds with those of the Anglo-Protestants.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following were protected by the Constitution Act, 1867?
A)separate protestant school minority rights in Quebec
B)separate school minority rights in both Quebec and Ontario
C)separate Catholic school minority rights in Ontario
D)separate school minority rights in Manitoba
Q5) What is the future for Canada's population?
Q6) Explain the historical basis for a separate school system in Canada. Page 11
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Chapter
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Q1) What percentage of acid rain falling north of the Canada-U.S.border is caused by U.S.sources?
A)10
B)25
C)50
D)90
Q2) Which of the following is a Crown corporation?
A)National Energy Program
B)Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
C)Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
D)Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
Q3) Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of globalization?
A)comprehensive free trade agreements
B)mega-mergers of large transnational corporations
C)removal of state controls on corporate behaviour
D)decreasing the mobility of capital
Q4) Canadian Anglophones spend about 72 percent of their television viewing time watching local programs
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: The Canadian Political Culture
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Q1) Three of the most significant cases involving a serious infringement of political freedom occurred at the federal level.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Seymour Martin Lipset coined the "fragment theory".
A)True
B)False
Q3) What do current advocates of direct democracy promote?
A)the initiative, recall, and referendum
B)more town-hall style meetings
C)one person, one vote
D)stricter party discipline in the House of Commons
Q4) Explain the concept of limited identities and their importance for Canadian political values.
Q5) Pluralists deride the notion of "one person, one vote" as a genuine measure of political equality.
A)True
B)False
Q6) How can Canadians achieve a balance between Individualism and Collectivism?
Page 14
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Chapter 12: Political socialization, the mass media, and Public opinion polls
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Q1) The classic case of a church influencing the political values, attitudes, and opinions of its members was the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following increases a person's degree of political participation?
A)newspaper consumption
B)television viewership
C)radio listenership
D)Internet consumption
Q3) What are some of the issues that can arise from the relationship between the media and politicians?
Q4) Which of the following is NOT a technique of news management?
A)the free flow of information on government operations
B)news leaks and trial balloons
C)government secrecy
D)strategic timing and distribution of information
Q5) Compare and contrast the different agents of political socialization.
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Q6) How is public opinion in Canada measured?
Q7) Explain the class-analysis approach toward political socialization.
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Chapter 13: Elections and the electoral system
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Q1) Who is disqualified from the voting process?
A)prisoners
B)people with mental disabilities
C)judges
D)chief electoral officers
Q2) Jean Chrétien's new election finance reforms virtually eliminated corporate contributions.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is NOT necessary for an individual to be nominated as a party's candidate?
A)being endorsed by the party leader
B)filing a financial statement
C)getting 100 local names on his or her nomination papers
D)paying a $1000 deposit
Q4) The percentage of all votes cast that is won by a candidate or a party, regardless of who was elected, is called the qualified majority.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the primary functions of an election in the Canadian political system?
Page 16
Q6) Describe how election financing has evolved since pre-1974?
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Chapter 14: Political parties and the party system
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Q1) What theory postulates that the Liberal and Conservative parties have no central ideology and merely promise to satisfy the most important interests felt by the voters at any given time?
A)the one-party dominant theory
B)the broker theory
C)the class-based theory
D)the pluralist theory
Q2) What were some of the issues and factors that moved Canada from a third to a fourth party system?
Q3) The state-centred approach defends the broker system as necessary in a nation with many cleavages.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is NOT a factor contributing to the formation of minor parties in Canada?
A)regional cleavages
B)ethnic cleavages
C)class cleavages
D)religious cleavages
Q5) Explain the term "the iron law of oligarchy" as it relates to political parties.
Q6) How does party ideology in Canada apply to the major Canadian political parties?
Page 17
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Chapter 15: Parties, voting, and The election campaign
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Q1) How do core values and beliefs influence how Canadians vote?
Q2) Why was Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, not allowed to participate in the 2011 leaders debate?
A)because her party had no seats in the House of Commons before the election
B)because her party did not have the minimum required seats needed to establish itself as a national party
C)because her party was relatively new
D)because Elizabeth May did not hold a seat in the previous elections
Q3) Regional factors have recently been the strongest sociodemographic influence in Canadian voting behaviour.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe how an individual candidate competes for office at the local level?
Q5) What group is overrepresented in terms of candidates in federal elections?
A)business
B)working class
C)visible minorities
D)women
Q6) Why are leadership debates felt to be important in a national campaign?
Page 18
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Chapter 16: Advocacy groups, social movements, and lobbying
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Q1) What lobbying technique are institutionalized advocacy groups most likely to use?
A)demonstrations and blockades
B)lobbying judges and court officials
C)lobbying the bureaucracy
D)lobbying members of Parliament
Q2) Money, information, prestige, public support, and lack of opposition help to explain the significant influence of the Canadian Medical Association.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following is NOT among the most powerful business pressure groups in Canada?
A)Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters
B)Canadian Chamber of Commerce
C)Canadian Federation of Independent Business
D)Council of Canadians
Q4) How do interest groups try to influence the bureaucracy and the executive branch of the government?
Q5) What are the functions of advocacy groups?
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Chapter 17: The Canadian constitution and constitutional change
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Q1) The JCPC was Canada's final court of appeal until 1949.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Supreme Court ruled that the rest of Canada would be obliged to negotiate with Quebec if 50 percent + 1 voted in favour of a clear question.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following declared Canada to be totally independent of Britain?
A)Constitution Act 1907
B)The Parliament of Canada Act
C)The British Parliament Act
D)Statute of Westminster
Q4) The Supreme Court ruled that Quebec had a right to a unilateral declaration of independence based on both international law and the Canadian Constitution.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The Canada clause was part of the Charlottetown Accord.
A)True
B)False
Page 20
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Chapter 18: The provinces and the federal system
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Q1) What has been the result of judicial interpretations of the Peace, Order and Good Government clause?
A)a decrease in provincial powers
B)an increase in federal powers
C)an increase in provincial powers
D)an increase in POGG's prominence and importance
Q2) Between 1867 and 1945, what type of federalism was classified as the first period of Canadian federalism?
A)quasi-federalism
B)classical federalism
C)emergency federalism
D)cooperative federalism
Q3) How do federal-provincial relations affect the environment and Aboriginals in Canada?
Q4) A conditional grant is given by the provinces to Ottawa providing it meets certain conditions.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Explain the federal-provincial financial relationship since 1940.
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Chapter 19: The charter of rights and freedoms
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Q1) Which of the following are democratic, mobility, and linguistic rights in the Charter NOT subject to?
A)the reverse onus clause
B)the reasonable limits clause
C)the notwithstanding clause
D)the Oakes test
Q2) The Askov decision deals with a time restriction between a preliminary hearing and a trial.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Saskatchewan and Quebec have both applied the notwithstanding clause at some point.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which did the courts consider an infringement on freedom of religion?
A)the Ontario Retail Business Holidays Act
B)Ontario's Separate School System
C)the Lord's Day Act
D)blood transfusions for minors against their parents' religious wishes
Q5) How are language rights protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedom?
Page 22
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Chapter 20: Governing: the policymaking process and policy instruments
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Q1) The government loses revenue because of tax credits and tax exemptions as in the example of RRSPs.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The War Measures Act was invoked during a severe flooding in Manitoba.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What term describes a course of action or inaction chosen by public authorities to address a given problem or interrelated set of problems?
A)public policy
B)policy instruments
C)symbolic response
D)regulation
Q4) Explain the six phases of the policymaking process.
Q5) Deliberate inaction on the part of the government on an issue can be categorized as a symbolic response.
A)True
B)False
Page 23
Q6) Describe and explain the significance of policy instruments?
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Chapter 21: The executive: crown, prime minister, and cabinet
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Q1) What are the advantages and disadvantages of the monarchy?
Q2) Consider a government characterized by a monarch who is head of state but who rules according to the Constitution, which confides almost all governmental power into other hands.What form of government is this?
A)a single executive
B)a constitutional monarchy
C)a republic
D)a dominion
Q3) Differentiate between the different central agencies.How significant are their functions and roles in Canadian politics?
Q4) Which part of the country was not adequately represented in Trudaeu's cabinet?
A)Eastern Canada
B)Ontario
C)Quebec
D)Western Canada
Q5) Parliamentary secretaries are Cabinet ministers.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 22: The bureaucracy
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Q1) How are responsibility and accountability managed in departments?
Q2) What has helped to penetrate "the cloak of secrecy" within the Canadian bureaucracy?
A)the Access to Information Act and Information Commissioner
B)the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Commissioner
C)the Sunshine doctrine and the Sunset clause
D)the Ombudsman
Q3) Which statement best describes special operating agencies?
A)They are autonomous administrative units within the bureaucracy.
B)They are Canada's equivalent of the CIA and MI5.
C)They contain 67 percent of the Canadian public service.
D)They are staffed by exempt personnel.
Q4) Public servants in a department share four basic characteristics: they are expected to be expert, permanent, anonymous, and impartial.
A)True
B)False
Q5) VIA Rail, Canada Mortgage and Housing, and the Bank of Canada are examples of regulatory agencies.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 22: The bureaucracy
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Q1) The number of MPs representing the agricultural field is by far the fewest compared to other fields.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Speaker of the House of Commons is now appointed by the prime minister.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The Cabinet has an absolute monopoly on the introduction of financial legislation in the House.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What does either side of the House request when they want a formal recorded vote?
A)a closure
B)a division
C)a count
D)a debate
Q5) What are the stages of a bill becoming a law?
Q6) Describe a typical week in the House of Commons.
Q7) Explain the relevance and significance of the Canadian senate.
Page 26
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Chapter 24: The judiciary
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Q1) What term describes the principle that precedents are binding on successive decisions?
A)pro bono
B)caveat emptor
C)stare decisis
D)quo vadis
Q2) Canadian and provincial legal systems, with the exception of Quebec, operate in the tradition of the English civil law.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is the function of the judiciary?
Q4) Federal court of Canada judges have a mandatory retirement age of 75 years. A)True
B)False
Q5) Reference cases are cases referred to the Supreme Court of Canada by provincial courts.
A)True B)False
Q6) What are the powers of the Supreme Court of Canada?
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Q7) What are some of the issues and challenges that come with appointing judges?