<p>Welcome to Longform North -- a longform interview podcast featuring Canadian voices and stories about Canada.</p><p>Canada is a federal country, which means power is divided between two levels of government - the federal government and the provinces.</p><p>And even though it's all one country, the provinces are very different from each other. They have different economies, different cultures, different politics, different languages, and different interests.</p><p>And sure, diversity is our strength and all that, but trying to balance all those interests isn't always easy. At least one province has tried to separate a couple times, while similar threats from other provinces have bubbled up, too.</p><p>So how do all these governments work together? And what, if anything, keeps the country from falling apart?</p><p>Joining me again to help out with these questions is Dr. Tom Bateman. He is a professor of political science at St Thomas University, and he is one of the co-authors of a book called <i>The Canadian Regime: An Introduction to Canada's Parliamentary Democracy.</i></p><p>Some of the topics we discuss include:</p><ul><li>Why did Canada choose to have a federal system back in 1867?</li><li>How John A. MacDonald was originally against federalism and aimed to create a strong central government.</li><li>How are the different powers divided up between the federal government and the provinces?</li><li>How the impact of health and education gave the provinces much more influence and power than what was originally planned.</li><li>How the lines get blurred as to who has jurisdiction over what. For example the environment, where natural resources is provincial, but climate change and environmental sustainability is federal.</li><li>Equalization payments and how they work.</li><li>The separatist movements in both Alberta and Quebec, and what is behind them?</li><li>Could Canada fall apart? What is it that's keeping it together?</li></ul><p>Links:</p><ul><li><a href="https://utppublishing.com/doi/book/10.3138/9781487525378" target="_blank"><i>The Canadian Regime: An Introduction to Canada's Parliamentary Democracy</i></a></li><li><a href="https://www.stu.ca/politicalscience/thomas-mj-bateman/" target="_blank">Dr. Tom MJ Bateman</a></li></ul><p><i>*Note: This episode was recorded on March 15th, 2025.</i></p> <p><p>For more about the podcast, check out the website: <a href="https://longformnorth.com/" target="_blank">longformnorth.com</a></p><p>Music by Aaron Barth</p><p>Hosted and produced by Ian Van Harten</p></p>