Where did the idea for nonpartisan constituency redistributions come from? What were the principal reasons that Canada turned to arm's-length commissions to design its electoral districts? In this volume, John Courtney addresses these questions by examining and assessing the readjustment process in Canada's electoral boundaries. Defining electoral districts as 'representational building blocks, ' Courtney compares federal and provincial electoral readjustments in the last half of the 20th century, showing how parliamentarians and legislators, boundary commissions, courts, and interested members of the general public debated representational principles to define the purposes of electoral redistricting in an increasingly urban, ethnically mixed federal state such as Canada

A study of institutional transformation and changing public and political attitudes toward the redistribution of electoral constituencies in Canada.

"Topics explored include: the transformation of Canadian parties, the impact of party leaders on the electoral fortunes of their parties, new avenues for public involvement in the policy-making process, Royal Commissions, opinion polls, access to information, the malaise of Canadian democracy, institutional reform, and Indigenous nationalism."--Pub. description.