Social policy shapes the daily lives of every Canadian citizen and should reflect the beliefs of a majority of Canadians on just approaches to the promotion of health, safety, and well-being. Too often, those on the front lines—social workers, nurses, and teachers—observe that policies do not work well for the most vulnerable groups in society. In the first part of this new edition of Canadian Social Policy, Westhues and Wharf argue that service deliverers have discretion in how policies are implemented, and the exercise of this discretion is how citizens experience policy—whether or not it is fair and reasonable. They show the reader how social policy is made and they encourage active citizenship to produce policies that are more socially just. New material includes an examination of the reproduction of systemic racism through the implementation of human rights policy and a comparative analysis of the policy-making process in Quebec and English Canada. The second part of the book discusses policy issues currently under debate in Canada. Included are new chapters that explore parental leave policies and housing as a determinant of health. All chapters contain newly updated statistical data and research and policy analysis. A reworked section on the process of policy-making and the addition of questions for critical reflection enhance the suitability of the book as a core resource in social policy courses. The final chapter explores how front-line workers in the human services can advocate for change in organizational policies that will benefit the people supported.

Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History traces the history of social policy in Canada from the period of First Nations’ control to the present day, exploring the various ways in which residents of the area known today as Canada have organized themselves to deal with (or to ignore) the needs of the ill, the poor, the elderly, and the young. This book is the first synthesis on social policy in Canada to provide a critical perspective on the evolution of social policy in the country. While earlier work has treated each new social program as a major advance, and reacted with shock to neoliberalism’s attack on social programs, Alvin Finkel demonstrates that right-wing and left-wing forces have always battled to shape social policy in Canada. He argues that the notion of a welfare state consensus in the period after 1945 is misleading, and that the social programs developed before the neoliberal counteroffensive were far less radical than they are sometimes depicted. Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History begins by exploring the non-state mechanisms employed by First Nations to insure the well-being of their members. It then deals with the role of the Church in New France and of voluntary organizations in British North America in helping the unfortunate. After examining why voluntary organizations gradually gave way to state-controlled programs, the book assesses the evolution of social policy in Canada in a variety of areas, including health care, treatment of the elderly, child care, housing, and poverty.

Governance and Public Policy in Canada lays the foundation for a systematic analysis of policy developments, shaped as they are by multiple players, institutional tensions, and governance legacies. Arguing that provinces are now the most central site of governance and policy innovation, the book assesses the role of the provinces and places the provincial state in its broader economic, institutional, social, and territorial context. The aim throughout is to highlight the crucial role of provinces in policy changes that directly affect the lives of citizens. Three key themes unify this book. First, it addresses the role of policy convergence and divergence among provinces. Although the analysis acknowledges enduring differences in political culture and institutions, it also points to patterns of policy diffusion and convergence in specific areas in a number of provinces. Second, the book explores the push and pull between centralization and decentralization in Canada as it affects intergovernmental relations. Third, it underscores that although the provinces play a greater role in policy development than ever before, they now face a growing tension between their expanding policy ambitions and their capacity to develop, fund, implement, manage, and evaluate policy programs. Governance and Public Policy in Canada describes how the provincial state has adapted in the context of these changing circumstances to transcend its limited capacity while engaging with a growing number of civil society actors, policy networks, and intergovernmental bodies.

In Australia and New Zealand, many public projects, programs and services perform well. But these cases are consistently underexposed and understudied. We cannot properly ‘see’—let alone recognise and explain—variations in government performance when media, political and academic discourses are saturated with accounts of their shortcomings and failures, but are next to silent on their achievements. Successful Public Policy: Lessons from Australia and New Zealand helps to turn that tide. It aims to reset the agenda for teaching, research and dialogue on public policy performance. This is done through a series of close-up, in-depth and carefully chosen case study accounts of the genesis and evolution of stand-out public policy achievements, across a range of sectors within Australia and New Zealand. Through these accounts, written by experts from both countries, we engage with the conceptual, methodological and theoretical challenges that have plagued extant research seeking to evaluate, explain and design successful public policy. Studies of public policy successes are rare—not just in Australia and New Zealand, but the world over. This book is embedded in a broader project exploring policy successes globally; its companion volume, Great Policy Successes (edited by Paul ‘t Hart and Mallory Compton), is published by Oxford University Press (2019).

Seven experts, representing a variety of disciplinary perspectives, discuss specific reform efforts in a number of social welfare policy areas and identify the jurisdictional fremework of policy-making in Canada's federal system as a factor of significantly affects these efforts.