What is the meaning of the right to vote, and the concurrent right to play a meaningful role in the electoral process as guaranteed by s. 3 and informed by the equality provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? These questions, and whether the current Canada Elections Act adequately respects them are considered in light of jurisprudence concerning democratic rights including the Supreme Court's recent Figueroa decision. / The English Jenkins Commission is examined, as are the lessons to be learned from the experiences of Germany, South Africa, Italy, and New Zealand with proportional representation voting. At home, the tentative steps toward voting reform in Quebec, British Columbia, PEI, and the work of the Law Commission of Canada are discussed. Finally, basic goals for voting reform are suggested and measured against model recommendations. The prospects for reform ultimately depend on a rebalancing of the values of democracy and power.

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This study investigated the effects of family structure on Italian grandmothers' perceptions of their level of involvement, role conceptualizations and their positions on common familial issues. The sample consisted of Italian grandmothers from two groups of families: intact families (N = 30) in which grandmothers' adult children were in first marriages; and divorced families (N = 23) in which grandmothers' adult children were permanently separated or divorced. Level of involvement was operationalized in terms of contact, specifically frequency of visitation and telephone calls, between a grandparent and a grandchild. Variables that have been found to influence contact (a grandparent's custodial and kinship relationships, geographic distance, age of both grandparent and grandchild, and grandparent-parent accord) were also assessed. A grandparent's role within the family was operationalized in terms of their level of agreement to statements made by grandparents about their roles as involved family members, special protectors of grandchildren, available family members, conveyers of cultural traditions, and family "watchdogs". A grandparent's view with respect to contemporary family issues was assessed through their responses to statements about contemporary family life. The results indicate that contact was significantly greater between grandmothers and grandchildren in the intact as opposed to the divorced group. Grandmothers' roles within the family as well as their attitudes towards various family issues were not found to differ across family type. The findings were discussed in light of cultural and ethnic perspectives on divorce.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Regina, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-116).

Thèse (M.A.)--Université Laval, 2005. / Bibliogr.: f. 122-130. Publié aussi en version électronique.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed January 6, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Embargoed until 12/1/2010. Includes bibliographical references (p. 274-301).

The links between national identity and the music industry in Canada are too diverse to be understood with any simplistic model of the nation. In early twentieth century Italy Ahtonio Gramsci examined the consumption of serialized stories written by foreigners. He developed a view of popular culture which focussed upon the role of the State in maintaining national unity. Since the federal State in Canada has intervened in the country's music business in recent years, Gramsci's schema provides us with a useful framework for that case. Moreover, his work avoids an orchestrated view of the nation or a narrow specification of the contents of culture. It allows us to take a view that Canadian culture is whatever Canadian's choose to write. Due to its inductive beginnings and theoretical shortcomings, the schema is not applied rigidly to music made by Canadians. Rather it has been kept on the sidelines to explore representations of Canadian music, the broadcasting, sound recording and concert promotion industries, and finally the future of music made in Canada. Gramsci's schema is one way to distinguish between the cause and uses of the nation in particular arguments. His ideas also explain why popular culture matters, without specifying its content or giving it artificial coherence. A framework is provided which admits that, in a society based upon exchange, the nation is fully implicated within a wider social fabric, so frequently cultural differences cannot be simplistically aligned with national borders. It allows us to reject essentialist nationalism and therefore the possibility of using the nation as a reason to suggest Canadian musicians are falling short, by not doing something different from their foreign counterparts. In its place the schema enables us to celebrate Canadian artists for what they have done in contributing to a wider sphere, and allows us to praise environments in which Canadian talent can be recognized and allowed to grow, whatever forms it takes. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

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