Word: federalists
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...nice, neat division of powers and functions among federal, state and local governments. This wistful notion- known in political science circles as the "layer-cake absolute"- has never existed in reality but can be tracked back to some of the pro-Constitution positions that James Madison expressed in the Federalist Papers. Said Madison: "The federal Constitution forms a happy combination . . the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, and the local and particular to the state governments." That created the freedom to quarrel about which interests were great, which aggregate, which particular, which local. Americans have been arguing...
...leader Joe Clark's minority government after only nine months. But among the provincial premiers, not one belongs to a provincial Liberal party. In Quebec, the federal Liberals' stronghold, Levesque holds forth as the second-most popular politician--behind Trudeau--and the provincial leader determined to lead the anti-federalist camp. In a strange fashion, Canada has demonstrated checks and balances without a constitution...
...Canadians in other provinces, we will not allow you to interpret this non as an indication that everything can stay the way it was." Conceding defeat, Lévesque admitted that "the people of Quebec have clearly given federalism another chance." But he added: "The ball is in the federalist court, and now it's up to Mr. Trudeau to put some content into [his] promises." True to his word, Trudeau last week dispatched Minister of Justice Jean Chrétien on a whirlwind tour of Canada's ten provincial capitals to lay the groundwork for a conference...
...accusations of Trudeau's poor management with positive measures of his own. Interest rates climbed. His promised tax reductions were shelved. Perhaps most important, Ontarians had a sense that shone through in pre-election polls that with Clark as prime minister, no one would defend the national interest. This federalist sentiment, together with a belief in the need for strong central government, has always been strongest in Ontario...
...that a convention will be called when two-thirds of the state legislatures petition Congress for one. Any amendments adopted by the convention must be ratified by three-quarters of the states before taking effect. There is no evading the clarity of the text. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist Paper No. 85, "The words of the article are peremptory. Congress shall call a convention. Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion of that body...