Canadian Contradictions: Forty Years of Northern Political Development

Abstract

Postwar northern political history is interpreted as a compressed reiteration of older patterns of Canadian development. It is argued that Native people and northerners have reacted to two contradictory tendencies in the Canadian constitutional tradition: liberal individualism and Tory top-down pragmatism. The general argument is that understanding current northern debates in this way exposes some grounds for long-term optimism about aboriginal and territorial self-government.

Key words: territorial political development, federal northern administration