Facing the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Canadian Federation

Abstract

IntroductionTo begin with the obvious, size matters -and Canada is a large country.Second only in size to the Russian Federation, its area of 9,984,670 km 2 is bordered by three oceans and the longest land frontier in the world to the south.With a population of 38 million, it is one of the world's least densely populated countries, although its largest city, Toronto, hosts 5 million people.There are 5.5 time zones in Canada.Although viruses, like pollution and people, do travel, what happens out west does not immediately affect what happens in the centre, the east, or the north.Geography matters and the coronavirus pandemic has underscored the huge regional diversity of the Canadian federation.Infection rates and deaths differed radically across the country, with the Atlantic provinces having fared better than New Zealand, and Québec having been similar to France, Belgium, or Spain.This reinforces the importance of looking beyond aggregate national statistics in comparative analysis.Beyond geography lies another obvious element: federalism impacts on the fight against the microscopic enemy; conversely, fighting the virus impacts on the dynamics of federalism.In other words, when it comes to combating a pandemic, federalism -like size, population density, and regional diversitymatters.The Canadian federation is composed of ten provinces and three northern territories of widely different sizes.Canada, a country of immigration, is deeply multicultural and known for its 'complex diversity'.A federation founded by two groups of European descent, it is officially bilingual, and for a long-time was considered, at least in Québec, as 'bi-national'.With the -very belatedrecognition of the place of indigenous peoples in the complex polity, few today would challenge the idea that Canada is multinational.Throughout its history,