Analyzing the poverty reduction effectiveness of the Canadian provinces: Do political parties matter?

Abstract

The implementation of the Canada Health and Social Transfer in 1996 marked a new era for the Canadian welfare state, as greater discretion in the area of social welfare policy and programming was granted to the provinces. In this study, the authors analyzed nationally representative data to determine if the governing provincial parties, characterized by distinct ideological and party platform positions, differed in regards to their poverty reduction effectiveness during 1996-2005. The authors' analysis yielded no differences between the governing provincial parties in terms of their poverty reduction effectiveness. The study's implications for future research, including research on subnational variation in social welfare policy, are discussed. © Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2011.