Reconciliatory Federalism

In 2015, Canada saw a Liberal government form under the young and energetic leadership of Justin Trudeau. After a Conservative government under Stephen Harper, Trudeau set out to bring a ‘fresh and exciting’ vision of Canada that prioritized reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Thus “reconciliatory federalism” was born. Since then, discussions between Indigenous leaders and the federal government have increased exponentially, yet the undertones of Canada’s colonial history still play an evidentiary role in Canadian federalism. This paper seeks to evaluate Trudeau’s “reconciliatory federalism” in relation to the scholarly literature pertaining to Indigenous self-determination and Canadian federalism. Moreover, using definitions of Kiera Ladner’s treaty federalism and Martin Papillon’s multi-level governance as a theoretical framework, I seek to investigate if Trudeau’s vision of reconciliatory federalism can bridge the two scholarly camps together. While treaty federalism argues for a top-down approach to establish a nation-to-nation relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state, multi-level governance argues for a bottom-up approach in which Indigenous peoples find multiple avenues within the existing federalist structure to integrate into. Using the examples of the Wet’sewet’en Cree First Nation and the Manitoba Métis Federation, I seek to contextualize the implications of reconciliatory federalism in relation to the two scholarly camps.