2016 John McMenemy Prize

Winner: Christopher Alcantara and Adrienne Davidson

Negotiating Aboriginal Self Government Agreements in Canada, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 48:3

Photo: Fiona MacDonald (University of the Fraser Valley – jury member ), Adrienne Davidson (University of Toronto), Christopher Alcantara (University of Western Ontario) and Yasmeen Abu-Laban (CPSA President 2016-2017), CPSA President’s Dinner, June 1 2016, Calgary Zoo Safari Lodge, Calgary

Excerpt from jury report: This paper provides unique and original insight into the complex factors that influence Aboriginal self-government negotiations in Canada as exemplified by the experiences of the Inuvialuit. While the Inuvialuit were the second group in Canada to sign a modern treaty in 1984 they have yet to conclude the self-government agreement initiated in 1996. Drawing upon the existing literature on land claim negotiations, Aboriginal self-government and historical institutionalism, Alcantara and Davidson analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to argue that a number of institutional and non-institutional factors have prevented the Inuvialuit from successfully completing self-government negotiations with the Crown. These factors include institutional elements such as the way in which federal land claims and self-government policies have evolved over time and the pace and nature of territorial devolution as well as non-institutional factors such as the embedded nature of Inuvialuit communities and non-Inuvialuit communities within the region.