Provincial Policy Laboratories: Policy Diffusion and Transfer in Canada's Federal System

Canada's federal system, composed of ten provincial governments and three territories, all with varying economies and political cultures, is often blamed for the country's failure to develop coordinated policy responses to key issues. But in other federal and multi-level governance systems, the ability of multiple governments to test a variety of policy responses has been lauded as an effective way to build local and national policy.

Despite high-profile examples of policy diffusion in Cana...