Mireille Paquet's superb analysis of immigration policy and federalism details a gradual shift over a 20-year period (1990–2010), during which provincial elites have leaned into a shared constitutional responsibility for immigration issues that had previously been left to the federal government to manage. Paquet revives the concept of province-building and argues that changes in federal and provincial relations, in national and provincial economies, and in labour market development made room for provincial mobilization in the field of immigration. Through the lens of gradual institutional change, the author makes clear that federalism does not only operate in a one-way Ottawa-to-the-provinces direction. Instead, Paquet is intrigued by how federalism can work the other way—where provinces rise up and “federalize” a policy area because it suits a provincial need. Paquet argues that while the federal government has traditionally taken the lead in shaping Canada's approach to welcoming newcomers, immigration management was a policy space where provinces could create capacity and be equal partners. They activated a province-building mechanism, and the federal government responded with a decentralization mechanism, resulting in federalization from the bottom up.

The book has many strengths, of which three will be highlighted here. First is Paquet's inclusion of all 10 provinces in her analysis. Studies of immigration have traditionally focussed on either Quebec or the federal government, but Paquet rejects the single-province case study approach. As she notes, the issue of immigration demonstrates “that all of the provinces—not only Quebec—can bring about a gradual change in the federal policies” (5). A second strength is the parsing of motivations, or “logics,” of the provinces for taking a more active role in immigration policy. While a positive view of immigration is common across all provinces, reasons for deeper involvement in this area differ, reflecting both varied experiences with immigration across the country and diverging needs in political economies and societies. Paquet identifies society-building as the main motivator for Quebec and Manitoba, labour market demands for Alberta and Saskatchewan, response to new needs created by immigration for Ontario and British Columbia, and the desire to attract and retain newcomers for the Atlantic provinces. A third strength is the author's use of province-building as a concept to frame developments in immigration management. Province-building anchored much of the literature on federalism in the 1970s, and while the term was criticized as too broad and vague, Paquet effectively revives it in this book to demonstrate that in the field of immigration, provinces can be agents of change. But the author does not use province-building as a catch-all to describe any agitation by the provinces. She is clear that a province-building mechanism is best identified only if federalism is viewed as a set of interactions between two equal and sovereign orders of government. The interactional approach pushes aside the vertical view of federalism and embraces a richer consideration of every province's political, social and economic contexts; this facilitates a more holistic perspective for studying federal-provincial relations in Canada.

A corollary of the province-building mechanism in immigration policy is the role of provincial political elites as mobilizers. Paquet observes that the initiative to federalize—to activate the “province-building mechanism”—was neither the result of campaign debate nor of demands from citizens or social movements. Through their interactions with each other and the federal government, premiers recognized the importance of active involvement in immigration. Bilateral agreements between the levels gave the provinces more control over selecting immigrants and successfully integrating them into provincial life and labour markets. Paquet's examination is thus a refreshing reminder—at a time when hyperpartisanship seems the norm and discussions about immigration can be flashpoints—that there is a history of consensus among political leaders in Canada that newcomers are a valuable resource for all provinces.

The focus of the book—a manuscript based on an excellent dissertation—is squarely on immigration. Since immigration is a shared constitutional power, an argument could be made that room for province-building has always existed in this policy space. The book thus prompts questions for others to consider: In what other policy areas might this mechanism be activated? And does the absence of conflicting views among elites about immigration as a net positive for Canada make this policy field unique? Could disagreements among provincial elites about a policy area have a dampening effect on triggering the province-building mechanism?

Setting aside these niggling questions, Paquet has offered students of federalism a terrific account of federal-provincial relations in immigration policy. Her emphasis on gradual institutional change, on province-building and decentralization mechanisms, and on an interactional approach to federalism will be relied upon in future analyses in this discipline.