Executive Styles in Canada is a welcome addition to the literature on Canadian political leadership and provincial politics, essentially raising the question of the power of the premier, central agencies, and executive council in each of the Canadian provinces. To this end the editors have organized the book in 13 chapters. The book begins with a survey of the whole debate over “court government” raised by Donald Savoie, and the development model of Canadian cabinets advanced by Stefan Dupré and Christopher Dunn. The second chapter is given over to Savoie to make his case with respect to the federal government. His argument, by now familiar, is that by the 1990s the real power in the federal government is in the hands of the “prime minister and a small group of carefully selected courtiers” (17). Executive dominance of the legislature in the Westminster model has given way to even greater centralization. Power flows not from ministers, but from the prime minister. While Savoie does not address the seeming anomaly of the Paul Martin minority government of 2004–05, in which the House of Commons and even the opposition parties suddenly became relevant again, one gets the sense that he would argue that this is a temporary development rather than a more durable departure from the direction of the last 30 years.

Christopher Dunn's contribution, drawing on the work of Stefan Dupré, has been to advance a general model of the development of cabinet decision making, with particular focus on the provinces. The editors, synthesizing the work of Dupré, Dunn and Savoie, argue that one can observe three types of cabinet decision-making structures in Canada, namely the “departmental,” “institutionalized” and “pm/premier-centred” model. The first is an unaided model in which cabinet processes are informal and individual ministers loom large, while the second saw the development of central agencies and support structures, including cabinet committees, to manage the process of executive decision making. Finally, the new model centred on the head of government has rendered less important any governmental institutions that restrain the prime minister or premier. Near the end of their introduction the editors raise ten issues for the contributors to address, such as the role of the first minister, other cabinet ministers, cabinet committees, central agencies, deputy ministers, the Finance Department, and the control of public and intergovernmental relations.

The bulk of the book is in chapters 3 to 12, in which the contributors discuss each province based on this theoretical framework. These case studies are well written and researched (though with typographical errors, which have become all too common in contemporary publishing), and are useful for those interested in the politics of a particular province, or in political leadership more generally. The compelling message that comes through is the diversity of Canadian cases and the importance of political cultures, traditions and governing ideologies.

It is clear that not all provinces are inevitably on the path towards highly centralized government-by-premier. As Luc Bernier notes in the case of Quebec, Quebec politics and parties are hard on their premiers, especially within the Parti Québécois. Leaders no longer have the longevity to reverse the constraints on leadership in Quebec politics. In many of the smaller provinces there may well be a fusion of one-man government and the institutionalized cabinet. As Stewart Hyson suggests in the case of New Brunswick, the province is known for prominent premiers but not for other prominent ministers or opposition leaders. Yet there is still the semblance of central institutions and links to the populace. Peter Buker reports that in Prince Edward Island, with the population of a small-to-medium-sized Canadian city, there is evidence of a small-scale, institutionalized cabinet, but the spoils of government still loom large for competing elites and voters alike.

The two most interesting tendencies identified in the book are found in the larger provinces, particularly Ontario, Alberta and BC. These are the impact of victorious “conservative populist” regimes on “institutional cabinet” structures, as well as the inclination to innovate, particularly by drawing government caucus members into cabinet processes. In the case of the former, Ted Glenn (Ontario), Keith Brownsey (Alberta) and Norman Ruff (BC) note the desire of New Right leaders, like Mike Harris, Ralph Klein, and Bill Vander Zalm, to (over)simplify issues as well as the cabinet and governmental decision-making processes. In some of the same provinces, more recently one sees political innovations, perhaps to address the democratic deficit created at the height of the New Right era. In some provinces this involves creating cabinet committees that also draw on government caucus members.

There is much more of value in this volume. One thing that this reviewer would have liked to see is an additional chapter on executive styles in the three northern territories. There are some interesting things happening in the North, and this would also be a means to assess Aboriginal leadership styles. As it is, this is a valuable work for specialists and generalists alike, and should prove to be useful in courses in provincial politics and political leadership