Local Government and Regionalism in North American: Background and Historical Development

Abstract

Canada and the USA, sharing an extensive political and cultural heritage and social and economic integration, have evolved markedly different approaches in accommodating their local governance systems to meet the needs of twenty-first century metropolitan areas. To understand the different approaches to regionalism, it is necessary to have a perspective on the local government systems, how they developed, the influences, and the differences in their approaches to service delivery. Although there are cultural similarities and extensive economic integration between the two nations, there are also differences that are reflected in their culture and respective political institutions. Both countries have a federal form of government with power shared between the national government and the states/provinces. However, the evolution of the federal form in each country has been different. The provinces wield much more power in their federal system than the states do in America’s federal system. Even though both countries adopted a federal system of government as opposed to Great Britain’s unitary system, both countries modeled their local government system after England’s system.¹