Social economy, social policy and federalism in Canada Yves Vaillancourt & Luc Thériault In this paper, our aim is to examine the links woven in Canada over the past 10 years or so among the social economy, changing social policy and Canadian federalism. First, we point to two traditions of research on the third sector in the international literature, one emphasizing non profit organizations, the other the social economy. Then we analyse trends in these two research traditions within Canada over the past 10 years.