What Country?

 

No, this is not a Jeopardy quiz question.  It is a discussion about a place we call Canada.

Now that another federal election has passed, premiers across the country were very quickly demanding more autonomy but also more money from the national coffers.  One of my favourite phrases, which should apply here is, “You can’t have it both ways.”

“Too bad the only people who know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair.”
  - George Burns

Do we really have a country?  Or do we have ten fiefdoms and three territories?  Certainly, most provincial premiers think they run their own country.  They are disdainful of the central government, seeing it only as a source of money for their own use.  Except for Quebec, most of them don’t have any interest in foreign affairs.  And Quebec looks at such things from their own, unique point of view.  For many of them, their only interest in the military is to make sure that military bases are maintained in their province.

Canada, we have to admit, is a very fractured country.  It is fractured geographically, linguistically, racially, politically, culturally, and economically.  What one part of the country wants is anathema to other parts.  Some provinces don’t want to support other provinces.  Most provinces don’t understand other provinces.  They tell us that Canada is an experiment in cultural diversity.  Has the experiment failed? 

The Canadian government is the custodian and guardian of the Canadian Constitution and its accompanying Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  But that guardianship has been shattered by the more frequent threat and use of the not withstanding clause.  That means that any province can thumb their nose at any provision of the charter and render it unreachable by the Supreme Court of Canada. 

The United States, in the 1860s, fought a civil war over state’s rights.  Some states wanted the right for their citizens to keep slaves, other states did not.  To reserve their states’ rights, several southern states attempted to secede from the union.  The Civil War ensued.  The result, of course, was the defeat of the Confederate States but also the strengthening of the federal government.  That domination of the central government lasted for over one hundred years, in many ways encouraged with several wars.  But recently we have seen states try to defy the will of the federal government on such things as voting rights and abortions. 

If our provinces really want more autonomy, then they should try to govern themselves without any input from Ottawa.  But that means looking after their own security both within and from the outside.  A weak province on its own could be a very tempting target to outside forces.  Let those provinces set up their own foreign affairs and try to negotiate trade deals with other provinces (?) and countries.  Let them each, separately, fend off other powers such as the United States, China, or Russia.  Let them each set up their own criminal code, national courts, constitutions (the probably won’t need a not withstanding clause).  Let them all do this with no input from a federal government.  Let them really taste autonomy.  Oh, and of course, there will not longer be any transfer payments, medical grants or any other payments coming from anybody. 

If we really want to maintain a country called Canada, there are several things we must consider.  We have to insist on a strong central government.  Without that, we will be unable to fend off foreign pressure or to maintain balance between provinces.  We must eliminate the not withstanding clause so that everyone in Canada can live under the same protections. To my knowledge, no other democratic country has such a provision.  We must insist on the elimination of inter-provincial trade barriers (we need a strong central law like the United States’ interstate commerce controls).  And most importantly, we must think of ourselves as Canadians first.

“Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.”
  - Henrik Tikkanen