If you were to blurt out something like “No taxation without representation” in Canada, you could well get tagged as too American and shoved out of the public discussion. But hang on for seven centuries. We have a right to that slogan, too.
I’m not even impressed with the claim that being like Americans is a Bad Thing, especially as the basis for an entire political philosophy. But never mind for now what currently has me lunging for my quill and parchment is that no taxation without representation, though a slogan of the American revolutionaries, is not an American invention at all. It is a part of our heritage because it is a principle of the British Constitution going back to 1297. Continue Reading »
Canada is huge the second largest country in the world. It is also one of the least densely populated countries in the world. (If Canada was as densely populated as Germany or the U.K. both of which have lots of woods, mountains, moors and other open spaces she would have 2.2 or 2.3 Billion people respectively.) The immensity of our land is a blessing and a challenge.
Most of Canada is rock and forest. The prairies are flat to rolling and mostly treeless. Many parts of the country are underlain with vast mineral, gas and oil resources. Other parts have rich soils capable of producing the best tasting fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, meat and poultry products in the world. The range of geophysical realities in Canada is huge. Canada also has a continent’s worth of climates.
The history of Canada is as regionally varied as it is dramatically grand. Some regions of Canada have the oldest histories in North America. The name “Canada” has been on world maps since the 1540′s. For more than 200 years it referred to the land on both sides of the St. Lawrence River, a little bit down and up river from Quebec City and Montreal the mother and father cities of Canada. Other regions of Canada weren’t even explored, let alone developed, until the 20th century.
One thing is absolutely certain Canada is far more regionally diverse than ten provinces and three territories can possibly represent. Continue Reading »
I have just finished reading your A Canada Strong & Free series. It’s terrific! It ought to be required reading in every secondary school in the country.
There is only one area in which you might want to think about modifying your position.
Many studies (the Spicer Commission is a notable one) reveal that there is no market among Canadians for further increasing the power of provincial governments. Almost every day we read about some group or another crying for national standards to replace the balkanized ballsup that currently prevails. Continue Reading »
Imagine A Canada Without Provincial Governments
At the top of the wish list of any Canadian government would have to be that all the rabidly quarrelsome, obstructionist, robber-baron provincial governments could somehow be made to magically disappear overnight.
And the majority of the people of Canada have, for years, been clearly stating they are Canadians first, not Provincials, and that they want all Canadians to be treated equally in a strong, united nation. (Most notably, the Spicer Commission Report.) Continue Reading »
B: Two’s Company, Three (Or More) Is A Crowd.
Adapted from the Original in the Toronto Star March 25, 1994
The first thing a new constitution will have to do is redesign the territorial jurisdictions in Canada. Now, it may be that a Citizens’ Assembly would conclude that the current territorial jurisdictions (provinces, territories, counties, regions, townships, districts, parishes, municipalities, etc.) are just dandy and should stay the way they are. But, if there is one thing about which almost all Canadians are agreed it is that the country has too much government from too many governments. Canada has too many layers of government – too many power centres fighting each other for jurisdiction, advantage and money rather than solving problems and serving people. Continue Reading »
STRUCTURE OF GOVERNANCE IN CANADA (REDESIGNING)
["Trust the people. Leave them alone."
(Attributed to Lao Tse in the Tao Te Ching, c. 300 BCE)]
A. Who’s In Charge Here?
Two conditions describe a free people:
1. Free people have the power to control what their governments do.
2. Free people have the power to control the authorities in their governments.
These are also the essential conditions for democracy government controlled by the people. In a democracy, free people set the terms and conditions of their own governance.
Governance was invented to do the things that persons and families couldn’t do, or do as well, by themselves. It’s a tradeoff with a cost. Governance is a “fair trade” or “good buy” insofar as it enables people to exercise their abilities to the limits of their ambitions in a peaceful and orderly environment that works. Continue Reading »
