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 »
