The last federal elections contributed very little to the advancement of our nation. We need to take a hard look in the mirror. Problems persist and we need to know what they are. There are cracks in the foundation of our political system.
Our federal government is no longer what it once was. Parliament, the gathering of our elected representatives, is no longer supreme. The Prime Minister has dethroned it. The legislative, the executive and the ruling party are all led by one person. He is no longer a first among equals, a primus inter pares. Towering above all others, he holds the careers of his cabinet members and MPs in the palm of his hand, as delicately as if they were hatching eggs. In today’s political culture, Canada’s premier forum for political debate has rarely seen defiance of the leader, dissent or even disagreement rise above a murmur.
The ties that bind us as a nation are strained by centrifugal forces. And these forces grow. The strong centralized Canada that was born at Confederation has been drained and eviscerated by the provinces and left a much-emptied shell. Whether or not the gun violence metastasizing in the streets of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal can be stopped depends on British Colombia, Ontario and Quebec, not our federal government. Over the course of the pandemic, the responses of our respective health systems varied wildly, and dangerously, as victims dying in one provincial jurisdiction could have survived in another.
Our national policy on energy, particularly oil, is as devoid of meaning as is our master plan for the environment: because in Alberta black is white and in Quebec, white is black. As a result, our national climate change policy, the signal issue of our era, is as fragmented and splintered as the number of provinces and territories that make up our country. Finally, this utter and total absence of national consensus has extended like a yawning void to spheres where Ottawa, constitutionally, is in fact empowered to act with little or no coordination with the provinces: the Arctic and First Nations. Alas, recent events, and years, have led us to expect very little from the federal government in these areas.
Our commercial policy is no policy at all. Although the desire for an internal market was the most cherished dream of the Fathers of Confederation and led to our country’s creation, it remains sadly unfulfilled, over 150 years on. The somber reality is that we remain an anachronistic union of provincial markets whose fear of each other blinds us to the possibilities of true, free exchange. It would undoubtedly shock and surprise a foreign visitor to learn that trade barriers between provinces have made products manufactured in Quebec easier to sell in Mexico, than in New Brunswick. In fact, as any beer drinker knows, just crossing a provincial border with a case of 24 in your car can get you arrested.
The political forces pulling us apart have not gone unnourished. At different times, at least three provinces have flirted with the idea of separation: Alberta, Quebec and Newfoundland. Quebec, of course, has done more than flirt. While plaintively arguing historic grievance, these classic excuses have masked the real lust: money. Tax dollars raised by a federal government that is accountable to all Canadians are spent, in large part, by provincial governments that are not; generating huge resentments. Worse, like an overly-indulged adolescent’s budget, it is never enough. And so, envelopes bulging with equalization payments and health care subsidies are sent from Ottawa to the provincial capitals, accelerating the transformation of our federal government into an ATM for the provinces. Canada is still a country, yes, but only barely.
If left unattended, these cracks will get bigger. Perhaps too big. And if we do come apart at the seams, how will we face the titanic struggles ahead, such as climate change, the next pandemic, or the rendering of justice to all Native and non-Native Canadians? Instead of taking Canada apart, we should be doing everything we can to put it together.