CKNW Editorial
for January 26, 2001

We had a wonderful trip … saw a lot of new country plus the Panama Canal … I will be doing a program on it but likely not until the Easter weekend. I managed four books including Clark Clifford’s Counsel to the President, HW Brands fascinating biography of Teddy Roosevelt, a book called Founding Brothers, by Joseph J Ellies which is a marvelous overview of the foundeers of the United States and a lovely little biography of Samuel Pepys by Stephen Coote Plus getting half way through a chilling look at the 20^th century by Robert Conquest.

For those who may think I’ve been away a lot – I have. But now I pay for it and will be here until June. Now down to business.

I return to see Canada apparently on the eve of revolution. The premier-to-be of Quebec calls the Canadian flag bits of red cloth then backpeddles to call it a tattered matador’s cape, four prominent members of the Canadian Alliance show up at the founding meeting of the Alberta Separatist Party while Stephane Dion lectures Mr Day for letting that happen then turns his guns on Bernard Landry demanding an apology … all capped off by Jean Charest proposing a full revisit to Meech Lake and then some. In that last regard may I remind all and sundry that when Charest left the Tories to become the Liberal saviour in Quebec I said and wrote that in order to stay up with the separatists he would have to sail so close to their wind that we’d be better off dealing with the Parti Quebecois than Charest who wants the same thing but slower.

Let’s pause for a moment and review things.

Canada for all the bleating to the contrary, by the Liberals, is in a hell of a mess. It’s in a hell of a mess because we simply have not reviewed the rules by which we live and modernized ourselves. Moreover, thanks to the Liberals, we have so constipated our constitutional amendment process that we have no mechanism by which to make a constitution that all can live with. Never forget, folks, how we got here. It was the Liberals who in 1995 stated that it would veto any changes Quebec wanted thus making it impossible to even start talking turkey. It’s true that the other four regions were given a veto but that’s not the point – al least two of those regions, the West and BC want change not constipation.

Let’s look at the situation as it is, not through the Pollyannish eyes of the Chretien/Dion government.

1.The Quebec separatist movement is here to stay. Its moods and its popularity with the Quebec voters will wax and wane but it will never, ever go away. Just because a referendum is narrowly won, or a government changes means nothing in the long term. We must accept that.

2.Our system of government is so out dated and so divisive that until it is changed there will always be western alienation, especially in British Columbia and Alberta. The depths of the anger were once pretty superficial – the CPR and tariff rates that made the east the powerhouse driven by cheaply bought western resources turned, by tariff barriers, into expensive goods back in the western provinces. The alienation, as massively fueled by the National Energy Policy of the eighties now runs very deep and can no longer be swept away by such trifles as moving government departments to BC as suggested by Herb Dhaliwal. The short, fatal answer is that the system, now unchangeable, will drive the far west further and further away from Canada. Leaving aside emotional considerations, there is less and less reason for Alberta and British Columbia to stay in Canada as every year passes. Without massive changes to the way we run things, of which a new proper senate is but one, the system will continue to keep all but Ontario and Quebec voiceless in the Ottawa chambers of power.

Is there anything we can do?

Perhaps. We can start by taking a large does of reality. It was not Landry’s words which were the problem, it was Stephane Dion’s reaction. It was not the Alberta Alliance members at the meeting of the separatist party which was the problem but Dion’s massive and childish reaction. I have two very preliminary suggestions which might help. I say "might" because we have left it so long that the rot might be too deep.

First off, we have to take that huge step of admitting we have a problem. A very big problem in this country … in fact several huge problems that just aren’t going to go away. This is critically important. Just as the substance abuser must face his problem before help will be there, Canada must face the fact that our institutions simply are inadequate to keep this country together.

Secondly, the federal government must put in place a permanent Constitution Commission to examine our problems and, from time to time – not one big compromised report – but from time to time make observations as to what our problems are and what possible solutions are there. This would operate much like the Law Reform Commission has over the years. The devil, of course, is in the details. Unless the Commission was so constituted that all Canadians felt it was doing a good, tough overview it would be a waste of money. It must have people like, for example, Gordon Gibson on it so we can all know that all our problems of governance are aired and thought through.

We have, you see, created a Gordian knot by giving out vetoes. Quebec will simply veto everything that is not in her interest in order to satisfy the separatists. Jean Charest’s constitutional proposals demonstrate that. We can only cut through that Gordian know by setting up a constitutional review body which gains the respect of Canadians from coast to coast and acts as a talk shop and think tank for the entire nation. If Canadians can see the value coming from this Commission, political pressuvre on all parties will be the result. And that’s what has to happen.

It might not work. But since nothing else is going to, it’s surely worth a try.