It behooves westerners to
stop complaining and fix the problem
Rage over the election is rolling like seismic tremors across the West from an epicentre situated roughly in Calgary.
People are spluttering, "How could Ontarians be so stupid? This country doesn't work--but what can we do about it?"
But are Ontarians stupid? Not at all. They stand to lose something very precious if they switch to the Conservatives. They lose that smug assumption emanating from Toronto that they are politically and morally superior to western Canadians, Americans, previous generations, and the rest of the world. By preserving a centralist party in government, they (in partnership with Quebec) preserve Canada in their own provincial image.
The fact that they have already reduced Canada to a somewhat corrupt, narrow-minded dictatorship--an unproductive, defenceless, sanctimonious, irrelevant, irresponsible global backwater--is not something enough of them are ready to accept. Not yet, anyway, and maybe never.
Thus, the onus lies on westerners to force Ontarians to confront reality, and we haven't done it.
It requires us to do two things at once.
The first is to establish by intelligent argument that Canada went wrong forty years ago or more, when we decided to abandon the constitutional system that had lifted Canada to a place among the world's first-tier nations--a status we have long since lost.
The successful formula instituted by the Fathers of Confederation was to leave only a few important responsibilities to the central government.
All the really serious stuff that affects daily life--language and property rights, social and economic development, education, administration of justice--they assigned entirely to the provinces. Each province set its own rules and paid its own bills. Nobody hitchhiked.
In the 1950s and '60s, Canadians disastrously allowed Ottawa to start national programs for pensions, bilingualism, multiculturalism, medical care, unemployment and regional economic development. It was assumed, wrongly, that these would be more equitably and efficiently delivered on a national scale, and that they would unite us politically.
Instead, the opposite happened. By siphoning tens of billions each year from successful areas to failing ones, they fostered regional envy, irresponsibility and resentment. We saw once again in this election how Martin invoked these "Canadian values" to turn east against west.
Robbed of incentive to succeed on their own, recipient regions like Quebec and the Atlantic remain stagnant, and so they demand even more. This is hopeless. It's like trying to live on a block with 10 houses and no property titles.
The expectation that all provinces would pay their own way vanished two generations ago. But on this point the Fathers of Confederation were more clear-sighted than Diefenbaker, Pearson, Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien. Canada is failing as a centralized state. And the answer (contrary to Paul Martin, the Liberal Party and Ontario) is less centralism, not more.
It's the task of the federal Conservatives to re-inspire Canadians with the original vision that made Canada such a remarkably successful country in generations past. It won't be easy. But if the Conservatives can't effect this change, neither can they change anything else.
The second thought westerners must act upon is to take back all the provincial duties they needlessly and unwisely loaned to the federal government. Alberta can and should lead the way. Instead of continuing with the Canada Pension Plan, Alberta should institute an Alberta Pension Plan. Instead of using Ottawa's RCMP, it should establish (once again) an Alberta Mounted Police. And it should collect its own provincial income tax.
Much more can and must be done, but these three are all decisions Ottawa can't veto.
Whether they are the first big steps towards independence or the first steps toward restoring Confederation as it was designed to work is something Ontarians can decide.
Getting angry at Ontario won't change anything. Ontarians don't care how westerners feel, and frankly we don't care how they feel either. From now on we'll be measured not by our complaints but by our actions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy
Suite 203, 10441 - 178 Street
Edmonton, AB T5S 1R5
Phone: 780-481-7844
Toll Free: 1-866-666-6768
Fax: 780-481-9983
contact@citizenscentre.com
www.citizenscentre.com
stop complaining and fix the problem
Rage over the election is rolling like seismic tremors across the West from an epicentre situated roughly in Calgary.
People are spluttering, "How could Ontarians be so stupid? This country doesn't work--but what can we do about it?"
But are Ontarians stupid? Not at all. They stand to lose something very precious if they switch to the Conservatives. They lose that smug assumption emanating from Toronto that they are politically and morally superior to western Canadians, Americans, previous generations, and the rest of the world. By preserving a centralist party in government, they (in partnership with Quebec) preserve Canada in their own provincial image.
The fact that they have already reduced Canada to a somewhat corrupt, narrow-minded dictatorship--an unproductive, defenceless, sanctimonious, irrelevant, irresponsible global backwater--is not something enough of them are ready to accept. Not yet, anyway, and maybe never.
Thus, the onus lies on westerners to force Ontarians to confront reality, and we haven't done it.
It requires us to do two things at once.
The first is to establish by intelligent argument that Canada went wrong forty years ago or more, when we decided to abandon the constitutional system that had lifted Canada to a place among the world's first-tier nations--a status we have long since lost.
The successful formula instituted by the Fathers of Confederation was to leave only a few important responsibilities to the central government.
All the really serious stuff that affects daily life--language and property rights, social and economic development, education, administration of justice--they assigned entirely to the provinces. Each province set its own rules and paid its own bills. Nobody hitchhiked.
In the 1950s and '60s, Canadians disastrously allowed Ottawa to start national programs for pensions, bilingualism, multiculturalism, medical care, unemployment and regional economic development. It was assumed, wrongly, that these would be more equitably and efficiently delivered on a national scale, and that they would unite us politically.
Instead, the opposite happened. By siphoning tens of billions each year from successful areas to failing ones, they fostered regional envy, irresponsibility and resentment. We saw once again in this election how Martin invoked these "Canadian values" to turn east against west.
Robbed of incentive to succeed on their own, recipient regions like Quebec and the Atlantic remain stagnant, and so they demand even more. This is hopeless. It's like trying to live on a block with 10 houses and no property titles.
The expectation that all provinces would pay their own way vanished two generations ago. But on this point the Fathers of Confederation were more clear-sighted than Diefenbaker, Pearson, Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien. Canada is failing as a centralized state. And the answer (contrary to Paul Martin, the Liberal Party and Ontario) is less centralism, not more.
It's the task of the federal Conservatives to re-inspire Canadians with the original vision that made Canada such a remarkably successful country in generations past. It won't be easy. But if the Conservatives can't effect this change, neither can they change anything else.
The second thought westerners must act upon is to take back all the provincial duties they needlessly and unwisely loaned to the federal government. Alberta can and should lead the way. Instead of continuing with the Canada Pension Plan, Alberta should institute an Alberta Pension Plan. Instead of using Ottawa's RCMP, it should establish (once again) an Alberta Mounted Police. And it should collect its own provincial income tax.
Much more can and must be done, but these three are all decisions Ottawa can't veto.
Whether they are the first big steps towards independence or the first steps toward restoring Confederation as it was designed to work is something Ontarians can decide.
Getting angry at Ontario won't change anything. Ontarians don't care how westerners feel, and frankly we don't care how they feel either. From now on we'll be measured not by our complaints but by our actions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy
Suite 203, 10441 - 178 Street
Edmonton, AB T5S 1R5
Phone: 780-481-7844
Toll Free: 1-866-666-6768
Fax: 780-481-9983
contact@citizenscentre.com
www.citizenscentre.com
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