From: jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison)
Subject: Re: October 26th Referendum
Organization: University of BC, Electrical Engineering
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 18:41:22 GMT

In article <CLAMEN.92Sep25003225@BYRON.SP.CS.CMU.EDU> clamen+@CS.CMU.EDU writes:
>
>The concept of provincial self-government is anti-democratic.  Why
>should Alberta and Newfoundland (11.4% of the population) get the same
>voice in affirming the new constitutional framework as Ontario and
>Quebec (62.2%)?

Oh pleeeaaase. 

This argument can not be used by Quebec, unless they want to contradict
themselves.

Quebec wants: more decentralisation and power to run its own affairs. It
              also doesn't want to be at the mercy of the English, Rest
              of Canada.

Now your argument runs like this:
              decentralization and power over provincial interests is 
              not allowable for smaller provinces. Quebec gets to retain
              its say in other provinces business, because Quebec is bigger.

If big provinces are allowed to boss around small provinces (by population),
why shouldn't the rest of Canada get to boss Quebec around???
Your "democratic" argument goes both ways. With _your_ concept of democracy,
English Canada, which outnumbers French Canada BTW, should be allowed to
ban French, make them 2nd class citizens in their own province etc. just
because the rest of Canada outnumbers them. Seems that the tyranny of the
majority is bad when it comes to French within predominantly English Canada,
but if Quebtario starts to push BC around, that's OK? Is that what you mean?


BC, Alberta etc. were seperate enitities when they *negotiated* entry into
Canada. There is enough historical precedent to say that the provinces
were once seperate, pseudo-sovereign regions, and on that basis, it is
legitimate to argue that each province is equal, and still has the right
to govern itself, and look out for its interests. (You could say the same
about the natives). Canada is not a homogeneous country that unilaterally
proclaimed its existence as a sovereign nation when it was founded.

Do you have a problem with Belgium and France having one vote in the UN
General Assembly? France is much bigger, but the two countries have 
equal sovereignty (obviously, each country has differing economic and
military influence in the world).

I think that Canadian Federalism has become redundant, inefficient, and
has damaged relations between Provinces. The provinces have never attacked
one another: the premiers always mind their own business. It's the 
Federal government that has actively poisened relations. If Trudeau and
Mulroney hadn't stirred up so much bitterness, we wouldn't be facing
a lot of this nonsense and scare tactics.

Trudeau and Mulroney have their great visions of Canada. Their ideas
center on power, on running the whole show, on "bringing the country together"
Quebec wanted control over more of its Provincial government, and Trudeau
stirred up resentment in English Canada, and bypassed Quebec. Trudeau
alienated the West by usurping our resources and control over our own
provinces. All for his grand vision of Canada. Mulroney wanted to
bring Canada together, and stirred up resentment over Quebec, caused yet
more alienation of the West.

Throughout all this, the Provinces by *themselves* haven't been bashing
each other about. 

Let's stop all this nonsense about "unity" and "bringing the country together".
These are all catch phrases designed by the current PM to suit his own
interests.

This reminds me of a corny Sting song:  "...if you love someone, set them
free..."

Canada is NOT going to come together by badgering, scare tactics, guilt etc.
If this is used in the name of "unity" we will never have stable relations.

We have many good reasons to stay together as a country. That does not
mean we should let the PM, his cronies, and politicians take the unity
issue, and define unity for their own interests. I think we need a cooling
off period, and some genuine change in the political process/politicians
before we can ever have a *good* solution.

My bias is that the Federal govt. bears a lot of responsibility for damaging
Canada economically and politically. Anyone care to agree? Anyone care to
point out a *better* scapegoat?

>--
>Stewart M. Clamen			Internet:    clamen@cs.cmu.edu
>School of Computer Science		UUCP: 	     uunet!"clamen@cs.cmu.edu"
>Carnegie Mellon University		Phone: 	     +1 412 268 2145
>5000 Forbes Avenue			Fax:	     +1 412 268 5739
>Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891, USA


-- 
__________________________________________________________________________
 John Paul Morrison                     |  Just another "Enemy of Canada"
 University of British Columbia, Canada |  Say NO/NON to Constitutional
 Electrical Engineering                 |  hegemony and fear-mongering
 jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca                     |  by politicians/scum.
________________________________________|_________________________________
Newsgroups: can.politics