From: jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison)
Subject: Canadian Federalism
Organization: University of BC, Electrical Engineering
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 06:35:36 GMT



I think Canada's constitutional problems will remain unresolved for some
time, as long as the federal governement structure exists.

Through Meech lake, Charlottetown, and previous attempts at constitution
making, each province has tried to make a deal that's best for itself.
This is fine, since each region has distinct interests: the West has its
own resources and prosperity to gaurd; Quebec has its language and culture
to protect. etc.

But the Federal govt's only motive in this is to retain power and priveleges
for itself. I think Trudeau and Mulroney have had grand plans they wanted
to implement, so they could see themselves in the historybooks someday,
as the man who put Canada together; the man who shaped her, or the one
who led her into the 21st century. Whatever, I can only speculate.

I think the Federal govt has helped manufacture these kind of crises, where
provinces are induced to sniping and mistrusting one another. It's left us
all paranoid and mistrustful of the other provinces. Quebec doesn't
trust English Canada, the West doesn't trust the East, the maritimes can't
trust the center etc. 

Our premier's may not be the best people to negotiate things, but at least
we know that our premier should have only our province's interests at heart.
But we don't know the Prime-minister's interests, we only know that the
prime minister will try to serve his own interests, and his own vision
of Canada.

I suggest that we aren't going to get anywhere unless the provinces hammer
out a deal between themselves, and without the intrusion of the federal
government. We must assume that at this level during negotiations, each
province has exclusive powers within its borders. After negotiations, Canada 
might wind up with fewer provinces, OR  as I suspect, the provinces would
give up limited concessions, in order to form a stronger, mutually agreeable
agreement. After this kind of negotiation, where you start with everything,
and agree to a deal where everybody is happy, NOONE can complain that they
were screwed or cheated.


The things that provinces would agree to, if they are sensible, are:

- a common defense and foreign policy
  This way, Canada would remain large, and strong enough to carry more weight
  than the provinces could alone. BC , Ontario or Quebec etc are viable on
  their own, but if we pull together, we have more clout.

- a common criminal and civil justice system
- a common system of political process and elections
- a common charter of human rights
- national standards (health, saftey, weights and measures etc.)
  Well, we're all civilized, and have similar concepts of justice and rights

- interprovincial free trade, that is binding, through the justice system
  This would be new. (I'm not kidding)

feel free to add more...

We already have so much of this, that it would be simple to agree on
these, and it would form the basis for a stronger nation. This process
would be stronger, because no province could claim it was forced, cheated
or ignored. 

An agreement like this would have to be unanimous, but that is not a recipe
for deadlock, because if a province starts negotiating with all power, they
are not going to agree to something harmful. Any agreement that comes out
would be beneficial to all. This is much different from the Charlottetown
agreement, where unanimity was required, because unanimity would lock
in existing flaws, which would be difficult to change. The incentive for
agreement is that the other provinces might call the bluff and say,
"we can agree", you can take it or leave it. No one province can wield power
over the others, since the others could turn around and leave them out.
And of course, no province would be obligated to give up anything it didn't
want to. This is a recipe for balance of powers, and noone would get screwed.

It's so simple: if you start with everything, and you agree to a deal that's
in your own interest, you can't complain that the federal government, or 
ontario, or English Canada or whatever is cheating you, and that you had
to compromise priciples, just for expediency.

I would suggest that if the provinces negotiate this way, that they create
a smaller federal branch that would have its budget controlled by the
provinces.  The provinces would pay proportionally for the common parts
of the system (like defense, diplomacy etc). Or whatever other formulas
the provinces would agree to.

This is the opposite of where (as now) power originates from
the top (prime minister and cabinet) and trickles down. A similar structure
should exist within provinces, where cities and muncipalities delegate to
the provincial govt, instead of dictating to them. To borrow from H Ross
Perot, do you want a government that comes at you or from you?


-- 
__________________________________________________________________________
 John Paul Morrison                     |  
 University of British Columbia, Canada |  
 Electrical Engineering                 |   .sig file without a cause
 jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca              VE7JPM |  
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Newsgroups: can.politics,soc.culture.canada,can.followup