Re-imagination, Part 1
With a nod to Ben Mulroney and an opinion article he penned 10 November I am going to attempt to break the writing block with a series of posts providing a positive look at what Canada could be if either of our governing parties were bold enough to try. And as Ben summarizes it is not essential which party does these things, in fact likely no party could accomplish all these actions in a term of governance, but a commitment to take up these basic actions as principles for a ‘New Canada’ would get my vote.
What are the areas of concern that with support a government should address? Ben identifies several that work as a great starting point. These will form the basis of this series that re-imagines what Canada could be as we move from what I hope is a nation bottom. The topics will be, in no particular order of relevance, the role of government, natural resource development, unshackling the private sector, immigration, indigenous relations and national service.
Today, these are the areas that are dragging our country down, but if we, as Mulroney contemplates, fundamentally change how we view these maybe we can change them. And quite possibly the only way to do this is to put away the rhetoric and partisanship evident in media, both legacy and new medias, and replace it with a new model of communicating. One that uplifts and supports rather than ones that continues to find greater and more exploitable differences to keep us divided.
To steal a line from Chuck Chamberlain, we need a new national pair of glasses.
So let us start with the role of government. When we began as a country our founding documents called for Peace, Order and Good Government. Understanding the first two would seem quite easy. Peace means the government is maintain a force that can defend our country against others who may attack us. This may be militarily or through statecraft but either requires defence for which the common citizenry is ill equipped to provide for its self.
Canada has rather unique geographic features that make for a challenging defence. The longest undefended border in the world and three extremely long coastlines, one each on the Atlantic, the Pacific and Arctic oceans. Sovereignty over the east and west coasts is difficult enough, our northern coast is an arctic one. Inhospitable conditions on landforms a significant portion of the year, coupled with metres thick ice covering the oceans and great bays of the coast.
Sovereignty protection over the vast archipelago of the north has only recently become a necessity as the great power game moves to the ever farther reaches of the earth for resources to support their growth. Our high arctic holds vast resources from oil and gas to precious metals, diamonds and critical rare earths. Beyond that it is also the primary line of defence for missile attack from foreign powers. Even if we are not targeted directly overflight is a concern as is fallout.
At the end of World War Two Canada had the fourth largest navy in the world. Embracing rebuilding our navy to this once great status not only would ensure our defence, the spin offs from the technologies needed for our ship building would benefit many others. As would rebuilding our military aircraft with homegrown development and manufacturing. We gave this up when we cancelled the Avro Arrow, it is time to rebuild this industry.
Order is ensuring for a society that is protected from itself. Crime and civil issues and the laws that are created to manage this area are what a government most needs to control. Policing and a judiciary to implement the laws, prisons to hold the convicted, jails for the accused. There are many moving parts with this aspect of what government needs to provide. The social experiments we currently have are not working and the thought that we need to add courts like sharia ones or social construct courts are ridiculous. We need to get back to the simple ideas of punishment for offending and deportation at the end of punishment if you are not Canadian.
Finally we have the concept of good government. These are the basic constructs of society that need to be available but for an individual or small group are not financially possible. This is the pooling of resources to build roads, hospitals, schools and the like. Lately it has come to include the services in those hospitals, support in the event of joblessness, services for the infirm and a pension for the aged. As a nation we have really gone off the rails with this as successive government promise more and more. Good government should not be considered a replacement for the family or God. A rerecognition that the individual is the basic component of a government and that comes with responsibilities.
We do not have the same concept of personal liberty that the United States does. We do have an almost millennium of judicial precedence to draw on that continually gave more and more freedom and responsibility to the individual. The past century we trade that freedom and responsibility for certainty. At a tremendous cost both in a financial sense and social.
There was a time when we described ourselves as peaceful nation full of fierce warriors. A land unafraid to take on big ideas like building a cross country railway, massive hydro-electric projects and amazingly safe nuclear power generation. A trans Canada highway system connects our major cities, we have safe water most everywhere and do not worry about what tomorrow brings or does not. These are the things I believe we need. I also believe we need to pare all the rest. But I also believe it’s not just my decision. that we are a country of differing ideas and all must be heard and decided upon.
Join us for part two where we will discuss federal-provincial jurisdiction focussing specifically on resources.