Turning a liability into an asset
Recognize Canada’s regional nature
Canada is a nation of regions — Atlantic, Laurentian (Quebec/ Ontario), Prairie, Pacific, and North — depending on which geographic and demographic criteria we choose to define them.
Each of these regions, however we define them, has some unique — let us say “distinctive” — concerns and aspirations. These can readily become divisive and major sources of national disunity if only addressed in part or used to pit one section of the country against another, as when the current Liberal/ NDP coalition fixates on the aspirations and concerns of Quebec and/or Ontario while disparaging those of the West, ignoring those of the North, and treating Atlantic Canada as a subsidized vassal of the federal government.
But what if the next federal administration were to officially recognize the regional character of Canada in a new and constructive way? What if it were to officially acknowledge that the residents of each of these regions have legitimate and distinctive regional aspirations and concerns that must be addressed by the national government in co-operation with the respective provincial governments? What if the next prime minister of Canada were to cultivate strong regional lieutenants to represent those concerns and champion those aspirations — just as John A. Macdonald had George-étienne Cartier in Quebec and Charles Tupper in Atlantic Canada, or as Wilfrid Laurier had Clifford Sifton in the West?
Most importantly, what if the next federal government were to offer to systematically and specifically address those distinctive regional aspirations and concerns on one condition — that its efforts to address the aspirations and concerns of one region be co-operatively supported rather than opposed by the people and governments of the other regions?
Time and space do not here permit a proper cataloguing of the current “distinctive concerns and aspirations” of each of Canada’s regions — an exercise that would be well worth the time and trouble for some respected think-tank or forward-looking federal party to undertake. But here are three samples from a recent personal survey.
From a colleague in Atlantic Canada: We remain very much a rural region. Whereas Ontario crossed the “50 per cent rural, 50 per cent urban” line many years ago,
New Brunswick is just crossing that line now, with P.E.I., Newfoundland and Labrador in much the same position, and Nova Scotia at 41 per cent rural. National policies heavily focused on urban Canada fail to recognize or address the concerns and aspirations of rural Canada, of which Atlantic Canada is a prime representative.
From a Quebec colleague: As is well known, we in Quebec have always aspired to preserve and strengthen our French language and culture. But a priority concern today is the negative impact on our language and culture of federal immigration policies which, without consultation, flood our province with thousands of temporary foreign workers who share few of our linguistic or cultural goals and strain our social services to the breaking point.
And from the West: We strongly aspire to see the natural resource sectors — agriculture, energy, forestry, mining and fisheries — recognized and treated as fundamental building blocks of the economy, and a priority concern today is that the current federal government regards and treats these sectors contemptuously, as relics from the past and even environmental liabilities.
Of course, there is actually much common ground between the aspirations and concerns of one region and those of the others, even though the priorities themselves may be different. Atlantic Canada’s concern about Ottawa’s seeming indifference to rural issues is shared by rural Canadians across the country. Western Canada’s desire to see the natural resource sectors treated as fundamental building blocks of the economy is a shared aspiration wherever Canadians are engaged in agriculture, energy development, mining, forestry or the fisheries. And Quebec’s expressed concern over federal immigration policies is appreciated by residents of the Rest of Canada because if they voice similar concerns they are denounced as “racists” by the Liberal/ndp coalition, but when Quebec expresses that concern the blowback from Ottawa is much more muted and the concern may even be heeded.
And thus the question: Could not official recognition of the regional character of Canada by the next federal government, and the fashioning of a proactive but conditional response to the distinctive concerns and aspirations of each as suggested above, turn what has previously been a divisive national liability into a unifying asset for Canada as a whole?
Preston Manning is the former leader of the Reform Party of Canada and a former leader of the Official Opposition in Canada’s Parliament.