If an experiment is to be successful, it must test many hypotheses before arriving at an incontrovertible truth. That test may take a long time and go through several iterations, shedding many notions and beliefs. When one arrives at the incontrovertible truth, there is nothing left to test, nothing left to discuss.
This is certainly the case with Canada, which, in my last post, I suggested was an experiment. I traced the evolution of the provinces since the 1867 Confederation, and pointed out that there two types of provinces in Canada: those which existed in either colonial or dominion form pre-Confederation, and those which were created by the Canadian federal government post-Confederation.
One might assume that, after the geographic and political expansion of Canada had been completed in 1949, with the addition of Newfoundland and Labrador, that all would finally settle and that Canada would endure forever as a stable and harmonious entity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Turmoil and evolution have been the hallmark of our country from the beginning, making for a rather rocky and acrimonious co-existence. Consider the following:
Confederation itself was truly an unintended event. Originally, the first conference that ultimately led up to Confederation, held in Charlottetown in 1864, was to be about Maritime Union, a joining of the three maritime provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The Canadas got themselves invited to the conference, originally as observers, then as full participants to discuss a wider colonial union, then completely highjacking the conference. Prince Edward Island decided to withdraw from the discussions. Newfoundland, also attending as an observer, wanted nothing to do with this colonial union. But the skillful negotiations of Sir John A. Macdonald convinced the other colonies to give the union a go. Two more conferences, in Quebec and London, hammered out Confederation.
It was a rocky road. In Nova Scotia, a huge battle emerged between the pro-Confederation forces led by Sir Charles Tupper and the anti-Confederation side, led by Joseph Howe. Howe was a fiery and influential orator, and, for most of his life, he worked tirelessly to get Nova Scotia out of Confederation, coming close to succeeding many times. Nova Scotia was the province least enamored of Confederation, and was its most vocal critic in the early years. But not its only critic.
Ontario usually sees itself as the bastion of Confederation, the home of Macdonald and George Brown and many other "Fathers of Confederation." In recent times, it has been the federal government's best ally on a wide number of issues. It wasn't always thus. Ontario's third premier, Sir Oliver Mowat, was a constant source of opposition to the federal Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. It didn't help that Macdonald was a Conservative and Mowat a Liberal. What is interesting is this. Macdonald, of course, was the driving force behind creating Canada in the first place and envisioned a nation with a strong central government, and the provinces subservient to the federal government. Mowat was the polar opposite and clashed with Macdonald on several issues. Two of these were the boundaries of Ontario and the theory of "disallowance", whereby the federal parliament could disallow any provincial statute it didn't like. Mowat nearly pulled Ontario out of Confederation on a couple of occasions, most notable over the dispute over the boundary of Ontario and the newly-created province of Manitoba. Both provinces actually put their respective police forces in the territory in order to stake its claim. It was up to Macdonald and the federal government to mediate an agreement between the two.
Newfoundland stubbornly resisted attempts to persuade it to join Confederation. It applied for and achieved "Dominion" status within the British Empire in 1907. As a dominion, Newfoundland participated in World War One independent of Canadian forces, and its regiment, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, achieved international fame for its heroic sacrifice at the battle of Beaumont-Hamel. Dominion status remained until 1933, when severe economic hardships led the British to suspend dominion status and rule Newfoundland with a "Commission Government" for 15 years, through World War Two, effectively returning Newfoundland to colonial status. After the war, the British were anxious to solve the Newfoundland situation and pushed for a union with Canada. It took two referenda, both closely contested, before Newfoundland was welcomed into Confederation as Canada's tenth province in 1949, largely due to the tireless work of the pro-Confederation leader Joey Smallwood. To this day, many Newfoundlanders mourn the situation. July 1st, Canada's national holiday, is commemorated in Newfoundland as the day it mourns and honours the sacrifice of its native sons at Beaumont-Hamel.
Quebec is the province best known for being less-than-enthusiastic about membership in Confederation. It is linguistically and culturally so different from the other provinces that it has continuously felt threatened by the larger, more populous, economically more powerful, English-speaking entities of North America. Prior to the 1960's, Quebec was a rather backward province. It was heavily rural and agricultural, completely under the influence of the Catholic church, and undeniably inward-looking. Despite having Canada's only major city, Montreal, it never felt part of Canada. Montreal itself was Canada's economic and cultural powerhouse, but it was the largely Anglo-Scottish sector which controlled this. A large Jewish population actively developed its own cultural entity. The French-speaking population of Montreal was completely marginalized, effectively slaves in its own land.
That all changed with the Quiet Revolution in the 1960's. As Quebec's economy grew, a restlessness within its French majority asserted itself. French culture was celebrated. The influence of the Catholic church in areas like education and health care waned after the corrupt administration of Maurice Duplessis ended. Intellectually and politically, Quebec made more demands to safeguard its culture and institutions, and became more active at both the provincial and federal levels. One of the leading figures of this time was the journalist Rene Levesque, a former Liberal cabinet minister, who became increasingly frustrated at the slow pace of change and what he and his followers saw as a type of betrayal at the federal lever by Quebecers like Jean Marchand, Gerard Pelletier and, most notably, Pierre Trudeau. What followed was, effectively, close to 40 years of a mostly peaceful civil war for the soul of Quebec and its position within Canada. As we all know, on two occasions, referenda were held on the question of Quebec's continuing place in Canada. On both occasions, the federalist side won narrow victories over the sovereignist/independentist side. The debate continues to this day.
And then, there's Alberta. This province, carved out of the NorthWest Territories in 1905, has had a very intense love-hate relationship with Canada. Largely settled by American and East European farmers in the early 20th century, when the federal government was anxious to get people into those largely empty lands ( First Nations peoples notwithstanding ) in order to discourage talk of annexation to the United States, Alberta has always considered itself the swaggering cowboy province. None of that mattered very much until two things happened. Oil was discovered in 1947: lots of it, and Alberta suddenly became very wealthy because of it. And the second thing was a population increase that suddenly gave this province a platform on which to advance its ideas.
Alberta has always been a very conservative province, largely because of its agrarian roots. But the cowboy mentality, however artificial it may be, is a large part of this grassroots conservatism. Huge clashes occur between Alberta and the federal government because of this ideology. But, by far the biggest driver of Albertan discontent with Confederation, is with oil and other natural resources and who actually controls them. In the 1970's, bitter disputes over oil prices led to political conflict between Alberta's premier, Peter Lougheed, and the federal prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, that opened wounds felt today. In the 1973 international oil crisis, the dispute reached its zenith, with angry Albertans sporting bumper stickers on their cars that read "Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark." Hardly the spirit of national unity.
To this day, the political and economic divide between Alberta and the federal government festers.When the largely Alberta-supported Conservative government of Stephen Harper took power in Ottawa in 2006, Alberta rejoiced that, finally, they had achieved power in Canada and would set the national agenda. That lasted until 2015, when the Liberals under Justin Trudeau came to power, largely based on eastern and urban support.
Thus, the experiment has endured. It has been difficult, to say the least, and underscores the notion that Canada has been far from a peaceful place. But the experiment goes on. Several hypotheses have come and gone, several versions of Canada have emerged, only to be supplanted by another iteration. Surely, some kind of outcome, some thesis of Canada will be achieved in the future ?
More about this in another blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment