So in a pinch, the prime minister will just find a way to ‘get around’ the provinces. Thus his response to a question recently, when asked how he would handle the provincial premiers who were angrily urging him to respect provincial jurisdictions.We shouldn't be surprised. For prime minister, Canadians elected a man who didn't much like the country he was chosen to serve. It was too Anglo, there were too many men in government — at one stage, there were even too many Albertans in government. To Mr. Trudeau, it wasn't even a proper country. As he told the New York Times, Canada was a post-national state — as though this were something new and enviable that could only bless the world. Identity was to be encouraged in all peoples except among Canadians. After all... Canadians, who are they, anyway? There was 'no core identity, no mainstream.' No surprise either, perhaps: In 2021 Statistics Canada reported that a quarter of Canadians were immigrants — 'more than at any time since Confederation.' One doesn't have to be against immigration to acknowledge that if a mainstream core identity is a good thing, it takes time to develop it. Pack in 400,000 immigrants a year, many of whom don't speak either official language well and who therefore gravitate to linguistic ghettoes and national identity languishes. Was this really unforeseen in the PMO?But perhaps core identity is not a good thing in the prime minister's world. It would imply respect and acquiescence for the laws and traditions of Canada. And sadly for him, the constitutional protections established in 1867 to protect regional interests and preserve personal freedoms, do stand in the way of the unrestrained exercise of power that he manifestly appears to seek.He sees such niceties as merely outmoded and surely unnecessary obstacles to visionary men of action, such as he appears to aspire to be remembered as. His will, inscrutable to many, would be recognized as a thing of ineffable beauty, if people could only understand... China was the model; those people know how to get things done, as he assured an audience of women in 2013.In other words, and not to belabour the point, the prime minister not only does not like Canada but in his handling of public affairs, shows no admiration or respect for the country's laws and constitution, or even the right to criticize his government. To some degree we sympathize. When the height of his accomplishment before politics was to teach drama part time at a posh girl's school, it is perhaps asking a lot that he instinctively recognize the genius of people such as Sir John A Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier, who in their day were respected by American presidents, British prime ministers and could look to other great uniters of their peoples of the stature of Bismarck or Garibaldi in the eye. How could he know?Yet Macdonald, Cartier and the other founding fathers did put together a Constitution that has made Canada the fourth-longest continuously operating political entity in the world, after Iceland, Great Britain and the United States of America. Older countries there are, but France is into its Fifth Republic, Germany on its third political order in a hundred years and the presently constituted government of the world giants India and China date from 1947 and 1949 respectively. Meanwhile, under its 1867 Constitution, Canada has been passing the mace of government peacefully from one hand to another every four years or so, after peaceful elections for nearly 157 years.That is actually an amazing tribute to the work of mid-19th century Canadians. It deserves to be handled with care.One of the strengths of this Constitution was a clear division of power between Ottawa and the provinces. Ottawa looked after foreign and indigenous affairs and the tiny army Canada then possessed. The provinces handled education, health, the environment and energy...But if you imagine yourself to be in possession of superior will and intellect, (guided by what, one dreads to think,) such division among rules, laws and customs are an impediment to action. If you want to ruin the western economy for example, just do it. Just make a law, that is. If you know the law is unconstitutional — as the Supreme Court of Canada declared Bill C-69, the no-pipelines law to be — do it anyway. By the time the courts sort it out, you'll have made investors so scared to put their money out West, that you'll have accomplished your goal. Want a net-zero grid? Sure it's not in your lane (as that wretched Danielle Smith keeps saying) but same thing, do it, let them challenge it but meanwhile have your way. (Can't push her around like a 2015 woman Cabinet appointee.)And so on.We do of course get the governments we deserve and if Canadians elect a prime minister who has no respect for any part of the Constitution that doesn't serve his purposes, what does that make Canadians?Nevertheless, it should be clear now. Mr. Trudeau tends to be at his most candid when speaking with no teleprompter and this was just such a case.How will you handle the premiers sir, when they object on constitutional grounds?The hell with the Constitution: "Just go around them." 18 months to go, ladies and gentlemen. Then it's election time.
So in a pinch, the prime minister will just find a way to ‘get around’ the provinces. Thus his response to a question recently, when asked how he would handle the provincial premiers who were angrily urging him to respect provincial jurisdictions.We shouldn't be surprised. For prime minister, Canadians elected a man who didn't much like the country he was chosen to serve. It was too Anglo, there were too many men in government — at one stage, there were even too many Albertans in government. To Mr. Trudeau, it wasn't even a proper country. As he told the New York Times, Canada was a post-national state — as though this were something new and enviable that could only bless the world. Identity was to be encouraged in all peoples except among Canadians. After all... Canadians, who are they, anyway? There was 'no core identity, no mainstream.' No surprise either, perhaps: In 2021 Statistics Canada reported that a quarter of Canadians were immigrants — 'more than at any time since Confederation.' One doesn't have to be against immigration to acknowledge that if a mainstream core identity is a good thing, it takes time to develop it. Pack in 400,000 immigrants a year, many of whom don't speak either official language well and who therefore gravitate to linguistic ghettoes and national identity languishes. Was this really unforeseen in the PMO?But perhaps core identity is not a good thing in the prime minister's world. It would imply respect and acquiescence for the laws and traditions of Canada. And sadly for him, the constitutional protections established in 1867 to protect regional interests and preserve personal freedoms, do stand in the way of the unrestrained exercise of power that he manifestly appears to seek.He sees such niceties as merely outmoded and surely unnecessary obstacles to visionary men of action, such as he appears to aspire to be remembered as. His will, inscrutable to many, would be recognized as a thing of ineffable beauty, if people could only understand... China was the model; those people know how to get things done, as he assured an audience of women in 2013.In other words, and not to belabour the point, the prime minister not only does not like Canada but in his handling of public affairs, shows no admiration or respect for the country's laws and constitution, or even the right to criticize his government. To some degree we sympathize. When the height of his accomplishment before politics was to teach drama part time at a posh girl's school, it is perhaps asking a lot that he instinctively recognize the genius of people such as Sir John A Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier, who in their day were respected by American presidents, British prime ministers and could look to other great uniters of their peoples of the stature of Bismarck or Garibaldi in the eye. How could he know?Yet Macdonald, Cartier and the other founding fathers did put together a Constitution that has made Canada the fourth-longest continuously operating political entity in the world, after Iceland, Great Britain and the United States of America. Older countries there are, but France is into its Fifth Republic, Germany on its third political order in a hundred years and the presently constituted government of the world giants India and China date from 1947 and 1949 respectively. Meanwhile, under its 1867 Constitution, Canada has been passing the mace of government peacefully from one hand to another every four years or so, after peaceful elections for nearly 157 years.That is actually an amazing tribute to the work of mid-19th century Canadians. It deserves to be handled with care.One of the strengths of this Constitution was a clear division of power between Ottawa and the provinces. Ottawa looked after foreign and indigenous affairs and the tiny army Canada then possessed. The provinces handled education, health, the environment and energy...But if you imagine yourself to be in possession of superior will and intellect, (guided by what, one dreads to think,) such division among rules, laws and customs are an impediment to action. If you want to ruin the western economy for example, just do it. Just make a law, that is. If you know the law is unconstitutional — as the Supreme Court of Canada declared Bill C-69, the no-pipelines law to be — do it anyway. By the time the courts sort it out, you'll have made investors so scared to put their money out West, that you'll have accomplished your goal. Want a net-zero grid? Sure it's not in your lane (as that wretched Danielle Smith keeps saying) but same thing, do it, let them challenge it but meanwhile have your way. (Can't push her around like a 2015 woman Cabinet appointee.)And so on.We do of course get the governments we deserve and if Canadians elect a prime minister who has no respect for any part of the Constitution that doesn't serve his purposes, what does that make Canadians?Nevertheless, it should be clear now. Mr. Trudeau tends to be at his most candid when speaking with no teleprompter and this was just such a case.How will you handle the premiers sir, when they object on constitutional grounds?The hell with the Constitution: "Just go around them." 18 months to go, ladies and gentlemen. Then it's election time.
