Year after year, in recent times, Canada has topped the list, or come close to it, as the best place in the world to live. This year, according to some pollsters, we ranked second. A bit of a slip, but still, something to celebrate. It is also something to protect and I fear we are not doing that.
For all the problems Canada faces, protecting our economy, dealing with the realities of climate change, safeguarding our standard of living, and protecting the vulnerable, we stand little chance of achieving significant progress while we continually fight with each other.
While divisions in Canada have existed almost since our beginning, never, in my view, have they been as toxic or potentially dangerous to our national existence as they are today. We are pitting east against west, English Canada against French Canada and Indigenous Canadians against non-Indigenous Canadians in ways we never have before.
Let’s start with Western Canada. They are not crybabies as many Eastern politicians and pundits would have us believe. As resource-rich provinces, they are facing serious economic challenges due primarily to climate change and the global necessity to significantly reduce our carbon footprint. They have every right to be concerned for their future.
In Glasgow this week at the COP26 Conference, Canada pledged to reduce emissions to 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. That is just eight years from now.
That is all well and good and probably largely necessary. Clearly, they have a plan for that. So, what is their plan for Western Canada, which will be primarily affected by this? Not much so far.
Indeed, there are serious signs that our federal government virtually ignores Western Canada as it placates Quebec. With the exception of British Columbia, it has weakened Western Canada’s role in the halls of power in Ottawa at a time when those provinces need the most attention. Even Lloyd Axworthy, a high profile Liberal and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs has criticized the Trudeau government for this. Pundit Rex Murphy puts it more succinctly. He believes how the Liberals are treating the West is “inexcusable”.
If the Trudeau government really cares about national unity, it needs to visibly work with Western Canada NOW, particularly the prairie provinces, to develop long-range transitional strategies for green-energy projects, innovative manufacturing initiatives, and centres of excellence for research and development particularly in the areas of agriculture and health care. If they can plan now for the elimination of fossil fuels, they can also plan now for those parts of our country who will be most affected by its consequences.
Why this is not happening at the moment, when the West is facing serious difficulties, is a bit of a mystery. Mind you, all three prairie provinces currently have Conservative governments. A coincidence do you think?
I also find it somewhat Ironic that it is a Conservative, Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison, newly appointed to the labour portfolio in Erin O’Toole’s shadow cabinet, who is at this moment in Calgary working with people there to find solutions for economic growth and diversified jobs.
In the meantime, the Province of Quebec appears to be doing very well by the federal government and, in fairness, by most if not all federal politicians of all stripes. Not one of them spoke up when Quebec passed legislation that directly discriminated against some people of faith. This is likely unconstitutional and certainly would not have been tolerated in any other part of Canada.
More recently the premier of Quebec has served notice that he intends to unilaterally amend Canada’s 1867 Constitution Act to declare Quebec a nation and make French the only official language of the Quebec nation. The Trudeau government seems to think that is okay.
Also, recently, an independent commission has recommended to the federal government a redistribution of seats in Canada’s Parliament that would result in the reduction of one seat for Quebec. The Bloc Québécois says this cannot happen because as a “nation” Quebec cannot lose a seat in Parliament. My bet? In spite of fairness to the rest of Canada, Quebec will keep that seat and potentially get more.
It seems all too clear that the Trudeau government caters to Quebec more than it does to other provinces. This does not bode well for Canadian unity. Some of that is necessary. Much of it is not.
For instance, Canada has recently signed an agreement with Moderna to build a “state of the art” mRNA vaccine production facility. All signs point to this being built in Quebec. The announcement was made in Montreal. But Calgary was also a qualified candidate for a facility of this type that would result in huge economic benefits to that part of Canada. That is where the greatest need is and, so far, they have been ignored.
There is no doubt that there are distinct societies within Canada. We are a diversified country. But there is only one nation and that is Canada, not Quebec, and sorry Premier Moe, in spite of your challenges, not Saskatchewan. While we may have regional differences, we all have equal rights as Canadians. One of those is to be able to speak either or both of Canada’s official languages in any part of the country and to be understood and served. Another is the right to thrive equally with all Canadians, no matter where you live or your cultural background.
There are no “special” Canadians and there are no Canadians—whether they be Indigenous, English-speaking, French-speaking or from other cultures—who deserve less than any other Canadian. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to succeed and to reap the benefits of a great country and, indeed, to contribute to its greatness.
But we are living now in a time of rapid change and, to some degree, rebellion. We must be careful not to allow that to accelerate divisiveness, disagreement, misbehaviour, and upheaval within our borders. Even former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, in his latest book, has indicated his concern about that.
Many, I know, will shrug their shoulders and believe that Canadian unity is not an issue. I believe it is and a serious one. One that will affect us here at home and also on the world stage.
We succeed when we are united, not when we are divided. And we need people in power who are less concerned about being elected than they are about a united Canada with equal opportunities and resources for everyone. That should be a high priority for any federal government. There is still a lot of work to do in that regard.
A united Canada. That is the great challenge for all Canadians.
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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Mr. Mackenzie; I would point out that E O’T is having difficulties uniting his own party – “Unite the Right” has had its struggles. Remember all the writing about the Liberals kicking out of caucus 2 of their own?
We need all parties to step up to the responsibilities of climate change, along with a professional focus on COVID. COVID is not over. That does not mean there should not be debate on any of these issues.
PS. Looking forward to learning who the provincial Conservatives wish me to distain during this upcoming campaign season, who we want “locked up” or who is on the “gravy train” (I am guessing we will be whipped up to distain any who supposedly don’t love American freedom over Canadian civic responsibility).
Hear, hear Trisha!
As Hugh points out, Canada is considered the best or one of the best countries on the planet in which to live. Many global economic, environmental and social statistical indicators support this.
The place is certainly not perfect, there’s no place that is. But it sure is a comparatively wonderful place in which to live. Let’s stop the partisan, political “armchair” whining about all that’s wrong with Canada and the current government.
Let’s keep working together to learn as much as we can from responsible, reliable and analytically balanced sources of information and make some INFORMED choices about how we can continue to help keep Canada at the top of the list. ( NOT from most social media sources)
As for leadership in reducing the longstanding divisions within the country, Trudeau’s mission from the start has been to work hard at bringing diverse perspectives and economic realities towards progress at making Canada a better place.
The previous Harper government had almost no interest and few initiatives for getting the premiers together for that goal.
Is this an easy task for Trudeau in the face of close to U.S. style political posturing from some premiers, especially that of Alberta? No. Is it perfect? No, However it IS not only “on his radar” it’s a key goal of the current government.
One recent case in point, is his success at having most premiers sign on for federal $10 a day daycare…even Conservative premiers. Alberta just signed on while making some foolish, negative, partisan comments about it, which were misleading and inaccurate.
Now the PM is working to get Conservative government of Ontario signed on. Such a challenging task that requires particular negotiation points.
How well would you do if you were PM at bringing the country as together as it possibly can be considering the different views and economic realities? There are of course, vulnerable groups and individuals who need more help and services who may not feel the big picture of Canada being one of the best places to live. We need to work at making this reality for all Canadians.
Most people have no idea at the work, initiatives and negotiations that go on behind the scenes and know only the provocative headlines of media with a goal of selling inflammatory news. It’s too bad many people base their political decisions and conversational talking points on limited information or misinformation.
Unity can’t be forced. Unity is built on trust, not legislation.
Think about it
Mr. Mackenzie, surely you must be able to predict some of my comments as well. Just a reminder, that Conservative Brian Mulroney sold Connaught lab in Toronto, Ontario, leaving us without vaccine production for COVID. Seems that any foresight for the future need of this lab was not on the Conservative agenda. Wonder which provincial party was governing in Ontario at that time? Wasn’t Mulroney from a Conservative riding in Quebec (?Charlebois). Looking for unity, also partisanship?
Anyone, please correct any of my assumptions.
Mr. Mackenzie; the commentary and your viewpoint is very predictable.
The move towards unity goes in a few different directions.
Imagine the progress that may be made by Provincial governments towards environmental issues (here, think DF and highway development across farmland , antagonism to carbon tax, etc.). Imagine the possible progress that could be made if federal Conservatives all agreed that climate change was a reality and significant issue.
Then, we could do with less from the uncredible (my descriptor) Conrad Black crying “too much” from the climate change protestors at the recent summit, written during the same week as BC mudslides. We continue to have reminders with BC wildfires, melting in our artic north and raising sea levels.
The east-west tensions have indeed existed for a long period of time (my goodness, it was part of Grade 13 Canadian History curriculum in the late 1960’s). I would argue these relations are Not at their worst right now. Political will provincially and federally for a national strategy on climate change, resource use, and renewable energy is obvious. Don’t imagine that the for-profit industry is the preferable governing model for change.
Perhaps re-publishing some of Hugh Holland’s commentaries on energy, gas emissions, would again be useful information for us all. Just a thought.
This is a sorry time for our once great country where we all could stand and say with pride I AM CANADIAN unfortunately that does not seem to be true anymore. The vaccine demands have separated a lot of people but that is small potatoes compared to the fossil fuel debate, The environmentalists on one hand want all oil production in the west stopped completely but they just don’t seem to think that we would still have to buy oil from some other country. That makes no sense at all to anyone that even thinks a bit about it. Even if we all drove E V ‘s and heated our home with heat pumps or whatever we would still need oil and grease to keep things going. We need to get the oil industry in Alberta going again as soon as possible and get a pipe line to the east coast and west coast so we can sell oil to the world. And the world needs it or they will be still burning coal 100 years from now it’s still the cheapest way to generate power and most counties can not afford anything else. I am not worried about global warming maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t see anything we do stopping it after all if it had not started getting warmer sometime back in history we would still be under 10 or 20 feet of ice, That being said I think we should be doing whatever we can to stop pollution and if that slows down global warming it’s a good thing. But let not throw the country into bankruptcy just to try and make the rest of the world think we are doing something great while they just keep doing the same old things.
Trudeau’s arrogant contempt for and dismissal of Alberta has been well documented over the years. His 2010 interview on “Les Francs-tireurs” is an example. And then there was the time that he “forgot” to name Alberta when he listed all the provinces during his Canada 150 speech. The latest example was his demotion of Seamus O’Regan, who had the audacity to publicly voice support for Alberta and express his desire to work with them on the energy file. That transgression cost O’Regan his job as natural resources minister. Trudeau and his radical far left minister Stephen Guilbeault will continue to work against the good people of Alberta. There will eventually be a breaking point for Albertans, it’s just a matter of how long until they decide they’ve had enough. On the bright side, maybe some day I’ll be able to go see a NFL expansion Calgary Stampeders play the Green Bay Packers.
Well said Hugh. I agree totally. United we stand divided we fall.
There seems to be no political strategy, other than appeasement to those that scream the loudest.
Logic and balancing the books and living within our means and as country seems to have gone to the wayside.
Wishing all the best
Michael A Stickland
Good observations Hugh.
We need legislation permitting a National Energy and resource corridor from Pacific to Atlantic including the Atlantic Maritime Provinces so every province could connect to this shipping corridor and get their natural resources to world markets. Hydro, fosil fuels, coal and other goods need a convenient and safe facility to enable two way traffic to world markets. Canada did it with the transcontinental railways and pipelines and highways and we Can do it again with ease.
The present situation where one or two Priovincess refuse access to tide water and world markets for their land locked neighbour’s resources for idealogical reasons is
truly unacceptable and would not be tollerated in any serious country with serious leadership.
This issue must be solved if necessary by forceful legislation which I understand is quite doable.
Canada needs cash and lots of it today as a result of recent Federal profligacy. Canada has within her Provinces huge resources which if they were sold on world markets would provide this cash!
The recent conference in Scotland at which the entire world was to stand up and pledge solidarity proved to be a dud. The big polluters refused to cooperate. China, the biggest culprit refused to cooperate and announced that they believed each country should act (or not) independently to suit their own lights. India and others pledged nothing.
Only a few useful idiots including Canada pretended to do something important. Most of the countries are only looking for transfers of cash from supposedly rich developed countries. Like Canada, many of whose citizens have no clean drinking water. Canada , which is arguably broke.
There was thinly veiled disappointment all-round. A total waste of time. Canada embarrassed itself by flying the largest delegation by far to this waste of time pow-wow.
A pitiful performance the cost of which to Federal taxpayers will never be known but whatever the cost it was a toatal waste and resulted in massive emmissions of co2 both from the many air craft used to get them all there and back and from the delegates them selves . Had they stayed home we would all be richer and breathing fresher air!
We need better and much less governance.
I think I detect an awakening in Canada which recognizes that we are being led down the garden path to a place where our country should not be going. I hope so. The present course is leading to disaster.