I am not a federalist
It is true. I come from Quebec and I am not a federalist. But it is not what you think. I just do not believe in provinces.
Federalism is the philosophy of a split level of government between the federation and the provinces. Nationalists in Quebec and decentralists in the rest of the country want the federal government to be weakened to the point that Canada becomes a loose union of semi-independent provinces, more like the philosophy behind US and Australian states than that of the UK.
Provincial governments cause more problems and duplication then they are worth. A strong federal government with strong municipal governments and no tax-wasting provincial governments in between would be ideal. Having overlapping issues like infrastructure, transit, and healthcare bounced around like hot potatoes between levels of government while provinces and the feds fight over resource revenues does not benefit anyone.
We should not be in a situation where Quebeckers are demanding "reasonable accommodation" for its immigrants while insisting on being on a separate but distinct nation within Canada. We should not have Alberta paying off its deficit and debt and sending cash bonuses to all its citizens on the backs of high oil prices paid by people throughout the rest of the country. Newfoundland and Labrador should not be able to hold Canada hostage over non-renewable resource revenue, as if such revenue is somehow not real. Ontario should not be complaining that its booming economy is helping other parts of the country pay for its services by virtue of being a manufacturing-based have province. A citizen of one province should be assured health care coverage in another province when they travel, without having to file after or pay the difference between what their province will pay and what the province they are in will charge.
The arbitrary-line regionalism that is Canada must end. Canada is one country, not ten, and should be working as one country, not ten. We are not a country of two have and eight have-not provinces: we are a have country. Our competition is other countries, not other Canadians. Provinces in their self-righteous and endless demands from the federal government and from other provinces have made themselves redundant and counter-productive to Canada as a whole. They serve no purpose.
Municipal governments today exist as creatures of the province, not as independent governing bodies, yet they are responsible for delivering many of the federally funded and provincially managed services. Cut out the middle man. Solve the redundancy of municipal and regional governments, and empower the compromise local governments as masters of their own destiny instead of creatures of another level.
With municipal and federal as our only two levels of government, all politics will truly be local once again, and inter-provincial divisions will be a thing of the past.
I am not crazy enough to believe this will ever actually happen, and not only because it would require some serious constitutional amendments. But with the current governing philosophy by both Harper and his immediate predecessor in the Liberal party being decentralisation and empowering of provincial governments, the alternative must be put on the table.
Posted at 11:19 on November 21, 2007