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The Flat Rock's avatar

Trudeau has always been an accident looking for a place to happen. His narcissism doesn't allow him to see reality. Couldn't pick a worse person for a Canadian PM or burger flipper.

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werpor's avatar

It’s passing strange where the people are so unfamiliar with their constitution they argue for any shenanigans the Liberal party gets up to as being entirely within the purview of the prime minister. I have written here and elsewhere that Canada is a federation not a confederation despite that the association affirmed in 1867 has been called Confederation since then. One has the impression that the premiers of Canada’s provinces are not familiar with Canada’s constitution.

I have also written that it was the elite in what today corresponds with modern southern Quebec that wanted Canada to be a federation. Jurisdictions in a federation have more autonomy than would be the case in a confederation.

The elites in Canada East hated that Great Britain governed Canada after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763. Through this treaty, France ceded all of New France to Great Britain (except Louisiana.) New France was the most successful of the Old World countries endeavours in North America up until the American Revolution. New France controlled the vast continental interior of North America. …Until the American Revolution after which Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States on September 3, 1783.

This of course made Lower Canada a poorer place. The next blow to Lower Canada’s fortunes was the construction of the Erie Canal. Built between 1817 and 1825, the Erie Canal traversed 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo. The canal enabled traders and settlers to bypass the St Lawrence lowlands further reducing incomes in Lower Canada.

The elites in Canada East did not want to be annexed by the United States. So they stuck with being loosely governed by Great Britain. It was foreseen that the rapidly expanding United States would no doubt annex Canada’s territories in the west unless something was done to prevent it.

There was a small window of opportunity; the United States was engaged in their Civil War and was distracted by it. The solution was seen as necessary; a railroad from the Pacific to the Atlantic! But meant a more formal relationship within what remained of British North America. If Canada East was going to resist being a small island surrounded by the United States something had to be done.

A railroad would secure east west trade for Lower Canada most definitely; railroads were a tremendously expensive capital project. Only a nation of substance had the required collateral. After much back and forth between Quebec City and London, Canada was born. The elites in Quebec discovered their sovereignty was diluted even further.

Investors are one thing, but railroads don’t get built without know how, or manpower. The Scots supplied the know how, and the Irish supplied the man power. In fact the English were not a factor as regards immigration. But blaming the Anglos became a meme in Quebec continuing still in Quebec.

In 1867 Canada became a federation. Which is a different legal entity than a confederation. Over time the balance of power in Canada changed, especially with the admission of the western provinces. Pierre Trudeau, in essence representing the powerful elite in Quebec, rather than Canadas other provinces, needed an instrument of some kind to restore French Quebec power in Canada.

So a great hullabaloo was raised in the land. People across Canada thought it about time Canadas constitution rested in Ottawa rather than in London. This was the pretext; the real aim, was the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Quebec has yet to sign the repatriated constitution as was promised. But Pierre Trudeau wasted no time in using the Charter to remake Canada. Insisting the everyone in Canada should be bilingual if they expected to participate in running the country henceforth was celebrated across the land. The poor fools outside of Quebec had no idea that they had agreed to a constitutional amendment, de facto, when the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was made the cornerstone of restoring French power in Canada.

However given that Canada is a federation the provinces have rights only Quebec had made use of up until now. Of course Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party will do everything possible to resist the provinces asserting their constitutional rights; but those rights were imbedded in the original structure at Confederation because at the time a federation suited the aims of what became Quebec.

Of course Justin Trudeau has continued the politics of division began especially by his father Pierre Trudeau. The provinces in concert have agency they have yet to thoroughly explore or exploit.

The premiers ought make the restoration of Parliament their first order of business. The prime minister is one man. Canadas future should not be decided by the prime minister. He has been appropriating power he does not rightfully have. He is not a president or a king.

If Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, decided to build a deep water port on Hudson’s Bay and ship their resources to buyers elsewhere in the world; then do it. Instead of typically bending a knee to some New World Order initiative — crafted elsewhere — Canadians’ have a means of resisting those who would off shore Canadas sovereignty.

The 1982 amendments to th Constitution Act 1867, explicitly recognized provinces’ and territories’ constitutional rights to manage their own non-renewable natural resources, forestry resources, and electrical energy. This includes the power to levy mining taxes and royalties.

I’d guess that certain powers over resource development are enjoyed by Quebec, as a precedent, that the other provinces and the territories are denied.

Concluding; the provinces have been intentionally divided against one another by certain Prime Ministers. The respective premiers should meet and hammer out an agreement of mutually agreed upon strategies they have in common which they are constitutionally empowered to deploy.

Prime Minister Trudeau has chosen to assume a dictatorial role he is not entitled to assume. The provincial premiers represent the people whom elect them and cow towing to the Prime Minister the way they have is an abdication of their responsibilities. Read the Constitution.

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