Left unspoken here (and I know Andrew Potter is well aware of this) is the idea, dominant in the quasi-revolutionary years of 2015-2021, that “doing what we’ve been trying to do for the past 157 years — making Canadians, out of those who are already here along with the hundreds of thousands of newcomers who are arriving every year” is actively a bad thing. That industrial modernity is a bad thing, that tribalism and mysticism (“knowledges”) are to be lauded. Culminating in the low point of Canada Day 2020-21 where there was a lot of serious social pressure to not do any Canada Day celebrations, at least in the big non-Alberta cities.
The focus wasn’t on repairing, it was on tearing down. To be replaced by … something? Post-Canada, or pre-Canada?
American writer Noah Smith wrote something good this weekend: the very success of our industrial modernity has led us to forget how close we always skate to being reduced to the state of wild animals and starvation. Our institutions need to be celebrated and built up, constantly.
Blaming the use of the notwithstanding clause for a decline in respect for the charter, the "fantastically reckless use of the notwithstanding clause by various provinces." is a lazy take on why it was used and how Canadians feel about it. The complete dismantling of any sort of charter rights by the federal government and federal courts have made it clear why the charter is essentially meaningless, which is summed up in the first paragraph of it:
"The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."
Reasonable limits as prescribed by law and demonstrably justified made it DOA, it just took the worst government in our history, supported by an activist court system to make it plain.
Promoting a government institution or policy as a form of identity condemns the country to ossification. Institutions must evolve over time and identity brings too much emotional baggage. .
More tension between Parliament and the Courts would be healthy because it would encourage debate, caution and accountability. "The courts made me do it" is a horrible premise for democracy. The NWC doesn't go far enough.
Canada suffers from false identity. It may be an officially bilingual country but it is not a bilingual country. True bilingualism is confined to a few areas such as parts of NB and the Island of Montreal. Contrived bilingualism drags down the federal government by overvaluing a skill to the detriment of competence. The quality of the political and bureaucrat class would be much higher if the talent pool weren't artificially limited by a fake requirement to speak a language concentrated to a few areas of the country and with minimal global significance.
Canada has only one founding nation..... Britain. All institutions are derived from there. If anything, the unofficial other founding nation is the USA as Canada's institutions drift increasingly toward those of its southern neighbor (ex. fixed election dates, a Charter of Rights, centralization towards the PMO).
Multiculturalism is a sham that mostly benefits political organizers. Humans are social. Over time they interact and cross pollinate and (gasp) assimilate. Incentivized non-integration (aka multiculturalism) promotes division and discourages the collaboration and recombination that drive evolution and innovation.
Protectionism is another form of false identity. It is difficult to take pride in a company (ex. Air Canada) or industry (ex. dairy) that would almost certainly fail without their government franchise.
I realize that I have torn down Canadian identity without offering solutions. That is the solution. Canada has plenty of geographic, resource and talent advantages to succeed if the institutions would get out of the way.
What in God's name is wrong with Potter in saying that the NWC is making the Charter a "dead-letter"? The NWC is PART OF THE CHARTER; that means that he (and the various other critics of the NWC) is criticizing the use of the Charter itself.
Canada's greatest strength is that its inception was based on the accommodation of demographic differences. In the 19th century, the biggest divides were between the English and the French and between the Protestants against the Catholics. We built a country that accommodated those differences and provided us with both English Protestant and French Catholic prime ministers within our first 27 years.
That's why live-and-let-live multiculturalism has come more easily to us than other nations, despite occasional racial, ethnic, and religious flareups. We are a country that works hard to be comfortable with difference and to benefit from sharing our experiences. It also accounts for why we have led the way, legislatively, on human rights, especially relative to our neighbour to the south.
The brokenness people talk about isn't about the country. It's about the state into which our current government has let our institutions fall, thanks to its regressive intersectional politics that divide us into eternal oppressor/oppressed categories based on race, gender and other 'identities'. See also its performative nation-bashing, exemplified by its immediate hysteria and five-month global flag lowering over still unsubstantiated rumours of "unmarked graves". This government, despite calling itself "Liberal", has led a performative frontal assault on our core strength: a commitment to open the liberal values of live-and-let-live accommodation.
Andrew, any democratic country will always need work by its citizens to continue its evolution towards the future, and like most things in life there is an ebb and flow of efforts, ideas and hopefully progress.
Gurney and Gerson's lament about the decline in "governing competency" at all levels is probably the most obvious point for focus for effort and improvement. This decline in skills spans more than the past decade and as it impacts the ability for the people in the system, who seem to struggle to make concrete decisions/recommendations to create common sense, day to day choices,at anything above a go/no go checklist level at the front counter, without getting tripped up with correctness, image and politics.
However, it is bent, not broken, and can be fixed if enough of us care to do so.
A country should be held together by shared values and it’s symbols should represent those values. When you have a PM that declares the country has no values the very foundation of the country is being removed. It may be true that he has no values, but Canada did have values and they were laid out in our constitution. Peace, order and good government were once accepted as bedrock Canadian principles. With our current regime we have none of the cornerstone values of the country left.
I have to disagree with the author on the point of the provinces (mainly Quebec) using the notwithstanding clause as the main reason for the demise of the charter. It has more to do with the attitude of the courts, specifically the Supreme Court.
On April 17, 2002, the 20th anniversary of the Charter, then Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. gave a speech in which she said
"While the Charter is no longer in its infancy, these are still early years in its life. The Charter is still a work in progress, an unfinished project. Perhaps, it will always be. Future generations will have a great role to play in shaping it. To borrow Viscount Sankey's expression, the Charter is very much a living tree. I believe it was Chou En-lai who, when asked whether he thought the French Revolution had been a good idea, replied "It is too soon to tell". In many ways, then, it may simply be too early to pass judgment on the Charter. "
Let us ignore the fact that she quoted one of the early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party in her justification of the living tree doctrine, what this means in practice is there is no charter except what the court of the day decides it to be. That's why there is an increased use of the notwithstanding clause, because there is also an increase in charter challenges, mainly due to poorly written legislation.
This will be a difficult situation to rectify without unity across the country and that will not happen overnight, especially given the divisiveness of the identity-based politics inhabiting Ottawa.
This country needs reform but it is not broken. We have too many underlying strengths. In the mid '90's, Canada was voted as having the best quality of life in the world. We have declined from that to be sure but a government that focuses on the economy, defense, and justice will fix most of that.
Canadians like saying they love Canada or at least they used to. Unfortunately, at the first occasion, they’ll call Albertans climate denying red necks, they’ll call Maritimers lazy, they’ll call west coasters potheads, people from Saskatchewan hicks… In other words, there is no respect, no desire to find common ground and our politicians, seeing opportunities to score cheap points never miss an opportunity to emphasize our difference instead of pointing out the things we have in common, the things that could make this country great and what holds this country together. It’s pretty hard to build a nation when everyone rows in a different direction.
Great article Peter. So refreshing to see a positive viewpoint and hopes for the future. My experience in Canada has been that both the US and Canada celebrate “winners” except that Canada - especially as represented by official Ottawa and its purchased mass media lackeys- too often has gotten into the habit of changing the second “n” into an “h” and moving it to the right of the “w” . Your article is a breath of fresh air and if that makes Canadians more like Americans, so be it! Happy Canada / Dominion Day!
I know that you will recall that T1 stripped us of our national holiday on July 1, Dominion Day - with only 14 votes in a House of Commons where no one questioned a lack of quorum.
Truthfully, that elimination of our heritage has always rankled immensely for me and I refuse to use the new name. But no matter as we have seen our country become something totally unrecognizable.
But, that is, well, kinda okay as Canada is the "first post-national state" according to T2. According to Mr. Google, "The term postnationalism refers to the critique of the concept of the nation as the central organizing principle of modern political identity and government. According to postnationalism, the category of the nation is no longer sufficient to describe the fundamentals of political identity or state government."
So, if the nation (i.e. Canada) is no longer sufficient to describe the fundamentals of political identity or state government, to me, it follows that Canada is not simply broken but non-existent. At least, according to T2. That asshole!
As for me, I am of the belief that Canada is not simply broken but is broken like Humpty Dumpty: all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Agree to a point but I truly do not think that we are at the Humpty Dumpty stage, yet.
I do think it is essential to be rid of, as in creamed in the next election, Trudeau and the Liberals.
Poilievre has work to do. Lower the total number of people coming into the country; Trudeau has ruined what has been a good immigration policy, trashed it, in fact. Please replace the narrative that never celebrates what we have done in the past, the obsessive denigration of past notable people based on the practices and standards of now, proper attention to finances, the economy and on it goes. Poilievre must try to be a unifier of Canadians , the opposite of Justin Trudeau.
What kind of Prime Minister does not condemn in the strongest terms the insults and untruths on the Prime Minister responsible for the existence of Canada? .MacDonald.
I would say an ignorant, arrogant narcissist who vastly overestimates his own abilities.
I appreciate that there are external forces that affect Canada but far too much of the ‘broken ‘ is sadly the result of the Trudeau party.
Yes, celebrate Canada! We are not a total wreck…..yet. I have faith for the future but 2 of my 3 kids, all over 40, don’t.
I respectfully DO think that you are overly optimistic.
Yes, PP does have work to do. Will today's haters allow him to do it for more than a first term when he will need multiple terms to undo the damage? I doubt it strongly.
For so, so many years I worked from the premise and said to all who would listen that if I had my way we would open our borders to all who wanted to come THAT WE COULD REASONABLY ACCEPT. Please note my qualifier!
We cannot house our current population, let alone the vast number of newcomers. Quite simply, we simply don't have the capacity to absorb all the newcomers. Further, our economy is decrepit and cannot absorb / provide jobs / finance required medical care / roads / blah / blah / blah. Similarly, we have simply not cared enough to screen our newcomers and we have allowed haters, particularly Jew haters, to arrive; we do not try and tell newcomers of tolerance, etc. Hell, the government hires as an anti-racism consultant an incredibly vile racist - madness!!
The truth is, we need to slam the border really tight for a number of years just to catch up and then we can let in as many folks as we can reasonably handle, but it surely isn't the number of newcomers that we currently have.
Flags at half mast for six months for a non-existent child graveyard in Kamloops - even the local native band is distancing itself from that claim! This government has gone out of it's way to destroy Canada with it's claims about the past and the present.
Clearly, the past has some ills and sins that must be acknowledged but so does the present. On the other hand, the current governmental apparatus (federal, provincial and municipal) refuse to acknowledge those current sins. Oh, the arrogance of today's stupid leaders who think (falsely) that they are so smart!
I think that your kids have it right, Yvonne. And I am sad to say it, but it is important to recognize reality.
> The truth is, we need to slam the border really tight for a number of years just to catch up and then we can let in as many folks as we can reasonably handle, but it surely isn't the number of newcomers that we currently have.
There's a problem with that plan though... our demographics. Canadians are OLD. Canada isn't going to function well trying to hire 70 year old nurses, doctors, plumbers, teachers, school bus drivers, electricians or roofers.
This doesn't "disprove" your point about our lack of capacity to absorb our rate of immigration... but that point you make, however correct, also won't make Canadians young either. "Just have more babies" some say... good idea, except that's a solution for 2049 *at the earliest* because kids take time to grow up. And of course you've got the catch 22. People are having fewer kids and later in no small part because of high costs including (but not limited to) housing... so it's a chicken vs. egg thing.
Andrew, I said that we should admit all the folks that we can "reasonably" absorb. I can tell you quite clearly that Canada cannot handle old, unproductive people like me. Canada should simply allow old folks like me to wither and die - albeit, here in Canada - and should allow old folks from other countries to wither and die in THOSE countries. In other words, family class immigration needs to be re-thought.
Admitting someone to Canada who is, say, a construction worker (we do need those folks) is one thing; admitting his / her spouse and kids makes sense. Their parents? Nope. That worker's brother / sister who is a doctor? Absolutely.
So, the whole system needs to be re-thought but, as noted, I am generally all in favor of lots of immigration as long as we can REASONABLY absorb those who arrive.
And, putting it another way, just because someone is young doesn't make them desirable immigrants. They must be suitable on a social (i.e. not hate filled and very productive) basis or Canada should just say no.
Hi Ken. I'm concerned that even ignoring cultural/social absorption and looking only at economics, Canada is looking at a significant gap between the younger demographics we need because of our decades-long low birth rate and how many we can economically absorb. (i.e. We don't need 100 people, currently taking 5x that at 500, able to absorb 200 thus giving us options while still meeting our needs.. we need 1,000 people, currently taking in only half that at 500, but actually only able to absorb 75 ... leaving us very hosed indeed with only bad options.)
Looking only at housing costs, we need a radical reduction in housing costs... that means a LOT of building... that means a lot of builders... and that means soaring housing costs which will make our collective poverty worse.
This isn't to say that there aren't answers... it's just that they're likely *bad* answers because this is a problem we've been storing up for decades, arguably for more than 50 years. We may only have answers that involve Canada getting poorer with less social cohesion.. which makes Mr. Potter's point of "get to work" more important ... and more unpleasant for us at the same time.
The current government and it's stupid green agenda to the exclusion of all else (did I mention wet paper bag, etc.?) has dramatically reduced the ability of the country to utilize our resources. Stupid government!
Andrew, this is a problem that pretty all advanced economies are facing. Some countries - notably China, but also South Korea - seem to be well on the way to actual reduction in population due to we oldsters dying off and insufficient youngsters to compensate.
Another way to look at this is that Paul Erlich (remember him?) was wrong. There isn't a population bomb that will doom us but there sure is a required re-think of how the economy works.
From my perspective, it seems that a massive amount of our economy has been based on never ending growth. Now, we see that growth is not never ending and that it is much more important to ensure that there is stability in ongoing economic affairs. In turn, that will - presumably; who really knows? - reduce the need for immigration.
It seems to me that the ultimate reason for reduced fertility in advanced countries is that women have said that they are willing to have children but they are not willing to be baby factories and their husbands have agreed that that is a satisfactory state of affairs. The (relatively) recent history of various countries around the globe suggests that as countries get wealthier fertility declines so the world - very much including Canada - will have to adapt to that sort of economy. Of course, the current government is unable to coherently manage it's way out of a wet paper bag so they depend on immigration which has it's own very considerable downside; upside, yes, but definite downside as well.
Thanks for this, Andrew. Everything needs maintenance. When something breaks, we fix it. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth when I read articles suggesting we need to leave, quit, or find somewhere better. I do understand that some people will look at the scale of the problems and think “I can’t fix this, I need to find something that works.” I would like to see more articles that try to re-invigorate those people, make suggestions for small actions that, at scale, might move the needle. Provide some real hope and vision. Politicians with hope and vision are rare, we can’t rely on them for leadership. We can’t elect our way out of this. I think it starts with us, collectively.
We still need to identify the problems, agree that something needs fixing. So well written and researched “Canada is broken” articles are a necessity, even if they are depressing to read at times. I hope to see more of those articles too, just not with a “we’re all doomed, get out while you can” vibe.
When something breaks we fix it. Bravo! I agree that’s true in the private sector. Canada’s government sadly of late fixes a flat tires by letting the air out of the other three.
Canada’s federal government has been run by people who view much of Canada’s history and tradition as shameful if not evil. It’s like the inverse of cognitive behavioral therapy: constantly telling people their nation is bad, evil, sexist, racist, murdering, even genocidal. This also ties into their embrace of an environmentalist agenda also rooted in a pseudo religious faith that we’re all environmental sinners who must repent through a hair-shirt embrace of self-denial and flagellation. These people have also been extremely ineffective at doing *anything* other than stopping others from doing anything.
These cretins turned Canada’s 150th anniversary into sometime funereal, almost to be regretted. They flew flags at half-mast for months because of overblown and poorly substantiated allegations of undocumented mass graves at former residential schools. They allowed protests to choke Canadian cities and transportation networks for weeks or months because they sympathized with the cause, then were paralyzed for months until resorting to a freaked-out overreaction with the Trucker Convoy.
9 years is a long time to live in a country with that sort of ruling clique. If you had to live with someone that negative, you’d have moved out. If you worked at a company that dysfunctional, you’d probably quit. Get them out of power and there’s a chance that the negative mood will break, assuming the Conservatives don’t go into populist overdrive and take us through another wave of negativity in a campaign of retribution.
“The more people dislike, or feel alienated from, the government and its related institutions in Ottawa, the more they tend to believe that Canada as a whole isn’t working”. Bingo. This is why I believe maintaining our connection to the Crown is so critical. Nationalism being political is a disaster and creates problems avoided by having a non-partisan/political head-of-state. The Charter did have a chance to take on the status of the USA’s Declaration of Independence and/or Bill of Rights but as Mr. Potter points out that chance is long gone.
On that point though, allow me to argue that contrary to Mr. Potter’s assertion, the Charter is not a dead letter thanks to “the fantastically reckless use of the notwithstanding clause by various provinces”. It’s a dead letter due to the SCC and a particular way of thinking perhaps best exemplified by the introduction of the oh-so fatuous “Charter values” to our jurisprudence. The NWC is PART of the Charter (a well-designed part, in my view) and if anything, should be used more, to defend against the very type of thinking that foisted “Charter values” upon us.
Back on the nationalism/symbolism point, associating with the history of the UK and the British Crown is something we should be proud to do. The Magna Carta, the values of the enlightenment (many birthed in Scotland), the abolition of slavery and the spending of blood and treasure on the high seas to combat the slave trade (not to mention Canada’s tremendous contributions to WWI and WWII articulated so well here in The Line on the most recent D-Day anniversary), are all massive historical events with which we ought to be proud to associate ourselves. And those achievements are not close to being eradicated by the assorted mis-steps that can be pointed to in any Country’s history including Britain’s and our own (particularly as it relates to Indigenous peoples). Instead, we have Junior’s infamous and grossly insulting claim that “there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada”. Our core identity is encapsulated by the above actions and values many of which were, yes, handed down to us from Great Britain.
But instead of wanting to associate with an overall far-more-than-admirable history, we have historically illiterate and/or malevolent actors denigrating the likes of Sir John A MacDonald, Henry Dundas, Egerton Ryerson etc. and the Country itself, while our PM stands by, or even worse, accuses us of genocide and orders the lowering of our flag for six months on the basis of allegations for which there remains zero evidence three years later.
This Country is increasingly dysfunctional as G&G have repeatedly pointed out and symbol-wise we continue to distort the record and self-flagellate in the most embarrassing ways. But for now, it remains a great Country albeit one which is unquestionably losing its way. Happy Dominion Day.
THANK YOU. Canada is a complex young nation and we are still finding our way. Democracy is messy as we are weaving multi points of view into a nation.(or should be) I am thankful for the beauty, the diversity, the clean water, the many many good people,the fact we actually can work on our problems if we choose to. My sleeves are rolled up and it starts with what comes out of our mouths.
Despite the current dumpster fire of a government and its perverse, selfish, entitled and narcissistic leadership, we as a nation will survive as we revert to the mean and the pendulum swings back toward centre.
Left unspoken here (and I know Andrew Potter is well aware of this) is the idea, dominant in the quasi-revolutionary years of 2015-2021, that “doing what we’ve been trying to do for the past 157 years — making Canadians, out of those who are already here along with the hundreds of thousands of newcomers who are arriving every year” is actively a bad thing. That industrial modernity is a bad thing, that tribalism and mysticism (“knowledges”) are to be lauded. Culminating in the low point of Canada Day 2020-21 where there was a lot of serious social pressure to not do any Canada Day celebrations, at least in the big non-Alberta cities.
The focus wasn’t on repairing, it was on tearing down. To be replaced by … something? Post-Canada, or pre-Canada?
American writer Noah Smith wrote something good this weekend: the very success of our industrial modernity has led us to forget how close we always skate to being reduced to the state of wild animals and starvation. Our institutions need to be celebrated and built up, constantly.
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-elemental-foe
Happy Canada Day everyone.
Blaming the use of the notwithstanding clause for a decline in respect for the charter, the "fantastically reckless use of the notwithstanding clause by various provinces." is a lazy take on why it was used and how Canadians feel about it. The complete dismantling of any sort of charter rights by the federal government and federal courts have made it clear why the charter is essentially meaningless, which is summed up in the first paragraph of it:
"The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."
Reasonable limits as prescribed by law and demonstrably justified made it DOA, it just took the worst government in our history, supported by an activist court system to make it plain.
Promoting a government institution or policy as a form of identity condemns the country to ossification. Institutions must evolve over time and identity brings too much emotional baggage. .
More tension between Parliament and the Courts would be healthy because it would encourage debate, caution and accountability. "The courts made me do it" is a horrible premise for democracy. The NWC doesn't go far enough.
Canada suffers from false identity. It may be an officially bilingual country but it is not a bilingual country. True bilingualism is confined to a few areas such as parts of NB and the Island of Montreal. Contrived bilingualism drags down the federal government by overvaluing a skill to the detriment of competence. The quality of the political and bureaucrat class would be much higher if the talent pool weren't artificially limited by a fake requirement to speak a language concentrated to a few areas of the country and with minimal global significance.
Canada has only one founding nation..... Britain. All institutions are derived from there. If anything, the unofficial other founding nation is the USA as Canada's institutions drift increasingly toward those of its southern neighbor (ex. fixed election dates, a Charter of Rights, centralization towards the PMO).
Multiculturalism is a sham that mostly benefits political organizers. Humans are social. Over time they interact and cross pollinate and (gasp) assimilate. Incentivized non-integration (aka multiculturalism) promotes division and discourages the collaboration and recombination that drive evolution and innovation.
Protectionism is another form of false identity. It is difficult to take pride in a company (ex. Air Canada) or industry (ex. dairy) that would almost certainly fail without their government franchise.
I realize that I have torn down Canadian identity without offering solutions. That is the solution. Canada has plenty of geographic, resource and talent advantages to succeed if the institutions would get out of the way.
What in God's name is wrong with Potter in saying that the NWC is making the Charter a "dead-letter"? The NWC is PART OF THE CHARTER; that means that he (and the various other critics of the NWC) is criticizing the use of the Charter itself.
Canada's greatest strength is that its inception was based on the accommodation of demographic differences. In the 19th century, the biggest divides were between the English and the French and between the Protestants against the Catholics. We built a country that accommodated those differences and provided us with both English Protestant and French Catholic prime ministers within our first 27 years.
That's why live-and-let-live multiculturalism has come more easily to us than other nations, despite occasional racial, ethnic, and religious flareups. We are a country that works hard to be comfortable with difference and to benefit from sharing our experiences. It also accounts for why we have led the way, legislatively, on human rights, especially relative to our neighbour to the south.
The brokenness people talk about isn't about the country. It's about the state into which our current government has let our institutions fall, thanks to its regressive intersectional politics that divide us into eternal oppressor/oppressed categories based on race, gender and other 'identities'. See also its performative nation-bashing, exemplified by its immediate hysteria and five-month global flag lowering over still unsubstantiated rumours of "unmarked graves". This government, despite calling itself "Liberal", has led a performative frontal assault on our core strength: a commitment to open the liberal values of live-and-let-live accommodation.
Andrew, any democratic country will always need work by its citizens to continue its evolution towards the future, and like most things in life there is an ebb and flow of efforts, ideas and hopefully progress.
Gurney and Gerson's lament about the decline in "governing competency" at all levels is probably the most obvious point for focus for effort and improvement. This decline in skills spans more than the past decade and as it impacts the ability for the people in the system, who seem to struggle to make concrete decisions/recommendations to create common sense, day to day choices,at anything above a go/no go checklist level at the front counter, without getting tripped up with correctness, image and politics.
However, it is bent, not broken, and can be fixed if enough of us care to do so.
Happy Canada Day 🇨🇦
A country should be held together by shared values and it’s symbols should represent those values. When you have a PM that declares the country has no values the very foundation of the country is being removed. It may be true that he has no values, but Canada did have values and they were laid out in our constitution. Peace, order and good government were once accepted as bedrock Canadian principles. With our current regime we have none of the cornerstone values of the country left.
I have to disagree with the author on the point of the provinces (mainly Quebec) using the notwithstanding clause as the main reason for the demise of the charter. It has more to do with the attitude of the courts, specifically the Supreme Court.
On April 17, 2002, the 20th anniversary of the Charter, then Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. gave a speech in which she said
"While the Charter is no longer in its infancy, these are still early years in its life. The Charter is still a work in progress, an unfinished project. Perhaps, it will always be. Future generations will have a great role to play in shaping it. To borrow Viscount Sankey's expression, the Charter is very much a living tree. I believe it was Chou En-lai who, when asked whether he thought the French Revolution had been a good idea, replied "It is too soon to tell". In many ways, then, it may simply be too early to pass judgment on the Charter. "
Let us ignore the fact that she quoted one of the early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party in her justification of the living tree doctrine, what this means in practice is there is no charter except what the court of the day decides it to be. That's why there is an increased use of the notwithstanding clause, because there is also an increase in charter challenges, mainly due to poorly written legislation.
This will be a difficult situation to rectify without unity across the country and that will not happen overnight, especially given the divisiveness of the identity-based politics inhabiting Ottawa.
It's not "hundreds of thousands" of newcomers. It's well over a million. Each year.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710004001
This country needs reform but it is not broken. We have too many underlying strengths. In the mid '90's, Canada was voted as having the best quality of life in the world. We have declined from that to be sure but a government that focuses on the economy, defense, and justice will fix most of that.
Canadians like saying they love Canada or at least they used to. Unfortunately, at the first occasion, they’ll call Albertans climate denying red necks, they’ll call Maritimers lazy, they’ll call west coasters potheads, people from Saskatchewan hicks… In other words, there is no respect, no desire to find common ground and our politicians, seeing opportunities to score cheap points never miss an opportunity to emphasize our difference instead of pointing out the things we have in common, the things that could make this country great and what holds this country together. It’s pretty hard to build a nation when everyone rows in a different direction.
Andrew. You used “Dominion.” Bless you and God Save the King! :-)
Great article Peter. So refreshing to see a positive viewpoint and hopes for the future. My experience in Canada has been that both the US and Canada celebrate “winners” except that Canada - especially as represented by official Ottawa and its purchased mass media lackeys- too often has gotten into the habit of changing the second “n” into an “h” and moving it to the right of the “w” . Your article is a breath of fresh air and if that makes Canadians more like Americans, so be it! Happy Canada / Dominion Day!
And a Happy Dominion Day to you, Professor.
I know that you will recall that T1 stripped us of our national holiday on July 1, Dominion Day - with only 14 votes in a House of Commons where no one questioned a lack of quorum.
Truthfully, that elimination of our heritage has always rankled immensely for me and I refuse to use the new name. But no matter as we have seen our country become something totally unrecognizable.
But, that is, well, kinda okay as Canada is the "first post-national state" according to T2. According to Mr. Google, "The term postnationalism refers to the critique of the concept of the nation as the central organizing principle of modern political identity and government. According to postnationalism, the category of the nation is no longer sufficient to describe the fundamentals of political identity or state government."
So, if the nation (i.e. Canada) is no longer sufficient to describe the fundamentals of political identity or state government, to me, it follows that Canada is not simply broken but non-existent. At least, according to T2. That asshole!
As for me, I am of the belief that Canada is not simply broken but is broken like Humpty Dumpty: all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Agree to a point but I truly do not think that we are at the Humpty Dumpty stage, yet.
I do think it is essential to be rid of, as in creamed in the next election, Trudeau and the Liberals.
Poilievre has work to do. Lower the total number of people coming into the country; Trudeau has ruined what has been a good immigration policy, trashed it, in fact. Please replace the narrative that never celebrates what we have done in the past, the obsessive denigration of past notable people based on the practices and standards of now, proper attention to finances, the economy and on it goes. Poilievre must try to be a unifier of Canadians , the opposite of Justin Trudeau.
What kind of Prime Minister does not condemn in the strongest terms the insults and untruths on the Prime Minister responsible for the existence of Canada? .MacDonald.
I would say an ignorant, arrogant narcissist who vastly overestimates his own abilities.
I appreciate that there are external forces that affect Canada but far too much of the ‘broken ‘ is sadly the result of the Trudeau party.
Yes, celebrate Canada! We are not a total wreck…..yet. I have faith for the future but 2 of my 3 kids, all over 40, don’t.
Where to start?
I respectfully DO think that you are overly optimistic.
Yes, PP does have work to do. Will today's haters allow him to do it for more than a first term when he will need multiple terms to undo the damage? I doubt it strongly.
For so, so many years I worked from the premise and said to all who would listen that if I had my way we would open our borders to all who wanted to come THAT WE COULD REASONABLY ACCEPT. Please note my qualifier!
We cannot house our current population, let alone the vast number of newcomers. Quite simply, we simply don't have the capacity to absorb all the newcomers. Further, our economy is decrepit and cannot absorb / provide jobs / finance required medical care / roads / blah / blah / blah. Similarly, we have simply not cared enough to screen our newcomers and we have allowed haters, particularly Jew haters, to arrive; we do not try and tell newcomers of tolerance, etc. Hell, the government hires as an anti-racism consultant an incredibly vile racist - madness!!
The truth is, we need to slam the border really tight for a number of years just to catch up and then we can let in as many folks as we can reasonably handle, but it surely isn't the number of newcomers that we currently have.
Flags at half mast for six months for a non-existent child graveyard in Kamloops - even the local native band is distancing itself from that claim! This government has gone out of it's way to destroy Canada with it's claims about the past and the present.
Clearly, the past has some ills and sins that must be acknowledged but so does the present. On the other hand, the current governmental apparatus (federal, provincial and municipal) refuse to acknowledge those current sins. Oh, the arrogance of today's stupid leaders who think (falsely) that they are so smart!
I think that your kids have it right, Yvonne. And I am sad to say it, but it is important to recognize reality.
> The truth is, we need to slam the border really tight for a number of years just to catch up and then we can let in as many folks as we can reasonably handle, but it surely isn't the number of newcomers that we currently have.
There's a problem with that plan though... our demographics. Canadians are OLD. Canada isn't going to function well trying to hire 70 year old nurses, doctors, plumbers, teachers, school bus drivers, electricians or roofers.
This doesn't "disprove" your point about our lack of capacity to absorb our rate of immigration... but that point you make, however correct, also won't make Canadians young either. "Just have more babies" some say... good idea, except that's a solution for 2049 *at the earliest* because kids take time to grow up. And of course you've got the catch 22. People are having fewer kids and later in no small part because of high costs including (but not limited to) housing... so it's a chicken vs. egg thing.
It's a problem.
Andrew, I said that we should admit all the folks that we can "reasonably" absorb. I can tell you quite clearly that Canada cannot handle old, unproductive people like me. Canada should simply allow old folks like me to wither and die - albeit, here in Canada - and should allow old folks from other countries to wither and die in THOSE countries. In other words, family class immigration needs to be re-thought.
Admitting someone to Canada who is, say, a construction worker (we do need those folks) is one thing; admitting his / her spouse and kids makes sense. Their parents? Nope. That worker's brother / sister who is a doctor? Absolutely.
So, the whole system needs to be re-thought but, as noted, I am generally all in favor of lots of immigration as long as we can REASONABLY absorb those who arrive.
And, putting it another way, just because someone is young doesn't make them desirable immigrants. They must be suitable on a social (i.e. not hate filled and very productive) basis or Canada should just say no.
Hi Ken. I'm concerned that even ignoring cultural/social absorption and looking only at economics, Canada is looking at a significant gap between the younger demographics we need because of our decades-long low birth rate and how many we can economically absorb. (i.e. We don't need 100 people, currently taking 5x that at 500, able to absorb 200 thus giving us options while still meeting our needs.. we need 1,000 people, currently taking in only half that at 500, but actually only able to absorb 75 ... leaving us very hosed indeed with only bad options.)
Looking only at housing costs, we need a radical reduction in housing costs... that means a LOT of building... that means a lot of builders... and that means soaring housing costs which will make our collective poverty worse.
This isn't to say that there aren't answers... it's just that they're likely *bad* answers because this is a problem we've been storing up for decades, arguably for more than 50 years. We may only have answers that involve Canada getting poorer with less social cohesion.. which makes Mr. Potter's point of "get to work" more important ... and more unpleasant for us at the same time.
Oh, and one other thing.
The current government and it's stupid green agenda to the exclusion of all else (did I mention wet paper bag, etc.?) has dramatically reduced the ability of the country to utilize our resources. Stupid government!
Andrew, this is a problem that pretty all advanced economies are facing. Some countries - notably China, but also South Korea - seem to be well on the way to actual reduction in population due to we oldsters dying off and insufficient youngsters to compensate.
Another way to look at this is that Paul Erlich (remember him?) was wrong. There isn't a population bomb that will doom us but there sure is a required re-think of how the economy works.
From my perspective, it seems that a massive amount of our economy has been based on never ending growth. Now, we see that growth is not never ending and that it is much more important to ensure that there is stability in ongoing economic affairs. In turn, that will - presumably; who really knows? - reduce the need for immigration.
It seems to me that the ultimate reason for reduced fertility in advanced countries is that women have said that they are willing to have children but they are not willing to be baby factories and their husbands have agreed that that is a satisfactory state of affairs. The (relatively) recent history of various countries around the globe suggests that as countries get wealthier fertility declines so the world - very much including Canada - will have to adapt to that sort of economy. Of course, the current government is unable to coherently manage it's way out of a wet paper bag so they depend on immigration which has it's own very considerable downside; upside, yes, but definite downside as well.
Thanks for this, Andrew. Everything needs maintenance. When something breaks, we fix it. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth when I read articles suggesting we need to leave, quit, or find somewhere better. I do understand that some people will look at the scale of the problems and think “I can’t fix this, I need to find something that works.” I would like to see more articles that try to re-invigorate those people, make suggestions for small actions that, at scale, might move the needle. Provide some real hope and vision. Politicians with hope and vision are rare, we can’t rely on them for leadership. We can’t elect our way out of this. I think it starts with us, collectively.
We still need to identify the problems, agree that something needs fixing. So well written and researched “Canada is broken” articles are a necessity, even if they are depressing to read at times. I hope to see more of those articles too, just not with a “we’re all doomed, get out while you can” vibe.
Happy Canada Day, everyone!
When something breaks we fix it. Bravo! I agree that’s true in the private sector. Canada’s government sadly of late fixes a flat tires by letting the air out of the other three.
Canada’s federal government has been run by people who view much of Canada’s history and tradition as shameful if not evil. It’s like the inverse of cognitive behavioral therapy: constantly telling people their nation is bad, evil, sexist, racist, murdering, even genocidal. This also ties into their embrace of an environmentalist agenda also rooted in a pseudo religious faith that we’re all environmental sinners who must repent through a hair-shirt embrace of self-denial and flagellation. These people have also been extremely ineffective at doing *anything* other than stopping others from doing anything.
These cretins turned Canada’s 150th anniversary into sometime funereal, almost to be regretted. They flew flags at half-mast for months because of overblown and poorly substantiated allegations of undocumented mass graves at former residential schools. They allowed protests to choke Canadian cities and transportation networks for weeks or months because they sympathized with the cause, then were paralyzed for months until resorting to a freaked-out overreaction with the Trucker Convoy.
9 years is a long time to live in a country with that sort of ruling clique. If you had to live with someone that negative, you’d have moved out. If you worked at a company that dysfunctional, you’d probably quit. Get them out of power and there’s a chance that the negative mood will break, assuming the Conservatives don’t go into populist overdrive and take us through another wave of negativity in a campaign of retribution.
“The more people dislike, or feel alienated from, the government and its related institutions in Ottawa, the more they tend to believe that Canada as a whole isn’t working”. Bingo. This is why I believe maintaining our connection to the Crown is so critical. Nationalism being political is a disaster and creates problems avoided by having a non-partisan/political head-of-state. The Charter did have a chance to take on the status of the USA’s Declaration of Independence and/or Bill of Rights but as Mr. Potter points out that chance is long gone.
On that point though, allow me to argue that contrary to Mr. Potter’s assertion, the Charter is not a dead letter thanks to “the fantastically reckless use of the notwithstanding clause by various provinces”. It’s a dead letter due to the SCC and a particular way of thinking perhaps best exemplified by the introduction of the oh-so fatuous “Charter values” to our jurisprudence. The NWC is PART of the Charter (a well-designed part, in my view) and if anything, should be used more, to defend against the very type of thinking that foisted “Charter values” upon us.
Back on the nationalism/symbolism point, associating with the history of the UK and the British Crown is something we should be proud to do. The Magna Carta, the values of the enlightenment (many birthed in Scotland), the abolition of slavery and the spending of blood and treasure on the high seas to combat the slave trade (not to mention Canada’s tremendous contributions to WWI and WWII articulated so well here in The Line on the most recent D-Day anniversary), are all massive historical events with which we ought to be proud to associate ourselves. And those achievements are not close to being eradicated by the assorted mis-steps that can be pointed to in any Country’s history including Britain’s and our own (particularly as it relates to Indigenous peoples). Instead, we have Junior’s infamous and grossly insulting claim that “there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada”. Our core identity is encapsulated by the above actions and values many of which were, yes, handed down to us from Great Britain.
But instead of wanting to associate with an overall far-more-than-admirable history, we have historically illiterate and/or malevolent actors denigrating the likes of Sir John A MacDonald, Henry Dundas, Egerton Ryerson etc. and the Country itself, while our PM stands by, or even worse, accuses us of genocide and orders the lowering of our flag for six months on the basis of allegations for which there remains zero evidence three years later.
This Country is increasingly dysfunctional as G&G have repeatedly pointed out and symbol-wise we continue to distort the record and self-flagellate in the most embarrassing ways. But for now, it remains a great Country albeit one which is unquestionably losing its way. Happy Dominion Day.
THANK YOU. Canada is a complex young nation and we are still finding our way. Democracy is messy as we are weaving multi points of view into a nation.(or should be) I am thankful for the beauty, the diversity, the clean water, the many many good people,the fact we actually can work on our problems if we choose to. My sleeves are rolled up and it starts with what comes out of our mouths.
Please don’t use ‘my sleeves are rolled up’. It should symbolize the work ethic, but under JT it has become a symbol of hypocrisy.
Andrew P, newsflash to you : Canada as a whole is NOT working. It is long overdue that serious Canadians start actually admitting this to themselves.
Here is a down-to-earth article:
https://pragmaticcanadian.substack.com/p/happy-canada-day
Despite the current dumpster fire of a government and its perverse, selfish, entitled and narcissistic leadership, we as a nation will survive as we revert to the mean and the pendulum swings back toward centre.