Debate over provincial rights/separatist movements
London, Ontario - Monday, September 2, 2002 - by: Chris Blackman
	"When it is all said and done, the Canadian federation presupposes that, over and above our respective neighbourhoods, towns, cities, and provinces, Canada is considered to be the homeland of all Canadians. To avoid making a clear choice as Canadians (rather than as members of this or that province or city) by choosing to have feeble federal institutions would be to condemn ourselves to collective weakness in a world that will not be kind to nations divided against themselves. A country, after all, is not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and then leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values. And so it is in the hands of every Canadian to determine how well and wisely we shall build the country of the future." Pierre Elliott Trudeau
	As Canadians we shouldn't be afraid of taking on people who represent views that will surely tear the country apart.
	There is no difference in the end result of the Bloc in Quebec, and the Reform-Alliance. Though the Bloc have the courage to announce their intentions, calling for independence now, while soft nationalists (wether they be in Quebec, or the Reformers in the West) want to enjoy transfer payments from Ottawa and an enviable trading status provided as a member of the Canadian Federation for twenty-five years, and then to seperate (thanks to Mordecai Richler for first articulating that truism).
	I wore a '301+' sticker at the recent Progressive Conservative Party of Canada convention. Though I'd have liked to have also had a 'Stronger Federal Gov't' button as well. Canada is a 'federation' and not a 'confederation'. And sadly much of the intended nature of our Dominion featuring power centralized in Ottawa has been lost as it has been dolled out steadily since 1867 by weak federal politicians to vociferous small minded advocates of provincial rights.
	If we know what's good for us, we will start taking some of it back.
Chris Blackman
	(Chris Blackman is a regular editorial writer for the St. Mary's Independent,)
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