Starting Over: The Reconstruction of Canada

Starting Over: The Reconstruction of Canada Can nations break away from their past and 'start over'? Recent events suggest that Canada is being reconstructed - and in a non-violent way. Canadians may come to remember the 1980s as having generated far more radical changes than anything in the 1960s. The recent free trade agreement is only the most obvious starting point. Canada may or may not become a formal part of President Reagan's cherished North American economic union. However, Canada appears to have adopted a New National Policy, whose economic logic is diametrically opposite to John A. Macdonald's Old National Policy. In the process, the political raison d'etre of the nation changes. This New National Policy simultaneously embraces and rejects elements of the "almost" New National Policy of the post-war period. The post-war Keynesian strategy synthesized a market approach (liberalization of trade) with a political strategy (welfare state). The New National Policy strengthens the former element while rejecting the latter. The free trade agreement will accelerate the move to tax reform, scrutinizing of social programmes , and privatization of Crown corporations. It is no coincidence that the summer of postal discontent coincided with the free trade talks. It is not only the Canadian socio-economic system which is being reconstructed . Canadian political life is undergoing a major transformation. Earlier in the decade, the arrival of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms dramatically altered our political institutional dynamic. One can overstate the extent to which Canada has moved to an American checks and balances type of system. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court has become an increasingly important decision-maker which has made it a more important target of, and venue for, interest group and political pressure than Parliament itself. Using the Charter, the National Citizen's Coalition recently convinced the Supreme Court that its vision of elections was more legitimate than Parliament's. While the Charter has injected an important new political feature, the Meech Lake accord has changed the rules of the game. Again, Canada has probably not embraced the political logic of a confederation; the federal government retains substantial direct relations with the Canadian people. However, the Meech Lake accord involves a dramatic devolving of power to the provinces . Regardless of whether the Senate acquires any real legitimacy or power as a result of the accord, the provinces will be an even more formidable check on the federal House of Commons - either via their appointees in the Senate or via a federal-provincial dynamic which is much more favourable to themselves . The accord dooms the possibility of representing and synthesizing regional interests in Parliament. The provinces and the Premiers will have exclusive claims and legitimacy in this regard. These developments need not be cast in exclusively negative terms. After Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 22, No. 3 (Automne 1987 Fall) 3 all, international economic realities and technological changes demand policy responses, and embracing and internalizing their logic is a reasonable option. Similarly, the 'question of Quebec' and regional pressures needed attending to, and one of the central Canadian themes has been the centralizing and decentralizing of power and authority. In sum, though, the political and economic strategies recently adopted have seriously closed down a range of alternate political and economic options, including those which are an extension of past political and economic practice. It is in this fashion that we are watching the reconstruction of Canada. Parallel to these well-advertised changes is another series ofevents, which may foreshadow an equally substantial reconstruction of Canadian life. While constitutional developments in the early 1980s appeared to carve in stone the principle of equal rights for women, the Meech Lake accord may have a sandblasting effect. Its impact in this regard remains a controversial question. Regardless of this potential short-term setback, the war is already won. While the Keynesian welfare state is being rolled back, women's accomplishments of the past two decades will survive and be strengthened. What has become apparent, though, is that while the legal battle has been won, these legal accomplishments must be extended to the political and personal realms if they are to be really operationalized. Consider the following issues which...