Smiley’s Nostrum

Smiley's Nostrum BRUCE W. HODGINS Donald V. Smiley, The Canadian Political Nationality: Toronto, Metheun, 1967, 135 pp. To save Canada Professor Smiley rejects a new federal constitution, two associated states, particular status for Quebec, the status quo, or a return to the "system" of 1867. He favours, instead a "New National Policy" for Canada. This New National Policy involves continued flexible federalism and an independent Canadian political community. The Policy envisions moderate, responsible nationalism, explicit equal rights for French Canadians from coast to coast, and resistance to continentalism. Professor Smiley agrees that Quebec is not and has not been a province like the others, that it is assuming pragmatically special powers relative to welfare; yet he opposes proceeding much further in this direction because he believes that to do so would weaken dangerously the possibility of having French Canadians see the federal Government as one of their Governments. He is extremely critical of the federal Liberal party for its policy of drift, its bureaucratic pragmatism, its tendency toward economic liberalism and continentalism, and finally its W. L. M. King-inspired elevation of brokerage politics to the level of virtue. He is complimentary to the New Democratic Party for its CCF inheritance of concern for the little man and for its belief in an organic democratic society, but he is critical of it for its acceptance in 1961 of the "two nations" theory of Canadian federalism. This theory, he argues, is not only destructive of Confederation but also is not appreciated by voters who traditionally have been attracted to the CCF. Thus, for Smiley, the party best able to become the nation-saving and nation-building party is the post-Diefenbaker Conservative party. Smiley, in some respects, is a more temperate and accommodating Dr. Forsey. "So far as is practical," he wants all Canadians to have an equal opportunity of joining or living in one of the two cultural communities of Canada. He also favours having the state assist substantially any citizen who wishes to become more familiar with the language and Iournal of Canadian Studies culture of the other community. But he steadfastly opposes the concept of equality for associations allegedly representing the two groups or collectivities. He opposes political duality. He is against the "two Canadas" concept in any form. His equality is for English- and French-speaking individuals relative to the two cultures. Professor Smiley's analysis is challenging and vital. Even while rejecting many of the conclusions , one must respect the analysis. Here one finds an answer both to Ramsay Cook's and Pierre Trudeau's extreme rationalism and opposition to nationalism in any form, and also to Donald Creighton's reactionary francophobic nationalism. Professor Smiley points out that no one has satisfactorily answered those who argue that it is unreasonable to expect English Canadians to grant Quebec a broad special status within Confederation, with more powers (powers rather than merely different institutions) than the other provinces, and at the same time to give French Canadians a larger voice or even a veto in federal decisions. He also asserts, as he has before, that many English Canadians see the Government in Ottawa as their national government and as the best vehicle for many social, cultural and quasi-educational programmes . Since the revolution began in 1960, the Quebec Government has moved with popular approval into many economic programmes , in order to promote provincial progress and to tie economic development to social and cultural goals. It is therefore impossible, he argues, to return to the pre-1920 or even pre-1944 federal operation. Yet there are serious difficulties with Professor Smiley's conclusions. While showing how French-Canadian opinions have evolved to the present, he nowhere indicates how the elite can be brought to accept his New National Policy. "If Canada cannot become a political community - one community not two - it is not worth preserving," he argues. Yet French Canada clearly indicates now - as it has for some time - that it sees itself as a nation, a nation which now accepts the positive state, or "nationalist interventionism," in which economic, social and cultural matters are all interwoven. 61 How, even, as it repudiates its Diefenbaker aberrations and its...