Power at any cost?

Stephen Harper opened up his own personal Pandora’s Box of governing theories last week, with a position paper that seems to put him solidly on the side of the autonomist class in Quebec.

Shut out in that province in the last federal election, Harper seems to have decided that quickest route from opposition to government comes with the partial devolution of federal powers to linguistic groups. Harper suggested areas in the realm of broadcasting, communications and international relations, would all be turned over to representatives of the linguistic majorities in our country, whether those representatives would be elected or not wasn’t fleshed out in his presentation.

For a party that gets all up in arms over the lack of progress on the issue of elected senators, allowing key aspects of Canadian society to be turned over to groups based purely on a language division seems rather strange. The Conservatives have relished at the idea of backroom deals in the sponsorship scandal being made public day after day, yet their leader is floating an idea that seems to provide the platform for much of that same kind of abuse which they rail on about on a daily basis.

Harper put forward his position last Friday in Quebec City, comparing his solution to the ongoing constitutional ennui, to the form of governance currently in place in Belgium. Using the Belgian plan, language not just provincial territory serves as the base for separate French and English institutions. A situation that must surely result not only in redundancy but enormous cost, as the same program is put forward twice for each area, special interest groups coveted and courted at every turn.

Harper stressed that his plans were in the early stages and were non constitutional, designed to break the never ending bickering that reflects all matters involving the two linguistic groups in our country. Which make his selection of Belgium as the Petri dish for his lab experiment in nation building a rather strange one. The animosity in the different regions of that European country make our frequent disputes seem like the whining of squabbling children. You want ancient blood feuds and distrust to the max, head for Belgium. Everything in that country seems to be put forward in a spirit of what they got, we want. Not exactly the most unifying form of nation building.

Caught up in the brave new frontier he was crafting on the fly, Harper even went so far as to back the Action Deomcratique’s Mario Dumont’s desire to have Quebec referred to internationally as “the autonomous state of Quebec”. Suggesting that he personally found the term rather unattractive, Harper said that should the province of Quebec choose to call itself that, so be it, he would have no problem. Claiming such a term would be merely symbolic, he seems to be a tad out of touch with the actual aspirations of the folks he was trying to reach. From this corner, you are either a member of a country or you’re not Mr. Harper, a declaration of autonomy would be just that, the devil may be in the details but that particular declaration surely can’t be any more cut and dried. Remove enough “national” components to a province or “autonomous state” and it’s not such a long step from complete independence.

If that’s what Quebec would want, then allow them to search for it on the up and up, no backdoor, gradual devolution of powers, where we wake up one day to the realization that the country we thought we had is no more. So far in the two attempts at that grand adventure, the populace have stepped back. The idea of some convoluted maybe they are, maybe they aren’t declaration certainly won’t go anywhere in solving whatever legitimate grievances there may be.

His comments apparently were directed to the few Conservatives left in Quebec, the soft separatists (those who want their special place but with banking privileges) and surely would appeal to those sovereigntists that are weary of their own path to independence seemingly never leading anywhere.

We have to wonder how this policy would have sold itself during the last election campaign, never mind the possibility of picking up seats in Quebec or an Ontario breakthrough, one wonders how this defacto special status program would have been presented in Western Canada, the Conservative homeland. Last time I checked the folks west of the Lakehead weren't particularly enthralled with the idea of special deals and non accountability!

The Liberals as could be expected have been quick to ridicule the Harper plan, suggesting that building a better Canada and not improving Belgium should be the goal of a Prime Minister and his government. And while the constitutionally bankrupt Liberals are one’s to talk, they will no doubt benefit from the disjointed Conservative policy currently being offered up.

No doubt the current national system of government is in need of overhauling, but Balkanizing the country into separate fiefdoms, governed by linguistic boards seems a rather poor start in the necessary work ahead.

Harper says that this policy is a work in progress and certainly not his final word. Which is a good thing for him, as right now it has all the appearances of a political science project with no real direction. With that in mind, he would be best served by tearing up the term paper and starting over. Canadians are quite used to sharing ideas, more than used to sharing monies and no doubt ready to make sacrifices for a common good, but at the end of the day the concept that an actual Canada will exist in some recognizable form is a non negotiable point.

There is much work ahead on the nation building front, but if this is the best that the Conservatives can offer up, then that agenda is going to be claimed as their own by the Liberals.

It’s a tactical error to suggest that by using division we are stronger, if anyone would realize that, one would think it would be someone from a party known for its divisive fights of the past!