Canada periodically goes through debates about breakups, although the closest they came was when the Parti Quebecois was at its zenith.
After the Meech Lake Accords, the separatist rhetoric died down, for the most part.
Had Trudeau stuck around, and especially if he had found some way to thwart Poilievre ascending to the PM post after the next election, however, the western provinces might have reconsidered a breakup.
While Donald Trump might talk about annexing Canada, I don’t see even a partial annexation happening any time soon. Even the notionally more conservative western provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan are still pretty liberal by American terms, and the political systems are built around the parliamentary structure bequeathed to Canada from the UK.
The Constitution mandates that every state in the Union have a republican form of government—state governments have to reflect the Federal government, meaning a separately elected Executive and a bicameral legislature.
Canada has a political tradition that is almost as old as that of the United States. Arguably, Canada exists as it does because Great Britain learned a valuable lesson from the American Revolution—do not stand in the way of a society with the political maturity to embrace Home Rule. In the 1830s the Canadian provinces were becoming every bit as restive as the Thirteen American Colonies had been, and the outcome of a royal commission dispatched to address the turmoil came back to London championing Home Rule and the beginning of a devolution process that iteratively passed greater amounts of political sovereignty to the government in Ottowa.
Interestingly enough, the culmination of that process was the Charter of Rights And Freedoms which passed and became law in 1982. The Canadian Prime Minister who spearheaded its adoption was….Pierre Trudeau.
I love how you are an endless fountain of knowledge and wisdom, Peter - amazing! And yes, the lesson of history is that people must have Home Rule and be essentially self-governing. I’m so pleased to hear you mention your book again, and you are just the man for delineating the fine points of an improvement upon our form of government - which, as you say, has become so corrupt and tyrannical.
Do you remember a seven-part HBO documentary on John Adams that came out in 2008? I just re-watched it, and was reminded of how quickly our early statesmen went from revolutionaries to bureaucrats setting up departments, cabinets, branches of the military, and so on. You are right, people gravitate to having governments, so the task for each generation is to remedy the flaws and come up with improvements. Recent decades have clearly moved in the wrong direction, and your ideas - fact-based, rational, realistic, and fair-minded - are the remedy, Peter. I have the utmost confidence in you!
During the 1970s, I read quite a few issues of Reason magazine. There were frequent articles on how to craft a libertarian-based government that could work, and work well. I encourage you to seek out these old issues for ideas that could spark your own genius. You’re the man for this, Peter!
I found I had to take a step back on the book project because my original thesis--which was essentially an indictment of government--was becoming philosophically untenable. The basic facts are still the same, but I needed to rework the narrative thread, because where it was going was towards a conclusion I could not believe myself (and if I don't believe it, it's a given no one else will, either).
But the conflict between power and morality, between power and liberty, is something that I think deserves greater attention and exploration--and that's where I am going with it now.
It's what makes this sort of activity fun--my writings are far more an education for me than they are for anyone else!
Have you read anything by Stephen Caux? He is another deep thinker who has written about ways for capitalism to be true capitalism, yet also caring and moral.
I mention these sources, not to direct you to people who have come up with answers, but because your powerful analytical mind will feed off their ideas and upstage them on every point. They could help you to refine and flesh out your arguments and solutions, and serve as creative sparks.
You have one of the best minds I’ve ever been privileged to encounter. You’re also a beautiful soul and admirable man. Bless you always, Peter!
Canada periodically goes through debates about breakups, although the closest they came was when the Parti Quebecois was at its zenith.
After the Meech Lake Accords, the separatist rhetoric died down, for the most part.
Had Trudeau stuck around, and especially if he had found some way to thwart Poilievre ascending to the PM post after the next election, however, the western provinces might have reconsidered a breakup.
While Donald Trump might talk about annexing Canada, I don’t see even a partial annexation happening any time soon. Even the notionally more conservative western provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan are still pretty liberal by American terms, and the political systems are built around the parliamentary structure bequeathed to Canada from the UK.
The Constitution mandates that every state in the Union have a republican form of government—state governments have to reflect the Federal government, meaning a separately elected Executive and a bicameral legislature.
Canada has a political tradition that is almost as old as that of the United States. Arguably, Canada exists as it does because Great Britain learned a valuable lesson from the American Revolution—do not stand in the way of a society with the political maturity to embrace Home Rule. In the 1830s the Canadian provinces were becoming every bit as restive as the Thirteen American Colonies had been, and the outcome of a royal commission dispatched to address the turmoil came back to London championing Home Rule and the beginning of a devolution process that iteratively passed greater amounts of political sovereignty to the government in Ottowa.
Interestingly enough, the culmination of that process was the Charter of Rights And Freedoms which passed and became law in 1982. The Canadian Prime Minister who spearheaded its adoption was….Pierre Trudeau.
I love how you are an endless fountain of knowledge and wisdom, Peter - amazing! And yes, the lesson of history is that people must have Home Rule and be essentially self-governing. I’m so pleased to hear you mention your book again, and you are just the man for delineating the fine points of an improvement upon our form of government - which, as you say, has become so corrupt and tyrannical.
Do you remember a seven-part HBO documentary on John Adams that came out in 2008? I just re-watched it, and was reminded of how quickly our early statesmen went from revolutionaries to bureaucrats setting up departments, cabinets, branches of the military, and so on. You are right, people gravitate to having governments, so the task for each generation is to remedy the flaws and come up with improvements. Recent decades have clearly moved in the wrong direction, and your ideas - fact-based, rational, realistic, and fair-minded - are the remedy, Peter. I have the utmost confidence in you!
During the 1970s, I read quite a few issues of Reason magazine. There were frequent articles on how to craft a libertarian-based government that could work, and work well. I encourage you to seek out these old issues for ideas that could spark your own genius. You’re the man for this, Peter!
I found I had to take a step back on the book project because my original thesis--which was essentially an indictment of government--was becoming philosophically untenable. The basic facts are still the same, but I needed to rework the narrative thread, because where it was going was towards a conclusion I could not believe myself (and if I don't believe it, it's a given no one else will, either).
But the conflict between power and morality, between power and liberty, is something that I think deserves greater attention and exploration--and that's where I am going with it now.
It's what makes this sort of activity fun--my writings are far more an education for me than they are for anyone else!
Have you read anything by Stephen Caux? He is another deep thinker who has written about ways for capitalism to be true capitalism, yet also caring and moral.
I mention these sources, not to direct you to people who have come up with answers, but because your powerful analytical mind will feed off their ideas and upstage them on every point. They could help you to refine and flesh out your arguments and solutions, and serve as creative sparks.
You have one of the best minds I’ve ever been privileged to encounter. You’re also a beautiful soul and admirable man. Bless you always, Peter!