Is Canada too big?

[Charles Anthony]

Does anybody think that bureaucratically and governmentally Canada is too big?

that the main source of our federal problems or inefficiency is inherently a result of managing a HUGE land with too many different people with competing interests?

Which Canadians would be better off if Confederation was dissolved?

Which Canadians would be worse off if Confederation was dissolved?

[lost&outofcontrol]

Does anybody think that bureaucratically and governmentally Canada is too big?

that the main source of our federal problems or inefficiency is inherently a result of managing a HUGE land with too many different people with competing interests?

Which Canadians would be better off if Confederation was dissolved?

Which Canadians would be worse off if Confederation was dissolved?

Let Quebec go , and as a side note, we are a federation not a confederation.

[Charles Anthony]

Let Quebec go , and as a side note, we are a federation not a confederation.

After Quebec separates, what will YOU expect from your federal government in Ottawa?

what will every other province expect from Ottawa?

Our federation will change.

[lost&outofcontrol]

"Let Quebec go , and as a side note, we are a federation not a confederation."

After Quebec separates, what will YOU expect from your federal government in Ottawa?

what will every other province expect from Ottawa?

Our federation will change.

I won't be expecting anything from Ottawa since I'll be living in Quebec by then . But seriously I understand that many of the policies coming from Ottawa will be different. Will French still be an official language, how will the politicians react in losing 20%+ of their constituents. The dynamics of the House of Commons will change after the Bloc packs it up.

[August1991]

Does anybody think that bureaucratically and governmentally Canada is too big?

that the main source of our federal problems or inefficiency is inherently a result of managing a HUGE land with too many different people with competing interests?

Which Canadians would be better off if Confederation was dissolved?

Prior to the last federal election, I would have said that dissolution was an inevitability. The 10 seats that went to the Tories from Quebec region imply to me that Canada is still a viable entity.

I think that Harper is very, very smart to focus the federal government solely on activities the constitution grants to the federal government.

Mulroney gave a good shot at bringing the Quebec government on board. Let's see how Harper deals with this.

[Naci Sey]

Charles, I think your question in the OP is an interesting one. I have wondered sometimes if distance has kept Canadians from feeling the sense of kindredship that citizens exhibit in smaller nations. Beyond our political institutions, it can be challenging to count ways in which, say, Easterners and Northerners are more similar to each other than they are to people in other lands.

Related to the topic perhaps is the push to globalization vs. a revaluation of local economies - an outward/inward tension in perspective.

[Leafless]

Charles Anthony

You wrote:

"Does anybody think that bureaucratically and governmentally Canada is too big?

that the main source of our federal problems or inefficiency is inherently a result of managing a HUGE land with too many different people with competing interests?

Which Canadians would be better off if Confederation was dissolved?

Which Canadians would be worse off if Confederation was dissolved?"

I for one think Canada has lost it's managing capabilities and is simply a matter of time before the final ramifications concerning 'lack of proper leadership' becomes reality.

This of course in my opinion would be owed to the meddling of our original Constitution the BNA Act, to the new '1982 Constitution' which has permantely socialized our country to guarantee never ending feuding.

The answers to your questions obviously at this time is unknown and no amount of speculation would justify a truthful or accurate response.

We will just simply wait and see!

[geoffrey]

I generally agree that Canada is too big. Let Quebec go, let Alberta go. BC is pretty unique too.

It doesn't make sense to have this forced marriage like it is, cultures are destroyed, and it pits region versus region. A spehere of economic co-operation with common defense is a far more practical solution to Canada.

[Riverwind]

It doesn't make sense to have this forced marriage like it is, cultures are destroyed, and it pits region versus region. A spehere of economic co-operation with common defense is a far more practical solution to Canada.

If you think the current arrangement pits one region against the other then the last thing you should want it a break up. The economic fallout would leave everyone poorer (even oil rich Alberta). The problems this country has are no worse than any other country and can be addressed with the current constitutional framework. Anyone who thinks that Canada's problems are so bad that a break up is the only solution has a bad case of 'spoiled little rich kid syndrome'.

[geoffrey]

It doesn't make sense to have this forced marriage like it is, cultures are destroyed, and it pits region versus region. A spehere of economic co-operation with common defense is a far more practical solution to Canada.

If you think the current arrangement pits one region against the other then the last thing you should want it a break up. The economic fallout would leave everyone poorer (even oil rich Alberta). The problems this country has are no worse than any other country and can be addressed with the current constitutional framework. Anyone who thinks that Canada's problems are so bad that a break up is the only solution has a bad case of 'spoiled little rich kid syndrome'.

The issues aren't of common interest though, but conflicting. If someone can tell me how Alberta can get along with Ontario breathing down its neck for more cash, while Ontario is frowned about for looking spoiled by Atlantic Canada and the French still claiming their own nation and having a national assembly and prime minister... then go for it. I'd gladly be part of a Canada that works, if I were Quebecois I'd be a soft nationalist. But as of right now, the best place for myself and Alberta is out... it's very different here than anywhere else in Canada, much like in Quebec.

Like I said, if it can work, great, but we've had nearly a century and a half of failures in that regard. I'm beginning to lose patience.

[Riverwind]

Like I said, if it can work, great, but we've had nearly a century and a half of failures in that regard. I'm beginning to lose patience.

China has been around for 3000 years, Japan 1300 years, England 1000 years. 50 years is nothing in the life of country. None of the problems are so bad that a solution needs to be found immediately. Canada is a evolving. It is not the same place it was in 1980 and it will be a very different place in 2030.

[August1991]

Canada is a evolving. It is not the same place it was in 1980 and it will be a very different place in 2030.

I agree. Like life itself, Canada is a work in progress. Our history extends back several centuries, indeed several millenia.

Chretien could never tolerate Duceppe, but Harper does. Harper is right to say that Canada should be thankful to have Charest as leader in Quebec. (I wonder if Harper has spoken to Couillard.)

IMV, English Canadians should be thankful that they now have such an English Canadian prime minister to speak for Canadians.

[newbie]

Mulroney gave a good shot at bringing the Quebec government on board. Let's see how Harper deals with this.

How, by locking the Premiers in a room while Mulroney rolled the dice at Meech Lake. By giving Quebec veto over most constitutional amendments, by declaring them a distinct society? By giving them absolute power to appoint 3/9 Supreme Court Justices? The one good thing Mulroney did was give the Country a national referendum on the Charlottetown Accord, where it died a necessary death.

But I digress. No one would be better off if Confederation was dissolved.

[Charles Anthony]

No one would be better off if Confederation was dissolved.

Certainly not the people who funneled tax-payers dollars into their pockets under the pretense of phoney advertizing campaigns in Quebec to encourage Quebeckers to stay in Canada. Those who made money off of AdScam would certainly have suffered if Quebec voted to separate at their last referendum.

[August1991]

Certainly not the people who funneled tax-payers dollars into their pockets under the pretense of phoney advertizing campaigns in Quebec to encourage Quebeckers to stay in Canada. Those who made money off of AdScam would certainly have suffered if Quebec voted to separate at their last referendum.

The federal Liberal Party took advantage of the confusion and played a scam on both sides of the street.

As usual, English and French speaking people in northern North America are suspicious of one another.

[Leafless]

August1991

You wrote:

"The federal Liberal Party took advantage of the confusion and played a scam on both sides of the street.

As usual, English and French speaking people in northern North America are suspicious of one another."

The federal Liberals are like no other national federal part in Canada and has traditonally been the only national party to acquire significant Quebec support simply because it was serving Quebec's nationalistic political self interest.

But even the Liberals could not keep abreast of Quebec's appetite for more power and as a result this is clearly reflected in the downward Liberal trend since 2000 with 36 federal seats and 2004 with 21 seats and 2006 with only 13 Quebec federal Liberal seats an almost 50% drop each federal election.

You have more faith than I do concerning Canada's salvation by an English PM that basically is now in the positon to top Liberal Quebec patronage which in my view is an absolute impossiabilty.