The "Nation Motion": The Provincialists Speak

To those who still cling to the hope that the motion before parliament will have no consequences for the nation, I invite you to read Lorne Gunter's reaction. Mr. Gunter writes:

As Andrew Coyne put it in Thursday's National Post, Harper's speech in the House of Commons marked the final "hollowing out of the national idea," the death of "a vision of Canada as a coherent national entity, capable of acting with a single national purpose."

Yeah, so? I have never been keen on the idea that Canada and its parts should think and speak as one unified, centralized whole. And I have never understood how those who insist our strength lies in cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity cannot accept that it lies in our regional diversity, too. One-size-fits-all national standards and social programs simply cannot work in a country as large and dispersed as Canada.

If Harper's Wednesday motion killed this "national project" view of Canada, so be it.

Instead, what bothers me (obviously) is the way setting Quebec above or apart from the rest of the provinces frees it to act on its own, while all the rest of us remain consigned to the "single national purpose" dumpster.(emphasis mine)

The "single national purpose dumpster". There you have it. The idea of a Canadian nation is now viewed as worthy of the dumpster. Think that the idea of "nation" will be meaningless and confined to Quebec? Think again. Be prepared for the provinces to begin lining up for more power and money as befits the nations that make up the geographic space that was Canada.

Mr. Harper is getting a lot of advice from Brian Mulroney. With this motion that advice is showing through. We are headed for Meech/Charlottetown 3.

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