THE NEXT FEDERAL-PROVINCIAL
BATTLES: THIS TIME IT’S
DIFFERENT
Robin V. Sears
It may be tempting to see the looming federal-provincial battles as just the latest
round of the “same old-same old.” Robin Sears argues that there are several new
policy threats on the horizon, including climate change, to make any new bargain
difficult. More serious, in his view, is the decline in Canadians’ faith that their
governments, at all levels, will make and deliver the kinds of decisions required.
On serait tenté de voir les batailles fédérales-provinciales qui s’annoncent comme
les plus récentes reprises d’un match déjà joué. Robin Sears avance cependant
que de nouvelles menaces planent à l’horizon, par exemple à celui des
changements climatiques, qui rendront difficile la conclusion de nouvelles
ententes. Mais le plus grave selon lui reste le déficit de confiance des Canadiens,
qui doutent de la capacité de leurs gouvernements, quels qu’ils soient, de
prendre les décisions qui s’imposent.
The decline of trust and sociability in the United States is
also evident…in the rise in violent crime and civil litigation, the
breakdown of the family structure; the decline of…neighbourhoods, churches, unions, clubs, and charities; and the general
sense among Americans of the lack of shared values and community with those around them.
Francis Fukuyama,Trust (1995)
The total stock of social capital in Britain…has been declining at a bewildering rate since the 1960s…A combination of
individual atomization, state overbearance, and market monopoly has displaced the traditional repositories of civic association.
Philip Blond, The New Civic Settlement (2009)
T
he practice of federalism is an unnatural act. It is a
socialist abomination. It forces the transfer of power
and therefore wealth from the strong to the weak,
from the people who earn it to the people who spend it. It
is simply a national political welfare cheque. It leads to outof-control spending by the weak — mostly on welfare stuff
like health care, subsidized education and rent subsidies. It
encourages local governments who depend on this cash to
hide their real wealth to keep the money flowing.
Federalism also means waste and duplication by governments. It’s inefficient because it means constant conflict
between governments, politicians and bureaucrats. Worst of
all, it undermines national security, patriotism and national
identity by creating competing loyalties at the local level.
In private conversation with conservative Germans
reflecting on the European Union’s transfer of billions to
their southern neighbours, or among Christian Nigerians
rueing the flow of money from their rich south to the
impoverished Muslim north, or even people in modern
Shanghai irritated about renminbi flowing from their
booming economy to the impoverished West, this is the
jumble of conflicting angers that is often the person on the
street’s view of federalism. Until recently, in Canada, it was
a view held privately by only a few on the hard right, and
perhaps by a few late-night patrons of Calgary bars.
The competing narrative was that Canada is built on
the foundation stones of co-operation, solidarity with one’s
neighbours and support for the weakest in the community.
Unlike Americans, who have a fascination with individual
rights and liberties, Canadians are supposed to have always
understood that survival in the frozen North was necessarily a collective project. Our commitment to federalism is
built on this foundation, as is our conviction that every
Canadian deserves access to the same opportunity for a
good education, the best health care and a good job. We
have believed in transfer payments within our cities and
across our nation to ensure that we deliver on this vision.
Our faith resides in a mixed economy, governed by strong
regulation and the rule of law. For our size, we welcome
more immigrants than any nation in the world.
This second narrative was the consensus view of historians about Canadian values. From the analysis of John
POLICY OPTIONS
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23
Robin V. Sears
Porter’s Vertical Mosaic, through
Diefenbaker’s Bill of Rights, through
Trudeau’s
“Just
Society”
and
Mulroney’s immigration reforms to
the McGuinty government’s full-day
learning for all the province’s children,
this egalitarian federalism thread runs
through half a century of Canadian
public policy, at all levels, and in every
province. But it’s not clear how strong
that thread is today, and whether the
federalist narrative can survive the
Making a virtue of our years of
constitutional struggle, we have
become a global exporter of the merits of a federal system of power-sharing to democracies new and old. We
counsel Iraqis on how to copy our
achievements in subtle power balancing; we fund long-term assistance to
African states on the unique wisdoms
of federalist power-sharing in mixed
societies. Some uncharitable recipients of our federalist pieties and
tion and infrastructure — fall within
provincial jurisdiction anyway, so they
should do the taxing. This is probably
politically naive, since politicians’
mania for photo ops at ribbon cuttings
knows no ideological boundaries.
This incredible shrinking federal
bureaucracy vision so far remains a distant fantasy. Debt, deficits and program-spending all continue to rise
faster than inflation, while the federal
government has given up two points of
GST, or more than $12 bilIt is a cliché among historians that revolutions are sparked by lion in revenue, tempting
others to fill the tax vacurising expectations. Starving peasants don’t start street riots,
ambitious and frustrated students do. Intertribal tensions peak um. Quebec and Nova
Scotia have announced their
when the shared pie is growing. Some veteran observers of
intention to do so this year,
our tribal tensions believe Canada is headed down this path
and other provinces are sure
to follow with higher
in the decade ahead.
provincial sales taxes. It
largesse could be forgiven for asking
seems unlikely, however, that if a future
new battles looming between Ottawa
rude questions about just how
Harper government had to choose
and the provinces.
durable the Canadian constitutional
between reducing its debt yoke and raisIt is a cliché among historians that
compromises are.
ing taxes, it would refuse to reoccupy its
revolutions are sparked by rising
GST terrain or slow down the reduction
expectations. Starving peasants don’t
in corporate tax, no matter what the
start street riots, ambitious and frusere’s why. First, the federal govprovinces had done in the interval. If
trated students do. Intertribal tensions
ernment is determined to conpeak when the shared pie is growing.
survival required reducing deficits and
strain the part it plays in areas of
Some veteran observers of our tribal
buying off voter anger, it seems unlikeshared or exclusive jurisdiction,
tensions believe Canada is headed
ly that this would be the first democratrespecting the role assigned to Ottawa,
down this path in the decade ahead.
ic government in history to put fiscal
in Stephen Harper’s view, by the
By the time this century hits its teens,
responsibility ahead of power.
Fathers of Confederation and the
new resource riches and new tensions
Nonetheless, whatever the motive,
British North America Act. Ottawa has
will once again create powerful regionfederal tax cuts and debt do seriously
signalled, for example, that it does not
al frictions.
complicate the challenge of managing
intend to continue the massive health
In the previous constitutional
federal-provincial relations without
transfers launched by the Martin govwars, the era that ran for a generation
big changes to social transfer payernment beyond their expiry in three
from the 1960s to the collapse of the
ments and equalization.
years.
Charlottetown Accord 30 years later,
Allan Blakeney, the western sage
This is seen as the “neocon North”
the most threatening traditional axis
on constitutional issues and a veteran
agenda by many Canadians to the left
of conflict was Quebec/Ottawa; the
of two generations of political armof the Conservative Party, a deliberate
second was Alberta/Saskatchewan
wrestling, remarks dryly that Canada is
attempt to cut back the role of the fedversus Ottawa; and then, usually
the only nation in the world where
eral government for ideological reabeneath the radar but occasionally
more than 70 percent of the people
sons. It is merely the Harper version of
explosive, came Alberta/Quebec.
believe they are a disempowered, disAmerican neocon guru Grover
Today Ontario, British Columbia and
criminated minority, abused by the
Norquist’s claim that conservatives’
Atlantic Canada are all potentially
national government and its allies.
goal for government should be to
battlegrounds for conflicts with
Apart from the arithmetic problem
shrink it sufficiently so that “we can
Ottawa and with their neighbours.
with such a “minority,” he’s probably
drown it in a bathtub,” an ideological
The new tensions in Canadian federright. Historically, only southern
project disguised as constitutional proalism reflect the most challenging
Ontarians believed themselves to be at
priety. Thoughtful conservative econoshift in any nation’s history, a transthe centre of power and privilege, and
mists like Jack Mintz herald the move,
fer of power and wealth from one
rightly so. Blakeney chuckles at the
pointing out that most of the growth
region to another.
current political narrative that the cenareas of expenditure — health, educa-
H
24
OPTIONS POLITIQUES
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The next federal-provincial battles: This time it’s different
Ontario is a greenhouse gas emissions
type, north and south. Unless blocked
tre of Canadian wealth is now impovvillain because its industry, its electrical
by referendums this fall, California
erished, but concedes its political
sector and its millions of automobiles
and several state and provincial partimportance.
generate very high volumes of emisners are due to launch their carbon
Ontario voters have joined the
sions. The province has adopted a holisystem in less than two years.
self-defined minority. They will not be
er-than-thou stance on all manner of
It plays into our shaky federalhappy about a tougher federal tax
things green, chastising Ottawa, local
provincial structure as a result of a series
regime in their deficit-battered
Conservatives and even its own indusof court decisions in the 1970s and ‘80s
province, only to see about $5 billion a
trial sector on their pale green political
concerning resource taxation, and the
year pass from their hands to
complexions. Again, it is not clear how
political battle in the patriation battle
Quebecers, thanks to Ottawa. They
long their stance would survive politiover the Constitution that resulted. As a
will be even less happy as Quebec’s
cally if Quebec were seen to be a winresult of Saskatchewan’s defeat by the
booming hydro power export business
ner on both equalization payments
Supreme Court in the Cigol decision, the
generates billions of American dollars
and carbon taxation.
in new revenue, while Ontario’s
Blakeney government fought for and
declining manufacturing sector gets
won section 92A(4) of the 1982 Constihammered by new carbon taxes.
tution Act. It says in part: [T]he legislahe longer it takes Ottawa and
That new friction — widening difWashington to agree on an acceptture may make laws…by any mode or
ferences over federal-provincial transable continent-wide carbon emissions
system of taxation in respect of (a) nonfer payments — is bad enough. Worse
tax regime, the more likely it is that
renewable natural resources...in the
is a new time bomb, courtesy of
province…and (b)…the generathe climate change advocates,
tion
of
electrical
Debt, deficits and program
about to be dropped on the delenergy…whether or not such
spending all continue to rise faster production is exported in whole
icate framework of federalprovincial
relations.
or in part from the province.”
than inflation, while the federal
Washington and Ottawa will
Such a provincial tax based
government has given up two
eventually decide how to set up
on carbon is as yet untested. It
points of GST, or more than $12
a continental cap-and-trade or
would almost certainly go to
billion in revenue, tempting others the Supreme Court before the
carbon tax regime. It will generate serious new cross-pressures
to fill the tax vacuum. Quebec and dust settled. And it is hard,
for
Canadian
federalism.
Nova Scotia have announced their from a common sense perspecWhatever regime is implementtive, to see how carbon differs
intention to do so this year, and
ed, there will be regional losers.
from gas, coal or potash for
other provinces are sure to follow
It’s not clear how one can
provincial resource taxation
reconcile the intrinsic unfairpurposes.
with higher provincial sales taxes.
ness of Quebec getting huge
There are a variety of
green credits for its production of elecseveral provinces and American states
ironies here. Alberta, the only
tricity by trapping water behind a
will move independently. It seems
province with a carbon tax regime
dam, while Alberta gets financially
probable, for example, that a Pacific
currently in place, might decide to
whacked for its production of fuel for
Coast alliance of governments will
keep its rate low, even offering subsielectrical production and automobile
move to harmonize their carbon tax
dies against a federal tax, in an
and industry use in Ontario and
regimes, in defiance of whatever their
attempt to shield its heavy emitters
Quebec, based on natural gas, coal and
national governments might decide.
in the oil sands sector. Quebec, betthe oil sands. What is clear is that it
The policy, revenue and constitutional
ter at rhetoric than action on carbon
would be politically dangerous for any
impacts could be dramatic.
tax to date, might set higher rates, as
petroleum-producing provincial preIf
British
Columbia
and
it has such a huge advantage in
mier — and that is now a much longer
California, for example, were to apply
emission levels given the green
list, including Newfoundland, Nova
a carbon tax to every business and coradvantage conferred by hydro
Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and
poration generating revenue in their
power. Ontario, politically commitBritish Columbia — to accede to any of
jurisdictions — irrespective of nationted to a green agenda, would be
the schemes currently being debated.
ality — it could trigger a series of govheavily pressured in either direction.
And then there is the flywheel of
ernmental collisions, not to mention
The threat of a confusing and busiConfederation, now officially a havethe rage of the corporate sector. It
ness-unfriendly patchwork of tax
not province, sliding down all the
regimes could very quickly develop
might not make good policy for a varileague tables of achievement in educaacross Canada and many American
ety of reasons, but it would be seduction, job creation and personal income.
states.
tive politics for politicians of a certain
T
POLICY OPTIONS
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Robin V. Sears
O
sitic federalism” narrative than to the
marvel of the developed world — does
nly a commitment between pretraditional Canadian one.
not collapse into the kind of social
miers may be able to halt such a
Another deadly spice in this toxic
dysfunction now plaguing parts of
downward spiral, and carbon would be
stew is population. It is an irritant at
Europe and the United States.
only one of several complex trade-offs
the level of the value of a vote in
It is hard, on this file as well as all
among the players at that level.
Atlantic Canada versus a vote in
the others, to see how Ontario can
To this list of looming federalOntario or British Columbia, another
avoid demanding some form of
provincial horrors we need to add the
gap that is widening inexorably. The
greater financial recognition and assismother of all government expenditure
federal government will add 30 seats
tance for its contribution to this
nightmares: the health budget. The
to Ontario and the West under its
national dream. A more even distribuMartin “health care solution for a genredistribution bill, but that will meretion of immigrants is unlikely, for a
eration” will last less than a decade, as
ly trim the disparities. When one adds
variety of social and economic reaOttawa and the provinces begin jockinternal migration shifts — mostly
sons: forced residency requirements,
eying for position in advance of its end
east to west in the past generation
for example, are not politically
in 2013/14. The Martin deal pumped
and unlikely to change — to the
saleable. A reduction in the flow is
an extra 6 percent of federal tax revimpact of international immigration,
also not in the cards while native-born
enues into provincial health budgets,
the irritants surrounding booming
Canadian birth rates continue to slip.
in an effort to solve the most pressing
and declining cities may rise to the
But it is hard to see how Alberta politipolicy issue of our time: hip replacelevel of the unacceptable. Canada
cians would explain why their tax dolment wait times. One might quibble
admits roughly a quarter of a million
lars were going to Toronto to help
that global hunger or Canadian child
immigrants annually, the highest
integrate Somali refugees.
poverty might have been more worthy
number, per capita, in the developed
It seems strange to cite the tradicandidates for such an unheard-of
world. A large majority of those
tional centrepiece of federal-provingusher of cash, but wait times were the
immigrants flock to Ontario, more
cial conflict — the threat of Quebec
pressing political irritant of the day.
than 50 percent to the Greater
separation — at the end of this
Where this hits the federal-provinToronto Area and its sprawling sublitany. In the spring of 2010 it does
cial file is in the outcomes at the hosurbs. Alberta, British Columbia and
seem almost like an afterthought,
pital and community level. As Geoff
Quebec — the other Big Four
not a centrepiece. Bloc Québécois
Norquay details eloquently elsewhere
provinces — get the remainder.
Leader Gilles Duceppe, on the verge
in this issue, there are already big difof retirement, has completed a curiferences in the number of family docous tour of English Canada explaintors
per
capita
on
a
o Atlantic Canada shrinks as its
ing how much he loves Canada.
province-by-province basis. There are
ambitious young seek careers in
That his enthusiasm to divide
wide and growing differences in per
Ontario and the West. Ontario bulges
Canada is simply a product of his
capita spending on social programs.
with natural growth and waves of new
greater love for Quebec, is his pretzel
Most galling of all is the wide variation
immigrants. It is increasingly clear that
logic. Bloc founder Lucien Bouchard
in the percentage of provincial revat least some of those immigrants —
enues that flow from the
federal government. These Pity the poor British Columbia politician attempting to explain
federal transfers are, after why his voters have fewer doctors, more crowded schools and
all, made up significantly of worse roads than Prince Edward Island, whose better services
funds flowing from the
are funded, in part, by their tax dollars. One could forgive
richest provinces, with
Ottawa merely laundering those voters for being more sympathetic to the “parasitic
the billions as they pass federalism” narrative than to the traditional Canadian one.
through to Quebec and the
publicly flails his former colleagues
Atlantic provinces.
especially those with brown skins —
and declares that there is no
So pity the poor British
are finding it harder to climb the ladprospect of a separate Quebec in the
Columbia politician attempting to
der of social and financial success than
foreseeable future. Parti Québécois
explain why his voters have fewer
did generations of immigrants before
Leader Pauline Marois may be comdoctors, more crowded schools and
them. This places serious financial burpetitive in Quebec provincial poliworse roads than Prince Edward
dens, in the form of immigrant intetics, but her increasingly desperate
Island, whose better services are
gration expenditures, on the province
defence of the separatist vision
funded, in part, by their tax dollars.
and its big cities. One can only hope
appears to flirt dangerously with
One could forgive those voters for
that the miracle of postwar Canada’s
racial/religious identity.
being more sympathetic to the “paraimmigrant integration success — the
S
26
OPTIONS POLITIQUES
MAI 2010
The next federal-provincial battles: This time it’s different
Jason Ransom, PMO
Prime Minister Harper and provincial premiers at a signing ceremony following a First Ministers’ Meeting at Old Ottawa City Hall in January,
2009. There’s a huge debate coming, writes Robin Sears, on fiscal federalism in all its forms.
A
stonishingly, former PQ minister
Jean-François Simard goes so far
as to say, “Unable to make Quebec an
independent country, the PQ is today
gambling on making it a strong
province within Canada. The BQ and
the PQ will deny it to the last gasp,
but they have entered…into a new
era of economic, social and constitutional
accommodation
with
Canada.” Canada will never be able
to pronounce the separatist virus
extinct; it merely lies dormant until
provoked by the next political
clanger in Ottawa or some attentionseeking English-Canadian populist’s
faux pas. Nonetheless, the extortionist’s leverage that a generation of separatist politicians have been able to
exert in federal-provincial relations
seems today to be at its weakest since
the sixties.
Therefore, in addition to the traditional regional tensions and federalprovincial agenda items we now have
to add a crisis in health care funding,
widening gaps in government services,
the impact of competing carbon tax
regimes and the prospect of an ugly
row, with racial overtones, on education and immigration funding.
All these tensions are coming
together at a time when the federal government will be at its poorest in a generation, and therefore not able to adopt
the traditional solution of easing the frictions with the grease of cash. And this is
also a time when the province normally
able to be counted on to act as the
rational governor in this bargaining,
Ontario, is facing breathtaking levels of
deficit and debt servicing and is therefore not able, never mind willing, to trim
its demands for greater fiscal balance.
Now Canada is not Brazil, where
federal-provincial tensions threatened
the survival of the state following the
collapse of the military dictatorship.
Nor are we Nigeria, where the combination of religious and tribal hatreds
leads to federal-provincial conflicts
that result in the death of hundreds of
people every year. Sadly, I fear, nor are
we the Canada of the era of Blakeney,
Lougheed, Levesque or Davis, all
tough, pragmatic provincial leaders
capable always of stitching together
closely
fought
bargains
when
required. Some rue the difference in
the calibre of leadership between then
and now, but more blame should
probably rest with the changes in the
culture and in the communities their
successors govern.
Several of tomorrow’s policy challenges had predecessors with similar
POLICY OPTIONS
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Robin V. Sears
provinces could speak with greater unanimity on their economic development
challenges, their declining populations
and the expensive government service
costs they dictate. Alberta and British
Columbia could continue to show the
way toward a more barrierBut it is the historic centre of the federation that remains the free economic union, as
they did with their historic
key to the resolution of the next rounds of federal-provincial
Trade, Investment and
strife, a role that Canada East and Canada West, Upper and
Labour Mobility AgreeLower Canada, have played since the 1830s. Without a new
ments. The four western
deal between Ontario and Quebec on at least some of these
provinces, historically all
pioneers in several areas of
flashpoints, no new national bargain is possible.
health delivery, could plot
an outline of how to bend the proverto sell political bargains that appear to
those days deserve credit for having
bial cost curve in health care spending.
reward “others” and have meaning or
steered their communities away from
But it is the historic centre of the
deliver proof only across generations
collision. But they had an asset that is
federation that remains the key to the
and geography.
missing today — broad belief in the
resolution of the next rounds of federpower and responsibility of governal-provincial strife, a role that Canada
ments to make and deliver on such
ritiques of globalization, such as
East and Canada West, Upper and
complex bargains.
Joseph Stiglitz, the former World
Lower Canada, have played since the
Today’s voters are far more skeptiBank economist, say these local impacts
1830s. Without a new deal between
cal about the capacity of any big instiare the result of, among other failures,
Ontario and Quebec on at least some
tutions to deliver solutions or change.
our inability to establish appropriate
of these flashpoints, no new national
Glenn Beck and his Canadian talk
governance mechanisms on a global
bargain is possible. Quebec’s rhetorical
radio cousins foment a distrust of govlevel. Critics in more nationalist culalignment with British Columbia on
ernment — and of corporations, unitures such as China and France point to
carbon issues is ironic and ultimately
versities, churches and unions. United
the disproportionate power those gaps
silly. Ontario casting itself as the poor
grant Washington and American multiKingdom progressive conservative
man of Confederation is not persuanationals. Even champions of globalizaPhilip Blond’s critique of left and right
sive, even to Ontarians, let alone
tion concede that one consequence of a
for having together destroyed much of
Albertans — Ontario still generates
world where economic and political
the social fabric of British society resmore than 40 cents out of every dollar
decisions are made thousands of miles
onates in Canada as well.
of Canadian GDP, after all. There is a
by
unknown
and
untouchable
away,
He argues in Red Tory that only a
reason that immigrants flock to its
politicians and executives, is that faith
combination of economic egalitariansouthern metropolises — it’s where the
in
democracy
and
the
national
comproism and social conservatism, and a
largest number of good jobs are found.
mises,
which
are
essential
to
its
success,
breakup of the monopoly of the state
are undermined.
and the market, can deliver hope of
Across human history, the politiuebec will need to find a way of
real democratic change and social
cal
impact of rapid destabilizing
giving up some of its equalizaequality. Perhaps naively, he appeals
change and embittered powerlessness
tion entitlement before the province is
for stronger local community and local
is predictable: powerful local chauvinforced to do so in a gang-up not seen
economies, a shakeup of tax regimes
ism, suspicion of “the foreign,” the rise
since the patriation fight in 1980,
and restoration of the nuclear family.
of populist fantasy, and the decline or
where eight provinces and the federal
More convincingly, he argues that
collapse
of
national
and
international
government imposed a constitutional
the impact of the rights revolution of
social and political institutions.
deal that still festers. To do so, it will
the ‘60s helped shatter the bonds of
Canada is not going to collapse like
need a partner capable of giving somefamily, hierarchy, continuity and social
the Shah’s Iran or the Soviet Union —
thing in return. In different times, that
responsibility. The market revolution
but
it
will
take
unusual
courage
and
an
might have been an Ottawa-led deal.
of the right, he observes, undermined
even rarer quality of statesmanship for
Today, given the players and the partithe powers of local government and
Canada to avoid some very unpleasant
sanship involved, this seems less likely.
the nation state, weakened small busiand
damaging
battles.
Quebec will also need to find a
ness and wrecked Main Street in comThere are, of course, bargains to be
way of maximizing its hydro export
munities across the Anglosphere. He
made, deals to be struck. The Atlantic
potential, as it has few other economic
cites the bitter irony that this shared
potential for political damage in the
previous rounds of battle. The
National Energy Program and the divisions over provincial resource taxation
in the 1970s and 1980s could have
been explosive. The political elites of
failure has created both more powerful
central bureaucracies, public and private, at one end of the nationstate and
atomized, disempowered, embittered
individuals at the other. Such an environment is not one in which it is easy
C
Q
28
OPTIONS POLITIQUES
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The next federal-provincial battles: This time it’s different
Bill Davis and later David Peterson and
Bob Rae did it with Robert Bourassa.
They partnered over federal-provincial
deals that neither side could have
risked championing alone — and it
might be argued that they were following the path blazed by Robert Baldwin,
Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, John A.
Macdonald and Wilfred Laurier, leaders whose careers were built on finding
the negotiated path between two often
hostile electorates.
A small group of Ontario- and
Quebec-wise persons, nominated by
postpartisan team of senior Ontario
and Quebec citizens might once again
be able to find sufficient common
ground to lay the next table of federalprovincial negotiation.
Former Saskatchewan Premier
Allan Blakeney, at the centre of every
round of constitutional battle for more
than two decades, points out another
missing ingredient, however: the players are mostly unknown to each other.
The collapse of the perennial federalprovincial conferences of the era that
ran from the Victoria conference to
Charlottetown has meant
Quebec will also need to find a way of maximizing its hydro
that the premiers and their
federal colleagues see each
export potential, as it has few other economic assets that
other less and spend many
have anything near its scale and potential contribution to
fewer boozy nights sharing
provincial GDP. Now that it has lost its deal with New
war stories together. Their
Brunswick and alienated Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in
officials meet through ethe process, it’s hard to see who Quebec’s new partner will be mail, not in hotel corridors;
their families, their private
— unless it is Ontario.
triumphs and their defeats
their respective governments, could
remain unknown to each other.
help right its floundering fiscal ship.
begin private discussions on many of
This matters a great deal at every
Dramatic cuts in spending mean cuts
these new irritants. This was the founlevel in politics in ways that cynical
in the provincial public service head
dation of the “Confederation of
journalists and skeptical voters might
count. Just the threat of freezing pay
Tomorrow” conference convened by
dismiss. Politics at the top is often a
levels, let alone cutting personnel, has
John Robarts in 1967, similarly fruslonely, isolating and frequently
already provoked fears of a year of
trated by stalled federal leadership on
painful craft; there are few who have
angry public sector strikes. Tax increasnational issues. Fewer than a half a
not been there with whom you can
es are not an easy option for a governdozen senior civil servants, supported
share its strange culture. Asked who
ment about to face voters already
by external academic advisers, laid the
could be a core team of negotiators in
hostile over the HST hike.
table for the two decades of constituthe next federal provincial tug-of-war,
One of the sages of federal-provintional debate that followed. Now
who could replace the camaraderie
cial squabbles over more than 40 years
shrouded in the golden mists of histoand sense of mission he shared with
is journalist Jeffrey Simpson. He has
ry, the conference was acknowledged
Peter Lougheed, Bill Davis or Jean
thrashed Ontario for its complacent
to have revived a partnership that
Chrétien, for example, today Blakeney
approach to provincial debt and is a
helped Ontario and Quebec avoid an
is not optimistic. A somewhat gloomy
regular nag to governments of all
even more damaging rupture during
“perhaps” is as far as he will go in
stripes about the death spiral that is
the 1980-81 patriation battle.
response to the suggestion that Liberal
the relentless path of our health care
Premiers Gordon Campbell, Dalton
spending. Along with Tom Courchene
McGuinty and Jean Charest, could
and many other seasoned observers of
e seem to have outgrown the
form the new front line.
our national soap opera, he argues that
era of massive multithemed
Even an optimistic view of a posOntario and Quebec need to reexert
intergovernmental conferences, with
sible
new bargain between the polititheir traditional leadership role.
premiers and prime ministers playing
cal elites does not address a deeper
Though power and wealth have shiftto their home audiences for days on
unravelling among us — our intense
ed irreversibly west, even now no new
end. The conventional wisdom is that
cynicism about government, our popnational deal can be struck on any of
this is a good thing; the price is that we
ulist skepticism about Ottawa in parthese issues without Ontario and
have lost the intensity and attention
ticular and the frayed bonds of
Quebec as partners.
those forums required of government
community everywhere. These block
Such a partnership has a venerable
leaders and officials. So it is unlikely
acceptance of a new set of national
history: Jean Lesage, Daniel Johnson
that we will have a “Confederation of
compromises as profoundly as any
and John Robarts did it in the 1960s;
Tomorrow” again. But a seasoned,
assets that have anything near its scale
and potential contribution to provincial GDP. Now that it has lost its deal
with New Brunswick and alienated
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in the
process, it’s hard to see who Quebec’s
new partner will be — unless it is
Ontario. Ontario may be incented to
pay a small premium for Quebec
power now that its nuclear dreams
seem to have once again evaporated.
Ontario needs to get serious about
its deficit sooner rather than later.
There are very few levers available to
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POLICY OPTIONS
MAY 2010
29
Robin V. Sears
dissatisfaction with fiscal fairness.
British conservative Blond has found
a disturbing threat rooted in the rhetoric of left and right that undermines
democratic engagement. Francis
Fukuyama earlier demonstrated clearly the albatross worn by any nation
not bound by the values of trust and
shared conviction among its peoples.
We had a cautionary lesson about
how distant many Canadians feel
from elite opinion in the outcome of
the Charlottetown process. Virtual
unanimity among Canada’s business
and political elites was not enough to
save that carefully balanced set of
compromises from massive popular
rejection, and that was in a far more
tolerant era.
new generation to throw them out
over subsidized day care centres.”
This is nonsense. Decent access to
child care is probably a vote motivator
for a large slice of younger, poorer, new
immigrant Canadians. But there are
several important national projects
beyond: a postindustrial future with
good jobs for a new generation, a new
national energy/environment/technology-driven strategy, a productivity
agenda that actually works, a resourcebased economy that adds value to the
extraction of rocks and logs. Former
bureaucrat, politician and business
leader David Emerson, in a cri de coeur
recently, said, “We continue to be a
country without a national approach
to the twin issues of energy and envi-
one that poisons any hope of new
federal-provincial accord.
T
he leaders in academia, business,
the professions, media and religion, who in another era saw the definition and defence of Canadian values
as part of their core responsibilities,
may once again step up to the task of
defining and defending new national
goals. High school history teachers
could draw the line between Lord
Durham’s compromise and a negotiated approach to carbon taxation.
Parents could help their children to see
the power of family, community and
Canadian and global networks.
Student leaders could defend nondiscriminatory tuition fees for “foreign”
Canadian students from other
ebuilding faith in the proj- The collapse of the perennial federal- provinces as preparation for
ect of federal nationhood provincial conferences of the era that national citizenship. Leaders in
— the compromises that are
ran from the Victoria conference to new Canadian ethnic communities could explain with pride
essential to its success, and the
Charlottetown has meant that the to their young partisans why
role of governments as guarantors of its future — is greatly premiers and their federal colleagues “cross-cultural is Canadian.”
Conservatives could be
more complex than agreeing on
see each other less and spend many
more honest about the essenthe terms of any new bargain
fewer boozy nights sharing war
between Ottawa and the
tial role of the state in constories
together. Their officials meet serving traditional values and
provinces. This national ennui
through e-mail, not in hotel
is often mistaken as the product
the ethos that is the panof political excess or partisan
corridors; their families, their private Canadian bargain; Liberals
incitement, and can therefore
could be more courageous and
triumphs and their defeats remain
be fixed by better-behaving
defend the importance of famunknown to each other.
political leaders. And rebuilding
ily and traditional values in a
ronmental stewardship…[In an] interfaith in the ability of our institutions to
functional and progressive federalist
dependent carbon-dependent world…a
help innovate and then execute this
society; and New Democrats could
national energy strategy…would factor
century’s vision of what it means to be
blush and then explain the essential
in efforts by government and industry
Canadian — how to secure for a new
role of business/governmental partto promote energy efficiency through
generation our forefathers’ improbable
nership in federalist nation building.
improvements in transportation, buildexperiment with federalism across
Politicians of every stripe could reach
ing codes, agricultural technologies
boundaries of language, religion and
across partisan and regional bound[and] appliance standards.”
geography — is not merely a task for
aries to defend their partners from
Discussion of the essential role
ministers’ after-dinner remarks.
other tribes and other places, in a
that energy plays in Canadian ecoIt is fashionable among dyspeptic
shared vision of a new Canadian fednomic life has been a third rail in our
Liberals and many other critics of the
eralism.
politics ever since the ham-fisted
Harper government to moan that
Or we could continue to slide into
efforts by the Trudeau government to
there are “no new national projects!”
a sullen acceptance that federalism in
seize some western oil producer revFuelled by frustration over the
the frozen North is, after all, unnatural.
enues to reward central Canadian
Harperites’ seizure of the economic
voters and reduce Ottawa’s debt burcentre of Canadian politics, if not its
Contributing Writer Robin V. Sears is a
den, hilariously marketed as the
social values, the complaint in prothe senior partner in Navigator Ltd., a
National
Energy
Program.
As
gressive political salons is “Daycare,
Toronto-based communications consultEmerson rightly observes, it is a
shmaycare! It’s not medicare or the
ing and government relations firm.
taboo we can no longer afford, and
CPR! We’re not going to motivate a
[email protected]
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OPTIONS POLITIQUES
MAI 2010