|
Recent opinion polls taken in Quebec have suggested
increased support for Quebec sovereignty. The Parti Québécois electing
a new, more moderate leader in the person of André Boisclair has
enhanced this trend. Quebec is scheduled to hold a provincial election
within the next two years, at which time Boisclair would have an
opportunity to contest the premier's office. If support for his party
remains high and if he wins a decisive majority in an election, a
sovereignty referendum would be inevitable.
While several of the federal government's policies and
programs may have originally been intended to promote
national unity over the short term, some of these same
policies have actually begun to achieve the opposite
objective over the long term. The result of these policy
debacles includes the rise of Western alienation, the
emergence of a Western independence movement, the emergence
of an anti-Quebec sentiment that existed in some parts of
Canada and Quebeckers feeling that they are not a part of
Canada. The federal government is not alone in having
enacted policies that eventually undermine Canadian unity.
Provincial governments have enacted policies such as
interprovincial trade barriers that protect local markets
while shutting out wider Canadian markets. In a nation like
Canada, an internal trade barrier is tantamount to the first
step in asserting sovereignty. Internal trade barriers are a
subtle rejection of Canadian nationhood as well as the
official rejection of the right of Canadians living in one
region to trade freely with other Canadians living elsewhere
within the same nation. The combination of a variety of
federal and provincial policies across Canada may ultimately
provide a group such as Quebec's sovereignty movement with
justification for its cause.
Opportunity will exist prior to Quebec's next referendum for
federal and provincial governments to end regulations,
repeal legislation, discontinue policies and abandon
wasteful programs that undermine national unity. Canada has
evolved into an over-governed country that has an
over-regulated economy and where new regulations are
routinely signed into law without any prior debate occurring
before any elected body. This status quo that has become a
bureaucrat's dream also has the potential to fragment the
nation. Precedent from earlier referendums indicates a
reluctance by elected officials to remove power from
government and transfer that power directly to the citizens.
In future referendums, that reluctance could cost Canada its
nationhood.
|
