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Oh! Canada?: An Essay on Canadian History, Politics, and Culture
| Article
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19123 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1991 |
9,852 Words |
| Author
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Graeme Garrard and Mark Wegierski
Graeme Garrard is pursuing a graduate degree in political
theory at Balliol College, Oxford. Mark Wegierski is a free-
lance researcher and consultant. |
If Canada impinges at all on the American consciousness, it is predominantly as a tourist destination, "a large friendly country" with red-coated Mounties and vast areas of unspoiled wilderness. Canada is generally considered a safe, if staid, country; a more or less reliable ally where, it is acknowledged, nothing of much significance can happen. Recently, however a great deal of attention has been focused on the Meech Lake Accord, the attempt to resolve Canada's constitutional and national dilemmas, whose failure has raised the prospect of the actual dissolution of Canadian Confederation. The weakness and apparent illegitimacy of the Canadian polity was further highlighted in the stand-off with the Mohawk Indians at Oka, which also made headlines. Regionalist parties are burgeoning in Canada, and there are predictions, that the next election will see the emergence of new regional blocs in the national Parliament, in addition to the old "Pan-Canadian" parties.
The near dissolution of the Canadian state comes in the wake of the Free Trade Agreement, the proposed economic integration of North America that some term "the deal of the century."
The stormy Canadian election in 1988 had climaxed with the astounding victory of the Progressive Conservatives, a party that today has less than 20 percent of popular support. In an executive entered parliamentary system, where executive and legislative authority are combined in Parliament, the 1988 result meant the total electoral success of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. It was the first time in thirty-five years that any federal party has won two consecutive majorities, the first time since 1891 that the conservative Party won two successive majorities, and also the first time since 1891 that French Canada voted Conservative twice in a row, with the largest bloc of Tory seats coming from Quebec.
The fortunes of the country (and of the Tory Party) have changed significantly since 1988, but Mulroney is not required to call another election for two more years. Thus another change of fortune for him is not impossible. The bare enumeration of electoral and popular opinion statistics means little, however, if we lack insight into the context of Canadian history and culture. This essay will endeavor to trace the roots, origins, and development of the Canadian state and, in so doing, try to show the deeper meaning behind the Meech Lake accord controversy and Mulroney's electoral victories. The essay shall not consist of a mere cataloging of the exploits of Canada's political leaders. It will attempt instead to see by what political and philosophical concepts these persons lived and to
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