Canadian Independence?

For all that Canada and the United States look the most alike compared to any other pair of countries in the world, the relationship between them is easily as complex as any other. This relationship has been under growing stress for years, and seems to be reaching dangerous levels. We are already a part of the United States in all but name, and even that may soon change.

I listened to a clip of President Bush's comments on the situation in Argentina, saying that free and fair trade was the way out of their current problems. This is either hysterically funny or bitterly ironic to a Canadian. The softwood lumber dispute, the Ford lay-offs, the border actions prior to 11 September, all make a mockery of those words.

I recall a Senator saying words to the effect of if any nation is doing better than America it must be cheating. There was also a Presidential spokesperson saying the American way of life is a blessed one, and the President was going to protect it. Add to this the provisions of the Free Trade Act that permit an American company to sue Canada in an American court if they feel their profits have been restricted by changes to Canadian law. This has already happened with the Ethyl Corp suit.

Canadians are already swamped with American books, movies, magazines, and television shows to the point many feel our culture is endangered. This is nonsense to Americans, who only see Canada as an easy addition to their existing markets. The idea that anyone could want a different culture, a different way of living is a null concept for many Americans.

Our dollar has dropped steadily against the American dollar, reaching a historic low yesterday. There has been a stream of articles in our newspapers, especially The Globe and Mail, suggesting that we ought to adopt the American dollar as our currency. This would certainly remove any vestige of control over our economy. The monetary crisis in Argentina would seem to suggest we need to control our own currency.

The 20th Century was supposed to be Canada's time to come into the spotlight. We coped with the Depression, then came out of WW II as one of the major military and economic powers of the world. Somehow, sometime, we started going downhill, and eventually historians will argue about exactly when the decline started. Where does this leave Canada at the dawn of a new millennium? What do we do about it?

Between NATO, NORAD, Auto Pacts, Natural Gas De-Regulation, and two major Free Trade agreements we tied our economic purse strings to America. In the wake of 11 September we seem determined to hand over our national sovereignty to the Americans. Is this one of the final acts in an exchange of one colonial master for another? Our soldiers, (wearing the wrong gear but lets not get into that) are now under the command of Americans, in an American war-like action. We've worked with Americans before, but it was under an overall United Nations mandate.

Nominally, we are still an independent country. We have our elections, though the percentage of people who vote is dropping from election to election. We have our seat in the United Nations, and one at the G7 forum. Our immigration policies are dramatically different than America's. The gun nuts have not managed to spread their madness here, and Canadians seem determined to cling to the notion that personal wealth should not determine if you receive health care or not.

Somehow though, there has to be more to a country than this. I'm as guilty as many others by defining Canada in terms of how we are not American. Yet this is understandable. Trying to explain who we are to most other world citizens would have them thinking, "sounds just like Americans to me." We aren't, though, really we aren't.

The first thing we have to do is get our own political house in order. Jean Chretien ought to be an easy target to remove from power. The scandals in his government are only beginning to come to light. However, the opposition parties have fragmented themselves, and persist in internal squabbles that remove any chance of them challenging the Liberals. We need both an effective government, and an effective official opposition. That's one.

Two is to clearly tell Americans and the rest of the world what it is we stand for. Someone more literate, more articulate than I must tell the world about our acceptance of immigrants and how they manage to become Canadians without totally losing their original identity. How we've managed to carve a modern, democratic, peaceful, open society out of a forbidding wilderness, and maintain it with fewer people per square mile than almost any other country.

Third is to figure out how to maintain and promote our independence and world view without being as offensive about it as Americans, yet maintain our hard-won reputation for working and playing well with others. It won't be easy, but the alternative is to roll over and start electing people to the Senate and Congress.