The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Roger Gibbins wrote in his latest email newsletter that the Liberal party's "bombing" strategy during the recent election campaign has made building bridges between the different regions of Canada more difficult. That may be true but I would argue ? and I know Roger would agree with me ? that the devastation left behind only means we have to redouble our efforts to build bridges in the months ahead. I believe there are more areas of common interests between the regions than some people care to admit. For example, I can think of three between the West and Atlantic Canada: - ending the federal mismanagement of fisheries, -facilitating offshore petroleum development, and - changing how the equalization formula treats provincial resource revenues. Reforms in these areas require a decentralization of resource management and revenue distribution, which admittedly may not be hot topics in Ottawa right now. But there's nothing stopping provincial governments and non-governmental interests in these regions from working together to design such reforms, to implement those that are within their jurisdiction, and to co-operate politically to ensure future federal government cooperation. There are also common interests growing between the West and Quebec on constitutional issues: both have a desire to fundamentally rebalance the powers between the federal and provincial governments to make federalism work better for all in the 21st century. This commonality is most pronounced between Alberta and Quebec on the health-care issue. Both want limits on federal spending power in areas of provincial jurisdiction and freedom to experiment with real health-care reform. Quebec should be pushing the health-care reform envelope most vigorously, with Alberta quietly supportive, rather than vice versa. As to the West and Ontario, there is an opportunity for bridge-building on the economic front, in particular trade and energy policy. The United States is about two steps away from going isolationist in its foreign policy and protectionist in its trade policy. Both would be disastrous for Canada. Maintaining positive U.S. trade relations is vital to the entire national economy, but particularly to Ontario and the West, both of whose current prosperity is most dependent on the export of goods, services, and resources to the U.S. market. North America also faces an unprecedented energy crunch, exacerbated by the instability in the Mideast. Ontario, as Canada's largest energy-consuming province, has serious energy supply problems, particularly with respect to electricity. Canada's northwest, with its untapped northern gas resources, the Athabasca oil sands, Saskatchewan uranium resources, and vast hydroelectric and other renewable energy resources potential, can make a great contribution to both Ontario's and North America's energy security. Despite the setback of the recent federal election campaign, I'm optimistic that bridge-building between the West and the rest of Canada will win out ? because demographically and economically the West is inexorably growing in strength. It's home to one-third of Canada's population, producing one-third of the national wealth, and responsible for 50 per cent of our exports. In the long run, Canada can't ignore western-based initiatives. Besides, the political expression of Western concerns and aspirations is making progress in numbers, in diversity, and in accommodating itself to the values and needs of other parts of the country. The continued strengthening of links between Westerners and their counterparts in Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and the North over the next few years is a national imperative. Economically it holds the promise of a stronger and more competitive national economy from which all Canadians will benefit. Constitutionally it holds the promise of a more flexible federalism, a sustainable social safety net, and a more unified country.
