It is widely agreed in clever
circles that the Harper Government’s decision to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812 was an inept expression of crass base politics
and silly British nostalgia.
That war, after all, only
kept alive the possibility that, way off in the future, there might be an
independent Canadian dominion. Colonists and Britain’s First Nations allies
were, in effect, magnificent cannon fodder in another British Imperial enterprise.
Besides, the War of 1812’s
authoritarian themes do not resonate with Canadians in 2013. Right?
Certainly, that’s what we say
to each other and to the pollsters. Indeed, Nanos Research just confirmed that 47% of Canadians would rather
have celebrated the 30th Anniversary of Canada’s emphatically liberal
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, while only 28% supported celebrating the War of
1812—a war in which the forces of order and solidarity beat back those
self-indulgent libertarians to the south.
Yet almost daily we witness
the extraordinary deference of Canadian opinion toward established institutions—especially
the un-elected ones—and the competence of those institutions to secure the
people’s best interests.
Here are two rather
significant examples: keeping an un-elected Senate and abridging free speech.
Liberal America wouldn’t
tolerate either; liberal Canada, at its best, is of two minds.
Undoubtedly reflecting the
American streak in Western Canadian politics, Stephen Harper has been trying
for nearly seven years to start moving Canada toward an elected Senate. Indeed, he’s the first Canadian Prime Minister
yet to try to devolve his Prime Ministerial power to appoint Senators—to allow
voters instead to make that decision. So far, not one Liberal or New Democrat
leader in Ottawa has felt sufficient public pressure to support his efforts.
Interim leader of the Liberal
Party Bob Rae and his unavoidable successor Justin Trudeau would rather hold
Harper accountable for the caliber of his appointments to the Senate than help
him surrender that power to the people.
This week, the Canadian Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of provincial
legislatures and the Canadian Parliament to circumscribe free speech, when hateful
words could possibly “marginalize” individuals.
The decision was carefully
written, and concern for free speech won’t end with one news cycle. However, it
is noteworthy that the court’s verdict was unanimous, that newspaper and
editorial writers are almost unanimously opposed, and that Canada’s political
leaders—the people-trackers who respond in hours when it's an easy question—are
silent.
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