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A
Note to the Reader
We
Canadians are known virtually
the world over for our cherished
national values of generosity,
moderation, fairness, civility,
and reasonable compromise.
This book is a call for
elected and appointed policy
makers in our national capital
to begin living up at home
to our reputation abroad.
The
focus is on our peripheral
regions, which I call Outer
Canada including in the
term virtually the entire
country outside of Toronto-Montréal-Ottawa.
Inner Canadians, more precisely,
are a few thousand residents
of Toronto’s Old Forest
Hill Village, the Bridle
Path and upper Rosedale;
Montréal’s upper Westmount
and sections of Outremont;
and Ottawa’s Rockcliffe
Park and New Edinburgh.
In short, they are those
who by means of private
wealth, position, and political
clout have called most of
the shots on national policy
since Confederation.
In
each of these three favoured
cities, homeless people,
food banks functional illiteracy
and soup kitchens today
co-exist alongside obscene
affluence and luxury. Many
hard-working individuals
in all three centres get
by each month only with
great difficulty. Others,
with what appear to be huge
family incomes, spend up
to half of it paying for
mortgages with fourteen
to fifteen per cent interest
rates. Such people in the
context of this book are
really no more Inner Canadians
than is a resident of Canso,
Rankin Inlet, or Nanaimo.
One important difference,
however, is that the present
federal cabinet, like others
before it, is much more
concerned about the well-being
of one group than the other.
Inconsequence, someone losing
job in Inner Canada usually
has much better prospects
of replacing it than does
someone across Outer Canada.
Outer
Canadians are the approximately
eighteen million of us who
live outside Toronto-Montréal-Ottawa.
I include all of us, admittedly
some what arbitrarily, because
the evidence is overwhelming
that many of the policies
of successive national governments
have cost us dearly in terms
of population, opportunity,
economic stability and self-respect.
The cost of official Ottawa’s
short-sightedness is greater
in some provinces than in
others, but the differences
are mostly in degree.
The
experience of my friend,
Wilf Aucoin, formerly of
Cheticamp on northern Cape
Breton Island, Nova Scotia,
illustrates the point. He
and nineteen male classmates
graduated there from Notre
Dame Assumption High School
in June of 1962. No jobs
were available locally.
Nor were there opportunities
for further training, so
ten of the male graduates
immediately enlisted in
the armed forces. The remaining
ten, along with some of
their female classmates,
caught the same train for
Toronto. A similar exodus
of young men and women probably
repeated itself in hundreds
of Outer Canadian communities
that year and in most years
since. Today, there are
more economic reasons than
ever for Atlantic Canadians
to "go down the road to
Upper Canada."
Some
in both Outer and Inner
Canada will reply, "Thank
goodness for the strength
of Toronto’s economy then
and now." Others will salute
the recruitment policies
of our armed forces. Yet
both reactions miss the
deeper point that these
continuing migrations weaken
local communities and our
national unity. Outer Canadian
parents want their children
to have a reasonable opportunity
to settle near them.
I
am not suggesting that young
or older Canadians should
not be able to start again
in some other region of
this unique country. New
starts in new locations
form a necessary feature
of life in any open society.
The basic argument here
is that any national government
worthy of the name must
bring in a new National
Policy which pays far more
attention to equality of
opportunity for Outer Canadians.
For example, Cape Bretoners
are capable of growing good
hay, which is badly needed
by dairy and sheep farmers
in Newfoundland, but federal
and provincial policy does
not encourage the formation
of farm enterprises that
could produce the needed
product efficiently. Ottawa
farm policy in Cape Breton
promotes only micro-farms,
which are unable to export
anything.
In
these perilous times, it
is tempting to wait until
the dust from the Meech
Lake process settles, in
Québec and elsewhere, before
beating the regional drum.
But continuing to sweep
major national problems
under the carpet will only
compound them. A large number
of Québeckers in the periphery,
as indicated in the chapter,
"Life on the Shield," are
charter members of the Outer
Canadian Club. Addressing
their legitimate concerns
more effectively than at
present, with due regard
to the limits of federal
jurisdiction, is more likely
to aid the all-important
issue of national unity
than continuing what, in
essence, amounts to ignoring
peripheral Québeckers. To
demonstrate that the concept
of Outer Canada is no mere
state of mind, the first
chapter, "Main Street,"
shows how flagrantly Ottawa
has long played regional
favourites.
The
present plight of many Atlantic
Canadians has been caused
to a considerable extent
by a fairly continuous indifference
from our national governments
since the 1880s. The Atlantic
story in Confederation to
date is particularly vexing
because decades ago the
region enjoyed a genuine
and stable prosperity. Nothing
in history is irreversible,
as events in Eastern Europe
are showing, and in a nation
like our own, a number of
economic and political reforms
can today achieve much for
2.2 million Atlantic Canadians.
They must no longer confront
indifference in Ottawa’s
political and mandarin circles.
Northern
Ontario’s ongoing problems
with national policy makers
are combined with those
of residents of the Québec
sub-regions because they
share similar circumstances.
The long and deeply-rooted
discontent of Westerners
with Ottawa policy-making
constitutes a separate chapter.
The chapter "Up North" focuses
on the predicament of the
Yukon and Northwest Territories.
In many ways, regional alienation
is exemplified most dramatically
by conditions north of sixty
degrees latitude because
the lives of Northerners
are probably still more
dominated by Ottawa than
are those of Canadians anywhere
else. Concluding the first
part of the book is an essay
entitled "Canadians Speak
Out" which presents opinions
on problems dividing the
country and on ways of building
unity held by some reasonably
representative voices among
26 million Canadians.
Part
two of the book begins with
a piece, "Dealer’s Choice,"
which is mostly an indictment
of the insensitivity of
the Mulroney government
to Outer Canada. The attitudinal
problem in Ottawa certainly
did not begin in 1984. Some
major current national issues,
including culture and communications,
the failed Meech Lake process,
and the goods and services
tax are discussed in a second
chapter here.
The
final section of the book
looks at some possible solutions.
The chapters "Kickstarting
Development" and "Reconcilable
Differences" attempt to
reach to the heart of two
distinctive Canadian twins,
"executive democracy" and
:executive federalism."
Each of them as practised
now, encourages the continued
existence of Inner and Outer
Canada. In the final chapter
I have offered some remedies
likely to help us all to
live together more amicably.
My
overriding purpose is to
explore ideas that might
strengthen national unity,
to seek a political catharsis
that might produce a unifying
vision for Canadians generally,
and to serve as a catalyst
for those everywhere making
a genuine effort to reconcile
regional differences in
future national policy making.
This
book, then, is a modest
attempt to contribute to
the necessary national effort
to keep Canadians together.
It is my firm belief that
by staying together as one
country, Canadians in all
regions of it can better
serve their interests, reach
their goals and achieve
their aspirations.
David
Kilgour
Ottawa and Edmonton
September 1, 1990
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