The question of the hour for Canadians is how our country will survive the age of imperial America. All the other issues---globalization, the environment, the fate of medicare, control of our fresh water, the struggle for Canadian sovereignty in the high Arctic---are subsets of the dominant issue. In this country, real politics is waged between continentalists and nationalists. So far the continentalists are winning.
It is no longer controversial to assert that the United States is the global successor to the British Empire and Imperial Rome. The gap between American military prowess and that of any other power is so huge that would-be allies vie for admission to the Bush administration’s coalition rather than being courted by Washington. The long term effect of September 11 has been to expose to the world an old fashioned military empire that no longer bothers with the niceties of international covenants. That is the real import of George W. Bush’s unveiling of the concept of the "Axis of Evil", the reference to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, in his State of the Union address. The Bush II administration is determined not to repeat the mistake of Bush I. The current war will be kept going, at least until the economic downturn is over, and likely much longer than that.
The traditional Canadian strategy----attempting to offset naked American power by encouraging multilateralism and by participating in structures such as NORAD that provide at least a nod to Canadian sovereignty----lies in tatters. In the new American command structure for homeland defence, Canada will be cut very little slack. We either place our forces under American command or we’re left out.
A century ago, a British General who was appointed by the British government commanded the Canadian militia. Unless we are prepared to sink back to that level of formal colonialism, we are going to have to think through a strategy for sustaining sovereignty.
The Liberal government’s practice of talking loudly and carrying a small stick will not do, on a whole range of matters including national defence. Since September 11, the Chretien government’s strategy has been to curry favour with the Americans on border issues, refugee and immigration policy and by participating in America’s new war. Canada’s illiberal anti-terrorism law was explicitly drafted with one eye on Washington. And what has been the payoff for all this pandering? Precisely nothing. On softwood lumber, the U.S. is as implacable as ever. On streamlining commercial traffic across the border, there has been no change since September 11. On the status accorded to prisoners taken by Canadian or U.S. forces in Afghanistan, or on whether the U.S. is to invade Iraq or one of the other "Axis of Evil" powers, Washington cares not a bit what the Chretien government thinks.
Jean Chretien and John Manley have been trying to delude us into believing that if we do something the Americans want us to do, before they insist on it, we are somehow exercising Canadian sovereignty. During the Cold War, that kind of politics was derisively called "Finlandization" for the way the government of Finland tailored its policies to give no offence to their powerful Soviet neighbour.
The continentalists, who have dominated Canadian politics for the past two decades, can point to few ways their years at the helm have benefited Canadians. In terms of the trend of living standards, the 1990s, the decade that followed the free trade deal with the U.S., was the worst of the twentieth century for ordinary Canadians, with the exception of the 1930s. Instead of the stronger, wealthier, more productive country the continentalists promised Canadians, we have become more marginalized, relatively less productive, the fall of our dollar symbolizing what has happened. Putting us in an economic strait jacket where we can no longer fashion government programs to foster the excellence of Canadian companies has been a disaster for Canada. The continentalist cure for the ills they have wrought is to call for yet more integration with the U.S., the scrapping of the loonie and lower taxes that will render our social programs unsustainable.
The nationalists need to fashion policies in the interest of the majority of Canadians who have been left behind since the 1980s. That means dropping the free market religion that followed to its logical conclusion will reduce most of Canada to northern versions of Wyoming and Maine. Raising the living standards of Canadians, protecting medicare and widening access to higher education can never be entrusted to an economic regime that believes that markets and multinationals automatically act in our interest. On national defence, our priority should be to rebuild the Canadian forces to patrol our immense coasts, in particular our Arctic waters, which the U.S. insists do not belong to Canada. Placing our forces under a continental American command structure will reduce, not enhance, our sovereignty.
We will do better with Washington by defining our interests and pursuing them prudently. American companies make billions every year in Canada and ship over fifty per cent of our exports to the U.S. That gives us more freedom for maneuver than our timorous elites imagine.
Since 1993, a sizable proportion of voters has backed the Liberals as the party of Canadian integrity, the party that can provide a realistic defence of Canadian values. For such voters, the priority has been to keep out the parties of the right whose policies point the way to national dissolution. The recent Liberal cabinet shuffle however, has put new power in the hands of the continentalists, while the nationalists have been downgraded.
For those who want this country to survive, the first priority must be to find a pro-Canadian political party. The Liberals are no longer it.
The lesson of history teaches that nations outlive empires. During the centuries of our national story, we have survived the decline and fall of the French and British Empires. What destroys empires is imperial overstretch, the unwillingness of rulers to understand the limitations of their sway. That is the likely fate of the American Empire in the 21st century. With judicious realism though, Canada has every prospect of surviving as a country and not merely as a geographical expression.
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