TORONTO – It seems like only yesterday (January 1997) when Quebec’s Premier, Lucien Bouchard, a founding member of the Bloc Quebecois (also former Cabinet Minister in Brian Mulroney’s government) touched off a storm of intense debate about our National character when he mused that “Canada is not a real country”, therefore threats of impending disunity and other political consequences of discussing Quebec sovereignty were just so much scare-mongering (my words).
The previous nine years had been tumultuous and jarring politically. In 1988, the country went through a Free Trade debate and election. At play was the transformation of an economy founded on preferential tariffs driving commercialization of domestic resources and downstream products East-West in favor of a Continental, North-South dynamic. “Free-Traders” won.
A tax restructuring (Introduction of the GST to replace the Manufacturing Sales Tax) ensued. The transformations, required financial reconfigurations, Labor regulatory adjustments and Immigration adaptations became part of the political debate of the day, as the governing party gradually, but surely, imploded.
In 1993, an election conducted primarily on the merits of a replacement North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – Canada, USA and Mexico – virtually eliminated governing Conservatives from the political landscape and rewarded the Bloc Quebecois with Official Opposition Status.
In two short years, the unresolved tensions regarding Meech Lake, the Charlottetown Accord, linguistic rights, and provincial jurisdiction (including the eternal non-tariff barriers to inter-provincial trade) led to a bitter, “existential referendum” in Quebec. Pro-Canada forces won by the barest of margins – 55, 000 votes, thanks largely to the Allophone [Ethnic] vote resident on the West Island of Montreal.
Canada’s “contribution” (foreign aid, peacekeeping, foreign investment) was prized virtually everywhere, as the Asian Tigers (Economies) expanded, the Middle East began to explode while European nations consolidated economically and fragmented their “political union”.
Fast forward to 2025. What has changed? Not much on the face of it: aspirants to the throne from within the Governing Party are making themselves known for their unwillingness to “grasp the brass ring” – preferring instead “to do their job”.
Tariffs remain front and center, the flow of trade continues along its North-South continental course, our manufacturing base continues to be automobile-dependent, and innovation seems to have been displaced by other, more social issues, important though they might be.
The 2021 Census tells us that roughly 24% of Canada’s population now functions in a language other than English, French or First Nations’. The candidates who push back on the “possibility” of replacing the retiring leader have, almost in one voice, said the sine qua non qualifier of his/her replacement must be the ability to function fluently in English and French. Not duties and not taxes.
