How do you make change happen? There are many steps in that journey. You start with an idea. You make your case. And then you promote it. You endure the apathy, the critics, the naysayers and their sneers. You build your support. You compromise to make common cause with others. Your strength is your determination.
Your cause must be simple. It must be easy for everyone to understand. You do this with a simple statement, such as by saying there needs to be an elected constitutional conference for Canada. That is the entire idea. Canada has had many examinations of its structure and governance over the years but never a successful one. One reason is that the bodies doing the studies have never been elected to that purpose. The idea is as simple as saying that it is time the people had their say.
But the breadth of the idea is huge. To any Canadian with a millilitre of intelligence there has to be something in that statement that impacts on a personal want, wish or wonder. It can be a ‘why?’ or ‘why not?’
But be ready for the spurious arguments.
It is expensive some will say. Not doing it is becoming more expensive.
It will cause discord. It can pull this discordant country together.
Where will you find people who can do this? Ask and they will come. They will be academics and politicos. They will be monarchists and republicans. They will represent the right and the left and the perennial also-rans. They will be people with ideas and people who will fight for the status quo. They will be people who believe in Canada. And they will be people of a region.
And when they come to a conclusion, we can all vote on whether we want to make their ideas happen or not.
We cannot prejudge what they will decide. We do not know. There are many scenarios. There are many visions of our country.
What will they do about the Senate? Will they do anything about our first-past-the-post voting? Will they give the provinces more powers? Or less? Will they want to change how we choose a supreme court? Do they want to retain the monarchy? What kind of a country do they think we want?
Maybe we should keep an open mind. We could use the electoral districts to choose these representatives. We should give the elected constitutional conference sufficient time. How about two years? Then give them a year to sell their solution to the Canadian people. You can bet their solutions will be important enough for a national referendum.
The solutions will not come easy but if we think about them, we will get the answers. Canada deserves no less.
– 30 –
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]