When the Supreme Court ruled the other day on Prime Minister Harper’s questions about changing the Senate, the answer was unanimous. It was also the answer that most people expected. For the House of Commons to make substantive changes in the Senate requires the approval of the provinces and of the Senate itself.
But the Supreme Court ruling left out the obvious alternative. The judges could not give that answer. The reason it was ignored is that the court can only rule on existing law, it cannot make law. That was why the Supreme Court could not say that the people can make the constitutional decisions. That is unwritten law.
To rule on the alternative, the court would first have to spend time on the question: Is Canada a democracy? The fact that most Canadians believe their country is a democracy would have a strong influence on the opinion. And if Canada is a democracy then the citizen body has the right to decide matters of general concern. That is what has been the concept of democracy since the time of the city states of Greece. That is also why Canada has had national referenda.
While there are some who would argue that Canada is an indirect democracy, with power vested in our elected governments at the provincial and federal level, the people have the residual right to retake the power. That can be through referral or rebellion but being Canadian we will probably just opt for agreement by the provinces.
And this is the time for action. Canada will celebrate 150 years of nationhood in 2017. It is time that we decided what type of a country we want to be. It is time we decided how we want to be governed. We need to make decisions about the role of England and its monarchy in our multi-cultural country. We need to assure Quebec of its long term role in a richer, successful bi-lingual country. We need to better define the role of our provincial governments in a vibrant, progressive country. We need to protect the differences as well as the needs of our peoples from coast to coast. We need to recognize the aspirations of our aboriginal population.
This will require a constitutional conference. And participants in that conference need to be elected. It will take time. It needs the good will of all. And constitutional decisions need to be put forward in a national referendum. It can be done.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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