The term “alienation” is frequently used to describe the increasing estrangement of Canada West from the federation as represented and managed by the current federal government. But this week’s Throne Speech illustrates the increasing estrangement of the newly elected Carney government and its central- Canadian political constituency from the rest of Canada, in particular Canada West. Ottawa alienation, if you please.
Delivered by the King but scripted by Carney and company, the Throne Speech begins with the traditional “acknowledgments”. But as the first sign of its disconnect with reality, no acknowledgment or apology was made for the last nine years of Liberal misrule that has seriously damaged Canada’s economy, federal provincial relations, and international standing. Too much to ask for of course, but why is it that our current federal government falls all over itself to acknowledge and apologize for the past misdeeds of others but is never willing to acknowledge or apologize for its own?
And then, as more evidence of Ottawa’s disconnect with reality, the Throne Speech contains the following statement: “The Crown has for so long been a symbol of unity for Canada…. it stands proudly as a symbol of Canada today.” But with all deference to King Charles , if you asked a cross section of Canadians today to identify “the symbols of Canada”, not five out of a hundred would even think of mentioning the Crown and those would most likely be Anglo-Canadian seniors, not Quebeckers, not new Canadians, and not young Canadians. The next generation of Canadians to whom the future belongs, definitely need national symbols, but the Crown is not, and will not likely become, one of them.
Then there are the more serious “alienating positions and omissions” of this Throne Speech. Prime Minister Carney has made clear in his other writings and utterances that he regards government, in particular the government of Canda, as the engine of economic development, recovery, and transformation.
The Throne Speech reasserts this position in almost every paragraph. Phrases like “the government is”, “the government will” etc. – and meaning the federal government - occur dozens of times.
But such a position is at variance with economic realities and the prevailing view, in at least much of Canada West. The reality is that it is the federal government – with its out-of-control spending, its excessive taxation, its bureaucratic and regulatory excesses, and its intrusion in areas of provincial jurisdiction – that has become one of the greatest obstacles to economic development and recovery.
The alternative view – certainly strongly held in Canada West - is that it is private sector investment, entrepreneurship, and innovation, particularly in the natural resource sectors with the related manufacturing, servicing and knowledge sectors built upon them, that is the real engine of economic recovery, not the federal government.
Finally, the errors of omission. Not a word in the Throne Speech even acknowledging let alone addressing the root causes of national discontents, particularly in Quebec and Canada West – as if such vast regions with their distinctive concerns and aspirations didn’t exist – and that the only regional reality is that of the once-golden triangle of central Canada. Ottawa alienation from the Rest of Canada, on full display.
What can be done to remedy Ottawa alienation? A subject for another day. But it is the Official Opposition with its strong support from Canada West who could make a start – not by merely criticizing the current Throne Speech but by producing an Alternative Speech, one acknowledging and addressing those concerns and aspirations regrettably ignored and omitted by the Carney government in its first Speech from the Throne.