Peace, order and good government.
That’s a phrase used in section 91 of the British North America Act, which came to be known as the Canadian Constitution. It’s kind of vague, but it is meant to describe the federal Parliament’s lawmaking authority over the provinces.
Most of the time, “peace, order and good government” doesn’t really have a specific legal meaning. It’s a bit of fanciful lawmaker poetry, really. It’s like the American “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” — or the French one, “liberty, equality, fraternity.” They’re theoretical concepts, not entirely legal ones.
As of this week, however, “peace, order and good government” — POGG, the scholars call it — is likely to become quite a bit less theoretical. And all because of what has happened in Quebec and Alberta.
Those two provinces have either re-elected a political party (in the former) or selected a political leader (in the latter) who pose a real and manifest threat to the Canadian federation, and Canadian unity.
In their own way, Quebec and Alberta have chosen to be led by ideologues whose mission is to toss a hand grenade at the federation, and then stroll away. To effectively render Canada — in the immortal words of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now — an errand boy, sent by clerks to collect bills.
Quebec first. There, 60% of the province voted this week against the governing Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ). Despite that, the CAQ took 90 of the 125 seats in the so-called National Assembly. How is that possible, you ask? How can a party with so little support — eligible voter turnout was around 40%, near the lowest-ever — form such a big majority government?
Good question. And, perhaps, it wouldn’t matter so much if the CAQ and its boss of bosses, François Legault, were just a placeholder government. You know: collecting taxes, passing the occasional bylaw or regulation, staying out of Quebeckers’ lives.
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But Legault’s CAQ isn’t like that. They are, instead, the most intrusive and interventionist government in Quebec’s history. They may style themselves as somewhat conservative, but Legault and the CAQ are positively Stalinist in their willingness to manipulate the private lives of citizens — and for their enthusiasm for whittling away at Canada from the inside.
Their language law, for instance, permits government apparatchiks to come into private businesses and break into citizens’ private cellphones — to see what language they are using. Their law against religious symbols, meanwhile, prevents the hiring of public servants who wish to wear a small crucifix or Star of David around their neck.
And their constitutional schemes are just as bigoted. In June, Legault’s CAQ regime used a little-known section of the Constitution, 45, to gut minority rights in Quebec — and the federal Liberals and Conservatives did precisely nothing. Quebec was able to get its way without any debate, dissent or discussion.
The Constitution was changed, snap, just like that. Now, the Constitution Act says that “Quebeckers form a nation.“ And: “French shall be the only official language of Quebec. It is also the common language of the Quebec nation.“
Remember the popular uprising over the Meech Lake Accord? Remember the actual referendum over the Charlottetown Accord? Remember how you spoke up, and expected your views to be respected?
Well, the political parties in Ottawa don’t give a sweet damn what you think about the Constitution, our supreme statute. They turned themselves into doormats for François and Legault and his CAQ. And Legault, re-elected to a huge majority by a puny minority, promises much more to come.
That’s Quebec. Now Alberta.
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There, this week, approximately 3% of my home province’s population voted to select the next premier. Three per cent! And, after just two ballots, that minority chose Danielle Smith, a former talk radio host and failed political leader who has effectively promised to rip up the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Smith is telegenic and has a nice smile, sure. But beneath the sunny exterior is a political vandal, one who wants to set fire to all of our constitutional and legal norms. One who plans to rule Alberta like it is like Legault’s Quebec — an “Alberta nation.”
Her chosen vehicle for doing so is her Alberta Sovereignty Act, which is just what it says it is: an act to make Alberta sovereign. Any federal law or court decision that Smith and her UCP dislike will simply be disregarded. Smith plans to pass a law, in effect, that will place her and her political party above the law.
Will the Criminal Code, which is a federal law, apply in Alberta anymore? Will the prosecution of serious drug offences, which are mostly federal, no longer happen? Will air and rail and highway safety laws be suspended? Contracts signed there? They’re all or partly federal jurisdiction, too.
Legault, one suspects, is disinterested in Canada, except to perform as his aforementioned errand boy. But he’s not stupid. The quiet ease with which he defaced the Constitution is proof.
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Smith, meanwhile, seems completely clueless about the implications of her “sovereignty” law. She’s sort of the Patti Hearst of Canadian politics — a privileged, naive woman who has been persuaded to do terrible things by capricious, craven men.
Will Legault get away with it? He already has. Only time will tell if a Prime Minister Trudeau or Poilievre will get up in his hind legs and oppose some future Legault scheme to disrupt peace, order and good government.
Smith, on the other hand, is easier for Trudeau to deal with — he doesn’t have much to lose in Alberta. For Poilievre, however, Smith’s de facto Declaration of Independence presents a real dilemma. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, he says about it.
For the rest of us, it means that what we think — what we said about Meech, how we voted in Charlottetown — is irrelevant. Ottawa doesn’t care what we think.
And, as a result, Canada will continue to be far, far less than the sum of its parts.
— Kinsella was Jean Chretien’s Special Assistant
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