There is that...

I had no intention of blogging tonight until I saw this story and got mad.  (Advance apologies to anybody who reads this blog and has no interest in politics)

I am very proud of being a Canadian.  Particularly living in the U.S., I find that I bring up the fact that I am Canadian to virtually everybody I talk to through some backhanded way (I have surprised myself at my innate creativity at bringing it up in totally unrelated conversations).  However, I have never (and will never) consider myself a hypenated Canadian.  I am not an Ontario-Canadian, even though I have lived in Ontario my whole life.  I am not an Anglophone-Canadian, even though English is the language I speak.  I am not a British-Canadian, even though that is my cultural heritage.  I am not even a Christian-Canadian, even though that is my faith.  This is by no means to say that these addendums to being Canadian are not important to me; I am proud of where I grew up and what my background is, and my faith is a huge part of who I am, much moreso than any other of these hyphens could possibly be.  However, if somebody was to ask me my national identity, I would answer simply and without any hesitation: "Canadian".  I do not understand how anybody who has the privilege of living in Canada could possibly answer in any other way.  Indeed, I was happy to read an article a couple of weeks ago that the government was reviewing whether or not Canada should allow dual citizenships - I do not believe that you can truly hold an equal allegiance and responsibility to two nations (who would you cheer for in a sporting event?  A slightly non-serious example of this, but it drives home the point).  However, as of tonight, the government and indeed the whole Parliament of Canada has effectively decided that being Canadian isn't really that important.  By effectively endorsing a motion recognizing that "Quebeckers constitute a nation within Canada", our elected representatives have more or less decided that Canada is little more than a filing cabinet, housing all the distinct file folders but of no particular inherent importance itself.  Why does this tick me off so much?

(1) This smacks of political opportunism.  With Tory poll numbers dropping in Quebec and the Liberals consumed in a debate on Quebec's nationhood, the Tories brining forth kind of motion calls out the Liberal divisions and may well buy a few nationalistic ridings in Quebec in the next election.  Thus, I'm sure Harper will be applauded for a political masterstroke in some quarters, and perhaps (politically) it was - the people who hate this will probably vote for him anyway given the lack of alternatives on the right.  However, with a few recent exceptions (the income trust decision comes to mind), our politicians are almost exclusively consumed with buying votes as opposed to doing what everybody knows is right in the long term.  You cannot tell me that this motion, constitutional or not and however cleverly it may be worded, will not lead to (1) increased weakening the central government to the point at which it really has no point any more and (2) more demands from Quebec (not that I blame them for a second - when the national policy on demands is capitulation, I'd keep making demands too).  What appals me even more is that it sounds like, outside of the Bloc Quebecois (who are upset about the "within Canada" part, boo hoo), not a single MP will vote against the motion - that's right, not a single one of our elected MP's in our parliament will stand up and say "Canada is the only nation we should be talking about".  The American congress is pretty messed up in its own right, but I cannot even dream of this kind of thing getting debated here in any form without getting laughed and booed off the floor (and kudos to them for it).  I think politicians would be surprised how many people would vote for them if they acted based on principle instead of calculated strategies to win votes. 

(2) The Liberals have spent the last four months of what is supposedly a brainstorming and reinvention period of picking a new leader arguing whether Quebec is a nation.  Now, Canada's parliament is spending time talking about the same thing.  Perhaps the most maddening thing about it all is that, in all these discussions, nobody has agreed what exactly a nation is (is it a civic nation?  a linguistic nation?  a cultural nation?  a political nation?) or what exactly Quebeckers are (only French Canadians?  if so, are other French Canadians living in other provinces in or out?  are English-speaking, British-heritage Montrealers in or out?).  So let's review: this means that we have devoted approximately one third of a year of our political discourse to discussing whether or not we agree with a statement which may mean about 16 different things depending on who says it and thus has no real meaning besides dividing us into camps.  As far as I am concerned, I want my government to take care of three things: (1) Maintaining or improving our economic standard of living (i.e. innovation, education, infrastructure, economic management)  (2) Maintaining or improving our personal standard of living (i.e. health care, the environment, public safety); (3) Representing our interests and values in the world (i.e. foreign affairs, defence).  So, as our productivity continues to fall behind that of our major competitors, as our funding for research and development as a percentage of GDP continues to fall in relation to other countries (admittedly, a pet issue of mine given my personal stake in it), as we continue to increase our greenhouse gas emissions in direct violation of an international agreement we signed, as health care costs spiral upwards at a rate far in excess of inflation, as our population ages to place unprecedent demands on our pension system and on our skilled labour force, we have chosen to spend time debating a semantic question which has consumed political conversation in our country for at least half of the past 25 years.  What is the point?  How does this conversation enhance our national interest?  How does this bring us together to face the challenges we have as a country?  How does this improve our lives?

OK, enough political ranting for one night - back to your regularly-scheduled, personal anecdote blogging in the very near future (I've got stories ranging from graduation to hockey to eggs, it's good stuff).