Bill Morneau and The Necessity of the Continued Evolution of Canadian Federalism

In the salty sea of politics in which most of us merely bob and tumble, political leaders swim like sharks. And that is fine. But to be the lead shark one must be able to kill and feed the other sharks. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is, by that measure, doing fine. And will dominate his party until - you know it - the likely far-off day comes when it is his blood that is in the water.  And Bill Morneau's book to be published this month (January 2023) is unlikely to cause Mr. Trudeau any mortal injury, although it does join other books in painting a particularly unflattering portrait of Mr. Trudeau and the prime minister's office. But no matter: as long as he continues to win, Mr. Trudeau can shrug all this off without any particular problem. 

But that doesn't mean that those of us who merely bob and tumble should ignore what  Bill Morneau has to say. Not at all. And those of us who are not political sharks owe it to the country to give some thought to what Mr. Morneau has to say. Public opinion is, after all, what creates the aquatic world of electoral politics. 

As we turn to this task, we might start by taking note of a recent observation made by the CBC that the last Canadian Prime Minister to win four elections in a row was Laurier. Prime Minister Trudeau has a bust of Laurier in his office in Ottawa. Laurier was famous for the saying, "Sunny Ways," meaning attempt to persuade the provinces to be amenable of consitutional convention and minority rights by being nice, rather than by exercising federal political and constitutional muscle. 

On election night in 2015, Justin Trudeau said several times, looking out over the adoring crowd and television lights, "Sunny Ways, my friends. Sunny Ways."

Back to Morneau.

According to Paul Wells, in his book, Morneau: 

[m]ostly ... argues for a different style of government in pursuit of longer-term strategic goals instead of short-term popularity. His preferred governing style would be more collegial within the cabinet, more open to dissent, more focussed on a smaller number of priorities, and more consultative with provincial and territorial governments.

Leaving aside the first several points, which seem perfectly sound to me but are prone to remain a bit vague (is there any reliable measure for being collegial around the cabinet table and, more importantly, how would we know?), the last issue is surely the key: "... more consultation with the provincial and territorial governments."  Wells also remarked on CBC Radio's The House today (Jan 14, 2023) that, in Morneau's view, one of the main problems with how things are done in Canada that is negatively affecting our long-term economic health is the inability of our political structures to approve large development projects. 

My thought is this is. Morneau, without using the word, is bring up federalism and, in particular, federalism as it impacts natural resource development. And kudos to him for doing so. There are many moving parts of the Canadian economy and society, but natural resource development is the key. Has been for hundreds of years. Will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

But, as I see it, Morneau is dead wrong in regard to his prescription for how to fix what he sees as the problem.

From my perspective, what is needed, firstly, is more federal assertiveness. Unless there is some federal presence, some federal unilateral action (real or contemplated), federalism in Canada risks descending into repeated and bizarre provincial demands for more and more blank cheques. Cooperative federalism is fine, but if the dynamic is to work it needs to include a strong federal backbone. This is particularly so in this disgusting era when destroying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is now a right of passage for populist provincial politicians.  And should the federal governments response to that continue to be, as it has been since 2015, "Sunny Ways, my friends. Sunny Ways?"  

It also needs to be said that there is always a federal interest in overall economic development and environmental and climate protection of the country. The country as a whole. Provincial ownership of natural resources does not change that. Assuming, for the moment, that provincial governments (the Crown in right of a province) actually owns natural resources, or owns them free of any indigenous interest. 

And that is the second way that Mr. Morneau misses the mark. Cooperative federalism must evolve not by increasingly placating simplistic and repulsive provincial politicians (God forbid!), but by embracing full Indigenous participation in the Canadian governmental structure. That is the way, the only way, that the true purpose of the section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, can be fulfilled and lived out as a reality. It is also the only way - and I think this would be obvious to anyone who gives a moments thought to the matter -  that some sort of certainty can be brought to the area of the approval within the federal Canadian governmental context of large scale natural resource development. Cooperative Canadian federalism incorporating a profound Indigenous interest and role is the only alternative to ever more costly, time consuming, and ultimately unproductive litigation over constitutional rights arising out of every major natural resource development in Canada.

Kick the provinces to the curb, open the door to Indigenous participation, and lets get on with the future.