On Canadian Unity: This I Believe...

[dewline]

...that this essay by Irvin Studin for the Toronto Star is rooted in truth and fact.

What are the consequences if we Canadians - whether we believe ourselves to be such or not - allow our country - or, should you insist, our alliance of countries - to fall apart? Studin hints at more than a few here in the course of his argument.

Yes, in the home stretch he also promotes something that I've said more than once I'd like to see future generations of Canadian schoolchildren doing re: language skills: multilingualism. Not just bilingualism as we've known it. Why settle for merely good enough?

But he gets it right very early on with this:

If Quebec goes, who in the rest of today’s Canada will agree to be governed from Ottawa? Will Victoria agree? Will St. John’s? And, to be sure, will Calgary? Instead, a succession of unilateral declarations of independence is far more likely, with a hodge-podge of new political-constitutional unions and partnerships issuing from what will be a highly destabilizing, chaotic and protracted period of bartering by weak political units, shifting constituencies and even outside powers in order to arrive at a new “post-Canadian” legitimacy across our gigantic land mass.

Strongly recommended that you read the entire essay. Please.

Comments

Good article, bad link

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

I second the recommendation and offer http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1246954--canada-is-too-big-to-fail (http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1246954--canada-is-too-big-to-fail) as an HTML corrective.

Linkage repaired

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up.

[orleans.livejournal.com]

This is a very poor article, full of rhetorical fallacies and misinformation. It features one of the most egregious uses of the slippery slope argument I've ever read in a serious newspaper. Personally, I think Alberta and BC are more likely to stay in Canada if Quebec leaves, not less.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Not convinced myself. Where oil (money) is concerned, I could believe a lot about what could be made to happen to keep Alberta "secure".