Experts agree: Canada is a real country
Parti Quebecois leader Pierre Karl Peladeau earlier this week called Canada “an imaginary country” and “an optical illusion.”
Canada is a real country, political and legal experts said Thursday.
New Parti Québécois leader Pierre Karl Péladeau called Canada an “imaginary country” this week, but Howard Leeson, a professor emeritus at the University of Regina and Saskatchewan’s former deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs, said it meets all the key criteria for what defines a country.
“You start out by whether it is legally a nation-state. It’s recognized as an international entity,” he said. “Do you have governments in control of their territories and not under challenge? Yes. Do you have political mechanisms by which change can be undertaken, generally referred to as democratic institutions? Yes. Is there a division of powers between the two sovereign entities — federal and provincial parliaments — and do they coordinate and are there democratic ways of changing them? Yes.”
The question was raised by Péladeau Wednesday. Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard had accused him of living in a parallel world, and dismissed his plans for independence as being out of touch with reality. The newly minted PQ opposition leader shot back, telling reporters: “Listen, I think the imaginary country that the premier is talking about: it’s Canada.”
Garth Stevenson, a political science professor at Brock University, said Péladeau’s remarks are based on an assumption that Quebec is a cultural or sociological nation and that a “real” country can contain only one such nation. But, by our definition, a country can contain more than one nation, he said.
“Anglophones here and elsewhere tend to assume that any sovereign state which effectively controls its territory is a country. By that standard, Canada is a country, as is the United Kingdom, which contains more than one nation.”
He added: ‘‘I am convinced it is a real country, and a very good one.’’
In his remarks, Péladeau noted that Canada unilaterally repatriated the Constitution in 1982 without Quebec’s approval. “So, if there’s an imaginary country, it’s the one that the premier had so much hoped for and we know that it is an optical illusion … it’s the famous co-operative federalism,” Péladeau said.
His remarks are rooted in the two-nations theory and the belief that the repatriation of the constitution from the United Kingdom in 1982, over Quebec’s objections, amounted to a denial of the existence of the Quebec nation and that Canadian federalism entrenches the dominance of English-speaking Canada over Quebec, said Jean-François Gaudreaul-DesBiens, a law professor at the University of Montreal.
“Quite obviously, under such a view, the idea that a real country can exist even when there is no fusion between one single nation and the state is impossible to sustain,” he said.
But don’t forget, Leeson said, that Quebec chose not to sign the agreement to bring the constitution home. “You can’t have it both ways,” he said.
Further, the Supreme Court ruled that Quebec’s signature was not required. And most Quebecers themselves were not all that fussed over the patriation issue. “We know from polls taken at the time. We know it from the 1985 election when the PQ lost,” Leeson said.
Leeson ventured to say that Canada is probably more united today as a country than at any time since the Second World War.
“There are no huge questions of whether a particular part of the country is so dissatisfied that it would seek a political solution that would divide the country,” he said.
The wave of discontent in the West that saw the rise of the Reform Party back in the late 1980s and 1990s has subsided, for instance. And the fact there are three federalist parties vying in the next federal election — and the Bloc Québécois is off the radar — is “very healthy for the unity of Canada,” Leeson said.
Péladeau’s imaginary Canada is a “tough argument to make right now.”
Don’t forget also, Stevenson said, that when Lucien Bouchard was premier of Quebec, he once similarly called Canada “not a real country” — a remark for which he later apologized.
source: Experts agree: Canada is a real country (and Pierre Karl Péladeau is wrong) | National Post
Parti Quebecois leader Pierre Karl Peladeau earlier this week called Canada “an imaginary country” and “an optical illusion.”
Canada is a real country, political and legal experts said Thursday.
New Parti Québécois leader Pierre Karl Péladeau called Canada an “imaginary country” this week, but Howard Leeson, a professor emeritus at the University of Regina and Saskatchewan’s former deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs, said it meets all the key criteria for what defines a country.
“You start out by whether it is legally a nation-state. It’s recognized as an international entity,” he said. “Do you have governments in control of their territories and not under challenge? Yes. Do you have political mechanisms by which change can be undertaken, generally referred to as democratic institutions? Yes. Is there a division of powers between the two sovereign entities — federal and provincial parliaments — and do they coordinate and are there democratic ways of changing them? Yes.”
The question was raised by Péladeau Wednesday. Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard had accused him of living in a parallel world, and dismissed his plans for independence as being out of touch with reality. The newly minted PQ opposition leader shot back, telling reporters: “Listen, I think the imaginary country that the premier is talking about: it’s Canada.”
Garth Stevenson, a political science professor at Brock University, said Péladeau’s remarks are based on an assumption that Quebec is a cultural or sociological nation and that a “real” country can contain only one such nation. But, by our definition, a country can contain more than one nation, he said.
“Anglophones here and elsewhere tend to assume that any sovereign state which effectively controls its territory is a country. By that standard, Canada is a country, as is the United Kingdom, which contains more than one nation.”
He added: ‘‘I am convinced it is a real country, and a very good one.’’
In his remarks, Péladeau noted that Canada unilaterally repatriated the Constitution in 1982 without Quebec’s approval. “So, if there’s an imaginary country, it’s the one that the premier had so much hoped for and we know that it is an optical illusion … it’s the famous co-operative federalism,” Péladeau said.
His remarks are rooted in the two-nations theory and the belief that the repatriation of the constitution from the United Kingdom in 1982, over Quebec’s objections, amounted to a denial of the existence of the Quebec nation and that Canadian federalism entrenches the dominance of English-speaking Canada over Quebec, said Jean-François Gaudreaul-DesBiens, a law professor at the University of Montreal.
“Quite obviously, under such a view, the idea that a real country can exist even when there is no fusion between one single nation and the state is impossible to sustain,” he said.
But don’t forget, Leeson said, that Quebec chose not to sign the agreement to bring the constitution home. “You can’t have it both ways,” he said.
Further, the Supreme Court ruled that Quebec’s signature was not required. And most Quebecers themselves were not all that fussed over the patriation issue. “We know from polls taken at the time. We know it from the 1985 election when the PQ lost,” Leeson said.
Leeson ventured to say that Canada is probably more united today as a country than at any time since the Second World War.
“There are no huge questions of whether a particular part of the country is so dissatisfied that it would seek a political solution that would divide the country,” he said.
The wave of discontent in the West that saw the rise of the Reform Party back in the late 1980s and 1990s has subsided, for instance. And the fact there are three federalist parties vying in the next federal election — and the Bloc Québécois is off the radar — is “very healthy for the unity of Canada,” Leeson said.
Péladeau’s imaginary Canada is a “tough argument to make right now.”
Don’t forget also, Stevenson said, that when Lucien Bouchard was premier of Quebec, he once similarly called Canada “not a real country” — a remark for which he later apologized.
source: Experts agree: Canada is a real country (and Pierre Karl Péladeau is wrong) | National Post
