With the recent omnibus bill Canada has little to celebrate this year. Harper has pushed back retirement for OAS to 67, gutted regulations protecting fisheries and oceans, whole sale changes in the most undemocratic of ways relegating the Parliament to an irrelevant status… and made whole sale cuts shifting costs to lower levels of government less equipped to handle the responsibilities.

At the same time we have a Harper government that is going to push the ‘national interest’ argument to its flash point on many issues including the proposed foreign controlled Gateway Pipeline. Ignoring BC interests and aboriginal rights Harper will invoke gray areas that will bring about a constitutional crisis that could very well end Canada as we know it today.

The Westminster Act of 1931 gave recognition to autonomous sovereignty and equality of British colonies to that of England. It was the end of the British Empire and the beginning of the British Commonwealth. In doing this Britain recognized the provinces as equals in their sovereignty to that of England, but not Canada.

With the Westminster Act of 1931 most colonies in effect became republics politically, or essentially were enabled to become republics. Canada and Australia were different though due to competing claims made by provinces and territories. In the case of Canada and Australia Britain retained the rights to any national constitutional issues. In Australia they had Western Australians who voted 68% for independence to separate from Australia, and in Canada we had the Quebec issues. Rights to veto change to the constitutions were deemed best held by a third party to retain appearance of fairness.

So many don’t know this, but the longest serving BC premier, Richard McBride, he was best friends with Winston Churchill long before Churchill was ever Prime Minister or First Lord Admiral of the Sea. McBride even had extended stays in London for 6-months at a time while serving as Premier of BC and stayed with Winston Churchill while in London… probably was an illuminati himself. Anyways Churchill had a lot of pull even back then, and Britain still held sway over Canadian constitutional issues. McBride didn’t like the way Ottawa abused BC in resource royalties and made his fight a defining issue of his premiership. Central Canadian politicians were met with hostility in BC long after McBride left power. In London he had far more sway than any other Canadian politician… London wanted access to BC resources too.

So McBride lobbied Churchill, who in turn worked with Lord Balfour in his second proclamation, which in 1926 declared:

The members of the Commonwealth were “in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united in a common allegiance to the Crown.”

In 1931 we seen the Westminster Act of 1931 passed which brought the proclamation into law and sovereignty was granted at the provincial level giving the legal rights we see BC possessing today for our crown rights and natural resources. A Canadian province thus has far more sovereignty than an American state (ie think oil for example). Naturally this was a blow for a centralized Canada.

In a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 1981 it was affirmed the constitution of Canada could not be changed without provincial consent for the very reason of the Westminster Act of 1931 that affirmed sovereign rights to the provinces in association through the British North American Act (Canada’s founding document). In 1982 the constitutional rights for Canada were patriated to Canada under the provisions of provincial stakeholder consent. Quebec refused to sign on considering this a threat to their unique position and sovereign requirements… it lead to the constitutional crisis with Quebec.

With Gateway Pipeline Harper threatens to open this all up again and use the strongest interpretations of the federal governments constitutional rights to ‘national interest’ to push through this foreign owned oil pipeline for foreign markets greatly threatening BC with environmental catastrophe. Harper will not only cause a treaty crisis with the aboriginal title, but will also I believe trigger renewed Quebec constitutional crisis through the precedent it would set in powers the federal government could exercise over a province.

In BC I bet Richard McBride is rolling over in his grave at what is happening to his legacy. The BC liberals actually gave up their rights to an environmental review that addresses BC interests in Gateway… our ocean shoreline and our rivers and lakes. With 30-days notice BC could take back those rights, but the precedent is being set and both Christy Clark and that would be premier Adrian Dix are talking like BC doesn’t have a say in the matter.

One can admire the great sacrifices our forefathers made in far away wars and in securing our rights and freedoms here at home… but what is all of that if we just stand by today and watch compromised bought off politicians treat their partisan politics as if that is all that matters while they dismantle our heritage.

IMO Canada is on life support as a political union, and with politicians like Harper and Clark it can only get worse. They will provoke a constitutional crisis and then claim to have not even seen it coming… both will invoke police state tactics if it comes to that.

Time To Celebrate!

Celebrate what? The HST aniversary? You people is so stupid. How can you celebrate that anyways? It should be a protest day. Protesting HST and how we are being screwed by this. But no just keep paying it and enjoying it with no protests at all. How about celebrating for the LIE berals? You people seem to be enjoying snooki lie to us about every single subject matter that happens along week by week. Oh yay snooki. I hope it keeps raining really really hard for this useless holiday. I hope soon this so called economy crashes and burns. And you want fireworks? That we the taxpayers have to pay for with HST. I hope this holiday ends with some really stormy weather and you people stay home and do nothing. There is nothing to celebrate IMHO. Excellent article eagleone. Shows how corrupt and sickening this snooki goverment is and this harper needs to be removed fromoffice. Just unbelievable. I hope this economy ends SOON. How can you people celebrate such outright sickening corruption and what they are being allowed to do to our country.

It’s a sunny day in Prince George. Many of the potholes have been filled. The mosquitoes haven’t all hatched yet. Most of the snow is gone. We aren’t dodging bullets like they might be doing in downtown Beirut. We are free to spout off with minimal consequences. We can still go to church if we wish. We can choose to go to Ft. George Park. (or not) We can celebrate or complain. (it’s your choice) We can be happy, or mad. (It’s your choice) We can let others determine our attitudes and dictate the tone of our day. (or not) We have a choice and I choose to celebrate the life I enjoy, the place I was born,(PG) the city I live in, the resource rich province I have enjoyed and the greatest country on earth to live in. (Canada)I an not only fortunate, but thankful. I will celebrate today and be glad I have something to celebrate.

Time to celebrate more carbon tax.

The carbon tax is stopping the earth around PG from warming up.