Is there such a thing as Canadian triumphalism?
America and Canada gave the world two very different ways of achieving independence, for a world composed largely of colonies. Four of the six continents were colonized by European powers, 103 countries in all, and another 20-odd countries in Asia. Of them, 52 countries followed the Canadian model of a peaceful road to independence (forgetting the Irish and the unpleasantness in South Africa), as did another 20 former French colonies. Most of the remaining countries, especially in Latin America, followed the American example of a violent revolution to overthrow their colonial masters.
The world had thus two models to choose from, and the lucky ones picked that of Canada. For those unhappy countries which thought that independence must be won by generals on horseback, the military became a political player, one that regularly assumed the reins of power when democracy seemed messy. That wasn’t so much a worry in countries which followed the peaceful Canadian example. The only man on horseback in Canadian history was that idiotic popinjay, Sir Francis Bond Head, in 1837.
Finally. Someone who hates Sir Francis Bond Head as much as I do. F.H. Buckley's deeper point is that Canada's success is in no small part due to our institutional strengths. If America has succeeded in spite of its political set-up, Canada has succeeded at least in part because of ours. The Westminster style of Parliamentary government is more flexible at correcting mistakes. America's system of checks and balances produces not so much a limitation of governmental power, but a transfer of effective power from the legislature to a permanent corps of lobbyists and bureaucrats. Since decisions must be made they wind up being made by people who are not responsible, so to speak, to anyone but themselves.
The American Founding Fathers devised a constitutional mechanism perfectly balanced to prevent things from happening. That's fine when the status quo leans toward the protecting of individual rights. Not so fine when it comes to minimizing the economic aftershocks caused by the Welfare State. Inertia isn't your friend after you've fallen off the cliff.
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