Abolish Federal Gov't of Canada?
 

What purpose is served by our Federal Gov't which is beyond the capability of a decent or skilled Provincial Gov't? I asked this question today at work, and believe it or not, no one could come up with anything. Thoughts and comments sincerely welcomed from all! Realizing far too late in life how little I know about so much😡

National Defense
 

National Defense comes to mind. Issuance of currency.

What are you drinking tonight? And how much?

OP...did you ask in an email or just talk to the other guy on the tailgate at the safety meeting? :). But seriously, take a look around the world, every country has a "federal" government.

To collect taxes and pad their pockets. Like you said a provincial govt could do everything thr federal govt does and they'd do it better. Reason being they are directly dealing with their people. Not another province 3000 kms away...

I say we build a wall to keep all those "non Albertans" from coming in and taking our jobs. Hope those provinces to either side don't plug any pipelines.
Oh crap, now instead of railing about the CBC, we're going to have to put up with the ABC.
OP- carefull, smoking that stuff is not yet legal.

If we got rid of the federal government there would technically be no "Canada". So our provincial government would be our Federal government.

I'd say you need both Prov and Fed to work together to clean out the pockets of the working people.

I remember people were stirred into a frenzy a few years ago thinking a corporate tax cut would help the middle class because new jobs would be created and all that fun stuff.
Then I specifically asked myself: Where is that lost portion of the pie going to be made up? Heyyyy Carbon Tax anyone??

Do we need a Senate and a Parliament to print our national currency? Could 10 provinces and 3 territories assign one member each from their governments to oversee our military and let soldiers/sailors/airmen actually run the military. We could still be the great country of Canada. We would just bring governance a little closer to the people. The thirteen smaller governments would have to be more responsible and reasonable when dealing with each other, especially when it comes to the division of revenues from nationally owned natural resources. No more 'Big Brother' ramming their personal or party agenda down our throats and wasting so much of our tax dollars in the process. Don't get me wrong. I'm not leaning towards a collective of communist states. Merely hypothesizing about the dissolution of the country's largest and most inefficient employer. No more Senators/MP's on the payroll, no more ridiculous lifetime pensions after a short span of service, no more $38 million renovations to house a person who is supposed to be working for us..... No more federal income tax, although our provincial income tax would surely go up somewhat. FYI, I have not been drinking 'the Kool-Aid' or anything else tonight. Just thinking out loud and looking for some feedback. Thanks to all who take the time to respond in a constructive and mature manner!

Neither the Canadian Government or the Bank of Canada has 'issued' (created) any 'currency' (money) since ~1973, that money creation (and profit 'making') function has been 'assumed' by the privately owned for profit Canadian Chartered Banks.

The failure of the Bank of Canada to perform this function is the root cause of the large increase in Canada's National Debt since ~1973, and of the increased tax load necessary to pay the resultant costs of interest and principal payments.
http://comer.org/

We could have a dictatorship, which isn't really all that favoured.

Russian, Chinese, North Korea types.

I would think we as Canadians still have it pretty good,, considering the mis steps of our current government.

:lol: Yup.

Like someone said it would become the federal government of alberta. I would seriusly doubt that we would keep the current system of provinces unless we adobted an eu like system. If it did what would happen to the territorys where they have little in terms of goods their real use is our position in the north.

In terms of defense with out the federal government, if the army keeps working as it does then we put our selfs in a postion where our army has no definitive leader. Does it follow a group of all the premeirs or do we ellect one person to do it. When dealing with other countrys who do we send to delegate yet again a group of all our premeirs?

As for costing less and bringing the government closer to the people. Good luck. Imagine trying to get all the reps of the provinces to do anything in a timely manor or cheap for that matter. I figure this would only make it harder for us. With the current system thing can be pushed through.
I figure the feds do a lot.

Sure, we would all be better off as a bunch of trivial Balkanized states. NOT.

We already have a big problem as a small country next to an all powerful neighbour.

Just jibber is all...

You don't want your military running the country.

Oh Dear
 

I would say other than the Health system and CPP there isn't much holding this together. But as others have mentioned we do have an armed forces, fought a number of wars to protect ourselves and others, and can you imagine a customs at every provincial boarder?

Us prairie provinces would be land locked and held hostage like we already are for getting anything in and out of our "little" country.

As bad as the liberals are, we have it too good to break away.

Just talking about a Western Alliance that included BC, AB and Sask would be a huge step in the right direction


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Wow, where do you work? :bad_boys_20: LOL

If you didn't have a federal government you would not have a country. You would have ten separate countries. Each with it's own duplicate constitutions, supreme courts, trade agreements, treaties. Do your co workers propose to have ten armies, ten air forces, and make 5 ocean-facing provinces have navies? The departmental duplication would be ridiculous.

Basically this... No need to separate from Canada, but we need a block of western provinces to get together and form a political party that is large enough to hold the parties in charge accountable to the west, much like the bloc does for Quebec. We will never have enough seats to hold the main seat in federal power, but enough combined that any party in that seat will require our votes to achieve anything. That is the point where we gain actual power rather than perceived power.

What purpose does it serve????????

Uhh, ah, umm, uh, ah, hmmmm, uh - I know! Entertainment :sHa_shakeshout:

Correct! Vote for referendum. To break from confederation. It is Eastern Canada, that has it too good. Not western Canada.

http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/c...o-ottawa-a-lot

The question is What purpose is served by our Federal Gov't which is beyond the capability of a decent or skilled Provincial Gov't?

It serves the purpose of the Elite, a Canadian Elite in Ontario and Quebec. It was never meant to serve the purpose of Western Canadians.

The West is in this "Confederation" because the resistance to Canadian military takeover failed. Those living here at the time were not asked, and those brought in afterwards have been told this arraignment is best for everyone. It was never meant to and still does not serve our interests.

The Purpose that could be served by the federal government and Confederation is to better represent our interests on a global scale, to advance our goals internationally, but that isn't an option at this point in time.

One of the main purposes of the colonies Confederating was to defend against U.S. aggression. Which is why a Canadian military able to defend Canada and answer to Canadian masters was so important to so many so long ago. Today Canada is a protectorate of the USA, almost completely dependent on the U.S. for defense, even responding to border issues and delivering services. Even our databases, including CPIC, are shared with the USA which is not uncommon with protectorates.

The other purpose of Canadian Confederation was to defend against reciprocity, free trade. By creating a trading zone of many colonies Canada was meant to protect business and resources north of the US border from plundering and domination. Today Canada has among the highest foreign ownership of it's business and industries and is locked into a trade agreement that gives US business almost complete access.

IMO the time to review Confederation is long overdue. It has failed on so many levels and in particular failed to represent or defend Western Canada and the concerns of Western Canadians.

Confederations are short term arrangements meant to end when the conditions that create them have ended. Those conditions have ended, it's time to end the Confederation and create new alliances in which our interests are better represented.

Not to dampen your mood but our supreme court has already ruled that a province doesn't have the authority or right to negotiate a separation with just the Federal government. All provinces would need to be involved with the province leaving the country. Not only that but the House of Commons would probably have to vote to amend the constitution to allow the release of a province, which is unlikely to happen.

http://www.canadahistory.com/section...ion_ruling.htm

The police already do

Thank you. Not insurmountable. Will of the people. Cannot be a close vote.

Regarding this ^, prior to confederation the only Western province that existed was BC. All other western provinces were considered to be the Northwest Territory (prior to 1870 the land was technically owned by HBC as they had commercial domain over it). BC joined confederation due to the Feds promising a rail line to BC and insuring unelected members of the BC legislature received their pensions after a fully elected legislature was put in place. They even considered being annexed by the US due to Alaska being purchased, but the pro-confederation side won.

After construction of the rail line the Feds and CPR both used incentives to get people to move out west. Many of the towns and cities that now exist were due to their close proximity to the CPR line.

As for any resistance to Canada's expansion into the west the only large event that comes to mind, besides opposition in BC that was met during the construction of the rail line, is the Red River rebellion. But that was more related to Canadian and Metis relations.

Maybe not, but ensuring that the referendum question is clear and concise, according to the Feds (right is ensured by the supreme court ruling that was linked to), before a referendum can even be held is practically impossible (try and get 150+ people in the HoC to agree on proper wording of 1 question), and if possible then at the very least a lengthy process. This is pretty much why the Parti Quebecois hasn't had a referendum since 95.