Speaker to Animals wrote:Smitty-48 wrote:Speaker to Animals wrote:
It wouldn't be that at all, though. We would just replace the federal government with the confederal government, with former obligations transferred to the latter.
It would still be a federal government, you would simply have the confederated prerogative to opt out, as Quebec does for example. They even opt out on a case by case basis, they've opted out of even signing the constitution in fact, they in effect, have their cake and eat it too.
I basically would like us to walk back federation a bit just to have a bit more autonomy between regions similar to how Canada runs. Not saying it's utopic, I just don't see how this ends well. The federal government itself is a civil war now since all the regions have to battle for control of it in order to not have their culture destroyed.
In the end, you still have common interests, there's enough to bind you together at a confederated level, but having an opt out clause, particularly on a case by case basis, would ratchet down the pressure, as it would no longer be paramount for any particular interests within your federation to have to try to seize dictatorial powers over the rest.
Here we call it the Notwithstanding Clause, which is like a safety valve, to allow opt out rather than blow the Confederation up.
It's almost never invoked by the way, but just the fact that its there, just in case, keeps the pressure from ratcheting up, in of itself.
So for example Quebec's language laws, Francais Uber Alles, that's not technically constitutional in the rest of Canada, but Quebec simply opts out, and none of the rest of us are inclined to go to war over it, and with Nothwithstanding Clause, we wouldn't have any legal basis to even if we were.