Does Canada Matter?

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Robertson, as befits a retired senior bureaucrat, does not always use
plain language. In this publication, however, one cannot complain about
the language or the reliability. Robertson, to use the vernacular, tells
it like it is.

In this published lecture, he lays out the constitutional options
facing Canada. He concludes that the answer lies in asymmetrical
federalism or Quebec’s complete separation, but certainly not the
status quo.

Events will undoubtedly overtake Robertson’s writings. It would be
unfortunate if, in their rush to find solutions, Canadians did not stop
and review Robertson’s work. His discussion on the use of plebiscites,
for example, is far more clear-headed than that now emerging from
Ottawa.

The work deserves far wider distribution than it has received. However,
it would be appreciated if, in any rewrite, Robertson would realize that
there is a region of Canada east of Quebec, which, though it may not
require the time he gives to the West, is nevertheless a player in this
constitutional contest.