Stand Up for Canada: Leadership and the Canadian Political Crisis

Paul G. Thomas is a political science professor at the University of
Manitoba.

The thesis of this book is that Canada needs leaders who will defend the
national interest, not promote regional or special interests, and who
will deal with the difficulties created by the Mulroney government. This
is not a book of academic writing, although the Jacksons are also
co-authors of a best-selling textbook on Canadian political science.
Readers should also know that Robert Jackson once served in the office
of then Liberal leader John Turner.

The book reflects the authors’ belief that people with special
knowledge of the political system should speak out against reckless
experimentation that could tear the country apart. Canada has always
been characterized by deep cleavages along ethnic, linguistic, and
regional lines, but the dangers of fragmentation are compounded today by
weak political leadership. According to the authors, leaders can be
regarded as either friends or enemies of Canada; they see Brian Mulroney
as an enemy, Jean Chrétien and Audrey McLaughlin as friends (but not
strong leaders). Declining public confidence in political institutions,
the decline of mainstream political parties and the rise of regional
protest parties, the proliferation of single-issue interest groups, and
an increasingly shallow and sensational mass media are other conditions
that threaten national unity.

Though the book went to print before the referendum rejection of the
Charlottetown Accord and before Mulroney announced his resignation, its
main message remains relevant. “Canadians can adjust the Constitution
to accommodate the demands of a pluralistic society,” the authors
write, “but we must do it in a slow, deliberate incremental manner.”
If the 1993 federal election produces a multi-party Parliament, the book
will continue to be very relevant.