Thirty Million Musketeers: One Canada, For All Canadians

Terry A. Crowley is an associate professor of history at the University
of Guelph and the author of Agnes Macphail and the Politics of Equality.

British Columbian “think-tanker” Gordon Gibson understands the
seriousness of the painful choices Canada faces in the light of its near
dissolution vis-а-vis the 1995 Quebec referendum. His plan for the
reform of Canada is driven by two main assumptions: (i) that deficit
reduction and decentralization are essential; and (ii) that a new and
symmetrical federalism is the best route to follow. What Gibson, who is
a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute, does not consider sufficiently
is whether Canadians are now so overgoverned that even provincial
structures should be reconfigured (perhaps on a regional basis, with
Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver constituting new provincial entities).
Such an innovation would greatly reduce the government burden by
removing regional structures and minimizing municipal functions. While
much of what Gordon Gibson proposes is contentious and open to argument,
his book is a thoughtful and well-informed addition to the debate. Here
is a thinker who is part of the solution rather than an expression of
the problem.