Canada Is Not a Real Country

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Taking his title from the “mean-spirited” remark by Quebec Premier
Lucien Bouchard that Canada is not a real country, Thomas Schnurmacher
suggests that we start acting like one. An avowed federalist, this
Montrealer is a daily talk-show host on CJAD 800 and has been a
columnist for the Gazette since 1978.

Schnurmacher argues the case for national unity with logic, passion,
and conviction. He begins by quoting a report published in June 1996 by
the C.D. Howe Institute that concludes, “There is not a single
constitution in the entire world that allows a region seeking
independence from a country to hold its own referendum.” He then
points out that appeasement will never work, that the people of Quebec
are not hostile to Canada, and that the separatist movement is fueled by
an elite in Quebec while Ottawa remains silent. Schnurmacher urges the
Canadian government to take a more active role in the national-unity
debate by spelling out the issues and results of separation.

Like Trevor McAlpine’s The Partition Prin-ciple: Remapping Quebec
After Separation (1996), Canada Is Not a Real Country makes a strong
case for a united country and for the advantages that this arrangement
offers to all its citizens. Federalists who have felt frustrated with
the debate (or, in recent years, the lack thereof) will enjoy this book,
and separatists would do well to consider its arguments and
implications.