(The) Majority of Canadians: Questioning Cdn Governance - Let's Start by Examining 'First Principles', Actual Documentation and the vagaries of history that led us astray ...

Dear Editor,

Thank you for publishing Governance Matters: How is it working for Canadians?

The trouble with this analysis is the authors (as has everyone else) have overlooked the phrase "similar in principle" in the preamble to 30 & 31 Victoria, c. 3 (U.K.) - the inherent differences in the Canadian system are as important as the similarities to the Westminster model.

I will not bore you with arguments and histories - here are the nubs:

1) We have a constitutionally-entrenched Executive Order of govt representing the Order-of-Power ABOVE itself within each order of our hierarchical power-sharing arrangement i.e. the Governor General and Privy Council represent the interest/perspective of the Monarch-in-Council and Lt Governor represents the interests/perspective of the General/ConFederal govt. (NB more about the "Benign Benevolence" of the Crown later)

2) Just as important UK constitution is NOT written, it's all tradition/conventions, where our BNA/Constitution 1867 as amended, is ALL written plus some traditions/conventions

3) Canada has NOT been following the provisions of its written Constitution (in evolving steps) since March 25/1940.

--Order in Council P.C.1940-1121 (attached) expanded and merged the Office of Clerk of the Privy Council (Executive Order) with the Office of Principal Secty of the Cabinet (Legislative).

--This emergency, (temporary?) wartime measure devised, presented and passed by Rt Hon Wm L M King (in the absence of both a Clerk of the Privy Council (Lemaire retired Jan 1/40) AND a Governor General(Lord Tweedsmuir died suddenly in Feb 11/40) has lead to the over-powerful PMO/PCO leviathan that the authors almost-complain about.

----As an aside, albeit an informative one...This Order in Council was drafted to become "effective" two days before it was passed ....

Messers Dining and Mitchell's comments on an emerging "political service", "explicit checks and balances", deteriorating media coverage and their over-reliance on well-spun press releases due to "reduced operating budgets of news organizations" are excellent observations on the observable symptoms, but are conveyed from a perspective that seems near-nescient of the root causes of the observed symptoms.

The root to address is "shall we follow the Cdn Constitution 1867 as amended, or not?" I've translated it to Plain Language (the salient bits anyway)

Then, if we choose NOT, we must ask - "will we blithely allow the power-wielders to absorb more and more power unto themselves (as now), or shall we write new rules to govern their behaviour in minority and majority (create a Cabinet Manual as Peter H. Russell et al are doing)

I admire the thrust, breadth, depth and personnel of the authors' Canada's Public Policy Forum but ask them to spend some time on "the basics" - the nubs and root, I suggest for example.

Enough time has been wasted (Charlottetown, Meech, Victoria and the rest) fiddling with the rigging - now is time to attend to the keel and the rudder.

I firmly believe that Canada HAS the perfect governance system but:

a) it was arrested in development -territorial-divisions are blatantly unequal AND rely on lattitude/longitude rather than geography/watersheds;

b) the power-vacuum created by the withdrawal of the "benign benevolence" -The Office of Crown of Canada has been filled by usurpers-of-the-throne (inmates running the asylum), and not by duty-filled representatives of the heirs /partakers /stakeholders/ taxpayers/ residents/ citizens of Canada ( I think we should simply do a " deemed disposition" of HM's Assets, Treasury to the citizens collectively and HM's Authority to the Office of GG) see Proclamation of 2003;

b) as above, we're just not following its written provisions.

Truly

Robert Ede,