User blog:Scopatore/Reimagining Canada

Name
At the moment, Canada has no full official name; it is simply Canada, unlike some of its fellow Commonwealth dominions like Australia (Confederation of Australia) or the Bahamas (Commonwealth of the Bahamas). Historically, Canada was known as the Dominion of Canada, but that tradition has fallen to the wayside following Canada's increasing independence from the United Kingdom and the 1982 Canada Act, which spoke only of Canada, never the Dominion.

Although I personally like the term Dominion of Canada, and it is still technically proper to use, I think moving forward Canada should adopt the title Kingdom of Canada. When Canada was first established, there was talk of officially calling Canada a kingdom, but Britain settled on Dominion as to not poke the American bear.

This new Canada, the Kingdom of Canada, should be called as such to reaffirm the nation's monarchical tradition in the face of both growing Canadian republican and indifferentist attitudes towards the monarchy; Canada shouldn't hide nor make any excuses for its monarchy, it should wear its crown on its sleeve.

Governor General of Canada
Canada is a constitutional monarchy and the governor general ostensibly acts as the Queen's representative, appointing vice regal candidates, senators, justices and other important duties constitutionally entrusted to the Crown. However, in reality, the governor general acts as little more than a rubber stamp for the prime minister's appointments and the bills of the Commons; anytime the governor general uses any reserve power constitutionally entrusted to them, it causes a major scandal. The Canadian people have firmly entrenched the idea of democratic legitimacy in their minds, where the only true legitimate authority is that which comes from an election by the people. This makes the prospective power I would like to give the governor general very difficult, as the Canadian public is very mistrustful of unelected power. However, the monarchy in Canada is in no danger of being disestablished because of how entrenched it is in the constitution and the difficulties of passing a referendum changing that. As such, there are ways to expand the monarchy's power substantially but without giving it complete executive power (a man can dream). The first way to do that is to reform the office of governor general, mainly substantially reducing (ideally removing) the prime minister's influence in the appointment of the governor general and extending the amount of powers they have.

Firstly, the Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments must be revived. This was a non-partisan council started by Stephen Harper to advise the Queen on the appointment of the governor general and subsequently on the appointments of the lieutenant governors and commissioners by the governor general. It currently lays dormant after the election of the Trudeau ministry but to properly maintain the post of governor general as an apolitical office, the prime minister's influence in their appointment must be checked. The advisory committee would be led by the Canadian Secretary to the Queen with two members of the House of Peers elected amongst themselves to sit on the Committee for a period not exceeding six years, and when it comes to appointing provincial and territorial vice regal positions, an additional representative from the provincial/territorial upper house would be added. The committee's job will be to come up with candidates for the vice regal post, where ideally multiple names would be presented to the Queen as suggestions for the post. As the committee is advisory in nature and the Queen is the country's sovereign, the final decision rests on her and the committee may be ignored at will if she desires to appoint someone of her choosing.

To empower the monarchy, the governor general would need a real veto on legislation. They do have a host of reserve powers, including the ability to refuse royal assent, but to actually use them except in dire circumstances would be political suicide. As such, we have to strengthen the monarchical aspect of government in other ways to make the threat of veto something tangible. The most important change in government to bring this about is the restructuring of the upper house.

Abolishment of the Senate and formation of a new Upper House
I would advocate the abolition of the Canadian Senate and its replacement with a new upper house: the House of Peers. The House of Peers will take inspiration from the House of Lords and create a new peerage for each of the ten provinces and three territories. The members will be appointed by the governor general from a list of candidates drawn up by the respective lieutenant governors and their own advisory councils. Inspired by such bodies as the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada, these "peerage advisory councils" would comprise of senior judges, clerks of the privy councils, heads of major universities, and heads of heritage, culture and arts councils in each of the provinces and territories who are charged with compiling a list of candidates for each seat in the peerage based on a criteria of exceptional service or merit performed for their province in different areas (like the tech field, art or mathematics for instance) or through actions such as being exemplary of a high standard of military or civilian service.

The Governor General of Canada will require the consultation of Her Majesty before each appointment and have the right of veto for any candidate the governor general brings forth; she may even appoint a different candidate if she desired, because after all, the governor general performs all his or her duties on behalf of the Queen. This process would be completely free from the interference of any politicians, especially the prime minister, premiers and their respective cabinets. The upper house should reflect the aristocratic part of the government, and the Queen and her vice regal representatives must be free to act at their own discretion.

These peers would be hereditary, with the automatic right to sit in the newly established Chamber of Peers, which would become the new upper chamber in each of the provincial and territorial legislatures, with the method of hereditary succession conforming with Salic Law unless exempted by Her Majesty. In each province and territory, there will be a maximum number of peers numbering at 50 for each province (with the exemption of PEI, who will have 35, and each territory, who will have 20). New peerages would be conditional upon the extinction of an existing one. Once this peerage is created, the peers in the provinces and territories would elect representatives from themselves to sit in the Canadian House of Peers. Each province is entitled to ten seats in the upper house save for Prince Edward Island (who would have five) and each territory will have three seats each reserved for them, resulting in a House of Peers consisting of 104 seats, one seat short of the current senate. The thought process behind this composition is to prevent the largest provinces (Ontario and Quebec) from dominating the upper house.

Every provincial peer would have an automatic seat in the provincial/territorial Chamber of Peers, and the ones who are elected to represent their province in the House of Peers are automatically elevated to the Peerage of Canada, with the governor general free to determine the rank and precedent of the ennobled, with the option of elevating or demoting their dignity at a later date. Like their provincial or territorial counterpart, the peerage would be for life, but unlike them, it would not be hereditary; in addition, in contrast to the current Senate, there would be no imposed mandatory retirement age. When a peer dies or resigns their seat, the Chamber of Peers from the province or territory they are from will elect a candidate from one of their own to replace the vacant seat.

Advantages
The benefits of a Canadian peerage and a House of Peers would be mainly the impartiality of its members instead of the pseudo-lackeys of whatever prime minister was in office, as well as serving as a substantial check on the House of Commons to reduce the influence of mob rule. It reduces the likelihood for unqualified celebrities and political cronies being appointed with the new stringent requirements for selection, as fame and close association with the prime minister and his political party would not be enough to secure an appointment.

The most important advantage however, is the hereditary nature of their position, which allows for a peer to give proper lifelong training to their son, cousin, relative or anyone of their choosing, which would make them far more qualified and competent at their job in contrast to modern-day senators. Peers owe their allegiance principally to the sovereign, and it is less likely that they will be corrupted by wealthy backers or party politics, allowing them to act independently and vote their conscience. This, coupled with the lifelong job security (and pressure from the public who believe strongly in "democratic legitimacy") means that peers would wield their power far more effectively than current senators in keeping the elected premiers and prime ministers, as well as the lower chambers of each government, at bay.

Minister of National Defence
The Minister of National Defence is, once again, technically appointed by the governor general (who is technically commander-in-chief) on the advice of the prime minister, but in reality he is selected by the prime minister. In addition, the minister is accountable to Parliament, which allows for the prime minister to be the de facto commander-in-chief by using the minister of national defence to exert control over the military. However, the military ought to be solely loyal to the head of state, that being the sovereign Queen Elizabeth II. They swear allegiance to her, and by extent the governor general, but the person pulling all the strings is Parliament (or the prime minister), not the Queen. As such, I think it would be prudent to introduce a Ministry of National Defence Reorganization Act, an amendment to the National Defence Act that states that the Minister of National Defence is responsible primarily to the crown, and not Parliament. A simple change but important because it cements into government that the governor general is the proper commander-in-chief and the Canadian Forces would be truly in their command; the Minister would no longer be a part of simply the prime minster's cabinet, but fully accountable to the governor

Provinces and territories
Canada is a federation, as it should be, and historically the fight between the federal and provincial governments had consistently led to the recognition of more and more powers of the provinces, at least until the replacement of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London by the Supreme Court of Canada as the nation's highest court of appeal, which then swung the pendulum more towards the middle in terms of the powers between federal and provincial governments. Of course, in keeping with subsidiarity, I feel even more power should be devolved to the provinces; of course, this seems silly to many people as Canada is (ostensibly) one of the most decentralized federations in the world, and most people want to give the federal government more power rather than less, but I would do the opposite for a few reasons.

Governorates
Governorates will be a new level of political association, in between provinces and the federal government. The idea is based off of the Imperial Circles of the Holy Roman Empire, in which the Empire was a collection of many states but within six circles of similar culture and geographical area, for the purpose of coordinating defence and collecting taxes. Each circle had their own parliament, the Circle Diet, although not everyone who was on that Diet was part of the overall Imperial Diet. Considering how large and diverse Canada is, and the historical power disparity between English Canada, French Canada, the Maritimes, and the Western provinces, I think a new level of political association is warranted, one that gives each of these regions power over their own affairs as well as uniting them in a more powerful bloc so Ottawa cannot stay in power based off two provinces alone and run roughshod around the rest of the country.

There will be five governorates: British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. The National Capital Region (or Greater Ottawa) will be an independent district run by the federal government, who will also oversee the territorial governments as before. These governorates will have their own parliaments, all of them bicameral, with a Legislative Assembly and a House of Peers (modeled alongside the House of Lords). The governorates will be able to have a lot more provinces and self-governing regions and still be efficient because most power and legislation will revolve around the individual provinces, metropolitan areas, and governorates. The federal government, as it should always have been, will play a supervising role amongst the governorates, who in turn will provide a supervising role over the provinces and not intervene unless absolutely necessary.

Each governorate will be headed by a first minister, and overseen by a governor - the new vice regal position in between lieutenant governor and governor general. The governor will be appointed by the governor general, while the first minister would be elected by the Senate; the bicameral legislature of the governorate, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and House of Peers.

Governorate of British Columbia
The Governorate of British Columbia would consist of five autonomous areas:


 * Greater Vancouver Metropolitan Area
 * Capital Region District (Greater Victoria)
 * Province of Vancouver Island
 * Province of the Interior
 * Province of Omenica (Northern BC)

The governorate would have a unified police force known as the British Columbia Royal Police (BCRP), modeled alongside the old RCMP. They would be performing policing duties for those areas that do not have their own police forces, as well as enforcing governorate law.

The capital would be in Greater Victoria