Here in Canada a young Member of Parliament recently got into some hot water by saying that if things got very bad under our Conservative Prime Minister, Steven Harper, he might consider seperation from Canada for his province, Quebec.
Now this wasn't just any politician, it was Justin Trudeau, handsome, intelligent, charismatic son of former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau. Many Canadians think that he will one day run for the leadership of the Liberal Party and possibly become Prime Minister. You may remember the last time Justin was in the news for calling a fellow parliamentarian a "piece of shit".
Justin was speaking on the radio about his sadness at the way the country was heading under Harper and made this comment:
"I always say, if at a certain point I thought that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper - that we were going against abortion, and we were going against gay marriage and we were going backwards in 10,000 different ways - maybe I would think about wanting to make Quebec a country."
This remark set off a whirlwind of controversy as you can well imagine, given the history of seperatism in our country. There has always been, in the province of Quebec, a feeling among some that they are getting a raw deal as part of Canada and would be better off forming a seperate nation. A referendum on the subject was held in 1995 and was defeated by a narrow margin of just 1.2%. And then, in our last election, the seperatist party was handed a stunning defeat, going from 47 seats to just 4. Their leader, Gilles Duceppe failed to win his own seat and was forced to resign. The seperatist solution would seem to have been repudiated. Trudeau's father, the former Prime Minister, was a staunch defender of Canada, and would have been proud. It was because of many of his efforts that Quebecers were persuaded that Canada was where they belonged.
Justin Trudeau has since tried to clarify his remarks saying that he believes deeply in Canada and that "Canada needs Quebec to balance out Harper's vision that I (and many) just don't support".
It should be said that while some members of Harper's Conservative party occasionally express anti-abortion sentiments, Harper has pledged not to re-open debate on abortion or gay marriage, both of which are legal in Canada.
Mr. Trudeau's comments got me thinking. How bad would things have to get before I would consider supporting a movement to seperate my province from the rest of Canada? And would I ever consider moving away from my country, if I could no longer tolerate what it had become? Both options would be extremely painful for me as I love my "home and native land" dearly. I hope that it will never come to this and also that, faced with this situation, I would fight hard to bring progressive values back to my country. But you just never know....
And then I began to think about you, my American friends. This election could, if it goes the wrong way, lead your country down a path that would be disastrous. A leader like Gingrich, Santorum or Romney could move the agenda so far to the right that America would never be the same. Some pretty extreme ideas are being tossed around- an end to abortion, and even contraception, dis-mantling of social security, repeal of health care reforms, children working as janitors! I hope and believe that sanity will prevail, Democrats will defeat Republicans all across the nation and America will step back from the brink.
But what if, by some horrible series of events, that does not happen? What if the country heads down the road of the far right? I am curious. What would it take for you to consider seperating from the United States of America? Or moving to another country?
I would really love to hear your thoughts on this, though I know how painful the subject is.
How bad would it have to get?