The Swiss just said NO
The Blip Report for Wednesday, September 25th 2024
I read a story about my friends in Switzerland – ‘Swiss voters reject biodiversity proposal in blow to conservation campaigners’, that the greenies were trying to win a referendum that would increase the amount of money that the nation needs to spend to protect its environment.
Fortunately, the Swiss voters are too smart to fall for it, and 2/3 voted against it – except for Geneva, of course. However, from reading the story in the western press, you’d never know the real story – it wasn’t that the Swiss people didn’t want to protect their environment from pollution.
Now, it seems that Switzerland already spends 600 million Swiss francs EACH YEAR on protecting their landscape, but the greenies wanted to spend another 400 million Swiss francs each year!!! And shut down any new development!!! But that’s not how we protect our environment, say the Swiss farmers!
And that got me thinking about how Canada should be more like Switzerland. When a people decide to establish a government, and which they consent to be governed by, they should state the purpose of such a union - right up front, not in the fine print.
In the case of Switzerland, it is stated in Article 2 of their Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation:
“The objects of the Confederacy are: To insure the independence of the country against foreign power; To maintain tranquillity and order in the interior; To protect the liberty and rights of the Confederates; and to promote the common welfare.”
Now, that idea of ‘to promote the common welfare’, reminds me alot of the purpose of the United States, that is stated in the preamble to their constitution:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Both are noble examples of a union’s purpose - for each other’s welfare.
However, in the case of my country, Canada, I couldn’t find any such stated purpose. The closest that I could find was Article 9 of our Constitution Act:
“The Executive Government and Authority of and over Canada is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Queen.”
While the people of Switzerland and the United States have a stated purpose in life, meanwhile here in Canada, only the Queen or King has a purpose, but not their subjects.
“O woe is me! We have no purpose!” chirped a little birdie.
But in this modern age, surely this should no longer be tolerated! We, Canadians, should find a purpose for our nation, too.
“yes, yes, yes” chirped all the little birdies!
But whoa, wait a minute. Before we can decide upon our purpose, it seems that first, we have to establish the proper means of doing so.
Now, it quite obviously appears that we would first have to change that Article 9, to:
“The Executive Government and Authority of and over Canada is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Governor-General of Canada.”
OK, but of course, that implies, that second, our Governor-General could not be somehow appointed, but would now have to be democratically elected by all of the citizens of Canada.
And so then, third, the Governor-General, having been duly elected by the majority of Canadian citizens, could now call for the convening of a Constitutional Convention to debate and to decide upon the future purpose of Canadians.
And a little birdie chirped that maybe we could have one of those referendums like they have in Switzerland, too.
And so, I began wondering what that purpose should be? Well … for now I’m just going to sit here drinking my morning cup of coffee, and listen to my feathered friends as they sing the William Tell Overture!!!
Have fun. purposefully.