Carbon Tax A Unifying Front?

The Record Friday June 27, 2008
http://news.therecord.com/article/374263

This weekend I read an article in The Record entitled A Changing Canada Seems Receptive to Carbon Tax seeing as it has been talked about so much lately, I figured I should see what the author had to say. I was surprised to read more about the state of Canada as a nation than the carbon tax itself. Richard Gwyn writes about how Canadians are not getting angry about the proposed carbon tax. He believes that this is the case because tax payers get part or all of the tax back but more importantly because “it’s a pan-Canadian program”. Gwyn then goes on to describe how Canada has become a series of provinces instead of one nation.
This article sparked my interest for a number of reasons. First off simply because I am also taking ECON 102 with Larry Smith and he explained in one of his lectures that Canadians don’t mind paying taxes as much as our American counterparts and I like it when things in my classes coincide with things outside of class and things in other classes, it makes what I am learning about seem relevant.
The second reason I was interested in this article was that it kind of made me mad. I mean, I really liked what Gwyn was talking about and it made a lot of sense, but since when is Canada just 10 provinces? What about the 3 territories too? He talks about the unity of the nation but then leaves out 3 members of that nation. I feel that this kind of thing happens a lot. Am I missing something here? Are the territories really not a part of Canada? Or are they a semi-part or something? I’m confused. The way I see it, their lack of population or economic resources make some people think they don’t count. That’s just stupid, just because an area has problems doesn’t mean it doesn’t count, it means that it needs help.
The final reason that I was interested in this article, and the reason why I thought it would work really well for this blog is because it discusses the way that Canada has become broken. How it is no longer one but many. This makes me sad, I don’t really have a good argument as to why Canada should stay together; strong and united, I just feel that it should. I mean one of the reasons I love Canada is because of the differences that are represented. I mean you go from one province (or territory) to another and you can see the most incredible differences. Flat prairies, high mountains, seas, tundra, anything you want. I believe that our differences make us stronger. Sometime this term, I can’t remember for sure what class, I learned that the ability of a country to sustain itself on its own resources is an incredible thing. Canada can do this because of its diversity and not only can it sustain itself but it can have some fun with it, I mean who really wants to eat only one kind of food? Diversity does have its problems as we learned from our lecture on tensions within Canada’s borders. Everyone wants their problems to be top priority and people don’t always understand another’s point of view but seeing as Canada is known for its acceptance of differences shouldn’t that include geographical ones? As we prepare to celebrate Canada Day on Tuesday I think we should also prepare to take steps towards becoming more unified, even if that means another tax.