As Canada’s PM, Pierre E. Trudeau single-mindedly drove the Canadian government to bring home our constitution. By the way, it was not repatriated. Our constitution was never here. It was patriated, but I digress. The process was not begun by the PM. It actually began in 1927, but the British parliament wasn’t interested until the Canadian provinces could agree on an amending formula. They couldn’t.

In 1980 the PM attempted a unilateral patriation, but the supreme court stopped him. In 1981, after a prolonged negotiation, the feds and nine of the provinces agreed on a formula. Quebec had objections but was ignored and the British Parliament passed The Canada Act 1982. The bill received royal assent from Queen Elizabeth II in March of that year.

When it received Royal assent, I was 38 and strongly opposed to having a written constitution. I had had studied American history and seeing the constant struggles over what a comma meant or how a word was defined, I did not want that here. I have not changed my mind in the intervening 33 years. I remain opposed and what is occurring to the Great Republic (not to mention how many times we have gone to the supreme court to ask them what our Charter of Rights means) continues to prove my point. By the way, this says nothing of the deep wound we collectively gave to our confederation by ignoring the wishes of our second largest province.

I have always believed in the strength of Common Law and that it was a better system than written “black letter law.” Likewise, I am a staunch believer in the advantages of our parliamentary system — with all of its flaws — over the bi-cameral republican model devised by the colonies to our south. For over 200 years Americans have insisted that their system of “checks and balances” was superior to all others. They brag incessantly about leading the “Free World” and that only in America can a citizen of low birth rise to be the leader of a great nation. (It is more readily accomplished in Canada than practically anywhere else.) They brag that their military is unique because it does not swear an oath to a monarch or to leader but to their constitution. It is all part of American Exceptionalism, and the scales may finally be falling from their eyes as many citizens come to see that they are not better nor better protected from madmen than many other nations. To put it more colloquially, as my old friend Murray MacLure used to say in his droll mid-western Canadian way, “Don’t eat that, Elmer. Smells like horseshit to me.”

Americans are currently dismembering their great republic brick by cracked brick. The last bastion of strength is the US military, and we have already seen some (not many to be honest) senior officers turn a blind eye to the illegality of their political leaders. The “pep rally” in Quantico may have turned the tide, but we shall see and as the saying goes (when used correctly) the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Until the commander-in-chief gives a manifestly illegal order and generals refuse him, I remain skeptical, if hopeful.

By the way, America is not the only republic whose military swears an oath to something other than an individual (as we Canadians do). Here is the oath sworn by Germans who wish to serve in the Bundeswehr:

“I swear to loyally serve the Federal Republic of Germany and to courageously defend the right and the liberty of the German people, so help me God.”

For the non-religious, they can drop the religious adjunct and replace it with a solemn affirmation, but it remains a legal oath to the republic and the German people, and not to an individual.

The tone of this post has been a bit snarky and so I will ease up on the criticism of our neighbours somewhat. If the American experiment has demonstrated anything, it has confirmed the power of their pluralistic society to heal itself. It does not always heal properly but scar tissue can be a good thing. After the bloodletting of the American Civil War, where they murdered 750,000 of their brothers and sisters, and against all odds, they somehow rebuilt and created a country that rose to be the world’s greatest and most benign hegemon.

They can do it again. The question is, how big will the butcher’s bill be?

PS: Winning and Losing Part II will be posted next week.