Vandals at the Garden's Gates? Political Reaction to the Maritime Union Proposal on Prince Edward Island

Abstract

The concept of Maritime union--that is, political amalgamation of the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island--has, in recent years, again appeared on the Canadian political agenda. As in the past, two main forces drive it: First, there remains the looming threat of Quebec secession, which might result in the dismemberment of the country, leaving its easternmost provinces isolated and adrift. Second, there is the fiscal crisis that now informs politics in Canada, and which has caused great concern in region so dependent on Ottawa. Many are the voices in the rest of that now insist that the Maritime provinces unite, even if only as cost-saving device. Their endorsement of Maritime union is part of wider agenda that has gained currency in the 1990s: the downsizing of government and public-sector bureaucracies in the quest for efficiency and economies of scale. Proponents of amalgamation claim that larger units would facilitate regional economic planning, save administrative costs by eliminating the duplication that comes with competing layers of government, streamline and combine departments, provide less costly delivery of services, and lessen competition for jobs and investment. Amalgamation, they contend, will help solve the dilemma faced by every level of government in the 1990s: how provide decent public services with ever-shrinking budgets while avoiding an increase in taxes. The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Newspaper, has extolled the virtues of political and economic union and warned Maritimers that patience with keeping the region afloat is running short; Canadians can no longer afford support impoverished provinces, no matter what the historical and romantic reasons for their existence. Having distinct law-making bodies alone costs one-third of billion dollars year; and what of the more than forty overlapping public-sector institutions? The costs of provincehood, concluded the paper, are themselves an impediment growth.(1) David Yager, Calgary Herald columnist, has called surely the most over-governed country in the world and cited PEI in particular as a microcosm of structural bureaucratic overlap that diverts billions of dollars from the creation of real private sector jobs government for government's sake.... Without federal transfers and subsidies from wealthier regions, it's likely none of the smaller provinces would exist at all. Taxpayers wouldn't stand for it. is now faced with the consequences of its profligate spending over the past decades, and the only solution, he suggests, is to get rid of smaller provinces entirely by merging them into larger and more cost-effective units. (2) Gordon Gibson, former leader of the British Columbia Liberal party, and now journalist and author affiliated with the Fraser Institute, has advocated the wringing out of such inefficiencies in the political system as small provinces, whose politicians and bureaucracies duplicate services. (3) And University of Toronto historian Michael Bliss, who owns summer home on the island, in his more gentle and humorous Toronto Star columns, has pondered aloud whether such an anomalous entity as PEI will survive, especially now that the Confederation Bridge links it the mainland. Derided by some as little more than cute little theme park, he wrote, PEI might end up as three counties of New Brunswick. He even questioned the viability of its only university. (4) These are few of the many examples of this type of discourse, one which can nowadays be found in books, newspapers, and on television throughout Canada. Little wonder that former premier Joe Ghiz in 1992 brooded about the possibility that, in its increasing lack of concern for the special economic, political, and social needs of small societies, Canada may not be able in the future accommodate Prince Edward Island as separate and viable entity. …