now constitutionally bilingual. Criminal justice
written Constitution, by custom and usage,
must now be bilingual wherever the facilities
and by arrangements between the national
exist or can be made available.
and provincial legislatures and governments
as to how they would use their respective
The country?s resources grow; the provinces?
powers. These other ways in which our system
and territories? needs change. Some are
has changed, and is changing, give it great
rich, others less well off . Federalism makes
fl exibility, and make possible a multitude of
possible a pooling of fi nancial resources and
special arrangements for particular provinces
reduction of such disparities. Federal-provincial
or regions within the existing written
conferences, bringing together all the heads of
Constitution, without the danger of ?freezing?
government, have been held fairly frequently
some special arrangement that might not have
since the fi rst one in 1906, and are a major force
worked out well in practice.
in evolving new solutions. Yet there are always
areas of dispute, new adjustments required,
There may still be many changes. Some are
and special problems to be met.
already in process, some have been slowly
evolving since 1867, and some are only
Historically, Canada is a nation founded by
glimmerings along the horizon. They will come,
the British and the French. Yet it is now a great
as they always do in the parliamentary process,
amalgam of many peoples. They have common
at the hands of many governments, with the
rights and needs, and their own particular
clash of loud debate, and with the ultimate
requirements within the general frame of the
agreement of the majority who cast their votes.
law. All these must be recognized. We are far
yet from realizing many of our ideals, but we
We are concerned with the relations
have made progress.
between French-speaking and English-
speaking Canadians, and with the division of
As a country we have grown richer, but we have
powers between the federal and provincial
paid a price in terms of environmental pollution.
governments. We always have been. But the
We are leaving the farms and bushlands and
Living Government
47
How Canadians Govern Themselves
crowding into the cities. Ours is becoming a
computerized, industrialized, urbanized, and
anada
ever more multicultural society, and we face
the diffi
culties of adapting ourselves and our
o: Elections C
institutions to new lifestyles.
Phot
These changes have produced a new concern
for an environment that our forebears took for
granted. We believe in just and peaceful sharing,
but how is that to be achieved? We have gained
for ourselves a certain measure of security for
the aged and sick and helpless, yet poverty is
still with us. So are regional disparities.
These are all problems of government, and
therefore your problems. They all concern
Voting is one way of participating directly in
millions of people and are diffi
