An Exercise in Opposites

Provincial politics in Canada can be a messy business and our ten premiers don’t get a lot of respect. Submerged in the politics of the street, kept in their rooms when Canada is on display at the G8 or he United Nations, they have no “national” mission to offer their citizens (except in Quebec). They materialize en groupe from time to time—to demand more money from Ottawa—and then disappear back into their local newspapers where they are called to account for overcrowded emergency rooms, unpaved roads and unemployment. Despite the constitutional notion that our federal system consists of two equal “orders” of government, most people don’t see it that way, and the head of a provincial legislature rarely achieves, even in his or her own province, the stature we automatically assign to the prime minister of Canada.

A provincial premier’s job description is clearly laid out in the Constitution. But the enumerated provincial powers must be applied uniformly to...