Discussion on Peace, Order, and Good Government

We had our discussion at the Ideas Cafe yesterday about the constitutional ideals of Peace, Order, and Good Government for Canada, and Liberty, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Happiness for the United States.

It is interesting that these mottoes actually seem to reflect the different character of the two countries. 

Shula pointed out that relatively speaking, the federal government in the US did not have much power until foreign issues such as the Spanish American war and the two world wars rallied the need for a stronger central government while the Canadian federal government have always had more central power.

Historically, the fact that the US started from a revolution against British taxes perhaps made them a bit more prone to idealism in their aspirations. The Canadian federation was formed later, evolved under British rule, and had already had a lot of loyalist that came to Canada from the US as they did not want to be part of the US revolution. 

The Canadian tone therefore is naturally more accommodating to the then British rulers, the loyalists, as well as the founding British and French groups.

Mano pointed out that there was an effort to sell the benefits of good government as part of the reason to join the Canadian confederation.  Whether it is the postal service, the RCMP, the railroad that link the country,  it was pointed out that these are services that individual provinces would not have without joining the confederation.

In fact, part of the enticement for British Columbia to join the Canadian confederation was the promise of building the railroad across the Rockies to link up with the rest of Canada.  This was to fight off thoughts of BC joining the north west US states and draw the US-Canada border at a more northern latitude.

Dan wonders if the dominant influence of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada's development may have also been the push for peace, order, and good government.  After all, these are the conditions that traders and merchants flourish; in a stable, lawful environment.

It is indeed ironic that peace, order, and good government are the very infrastructure that allows the citizens to have liberty, freedom, and pursuit happiness.  Even if it sounds a bit boring, and somewhat confining, it seems to be the more productive of the two.  Kind of like the means to the end. 

Sounding off about the end is perhaps not as productive as concentrating on providing the means.

Of course, afterwards, looking up in Wikipedia showed that Peace, Order, and Good Government is not only used in Canada but also mentioned in Australia and New Zealand at one time or another.  It certainly has a hint of the British civil service promoting itself to the colonies. 

We may have bought it and called it our own.