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Date: 1930-05-27
By: Canada (House of Commons)
Citation: Dominion of Canada, House of Commons, Official Report of  Debates House of Commons, 16th Parl, 4th Sess, 1930 at 2631.
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I repeat, I am not making these remarks to obstruct or retard the passage of this measure, but I am afraid that in the last few years we have developed the habit of giving a great deal of time to comparatively small questions and questions of money, and then leaving till the last two or three days of the session the greatest questions of state which should be most carefully considered because their consequences in the future may be very far-reaching, either as regards the relations between the Dominion and the provinces or the relations between the various provinces themselves. I thought it was my duty to suggest that the question was not so simple as it has been regarded; but at the same time I would not like to put myself along the same line of thought adopted by the hon. leader of the opposition, who seems to consider that this question of constitutional amendments is one that we cannot solve. We can solve it. We can exercise our rights, and therefore we can make the power in conformity with the right, make the fact conform with the theory. But so long as we have not done it, so long as for reasons good or bad, such as have been expressed time and again, by the premier of Quebec, Mr. Taschereau, whose views I respect but do. not share-so long as you have people east and west who imagine th.at Canada is not just enough, that Canada is not manly enough, to exercise its nationhood to the full, that we must rely upon a foreign tribunal to pass final adjudication upon our legal quarrels. upon a foreign parliament to give the final touch to our most important pieces of legislation, then we must be ,prepared to accept some of the consequences, nay, all the consequences, of that state of fact which wisely or unwisely we choose to keep in being.

That was suggested to me partly by the argument made by the hon. member for St. John-Albert (Mr. MacLaren). We of the we t or of the central parts of Canada, are too apt to forget the dire position in which the maritime provinces find themselves. They have been, I repeat, the victims of confederation. They have paid practically all the penalties of the confederation pact, with very little compensation; and as far as I am concerned I would view with sympathy some means being taken by those provinces to assert their rights. I suggest humbly and in a friendly way to my friends of the maritime provinces-I think they know the sincerity of my feelings-that they should induce their provincial governments to take direct action and send their delegates to London to place their views before the Imperial parliament. They would then have at once the advantage of having their views properly aired and, as well, a declaration by the Imperial parliament as to whether that body still considers it elf as the arbiter between the various provinces of Canada, or as between the Dominion and those provinces.

Finlay MacDonald—I want to join with the hon. member for St. John-Albert (Mr. MacLaren) in protesting against this legislation going through until the question is decided whether or not the maritime provinces have any right to those lands. They claim that they have. They may be wrong. Their claim is opposed by our friends from the west. I say that that claim should be determined before this thing passes irrevocably out of our hands. The present assurances do not go far enough. They are the same assurances that were given to our representatives in 1912, that when the matter came to be discussed and the lands were given over to the western provinces, the claims of the maritime provinces would be recognized. That time has come and those claims have not been recognized. The hon. member for Labelle (Mr. Bourassa) has enlarged on the point that I had in my mind, that it will be the duty of the three maritime governments to appear before the Imperial parliament and oppose the passage of this legislation until that claim is settled one way or the other. It may be that we have no claim. Very well; let us have it decided; and then the people of the maritimes will be satisfied. But until that question is settled I believe that the people of the maritime provinces will feel that they have been unjustly treated in this matter.

Motion agreed to.

William Lyon Mackenzie King moved that the said address be engrossed.

Motion agreed to.

William Lyon Mackenzie King moved:

That a message be sent to the Senate to inform their honours that this house has passed an address to His Most Excellent Majesty the King praying that he may graciously be pleased to give his consent to submitting a measure to the parliament of the United Kingdom to amend the British North America acts, 1867 to 1916, in the manner set forth in the said address hereto attached, and requesting that their honours will unite with this house in the said address by filling up the blank therein with the words “Senate and.”

Motion agreed to.