Veto Nation: Carney’s Vision Is a Curse on Unity

Unity isn’t built by handing out vetoes like Halloween candy. But that’s precisely what Prime Minister Mark Carney proposes for Canada: a governance structure for major projects so Balkanized, so suffocatingly fractured, that it makes the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth’s liberum veto look like an efficient bureaucracy (more on this below). Carney wants every Premier and every federally designated Indigenous group to have a veto over major national infrastructure. In theory, that sounds like an inclusive approach. In practice, it’s a formula for paralysis.

Let’s set aside the political rhetoric and look at the mechanics. Under Carney’s vision, Northern Gateway, a pipeline that would have shipped Alberta crude to Asia through British Columbia, would never see daylight (just like under the sclerotic Trudeau regime), not because of B.C. alone, but because Quebec and a network of interest groups could all find reasons to kill it. And someone would. That’s not a guess; it’s institutionalized sabotage.

Canada's constitutional architecture is founded on the division of powers: Ottawa handles matters of national importance, such as interprovincial infrastructure, while provinces manage their respective jurisdictions, like natural resources. Carney’s approach turns that on its head. By granting a national veto to every Premier and indigenous band, he weakens Ottawa’s ability to act in the national interest and undermines each province’s ability to chart its path. In a twisted irony, every Premier becomes the prisoner of the most obstructionist among them.