"john courtneidge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> One ?significant? comparison between the US and Canada lies inthe
> Constitutions:
>
> * The US focus on "Life, liberty and the pusuit of happiness."
>
> As compared to:
>
> * The Canadian focus on "Peace, order and good government."
>
> The former is the personal agenda, the second relates to our social needs
The American phrase is from the Declaration of Independence, not the
Constitution:
WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness ....
The Declaration *recognizes* a putatively self-evident state of
affairs. I think the impeachment of the Creator and His replacement
with Biology leaves the Declaration's observation unchanged. But the
authors wouldn't have suggested that people are innately endowed with
a right to "good government", as they go on to make explicit:
-- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,
that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and
to institute new Government,....
Good government is an artifact which we have to exert ourselves to
create and maintain through the exercise of the aforementioned rights.
The US Constitution goes on, over a decade later, to institute a "new
Government" and is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
So far as I've been able to see over the last 30 years and from the
sidelines, Canada is ahead on points on the "good government" scale
but it might do even better with a stronger dose of "Consent of the
Governed". Of course, that would require a rather larger portion of
the Governed to get off our butts and make our consent -- or the
withholding thereof -- a force to be reckoned with.
- Mike
