There are inevitable consequence of being geographically remote from central decision making and having a population base too small to threaten commercial or military interests and insufficient to reward political attention. In Careless Intentions: Regional Consequences of National Policies, Don McIver, AIMS Director of Research, argues that we we should spend less time railing against our obvious realities and more time creatively using the trappings of a complex federal state to mitigate harm and pursue local opportunities.
So long as there are multiple levels of government and widely diverse geographies, such as characterize a country like Canada, there will be inevitable policy shortcomings. One size will—categorically—not fit all. Atlantic Canada’s voice will not magically take on greater standing in the larger debate. National policy makers will not independently dedicate more attention to locally significant impacts. Over recent decades, the emergence of more interprovincial and federal-provincial councils has provided greater opportunities to resolve such issues.
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