For nearly 150 years, the constitution has enshrined free trade in Canadian law. Yet to this day, the provinces maintain regulatory hurdles and import bans that restrict the free flow of goods within Canada.
These policies may help local interests, but they jeopardize the national economy, drive up costs, and burden consumers. Markets should determine business success, not protection from the state. It is time for the federal government to intervene.
Our constitution grants Ottawa jurisdiction over commerce regulation, and allows Parliament to overrule the provinces on matters of national concern, such as trade.
The federal government should act to end internal trade barriers for good. Consumers, and our economy, will rejoice.