[PHOTO] Early winter snow, Dupont Street

[BRIEF NOTE] On the unlikelihood of Maritime Union

Facebook's Mike linked to Jen Gerson's National Post intervieww with Prince Edward Island premier Robert Ghiz. Unsurprisingly, Ghiz--like the vast majority of other Islanders--is uninterested in the idea of Maritime Union, that is, the unification of the three Canadian Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) into a single unit.

It seems to have captured a bit of interest, but it seems safe to say you are very much opposed to combining the Maritime provinces, yes?

From my perspective right now, we’re very fortunate that we have three provinces. That gives us more clout when it comes to dealing with the feds, or dealing with other provinces. The arguments that are being made for it, I think if [the senators] did a little research they’d realize that there is a lot of co-operation that takes place amongst the Maritime provinces.

For example, we don’t have our own lottery commissions in each province. We have what we call the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. In the Maritimes, we have an institution that deals with issues around post-secondary education. We do a lot of procurement together when it comes to purchasing things. So there already is a lot of co-operation. I think it’s counterintuitive to what the Senate is actually supposed to be there for, which is to defend the interests of the regions that they’re appointed from.

Do you think there’s something to the argument that if the provinces did unite there would be fewer jobs for premiers like your good self?

Let me just put it to you like this, if this were ever to go ahead, it would take years upon years to put something in place. I’m not going to be around in 10 or 15 years anyway as Premier, most likely, so it’s irrelevant to the job that I have.

Your province obviously does have a disproportionately large representation in Parliament. It would hurt your representation if you were to meld with the other provinces, wouldn’t it?

Absolutely. Right now we have four members of Parliament, we have four senators. This goes back to the 1864 conference, the 1867 formation of the country, the joining of Prince Edward Island to Canada in 1873. If [P.E.I. Senator Mike Duffy] or the other senators, who are from the respective provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, think that it is a good idea, I think perhaps they should consider stepping down from the Senate, running for provincial politics and putting that at the top of their agenda.

One political scientist interviewed by CBC was right to note that the topic of Maritime Union is only raised whenever there's a perceived state of crisis.

Donald Savoie, Canada research chair in public administration at the University of Moncton, said the fiscal challenges facing the Maritime provinces and an aging population are what have brought the idea to the floor once again.

He said the three provinces are all stomaching immense financial pressures and the concept of the Maritime Union "is in fashion."

"Whenever there's an external force that threatens us in the Maritimes, we tend to talk about the Maritime Union," said Savoie, noting that he has supported the idea for years.

"What we're witnessing all through the Maritime provinces is some pretty serious fiscal challenges and some pretty serious economic challenges. We have a fast-aging population, and I don't think we have the financial resources to maintain the status quo."

At this stage, however, the fiscal crisis isn't nearly severe enough to overcome particularly sentiments. Speaking particularly about my native Prince Edward Island, almost everyone is invested in the island having the status of a full-fledged province, whether as a deeply-felt expression of identity or materially. (The infrastructure of provincehood employs a lot of people.) I doubt many Islanders at all would like the fair island by the sea to be little more than a larger version of Ontario's Prince Edward County.

[LINK] "Independent Scotland could look like … Canada?"

Montreal Gazette guest columnist Harry McGrath (a Scottish-Canadian, to be sure) comes up with a new international comparison for a hypothetical independent Scotland. Don't think of an independent Scotland as being like Ireland, or like a Nordic country--think of it as being like Canada.

From a Scots-Canadian perspective, the closest parallel between Scotland and anywhere else is not Quebec, Ireland, Iceland, or Norway — it’s Canada. Indeed, it is Groundhog Day for people like me who lived in Canada for many years and live in Scotland now.

Scottish government rhetoric in favour of multiculturalism and immigration distinguishes it from other parts of the British body politic, but is very familiar to Canadian ears.

Ditto a recent consultation on gay marriage that unleashed exactly the same apocalyptic arguments against it that were heard in Canada before it was legalized in 1995.

Ditto the headline debate at the last Scottish National Party conference that confirmed party policy on withdrawing nuclear weapons from Scotland but voted in favour of membership of NATO. That debate raged in Canada from the 1960s until the squadron at Comox on Vancouver Island flew the last nuclear weapons back to the United States in 1984, leaving Canada a non-nuclear member of NATO.

This paralleling of the Canadian experience in Scotland has gone largely unnoticed on both sides of the Atlantic. Over here, comparisons between Scotland and Canada tend to be seen as historical rather than contemporary; in Canada anything with the words ‘independence’ or ‘referendum’ attached to it is viewed through the prism of Quebec.

However, there is definitely something going on, even if it is subliminal. It’s almost de rigueur in Scotland for politicians and others to use the saying “Work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation” and attribute it to Scottish writer Alasdair Gray. In fact, Gray paraphrased it from a line in Canadian Dennis Lee’s iconic poem Civil Elegies published in the early 1970s. Back then, Pierre Trudeau was reinventing Canada as a European-style social democracy with a unique maple-leaf twist.

[LINK] "A long history of prejudice"

Another writer in the Montreal Gazette, Mario Micone, reflects on the history of the Italian Canadian community of Québec. As he notes in his introduction, Italian Canadians have been set apart from the established communities of Québec by any number of factors--the ongoing mafia inquiries into corruption in Montréal aren't helping.

With Italian-sounding names recently having been featured in newspaper articles describing less than exemplary conduct, I asked an old Italian man if he felt integrated into Quebec society. He answered: “I have my integrity — that should be enough.” Though a handful of Quebecers of Italian origin have been publicly implicated in activities outlawed by the established rules, the overwhelming majority are perfectly commendable citizens who work in all sectors of society. Yet it is not always flattering to be identified as Italian. So much so that an Italian who has improved his lot or, even worse, managed to become wealthy (especially in the construction business), is often suspected of maintaining ties with the Mafia. This sad combination, which has lasted too long, reflects the misunderstandings, conflicts and inevitable prejudices that have marked the long journey of Italians in Quebec.

The first Italians arrived in Montreal at the end of the 19th century. There were some 5,000 by 1905, most working in the mines, logging camps and on the railroad. Many were men who had no intention of settling here. They had hoped to go back as soon as they had saved enough money to buy a plot of land, or provide their daughters with a dowry. A good number of them were illiterate. Poorly paid and badly housed, they lived in “dangerous insalubrious conditions and promiscuity,” according to the newspapers of the times. Looked down on and without resources, they (including my grandfather) became easy prey for powerful employment agents: a mafia that demanded a tax for jobs and whose role was to deliver docile, cheap labour to employers. A form of near-slavery.

More than 10 million Italians immigrated during that period (1890 to 1914) to the two Americas. Many of these immigrants came from southern regions of the country where, several years before, landowners had organized a militia whose goal was to repress peasant revolts and spread terror through the countryside. That’s how the Mafia came to be. Among the indigent peasant class, these Mafiosi inspired both fear and admiration to the point that the expression “fare la mafia,” today, means “strutting.” This Mafia culture and the lack of civic spirit (or amoral familism that puts family interests over social responsibility), common in regions where the state is as corrupt as it is reviled, have long since crossed the Atlantic.

Italian immigration practically stopped during the fascist regime (1922-1943). Nevertheless, Montreal’s small Italian community was subjected to its propaganda even within the churches, and except for a small minority, they adhered to the fascist ideology — less out of political conviction, and more to enjoy the psychological benefits of belonging to a nation whose Duce was adulated not only by the Vatican (after the Concordat), but also by the heads of foreign governments, including Mackenzie King. The party quickly ended when fascist Italy declared war on France. Hundreds of Italians, residents of Montreal, would be arrested and imprisoned in Petawawa.

When Italian immigration picked up again after the Second World War, 90 per cent of Italians who settled in Quebec between 1947 and 1970 were sponsored by a family member. Entire villages emptied out, creating such demographic imbalances and economic difficulties that emigration became a self-generating process. Sponsorship explains why nearly a third of all Quebecers of Italian background came from Molise. Others came from various regions, but many were from Calabria and Sicily where the ‘Ndrangheta and the Mafia flourished, and spread from there across the world. Most of them chose to settle in Montreal alongside tens of thousands of rural Quebecers. This was a time of intense urbanization and a building boom (the Metropolitan Expressway, the métro system, new suburbs, schools, roads, etc.) whose apotheosis would come with Expo 67. Among the Italians who found work as labourers or skilled tradesmen, some became contractors, often ending up quite prosperous. They derived their wealth from within: at their disposal they had thousands of former peasants ready to accept the hardest working conditions. (My father, like so many others, had to work an hour or two every day without salary for the right to return to the site the next day.) It is, however, untrue to think, despite the great attention given in the media to a few individuals, that the construction industry is their exclusive domain. The 2001 census showed that there were only 6,595 Italians (including 860 women) in this sector, corresponding to some 5 per cent of the total.

[LINK] "Are Venus’ Volcanoes Still Active?"

The idea that Venus might still be tectonically active isn't shocking. With a mass 81.5% that of the Earth and a nearly Earth-like density, Venus is almost certainly massive enough to sustain plate tectonics. (Compare Mars, with a mass just over a tenth of the Earth's and a density three-quarters that of the third planet from the Sun.) Moreover, Venus's surface seems to be periodically resurfaced by massive volcanic eruptions. Universe Today's Jason Major reports that these eruptions may be ongoing.

Incredibly dense, visually opaque and loaded with caustic sulfuric acid, Venus’ atmosphere oppresses a scorched, rocky surface baking in planet-wide 425 ºC (800 ºF) temperatures. Although volcanoes have been mapped on our neighboring planet’s surface, some scientists believe the majority of them have been inactive — at least since the last few hundreds of thousands of years. Now, thanks to NASA’s Pioneer Venus and ESA’s Venus Express orbiters, scientists have nearly 40 years of data on Venus’ atmosphere — and therein lies evidence of much more recent large-scale volcanic activity.

The last six years of observations by Venus Express have shown a marked rise and fall of the levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in Venus’ atmosphere, similar to what was seen by NASA’s Pioneer Venus mission from 1978 to 1992.

These spikes in SO2 concentrations could be the result of volcanoes on the planet’s surface, proving that the planet is indeed volcanically active — but then again, they could also be due to variations in Venus’ complex circulation patterns which are governed by its rapid “super-rotating” atmosphere.

“If you see a sulphur dioxide increase in the upper atmosphere, you know that something has brought it up recently, because individual molecules are destroyed there by sunlight after just a couple of days,” said Dr. Emmanuel Marcq of Laboratoire Atmosphères in France, lead author of the paper, “Evidence for Secular Variations of SO2 above Venus’ Clouds Top,” published in the Dec. 2 edition of Nature Geoscience.

“A volcanic eruption could act like a piston to blast sulphur dioxide up to these levels, but peculiarities in the circulation of the planet that we don’t yet fully understand could also mix the gas to reproduce the same result,” added co-author Dr Jean-Loup Bertaux, Principal Investigator for the instrument on Venus Express.