Environmentalist poster on Regina Premiers' Meeting 2009

The annual summer meeting of Canada’s 10 premiers and three territorial leaders – aka the Council of the Federation – starts today in Regina. It’s hosted this year by Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall.

Ordinarily, this would not stir many Canadians from their fibreglass canoes. But this summer no less a centralizing force than the Toronto Star has editorialized approvingly about “Premiers setting national agenda … With federal politics devoted mostly to name-calling and finger-pointing these days, the premiers’ conference can perform an important agenda-setting function for the whole nation by refocusing debate on neglected issues of public policy.”

The Council of the Federation’s official agenda fills out this theme: “Premiers will meet with the leaders of national aboriginal organizations … on the afternoon of August 5 …  On August 6, the discussion will centre on the economy, as Premiers … discuss the impact of stimulus initiatives … On August 7, the discussion will focus on building strong international relationships… Premiers will also examine … North American and international climate change and energy dialogues.”

It is almost vaguely reminiscent of the Regina Manifesto during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  The Manifesto gave birth to the old “agrarian socialist” Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Canada, and helped set the stage for Saskatchewan’s later pioneering of Canada’s present-day single-payer public health insurance system.

1930s anti-poverty demo at Saskatchewan legislature

In the early 21st century the Saskatchewan majority would rather be right than left (like “the rural state of Oklahoma” which in “the first two decades of the twentieth century …  supported the strongest socialist movement that any American state ever produced”?). Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party has a lot in common with Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party of Canada.

If Mr. Harper’s main objective in federal politics actually has been to systematically dysfunctionalize the Government of Canada altogether, some may even speculate, this summer’s Council of the Federation colloquium could prove that he is succeeding brilliantly. A new Regina Manifesto could finally become the single spark that starts a prairie fire – and burns all the way to the editorial offices of the Toronto Star?