The wonderful novel Late Nights on Air, by Elizabeth Hay, takes place in Yellowknife in 1975. A tale of love and adventure, featuring characters living it up while toiling away at the local CBC station, in the backdrop to the main story the Berger Commission is holding its celebrated public hearings on proposals to build two Arctic pipelines to run the length of the Mackenzie River valley, in order to bring northern gas south; in the one case for Canadian use, in the other for American use.

Hay won the 2007 Giller Prize for fiction. She also could have won the prize for writing on Canadian democracy (unfortunately there is no such award). Her account of what Berger was up to in his hearings provides as truthful a portrait as we are likely to get of this improbable, important undertaking, a great democratic moment in Canadian history, one of too few.

Through recourse to democratic procedures, the Berger Commission stopped the two pipeline projects cold. The commission empowered Natives, and other Northerners, giving out research money to those to be affected by the pipeline construction. From Berger on, it became clear that environmental assessments had to be part of the fabric of Canadian public life. The one-time B.C. NDP leader and noted jurist made it clear that Aboriginal land claims lay at the heart of the politics of the Canadian North. His report recognized the North as a Native homeland, and made arguments that led to self-government.

The exploitation of natural resources âe” staples âe” shapes the narrative of Canadian history. From the tar sands today, to the Vikings fishing cod off the Grand Banks over one thousand years ago, setting a price on harvesting natural resources is what has driven the Canadian pattern of human settlement, the built environment, and regulated relationships with Natives and the outside world.

This past week a Conservative appointed panel on Canada’s competitive position released its “Compete to Win” report. Set up to deal with the incredible increase in foreign ownership in resources, as the result of the sell-off of Canadian icons such as Alcan, Falconbridge and Inco, the panel neglected to report on implications for Canada of the changing pattern of international ownership of natural resources.

Public sector companies from oil rich countries, and manufacturing powerhouses such as China and Brazil, are moving into the international market place as part of government led strategy to invest foreign exchange earnings from increased exports, and avoid contracting the “Dutch disease” where export success pushes up the national currency and kills off local industry.

Instead of researching sovereign wealth funds, and finding ways for Canada to use its resource endowment for the common good, the Competition Policy Review Panel defined its mandate as an affirmation of what the Canadian Industry Department has been trying to peddle unsuccessfully for years: focus on making market forces work to build an efficient economy, by reducing barriers to sell-offs of Canadian companies.

The head of the competition panel was Red Wilson, corporate director and senior executive with BCE. The result was about what was to be expected from a big business guy, except worse. It was as if the Trudeau government had appointed William Wilder, then Chairman of Canadian Arctic Resources (one of the proposed pipeline projects) to head what became the Berger commission.

Canadian business has used its privileged relationship with government to build the case that Canada has nothing to fear from foreign ownership. The reality is that business in Canada likes to be able to sell off Canadian resource endowments to absentee owners, so long as it can pocket a larger share of the proceeds. In addition, Canadian business appreciates having foreign companies and their governments help them in lobbying Canadian governments that business interests are identical to Canadian interests, though obviously they are not.

Thomas Berger understood that the best people to express the needs of the North were the Northern people, so he did what he could to enable them to speak. Sometimes that is all that is needed for change to happen.

For Canada Day, treat yourself to a copy of Late Nights on Air, borrow it at the library, lend it to a friend, enjoy it as a great work of fiction. Then start thinking about what should be the next great Canadian democratic moment.

Duncan Cameron

Duncan Cameron

Born in Victoria B.C. in 1944, Duncan now lives in Vancouver. Following graduation from the University of Alberta he joined the Department of Finance (Ottawa) in 1966 and was financial advisor to the...