Today is Canada’s birthday, as our wonderful country celebrates its 159th year.

One of the things that distinguishes this birthday from most other Canada Day celebrations is that “Canadian sovereignty” is now a regular feature of our political discourse. It’s been more than a generation – since the 1980s, around the time of the original Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement – that sovereignty has been so prominent a topic.

But what is sovereignty? And more specifically, what is Canadian sovereignty?  

Sovereignty takes many forms, with political, military, and economic sovereignty being the most prominent. To sustain political sovereignty, most people believe it’s critical to have domestic capabilities in military and economic affairs.

Others believe some decision-making can be shared with non-domestic actors that we live in an interdependent world and we can safely secure some of what we need or want through partnerships and negotiated agreements.

Pure sovereignty? We knowingly cede that. We de facto agree that some things will be decided outside of our borders:

How many electric cars will be produced this year, for example? How many computers? How many dishwashers? How many pairs of running shoes? How many philosophy books? How many commercial aircraft? Someone in another country decides. But who cares?

Canada’s sovereignty needs more than guns and steel When borders become suggestions How Canada can prepare for high-pressure U.S. demands on sovereignty and trade What Trump’s threat to Canadian sovereignty reveals about Indigenous struggles

Canada’s sovereignty needs more than guns and steel

When borders become suggestions

How Canada can prepare for high-pressure U.S. demands on sovereignty and trade

What Trump’s threat to Canadian sovereignty reveals about Indigenous struggles

All we need is the sovereignty to choose our political representatives so that Canadians – and only........

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