Quote:
Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby
If only MacDonald et al had the knowledge of all the 'nothing' powers they allowed the provinces to have would become some of THE most important issues in 20th Century eh?
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Well at the time it was inconceivable that government of any kind could be as powerful as either the federal or provincial governments became; such powers as each had were never intended to clash as they weren't perceived as conflicting. Once the federal government under Trudeau became cognizant of its power to use the redistribution of tax monies to affect provincial policies in areas it otherwise had no claim to influence, though, the fight was on, and successive federal governments have been reluctant to scale back, regardless of political composition.
Back in the 19th century, though, governments in general were much smaller and mainly funded by duties and excise taxes. There simply wasn't enough money at stake to have one level of government dictate to another, nor could there have been much enthusiasm to even try, as governments were much less interventionist philosophically. Now we see the provinces trying to influence municipalities (like giving Calgary $25 million for infrastructure that ends up spent on a foot-bridge, for example) through redistributing tax income, and the feds doing the same to the provinces (with the prime example being health-care).
I'd like to see what might happen if transfer of money between levels of government was illegal; I suspect it would lead to different inefficiencies and problems that wouldn't necessarily be any worse or better than we have now, but at least the added leakage of money lost in the transfer between levels would permanently go away.