John George Marshall’s Tenure and Contributions to the Canadian Confederation
John George Marshall was a popular political figure and judge in Canada and he represented the Sydney country in Nova Scotia House of Assembly from the year 1811 to 1818 and also from 1820 to 1823 (Pogue et al. 2020). The most influential and popular chief justice of the Supreme court was John Marshall and he was responsible to defend and construct both the principle of American federalism and the foundation of judicial power. Marshall asserted the authority of the supreme court for determining the constitutionality of different laws of a nation. John Marshall had helped to transform the Supreme court into an independent and powerful branch of the federal government.
Marshall was mainly guided by the strong commitments to judicial power and also by the beliefs in supremacy of the nation’s overall state legislatures (Pedaliu and Effie 2017). The judicial visions of John George Marshall help to improve several Federalist Political programs. The legal skills of John Marshall helped to reinforce the power of the national government over the state. In Canadian Confederation, the provinces of Canada and the British colonies of New Brunswick joined together for developing the Canadian Dominion. John Marshall’s tenure had provided a great opportunity for developing the unified bodies of the constitutional doctrine.
John George Marshall thinks Maritime provinces must join as the Marshall plan helps to reduce all interstate challenges while encouraging the increased productivity and adoption of advanced business procedures. The main purpose of the Marshall plan is to prevent economic loss of post-war Europe, stagnation of world trade, and expansion of the communism.
Joining a new country may provide better security against American expansionism and there will be a broader domestic market to trade products or goods for Nova Scotia (Allison and Graham 2020). Nova Scotia is a popular province among four Canadian provinces and it joined Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick in the confederation on 1st July 1867. For this reason, Marshall thinks that Canada wants Maritimes in confederation.
Maritime Union can be determined as the proposed political union and it includes three Maritime Canadian provinces and Maritime Union thinks that conservative political leader is neoliberal project with an intention to facilitate the deregulation and extraction of natural resources. Maritime Union will abolish all colonial legislatures and Maritime Transport can be defined as the main foundation of the global economy and global trade. As the population of the world is increasing, especially in developing countries, efficient and low-cost maritime transport plays an important role in sustainable development.
There will be different advantages if Nova Scotia joins the Canadian Confederation. The economic condition of Nova Scotia depends on several industries like agriculture, shipping, fishing, and shipbuilding. The shipbuilding industries are threatened due to the steamboats of America. Those steamboats are better than wooden boats. Joining the Canadian confederation may help to improve their economic condition and the railway will be quicker and cheaper. Apart from this, they can trade easily with Canada but Nova Scotia may lose free trade with the United States (Heidt and Daniel 2018).
Based on hollow-out framework and deregulation, maritime governance must focus on the soft power of the maritime administrations and roles of referent power and expert power for mainstreaming maritime industries. Maritime is a major part of world trade and several industries or organizations are associated with this. For sustainable development, cost-efficient approaches are followed by Maritimers.
References
Allison, Graham. “The new spheres of influence: Sharing the globe with other great powers.” Foreign Aff. 99 (2020): 30.
Heidt, Daniel. Reconsidering Confederation: Canada’s Founding Debates, 1864-1999. University of Calgary Press, 2018.
Pedaliu, Effie GH. “The Marshall Plan speech at 70–and the lessons it can provide for today’s challenges.” LSE European Politics and Policy (EUROPP) Blog (2017).
Pogue, Forrest C. George C. Marshall: Education of a general, 1880-1939. Plunkett Lake Press, 2020.