The Canadian Context: treaties, legislation, rule of law, community governance?

The corporate analogy would be, how many multi-party big deals would occur if the entire board and executive of each of several parties had to stop strategic planning and negotiations every couple of years to start campaigning for their jobs in a major way at the shareholder level… and then to come back to the table and find that the faces had changed. The issues are fundamental, complex, subtle and manifestly touch lives.

An option for many First Nations communities is to pursue the top down fundamental issues of right and authority at the treaty level, but also to pursue good governance at the community level. Success stories are being built and told from sea to sea to sea: Membertou, Inuit, Haida and Haisla, and numerous others.

The Principle behind the Practice?
The challenge is to develop practices which respond to both hereditary traditions and values, and to regulatory and economic systems of a global village. Principled governance platforms are being built, and refined on an ongoing basis. Several traditional or hereditary practices, particularly in matters of collaboration, consultation and deliberative decision-making, are also models for public and private-sector good governance generally.

[Governance Literacy: see duty to consult; due diligence; deliberative decision-making; honour of the crown; public interest; respect.]