The Albertan case for federal government as coercive monopoly

Federal politics in Canada is a zero-sum game: winner takes all. The province that has the most electoral power will be able to impose its will upon the others. As long as the demographic nature of the provinces persists, this means that Ontario (and to a lesser extent, Quebec) will be able to govern Alberta without the consent of Albertans.

Imagine such a situation in the free market. Microsoft is by far the dominant player in desktop operating systems, but the consumer nevertheless has plenty of choice: Apple and the various Unixes (Linux, *BSD, Solaris etc), not to mention dozens of smaller alternatives. But if Microsoft was awarded the position of the only O/S provider in the market simply because of its dominance, what would that mean to those who are dissatisfied with Microsoft and currently use alternatives? Moreover, what would Microsoft, assured of monopoly, do in the future? It is likely that they would fleece their customers and cease to provide optimal products - they have no incentive not to.

This is much like the federal government. Ontario/Quebec, assured of its electoral power, has no reason not to fleece Alberta in federal politics. They have a monopoly, and they know it. The most striking example of this would be Trudeau, who took full advantage of a Federal monopoly to bleed minority ‘customers’ dry so that he might confer benefits on those he derived power from. With the Microsoft example, this would be as if Microsoft forced home consumers to accept a buggy, unstable, virus-prone nightmare (no comments, Apple/Linux fans) in order to siphon off resources for the benefit of corporate clients. And there would be nothing that the home consumers could do about it.

The other problem with monopoly in this case is the lack of freedom not to consume. This is the most important consumer right: the ability to simply turn one’s back on a product or company and refuse to buy. Albertans don’t have this option. Whatever deal Ontario/Quebec hashes out for them, they have to take. It does not matter how much they dislike it and it does not matter how much it does not meet their needs. Returning to Microsoft, this would be as if every household was forced to buy a copy of their fictitious lousy home-consumer O/S - perhaps even if they didn’t have a computer!

This is the true nature of federal government: a monopolist that is guaranteed power, able to force consumption and free from repercussion so long as it continues to please its power base. Those Ontarians and Quebecois who dislike big corporations and corporatism should take a look at the far more sinister, powerful and extortionate entity they help to create every election, and think of how they would feel as a forced consumer of a lousy Microsoft product - and then imagine that Microsoft does not make software but instead has power over most of their lives, and that Microsoft did not have “popular support” in the 90th percentile as they do, but in the 20th. That’s how Albertans feel. You can’t help but sympathize.