Central Canada’s Politics Offensive to Alberta, and other Westerners
August 29, 2005 · By George Freeman
Dave Rutherford, Calgary talk radio host, made the following observation on the tokenism of the Liberal approach to Western Canada, and the things that divide Western and Central Canada:
“Just having the caucus meeting in Regina is not going to do it. It’s tokenism, and frankly that’s embarrassing,” David Rutherford said, appearing on Question Period.
He says there is a “general anxiety” about the fact that Quebec “has undue influence in the politics of the nation,” he said.
Another concern, he says, is “the population imbalance, of course ,which gives Toronto and the GTA a tremendous balance in voting power.”
Rutherford believes alienation may be alleviated by “an understanding of this part of the world.”
One of the outstanding concerns that western Canadians feel has gone unaddressed is gun control, he said.
“Gun control in and of itself is a Toronto-generated hysteria that cost us $2 billion and didn’t save anybody’s life, but it did persecute a lot of western people who have a lifestyle that includes rifles and shotguns,” he said.
With a federal election approaching as early as the beginning of next year, such issues may return to the forefront.
“If there’s another Liberal minority or Liberal majority government (after the next election,) look out, you’re going to hear a lot from Alberta,” Rutherford said.
The story is carried by CTV News, here. His comments speak to the previous posts on Alberta and Ontario, and on Canada’s gun control laws. Overall, they point to how discussion of separation or alienation revolves not simply around a lack of influence, or Westerners not having much sway in Ottawa, but of Western Canada, particularly Alberta, being outright offended by the politics of Central Canada.
I like Rutherford’s tokenism comment. It is tokenism. How is holding a closed-door meeting in the west supposed to be a “constructive step” toward addressing western concerns? Do they really think we’re that fickle?
I think the tokenism of the Liberal approach speaks more to the degree of interest they WANT to have Western Canada when they can GET their seats elsewhere. And given the regional differences in Canada, especially on the self-understanding of what Canada is and what it should about, the Liberals find it far to difficult to step away from the Central Canadian mindset—it’s not often in their strategic interest to do so. Hence, the focus they have on federalism as necessitated by a pact between “two founding nations” and the implications of that in lavishing attention on Quebec and Ontario. Hence, their abject failure to respect traditional and constitutional lines of provincial jurisdiction.
I cannot wait until we seperate from Canada - lets see you divde up your “wealth” without us. Keep on voting in your corrupt, gay-loving, gun-controlling, mone spending Libranos.
[...] The Politic is currently in 20th place. Not bad considering the number of blogs included, but not too great either. Clearly, we need to churn out more bullshit around here. In other words, George Freeman and I need to post more often. [...]