The recent musings by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty about how alberta’s oil money might come in handy in solving some of his fiscal problems is yet another prime indicator that it’s time for Canada to divide itself into its natural constituencies. From the Manitoba border east, Canada is an aggregation of entities with mutual dependencies whose philosophical viewpoints are centered on the glorification of victimhood and the proposition that government is the panacea for all of society’s ills.
From that border westward the overall philosophy is centered around self-reliance and small government. These are the two solitudes that really comprise Canadian society, not those of the two official languages.
While Quebec has for a long time now made noises about leaving Canada, it is my belief that this posture is akin to a dog chasing a car. What would the poor dog do once he caught the car? Quebec’s threat to separate, including the referendum that was "narrowly" defeated is nothing more than a negotiating strategy cleverly contrived by Quebec politicians to get the rest of Canada to accede to its demands.
If this isn’t so, why is it that the majority of Canada’s Prime Ministers over the last 50 years have all been Quebecers and have coincidentally been mostly Liberals? and why is that Quebec, with a total population of over 7.5 million and a vibrant economy to boot consistently receives substantially more money from Ottawa than it sends there in the form of taxes?
alberta, on the other hand, with its resource-based economy and total population that at 3.2 million is less than half of Quebec’s consistently sends more money to Ottawa than it receives in terms of federal government services. In the 30 years between 1961 and 1992, alberta alone paid Ottawa $139 billion more than it received in government services in return. During the same time period Quebec received from Ottawa $168 billion more than it paid in taxes.
But that’s just the tip of a very nasty iceberg. Quebec and Ontario have a combined population base that is close to 2/3 of the entire Canadian population and as such dictate the political agenda of this country with no regard for what the smaller provinces want. Ontario is in effect playing the whore to Quebec’s pimp, as together they are destroying the traditional institutions for which thousands of Canadians fought and died over the past two hundred years. This country’s Western provinces have a legitimate beef with the East in that the decisions made by the Ontario/Quebec axis of iniquity on their behalf are not in keeping with those provinces’ social norms and standards. and there isn’t thing one that the West can do about it, as the Liberal governments that have predominated over the last fifty years do not need the West’s votes to stay in power.
Part of the Liberal strategy for the retention of control over Canada is to marginalize Westerners as cowboys, hayseeds, hicks, bigots and rednecks. This song plays very well east of Kenora, but it is pandering of the worst sort in an effort to appeal to Ontario and Quebec’s effete sense of intellectual self-importance. The Liberals have done this so well and for so long that people in eastern Canada actually believe that it is un-Canadian to believe in democracy, family, fiscal prudence, self reliance and yes, God. as such the concerns expressed by the West receive no play in the vaunted halls of power back East.
Economically, the West is currently well positioned due to alberta’s oil wealth. However, the government of Canada doesn’t seem to understand that oil is a finite resource that once used up, will not be replaceable. Ontario and to a large part Quebec is a manufacturing-based economy that may ebb and flow with the cost and availability of oil, but if truth be told, that type of economy will survive indefinitely due to its diversity. While on the subject of resource-based economies and manufacturing-based economies, why is it that Ottawa excluded Ontario’s auto manufacturing sector from its ill-conceived Kyoto wealth redistribution scheme and not alberta’s oil fields? Would it make more sense to do the obverse, since oil is limited and finite? The answer, of course lies in the fact that the Liberal Party of Canada relies on Ontario as its power base and wouldn’t dare do anything that would make Ontario’s economy slow down. alberta on the other hand doesn’t have the political clout, so Ottawa can do anything it wants, up to and including the rape of that province’s wealth.
Currently there is a strong sentiment in the West to get out from under Eastern Canada’s thumb. a poll conducted by The Western Standard has found that over 1/3 of all Westerners are open to the idea of separating from Canada, while close to 50% of albertans are in favor. all it will take is a few more outrages on the part of the buffoons running this country to take this sentiment beyond 50%. Unlike Quebec, the West has nothing to lose by separating and plenty to gain.
Ontario and Quebec could find themselves alone within confederation along with the Maritime Provinces, who with a combined population of less than 2 million carry very little weight when it comes to defining the Canadian agenda.
When we examine all the actions imposed by the Liberal government in Ottawa, one doesn’t need a Ouija Board to determine where we are heading. Programs such as the National Gun Registry and the phobia against privately provided healthcare play only to the Liberals’ power base in Ontario.
Ideas such as the "multicultural mosaic" are largely eastern creations cleverly designed to garner Toronto’s ethnic votes for the Liberals. The concept that our strength lies in our diversity is politically correct hogwash that will prove disastrous for this country.
Strength comes through the unification of a common purpose that is supported by the majority of a nation’s people. Clearly, this does not define Canada today under its current configuration. as such, the West would be perfectly justified in saying "sayonara".