Torstar: sleight of hand for Western Canada?

Today's Red Star (Toronto Star), online edition has a story that caught my eye.. just as all the obscure issues usually do. I say it is always about the details, the details that others miss..

Here is the story and my comments:

Forget slogans, West already is `in'

It is time to speak less about regional discontent and get on with creating regional prosperity, says Roger Gibbins

'While the timing of the next federal election is still in doubt, one thing is clear: In the campaign to come, party leaders will be exploiting and even fanning regional conflict. To our shame, "divide to rule" will be the name of the game. It is, therefore, an opportune time, before the partisan battle is fully engaged, to reassess the long-standing mantra of western Canadian discontent, that is, "the West wants in." As a slogan, and a regional strategy, its time has passed, because the West has moved on, if not in.'

Uh don't you have to define what being in' means in the first place? I thought it had to do with more clout in Ottawa, but this writer is afraid to even say that lest somebody might even hear it!

'The West has had to change its strategic direction in part because the old strategy wasn't very successful. While western discontent attracted a flicker of interest in the early months of Paul Martin's government, the flicker was soon snuffed out by the realities of a 2004 election campaign that centred on southern Ontario. The rapidly approaching new election brings to mind the old real estate adage — location, location, location, or, to put it bluntly, "Ontario, Ontario, Ontario." There are, however, even more compelling reasons for the West to move on.'

Again the writer, like most that produce propaganda for the Torstar Corp., ignores several significant facts: one, this strategy has in fact been very successful - producing a political party, the new conservatives that at the moment forms the official opposition in Canadian Parliament. Two, the existing government of the LPC's Paul Martin is on it's last legs and is about to fall.

'Western Canadians have moved beyond being supplicants, echoing Oliver Twist as he pleaded "please, sir, I want some more." It is strikingly inappropriate for a region with 30 per cent of the national population, a bountiful resource base and the most prosperous economy in the country to be begging for what, in all but a political sense, is already true.'

Gee, was this not the argument for many decades that allowed Quebec to literally rape and control Canada, that it was a significant minority population in this country (no longer true btw), and thus we must cave into their every wish? Furthermore, Quebec was really never that wealthy nor well run and that is the crux of the unfairness issue in the first place - Quebec's wine and cheese economy vs the west's milk and porridge.

'The West, from a position of economic strength and demographic vitality, is in. "The West wants in," as a regional strategy, also reflected a lack of ambition. It implied that the status quo is acceptable, that if western Canadians could just get in the doors of the staid old gentlemen's club in Ottawa, their aspirations would be met. Instead, it is time to follow the advice of Marx (Groucho, not Karl), who said that the kind of club that would admit the likes of him would not be worth joining. As the Gomery inquiry continues to show, maybe westerners should be reaching for a new Canadian vision that is not mired in the status quo. But, if "the West wants in" is no longer appropriate, what is the alternative?'

Okay you have my attention here, what do you propose?

'It certainly isn't that "the West wants out." Systematic polling by the Canada West Foundation since 2001 shows frustration, to be sure, but no significant support for disengagement from the Canadian political community.'

Are you really sure about this?

'Neither do firewalls offer an acceptable alternative. Western Canadians want to play on a national and indeed global stage; there is little enthusiasm for retreating into a more claustrophobic community. What is needed is a new strategy that exerts national leadership through the power of ideas rather than within the national corridors of power. Ottawa is not the only chalice from which creativity and innovation flow.'

Uh, do you mean power but not real power?

'The engines of policy innovation and creativity are primed in the West.
They can be found in municipal governments, which have been leading the national debate on the urban agenda. They are in the region's great universities and within western Canadian provincial governments that are leading the nation on many fronts — health-care reform, financial management, sustainable energy, and electoral reform. The best strategy is leadership by example, and the currency of leadership is the currency of new ideas.'

They are already doing this, doing more of the same thing will not change anything I do believe. Besides where are you going with this story?

'The great advantage of national leadership through the power of ideas is that it does not depend on waiting impatiently for regional influence within the federal government, or on the outcome of federal elections. There is no need to wait, and wait, for Ottawa to act. There is no need for federal funding or federal orchestration. The West has the creativity and financial capacity to act. All that is needed from Ottawa is room to bring policy innovation into play.'

Gee you really mean it? How when liberals completely control Ottawa and are seen to mostly take orders from Quebec and from immigrants? I know what this guy is suggesting now, he still wants omni-potent central government in Ottawa and he and his liberal friends fear the provinces getting greater powers.

'The message is simple: Help where you can, but do not throttle innovation and creativity in the name of national standards, federal leadership or partisan advantage.'

In other words do what you are told, take what you are given, shut up and go away... wow you must be a liberal, are you Roger? In other words let the scum and sleaze continue in Otawa because it is none of your business, and besides cleaning up Ottawa may mean the loss of a lot of jobs and wealth for loyal liberals - globalists/socialists.

'None of this precludes a constructive role for the federal government, but neither does it mean waiting for Ottawa, waiting for an opportunity to speak or the chance to be heard. It means, in fact, speaking less about regional discontent and doing more, getting on with the business of creating regional prosperity.'

But they have already been doing that, haven't they? What they are tired of out West is sending trainloads full of money into Ottawa and watching it disappear into a big black hole. When they ask about it, they are told by people like you to just mind their own business. What they want is more say in how this government is run because they are paying more and more to have it function. A region that constitutes 30% of the population is likely paying 50% of the bills.

'Complaining is an appropriate strategy only in the absence of a capacity to act. Nor does abandoning "the West wants in" isolate westerners from other regional communities. On the contrary, it implies a co-operative strategy among regions to create a new Canada.'

Finally you have said something in this article that I can agree with. But the new Canada I envision is likely a lot different than the one that you like.

'As the political parties gear up to pit region against region, let's look beyond this sorry spectacle to a new regional strategy. Western Canadians should forget about getting in, and focus instead on moving on.'

Sorry but you lost me here on your conclusion. There must be a new Canada where the Western provinces have a lot more say in what happens in Ottawa, or Western Canada must seriously begin looking at other options: such as joining the US, going it alone, joining with Ontario to leave Canada, becoming part of Cascadia, or even as has been proposed in the past for Quebec- limited sovereignity association with Ottawa for Western Canada. If Western Canada leaves Ottawa's influence then I'm quite likely to start heading West.