Tuesday, June 29, 2004

The Canadian Election

For me personally, i couldn't be more disappointed with the result of the election, and not because of the polls or the expectations....its because the liberals once again vilified the west, demonized a western leader and generally used a scorched earth policy to hold the canadian centre. "screw the west, we'll take the rest"

well, i don't know how many more elections the west can take before it finally opts out of this arrangement of economic colonialization from the eastern establishment. i'm just about ready to resurrect the western separatist party myself. if it ever does come to fruition, expect a healthy following.

its become obvious that what flies in eastern canada, does not fly out here, and that our interests are quite different. the maritimes are dependent children, the ontarians are patriarchal elitists and quebec...nevermind....the point is that we have extremely differing goals and perspectives and it is hard to cobble together all these perspectives under one flag. regionalism is going to be the name of the game for the next little while...just like the early nineties...except possibly worse.

the time has come for a free trade zone between equal partners of a lose federation: the west, ontario, quebec and the maritimes. the game is up. no more 'strong central government'. norm spector said something interesting the other day to the affect of "municipal and provincial governments are close to the ground...they know what their constituents want and the must deliver results. the federal government is not like that. it is too far away, and is so abstract to most canadians, its hard to see what if any results they are getting".... i'm paraphrasing here, but the results show this to be true.

don't believe me? read this:

Western Tories greet Grit win with disappointment, disgust

Liberal 'campaign of fear' criticized by Tory Party campaign strategist

By DAWN WALTON
Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - Page A13

CALGARY -- A fourth straight Liberal mandate, but by a larger minority than expected, left key Alberta Conservatives shaking their heads in disbelief -- some in disgust -- last night.

Ted Morton, a University of Calgary political scientist who helped shape Conservative Party policy, looked on coolly when asked what caused the collapse in what was expected to be a major breakthrough in Ontario.

"I haven't understood Ontario in the past and I don't understand it now," he said.

The senator in waiting, who has advocated putting firewalls up around Alberta to protect it from intrusions from Ottawa, was too angry to put more of a spin on it.

Meanwhile, re-elected Conservative MPs were trying to keep a lid on western anger.

At Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's election night headquarters in Calgary, MP Jason Kenney corralled colleagues one by one to instruct them to keep their comments "moderate" and steer clear of talk of western separatism


that's right. western separatism is back.


No comments: