User:GREGOROF/sandbox
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GREGorof → talk 21:46, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
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Hello, just wrote this article today, first full one i've done on wikipedia, its loaded with errors. I will definately be working on it over the proceding weeks, but any help people can give me on it would be greatly appreciated. Ive also requested a peer review, but I do not yet know how to direct it to the right section (Canadian politics). I am fairly knowledgable in Canadian politics, but a read-over by someone who knows more would be excellent to make sure everything is correct. Its referenced for the most part, just not correctly. Thanks a lot.
Western Alienation refers to the concept in Canadian politics of the Western provinces, namely British Columbia (B.C.), Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, being alienated, and in extreme cases excluded, from mainstream political affairs within the greater Canadian system, in favour of especially Ontario and Quebec interests. The latter of these provinces are argued to be politically represented and economically favoured (especially Quebec) significantly more so than the former, which has given rise to an alienated sentiment among Western Canadians. This sentiment is most pronounced in B.C. and Alberta.
For example, both Alberta and B.C. have in recent decades payed billions more in equalization payments (of which much has ended up in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces) than they have recieved. This has caused varrying levels of discontent in these provinces.
It should be noted that currently 'have' provinces (those who do not recieve equalization payments) are Ontario and Alberta, with economists predicting that B.C. and Saskatchewan will join these ranks in the near future.[1] The last time B.C. was a 'have' province was in 2001, and had been for 15 consecutive years prior to that.[2]
Contents |
[edit] History of Alienation
Following Confederation in 1867 Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald formed a 'National Policy' to develop and unite Canada geographically and economically. The policy aimed to build a transcontinental railway, to settle the prairies and to develop a manufacturing base in Eastern Canada. However as the CBC argues:
"The National Policy became the source of considerable Western discontent. To Western Canada, the legacy left by the policy consisted of discriminatory freight rates and a resource-based economy that was subject to the boom and bust cycles of the manufacturing and financial sectors of Central Canada."[3]
In 1980 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau developed the National Energy Program (NEP) which intended to use Alberta's oil revenues to subsidize gas prices nation-wide. The program was extremely unpopular in Western Canada, where most of Canada's oil is produced, and heightened distrust of the federal government, especially in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Many Albertans believed that the NEP was an unjustified intrusion of the federal government into an area of provincial jurisdiction and was designed to strip their province of its natural wealth. By keeping the oil prices below world market prices, it was essentially subsidizing the eastern provinces.
[edit] Current Factors of Alienation
There are numerous current factors which have fueled this sentiment in Western Canada. Political factors include low political represenation, for example in the Senate, (while Alberta and B.C. have 495,801 and 651,290 citizens per Senator respectively, Quebec and Ontario have 301,562 and 475,419)[4] as well as Quebec sovereignty and the significant attention Quebec recieves from all parts of Canada, especially the federal government. A more potent but ambiguos claim is that the Canadian political agenda is directed predominantly by politicians reigning from Eastern Canada who pay less attention policy-wise to Western interests, instead focusing on the more vote-rich central region of Quebec and Ontario. Economic factors include a general redistribution of income from Western provinces to Eastern ones through taxation and the aforementioned equalization payments.
[edit] Political Factors
To understand the political sources of Western Alienation, two important concepts must be noted: population distribution in Canada, and Quebec (French Canada) sovereignty.
As of July 2005, it was estimated that 23.5% and 38.9% of the Canadian population resides respectively in Quebec and Ontario, for a total of 62.4% of the total national population. On the other hand, 13.2%, 10.1%, 3.1%, 3.6% reside in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan for a total of 30% of the total national population - together less than half that of Ontario and Quebec.[5]
Understanding this, and that in a democratic state politicians will have a tendency to favour areas with larger populations (and hence areas where they will recieve more votes) it appears a logical extension that Canadian politicians may in fact formulate policies which favour the larger population centres, namely Quebec and Ontario. Such policies may not be directly detrimental to Western provinces, but such systematic 'favourtism' is of an arguably alienating nature. While some may argue this has not in actuality been the case, the belief of this among Western Canadians has nonetheless been a major factor towards the sentiment of Western alienation.
At a more basic level, due to this uneven population distribution across the country, Western Canadians are, geographically, less represented in both the House of Commons and, as noted, the Senate. While especially in the former case this is difficult to avoid whilst maintaining the democratic principle of one person one vote, in such a geographically large and diverse nation it can be problematic because federal policies designed for one region are often subjected to the whole. Thus policies encouraged by the 62.4% of Canadians residing in Central Canada can hypothetically be subjected to the unwilling 30% residing in Western Canada.
It should also be noted here that while those in the Maritime provinces are constitutionally guarenteed a fixed number of federal ridings (most notably four in P.E.I.) such is not the case in Western provinces; thus, while the average number of citizens per riding is approximately 30,000 in P.E.I., in B.C. and Alberta it is held near the national average of 108,000 (respectively 110,000 and 100,000 in these two provinces).[citation needed] This disproporionaley low political representation relative to the Maritime provinces is a further political factor in Western alienation.
The third political source of Western alienation can be traced to Quebec sovereignty. Many Western Canadians argue that Quebec recieves undue attention from the rest of the country due to concerns that it will seperate, or obtain sovereignty-association, from the rest of Canada. Repeated referendums posing this question to Quebeckers (as have taken place in 1980, 1995 and likely will again in coming years) indicate this to be a possibility.
The result of the strong sovereigntist movement in Quebec has been exagerrated focus and attention placed on the province. This has been the case at both domestic and international political levels - for example with Bill Clinton's plea to Quebec to vote no in the 1995 referendum - and at the grassroots level, for example with a pro-Canada demonstration in Montreal with thousands of Canadians from across the country attending. One way this attention manifested itself following the referendum was in the now infamous sponsorship scandal, which saw millions of federal dollars being funneled into Quebec in attempts to promote Canadian nationalism there.
For obvious reasons, this attention Quebec has recieved, particularily throughout its referendums, has done little to alleviate sentiments of Western alienation. The immediate backlash of this in Western Canada occured two years later during a dispute between B.C. and American officials over salmon fishing in the region. Following virtually no support from Ottawa on the matter, B.C. premier Glen Clark unilaterally took action, protesting the neutral stance taken by Ottawa on the matter. Clark attributed this inaction to Western alienation, arguing the lack of support was due to not the nature of the problem but its location - namely, in the West. Senator Pat Carney suggested that B.C. use the threat of seperation in further constitutional talks as a means to garner attention from Ottawa to Western provinces.[6] Ironically, although Ottawa did not dramatically change its stance, this comment sparked widespread attention from national media and reignited discourse over Western alienation.
[edit] Economic Factors
Economic factors, including equalization payments, have caused great discontent especially in Alberta. What has contributed to Western alienation in particular has been the financial volume Alberta gives to the rest of Canada in equalization payments, while maintaining virtually no say over how they are to be spent. Alberta gives away approximately $1.1 billion annually [7] in such payments, significantly higher per capita than Ontario. These are given to the federal government, which uses a complex (and controversial) formula to calculate how these are to be distributed to the eight 'have-not' provinces. There are no federal restrictions over how this money is to be spent at the provincial level. Quebec recieves $5.5 billion annually, making it the single largest recipient of these payments.[8]
British Columbia, as noted, has been a 'have-not' province for just over five years and will likely return to being a 'have' province in the near future. While being a 'have-not' province it recieved the lowest payments besides Saskatchewan, recieving $107 per capita in 2006, approximately 1/7th of that of Quebec.[9]
[edit] State of Affairs in 2006
At the moment, Western alienation does not appear to be a significant force in Canadian politics, besides protest over equalization payments on the part of Alberta premier Ralph Klein. In particular, Klein and others object to the formula the federal government uses to determine their collection and distribution of the payments. Klein has been quoted as threatening to drop-out of the program, however this is constitutionally impossible and more attributable to Klein's slightly eccentric nature.
Among Alberta's academic community, there have been recent calls for the seperation of at least Alberta from Canada, most notably with University of Alberta professor emeritus Leon Craig arguing such. However such arguments, while not neccesarily new, are rare and unlikely to materialize into any reasonable social movement at least for the time being.
The prospects for another referendum in Quebec in coming years is high with growing popularity of the Parti Québécois (PQ) and the waning support for Quebec premier Jean Charest and his Parti libéral du Québec. André Boisclair, the new leader of the PQ has declared his intentions of holding another referendum on the issue of Quebec sovereignty if he secures defeat in the next provincial election.
The renewed issue of Quebec sovereignty will likely do little to alleviate Western alienation, as the same sentiments which followed the 1995 referendum will most likely be repeated.
