The Western Alliance

Mattimer, I agree with a number of your points, but I don't think you've given this much thought.

I don't think most Ontarians really appreciate the depth of frustration felt by their western counterparts due to the Quebec-centric nature of Federal politics and the left wing bias shown by institutions such as CBC. Being frustrated at the ballot box year after year is another source of irritation (although until the population distribution in the country changes drastically, I don't see how you can change that). Policies like the gun registry, immigration, transfer payments etc. are other points where westerners have legitimate greivances and Ottawa ignores those factors at their peril. For what it's worth, as a hard-right, pissed off 905'r, I share many of those same gripes.

But c'mon. That old line about the "West sending all our resources to Ontario and getting nothing back" is getting a bit old.

Give me a break. Nobody's taking your resources at the point of a gun. Alberta exports it's resources to a bunch of places. The US, Asia, etc. Your producers receive good money for them, and you may or may not have noticed, but that's led to something of a boom in your part of the world which has helped Ralph pay off the Debt.

On top of that, I can assure you, Ontario has it's fair share of resources. And as for the money argument, Alberta doesn't subsidize Ontario. Ontario and Alberta subsidize the rest of the federation. And Ontario's contribution is about 4 or 5 times that of Alberta's. So let's get real here.

We live in a North American Free Trade Zone, and an increasingly global economy. Your view of the Canadian Economic system sounds like something out of the Soviet Union in 1954, with state run plants, state run resource exploitation etc all supporting one another in some grossly inefficient, integrated nationalized economic system directed from the Kremlin.

It just doesn't work like that guy. Not in the free market. The natural gas pumped out of Alberta and shipped east doesn't come from some birth right available to all Albertans. A private energy company owns the resource then sells it to a customer at market price.

It's really got nothing to do with you personally unless you happen to have shares in the oil company.

That said though, if a serious western separation movement ever does develop, Ontarians had better be very nervous. A Canada that only runs as far east as the Ottawa River is a viable, and in my opinion, desirable, entity. Lose the west and we're done like dinner.

that was a good post Lawndart, there will never be a serious western separation movement. I have never met anyone whos has thought about that, only here.

I have a few years to go before I develope this concept.
But I can get the things I want, you may be hearing my name in a few years...
It's not that I want to weaken Canada, or that I'm even un-patriotic, it's that I want to be heard aswell. Canada doesn't stop at the Ontario border, and if they continue to think that then we just may see the "Canada" west of that border to dissapear.
If anything, my "platform" would be more of a scare tactic, to let Ontario know that we want to be heard, and not lead by our noses by the east.

The other thing people seem to have forgotten is that the "Alliance Party" way back when before they were the Reform party and what ever other names they used over the years, were the Western Separatist Party. They couldn't do a damn thing back then and the separatist won't make it happen now. In my opinion, separatists, no matter where they're from, are guilty of treason.