I can only presume Jared Wesley and Lisa Young, authors of 'We (Mostly) Like Canada,' do not travel to, know much about or have friends from Quebec..This line in their article must surely presuppose such: “Unlike sovereigntists in Quebec motivated by a desire to protect their culture, we find Alberta separatists are preoccupied with fiscal and economic issues.”.I was raised in Eastern Canada and have plenty of friends and family there. This should give me some credibility to strongly dispute the idea that Quebec sovereignty is “motivated by a desire to protect their culture.”.Yes, the veneer has “culture” plastered all over it, and no doubt the movement began as this. But as almost anyone who has moved to Alberta from Quebec will tell you under that veneer is a greed which the West only now is coming to believe exists..The authors may say, “we find …” but where did they “find” this conclusion to be true?.The truth is Alberta is fleeced of too much wealth by the cash-cow named culture, which miraculously milks for decades. Prime Minister Trudeau just announced this year Quebec will draw another $14 billion via transfer payments out of the rest of Canada. This, even though it's had its provincial budget balanced more often than any other province over the last 20 years!.How do they get away with it? Because of people like Wesley and Young who, though they work in academia, seem to not engage in critical thinking. Call it naïve, ignorant, or just gullible; call it what you want, but I can tell you Quebec insiders laugh at such blindness all the way to the bank. I am dead serious when I say they think of Western Canada (anything west of Sault St. Marie, to be accurate) as a colony and to be treated as such..It's a place to sell their goods and invest their money while giving little in return. Quebec prefers oil from the Saudis, while, the West cannot sell oil via Canada’s West Coast, because the Liberal government of Quebec-born Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shut down the Pacific pipeline projects, forcing us to sell our crude oil to Sarnia and the US for a heavily discounted price!.Until you lived east for a while, you would not believe the greed of those who, among insiders, are known as the Laurentian Elites in Toronto and Montreal, who run the real body politic. It is not the average Quebecer, though they know how the game is playe;:bilingualism simply ensures their disproportionate influence in federalism..Their arrogance is toward the West, patting Alberta on the head. Trudeau calls out the provinces on Canada Day and forgets Alberta. We are but a colony to them. That's the message..Even the four most eastern Canadian provinces are constantly on the lookout for their big brother just to the West, lest it try to take over their essential industries and hold them hostage for yet more cash. Consider the Churchill Falls hydroelectric dam in Labrador..According to the CBC, “From the signing of the contract in 1969 to 2019, Hydro-Québec made profits of close to $28 billion, compared with just $2 billion for Newfoundland and Labrador.”.Finally, Alberta and Saskatchewan governments figured out it really is about money, not culture. The game is up. Almost all of what they're proposing is merely what Quebec already does to the federal government (that is, the rest of Canada) financially. And hopefully they are just getting started..Alberta and Saskatchewan have had enough. And this is long, long overdue..Separation does not mean leaving Canada. Separation means, “No longer suckers. We're a nation, too.”.Charles D'Espeville is a writer based near Edmonton
I can only presume Jared Wesley and Lisa Young, authors of 'We (Mostly) Like Canada,' do not travel to, know much about or have friends from Quebec..This line in their article must surely presuppose such: “Unlike sovereigntists in Quebec motivated by a desire to protect their culture, we find Alberta separatists are preoccupied with fiscal and economic issues.”.I was raised in Eastern Canada and have plenty of friends and family there. This should give me some credibility to strongly dispute the idea that Quebec sovereignty is “motivated by a desire to protect their culture.”.Yes, the veneer has “culture” plastered all over it, and no doubt the movement began as this. But as almost anyone who has moved to Alberta from Quebec will tell you under that veneer is a greed which the West only now is coming to believe exists..The authors may say, “we find …” but where did they “find” this conclusion to be true?.The truth is Alberta is fleeced of too much wealth by the cash-cow named culture, which miraculously milks for decades. Prime Minister Trudeau just announced this year Quebec will draw another $14 billion via transfer payments out of the rest of Canada. This, even though it's had its provincial budget balanced more often than any other province over the last 20 years!.How do they get away with it? Because of people like Wesley and Young who, though they work in academia, seem to not engage in critical thinking. Call it naïve, ignorant, or just gullible; call it what you want, but I can tell you Quebec insiders laugh at such blindness all the way to the bank. I am dead serious when I say they think of Western Canada (anything west of Sault St. Marie, to be accurate) as a colony and to be treated as such..It's a place to sell their goods and invest their money while giving little in return. Quebec prefers oil from the Saudis, while, the West cannot sell oil via Canada’s West Coast, because the Liberal government of Quebec-born Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shut down the Pacific pipeline projects, forcing us to sell our crude oil to Sarnia and the US for a heavily discounted price!.Until you lived east for a while, you would not believe the greed of those who, among insiders, are known as the Laurentian Elites in Toronto and Montreal, who run the real body politic. It is not the average Quebecer, though they know how the game is playe;:bilingualism simply ensures their disproportionate influence in federalism..Their arrogance is toward the West, patting Alberta on the head. Trudeau calls out the provinces on Canada Day and forgets Alberta. We are but a colony to them. That's the message..Even the four most eastern Canadian provinces are constantly on the lookout for their big brother just to the West, lest it try to take over their essential industries and hold them hostage for yet more cash. Consider the Churchill Falls hydroelectric dam in Labrador..According to the CBC, “From the signing of the contract in 1969 to 2019, Hydro-Québec made profits of close to $28 billion, compared with just $2 billion for Newfoundland and Labrador.”.Finally, Alberta and Saskatchewan governments figured out it really is about money, not culture. The game is up. Almost all of what they're proposing is merely what Quebec already does to the federal government (that is, the rest of Canada) financially. And hopefully they are just getting started..Alberta and Saskatchewan have had enough. And this is long, long overdue..Separation does not mean leaving Canada. Separation means, “No longer suckers. We're a nation, too.”.Charles D'Espeville is a writer based near Edmonton
