Right from the time it annexed the Prairie West, Canada’s central government has been largely indifferent to the concerns of Westerners..In fact, Canada ignored the interests of Prairie residents until it faced armed resistance. Events since that time reveal a consistent pattern of Ottawa disregarding the West unless it faced determined opposition it could not avoid..That is the lesson of history, and Westerners should learn from history..The Canadian Prairies were originally part of Rupert’s Land, the Hudson Bay drainage basin that was administered by the Hudson’s Bay Company for 200 years (1670-1870). The company had a monopoly on the region’s fur trade — a very profitable industry at that time..In 1870, a British order-in-council transferred ownership of Rupert's Land to the Dominion of Canada. The transfer was originally planned for 1869, but the mostly-Métis inhabitants of the Red River settlement had not been consulted about becoming part of Canada and were not about to quietly acquiesce to its rule. They formed a provisional government under Louis Riel to represent their interests. Riel’s supporters had guns and weren’t afraid to use them..To appease the Red River inhabitants, the Canadian government created the province of Manitoba to give those people a better political status within their new country..However, unlike other provinces, Manitoba did not receive control over its land and resources. When Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed in 1905, they too, were denied control of their land and resources. This situation was not rectified until 1930 when all three provinces were granted such control..A few years later, prominent historian W. L. Morton of Manitoba made no bones about the fact that the West had been unfairly treated by Canada..“The resistance of the Metis,” he wrote, “set a tradition at work, the tradition of western grievance. The struggle of the prairie west against political subordination to central Canada had begun.”.That is, right from the beginning of Canadian involvement on the Prairies, Western interests were disregarded until Westerners actively resisted the central government. This would be the pattern for the next 150 years or more..To this day, Westerners must push back forcefully or they will be crushed by Ottawa’s indifference to their concerns..According to Morton, the main impetus driving the formation and growth of Canada was the “Laurentian thesis.” Canada, in this view, was forged primarily by the commercial system of the St. Lawrence region..This means the goal of creating wealth for central Canada has been the main reason for the West’s unjust treatment. As Morton put it, “Confederation was brought about to increase the wealth of central Canada, and until that original purpose is altered, and the concentration of wealth and population by national policy in central Canada ceases, Confederation must remain an instrument of injustice.”.In other words, the structure of Confederation was unjust to the West right from the very beginning. Morton explained that “the West was annexed to Confederation as a subordinate region and so remained for 60 years. Such was the historical schooling of the West. It had, therefore, to fight its way up to self-government and equality in Confederation; nor is the process ended.”.Morton pointed out all the West really wanted was to be an equal partner within Canada, rather than having second-class status as a region. As he put it, “The prairie west has been defined as a colonial society seeking equality in Confederation. That equality was sought in order that the West should be like, not different from, the rest of Canada.”.More than three decades after Morton wrote those words, determined Westerners founded a new political party to champion that exact goal of regional equality — the Reform Party of Canada. Its motto was “the West wants in.”.In the 1993 and 1997 federal elections, the vast majority of Alberta’s seats went to the Reform Party, in addition to many seats from the other Western provinces..What the Reformers found, though, was central Canada was not interested in the political and constitutional reforms Westerners had voted for. The East favoured the status quo and still does..Despite recent efforts to eliminate energy-sector jobs through a so-called “just transition” and other climate change policies, the current situation of the West is not as dire as it was in 1869..Therefore, a peaceful solution is the only reasonable option, and there is a legal and constitutional alternative for those who want to end 150 years of Western subordination: Alberta can hold a referendum on independence and form a new country. With a successful referendum, the West’s second-class status would finally come to an end.
