If polls are to be believed, 30% of Alberta and Saskatchewan residents now support some form of leaving Canada, whether joining the US or outright independence. Meanwhile half of Quebec is always ready to quit Confederation.
So here is the question after ten years of Liberal misrule: Do we even have a country any more?
The answer is 'yes' — but not inevitably and not necessarily forever. Things must change, or there is something here that could be lost.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper called it exactly right on Monday when speaking at Edmonton's massive (16,000 in attendance) Pierre Poilievre rally, he said that while (President) Trump was an issue, 'most of Canada's problems were created by the policies of three Liberal terms.'
Quite. And if Canada is to survive, the policy consequences of those three terms must be addressed.
What were they?
According to an industry source who declined to be identified, the loss of some $400 billion of expected investment in the energy industry over nine years, was a big part of the damage.
However, deeply destructive as that loss is, it's not only net-zero policies and legislation against pipelines and tankers that alienate West from East.
There are two other things.
First, there is a certain forelock-tugging mentality ascendant in central and Eastern Canada that to a much greater degree than in the West, finds within the Liberal Party a warm berth, and tends to reward it with its votes.
In the Liberal Party, this mentality's comfort with woke-ism is unchallenged.
Also unchallenged is the idea that government is the answer to everything, that freedom is over-rated, that personal initiative and self-reliance undercut community values by lessening the scope for government intervention and never mind your community of friends and neighbours, the safest place for the citizen to live is in the palm of the government's hand.
It is then, the dependency mentality of the United Empire Loyalists. (Sadly unredeemed by loyalty to the King.)
It is the Eastern failure to acknowledge that a government that can give you everything — 'free' healthcare, education, child care, dentistry and in some places, free tampons in mens' washrooms — can also take everything you have. (And contra the popular World Economic Forum saying, when you own nothing, you may not be happy.)
It is Eastern Canada's enduring belief against ample evidence to the contrary, that government is your friend. And tainted by an admixture of socialism, that assumption has turned the descendants of those rugged settlers into eager wards of the state.
In a sad irony, the descendants of the men who rallied to the frontier during the 1812 defence of Canada, now — apparently — are prepared to vote for a government that will ban firearms.
There are people in Alberta who think like that too.
But not so many. And we feel a little sad for them.
Still, for very obvious reasons, the Liberals stoke this worldview for all they're worth where it is already firmly rooted.... in Ontario, Quebec and in Atlantic Canada.
So a very different view of the role of government is one thing that divides East from West.
The other thing that has hurt national unity is that at the outset of his ministry, Prime Minister Trudeau denied Canada was even a country at all. Canada, he said, had no core identity. It was the world's first post-national state.
It was a sophomoric attempt, I continue to believe, to sound boldly insightful.
But words have consequences.
And as the Eastern-supported government Mr. Trudeau led began to deny Canadian nationality, allowing the destruction of Canadian national symbols, pouring contempt upon our colonialist, settler past, damned us as systemically racist and murderers of indigenous children, not only failed to take national defence seriously but undermined the very concept of military honour, people out West were first scandalized, then resentful and finally switched off.
The evidence of the 2019 and 2021 elections is that so also did quite a few people in Central Canada. The Liberal vote climbed down the ladder to such a degree that Trudeaucracy came to depend upon the NDP to hold power. But, not enough made the switch and again, if polls are to be believed, are now prepared to give the Liberals another chance — as long as Mr. Trudeau is really gone.
Having poured contempt upon Canadian nationhood, Mr. Trudeau was surprised that not everybody rallied around the flag when President Trump announced the imposition of tariffs. Indeed as he floundered, some premiers — notably Danielle Smith and Scott Moe — didn't wait for him. They took steps to salvage what they could from the wreckage of the policies Mr. Harper spoke of in Edmonton.
If Mr. Trudeau's departure remarks have any significance at all, it is that they reveal his continuing incomprehension of his own witless folly.
So, is there a future for Canada? There could be. Below, the vision of Canada Stephen Harper offered, as prime minister. That would be worth voting for.
But it will take leadership that does actually believe this country is not just a healthcare system with its own flag. That leadership will then respect the memory of the people who settled and built the country we have today... Voters must be sure they can trust that leaderships to govern by the plain meaning of what they're promising as they campaign... and will treat Western Canada as co-equal with the East.
As for the flaccid Eastern mentality we spoke of, it is too much to expect that it will change.
But it would better the chances of keeping Canada together if the next prime minister of Canada shows by his actions as well as his words, that he respects and encourages the West's accomplishments and ambition.
Say it out loud, and not just on an Alberta campaign stop. Say it in Parliament and in every city from Flin Flon to St. John's Newf.
Here's an idea: If Canada is to last, let the Government of Canada give the West at least as much deference as it gives Quebec.
Just sayin'.
