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Part of the family: with a history almost as long as Quebec''s separatism although not as virulent, Western Canada is still upset about control from Ottawa. (National Unity--Western Alienation).

Article Excerpt
For the West, the issue is not one of separation from Canada. People who support the idea are considered a fringe group, and no one seriously expects that to change. After all, the Reform Party started with the slogan "The West Wants In," a demand for a stronger voice within the national government. Discontented Western Canadians have a gripe with the federal government, feeling that they're pretty much ignored. Western alienation has deep roots in the region, where the federal government is viewed with suspicion, and many believe that Confederation was for the benefit of Central Canada.

Former Premier of Alberta, Peter Lougheed, says that Western alienation comes from "the fact that many Western Canadians are turned off by the priorities and actions of the federal government. They feel that despite the efforts of some very good and able federal cabinet ministers from the West, Ottawa neither understands nor appreciates the needs and hopes of Westerners."

In an article in The Globe and Mail in February 2001, Mr. Lougheed explains that the sheer size of Canada is bound to contribute to differences. British Columbia's geographical location, its climate, mountains, and culture all distance it from the federal government in Ottawa. And Saskatchewan, he says has long known that its concerns over farm income have never been a priority in Ottawa. "Saskatchewan will never forget Pierre Trudeau's offhand remark, when he was prime minister: `Why should I sell your wheat?'"

And, he reminds us that Manitobans "harbour the distressful memory of 1986 and the Mulroney government's unwarranted shift of aerospace industry jobs, when it awarded Canadair of Montreal a $1.4 billion contract to maintain Canada's CF-18 fighters, snubbing a cheaper bid from Winnipeg's Bristol Aerospace Ltd."

This brings up another sore point: a lot of the resentment and frustration in recent decades in the West has come from the sense that Quebec has dominated the national agenda. On the CBC radio current affairs program, This Morning, Sheilah Martin, professor of law at the University of Calgary, put it this way: "There is a bit of a feeling in this province that Quebec has received special status and treatment and distinct privileges because it has talked the language of separation. As a strategic matter, there are people here saying, well we have concerns, they may not be based in culture, they may not be based in language, they may be different historically, but we have our own set of concerns that we want to make sure are...