Why should we stay?

Why should we stay?

Barry Cooper says that Eastern Canada is driving Alberta out of confederation:

"And as for easterners, what do they fear? That the Crown in right of Alberta will let them freeze in the dark? No one proposes that Alberta move geographically, for heaven's sake, and Albertans will still sell easterners the oil and gas of their province -- at market prices, of course. They will do the same for the Americans or the Chinese, too.

And what is wrong with that? Do easterners need charity? Have they not received enough already? Have Albertans ever been thanked for their generosity? Or have they been despised as greedy rednecks? The answer to all such questions was summarized in a recent and widely reproduced column bearing the title Envy, thy name is Canada. Envy is not a political virtue. Nor is it a personal one, for that matter. Canadians should never lose sight of the fact that their envy will likely corrode their own will to exist as a political community, but it will bolster the will of Albertans to stay the course. In this anxious and worsening context, you can bet your boots that Albertans will both despise and scorn pleas to share the wealth, their resource wealth, in the name of distributive justice, the Kyoto Protocol, or national unity, none of which they trust in the slightest." (hat tip to J. Franklin at Dispatches from the Western Alien Nation)

This column builds on Don Martin's recent National Post column, Jealousy, thy name is Canada and the Leon Harold Craig article Let's Get While the Getting's Good. From the latter article:

"The political reality Albertans need to face is that the sponsorship scandal is not an aberration, but the epitome of the Liberal party's secret of perpetual success; it is its norm, and unusual only in the combination of brazenness and clumsiness that allowed it to come to the public's attention.

However, it is the reaction of that public that reveals the depth of Canada's sickness. For as is now clear to even the meanest intelligence, the problem is not merely one of an arrogant, cynical ruling party that uses every unscrupulous and several criminal means to maintain its grip on power; nor that the bloated federal bureaucracies are thoroughly politicized, led by careerists who understand their self-interests to be wedded to Liberal party fortunes; nor that something similar is increasingly true of both the national police and the military establishments; nor that the opposition parties offer no credible alternative (as has become painfully obvious).

All that is true, but what makes Canada's political sickness practically incurable is that a substantial majority of the citizens east of Thunder Bay are essentially debased.

Like many hard truths people would prefer not to face, this bears repeating: a majority of eastern Canadians are not worthy of their civic heritage, as is shown by their passive acceptance of the revelations of the Gomery commission and their casual indifference to the Liberals' squalid shenanigans in Parliament.

...

Why stay? Why fritter away our resources to remain in association with eastern provinces so alien to us that demonizing Alberta - portraying it as rustic, benighted, intolerant, selfish - is the Liberals' most effective electoral strategy (as the recent federal election once again clearly showed).

Why stay? Consider Canada's position internationally: it has become such a nonentity that there is no advantage in remaining a part of it, and some serious liabilities resulting from the souring of our inescapable relationship with the United States.

...

What Albertans have to understand is that the present Canadian reality is profoundly prejudicial to the interests of our children and grandchildren - economically, culturally, morally, politically - and that there is no realistic prospect of it ever getting better in their lifetime.

Quite the contrary: there is every likelihood that it will only get worse, as Canada goes the degenerating way of Old Europe: stagnant, corrupt, spiritless, impotent."

Now, in the past I have written a couple posts detailing Alberta's frustration with Canada and urging Albertan independence. Those posts were enough to prevent my membership the Blogging Tories, as they don't want to associate with an Alberta Separatist. I hope this post doesn't get me kicked out of the Red Ensign brigade too; however, Alberta is all that is left of the Canada that flew the Red Ensign. The separation of Alberta from the rest of Canada may be the only way that the values of the Canada-that-was will be preserved.

Update: Western World Politics questions whether Canada is still strong and free. (hat tip to Warner)

Here's a sample:

"... the leftist social assault that has been waging since the 1960's in all Western states has taken a particularly heavy toll on Canada. One could argue the toll taken is on a par with the leftist moral ruins that we see in Scandinavia or the Netherlands, and many commentators would agree that Canada is the most left wing politically correct nation outside of Europe. Even many liberal American states look right wing in comparison to Canada. It's successive governments have all had very strong socialist tendencies, stifling the free enterpise that made the dominion great. Leftists in Canada have done what leftists everywhere in the West are doing; they dismantle the things that make a society stable and successful, introduce radical and sometimes bizarre social reforms to mould a society in their image, then stifle any criticism of their plans from anyone brave enough to object."

Upperdate: For those in the rest of Canada who think that I'm exaggerating, this October 16th 2005 Calgary Sun editorial should be cause to sit up and take notice:

"Preston Manning’s warning should not be taken lightly.

The Reform party founder this past week suggested the possible re-election of another Liberal government in Ottawa will spur separatist sentiment not only in Quebec but in Alberta.

...if Alberta’s grievances against the ingrained political establishment in Ottawa rise to the height of emotions in Quebec, it’s hard to see how our nation can hold together in such an uneasy alliance."

Look, if Preston Manning says the re-election of Liberals would spur a separatist movement, pay attention. This is the guy who crushed the PC party - did it on the slogan "the West wants in" - and who took a party from founding to being Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in just ten years. This is no died-in-the-wool separatist.

But do I honestly think anyone in Ontario will pay attention? No, not really. What I expect is for Ontarians to say "Preston Manning? Redneck Fascist!" and go blissfully on their merry way, inevitably leading Canada down the path of dissolution.

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