CKNW Editorial
for December 28, 1999

Gordon Gibson had an editorial page article in last Sunday’s Sun which I hope you read. His theory is that the Federal Liberal’s Clarity Act provides a blueprint for separation which may one day be invoked by a separating British Columbia. He says that there are two things holding BC in Confederation now – sentimentality and inertia. I think he’s right and would like today to do a bit of a follow-up to where his thinking seems to be going.

BC is a net contributor to Canada of about $5 billion a year and that’s a net, net figure which takes into account our proportion of federal services like the army, the foreign service, embassies and the like. When British Columbia was a "have" province this was relatively easy to bear. Now we are not and it isn’t.

In this connection, let’s examine British Columbia’s sentimental attachment to Canada. We are so attached, no question about that. But I would argue that it’s not to the same Canada Ottawa, for which read Central Canada, is loyal to. We are loyal to the dream of Canada, to what it might and should be. We are also loyal to what we remember about Canada – the depression and wars that brought us together and, let’s face it, the old British connection.

Ottawa and Central Canada are loyal to the old Upper Canada/Lower Canada debate which never bloody well goes away. It sees Canada as Quebec and Ontario with numerous, sometimes troublesome appendages attached. That’s bad enough but they assume that we in British Columbia feel the same and for the most part we don’t.

It’s a strange country when you think about it. Atlantic Canada is in Canada for the duration for the money. Without Ottawa largesse, taken out of the pockets of Ontarioans, Albertans and British Columbians they could afford to have a regional view of the country of their own. But they are clients of Ottawa and must therefore do what they’re told and usually do. The exception being Nova Scotia voting "no" in the Charlottetown Referendum of 1992, an event that is, to the establishment of Canada, now a non event. The papers don’t even record it as an important event of the 90s. The Prairie Provinces are likewise financially in thrall to Ottawa and have nowhere else to go.

The question is, can a country survive without a common national dream? How long will British Columbia stay in a country where they’re only wanted for their money?

Some might think that question as being excessive. I think not. We are governed under a system which utterly denies us a voice at the center meaning we’re in fact governed by the Ontario Liberal caucus which, of course, only has eyes for Central Canada. The system is such that we can never break into it and have any influence. If the only thing that keeps us in Canada is sentimentality combined with inertia consider this. Without any question we’re headed for a new constitutional dustup. Lucien Bouchard and the separatists, smarting under bad polls and the Clarity Act are, I suspect, right now working on the next set of minimum demands for Quebec’s continued presence in the country. These minimum demands will be all the old ones with a couple more added and will – and here’s the rub – be supported by Quebec federalists led by Jean Charest. He will, politically, have no choice. The federal government will have to deal with them and it will be in a bind – it won’t feel it can refuse Quebec but it knows that the demands won’t sell in Alberta and BC. We will be in another Meech Lake/Charlottetown situation. Just how that will play out I can’t say. But if it results in another referendum, that referendum will lose in BC. If it results in some sort of federal chicanery, such as Parliament voting its membership always to have ¼ from Quebec then the sentimental attachment of BC will wane as, year after year it is deprived of even more MPs, however useless they may be. In short, one can see without too much straining, the day, within the next decade, where the sentimental attachment of BC to Canada will greatly diminish and the money sent to Ottawa dispatched with increasing loss of patience.

If the sentimental attachment string is broken, can it be long before a separatist party starts and inertia is overcome?

After all, if Canada becomes constitutionally a compromise between Ontario and Quebec with British Columbia left just sending money and useless members of parliament, what’s the point of it all? The reason for Canada will be gone and the inertia with it.

I have been trying for many years to get the message out that Canada is in mortal danger of consuming itself in a battle that can’t be won and will lose it’s very existence in the result. The next few years will tell whether or not I’m right.