Vancouver Province
for October 8, 1999

Reed Scowen is an interesting cat – a three term member of the Quebec National Assembly, an economic adviser to Robert Bourassa and a senior Quebec public servant, he’s written a book called Time To Say Goodbye (The Case For Getting Quebec Out Of Canada) published by McClelland & Stewart at $19.95 in paperback. The title says it all – Mr Scowen thinks that the "Rest of Canada" ought to kiss Quebec goodbye.

The reasons are what one might suspect. Although Mr Scowen intends on staying in Quebec until he dies (he’s reserved a plot for that purpose) he thinks that Quebec will simply continue to be a nuisance, threatening to quit on the one hand while accepting ever increasing bribes with the other.

Those sick to death of Quebec and all the problems it causes will delight in this book. The more common reaction, I daresay, especially from the Central Canadian establishment and its acolytes, will be horror. Just when, it will be said, we’re about to put Quebec separatism behind us and get on with building a nation along comes this jerk and rouses dormant passions.

Mr Scowen’s proposition is wrong, in my view, but not for the reasons the ever smarmy establishment will come up with. He will not fan the flames of separatism because separatists won’t bother to read his book and separatists are, by nature, always inflamed. He’s not likely to provide much comfort to rednecks in English speaking Canada either. What he may do, however, is dull the senses of those who recognize that Quebec separatism is like poison ivy, a recurring disease which must be dealt with at frequent intervals.

I was astonished at Mr Scowen’s ignorance of what he continually calls "The West". Indeed his statistics are laid out in the traditional Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, "The West" mode that even the Toronto Globe and Mail has thankfully abandoned.

What really threw me for a loop was the time I spent talking with Mr Scowen off air. He was truly surprised to learn that British Columbians thought of themselves as a very distinct part of Canada and didn’t, for the most part, consider themselves part of the "West" – at least not the sort of "West" he envisages. I put to him the proposition that if Quebec went, B.C. would soon follow because the counterbalance in Canadian politics to Ontario would be gone – that B.C. would not tolerate a country run by Ontario. Again, Mr Scowen was surprised. He clearly confirms the commonly held suspicion that most opinion-makers in Central Canada know nothing of the "West" they so glibly speak of and have no idea of what the politics of Canada would really be like sans Quebec.

I did some math for him. I took a 200 seat House of Commons (Quebec having gone) divided amongst the remaining provinces. Ontario would have 98 seats and Atlantic Canada, clients of the Ottawa, would have 23. British Columbia and Alberta would have 40 between them and the balance would be in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, two more provinces dependent upon equalization money. In short, Ontario would always be able to command a majority in the House of Commons and for the most part a huge majority at that.

Mr Scowen, visibly shaken by this revelation, opined that Ontario would bend to public opinion and changes would be made to the Constitution.

I have news for Mr Scowen – no political unit voluntarily gives up power.

The north-south pull in British Columbia, always strong, both in a geographic and economic sense, would be irresistible. That’s not to say we would join the States because we likely wouldn’t. There would be no need. With massive natural resources and an energetic educated population British Columbia would fare very well on its own.

An independent B.C. is not a desirable end in my view. Canada is a great social and political adventure. But it cannot be preserved by the sort of thinking expressed by Reed Scowen and so many other myopic Central Canadians. Canada could lose Newfoundland and survive. It could, no doubt, survive the loss of British Columbia. It could not withstand the loss of Quebec and those who don’t care if she goes or actively encourage her departure are, whether they know it or not, encouraging the breakup of the country.

Mr Scowen’s book is entertaining and provocative – and fatally naïve.

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