Georgia Straight
for April 1994, Article 4

As a lifetime lotuslander, who listens to the public every day, I claim some ability to detect the general mood in my native Province, but as a professional mood interpreter I have to recognize that a mood scarcely includes everyone. Landslide victories in Provincial elections are achieved with less that 50% of the vote. More than 30% voted "Yes" in the referendum though I'm damned if I know why. But there is such a thing as a general mood - and it can be detected.

My entire show of April 29 was devoted to a Province wide discussion of what listeners would like to see happen if the "wheels fell off" and Quebec actually separated. This is, I submit, a fundamental issue for open, public debate, and not one to be suppressed for fear of moral oppression by those who, always knowing what's best for us, put "political correctness" before plain talk on tough issues. That's one of the troubles with this country - we have always been afraid to debate openly things which really matter for fear of crossing that line drawn by the "politically correct."

I gave my audience gave four options - work out a new deal with the rest of Canada, go it alone in B.C., unite with Alberta or work out a new federation with the western Provinces. (The option of joining the United States was not on the table simply because I feared we would move into side issues such as NAFTA.)

This exercise was not, nor was it intended to be, an accurate reflection of the overall view in B.C. so rather than just do a poll, I encouraged people to expand on their opinions. The results were interesting, if not startling.

We took 64 calls of which 5 were rejected because they did not feel comfortable confining their answer to the categories. Fair enough. We were left with 59 of which 10 (approximately 16%) favoured working out some deal with the rest of Canada, 23 (about 39%) would like B.C. to go it alone, while the rest felt that we should make a deal with one or more of the Prairie Provinces. Put another way, 84% would, if Quebec left, prefer a new western country or an independent B.C. to sticking with the rest of Canada.

The callers were, almost without exception, thoughtful British Columbians who betrayed no redneckism or anti French bias. Many of the answers went like this, "it is not Quebec that's the problem, it's Ontario ... I would not want to live in a country where Ontario would hold nearly 1/2 of the Commons seats ... B.C. has been screwed by central Canada far too long and since we can stand on our own two feet, why not go it alone."

This survey confirmed my own gut feeling. British Columbia, long used to getting shafted by Ottawa, has complained for decades but these complaints could always be shunted aside by the ruling establishment pointing out that we needed the rest of Canada to survive.

Well, things have changed. Now we could go it alone, and very nicely too. If Quebec, long on the pogey financed in large part by our tax dollars, thinks it can run it's own affairs, surely we can. This is the most prosperous part of the country and the future looks bright. It's B.C.'s turn.

Vancouver has always been the "gateway to the Orient", but now it's clear that the gate is truly a golden one. In fact, the only gloomy part of an otherwises rosy picture is the clear inability of Ottawa to manage it's fiscal affairs.

The mood I detect is this - we're tired of being the patsy in this federation; we're tired of paying Quebec money to finance its own separation and pay huge bonuses to women to have babies; we are fed to the teeth with Ottawa; most of all, we pay a hell of a lot more than our share of the freight and are sick to death of being ignored. Moreover, now, if we have to, we can easily go it alone.

I think there's more. I don't detect an anti Quebec feeling - indeed we probably secretly admire her for getting away with what she does - it's more a feeling that this constant obsession with what Quebec wants has to stop. No matter that we have 24 Reform Party MPs, we still have no effective voice in Ottawa and never will.

There has always been a sort of latent separatism in B.C. which has never been understood in Ottawa who have just put us down as faraway bitchers. Now it is more than latent - there is a deep seated resentment layered with a firm and confident resolve that changes must be made, something which is not in the least understood in the nation's capital.