Illustration from 1915. What has changed?

As an avowed federalist, a tried and true loyal Canadian who served in the Army voluntarily in Canada and abroad for over 25 years, never did I think I would become that most loathsome of creatures, a separatist !

I was also a card carrying Liberal for most of my life. Exposed to Liberal policies during my service and life in the west from Trudeau to Chretien, my views changed. I lived in Calgary during the NEP, it was horrible. How could a Prime Minister do this to his own people and then give them the finger? By the time the Chretien Sponsorship Scandal broke I’d more than had enough. I became a Conservative and a member of the Canadian Alliance.

I’ve watched the elites of Liberal eastern Canada drain the resources of the west and give pittance back. I wondered why low-cost daycare and social services including low tuitions available in Quebec was not in Prince George or Edson or Edmonton, Vancouver, Regina….or anywhere in the west. I watched as we were called knuckle dragging rednecks, treated as if we were not competent enough to manage our own futures. We complained and were treated to rolling back eyes and disgust. How dare we question how the fruits of our labours were spent and by who?

We tried to participate in Canada with the election of Stephen Harper. His election was more of a reaction to enormous Liberal scandals than an acceptance of Conservatives and Harper. Harper governed because he was allowed to govern while the Liberals rebuilt. Evidence of which is ample as can be seen by the constant barrage of negative media attacks and whenever the media couldn’t find anything else to run with they would fabricate scandals. The eastern elites were determined to bring back the good old days of left wing Liberal rule. It took a steady pressure, Harper could not be seen as being anything positive for Canada and as a westerner he wasn’t really a Canadian, just a stop gap. But now the Liberals are back. Another Trudeau is at the helm and the rape of the west is renewed.

I became a separatist. This cannot be allowed to continue. Not again, not another NEP!

I have become active as an online promoter of western independence. My first step, albeit a small one, is to refer to western Canada with a capitalized  spelling, the West. I had an exchange with a nationalist friend who looks at Western independence as being an ill-conceived thing. She says BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan wouldn’t make it without Canada and the status quo. I had to educate her but I doubt I will change any minds in that set. I said…

” It would be Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC and probably the Yukon and Territories. And it would not be an overnight matter, everything from passports to pensions to traffic laws would have to be negotiated. But, in the end, the West would break free of having its fortunes decided by the east with no recourse but to be milked dry and told to shut up. This has been going on for over 100 years and is still ongoing, examples abound.