My father was a stickler about voting and as each of his children reached the age of majority, he proudly marched us to the polling station. Back in the day there was a blackout on reporting eastern election results until after the polls closed in the western provinces, supposedly so Canadians in the western provinces wouldn’t know that the election of the government was already a done deal.
After getting a couple of elections under my belt, I didn’t have the heart to tell Dad that I realized my vote didn’t seem to matter much in a federal election. What happened to Justin Trudeau’s promise that the election of 2015 would be the last “first past the post” election? Remember, we were promised proportional representation. Would the Liberals be forming government today having garnered second place with only 33 per cent of the popular vote across Canada, compared to the Conservatives’ 34.4 per cent and the NDP’s 15.7 per cent? And how does the Bloc Quebecois, a party that only runs candidates in one province, become a national party and hold seats in Parliament? Other fledgling parties, like the Green Party, field candidates across the country and represent Canadians of all stripes
in provinces and territories.
How does Wexit, in essence a separation of some western provinces from the rest of Canada, continue to pick up steam? How did the rallying cry “the West wants in” turn to “the West wants out?” Ontario and Quebec control the election of the federal government, as those two provinces hold 199 out of 338 seats in parliament. The four western provinces combined only have 104 seats, the Maritime provinces have a paltry 32 seats, and the territories weigh in with three seats. Theoretically, if eight provinces and the territories all voted for the Black Party, they still collectively would not have enough voting strength to form a government if Ontario and Quebec, collectively, voted for the White Party. The allocation of seats in parliament is based on population and roughly eight million more citizens live in those two provinces than in the rest of Canada combined. But this formula does not consider the diversity and uniqueness of the whole country.
It is easy to understand why some in Alberta and Saskatchewan are lobbying for Wexit. As a low-density population province, we get little say in who forms government and we get nothing from the equalization formula. Yet high-density provinces like Quebec have a loud voice in government and get the most from the equalization plan; and Ontario, with the largest population and the most seats in Parliament, received billions of dollars in equalization payments between 2010 and 2018. The west is feeling used and abused. Our resources are highly taxed and help fill the federal coffers that distribute the equalization payments to the very provinces that try to decimate our commodity-based industries, especially gas and oil.
They might want to think twice about that before they kill the golden goose. When the global price of oil was at an all-time high, Papa Pierre Trudeau introduced the National Energy Program stating that these resources belonged to all Canadians and eastern Canada got a good price on western resources. With world prices declining, many eastern provinces now buy offshore oil and lobby against the western provinces getting their oil to competitive global markets.Yes, there is, and should be, concern about climate change. There should be initiatives to develop alternative and sustainable sources of energy. But it is going to take decades before enough alternative energy is available to replace fossil fuels. And come winter when the temperature dips to 50 below and the ice rains prevail, will the bone-chilling winds turning the turbines produce enough energy to warm the hearth?
Most disconcerting about this election was the recognition that the voting public no longer expects good character, respectability and integrity from its politicians. We look for like-ability rather than intelligence and competence. Nor does the public seem concerned about mounting debt. Political parties promise us everything we want and pay for it with our grandchildren’s money. And now that we have already encumbered our grandchildren, we are steadily working on burdening our great-grandchildren.
However, minority governments are good, as Opposition members usually do keep a close eye on spending. Emotionally, I would love to sign on to Wexit but my practical side says no. We live in next-year country where hope springs eternal. We don’t vote governments in; we vote them out and I expect we will have another federal election within two years.
centimetres of snow 48 hours later. It’s just the way it works here.
(Photo by Cam Hutchinson)
– Elaine Hnatyshyn