Quote:
Originally Posted by ericmacm
Do you have any idea what is going on in the US right now? This fake "Canadian divisiveness" that is being generated by the media isn't even remotely close to the levels of craziness going on in the United States. Half of their country praises a lunatic president like he's the second coming of Jesus and would willingly go to war against their own neighbours for him. Canada isn't even close to that level of mind-bending stupidity.
I think you would be extremely hard pressed to find enough people out west in real life that actually want to separate from the east. It's being drummed up by politicians for desparate political gains, and the media is eating it up, blowing to way out of proportion. We're a very sparsely populated country that is only strong and successful because we are one singular, united country. Many provinces will be completely cut off if separation ever occurred. Western alienation is a very real problem that needs to be fixed, and will eventually be fixed as the western cities grow faster, but Balkanization would never be the answer. It would just make everyone much, much poorer and would make government even less efficient, even if all the countries were to reunite under a "Canadian Union".
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Separation no, but there is no mistaking the sentiment. Imagine you're taking a drive to the west out of Winnipeg. You won't hit another non-conservative riding until Vancouver. The situation doesn't seem meaningful to people from Ontario and eastwards from there because it seems so remote. You know that there are ridings out in Alberta where the Cons attained Putin-like support levels into the 80-90 percent range.
And it looks like people out east still don't get it. There seems to be a palpable disdain for western provinces (well at least the land-locked ones).
I'm not saying balkanization is the solution either, but this laisser faire approach certainly won't help either. These people need to have their concerns not only heard but addressed, something the current administration doesn't seem to be really interested in (I know JT mentioned something about paying more attention to Alberta yadda yadda, but I'll believe it when I see it).
Anyways, this all doesn't really affect me in any real way but I sense that a lot of people out east really don't have their finger on the pulse in this case.