Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere
Pluralities in all four Western provinces define Western Canada "correctly." British Columbians feel more removed from the West of a whole (30% opt for the strictest definition), virtually nobody in Alberta feels most closely linked to BC.
https://angusreid.org/new-west-western-identity/
BC
BC/AB/SK/MB 37%
BC/AB only 30%
BC/AB/SK 23%
AB/SK/MB 6%
Alberta
BC/AB/SK/MB 40%
AB/SK/MB 35%
BC/AB/SK 17%
BC/AB only 4%
Among other provinces and states, Albertans overwhelmingly felt closest to Saskatchewan (70%), while British Columbians felt closest to Washington State (54%).
There was more BC/AB affinity in the early 1990s, however. |
The article there is 4 years old and I would not be surprised of the pandemic maybe increased negative sentiment. Though it is pretty telling how Western Canada (BC/AB/SK) sees English/French bilingualism as negative or no impact. That's been pretty consistent because nobody in BC or Alberta needs French to function, and feel it's an impediment to getting a (federal) government job and nothing else.
Meanwhile if English is not your first language and you come from a country that neither English or French is considered important to know (eg most of Asia) you are now burdened with having to know three languages to live in Quebec. As it's been pointed out in the past,
Quebec benefits financially from allowing in as many immigrants as possible, but few immigrants settle there because of the hostile provincial government to anyone who doesn't speak French as a first language. Hence immigrants have to move where their own ethnic exclave already exists.
Aside from the language question, people who live in BC and people who live in Alberta will generally share a few sentiments.
- Major Cities are different from Rural, with major cities generally being more liberal-bent
- Environmental policy gets in the way of natural resource exploitation
Rural Alberta differs in two ways from Rural BC.
Rural BC presently sees every city being turned into wealthy retirement communities. So housing shortages are being driven from outside forces. Not so for Alberta, where Alberta has really "no appeal" to retire to. You can confirm this yourself by looking at realtor.ca and look at how many time-shares spam up the listings in BC, and yet are almost entirely absent across the prairies.
The other way is that Alberta rural is focused around "farming", where as the only farms in BC are next to major cities, and thus aren't rural.
If the political parties want a win, they pretty much need to solve housing this decade, because the clock is ticking, and families stop having children when they can't afford a home.
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