PUBLICATION:  Citizens Centre Report
DATE:  2003.03.03
PAGE:  18
Byline: TERRY O'NEILL

Fundamental change is the only solution
by Terry O’Neill

Where is provincial discontent highest? If you answered Alberta, home of a growing number of provincial-rights movements, you would be wrong. In fact, residents of three provinces, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and B.C., report feeling more aggrieved than Albertans.

The figures can be found in “Portraits of Canada 2002,” published by the Centre for Research and Information in Canada. According to the Centre, 84% of Newfoundlanders felt their province is not treated with the “respect it deserves in Canada”; 78% of Saskatchewan residents felt similarly, as did 70% of British Columbians. The percentage rose seven points in B.C. and Newfoundland in just one year, and 11 points in Saskatchewan. Albertans’ discontentment, on the other hand, was 15 points lower than in 1998. Moreover, at 58%, its level was equal to that felt by Quebeckers.

At the other end of the scale, there were only three provinces in which a minority of residents felt disrespected: Manitoba (49%), New Brunswick (40%) and Ontario (24%).

The Centre found the most common reason respondents in Alberta and Saskatchewan felt disrespected “[was] that their provinces have too little influence in national decision-making, or too little representation in federal institutions, notably the House of Commons.”

The Centre concludes: “Issues such as the farm crisis or Kyoto matter [to the West], but they don’t matter nearly as much as how Parliament and the electoral system work. This is an important finding. It shows clearly that there may be no quick fix to regional discontent, since, in the absence of institutional reforms, no single change in policy can address Westerners’ concern that their views on a wide range of matters simply don’t count as much as those of central Canada.”