“The resistance of the Metis...was sufficient to set a tradition at work, the tradition of western grievance. The struggle of the prairie west against political subordination to central Canada had begun, and it was to go on to merge with the struggle against economic subordination to the capital and corporations of the east.”- W.L. Morton, historian (1955)
“Let me say that it would be a tragic and profound mistake on the part of either the politicians or the press, or the general public of Central Canada, to underestimate or dismiss out of hand the profound dissatisfaction which does exist among many people in Western Canada.”- Harry Strom, Alberta’s final Social Credit premier (1971)
“We have always had a sense of economic exploitation...The cartoon that has captured these sentiments is one of a large cow standing on a map of Canada munching grass in Alberta and Saskatchewan, with milk pouring from a bulging udder into the large bucket in Ontario.”- Harry Strom
“One underlying conviction must be made clear. ‘Western alienation’ [will not] go away if we somehow manage to out-wait it. Instead, it is the most recent outbreak of a condition that has been chronic in this country since Confederation...and all reasonable expectations are that it will continue to be chronic in the future.” - Peter McCormick, Ernest C. Manning and Gordon Gibson (1981)
“The main thrust of western discontent...hinges on a feeling of marginalization and alienation from the centres of economic and political power rather than on a simple desire for separation from it...” - Robert J. Jackson and Doreen Jackson, authors (1986)
“The Calgary Herald described the Laurier government’s 1905 refusal to accord Alberta and Saskatchewan equality with the original provinces on the resources issue as an ‘autonomy that insults the West.’ To this day, some prairie Canadians believe that this act of gross discrimination by Ottawa demonstrated clearly that the West was regarded as an exploitable colony.” - David Kilgour, Edmonton MP (1988)
"Screw the West, we'll take the rest" - Liberal Campaign worker (1980)
All Albertans should consider this famous quote in our present context
"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." - John Fitzgerald Kennedy Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961)
“What accounts for the apparently irrepressible cycles of ‘protest’ parties and voices on the Prairies?...Unlike any of the other provinces, the Prairies were annexed, colonized, partitioned, and created as provinces by the federal government. Subordination and inequality in status flowed out of the National Policy and Ottawa’s control of Prairie land and natural resources until 1930. The well-spring of Prairie grievance and protest thus runs long and deep.” - Nelson Wiseman, political scientist (1994)
