Braedan de Bakker is the president of the Carleton Campus Conservatives and says the federal government must build the Trans Mountain pipeline to ameliorate the divided state of the country after the federal election.
The Trudeau government is about to face its greatest challenge in the next few years. Not only will it have to negotiate its way through a minority government, the Liberals also face a crisis of national unity, from both the East and the West.
While the Bloc Quebecois were resurrected this past election, their overall strategy toward Quebec sovereignty is still uncertain. This is indicated by Bloc leader, Yves Francois Blanchet’s touch-and-go approach to the issue.
But, what is certain is the clear and present danger that disenfranchised Western voices pose toward national unity. The approach of the Trudeau government over the past four years has led to increased economic hardship and alienation in provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan. The most publicized source of western frustration over the last four years being the stagnation on the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Most people outside Western Canada believe the source of all the anger in Alberta and Saskatchewan is solely based on pipelines and the oil industry. Years of the West being the main economic driver of Canada only to have their industries vilified and not supported by major energy projects being in hard economic times has led to a lot of the current resentment.
The effect of the Trudeau government’s attitude resulted in a complete shut-out of the Liberal party in Alberta and Saskatchewan and a landslide win by the Conservative Party. The results in certain Western ridings could only be rivaled by elections held in autocratic countries.
For example, in the Grand Prairie–Mackenzie riding, the Conservatives won with 84 per cent of the vote, an incredibly high outcome in a democratic country. This outpouring of support in Alberta and Saskatchewan was part of the reason the Conservative Party won the popular vote.
However, antipathy toward central Canada by the West runs deeper. It can trace its roots to the National Policy that protected Ontario and Quebec industries. Furthermore, the introduction of the National Energy Program instituted by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau that crippled Alberta’s oil industry and economy only furthered frustration with central Canada.
The sponsorship scandal that plagued Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal governments, and involved the illegal mishandling of taxpayer money in Quebec, was seen by the Western provinces as more favouritism toward central Canada.
The Liberal party’s political stagnation regarding pipelines and Canadian oil access to international markets is just another chapter in the story of Western alienation by the federal government.
It was only the Conservative Party which recognized the fragility of the situation and the dissatisfaction of the West and incorporated them into their party platform. Perhaps more importantly, though, was respecting the autonomy of the provinces that was found in the Conservative platform.
That is the essential appeal of the Conservative Party to the West: an unobtrusive federal government which ensures provinces are respected and allowed to succeed, which in turn unites the country.
As the election results have shown, the Liberals need to take heed of the current state of Canada as a nation divided. The first steps should be to ensure the Trans Mountain pipeline is built. Action on this might go a long way to depress some of the tensions of an impending national unity crisis.
File photo.
