Vol. XXIII, Nos. 1&2 January/February 2005
The Western Separatist Papers has been
published (usually) monthly by W.S.P. Ltd. since 1983. Address all
correspondence to WSP, Box 101, 255 Menzies Street, Victoria, B.C. Western
Canada V8V 2G6. A one-year subscription is $15.00. Members of the Western Canada
Concept receive the WSP with their membership.
Send e-mail to kzubko@shaw.ca. Visit the WCC on the web at: www.westcan.org
Phone us at: 250-727-3438 or fax us at: 250-479-3294
Although the Western Block Party, the new federal Western Separatist party held its inaugural meeting last fall, when two meetings were recently held in Edmonton and Calgary, the media suddenly got the idea of what was afoot, and it became big news, with articles in all Western Canadian papers and some national papers.
Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan felt impelled to comment about it, denigrating the motives of those who support such a party. She said “she believes Albertans are focused on the future and doubts there is much appetite for Christie's message. “If you listen to Premier (Ralph) Klein's speeches, he wants very much to be a leader on the national stage, not leaving the national stage,” McLellan said at an Alberta policy meeting of federal Liberals.” She also said that she didn't think Newfoundlanders would be interested in "separatist rhetoric!" One wonders why she'd bring that up!
In any case, her comments didn't really address the issue of western alienation at all, but her attention of course led to a much larger response than otherwise would have occurred. There were many media inquiries, and much mail, including memberships, as a result.
A public meeting for the Western Block Party will be held at the following location:
Sandman Inn, Harvey Road, Kelowna
2 p.m., Saturday, March 12th,
2005
Doug Christie will speak at public meetings as follows:
Call the following toll-free number for details of times and places if you wish to attend:
The website of the Western Block Party is located at:
www.westernblockparty.com
There is a forum, for those of you who are interested in discussing the issues surrounding Western Canadian independence. This has led to many contacts, and has been a very useful tool.
In an article dated February 17, 2005, entitled “LANGUAGE LAWS WILL COST SYSTEM $8.5 M” by Jason Botchford of the Toronto Sun, the following revelations are made:
“GO TRANSIT is being forced to spend millions of dollars to put up French-language signs in places like Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga. Board chairman Gordon Chong said yesterday. GO had little choice when it budgeted more than $8.5 million for the next three years to comply with the French-Language Services Act. After 2007, GO is budgeting an additional $2 million a year dedicated to upkeep on those French-language signs in English-speaking Ontario municipalities. “It's definitely not a practical use of our money,” Chong said. “We're not sure precisely why we have to comply because the fact is I doubt there are many people in the GTA who don't speak English.”“
Meanwhile, an article by John Steinbachs in the Ottawa Sun of February 18, 2005 entitled French group seeing spots, Committee demands greater slice of daycare pie, the following statements are made:
“For the second day in a row, French language services were on City Hall's agenda yesterday, this time as advocates called for more subsidized child care for francophones. Several members of the city's French Language Services Advisory committee arrived demanding 50% of new subsidized spaces be set aside for francophone children -- even though figures show that while francophones represent 8.1% of the eligible population, they have 10.5% of subsidized spaces.
“The lobbyists argued the numbers of subsidized child care spaces being offered to their community was lower than the number given to anglophones by proportion.
DIVIDED FAIRLY: “There's a lot still that needs to be done,” said Louise Albert, chairwoman of the French Language Services Board. “A lot of francophone families want to have access to (francophone daycare spaces).” But with not enough spaces available, poor families who qualify for subsidized care are forced to send their children to bilingual or anglophone daycare. Nearly everyone at yesterday's health, recreation and social services committee agreed there are not enough subsidized spaces in general but city staff said the few spaces available are divided fairly between poor anglophones and francophones.” [end of excerpt]
By Doug Christie
As Paul Stanway wrote for the Edmonton Sun in his article on February 7, 2005, entitled “West emerging as a power bloc:” “Don't look now, but the folks next door are gaining on us. B.C. and Saskatchewan look set to join Alberta in creating Canada's most economically dynamic region. Our neighbours to the east are already technically a “have” province, and B.C. could be in the same position in the coming year. The last time all three western-most provinces were net contributors to the national economy was, well, never. “ He ends with the statement, “We've heard little or nothing on Kyoto from either B.C., Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. They have yet to twig to the fact they now have more in common with Alberta than with Ontario and Quebec. But they will. And when that happens, it might just upset the status quo that has governed Canadian politics since Confederation. Premier Klein will be talking about “the New Alberta” in his state-of-the-province speech on Tuesday evening. But it's possible the New Alberta will be joined by a New B.C. and a New Saskatchewan, for the first time creating a prosperous western regional bloc that Ottawa will find hard to ignore.”
More and more, we hear about the growth of this western power block, yet the Conservative party that claims to speak for Western Canada, continues to try to get elected in Ontario and Quebec. From Halifax, it has announced that the ruling party cannot be trusted. This pronouncement is supported by the proposition that Mr. Stephen Harper now thinks that the Liberal government might send troops to Iraq. He says Mr. Martin would thereby be breaking an election promise and thus would acquire a tremendous political penalty. This profound pronouncement fails to acknowledge what Mr. Harper himself would do. It is typical of politics in Canada generally.
Nobody ever says what they stand for; they just criticize what the other person has or has not been or done. On the other hand, the positive nature of Western Canada and its development and growth is the goal of both the Western Canada Concept and the Western Block Party.
In this regard an article of Feb. 3rd in the National Post is most encouraging. It was entitled “Supernatural meets Superrich.” In this article by Don Martin, we see the emerging alliance between British Columbia and Alberta. British Columbia has now returned to the category of a “have “ province. This arises as a result of Mr. Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, coming to the brilliant realization that British Columbia and Alberta have a lot in common. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland already found this out when extorting money from Paul Martin.
The interesting part of Campbell's proposal is the economic efficiency of combining the two governments. It's unfortunate that Mr. Campbell does not see that amalgamating the two governments naturally could eliminate duplication of bureaucracy. Mr. Campbell cannot see beyond the usual fight with Ottawa. He sees an alliance between Alberta British Columbia as a counterbalance to the central and eastern bias of the federal government.
But what if there was no federal government? What if all we could achieve was limited only by what British Columbians and Albertans agreed upon together? Cooperation has already extended to the establishment of a single way station between the two provinces, operated in the interests of both. This is located on the border at the Trans-Canada highway, but what if we can eliminate all other duplications?
Imagine how we could establish one department of highways for British Columbia and Alberta. What if we can establish one department of forests for British Columbia and Alberta. Go through the list and see how much we can eliminate in the way of bureaucratic duplication. Our railway could extend from the Peace River country to Vancouver to Calgary to Edmonton and all points in between. We already have the infrastructure, the highways, the schools, the hospitals and so on.
We would be able to establish some form of privatization so that the overburdened health-care system could be supported by with those with the money who could provide the services for themselves. In this way they could take the burden off the system. With the use of a combined efficiency of the economies of Alberta and British Columbia, we would no longer have to worry about higher taxes paying for bilingualism and other frivolous waste of money in Québec in Ontario.
British Columbia and Alberta combined into one nation, even without Saskatchewan and Manitoba, would be a wealthy self-supporting and wonderful place to live.
The tax-hungry government of Ottawa is further depriving western Canada of the ability to develop oil pipelines from the Mackenzie Valley. They do this by denying tax deductions for pipeline depreciation costs that are far less than the true costs of replacing an asset such as a pipeline. By this means the federal government, although it manages to rip off more money, prevents the development of a pipeline infrastructure, which would provide jobs and ready access to the market for Western Canadian oil.
But why should they care? At the present time, the Income Tax Act allows pipelines to be depreciated at a 4 percent rate and using the so-called declining balance method. This seems to require that a pipeline have a useful life of 50 years. This of course is a pipe dream.
In the United States, however, pipelines are written off in 15 years thus the Alaska pipelines have been far more efficient than those in Canada. It is estimated the Mackenzie Valley gas pools will last 20 years. The Canadian effective corporate tax rate on pipeline investment in the North is 43 percent. In the United States the comparable tax rate is only 9.5 percent. Studies have indicated that pipelines normally require replacement every 15 to 25 years.
In addition, the life of most gas pools is 20 years or less. Thereafter pipelines are no particular use and usually constitute an expensive potential pollution costs. However the government of Canada being as it is constantly in need of tax money is unlikely to allow the oil industry of Western Canada the depreciation it needs to replace or to repair existing pipelines.
This is just one more example of how the Canadian government being continually out of touch with western Canadian needs and interests creates a tax structure, which basically steals the livelihood and future of western Canadians. One should not forget that much of the tax dollars stolen goes to support Québec industries such as the Bombardier Corporation. The next time you wonder why your taxes are so high and the benefits of employment are so hard to find, think of the Ottawa government.
At the same time as the federal governments tax policy bankrupts many Western Canadians and drives business away, Canada offers to help pay debt for poor countries. On February 3<M>rd, 2005 Ralph Goodale, the Saskatchewan member who has been given the job of Finance Minister by Paul Martin, announced the Canadian government is going to pay $172 million to ease the overwhelming debt loads of the world's poorest countries.
The humour in this statement should come from the fact that the money he refers to as helping “the poorest countries” generally goes to the local dictator. The world's most impoverished countries all owe the World Bank, the international monetary fund and rich countries hundreds of billions of dollars. And what did they do with the money? Has it improved the living conditions of the average person and the so-called impoverished countries?
These questions seemed of no concern to Mr. Goodale who says “you see so many hundreds of millions of dollars around the world going into debt service costs rather than the health and education in countries that desperately need that health and education.”
Well, Mr. Goodale, why do we not think of our own people first? And there are even some people in Canada and elsewhere who suggest this is not enough. They want debt cancellation. There are no limits to the stupidity of those who are enamoured with giving away other people's money. And what is the solution for poverty in the Third World? Why, the same solution that gives prosperity to us: Free enterprise and property rights.
These two things more than anything else have guaranteed that Western nations have flourished and prospered with the growth and development of the individual free market. Political freedom, religious freedom, economic freedom, all these qualities have made it possible for each of us to work and benefit from our creative efforts.
This progressive future is under attack by governments always, and everywhere, demanding the right to take what the individual has produced and do with it what the individual has not and would not choose to do for him or herself.
According to the “Economic Freedom of the World 2004 Report” economically free nations attract nearly 12 times more investment capital per worker than unfree economies. Free economies also attract far more foreign investment. Recently the developments in the former Soviet Union where freedom of investment was beginning to be accepted, have been undermined by the increasing tendency of the government to take what did not belong to them and sanction, in effect stop, those who dared to invest.
This will guarantee that the Soviet economy stagnates as it has for the last 80 years. Or should we call it the Russian economy with the Soviet twist. Western Canada has the ability to maintain freedom and individual prosperity. Staying in Canada will guarantee the subsidization of bankrupt Eastern corporations like Air Canada at the expense of vital western Canadian companies like Westjet . If you want the efficient delivery of service at a minimum cost don't look to Air Canada and the government in Ottawa for an example. Western Canada is the foundation of the concept of individual initiative and ingenuity. Ottawa is the very antithesis.
The only difference between the Pacific Scandal of 1885 and the adscam of 2005 is the fact that in 1885 they actually built a railway, whereas in 2005 they only produce ads telling people Canada is wonderful.
The sponsorship scandal drags on. Bombardier and Air Canada proves that their cost is probably $60 million to enable us to read in the newspaper what we already know: that the Liberals were corrupt and that they bought Québec with bribes. We now are able to watch the spectacle of a liberally appointed Judge who doesn't care anymore talk openly about effective money laundering. But anyone who saw the Olympic Stadium in Montreal knows that Canada has had a sick relationship with Québec since at least 1967 when that boondoggle was built.
Even if as we all hope somebody is held accountable for all the bribery and corruption that was used to prevent the success of Québec separatism, what will be the ultimate penalty? No more than was ever imposed on Glen Clark for $500 million fast ferry boondoggle. Canada always rewards its clever politicians and although it sometimes casts blame on them once they depart, no politician will ever be punished because the ones who are following behind him want to get away with the same degree of impunity when they pull their final farewell with the money.
Western Canada can and will do better when we have the right of referendum, initiative, and recall and when we have direct voting in the hands of all the people by use of the Internet.
And what do think about the same-sex folks? They've managed to convince us that somehow or other a sexual deviation is a legal right. And Paul Martin is willing to stake is legal reputation on it. As is usually the case with godless politicians in Ottawa rather than face the people with their unpopular choice, sometimes based on their own sexual preference, they put the matter to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Irwin Cotler in January 2004 as Minister of Justice, amended the submission of the government in 2003 by specifically asking the court to rule on the question of whether the existing opposite sex requirement for marriage is consistent with the Charter. The court refused to answer that question and put the issue back to Parliament. But you would think if you listen to the Minister of Justice that the court had determined opposite sex marriage requirements were unconstitutional. They did not so find.
Don't assume for one moment I think that the Supreme Court should legally be deciding this issue. This is purely and simply a moral issue. It is the right of any country to insist that its laws are based on morality. Otherwise what is there to justify laws against any crime? The whole Criminal Code is based on a concept of morality, respect for the individual, respect for property, and the preservation of order in society.
These are moral concepts. Most ordinary people oppose same sex marriage. The Liberal party for the first time in its history, is stuck between two opposing forces. They have the left-leaning urbanites of the liberal persuasion, quite often homosexual themselves, who support same-sex marriage. And they have the large ethnic vote, which traditionally voted Liberal, and which now is opposed to same-sex marriage.
This issue could split the liberal party's foundation in half. But that doesn't seem to matter to Mr. Martin. He and his friends are full steam ahead for enshrining same-sex marriage in some sort of legal significance. After all, Trudeau made divorce legal, homosexuality legal, and why shouldn't the Liberals impose the rest of his legacy?
Bill Hosford used to say Trudeau made homosexuality optional, he wasn't going to stick around until he made it compulsory. He didn't. We still have this battle on our hands. The conservatives are unlikely to succeed in their opposition. Same-sex marriage and will never establish a relationship to traditional marriage. The people deserve something better than the laws that Ottawa now offers. Western Canada would have a referendum on this issue like many others and it would be resolved. Why is this too complicated for the sophisticated snobs of Ottawa?
In principle the Conservative party should be conservative. But that's too easy for modern Canadian politics. The Conservative party now has to be divided into “economic conservatives” and “social conservatives.” These two forces seem to be at war within the heart of the Conservative party. The Western Canadians are referred to as “social conservatives.” Stephen Harper is being attacked as one of “those.”
Even within the Conservative party, there is no clarity of thought. Those who put their faith in Stephen Harper will be sadly deluded if they think he could ever win Ontario. Even though Mr. Harper says “it is completely reasonable to protect the traditional definition of marriage. That's the position we take.” He will be unable to maintain this position for long in the face of divisions within his own party generated from the eastern Canadian media.
Meanwhile, Pierre Pettigrew announced that religious leaders should not involve themselves in the gay marriage debate. In effect, he was telling Catholic bishops to keep quiet. At the same time Paul Martin was cozying up to the Chinese who are currently persecuting millions of people for their religious beliefs. Paul Martin claims to be a Catholic, but in practice he hesitates to state any moral positions and certainly acts favourably to those who suppress religion altogether. The Liberal government had nothing to say to China. Here at home the Foreign Minister frets about Canadian bishops who oppose the government's marriage plans. The whole concept of the separation of church and state does not demand that the church be silent on all moral matters. In fact, it is those very moral matters upon which the church should speak. Along with imposing gay marriage against the will of the ordinary person, which is both arrogant and ignorant, the Prime Minister's attitude to China, where he ignores massive human rights abuses, seems quite consistent with the attitude of silencing religious dissent here in Canada. Is Paul Martin really Catholic or just a politician? In Western Canada, this probably wouldn't matter because with referendum, initiative, and recall, the issue would be decided by the people, rather than the power-hungry politicians.
I am often asked what about my pension? Some people seem to think that your pension plan is a big bank account held by a wonderfully trustworthy center in Ottawa. Unfortunately what they don't realize is that Canada is a debtor nation going further into debt. As a result, their pension plan, to which they have faithfully contributed for many years, is rapidly evaporating. With separation, we would have the resources and the favourable balance of payments with the world to subsidize and pay for their pensions. But simply put, Canada will not.
For one thing we're not producing a new generation sufficiently motivated to work to contribute to general revenue to pay the pensions in the future for the vast numbers of people who are about to retire in the next 10 years. Even with immigration introducing a large volume of people from Third World countries, their attitudes to work and tax payment being vastly different from previous generation are unlikely to pick out the slack. And what about your RRSP? Most people do not take advantage of more than 9 percent of eligible contribution room, largely because they're spending their money to survive with a high tax rates that Canada imposes. As result very few people in Canada are putting aside enough to pay for their retirement.
Government simply isn't going to have enough to look after your needs and wants. Canada doesn't provide you a pension upon which you could possibly live. Western Canada, on the other hand, with its resource capacity, the smaller population, and the larger work ethic, has the productive means to provide for the pensions of everyone located here. In fact, with the tax base that we have always had, we have paid the pensions of all Western Canadians, plus a large percentage of the pensions of those in Ontario and Québec through equalization.
But putting that aside for the moment, who is saving any money? Most Canadians are doing just the opposite, buying more than ever on debt-created money. This is okay so long as interest rates remained low. If the Canadian dollar was to rise, the competitive advantage of Eastern manufacturers would be lost and the economy of Ontario would suffer. Consequently, you can count on the Bank of Canada to keep the interest rates low for some time to come. However, Canadians are saving virtually nothing compared to 20 years ago when they saved approximately 1/5 of all they earned. Most people today are content with being able to meet the monthly payments. All this indicates that Canadians in the Current economic situation are headed for disaster. It's time to stop worrying about your pension and start thinking about building a country where your life would be worth living. We've got to re-establish individual responsibility and place less emphasis on government handouts.
As a result of the liberal dependency upon seats from Atlantic Canada, Danny Williams, who once honourably threatened to take down the Canadian flag, has now been revealed as a very effective poker player. All the talk about the fight was merely posturing. Newfoundland is going to receive $2 billion while Nova Scotia will receive $830 million, which need never be repaid even if their economies improve. Why should they? That would cut off their equalization payments! It's very like a welfare recipient who profits from the damage claim of the motor vehicle accident and continues to get the same level of welfare. And we're supposed to believe that equalization is fair?
There is no simple explanation for the reason behind equalization payments. And very few people understand them anyway. But from now on every have-not province will feel that the equalization formula is just a starting point to extract more. The minute you accept the proposition of equalization of the rich and poor you basically encourage this sort of extortion and begging. The Atlantic Provinces are economic dependencies of Ontario and Alberta and British Columbia. I supported Newfoundland separatism for the simple reason that it would create for the first time, a noble sense of self-reliance for Newfoundlanders and the end of this process of constant extraction of other people's money. Now with the bribe paid by Paul Martin you can count on more Liberal votes for Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and perpetuation of the attitude “you owe it to me – I'm Canadian.”
the Central Canadian attitude to Newfoundland is that rather than allow them to escape to independence and prosperity, they want to keep them in the economic cesspool of Canada where if they ever get ahead they also will be obliged to equalize. By this means we make sure we have equal distribution of poverty and everybody is a good little socialist. Perpetually entrenched dependency is the Canadian way.
67 percent of Canadians believe that decisions about same-sex marriage should be made by a national referendum of all Canadians, only 66 percent of Liberals think so. 78 percent of Conservatives think so. Fifty percent of the NDP's think so. Fifty-two percent of the Bloc think so. All this was found by a National Post poll. Just what do you think the Liberal party will do?
The Kyoto accord was implemented this month in Canada. The United States did not sign the Kyoto Accord. We will have to compete with them. American and Chinese manufacturers were not restricted as our own people are. Canada has not established anything close to the Kyoto promises. Just what do you think is the point and purpose of the Kyoto Protocol? Recent articles in the National Post clearly seem to indicate there is no correlation between man-made hydrocarbon emissions and any real evidence of global warming. The matter is entirely controversial and no clear-cut conclusion can be drawn from the conflicting evidence available. Massive dislocation of wealth and enormous government intervention in people's lives seem to be the only actual effects. We're going to have to measure how much garbage we burned and what we create in the way of compost. The tremendous amount of time and money is going to be spent on totally non-productive things. Socialists love it.
Long ago at a conference held in Bali, Indonesia I heard a lawyer speaking about the United Nations plans for the regulation of emissions from flatulent cattle. The audience and myself roared with laughter. Ironically, we now see that it is becoming a reality. Kyoto is truly Maurice Strong's big green monster. No one should ever forget that Mr. Strong was the president of Petro Canada under Trudeau and later head of Ontario Hydro when massive deficits were created. He is a very close friend of Mr. Paul Martin. He is another symptom of the international communities sick preoccupation with government ownership and control. Kyoto and Maurice Strong are two more reasons for independence. In addition to reducing by 2010, our emissions of hydrocarbon gas by 130 7.4 million tons, we will be obliged to pay to other countries for about 100 million tons by the year 2012. This, while our immigration population increases.
This is a new form of international equalization payment. The same people who brought us equalization payments and the interprovincial welfare state, are bringing us international equalization payments and the international welfare states. By evolution they will have achieved the Marxist dream. Western Canada deserves better.