Vol. XXII, No. 11/12 November/December 2004
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
By Doug Christie
An article by Bruce Little appeared in the Globe and Mail of November 22, 2004, entitled “Doing the math on the have and have-not provinces” and is extremely revealing about the basic inequities of the Canadian system. It should be required reading for Western Canadians.
The foregoing article and accompanying graph clearly indicate that between British Columbia and Alberta, each person contributes to Ottawa in taxes more than Ottawa has been this year spending in British Columbia or Alberta, the sum of approximately $3000. That means that for a family of four in British Columbia and Alberta combined, we contribute for the privilege of belonging to the Canadian club, membership dues of $12,000.
Think about that. It means that a family of four could pay the mortgage interest at 5 percent on a mortgage of $220,000 and have the same level of public goods and services they enjoy today with the same tax rates and that mortgage of $220,000 would be interest-free!
To put it another way, if a family of four lived in an independent country of Western Canada comprised of British Columbia and Alberta, without any increase in taxes, they could own a house valued at $220,000 without having to pay any interest for the purchase.
Just imagine how prosperous such a family could be. Add to that, the consideration of the reduced stress of having no interest on their mortgage. Why they could have a larger family. They could have a longer vacation. They could spend more time in their garden or with their hobbies or with their families.
An independent country of Western Canada made up of British Columbia and Alberta would be the last bastion of unspoiled environmental beauty in North America, perhaps with the exception of Alaska and the north. If one really values the environment, imagine how better we could protect the environment if we did not need to import a whole bunch of people to expand the housing market just to pay our taxes to keep that government in Ottawa feeding us lies in two languages. How much we could save by not sending our Prime Minister to the Francophone conference in some far away African country to make useless speeches about how much he loves to reform the United Nations.
Imagine how much better our relationship with the United States would be if we were not having a long-haired French-speaking professor negotiate for us in Washington, like Peter Pettigrew. New options arise with a hopeful imagination. Would we really have our borders closed to beef if the negotiations were conducted in earnest by a Western Canadian foreign minister? How important is that issue to someone like Paul Martin, who gets elected primarily in Ontario anyway?
Imagine the ability of Western Canadians to prosper as much from the sale of water for irrigation as much as we do from the sale of oil. Imagine how prosperous Western Canada could be, made up of those two provinces called British Columbia and Alberta today if renewable water resources were properly used to assist in the growth of fruits and vegetables in the arid regions of the western and Central United States of America, which has a longer growing season than Saskatchewan. Could all this be accomplished without debt? Of course it could.
Look at the Toronto Stock Exchange. When the price of oil goes up it carries up the whole stock exchange. Just where do you think the oil comes from? Western Canada is the only major supplier of oil for export in Canada today, Alberta primarily, but if the moratorium is lifted British Columbia in the future can and will be the source of enormous resource wealth.
There is no reason to think that the development of offshore oil necessarily results in the degradation of the environment. How long has North Sea oil been exploited off the coast of Scotland and Norway? Have you been there lately? Neither the fish in the sea, or the land has been in any way adversely affected.
The nation comprised of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan would have an abundant supply of oil and natural gas, fresh water, timber, wheat, barley, etc. and still have within it the most beautiful natural environment in the world.
Why do we not achieve this goal? Unfortunately if people like Preston Manning can keep us divergent from the obvious realization that we can and should build a new nation, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal will keep governing the country in the interests of the worst form of exploitation. That's why leadership such as we have had in Western Canada is such a disappointment. They all follow the media. They worship the media. They are afraid to tell the truth.
Everyday, in every way, the government of Canada seeks to intrude more and more into the private lives of its citizens. Soon it will establish an enormous costly process to care for other people's children. This will mean that it will be even more difficult to support a family, even with two incomes. Naturally the wife and mother will have to go out to work. This will mean more tax revenues so that more childcare facilities can be created so someone else can look after your child. That is the Canadian way. Socialism over all.
Public education will soon start as soon as the baby is detached from the umbilical cord. In this way the state can create the perfect mindless obedient slaves. The former Soviet society is clearly coming apart at the present time in the Ukraine. Ironically, by slow evolutionary processes, Canada is meanwhile heading in exactly the same direction, toward a Communist society. Public education, day care, cradle to grave socialism, and restrictions on freedom throughout our lives; these practices have become the politicians' passport to prosperity for themselves.
Naturally politicians do not like to deal with controversial issues because that could cost them some votes in Canada. Therefore they delegated the power to make controversial decisions to the non-elected judiciary that they themselves have appointed. By this means we accomplished abortion in the ninth month and same-sex marriage. No one gets a vote. No politician takes the blame. The public wonders what happens. The judges tell them.
Recently at our Thursday night meeting at the Waveside Cafe in the Saanich Commonwealth Place in Victoria BC about 7 PM, a gentleman spoke who had not been to our meetings before. He spoke for approximately 15 minutes, uninterrupted, while we all listened patiently. He told of his extensive experience at a high level of administration and organization that he personally had conducted on behalf of the government of Canada both in the North and in the Maritimes. He was clearly a man accustomed to command and he did command our attention. We listened respectfully for 15 minutes. He spoke of waste, corruption, incompetence, and governmental inefficiency demonstrated in many examples that poured from his troubled memory. Then at the end of his diatribe he said, “But I don't like the separatism.”
This is so typical of many Canadians. They know there is a problem. They know that is a very serious problem. But they don't like separatism, they say. When I finally interrupted the gentleman, I said, “Let's go from the particular to the general, from the problem to the solution.” Obviously I meant what is your solution? Without separatism and the establishment of a new form of government, not founded on the corruption of the present system and all its lies, nothing will ever change. We cannot afford to become just a series of complaints. We must have the solution. We do. No one else does. Let's continue to work to bring it to the awareness of Western Canadians!
Yours for independence,
Douglas Christie
On November 15, 2004, an article appeared in the National Post which ridiculed the leader of the opposition for some of his hypocrisy. It's sad that his criticism of corruption in Québec should be seen as an impossible position, because when he becomes Prime Minister, as he hopes, he'll have to do the same sort of bribery to companies like Bombardier in Québec. It's also sad that it's seen as normal that politics should revolve around bribing the companies in Québec. It's seen as impossible to ever hold Québec companies to the same standard as any other company. This state of affairs is called “political reality” in Canada.
The learned commentator was referring to the amount of $2.7 billion of taxpayers money paid over 8 years into the Technology Partnerships Canada Program which enables most of the money to go to Bombardier. Of this amount, only 3 percent had ever been repaid. The commentator points out that Mr. Harper is trying to “woo support in Québec where he has to make gains in the next election if he hopes to have any chance of ousting Paul Martin. The thousands of workers in Québec's aerospace industry are far more concerned with continuing to receive a paycheck than they are in ideas about Belgian federalism. Any moves to cut the program deemed by Bombardier CEO Paul Tellier as being in the national interest will have the Conservatives greeted like Jehovah's Witnesses on the doorsteps of Québec.”
What is truly tragic is the realization and indeed acceptance of the fact that bribery to the province of Québec is a prerequisite to becoming Prime Minister of Canada and nothing anybody can say will do anything about it. This reality is imposed on us by virtue of the Canadian federal system. It has gained us costly inefficient official bilingualism, massive government spending in patronage programs, socialism, high taxation, an endless string of Québec Prime Ministers, and poisonous relations with the United States. It damages our trade interests, it forces bilingualism, multiculturalism, and vast Third World immigration upon us. All of this arises out of the fact that Canada with Québec, is a weakened, divided country. Neither the West, nor Quebec can be true to themselves as we continue to be manipulated by Ontario.
Our recent outreach to the people of Newfoundland has borne fruit in contacts and the . We have had our message communicated throughout the radio and newspapers of Newfoundland. The message was simple: We Western Canadians understand what you're going through when the federal government decides to steal your resources. The Western Block would be able to go to Newfoundland as a federal political party and seek support for an Eastern Bloc which would do the same thing for them as we can do for Western Canada. Together we could dismantle the power of Ontario and the province of Québec over the Rest of Canada.
Doug Christie spoke to Ralph Klein while he was in Victoria, speaking at a fundraising luncheon, prior to the Alberta election. Doug had the huge, heavy briefcase containing the petition for a referendum on Independence. Mr. Klein said that if we gave it to him, he would "do something with it." We plan to present it to him before the end of this year.
The Separation Party of Alberta ran 12 candidates in the recent reaffirmation of Ralph Klein's power in Alberta. This was an enormous achievement, despite the small number of votes they were able to wrest from the major parties. This fact also demonstrates the difficulties of discussing Western separatism during a provincial election, the perpetual problem all Western Canada Concept parties have had in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We hope that the creation of the Western Block Party, on the understanding that it is a federal party, with members in Western Canada, will alleviate. We welcome all provincially-based separatists to join us.
The Western Block Party held its first public meeting on November 20<M>th in Victoria. It was attended by a modest, but very positive crowd, and nine new members joined. This occurred without much advertising on our part. Doug Christie appeared on local radio station CFAX 1070, and there was coverage by them almost every hour the day of the meeting. There were quite a few new faces, and they arrived even right up to the end of the meeting.
Representatives will be at the Edmonton Gun Show in the Northlands Sportex for December 4 and 5, gathering names for the registration numbers necessary to register the party. We have 200 signatures and need about 75 more. We will soon be registered as a federal political party and if we can accomplish 3 percent of the popular vote we can receive payments of $1.75 for every vote we get.
You are welcome to attend ongoing, informal meetings, every Thursday night at the Waveside Café, Saanich Commonwealth Place, at 7 p.m.
Public meetings are being planned for Alberta in the New Year. If you wish to be part of these, please call Doug Christie at 250-727-3438, or fax him at 250-479-3294, or email him at dougchristie@shaw.ca.