Western Alienation Analysis

People who observe Canadian politics agree that there are divides along regional lines within the country that have political consequences (Cochrane and Perrella, 2005). To understand western alienation in Canada, one must first understand the terms regionalism and alienation. Regionalism can be thought of as an individual’s sense of belonging to a particular neighborhood, province, city or area (Cochrane and Perrella, 2005). Alienation is the sense of being ignored, marginalized or left out. Western Alienation, therefore, refers to the sense of alienation felt by the western region of Canada compromising British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba from the central provinces of Ontario and Quebec. These provinces often feel like

Geographically speaking, Alberta, along with the three other western provinces are isolated from the densely populated areas of southern Ontario and Quebec by Northern Ontario that compromises a large, remote area that is sparsely populated. Today, and more so in the past, travel between central Canada and the West has been difficult. It takes days to drive or take the train from major central Canadian cities like Toronto to the closest major western city of Winnipeg. At present, the easiest way to travel is by air and the other options including driving and train, compromises a long and tiresome journey. This geographic isolation can create a feeling in the Western Provinces that they are simply a colony that is ruled by far-away

In response to high oil prices in the late 1970s due to political and military turmoil in the oil producing Middle-east that was crippling the Canadian economy (Ontario and Quebec), Pierre Trudeau 's government implemented the policy in order to regulate oil prices and keep them low. The program had three main goals that included: “reducing Canada 's dependence on foreign oil, by encouraging greater self-sufficiency in domestic supplies; redistributing oil wealth via taxes and resource royalties, from Alberta towards the federal government and consumers; and gaining greater Canadian ownership of the oil industry.” (Bregha,2006). This hurt oil-producing provinces such as Alberta whose economy depends on oil. Because natural resources are a provincial jurisdiction, Alberta felt that the federal government was intruding on what is theirs and stealing their wealth. In other words, Alberta was paying for the benefit of other provinces by losing provincial income from oil in order to reduce oil prices for the rest of Canada. The NEP elevated the distrust that the western provinces, especially Alberta, had with the federal