Has the West Become Disillusioned with the Harper Government?

The above video features Douglas Christie, leader of the Western Block Party, a group of individuals who feel that the West should separate from the rest of Canada. I visited his website and read through some of the party platform, and it is very much the old Reform Party.

Mind you, his party accepts that the Reform movement failed and that the Conservatives have simply morphed into another centrist party, abandoning the principles that brought them to power in the first place.

There are still many in the caucus who push like hell to scrap the gun registry, end abortion and same-sex marriage, blah, blah, blah. Same old, same old. But their main goal these days is to stay in power, so they don't really stand for anything now.

Their abysmal handling of the economy during good times, indicate that they are not fiscal conservatives, and since Harper won't allow his socons a voice, they don't much stand for that either.

However, it's the West that is keeping Harper's numbers up. If you read any poll since he came into power, the strong support from the Prairies brings up his overall score, but he's yet to fool the majority of Canadians into thinking he is not hiding a different agenda.

On the Western Block's website, they see it differently. They don't like that his agenda has to be hidden. They start out speaking of Stephen Harper's days with the National Citizens Coalition, and how he has let them down.

What's changed between then and now? Then, Harper was the leader of an organization based in Calgary; now, he is the leader of an organization based in Ottawa. It's as simple as that. Harper has many failings, but he knows how to count; BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Alberta together have only 92 seats in the House of Commons, while Quebec and Ontario together have 181.

Plan B? The West tried that before. It was called the Reform Party, and it was 15 years of wasted breath. The real Plan B is Western Independence, which is the only plan that will return to us our God-given right of free speech.

AFTER THE 2008 ELECTION

But Conservative leader Harper was not a big winner. For the third time in a row, he failed to win the majority that seemingly should have been his for the asking. ..... Harper is a Bush clone, an unrepentant neocon whose only known enthusiasms are Israel and American global hegemony. Like Bush, he has worked assiduously to attenuate the Conservative base.

MISTER HARPER WANTS THE WEST TO GO BACK TO SLEEP

For a brief moment, it looked as if the vast majority of Western Canadians were awakening to how the Canadian system really works. With the Conservative Party winning 77% of all seats in Western Canada, two Quebeckers and one Torontonian could control the House of Commons. So he pressured the Governor General into proroguing Parliament to win time to “influence” the Coalition and keep his job.

Harper wants the West to go back to sleep. He doesn’t want us to ponder the truth that even if he remains Prime Minister, Canada will still be ruled by Quebec and Ontario. Why do we put up with this?

Now, Stephen Harper may benefit thereby, but what do we gain by continuing to subsidize their oil and their natural gas and prop up their failing auto industry? How long can we ignore the obvious? How long are you going to allow this costly farce to continue? Free the West!

What's interesting is that not that long ago, Stephen Harper himself was speaking about Western separation. Remember his 'Build a Firewall around Alberta' letter, and his comments to MacLean's after winning his seat in Calgary West. "I'm for Alberta first and Canada a distant second?" Not just second but a DISTANT second.

Another thing to consider are the poll results in the West for separation. In 2005 the Western Standard printed their findings: A stunning 35.6 per cent of Western Canadian respondents agreed when asked "Western Canadians should begin to explore the idea of forming their own country." (32.1 in BC, 43 in Alberta, 33.6 in Saskatchewan, and 28.8 in Manitoba).

A more recent poll shows 52% in favour and 15% undecided. Considering that Alberta's unemployment rate is on the rise and they are one of the provinces most affected by the regional discrepancies in EI, Harper better stop taking them for granted.

What's ironic is that Stephen Harper was born in New Brunswick and raised in Toronto. He isn't even from Alberta. Maybe he doesn't understand Westerners after all.