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GEOG2570 Western Canada • Defining 'West' • Imagined Spaces

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GEOG2570 Western Canada • Defining 'West' • Imagined Spaces GEOG2570 Western Canada • defining ‘west’ • imagined spaces and places Map Exercise What is “Western Canada”? •Physical region? Climate region? •Distinctive settlement history? •Distinctive society / culture? •Distinctive economy? •Distinctive politics? •“Way of life”? Is Manitoba Really Western Canada? What is “Western Canada”? Is Manitoba Really Western Canada? • Geographically central • Manitobans consider themselves Western (?) •Economy and history similar to that of other western provinces – less like Ontario and Quebec (Central or Eastern Canada) Germans adore Western Canada! •Germans, Swiss, Austrians have discovered Western Canada as tourist destination –500,000+ yearly, •Adventure tours to capture personal experiences of the ‘Wild West’ Land of Reseerzahlungen ? •Escape from an urbanized landscape? •Karl May –Western adventure pulp fiction –1897 visit to Germany of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show –100 million+ copies; in print still –“dear to me in many a desperate hour” Einstein! Das Westernhobby Kanada •Several hundred clubs across Germany •Role playing, authentic costuming •Indianistikklubben •Detailed aboriginal identities from Plains tribes •Week-long festivals of ‘traditional’ crafts, games, foods; passionate devotion to native cultures of the West Cultural preservation… or selling out? •Aboriginal people’s from western Canada hired as performers in Western European holiday camps •Authentic? –Contemporary vs. historical •Exploitation? –By whom? Imagined Spaces/Places ‘Geographies of the Mind’ •Tourism development of the ‘real’ or the ‘imagined’? •Dissonance between imagined place and reality? •Impacts on modern native peoples? –Culture packaged to meet external images/demands for a product? –Economic development opportunity not to be missed? The View from the West • what is western alienation? • based in history of grievances? What is Western Alienation? •Western/prairie psyche? •Discontent and frustration –Distrust of Ottawa’s political power? –Anger at federal focus on Quebec? –Distrust of Central Canadian economic power? –Growing population and economic strength 1879 Macdonald’s National Policy •3-fold agenda: –Complete transcontinental railway –Settle the prairies –Create manufacturing in Central Canada Policy united Canada? Macdonald’s National Policy •West: peripheral resource economy –20-50% tariffs on goods from U.S. and Britain •Lasted nearly a century –Industry didn’t move closer to markets in West •paying for lifestyle of ‘captains of industry’ in Toronto & Montreal? 1905 Political Cartoon Laurier to Canadian Manufacturers’ Association (1905) •They (western settlers) will require clothes, they will require furniture, they will require implements, they will require shoes…It is your ambition, it is my ambition also, that this tariff of ours will make it possible that every shoe that has to be worn in those Prairies shall be a Canadian shoe; that every yard of cloth that can be marketed there shall be a yard of cloth produced in Canada…” “Damn the CPR” •1883 CPR western rates 50% higher than Grand Trunk rates in Central Canada –approved by Ottawa as ‘fair discrimination’ •1887 Manitoba Premier Norquay vows to build a Winnipeg-US rail line •Blocked by CPR •Norquay resigns in shame due to allegation of financial wrong-doings from Ottawa –BUT beginning of end of CPR monopoly in the West “Damn the CPR” •Crow Rates introduced 1897 •reduce rates on grain transport east from Winnipeg in exchange for access to southern BC mineral lands –Steep price for “Holy Crow”? –Allowed other freight rates to discriminate against the West –Cheaper Crow rate not extended to BC until 1949 “Damn the CPR” Western Grain Transportation Act replaces Crow Rate in 1984 WGT Act ends in 1995, end of Crow Benefit Anger as Crow Benefit seen as counterweight to Central Canada advantages Restructuring of the Rural Landscape •Loss of Crow Rate did generate economic diversification –Canola, flax –Beans, lentils –Intensive hog production •Also saw branch line closures and demise of grain elevators, small communities –Loss of economic base Prairie Political Inferiority? •Not granted rights to natural resources at Confederation –No resource rights until 1930 •Increasing clout as population grew to 25% •Still believe this demonstrates West regarded as a ‘colony’ in Ottawa Ottawa Too Focused on Quebec? •All provinces should have equal powers within Confederation •1982 Constitution Act & Charter of Rights and Freedoms favour Quebec •Anti-bilingualism •Anti-multiculturalism •‘Too many’ French-Canadian Prime Ministers? Alberta and the National Energy Program •1959 Borden Commission –secure domestic market for Alberta oil •1961-73 Western consumers get Alberta supplies = $1.50/barrel above world price •Eastern Canada gets cheaper imported oil and gas •1972 National Energy Board fears domestic shortages Alberta, NEP & Kyoto? •1975 Petro-Canada –increase self-reliance; new exploration •Alberta wants to set royalties, not Ottawa •1975 to today; nasty negotiations between Alberta & Ottawa re: revenue sharing and provincial equalization payments •2001-2002 – Argument that Kyoto Agreement will devastate the oil and gas industry •“…Albertans not ready to leave Canada over Kyoto…but don’t push us to hard…” Klein, Oct. 2002 Albertan Farmers and the CWB •Protest against regulations must sell to Canada Wheat Board •Mid-1990s grain sold in U.S. 2x price set by Canada Wheat Board •CWB unfair monopoly or secure, guaranteed price? •Protesters say Westerners are furious –farmers in Ontario & Quebec can market own products, but Prairie farmers sell to CWB Mad Cow Aftermath •Ottawa slow to assist beef producers (most in the West) •Swift response when Toronto was hit by SARS –Western provinces left to fend for themselves –“We will see what can be done on top of existing programs” PM Chretien •“The one treatment in Toronto – in Ontario – and a different treatment in Western Canada will add to the grievance of Western Canada.” Premier Gary Doer, 2003 .
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