British Columbia Regionalism and Canadian Unity Philip Resnick

lo8 BC STUDIES advocates and political leaders to more so regarding the law, but since support dictators whose compliance each writer adds a new interpretation, with the corporate agenda rests on the this fault is not deadly. There is some repression, and often oppression, of unevenness in tone between the more their own populations - Suharto, of academic arguments and the more course, being at the forefront during polemical arguments, but, on balance, the Vancouver meeting. this is a good set of essays worth The book is somewhat repetitive reading. regarding the APEC events and even The Politics of Resentment: British Columbia Regionalism and Canadian Unity Philip Resnick Vancouver: UBC Press for Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2000. 172 pp. $34.95 cloth. BY STÉPHANE LÉVESQUE Universities of Western Ontario ROLIFIC POLITICAL SCIENTIST Columbia as a particular region of Philip Resnick has ambitiously Canada as historians, social scientists, P sought to conceptualize British politicians, and writers have understood Columbia as a "region-province" and the matter. In later chapters, Resnick to study its role in the Canadian unity constructs an analytical framework - debate. Although he set out to make not very well defined - to examine the a comparative analysis of British political views of BC premiers and Columbia regionalism and Québec other politicians (Chapter 2), from nationalism, Resnick found that the W.A.C. Bennett to Glen Clark; the abundant material on British Columbia views of various British Columbia required an exclusive emphasis on that opinion makers, business spokepersons, province. This is mildly disappointing consultants, journalists, academics, to a Québécois such as me but still and others (Chapter 3); and, finally, good news for all those interested in the comments of British Columbians * the past, present, and future political during the British Columbia Unity lives of British Columbians. Indeed, Panel hearings of 1997 (Chapter 4). In The Politics of Resentment is one of the Chapter 5, Resnick presents his own first books to examine the insuf construction of BC regionalism. He ficiently appreciated role that British concludes that, in the minds of British Columbia has played in Canadian Columbians, there resides a feeling of political debates in the last forty years hurt, of betrayal, of unfair treatment or so. in the Federation, and this he calls the Divided into six chapters, the book "politics of resentment" (p. 119). For begins with an overview of British him, resentment is the result not only Book Reviews IOÇ of past actions - or neglect - on the places in the collective imaginings of part of the federal government, but British Columbians than they do in also of an envy of Quebec's position. the collective imaginings of Québécois. That "other" distinct region-province Unfortunately, Resnick's suggestion has largely monopolized Canadian of rethinking the symbolic makeup of politics since the 1960s. In the last Canada on the basis of province, region- chapter, Resnick adopts a position on province, and nation-province (for Québec nationalism that, ironically, Québec) falls short. If the Canadian has grown in popularity in English Federation is de facto regionally Canada since the 1995 referendum. He divided and governed, then Resnick engages in a series of hypothetical offers no clear explanation of how and answers to the question: "What if... why some provinces would deserve the Québec separates?" status of "region-province" instead of Resnicks analysis of British Columbia "province."More important, Resnicks regionalism is likely to attract con construction is caught between Scylla siderable attention from social scientists and Charybdis. On one side, one has on the West Coast. The Politics of the negative attitudes of British Resentment not only offers a discussion Columbia towards Quebec's special on Canadian unity as seen from the status and powers in the Federation, Pacific, but it also dares to ask what an arrangement likely to incite region- makes British Columbia such a dis provinces to also ask for more powers tinct, unique place in Canada - a place and recognition - something Resnick that Robin Fisher believes historians rejects. On the other side, all other have not yet adequately defined. For "provinces" will surely oppose parti Resnick, British Columbia is "a cular status or power for region-pro pluralistic, multifaceted society that vinces because this would go against does not lend itself to easy general the sacred dogma of the equality of izations" (p. 19). Yet, he thinks of provinces and against English Canada's British Columbia as a "region-province" "territorial conception of federalism," in Canada characterized by geographic to use Will Kymlicka's expression. In location, specific economy, population the end, it is uncertain what British inflow, and new patterns of integration Columbia would gain by being offi into the larger global economy. British cially a "region-province." Columbia's distinctiveness makes its Resnick's work has value, offering an residents feel they have a distinct unexpected approach to BC politics and regional identity and problems that Canadian unity. His view of British are not well understood in Ottawa. Columbia's distinctiveness should Resnick is quick to add, on the other have a healthy effect on those who write hand, that, unlike Québec nationalism, and make BC history and politics. Yet, this distinctiveness remains compatible in the present circumstances, his (re)- with pan-Canadian nationalism and construction of Canadian federalism unity. In other words, "region" and lacks clarity and applicability. "nation" have for him very different .

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