Myth, Alienation and the Western Trinity

Myth, Alienation and the Western Trinity: Seeking New Connections and Positive Identity in the New West Jay Matthew Schlosar B.A., University of Victoria, 2000 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Political Science O Jay Matthew Schlosar, 2004 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. Supervisor: Dr. Norman J. Ruff ABSTRACT The conceptualization of a western Canadian region and identity has historically been linked to a negatively defined relationship with the rest of Canada. Characterized by disaffection, insularity, and rejection, this identity has been commonly called western alienation - a normatively derived "myth" that reinforces a distinct but discontented regionalism in the West. This study argues that in spite of these norms, western alienation also encompasses ambitions for inclusion and political efficacy that make possible new understandings of Western identity based on association with a national vision. One reason that this bbpositive,"inclusive identity has not been realized is that Canada's parliamentary institutions have spurred underlying power imbalances amongst its regions. By re-examining proposals for institutional reform in tandem with challenging traditional understandings of representation and party discipline in Canada, this study contends that the issue of power centralization can be rectified. The resultant Western Trinity of regionalism, reform and representation - which is best illustrated through the policies of the Reform Party of Canada - suggests that through both formal and cultural re- imaginings, western identity can become more positively defined in the 21'' century. TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Introduction: Understanding New Norms in Canadian Federalism Chapter One: Region, Regionalism, and the "Myth" of the West Chapter Two: Western Alienation: Discontent, Inclusion and Power in Federalism Chapter Three: Executive Power, Regional Voice, and Limitations to Institutional Reform 5 4 Chapter Four: The Western Trinity: Regionalism, Reform, and Representation Realized Conclusion: Seeking New Connections and Positive Identity in the New West Bibliography Introduction Understanding New Norms in Canadian Federalism The 37th federal general election on November 29, 2000 offered very few surprises to the Canadian electorate. The governing Liberals saw their majority grow to 172 seats out of 301, with 155 garnered east of Manitoba and 101 located in Ontario alone. This represented an increase of 17 seats from the 1997 election, despite an 11 percent drop in popular vote. While the Liberals received between 20 and 35 percent of the popular vote in the western provinces, they gained few seats west of the Great Lakes. Instead, the Reform-turned-Canadian Alliance Party used its concentration in the West to capture 66 seats - six more than in 1997 - and retain its Official Opposition status. The Bloc Quebecois remained strong in Quebec, although dropping from 44 to 38 seats, while the Progressive Conservative and the New Democratic Parties both barely maintained official party status, with the NDP dropping from 21 to 13 seats and the PCs from 20 to 12. And perhaps most interesting, while the 2000 election decisively established clear winners and losers, and set the stage for four more years of majority Liberal rule in Canada, the outcome was predicated on the judgment of only 61.1 8% of national voters - the lowest turnout in Canadian history. According to Elizabeth Gidengil et al., the 2000 election brought to light two developments. First, the Liberal victory was largely secured on a luke-warm endorsement, a mixed result of those satisfied with the Liberal record but also those simply resigned to what they perceived to be an inevitable election outcome. Second, the gains made by "regional" parties, the Bloc and Alliance, were primarily due to high levels of voter cynicism and regional alienation, not any positive affiliation with those parties (2001: 28-29). Gidengil supports this conclusion in a related analysis, measuring a particularly strong correlation (roughly two-thirds) between those voting Alliance and those feeling that the West was unfairly treated in Canada (2000). To these political observers, the 2000 election was less about Liberal "victory" than it was demonstrative of a strong and growing regional discontent in Canada, as well as a general voter cynicism and apathy, that was fast entrenching itself within Canada's party system. In many ways, the 2000 election was a retelling of a story first told in 1993. R. Kenneth Carty et al. argue that the 1993 election represented the real commencement of "the demise of the party system" (2000: 5). The 1993 election saw one of the most dramatic electoral turnovers in Canadian history, purging support for some of the main brokerage parties (the PCs and NDP) in exchange for specific representative bodies of Quebec and "the West" through the Bloc and (the former) Reform parties. The concept of the "national party" - the pan-national organization that traditionally brokered consensus between all parts of Canada - was deliberately forsaken for regionalized parties that appealed to geographically concentrated constituencies that shared feelings of disenchantment with the traditional party system. William Cross argues that these regional parties capitalized on political fragmentation by concentrating resources on sure wins, while "substantially [ignoring] large parts of the country where they did not believe they could win a plurality of votes in individual ridings" (2002: 122). While Stephen Clarkson called this emotional and electoral calculus "a practice as old as Canada" (2001: 18), in 1993 this practice was clearly shaping regional identities already percolating in the Canadian electorate. Carty et al. argue that these behaviours in 1993 were not only extremely important to the make-up of the House of Commons, but also in the ways that they reflected a significant and meaningful shift in Canadian political culture: No party system is infinitely malleable. When the politics of the changing country outruns its governing formulas, then the party system that llnks the two snaps, and whole new patterns of competition and linkage needs to be built. In ths rebuilding, the parties must learn new ways of operating and develop new structures that will allow them to do so successfully. The result is not only new parties, but also new norms and forms of political linkage, as the transformed party system provides for a whole new Canadian politics. (2000: 2 12-2 13) The 2000 election could easily be understood to represent a continuation of these "new norms," the themes and values that characterize Canada's political psyche, such as: political, economic and social regionalization; voter cynicism and disaffection; and regional alienation and inequity. More implicitly, these themes collectively demonstrate a pervasive concern over shifts in the balance of political power - growing power in the hands of an increasingly complacent and centralized governing party, the frustration of a lack of political power in the Canadian regions, and growing feelings of powerlessness felt by an electorate voting more out of protest than democratic participation (if at all). While the promise of federalism was always one of political, economic and structural balance, voters are more inclined to see a fundamental imbalance existing today. All of these values reflect the uneasy themes and "new norms" for Canada in the 21" century. These themes and norms are perhaps most evident today when looking at the collective experiences of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba - often known as the Canadian West. While federalism has always purported to strike a balance between the country's diverse geographic, cultural, economic, social and philosophical communities, the historical experience of the West suggests that this goal has not been attained. Citing ongoing and increasingly perpetuated historical discrimination and exclusion from the benefits of the nation, advocates for this region have been quick to acknowledge a growing inequity and feelings of non-inclusion in the West as political and economic power is increasingly concentrated within the institutions and the leadership of the national government. This imbalance has reinforced an overtly negative relationship between these provinces and the rest of Canada that is not only anti-national, but also anti-government, in sentiment. Western regionalism of late has become nearly synonymous with political disaffection, discontent, fragmentation, and profound voter cynicism. Observers and practitioners alike commonly refer to this negative attitude and relationship with Canada as western alienation. Moreover, while these themes indeed parallel the "new norms" in Canada illustrated by Carty et al. after the 1993 election, in terms of the West's experience they are far from new. These negative norms of western alienation, the identity based upon insularity and antagonism stemming from it, and the rise and success of political movements in embracing these feelings, have all formed the bedrock of politics in the West over much of its history. While "the West" has often been represented as a geographically discrete region, these themes of western alienation have set the West apart as a region with a particular social

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