Political Culture in Manitoba Jared Wesley Department of Political Studies University of Manitoba
[email protected] Paper for Presentation at: The Duff Roblin Professorship Conference on Manitoba Politics, Government and Policy in the 21st Century University of Manitoba November 21, 2008 Working Draft Comments Welcome Please do not cite without permission. Political Culture in Manitoba Jared Wesley Political Culture in Manitoba Introduction Compared with the popular impression of other Canadian provinces, Manitoba’s political culture remains undeveloped in the minds of many observers. Saskatchewan is home to the country’s collectivist, social democratic traditions, for instance, whereas Alberta is the bastion of Canadian populism, individualism, and Western alienation (Stewart and Archer 2000: 13; Marchildon 2005: 4). Even in the most trained minds, Manitoba enjoys no comparable identity. In the words of Rand Dyck (1996: 381), the author of a leading undergraduate textbook on Canadian provincial politics, Manitoba is a province without a distinctive political culture. If Manitobans have a self-image, it is probably one of a moderate, medium, diversified, and fairly prosperous but unspectacular province. Many value its ethnic heterogeneity; others, its intermediary position on federal- provincial affairs, interpreting east to east and vice versa.1 Dyck is not alone. Many define Manitoba by its ambiguous mediocrity, rather than any unique political personality. These conclusions are drawn quite easily. Manitoba is the “Keystone Province,” after all; it is the geographic centre of North America, the “Heart of the Continent,” and the buffer between the “Old” country of the east and Canada’s “New West.” Its population and economy are among the country’s most diverse, and both are of average size.