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Is there a real danger that the West will separate
— to become independent or jcin with the

Just who are the separatists? Do they represent a
genuine movement of the people who want a new deal
for the West? Or are they a foreign-inspired move-
ment, subversive of Canada’s national interests
which would dismember Canada to serve its own
narrow, selfish political and economic interests?

their financial and political backing?

WHO ARE THE SEPARATISTS?

As presently consituted the separatists consist-of
five main groups. These are:

The Western Canada Concept led by Victoria
lawyer Doug Christie. His views on immigrants have
been called racist and he accuses Prime Minister
Trudeau of financing Communist countries. He de-
mands that oil in Canada be sold at world prices and
advocates a referendum on independence for the four
western provinces.

The Western National Association led by Van-
couver realtor Stan Bennett, which is registered as a
political party and wants a referendum on separation.

The Western Federation Association with Elmer
Knutsen, an Alberta rancher-businessman, as its pres-
ident. He is assisted by Walter Kuhl, former Social
Credit MP. He has also been joined on the public
platform by Carl Nickle, prominent Calgary oil mil-
lionaire. The organization wants a confederation of
the four western provinces, separate from Canada but
within the Commonwealth. It also proposes the with-
holding of personal and corporate income tax from
Ottawa in 1981. :

The Canada West Foundation which claims to be a
non-partisan, non-profit and non-political research
association. It is funded by the four western provinces
and private donations. Its president, Stan Roberts,
the former leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party, res-
igned recently to become the president of the Cana-

| dian Chamber of Commerce. He was succeeded by

-~ “Arthur Child; president of Burns Foods Ltd., of Cal-

“lic opinion surveys which have provided ammunition
for the separatists. Its role appears to be to'supply the
dung balls to hurl at Ottawa, backed by statistics that
are suspect to say the least.

It has launced a petition against bringing home an
amended constitution and proposes that a new con-
stitution be framed by.a constituent assembly of popu-
larly elected Canadians. __ :

The Unionist Party headed by Dick Collver, the
former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party
in Saskatchewan. He openly advocates union with the
U.S. to become its 51st state.

WHO IS BACKING THE SEPARATISTS?
Politically the separatists are getting the backing,
direcr or indirect, of Premier Lougheed of Alberta,
Premier Bennett of B.C. and Joe Clark, national
leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.
Premier Bennett claims to be opposed to
separatism and one of his cabinet ministers has un-
equivocally rejected it: But at the same time another

one of his cabinet ministers, Jack Heinrich, told a

Social Credit convention that he questions whether

- ation.
Premier Lougheed refuses to condemn the
- separatists and willingly appeared as a guest speaker

West Foundation in Banff recently. =

Tory leader Joe Clark also claims to be opposed to
separatism but in the same breath expresses sym-
pathy and understanding for them, blaming it all on
Trudeau. Clark has not condemned North
Vancouver-Boumaby Tory MP Chuck Cook who re-
cently organized a public meeting in North Van-
couver under the provocative title of ‘‘B.C.’s Choice:
Rape or Separate’’. Nor has he criticized his former

parliament of the four western provinces to coun-
teract ‘“‘Canada becoming totally socialized’ under
Trudeau. :

By encouraging separatism in the expectation that
anti-Trudeau sentiment will bring political capital to
the Tories, Clark is playing a dangerous political
game that could have disastrous results not only for

but for the whole concept of a united Canada which
most Canadians cherish.

Who is behind the separatists? Where do they get:

gary. It has conducted a number of questionable pub- -

the West should stay in the newly proposed confeder- _

at the separatist conference sponsored by the Canada _

cabinet minister Ron Huntington who called for a -

his.own party (which wouldn’t be any lossforCanada) _

Then let’s not forget the corporate-controlled
media — TV, press and radio — which has played up
every separatist meeting and statement out of all
proportion to its importance, which has done its best
to create interest in and support for separatism.

But by far the most important ‘backers of the
separatist movement are the oil interests, more speci-
fically the multi-national oil companies. Considering
themselves above Canadian law and exempt form
paying anything but nominal taxes, they are furious
with the Trudeau government for daring to impose a
tax on their exorbitant profits that will reduce their
take of oil profits (over the three years projected by
the federal budget) from 45% to 33% (translated into
dollars this reduction will amount to about $12-
billion). They are equally furious at Trudeau’s an-

“By farthe most important backers of
the separatist movement are the oil
interests, more specifically the
multi-nationals . . .”

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-nounced intention of helping Canadian corporations

muscle in on these huge profits via his policy of in-
creased private Canadian ownership.

Secondly it is an undeniable fact that the oil in-
terests already have one provincial premier firmly in
their pockets and that they strongly influence others.
On the other hand they cannot quite as easily in-
fluence Ottawa because here other powerful and
financial forces also have muscle, whose interests do

not necessarily coincide with those of the oil interests
and whose competitive positions in the international —

market are threatened by high oil costs. .
This is why the multi-national oil interests, who

‘dominate the Canadian oil industry, are backing the

separatist movement. It is a convenient political bat-
tering ram to use against Ottawa to force it to back off
on some of its budget measures. And in the long runa
disunited and dismembered Canada would be easier
for U.S. multi-nationals to control than a united

The main political line being peddled by the
separatists and-the spokesmen for the oil interests
such as Lougheed is that any tax on the oil companies
is a tax on the citizens of oil-rich provinces and that
the people and the oil companies must unite to protect
their ‘‘common”’ interests against Ottawa.

The policy of the dominant sections of the Cana-
dian Establishment right from 1867 on has been to
centralize industry in Ontario and Quebec. This was
the core of Sir John A. MacDonald’s historically pro-
gressive ‘‘national policy’’ which was aimed at de-

veloping a Canadian industry as opposed to reliance

onorpenetration by U..S. industry. But when the West
was opened up beginning in the 1890s, it was singled
out as an area of special exploitation by the financial
and industrial corporations of the East through high
and discriminatory freight rates, grain pricing policies
that discriminated against farmers, high tariffs that

resulted in excessively high prices for farm machinery

The making of —
-aseparatist —

in the ofl industry. ,
C in opposition to the whole concept of a central
for Canada or a united Canada.

Western separatism = subversion

By BEN SWANKEY ©

and fertilizer; excessively high interest rates, etc.
This situation had political repercussions in the
west.
It was a major factor in the election of a majority of
“‘Progressives’’ from the prairie provinces in the 1921
federal election; the election of a United Farmers of

Alberta government the same year; the election of

Social Credit in Alberta in 1935 and the Co-operative

Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government in

Saskatchewan in 1944. St. James Street and Bay
Street were preceived in the west as the main
enemies. In B.C., anti-Ottawa sentiment has been a
factor in almost every provincial election and a maor
factor in several.

But there have also been some significant changes.

The economic boom in oil-rich Alberta has led to
the formation of a new financial and industrial centre
under the control of U.S. multi-national oil com-
panies. In B.C. too, a new financial and industrial
grouping has emerged, an alliance of resource based
corporations and B.C. business, which has close con-
nections with Japanese multi-nationals. _-

Both these new centres of financial and industrial
power are in competition with similar centres in
Quebeé and Ontario. This is the economic base of the
political stand of the governments of Alberta and B.C.
on changes in the constitution. They want a decen-

‘tralized federal government and more provincial

powers. For them this is the political path to even
tighter control over our resources and still higher
profits.

It should be added at this point that for Lougheed or
Bennett to blame the East for the lack of industries in

_their provinces today is hypocritical to say the least.

Both of these provinces have the funds and resources
to build a strong industrial base to their economies.

But both choose to export raw materials rather than
process them at home.

’ In the Crow's Nest pass in south-western Alberta
there is a unique abundance of iron ore, natural gas
and good quality coal — all the ingredients needed for
a healthy steel industry. Yet successive Social Credit
and Conservative governments have done nothing.

B.C. has all the minerals necessary for a steel and

copper smelting industry and could establish many _
- more industries to process lumber products. But here

again export is chosen over processing and manufac-

turing by the government. ;

' The separatists have no mass base yet, with the

possible exception of Alberta, and most westerners

still regard themselves as Canadians first and resi-

dents of their provinces second. ite
Separation from Canada will not help the West. Our

- problems as westerners.do not arise from our associa-

tion with Canada as such. They arise from the fact
that the economy of Canada, including the economy
of the West, is controlled by big corporations, many
of them foreign owned. They are the ones who are
exploiting the people of the West. That is the problem
that we must tackle. Separatism would put these cor-
porations even more firmly in control of the economy
of the West.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

There are realistic measures which, if taken, would -

meet the economic and political needs of the West and
render the separatist movement impotent. .

The first is action by Ottawa to remove all forms of
economic discrimination against the West. This in-

~ cludes reform of freight rate and tariff structures,

controls over price-fixing and profiteering by the big
firms which supply the West with agricultural and
other machinery, and controls to ensure lower in-
terest rates to farmers.

The second essential step is to nationalize all
energy resources and develop them under joint
provincial-federal control for the benefit of all the
peoples of Canada.

The third is to undertake a policy of industrializing —

the West by processing more of our resources before.
they are shipped out. _

The fourth step needed is political — the abolition
of the system of federal elections by constituencies

and its replacement by a system of proportional rep-

resentation. This would giarantee that each political

_ party in Ottawa is represented according to its

strength and would do away with anomalous situa-

tions such as in Alberta, where political parties witha
quarter or even a third of the total vote are still not -

represented in Ottawa. Proportional representation
would do away with the so-called political alienation
of the West; it is a necessary democratic reform at
this stage in our country’s development.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 16, 1981—Page 6

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