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From: acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Eastern Myopia
Message-ID: <854@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Dec-84 14:24:48 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.854
Posted: Mon Dec  3 14:24:48 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Dec-84 01:42:39 EST
Organization: UBC CS, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 61


  I see that can.politics has again slipped into a coma, not that some of
us on the West coast haven't tried to prevent it from happening. Over the 
last several weeks Jim Robinson and I have posted several articles concerning
such things as oil prices, tax policies, value added taxes, who is government
for and free trade. The response, to say the least, has not been overwhelming.
Yes, two or three other people have expressed opinions but they hardly provided
enough material to spark a debate. 
  Unfortunately, I see this as being a symptom of what is partly wrong with 
Canada. The disease is Eastern (central) Canada myopia and it regularly rears
its ugly head in politics, business, the media and now it appears to have
attacked the average citizen in those regions. The disease results in the
victim refusing to acknowledge the existence of the other parts of Canada.
If they do acknowledge the existence of Canada beyond the borders of Ontario
and Quebec, they view it as an area that is suppose to serve the every command
and whim of this central region. 
  How do I know the disease exists?  That is the easy part.  All one
has to do is look at what happens in politics.  Western Canada makes requests
of Ottawa and nothing happens, we are just ignored. We repeat the requests 
and are again ignored. The same happens on the net, we in the west express
concerns about issues that are important to us but there is no response. 
I interpret this as meaning the issues aren't important to me so I won't 
discuss them and that is exactly what happens in politics. The power 
belongs to the MPs of Ontario and Quebec thus if the issue is not of political
benefit to them it is not discussed. When the issue does become important to 
them (ex price of oil) then they are willing take action, but as usual the 
action is at the expense of the West.
   Another example of this, as pointed out by Jim Robinson, is in the area
of trade. Nearly every commodity that the West produces is traded on the world
market and subject to world prices. Examples of this are wheat, coal, minerals,
lumber and pulp and paper. The markets for these products would expand even
further if Canada would lift its tariffs off manufactured goods. An example
of this occurred last year when BC negotiated a deal with Indonesia (I think)
to increase lumber exports there. The deal, however, was conditional on 
Indonesia being allowed to sell some of its products, namely textiles, in
Canada.  The Canadian government, controlled by Ontario and Quebec, of course
refused to allow this to happen because that would have meant that the
textile industries in those provinces would have had to compete for a change.
The net result is BC loses millions of dollars in lumber sales and consumers 
continue to pay needlessly high prices for government protected and subsidized
products. 
   You might say  that protected the jobs in those industries and I say
to you "Does that mean the a job to someone in eastern Canada is more important
than to someone in the West?".  From the politicians point of view it obviously
is. That above action even goes one further, it says that it is more important
to protect jobs in industries that aren't competitive then to create jobs
in areas that are competitive in the unprotected world market and will continue
to sustain themselves without government aid either in the form of direct
subsidies or tariffs.
   Oil pricing on the other hand works in the opposite way. The West would
like to sell its product at a higher price by simply allowing the price to 
approach world levels.  But no, that would cost consumers in the East money
and that could reduce a politicians vote count in the next election. So, the
West is forced to sell at a lower price and to pay a tax to subsidize the 
oil bought on the world market for eastern Canada.  What would higher prices
do? It would increase exploration for oil and research into oil extraction 
methods for tar sands, it would (heaven forbid) create jobs and more wealth for
western Canadians and it would encourage Canada to become self sufficient 
in energy. 
   If these latest comments don't spark some discussion then I don't
know what will.
    Donald Acton