It is not easy for others in this vast nation to fully understand the problems of its vast prairie region.
Generally, it’s seen as the place one needs to get through to go somewhere else nicer or supposedly more important — the old jokes about having to drive through the flat, bald prairie if you wanted to get anywhere.
There is some historical significance to this. Canada became the nation it now is only because the East wanted to keep British Columbia and west coast ports out of the hands of the Americans. Even in 1885, it was a mad dash to lay as much Canadian Pacific track as quickly across the prairies as possible so Canada could link British Columbia.
In the true Canadian spirit and identity, this has been wrapped in the notion of co-operation and compromise that’s always been needed to make this vast land work.
It’s equally difficult holding together a massive country like this from sea to sea to sea when the only bond seems to be our long cold winters and love of a game played on ice that has emerged from it.
But let us be clear that this country was and still is driven by our symbiotic needs.
The east may need our grain and oil, but we need to get our product to port so we can sell it and have reason to exist.
Unfortunately, what’s also emerged from this relationship is a historic sense of distrust.
Former premier Brad Wall touched on it recently in a tweet that reminded us the Saskatchewan/Alberta territory was supposed to be one giant province called Buffalo before the two provinces entered confederation in 1905. “(Prime Minister Wilfred) Laurier was concerned about the future power & influence of that prov preferring to split it,” Wall wrote in a recent tweet. “Sk & AB need to work together in the spirit of ‘Buffalo’ now to defend and advance our interests.”
It is the long-heard Western independence sabre-rattling put in polite and correct context.
The notion of a separate landlocked prairie nation is a child stamping his feet because he doesn’t get his way. But the idea of this region standing up for itself in the face of long-standing indifference, is mature and often necessary.
Both the country and the west win when the west puts forward forceful, well-reasoned arguments.
Generally, that is what Wall did during his decade on the national stage as Saskatchewan premier.
That’s also what current Premier Scott Moe seems to be doing by again pressing at the recent annual premiers’ gathering the issue of getting oil off the rail and moving it through pipelines.
Of course, there are many in the east (and now in the west in British Columbia) all too eager to write Moe’s concern off as more of the anti-carbon tax/environment agenda.
Wisely, Moe is fighting this with reality.
He noted the recent National Energy Board numbers showing that exporting crude oil by rail in Canada increased to 193,500 barrels per day in April from March.
That beats the old shipping record of 179,000 barrels per day in September 2014 and was 43,500 more barrels per day than a year earlier.
What Moe is telling other premiers at the Council of the Federation is that this demand for Western oil isn’t decreasing any time soon.
And the history of events like the disaster in Lac Magentic and general environmental risks make the current opposition to pipelines in both British Columbia and Quebec illogical.
In other words, not only is this bad for the nation, it’s bad for their own local self-interests.
It is important Western leaders continue to make their points and continue to be heard.
Really, it’s the only way a country like ours can work.
