Imagine if Canada was trying to recruit another state into confederation and the deal was:
- we'll give you less representation in the senate than provinces a quarter your size
- we'll take revenue from you in taxes and re-distribute some of it to other provinces
- we'll do everything we can to limit your ability to export product from your major industry while we import same from elsewhere
- we'll mock and disparage your culture as something less than other provinces or regions
Sound like a deal? Or do you think there might be better options?
I've often thought on the differences in culture between Ontario and the west. Speaking of the context of family in southern Ontario and then living in mostly rural northern Alberta.
1. Size of the country. For rural, especially western Canadians, a couple of hour drive for something like Costco shopping is almost normal. You have a better appreciation of the size of the country when you're thinking of a trip and debating a 5 hour or 8 hour drive to the nearest international airport. For my urban relations crossing Toronto is viewed as a full day trip and only undertaken in a state of emergency (although 401 traffic is hell for anyone).
2. Role of government and especially government response. It's a standing joke in every first aid course I've taken over "here's what the book says about response times" when everyone in the room is hoping for a 1 hour response time best case. Urban center...10 minutes and people panic. The reliance on government infrastructure is different but also changes some of the personal accountability to improve ones position.
3. Background of neighborhood. Almost everyone I deal with locally is from another part of the province or country. Local residents are only about 25% of the population with many having moved in/inter married due to resource work and/or opportunities that didn't' exist elsewhere. And for almost all of the "new blood" in the region it's not the first stop as many have lived in multiple communities spread around the country previously due to opportunities and work. Labour is a commodity and it flows with opportunity.
Now to compare that to some urban relations they struggle to comprehend the concept of moving away from the city because "why would you leave" and for many, work jobs that I frankly don't know they stay afloat from. But offer them a job with 50% more pay on the other side of the country and they think you've asked them to go to mars.
Until fairly recently it was common to be able to play the "spot the out of province license plate game" around town and see how many provinces you could see on a lunch break. Tried explaining that to relations out east when visiting there and they didn't know what the plates even looked like for half the country. On the reciprocal side of things they knew how many different nationalities of international backgrounds which for my sheltered rural youth was totally foreign.
4. Proximity of the US and it's influence. For many of the relations a cross border trip is "normal" ....for some it's as normal as driving home and noticing milk is on sale in the US so I'll grab some on the way home. Comments like "why fly out of Toronto we'll drive to Detroit and fly for 1/3rd the cost...don't you do that?" or "we'll drive to Florida...are you coming" are a huge disconnect from what I've experienced. For myself...8 hours gets me almost the border of Montana...so big cities and cross border shopping just don't exist as options.
5. Costs and competition. Your local milage may vary but topics like travel (I pay for the flight before taxes what they pay for the entire package), cell phones (only Telus really works here so no options on plans), groceries (no US competition for sales/local fruit orchards) or power costs (yes aware some of this is AB gov't policy but not much cheap hydro or nuclear options out west).
6. Government jobs. It's a perception and might be true but at least out west government jobs were very limited. Local municipality...some provincial jobs in larger towns...and it wasn't until you hit the major cities you saw any real federal jobs outside the RCMP. Aware the CAF has a strong presence in Alberta but it's localized in areas I didn't grow up in.
Now for family...most of whom live within 1 hour of a major center...it seems much more common to have a higher employment via federal jobs and/or provincial jobs. I get the Ontario gov't jobs are centered in the south and much of the AB/ON split being described here also applies to NW Ontario with rural areas differing widely from Toronto/Ottawa.
7. Oil vs. Automobiles. Many of the relations are involved in the auto industry and they struggle to see how dominate oil and gas is out west. Like the assembly plants both were sectors were working people could earn good wages, with minimal schooling, and raise families. But while they can acknowledge that part they struggle with the concept of the constant Gov't bailouts for Auto being a good thing (its jobs so of course the gov't should do it) vs. policy for the west (it's nature so of course you shouldn't develop it). I'll be the first to say Alberta has done some piss poor work on the environmental side (like BC and ON with mining as well) but there are few success stories to show vs. the constant images of the mountain parks as "pristine" that people think the whole province is like.
Anyways....some ramblings pre-coffee thinking about differences between portions of the country. My Quebec, Maritime and BC experiences are much more limited but it's always been an interesting experience traveling around the Country and seeing both how similar, and different, the regions are.
foresterab
Regardless of your individual experiences it's
