The not so monolithic West

In this election, as is so often the case, the Eastern press exhibits the annoying habit of treating the West as one great monolithically Conservative block. It arises, I suspect, from assuming the West is Alberta, a belief all too commonly assumed by Albertans themselves. Despite the widespread support in Western Canada for the Conservatives in recent federal elections, the truth is rather different.

Two political streams flow vigorously through Western Canada, one left, one right. Blinkered to this reality, Eastern media tend to overlook the fact that socialists govern two of the four western provinces and form the official opposition in a third. Indeed, Alberta is as often at odds with other western provinces as the West is with the East. I offer two examples:

1. During the Kyoto debate, Alberta was the only province opposed to signing the protocol. Manitoba was one of its strongest boosters.
2. While Albertans generally opposed same-sex marriage, British Columbians were second only to Quebeckers in supporting it.

And, of course, while Alberta is renowned for its embrace of capitalist competition, its neighbour Saskatchewan, home of Medicare, is famed as the land of co-operation.

Adding to this mischief is the further assumption that the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary is hardly more than a Conservative think tank, known as "the Calgary School." In fact, diversity reigns there also. I know two of the professors in the department rather well, and both are decidedly not Conservatives.

I would go on to discuss a third political stream, a Liberal one, but the way this campaign is going that stream is in danger of drying up.