Ok, why not have a referendum on separation?  Most people are tired of hearing about Western Separation so let’s get the required signatures and have a referendum.  As comedian Larry the Cable Guy says, let’s “Git-r-done”.   Of course, Alberta should be doing the same thing.  Strength in numbers, right?   A fly in the jam jar is that the latest data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute shows that support for the two provinces to leave Confederation is a minority, 34% here and 36% in Alberta, and if a referendum were to be held only 15% in our province and 19% in Alberta say they would “definitely” vote to leave.   Plus, regardless of their position, ¾ of people in both provinces say they would expect a referendum to fail.   The West believes Ottawa has mistreated it for years.  We call it “Western Alienation”, made much more prominent with a Liberal national government.   When I say the “West” we’re talking Alberta and Saskatchewan.  In Manitoba and B.C. which presently have NDP governments, rumblings about Western Alienation don’t appear to be popping up in the news although in their dreams diehard Western separatists would love to have all four Western provinces break away to form a new country. The desire for independence for some Quebecers started popping up in the 1950’s with a separatist party winning power in 1976 and resulting in not one but two failed referendums on separation, 1980 and 1995.  Today the majority of people in Quebec seem to still prefer being Canadians, as appears to be the case in Western Canada, regardless of which party is in power in Ottawa, Regina, Edmonton, Winnipeg, or Victoria. 

That’s Coffeetalk.  I’m Vic Dubois.