If you're referring to the title, it conflates a relatively small geographic area having a large, concentrated population (York University, GTA, Southern Ontario) with a vastly larger but less densely concentrated national population (the rest of Canada), so it is easily seen as irritating to folks in the latter. Not hard to understand. Not a conspiracy.
It's not. It's an incredibly common strawman used in discourse on this topic (obviously it's relatively new to HN). They know it's a bad faith argument but it's used over and over to paint Albertans as illiterate rednecks.
This stupid argument comes up all over X, Reddit, etc... to muddy the waters and refuse to actually engage with the topic of equalization and the current formula used to determine how federal transfers are calculated and allocated.
It wasn't. Those were bumper stickers in the 80s referencing the National Energy Program. Very in line with the "What does Petro-Canada stand for?" - Pierre Elliot Trudeau Rips Off Canada.
Point conceded, although I hasten to add Ralph's infamous "Eastern bums and creeps" quote to the mix.
Another Alberta bumper sticker from the early 1980s foreclosure era said something like: ''Please, God, let there be another oil boom and this time I won't blow all my money away!"
> Alberta has been one of the most under-represented province in the federal government
Each time Albertans (I'm a 4th generation of that group) complain about lack of representation within federalism, I remind them of the many golden opportunities that came and went with their popularly elected and re-elected federal parties in power for long stretches of time, with Harper even representing an Alberta riding, yet here we are with complaints that rehash the same old, same old stuff. Nothing about federalism is ever good enough for them even after all those years of pro-AB feds in power.
You're misunderstand my point here. Alberta, until the most recent seat redistribution, had the largest federal ridings by population. Now they're only the 3rd largest. That means that the average Albertan's vote was worth far less than the average Quebecer's, and faaaar less than the average maritimer's vote. It gives disproportionate power above and beyond just representation due to population. Its not about which party they vote or don't vote for, although we could dig into that too, as its not nearly as cut and dried at the reductionist take would make it seem.
If I remember correctly, the guidance from the Supreme Court on riding sizes is plus/minus 15% difference from average, with special cases of low population density over large geographic areas allowing as much as plus/minus 40% from average.
Electoral boundaries commissions in Canada have been obligated to take input from all who submit complaints about riding sizes. That's different than those commissions being able to actually achieve something asymptotic to ''parity'', of course, but the net effect is that all those golden opportunities in long term AB-friendly power were missed, as I say.
Sports leagues mirror those commmon conceptions. Toronto is always put in the East alignment of pro sports leagues. Apart from a rough patch for the CFL in the 1980s when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were moved over to the East, they and the Jets have always been in the West.
The Leafs were in the West. LA beat them in the '93 conference finals after the infamous Gretzky high stick, they would have played the Canadiens in the finals that year. They lost in the '94 conference finals to the Canucks.
I forgot about that! They were in the Central Division of the Campbell Conference, which was renamed the Western Conference the next year, and didn't return to the Eastern until 1998-99.
My little grey cells don't seem to store Leafs info well. Oh, did you hear? Bill Barilko disappeared. He was on a fishing trip.
I acknowledge your perspective, fair enough, but it seems focused on the present. Western alienation goes far, far back, predating Confederation. The golden age of the Atlantic provinces goes back to a period hundreds of years ago, too. I'm just pointing out from a historical view that the cultural effect of so much power and influence being centred in Toronto and Montreal had, and continues to have, a large influence on Canadians, going back many, many generations. Some grind axes, others shrug, some stand up and shout "Excuse me, we've been here all along too, what about us?" I remain positive and upbeat that we'll sort it all out together.
I think what you're pointing at is potentially true but also that it's somewhat easily exploited by ideologically and money driven people for some rather ... what I would consider nefarious ends.
When I first moved here to Ontario I was blown away by how many people my own age didn't even know what/where Edmonton (a city of a million people, and the capital of the province) was, their only conception of Alberta was Calgary at most.
At the same time, I feel a strong sense of unease in the other direction when I'm out visiting family. There, again, there seems to be some confusion about what the country actually is.
I really love this country, having lived on two ends of it and driven across it many times. I've moved back and forth twice via Grayhound, 50+ hours slogging it across northern Ontario and the prairies stopping at every weird little town.
It's really something, what we've built here. I wish more people saw more of it.
Cold War RCAF brat here. Wherever Dad was transferred, that's where we went. It was a joy, but I've found over the years that folks sometimes get a bit cranky when I cannot pinpoint which part of Canada I'm from... for me, it has always been ''everywhere''.
Sad that there is no mention or depiction of Canada's own magazine of that era, ''Electron''. It was commonly found alongside the big U.S. electronics periodicals like those shown here. Electron was a mainstay right up to the mid-1970s when it suddenly transitioned to ''Audio Scene Canada'', laden with glossy ads and a tight focus upon HiFi music products but no longer catering to the hobbyist or general electronics fields. I cancelled my subscription.
For a close second here's a 1985 issue of the TPUG Magazine [1], from the Toronto PET Users Group. I attended a few meetings of the Niagara Commodore Users Group and spent all of my paper-route and fruit-picking income on arcade games and my C64 system.
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