During the run-up to the last US election the CBC ran a series of news specials entitled "A Nation Divided" showing how different the electorate was in the United States in terms of geography. Of course this is true. What drove me nuts was the refusal to do this same analysis in Canada. In terms of divisions the Americans do not hold a candle to Canada. Through asymmetrical federalism and the "Quebec's interests" party, Balkanization has become official public policy.
If the latest polls are to be believed we could see another Liberal minority government but this time with 1 seat in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba combined, 6-10 seats in Quebec, but all in Montreal, no (or very little) rural seats in Ontario. Their government will come from urban and Atlantic Canada. Hardly a mandate. If it is a Conservative minority it will be the exact opposite. No representation in Quebec and no representation in urban Canada (except for Edmonton and Calgary, etc.).
This is the situation Jim Travers speaks to in the Toronto Star today.
...When this government finally succumbs to terminal illness, there will be two lasting memories.
One is how Liberals who spent 40 years fighting separatists boosted that cause by embracing tactics that were at least reprehensible and perhaps criminal. The other is the thinness of the veneer of federal competence, credibility and civility that binds this sprawling, disparate country.
After months of vacillation and weeks of panicked, wildly extravagant and partisan promises, that veneer is cracking.
On top of party against party, federalists against separatists, the next election will pit rural voters against urban, region against region, more conservative men against more liberal women.
Like the current spectacle on Parliament Hill, those cracks require more than an election to fix.
