STATEHOOD NOW:

Canada's Liberals May Be Learning How the West Is Lost (CLIFFORD KRAUSS, 3/13/04, NY Times)

Ottawa is three time zones away and well beyond the Rockies, but for the loggers who work here, Canada's Liberal Party government might as well govern from another planet.

The list of complaints is taller than a cedar in a region that can sometimes resemble the United States more than the rest of Canada in its conservatism. The gun registry Ottawa established several years ago penalizes law-abiding hunters, westerners complain.

The Liberals have soured relations with the Bush administration, people here say, but it is western Canada that pays in the form of the high tariffs that Washington has slapped on softwood lumber.

"We've always been alienated, for years and years," said Brad McKay, 39, an independent timber operator. "It's almost like we are a separate country. The Liberals are only interested in keeping Quebec and Ontario happy."

But perhaps nothing recently has done more to deepen western anger and expose the fault lines that divide Canada than a kickback scandal involving the Liberal Party that was exposed last month.

In it, the Liberals are alleged to have handed out $75 million in public money to advertising firms in Quebec Province that were big contributors to the party.

The scandal almost certainly buried any hope that Prime Minister Paul Martin had of making inroads in elections expected in May in the four western provinces, home to almost one in three Canadians.

Why stay Canadian?

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2004 12:45 AM