Ready for another round? Relatively quiet for almost a decade, the issue of Quebec separatism seems to be bubbling up to the surface again.(FEDERALISM--UNITY)

Publication: Canada and the World Backgrounder

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Canada & the World

The year 2005 has been a poor one for Canadian unity. It started out with the Canadian flag absent from provincial buildings in Newfoundland. The province's premier hauled down the maple leaf in anger over what he said was unfair treatment by Ottawa. Sales of "Free Newfoundland" T-shirts on the island were brisk.

In the spring, stories of Liberal Party sleaze emerged from the enquiry of Judge John Gomery into the federal sponsorship scandal. This prompted Westerners to get angry all over again at Ontario for sending enough Liberal NIPs to Ottawa in the 2004 election to allow the party to cling to power.

Renewed mutterings about Western separatism were heard in Alberta.

By early summer, Ontario was complaining that it was being milked by all the have-not provinces to the tune of $5 billion a year. People outside Ontario held the view that the rich province should quit whining.

When gasoline prices spiked in late summer, most Canadians thought it would be nice if Alberta shared its oil wealth. A fall 2005, survey found that 55 percent of Albertans believe that provincial resources belong to all Canadians; 76 percent of non-Albertans held this view. Alberta's Premier Ralph Klein was not in a sharing mood. He told Canadians to keep their hands off Alberta's oil and that got every, body ticked off.

Early winter brought the first report from Mr. Justice John Gomery. He described a program aimed at keeping Quebec in Canada that channeled money into the Liberal Party. That got everybody mad at Quebec. If the province didn't keep threatening to separate the sponsorship program wouldn't have been needed, went the reasoning. Quebeckers responded to the anger of the rest of Canada by increasing their support for the separatist Parti Quebecois.

Yes, 2005 was a bad year for national unity. It was much like most other years in this difficult-to-govern land.

As usual though, ground zero for unity...

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