CALGARY: Underestimating Western frustrations would be a mistake cautions a new report from the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy.
“In at least two provinces, support for separation exceeds current Quebec support for separation and is nearing percentages achieved in the 1976 election of the Parti Quebecois and support for separatism in the 1980 referendum,” states the comparative analysis, Separatist Sentiment: Polling comparisons in the West and Quebec.
With Western support for separation as high as 36.5 percent in Alberta, 33 percent in Saskatchewan, and 20 percent in British Columbia, “such support might better be seen as a potential floor and not necessarily a ceiling,” write report authors Mark Milke, president of the Aristotle Foundation, and economist Ven Venkatachalam.
“There are echoes of 1970s Quebec in current polling numbers in some pockets of Western Canada,” notes Milke. “In 1976, Quebec voters elected the separatist Parti Quebecois with 40 percent of votes cast and made charismatic separatist proponent, René Lévesque, premier. In the 1980 referendum, just over 40 percent of Quebec voters chose the separatist option.”
Of note, fifteen years later, In the 1995 Quebec referendum, 49.4 percent of Quebecois voted in favour of separation or sovereignty association.
Milke notes such percentages did not ultimately lead to separation but were enough to convulse Quebec and the rest of Canada in the question of separation from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. “It is a mistake to assert that same dynamic is absent or could not exist in Western Canada,” warns the report.
Ongoing political and economic demands from Quebec could be an exacerbating factor towards inflaming Western separatist sentiments. “An example is what appears to be a potential Quebec veto on cross-country pipelines offered up by Prime Minister Mark Carney.”
Link to the study: Separatist Sentiment: Polling comparisons in the West and Quebec -30-
Contact: To arrange for an interview with the report authors, please contact:
Ava Peacock, Administrative Coordinator, Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy at [email protected]
About: The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy is a new, pan-Canadian, educational think tank that aims to renew a civil, common-sense approach to public discourse and public policy in Canada.
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