Western Canadian Alienation

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Sam Konkin was Western Canadian
Tim Moen is Western Canadian
A couple of Ayn Rand's old clique were Western Canadian

3/4 of them are the only provinces with enough Tory domination to actually get a full fledged separatist movement to take root

Chances are if the West becomes independent I'll likely move there. I think the Prairies would be a nice place to live if they decided to get Ottawa off their back.
@oyarde @Suzanimal @Jesse James @fisharmor @brushfire

[Lamp]

Western alienation[edit]

Main article: Western alienation
In Canadian politics, the term "the West" is used misleadingly in Canadian media styleguides as shorthand for the Conservative leanings of Western Canadians, as contrasted with the greater likelihood for candidates from either the Liberal Party of Canada or the New Democratic Party (NDP) to be elected in Central Canada^{[citation needed]}. Exceptions exist, particularly in British Columbia, as well as in the prairie city of Winnipeg, and where the Liberal Party hold seats, as well as in other major urban centres such as Edmonton where Liberal and NDP candidates have been elected in recent history. The social democratic NDP had its origins on the Canadian Prairies and in the mining and pulp mill towns and railway camps of British Columbia, and has a history of support in Manitoba, and British Columbia.
Regarding provincial politics, as of June 2015, the British Columbia Liberal Party forms the provincial government in British Columbia, though despite the name is not formally allied with the federal Liberal Party and is widely seen as conservative in nature and is composed of elements from the federal Conservative Party's right wing, including many ex-Reform Party supporters. The Saskatchewan Party, also a conservative party, holds power in Saskatchewan and the NDP forms the government in Alberta.
The western provinces are represented in the Parliament of Canada by 104 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons (British Columbia 42, Alberta 34, Saskatchewan and Manitoba 14 each) and 24 senators (6 from each province). Currently, of the 104 western MPs in the Commons, 54 are Conservatives, 20 are New Democrats, and 29 are Liberals.
The West has been the most vocal in calls for reform of the Senate, in which Ontario, Quebec, and particularly Atlantic Canada are seen by some westerners as being over-represented. The population of Ontario alone (13.1 million) exceeds that of all the Western provinces combined. The total population of Atlantic Canada, however, is 2.3 million, and this region is represented by 30 senators. Thus, Ontario is under-represented, Quebec has representation proportional to its population and the Atlantic provinces are over-represented. Westerners have advocated the so-called Triple-E Senate, which stands for "equal, elected, effective." They feel if all 10 provinces were allotted an equal number of senators, if those senators were elected instead of appointed, and if the Senate were a body that had more direct political power (for example via an arrangement more similar to the structure of the Australian Senate or the United States Senate rather than the UK model), then their region would have more of its concerns addressed at the federal level. Other westerners find this approach simplistic and either advocate keeping the status quo or may support other models for senate reform. The combination of all of these issues has led to the concept known as Western alienation, as well as calls for Western Canada independence by various fringe groups.
Since at least the 1930s, economic conditions have contributed to a net emigration from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Alberta and British Columbia, which have generally provided greater employment opportunities and higher living standards. The population of Saskatchewan is only slightly larger than it was in 1931. This trend of net emigration in both provinces is reversing because of a lower cost of living than Alberta and B.C.

[Lamp]

[Jesse James]

would be cool, I wouldn't have to learn a new language.

if Liechtenstein or Switzerland are as cool as they sound, though...

[oyarde]

Sam Konkin was Western Canadian
Tim Moen is Western Canadian
A couple of Ayn Rand's old clique were Western Canadian

3/4 of them are the only provinces with enough Tory domination to actually get a full fledged separatist movement to take root

Chances are if the West becomes independent I'll likely move there. I think the Prairies would be a nice place to live if they decided to get Ottawa off their back.
@oyarde @Suzanimal @Jesse James @fisharmor @brushfire

The Prairie is ok as long as you do not mind the winters .

[Lamp]

The Prairie is ok as long as you do not mind the winters .

I really have no issues with the blizzards. I just don't want to have to pay any of the income tax, sales tax, or corporate taxes. You know? Something that that $#@! Robert Borden and his Unionist cronies said he was gonna repeal after WW1.............

[Lamp]

http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwa...ar-production/

Finance and War Production

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Like most other combatants in 1914, Canadians expected the war to be short, victorious, and relatively inexpensive. They were wrong.
Traditional Finance, Untraditional War

Far from ending the pre-war economic recession, the war’s outbreak at first worsened it, with layoffs, contract cancellations, and severe cutbacks in the already-troubled railway industry.
Ottawa sought money to pay the war’s modest early expenses by borrowing in traditional capital markets – first Britain and then, as British loans dried up in response to domestic needs, the United States. Few observers believed that Canadian financial sources would need to be tapped before the war ended; fewer still supported using taxes to raise money to finance war expenditures, instead of borrowing it by raising war loans.
But the war did not end quickly. The effort required to sustain massive armies in the field rescued the Canadian economy from recession. It also required huge amounts of capital. A pre-war federal budget of $185 million had quadrupled by its wartime peak to more than $740 million. Debt quadrupled to $1.2 billion as well. Prior to the war, customs duties, postal rates, and tariffs on imported goods had accounted for more than 85 percent of government revenue. Higher duties and new tariffs alone could not hope to cover vastly higher wartime expenditures. Ottawa borrowed to finance the shortfall from an unexpected source: ordinary Canadians.
Borrowing from Canadians

Canadians’ willingness to loan money to their own government by buying war bonds exceeded all expectations. No bond issue in Canadian history had raised more than $5 million, but Ottawa’s first “victory bond” drive brought in $100 million, twice the initial estimate. Subsequent drives proved just as successful. Publicity campaigns, including tens of thousands of posters, linked buying bonds to the direct support and welfare of soldiers overseas and used a variety of messages to encourage contributions, from well-known poems to emotional imagery. Long-term interest rates of up to 5.5 percent for terms of up to 20 years were also a powerful inducement.
Total domestic bond purchases during the war exceeded $2 billion, ten times the amount of money raised abroad. Canada had financed the war by incurring more than $2 billion in debt, thereby passing the war’s costs to future generations, but it owed most of this money to Canadian citizens, not foreign lenders. The success of the “victory bond” campaign would be repeated during the Second World War. Today’s Canada Savings Bonds are the direct descendents of these wartime efforts.
Taxing Income and Profits

Wartime costs were not the only factors influencing the government’s financial policies. As the war continued, political pressure grew on Ottawa to ensure that businesses and the wealthy paid their fair share of the financial burden. Labour organizations, farmers, churches, and other groups called for the “conscription of wealth.” Periodic charges of war profiteering by corrupt officials or unscrupulous entrepreneurs made for sensational headlines and undermined the government’s propaganda message that all Canadians should “do their bit.”
New federal taxes on business profits in 1916 and personal incomes in 1917 – the latter a ‘temporary’ wartime measure – set important precedents, but the war ended before either had produced substantial results. In 1919, personal and corporate taxes combined accounted for only 3.4 percent of total federal revenues. Most Canadians paid no tax at all, and those who did pay, paid very little.
Evolution of a War Economy

The outbreak of war threatened Canada with economic crisis. Existing manufacturing orders were cancelled, some factories shut down, and construction halted on many pre-war civilian projects. Some feared that war would cause the collapse of Canada’s already fragile economy. But the demand for war supplies, equipment, and shells soon provided economic stimulus and employment. Output grew and fears of collapse were replaced by the challenges of rapid expansion. Due to the combined demands of military service, industry, and agriculture, unemployment had virtually ceased in Canada by 1916.
Organizing Wartime Production

One of the greatest economic surprises of the war was the military’s near-insatiable demand for vast quantities of artillery shells. Armies expended them by the millions in the great barrages and siege-like battles on the Western Front, and no Allied economy was organized to produce shells in anything near the quantities required.
Canada’s Minister of Militia and Defence, Sam Hughes, initially established a Shell Committee to coordinate production, but its failure to deliver on contracts led to angry recriminations between Canada and Britain and widespread rumours of corruption.
Imperial Munitions Board

In late 1915, Prime Minister Borden replaced the Shell Committee with the Imperial Munitions Board (IMB), which answered solely to Britain but was run by a Canadian. Under well-known Toronto businessman Joseph Flavelle, the Board was organized according to sound business practices and hired professional managers to oversee its operations. It eased the problem of scarce labour by hiring 30,000 women to work in its factories and offices.
Impressive Expansion of Scope and Production

Under Flavelle’s supervision, the Board oversaw an impressive expansion in wartime production, from only a few companies having the capacity to produce shells to, in 1917, dozens of companies, including crown corporations, that collectively produced some $2 million worth of goods per day.
The IMB’s mandate later expanded to include propellants, brass casings, and complicated fuses. By 1917, almost one-third of all British shells were being manufactured in Canada. The IMB constructed ships and aircraft and developed airfields for a large pilot training program. By war’s end, its 600 factories had completed some 103 naval vessels, 2,600 training aircraft, and 30 flying boats. When the IMB ceased operations in 1919, it was Canada’s largest civilian employer, with over 289,000 employees.

[Iowa]

Canada Brexit? CanUExit?

[Lamp]

eeyup