Anti (fill in the blank)!

Shakeyhands · July 18, 2005

I keep hearing that people from this province are biased against people from that province and so on, well I call BS with one exception. Before I joined this forum (and I have said this before) I never associated myself with one province or another, I was simply Canadian and never knew there was such animosity against Ontario in particular.

I really am unsure, and I know I worded the poll clumsily and tongue in cheek, of why this is? What are your thoughts?

mcqueen625 · July 18, 2005

Funny how Quebec leads the race followed closely by Ontario. That is probably because Quebec seems never to be satisfied with they are given. Unlike the rest of Canada who sends their payroll taxes to Ottawa, Quebec makes damn sure that the feds never get their hands on this money. Included in these taxes are QPP (the equivalent to CPP), and Income Tax funds. The other Provinces are stupid enough to send this money to Ottawa and then go begging for whatever portion the feds choose to send back. In the cxase of Quebec they doin't send it in the first place and still demand back what they haven't given in the first place. Not too many years ago Quebec was one of the "Have Provinces," but ever since theri threat to leave Canada and many corporate head offices packed up and left LaBelle Province, they have become a "Have-Not Province." I think it is time that instead of the feds paying them money and moving federal offices into Quebec, it is time they moved those offices to Provinces that want to remain part of Canada.

As for Ontario, they have made the rest of Canada feel irrelavent because of their ability to control the federal agenda through the sheer numbers of MP's compared to the rest of Canada. The only cure for that is to change the structure of Parliament, and way we elect politicians in Canada. We need to go to a system where each Province & Territory has exactly the same numbers of MP's, say five (5) from each Province, abolish the appointed Senate and either don't replace it, or replace it with an elected representatives. The present way we have is not fair since it is completely irrelevent how the people of Atlantic Canada or Western Canada vote because the whole election is decided by one Province. The Province's joined Canada as equal partners in Confederation, but somehow that concept fell off the rails.

mirror · July 18, 2005

Why are we not all democrats? A democrat is someone who believes in democracy, one person one vote, not one province one vote. What is democratic about that? Every heard of the quotation "representation by population"?

The reason one province has any more votes than another here is because more people that post here are English or more are from the West, etc. As a Canadian I don't particularly like this question anyways, so I have not responded because there was no option for none of the above.

newbie · July 18, 2005

I don't think these little "polls'" serve any good, other than to reinforce one's bias. I regard myself as a Canadian first and a member of a Province second. I have NO bias toward any other Province and care not to speculate about perceived animosity (bias) against another Province.

Greg · July 18, 2005

Sorry everyone - in the process of viewing this poll, I accidently deleted it. I'm not a huge fan of this type of poll, as I agree, it can simply reinforce people's stereotypes and biases of other regions. However, I do think it's interesting to talk about why we have these stereotypes / biases. So, please go ahead and discuss this topic, minus the poll.

Greg

Admin

Shakeyhands · July 19, 2005

Glad you did Greg cause it really wasn't the point. I feel the same as Mirror to be sure and I wonder what drives others opinions. I have had this discussion with Kimmy before and there were some good points brought up. However I still don't understand the majority of it. McQueen states above that Ontario drives the federal agenda, but to be honest I really don't see it that way. Ontario contains the greatest numbers of Canadians so.. thoughts?

SirSpanky · July 19, 2005

Ontario has almost 40% of our population has 33% of the seats. Going by population they are under-represented.

I will also agree with mr Shakeyhands, that I also consider myself a Canadian moreso than a Manitoban. Do you guys think that its just the big boys (Ontario, Alberta, BC) fighting over who is the "best" province, which breeds antagonism? Cause I'm not hearing the irrelivance argument coming out of Saskatchewan, or Manitoba.