 The Western Independence Party, which advocates/d (the party still exists, sort of, in a few places under a few random names) for a full political separation, adopted this flag for a country called "West Canada." I don’t even get why Alberta hasn’t already orchestrated its exit from Canada. Calgary is the cultural and economic centre of a region that includes all three prairie provinces as well as parts of Eastern British Columbia (including the Okanagan, but excluding the Kootenays, which remain centred around Nelson, which bears greater cultural affinity with Vancouver). A country cobbled together to protect economic interests surely can disassemble itself for the same reason. It can break itself apart for any reason, any time it chooses. Alberta, Quebec--New Brunswick, if that’s you really feel—let’s keep in touch. David Bercuson of the University of Calgary’s History Department and Barry Cooper of the U of C’s Political Science Department wrote this in a March 12 feature story for Maclean’s magazine. I think it kind of got lost in the bonfire of Trudeau’s vanity. The story, entitled “The Rise of the Republic of the Northwest”, imagines a near future in which Canada is no longer. The break-up is envisioned as peaceful and orderly until: “The real problem remains the rest of B.C. The Kootenays, the Cariboo and the Okanagan voted to join the republic, but the Lower Mainland, now in the grip of Green Party fanatics, has become a source of instability to all the territories west of Laurentian Canada. Discussions in the Senate in Saskatoon contemplated increasing sanctions, limiting the transit of the CPR across our country, and further reductions in shipments of refined petroleum products to Vancouver. There has even been talk of mounting an expeditionary force to bring order to these people.” (my emphasis) When Vancouver and Vancouver Island decide to go their own way—as I expect we one day will—please do not invade us. Reciprocity, my alarmingly hawkish professor friends: live and let live. I know you think it’s funny to joke about a near future in which you get to ride tanks into Chinatown and waste mad multicultural poor people, but the question I would like to pose in return is as follows: is civil war that funny? Is it? (Don’t kill us, svp!)  The Douglas Fir forever. Cascadia. I am sad this will never be my flag.
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