STRICTLY PERSONAL

ISEE that Gordon Wilson
has come to the conclusion
that B.C, should have a sepa-
vatist party.

Amazing. This is something I
was thinking and even timidly writ-
ing about back, oh, I’d say maybe a
dozen yeurs ago. |

Let me. rammage around in the
files. Yes! Here we are: New Age
Magazine, “Rise and Fall of the
Canadien Empire,” which began:

'  “hiease you hadn't noticed,
Canada, the second largest country
in the world and the buffer between

. Russiv:and America, is coming
, apart at the seams. With the re-elec-

tion of a separatist government in
the French-speaking province of
Quebec... the outlook for Canada
as 4 unilary ‘federal state is sudden: ~.
ly very poor.”
' Allright, so it’s 13 years-later,
and the country is still hanging
together as a unitary federal state,
albeit by a political thread. .
‘I was a little excitable back then. .
Thought the world was changing
overnight. “~
Hopefully, I’m still just
‘excitable — and so is Gordon:
Wilson. But it could be we both

hippen to see sautething dat is
there, but which hasn't made itself
overwhelningly apparent to every-
one else and their dog just yet.

Also, although it shouldn't need
toby said, there's certainly more to
the notion of British Columbia
being prepared to go italone if the
centre cannot hold than mere politi-
cal mischief,

Ata certain level, it is only pru-
dent to prepare i a fall- back position
inthe event of disaster,

Boundaries change, jurisdictions
evolve, Borders crawl, [t's the story
of civilization.

No enipire lasts forever, And
Canada, | maintain, has always
been an empire in its own right, just
never acknowledging itself official-
ly as stich.

Hitching a ride on an ineredible
wave of technological development
in the dast century, the Canadian

_ empire created one of the greatest

civilizations of alltime, even if not
perfect by a long shot.

Call ita flawed utopia that is
nevertheless at the top of scale
when compared with living condi-
tions in the overcrowded, tormented
nations around us.

Without too much exaggeration
you could describe the Canadian

* experience since. the Second World
War as a definite Golden Age. 1 /

remember in the ’50s proudly
thinking: “This is a country where
no one goes hungry.” ff
It wasn’t quite true, but it was: ’
about as close as you could get. , :
‘This Johnny Canuck Syndrorie
aside, by the *70s it seemed self-

evident that-the billions of tax ++

bucks a year Western’ Canada was
handing over to the {nner Canada
establishment was being horribly
squandered, and we were being
dragged down by the top-héavy
burden of centralized bureaucracies
with their own priorities. : ;

Where I was coming from, back
then, was the green side-of the
argument, the loony bioregionalist

fringe. 7

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Talk about being out ot the loap!
That was me,

“The idea of an ecology-con-
scious sepitrate slate hus a wide-
spre: id if targely anderground fol-
lowing, especially in the ural ball
of (BC'S) population.” Fwrote
with confidence, if not much evi-
dence,

The idea of bio-regions, of
course, is to decentralize govern-
ments down to the level of water.
shed ecosystems, determined by
means of climatology, and other
natural sciences.

In other words, to redefing the
basic unit of savereigity so as to
bring legistative authority as close
as possible to neighborhood scale.

This is beantifel-sounding stuff,
tome. Apart from the egalitarian
notion of “watershed democnicy,”
the bipregional approach to public
policy addresses itself essentially to
the question of energy self-sulti-
ciency and ecologies Wl survival.

Within a bio-region it should be
possible to work out an javentory
of resources, including energy
resources, and therefore determine
the actual carrying capacity of the
area; to stick toa kind of solar bud-

. gels fo ration energy use according

to such underlying limitations as
natural succession; ta build (ta da!)

human communities in harmony

with theie unmediae ecosystem,

Bul lim not sure this is exactly
what Gordon Wilson is dalking
whout, or has inating. And Pin net
certain there is any hope for such a
notion, anywiy, HT there ever was,

Certainty, when there was an
outbreak of separatist talk in
Western Canada in the early "80s,
California-style dreamings about
bio-regions weren't a big part of the
program,

Abvone point, as Precall, half a
dozen English-speaking separatist
parties had emerged west of the
Manitoba/Ontario border, bellow-
ing their names, and every last one
of them was further to the right than
Jabba the Hutt, Famous neo-Nazis
milled about in their midst.

Alas, the lovely little FE,
Schumacher sotion of Smatl Is
Beautiful got lost in the thunder of
hooves as the posse charged, off to
lynch the nearest Gilingual com
flakes box,

Today fm not so sure an inde-
pendent British Columbia would be
the ideal eco-ulogia some of us
used to try to envision.

What would stop Vancouver
{shind loggers, for instance, from
razing their particular watersheds
while everybody else stands by
helptessty? Are the citizens of
smaller, weaker countries casier

prey for multinational corporations?

Would we get taken over eco-
nomically even more by the
Americans! Will we start fighting
umong ourselves? Who will sctile
the fund claims battles with the
Natives?

Nevertheless. with Quebce so.
close to being gone, it is high time
somebody, even if it's Gordon
Wilson, should be looking at the
Kicking Horse Pass option, namely,
scaling it.

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