4 — Sunday, March 29, 1992 - North Shore News Would you believe a separate Ontario? THE MOST fascinating article to appear yet on the unity issue was published in the Globe and Mail just a couple of days after the premier of Quebec came out in favor of a continued union with Canada. The timing could hardly have been accidental. Is there a chance that Robert Bourassa’s coy pirouetting around the separatist option has gone on just slightly too long — that even his Central Canadian allies have become mif- fed beyond endurance by all the hanky panky? 1 know, for me, when Bourassa finally acknowledged the obvious — namely that Canada is a ‘‘rare privileged country’’ — his declar- ation had the hollow ring of a cheating husband disavowing any infidelity. The article, by Financial Times editor Sheldon Gordon, was far more provocative, in my view, than Mordecai Richler’s dredg- ing-up of charges of an- ti-Semitism and tribal snobbery against Quebecois. Richler is merely giving Quebec nationalists the finger. Times editor Gordon is talking about something seriously radical: he suggests Ontario give everyone the finger. That's right. He’s talk- ing an independent Ontario. He argues that province, with its 10 million people, has ‘‘better prospects than its neighbor across the Ottawa River for flourishing as a sovereign state. ““Based on 1989 statistics, On- . tario would rank 12th among the nations of the world in gross na- tional product. And its standard of living, as measured by GNP per capita, would be second only to Switzerland’s.’’ As everyone must realize, the bloom has gone off the Ontario rose since 89. The province has been devas- tated by the free-trade deal, businesses are folding everywhere, unemployment and welfare costs are scaring, none of this helped sauch by the fumblings of the fledging NDP government, which is bogged down in trivial issues like Sunday and cross-border shopping. Although the province still has an enormous, diversified manufacturing, resource +.271 ser- vice industry base, there are signs of rust everywhere, and the eco- Bob STRICTLY PERSONAL nomic dependence on the Ameri- can- and Japanese-owned automobile industry is quite scary, given that a few political strokes down in the U.S. Congress could leave the province financially kneecapped. It doesn’t help that Ontario Hydro’s overly ambitious nuclear power plans have backfired thanks to shoddy technology, driving the costs of electricity — once the cheapest in the world — through the roof, shattering the province's credit rating. Battered, dented and salt-cor- roded as the big Ortario machine might be, it is still quite capable of clanking off down the in- dependence highway all by its lonesome. Indeed, Gordon writes, ‘‘in the event that Quebec does declare independence, Ontario’s interests dictate that it not be far behind.’’ He goes on: ‘‘...as the ties that bind the federation weaken, On- tarians may no longer have the urge to play rich uncle to people - oa the Prairies and in the Atlantic region. “If Ontario were to repatriate the wealth that Ottawa now redistributes to the have-not tegions through equalization and shared-cost programs, the revenue would be enough to wipe out the SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 44 NORTH VANCOUVER PUBLIC FORUM ON 1992-93 BUDGET North Vancouver schools are facing a severe funding shortfall for the upcoming 1992-93 school year. A significant number of programs and resources will be eliminated or reduced. While preliminary work is underway preparing the budget within Ministry of Education guidelines, the School Board would like to share information with interested members of our community. To facilitate this process, public information sharing meetings will be held on Monday, March 30, 1992, at 7:00 p.m. at the following locations: West of Lonsdale Carson Graham Secondary School Central Sutherland Secondary School East of Seymour Windsor Secondary Schoo! Join representatives from your Schcel Board and Board Office Ad- ministration in a public forum on the next school year’s budget shortfall. For further information call the North Vancouver School Board at 937-8141. province’s current budget deficit.”’ And how much does Ontario shell out under these programs? According to Gordon, it adds up to $9.7 billion a year. Well, well! This is the first flicker of independentiste-type thinking I’ve seen in English- speaking Eastern Canada except for a mostly tongue-in-cheek piece in Toronto Life iast sum- mer, which made the case for Toronto breaking away from the rest of Canada and becoming a city-state like Singapore or Hong Kong. Apart from this single burst of un-Ontario type of thinking, the media Down East has shown no imagination at ali when it comes to the oh-so-serious subject of the disintegration of Canada. Quite plainly, until now, the at- titude in Ontario has been that “Ontarian’”’ and ‘‘Canadian’”’ are one and the same thing. Their idea of a regional identity is virtually indistinguishable from what everyone else is supposed to assume as a national identity. Not having been sucked dry by central bankers like the Maritimes were, or having been conquered like Quebec, Manitoba, Saskat- chewan and Alberta, or annexed like the Yukon and N.W.T., or bribed into Confederation like B.C. and Newfoundland, Ontario has a quite different perception of Canadian history than folks in the hinterlands. As the unity crisis deepens, On- tario has been going through a bit of a personality crisis, or at least that’s how it scems to me. Even just a couple of years ago, you rarely heard much more than the pious twitte: ings of Trudeau- era small ‘‘I’’ liberals when the subject of Quebec came up. Having a large francophone minority of its own, the province is actually much more naturally bilingual than any place west of Kenora, so there has been less an- tagonism to French on corn flakes boxes than in Regina or Deep Cove. Besides, Quebec has always been Ontario’s biggest trading partner in Confederation. It is only commen bottom-line sense that Ontario’s business community is mad keen on good relations with their French-Cana- dian colleagues. In fact, it is part of Sheldon Gordon’s argument that this vested self-interest might be enough to stand Ontario’s tradi- tional pro-Canada bias on its head. If, in the wake of a declaration .of independence, Quebec was to cleverly dangle the possibility of some sort of sovereignty-associa- tion with Ontario alone, bypassing Parliament Hill and The Rest of The Rest of Canada, there would be plenty of corporate takers on Bay Street. Stay tuned. It ain’t over "til it’s over. This game is just getting in- teresting, if you ask me. Economic Twinning Prospect & Benefit for North Vancouver Business. SUN., MAR. 29 «8 RM. SHAW CABLE