A salute to a regional rabble-rouser TO GEORGE Woodcock, belatedly, on his 82nd birth. _ day! Celebrating its Writers anid . thinkers is one af the ways a culture proves its worth, H can’t be done too often. So Lam all in favor of praise for George. Make that: “Mr. _ Woodcock, Sir!" In Woodcock's case, there is a somewhat delicious (if dark) irony in-his being celebrated as a West _ Coast literary and intellectual phe- nomenon, what with Quebee seem- “ingly.on the edge of taking off, eh? From what f gather from his writings over the years, Woodcock. will not be the least surprised by ~ Quebec’ s departure, _And although he is as willing us the rest of us to shake his huad and _mutter about the tragedy of our lost Freiich-English cultural dynamic, he has never ceased to shake his fist at Ottawa's efforts to'exploit the * West in the interests of “tariff-pro- ‘tected good manufactured in “ Ontario, and Québec." He has always championed regional cultures over centralized national institutions like the CBC or National Film Board, arguing": ; culture is a natural coming together; it cannot be disciplined from any -edntre,”. Many of his books challenged - the hegemony of central Canada ver the “hinterlands,” while, in the same breath, he spoke of the “just. ‘demand (of Quebec) for the right to to ' self-determination.” _ Noné of his books made the. point quite as sharply as Confeder- ation Betrayed!, brought out by sly Howie White’s Madeira Park-based ; Harbour Publishing in 1981. Bob ny STRICTLY PERSONAL It made the case against the Canadian federation in its present -form as strongly as anything else I’ve‘ever read on the subject, inchiding MP David Kilgour's wounded territorial musings and Jane Jacab's finely-chiseled socio- economic analysis. Now, it may seem a long way fram George. Woodcock to Rafe ‘Mair, but there is one lonely moun- tain pass where the left-wing 2 -writer’s and the right-wing yakker’s thoughts get marshalled together, and that’s on the subject of central Canada’s constant perfidy since: British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871 — nat, inci- dentally, iiaving bothered to ask the native people, who were the vast majority in the region, for their opinion on the matter.’ Rather than the question of B.C. separatism being something new, it has been a constant of West Coast political percolations since the beginning. As early as ES70 a reso- lution was moved tn (he Lepistaitive Assembly of Beitish Columbia for secession from Canada, [obvious- ly dicts 't pass. But it was ane af the options being freely discussed. As well, according to Woodcock, as it should have been, “British Columbia has hada large share of local paliticiins who. were inept al resisting central Canadian or even foreign exploita- tion; some of them have welcomed the invaders at the pass.” he wrote. Simply, in Woodcock’s view, the Canadian Pacific Railway “was to be the grand instrument of (Sir John A; Macdonald's) National Policy, and the National Policy was designed to make the West a great coldnial empire for an industrial- ized central Canada.” A systenvot tariffs was set up that protected and encouraged the development of manufacturing industries in central Canada and encouraged immigration to the : Prairies so thata subsidiary staple economy could be created whose production af wheat would pay for » goods manufactured in Ontario and Quebec to sustain central Canadian industries. Squarely, Macdonald's “national dream” was based on the economic imperium initially estab- ‘lished by Montreal and Quebec City and whose westward expan- sionist drive was later taken over by. Ontario. ‘ ' Woodcock reminds us that by ~.1859, Alexander Morris was find-. ‘ing a responsive public when he urged the aanexation of the : Northwest Territories on the grounds that “to Ontario the Territory properly belonged.” oa in Vhe ard. you deserve to playin it. t Ridge Park Gardens you ¢ can have the kind of retirement you’ve worked for designed our ‘Community with active seniors in mind, “most of your retirement and enjoy your surroundings. all, of your life.: Ina park- like setting at the centre of North Vancouver, we “You ve speiit years maintaining a home. At Ridge Park Garde ens, . lawn care and home repairs need no longer be a concern. 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The gathecing-in of B.C. had to “he done slightly differently from the naw military takeover of (he Prairies — with bribes instvad of guns ~~ but it was a logical exten: sinn.of the very sane policy, ; Woodcock offers this poignant comment: “ff taday we complain of the extent to which Canadian indus- tries have been taken over by for- ign interests and turned into branch plants of multinational car- portions, it was a tariff system (brought in by Ottawa) unaccompa- nied by curbs on foreign ownership that encouraged this system... “The National Policy came into being just at the time when Amer- ican monnpoly capitalism was evolving and accumulating pools of surplus capital ‘in search of a prof: itable and controlled outlet,” (and): Canada became that investment frontier ... Wis significant that from 1879 onwards the Americ as ceased to talk very loudly about tere ritorial annexation; they no longer. needed it, What happened can he regarded as a rehearsalfor the great world invasion by the multinational corporations in the later 20th centu- ry.” According to Woodcock, “the nalion-state is a decaying concept, Regionalism and local patriotism are resurgent throughout the world.” They are pitted against “the absurd and long discredited Jacobin iNusion that the state is the defender of the individual.” So we see Mr. Woadcock's anarchist roots revealing them- selves, Not that he tries to hide ‘them. Why should he? | just won- der how it feels, at 82, to have been ” so far ahead of the curve in antici- pating the next great debate? DRAPERIES BY S. LAURSEN —& SON | | ‘ CUSTOM BEDSPREADS, TRACKS. AND: VALANCES ‘Labour $8.50 per: _ panel unlined, :: $9.50 lined, “custom DRAPERIES & BLINDS: |. At low, low prices.» For FREE. 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