I believe the media is a big factor in the whole resentment situation. After all, Joe Lunchbucket gets all his information on the world from the evening news. And if he’s a Saskatchewan farmer who just watched his crops die in a drought, or a Cod fisher fighting with the Spanish over territorial rights, but the top three Canadian stories on the CBC News are reports on a Québec man, a University of Toronto scientist, and a Kyoto debate led by a Carleton prof, it gets easy, over a long period of time, to start feeling excluded.
I think it’s fair to say that federal government policies, historically, have contributed to the ill will. Twenty years later, westerners still remember what the NEP did to the oil industry and curse Trudeau’s name to the gods. Comparing catastrophes, it did not go unnoticed when the feds came to the aid of Québecers after that horrible ice storm a while back, but couldn’t seem to lift a finger to help aid the devastated farm community in the Praries this year (and, yes, I think both events merited a national response). Given time and a long enough post, I could probably write a book on the subject, but I’ll cut myself off there.
One other thing I can say is that most easterners I’ve known over the years who moved to the west were not only shocked to discover what low regard we held for them, but how Ontario-centric everything seems to be when you’re on the outside looking in; my best friend grew up in southern Ontario, moved here when he was 21, and within a year had shifted his political allegiance from the Liberals to the Reform Party.
Two quick asides: 1) The local media here so overcompnsates for lack of national coverage that you can hardly find a story that isn’t about Mayor Bronconnier, Premier Ralphy, the stupid Flames, or the stupid Stampeders.
2) By creating the HNIC double-header in recent years, we are now able to see an early game at 6 pm featuring an eastern team (virtually always the Leafs, not the Habs or Senators) and a late game at 9 featuring a west squad (featuring the Leafs if they’re on the road).