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"Canada is a country of regions. Whether one is referring to historical development or to current realities, it is a truism to observe that Westerners, Ontarians, Quebeckers, and Maritimers are products of distinctive regional communities whose differences from one another often seem more striking than their similarities."
Peter Oliver
"The relationship of the prairie west to the federal government was to be that of a colony."
Lewis G. Thomas
"Victoria is 3,000 miles from Ottawa whereas Ottawa is 30,000 miles from Victoria."
BC Premier Edward G. Prior, remark, 1903
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AFTER THE CONFERENCE
SIR JOHN: You can play me as many "tunes" as you like, my good friends, but I warn you that I will not pay anything. I don't like your music.
Le violon, Montréal, 12 November 1887
"The sun rises in Halifax, shines all day straight over Montreal and Ottawa, and sets in Toronto."
Edmonton Bulletin, 1890?
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SIR JOHN: Will ye be observin, Mr. Prairie, the immense size to which his tail is growing; shure, as it's that that's made his temper so mighty unsartin of late.
OUR FAMILIAR: Sir John, before long the civilized world will behold the phenomena of the "tail wagging the dog."
John Innes, The Prairie Illustrated, Calgary, 21 March 1891
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"If the western farmer began to find early in this century that the grain marketing system, the transportation system, the banking system, and the political system ¬¬––the whole interlocking array of eastern Canadian institutions that put him on the land in the first place––did not operate in his interests, that was because they were never intended to."
Robert Chodos, The CPR A century of corporate welfare
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"The dominance of eastern Canada over western Canada seems likely to persist. Western Canada has paid for the development of Canadian nationality, and it would appear that it must continue to pay. The acquisitiveness of eastern Canada shows little sign of abatement."
Harold A. Innis, 1923
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Albert Premier Brownlee and Prime Minister King sign an agreement giving Alberta juridisction over crown lands and natural resources, 14 December 1929, Public domain, via Wikipedia Commons
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The Sheaf, Saskatoon, 18 November 1938
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Len Norris, Maclean's Magazine, 1 March 1952
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Ollie Simpkins
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"The West has always felt that it has been dominated economically by the powerful moneyed interests of Eastern Canada, and that, in the clutch, its interests will inevitably be sacrificed to Eastern Industry and Money."
Raymond Reid
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Grey Cup, Star Weekly, Nov. 1962
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Duncan MacPherson, Varsity, Toronto, 26 November 1969
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21 Nov 1972
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"By TOM we mean Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal, which has really run Canada for the past century."
Marie-Josie Drouin
"What is good for the economy of Ontario is good, ultimately, for all of Canada."
William Davis, remark, 1978
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"The political cohesion of a society depends on its desire to secure the essential minimum for all its members, regardless of their geographical situation."
Pierre Elliot Trudeau
"The most sparsely populated large mass of land on earth is designed for regional differences and acrimony produced by rulers too far away from the ruled. If you consider the distances, and the time zones, and the cultures, and the languages, it’s a wonder the whole mess doesn't come apart at the seams long ago. Canada . . . has too much geography and too few people."
Allan Fotheringham, Maclean's, 6 July 1981
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"The West Wants In."
Preston Manning, 1987
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1987 04 26, Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR2004.0675.0514
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"No one can deny that Quebec is, culturally and sociologically, a distinct society. So is Newfoundland."
Eugene Forsey, 1990
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"Confederation was brought about to increase the wealth of Central Canada."
W. L. Morton
"Winnipeg, at one time, was known as "The Gateway to the West.' When you arrived in Winnipeg on the CPR you were entering the West. By the same token, I suppose, it could be regarded as the 'Gateway to the East' if you happened to be heading for Toronto or Montreal on the Grand Trunk."
Christopher Dafoe, Winnipeg Free Press, 6 November 1993
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"There are two things all Canadian know. One is that they live in the best country in the world and the other is that their province doesn't get its fair share."
Jean Chrétien, 3 October 1997
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"To people in Central Canada, Canada is what they can see from the CN Tower on a clear day. Everything that counts happens in that Toronto-to-Ottawa-Montreal triangle."
Peter C. Newman, 24 February 2001
"We are living on islands of our own in the Sea of Canada – Chinatown, Greektown, Little Italy, Little India, Ste. Boniface, Westmount – associating with each other largely through trade and commerce. But we have nothing much in common. Canada is becoming a community of communities."
Andrew Cohen, The Unfinished Canadian, 2007
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2014 ?
"As a British Columbian, I prefer to call British Columbia the True West, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the Near East, Ontario and Quebec the Middle East, and the Atlantic provinces the Far East."
Gordon Campbell, Maclean's, 24 August 1992
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