Western Canada, Part 2: Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere

Western separatist meeting in Leduc, Alta., dissolves in bickering
LEDUC, Alta. (CP) — Alberta’s first recruitment meeting for a new western separatist party degenerated into bickering Saturday with its controversial leader struggling to maintain order.
“You’re doing it again,” Doug Christie, the leader of the Western Block Party, told about 50 people — mostly seniors — gathered at the Leduc Inn.
“I want you to understand that this is not an opportunity for each of us to get on our hobby horses and demand that our point of view prevail.”
At several points, those words seemed to fall on deaf ears as speakers hectored to be heard.
“The only way to save Western Canada ... is to cut ourselves loose of the gangrene of Canada,” said one speaker, who refused to give his name.
“Because that gangrene comes from only one place: it comes straight from the communists.”
Christie advocates the formation of a new nation called Western Canada, comprised of B.C. and the Prairie provinces.
“We want to be for Western Canada what the Bloc Quebecois is to Quebec,” he said. “To advocate separation; to explain the necessity for it.”
The Victoria lawyer said his party wants to work from within Parliament, and would call for a referendum on separation in each of the four provinces.
Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said in Calgary on Saturday that she doubts Christie will be able to muster much support.
“In this province, what I find is that most people are very much focused on the future,” she said. “They want to be part of the country. I don’t think that Mr. Christie will probably find a very welcoming audience either in this province, Newfoundland or anywhere else for his separatist rhetoric.”
Christie is best known as founder of the Western Canada Concept, a provincial party started up in 1978. Its greatest success came in 1982 with the byelection win of Gordon Kesler, member of the legislature for the Alberta riding of Olds-Didsbury.
The victory was short-lived with Kesler losing the seat that same year as fury over the National Energy Program began to die down.
As a lawyer, Christie has represented Holocaust-deniers Ernst Zundel and Jim Keegstra, as well as David Ahenakew, a former aboriginal leader charged with inciting hatred against Jews.
He also represents Michael Seifert, an 80-year-old Vancouver man who is appealing his extradition to Italy for the murders of 11 prisoners during the Second World War.